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How did World War II begin

As in World war I, some international alliances were activated following the German invasion of Polland.
As in result of this Britain and France declared war on Germany. When the Germans attacked Polland,
Russia also attacked the country and it was divided. The Germans went to invade Denmark, Norway,
Belgium, the Netherlands, and France in quick succession. They Crushed any resistance with
overwhelming armored forces. The fighting spread to nearly every part of the world and included nearly
60 nations. The Americans entered the war in 1941 after being attacked by German's ally Japan. At this
time, a huge military build-up began in England.

World War II killed more than any other war in history. Some claim that over 60 million people died.

The course of the War

• World War II officially began on September 1, 1939.
• Germany conquered – Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, and
France.
• Battle of Britain – Germany vs Britain (air battle; German Air force
=Luftwaffe).
• Battle of Stalingrad – Germany vs USSR. (Operation of Barbarossa (1941 =
Attack on Yugoslavia and Greece; Russia countered the attack on Moscow
with Scorched Earth Policy).
• Atlantic Charter (August 1941) – Between Churchill (UK) and Roosevelt (USA).
 • Pearl Harbor Attack (7th December 1941) – Japan on the USA.
• Italy vs the UK in Africa (1942) – Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, British Somaliland,
Eritrea.
• France was conquered by Germany in 1940, but British and American troops
liberated France in 1944.
• Atom bomb – Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Causes of Second World War(1939-1945)

• (1) The Treaty of Versailles
At the end of the first world war, Germany surrendered to the Allies. They were forced
to agree on the treaty of Versailles. Great Britain( David Lloyd George), America(Woodrow
Wilson), France(George Clemenceau), and Italy(Vittorio Emanuele Orlando) all attended the
conference in the Palace of Versailles.

This treaty made Germany weaker in certain ways to ensure that a World War never
happened again –

▪ Germany had to lose a lot of land in the east to make it the polish state.
▪ The polish corridor was created to separate Germany from East Prussia.
▪ Certain key cities were given away –
 • Danzig (A port city) was given away to the League of Nations
Upper Silesia and most of the Polish corridor were given to Poland giving them
access to the sea.
• North Schleswig was given to Denmark
• Memel and nearby areas were given to Lithuania
• Alsace Lorraine was given to France.
▪ The Rhineland (An area in Germany with lots of natural resources was placed
under LON supervision for 15 years along with demilitarization
▪ African colonies of Germany were split between Britain and France
▪ South Pacific islands were given to Japan
▪ Germany had to reduce its army to only 100,000 men. Luftwaffe Squadrons and
other air forces were not allowed.
▪ The navy was reduced to only 6 battleships and no U-boats or subs
▪ No tanks or Heavy Artillery was allowed

(2) Growth of Fascism and Nazism

• Mussolini (Italy) and Hitler (Germany) strongly glorified war and violence.
• While the West was fighting communism, Germany and Italy started massive
militarization.

(3) Rise of Japan

• Imperialism.
• Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis (1936).

(4) Neglect of minority interests

• New countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria were formed after the
First World War. While drawing boundaries the interests of minority groups in
each of these countries were neglected.

(5) Military Alliance

• Allies – Britain, France, USA, USSR, and China vs Axis Powers – Germany, Italy,
and Japan
• Leaders – Churchill (Britain), Roosevelt (USA), Stalin (USSR)

(6) Germany’s attack on Czechoslovakia

Despite the Munich Pact between Germany and Britain (1938), Germany re-attacked
and sized Czechoslovakia.
(7) Immediate Cause: Germany’s invasion of Poland (1st
September 1939)
• Germany annexed the Polished corridor and Danzig city. The sudden attack on
Poland is known as Blitzkrieg (lightning war).
• Britain and France declared war on Germany.

(8) The Wall Street Crash(1929) –

The Wall Street Crash collapsed the American trading market and thus created the Great
Depression. This made Germany’s economy fall overnight because American banks were giving
loans to Germany to help. They all withdrew their loans though so the German economy
crashed.

Thousands of people lost their jobs and became homeless. Thousands of children died
of malnutrition. Runs were made on German and Austrian banks which were repelled by
Military Force. The people unaware of where to go with the unstable government and weak
currency switched to other political parties.

Consequences of Second World War

• End of colonialism and imperialism.
• End of dictatorship in Germany and Italy.
• Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany. West Germany
was controlled by Britain, France, and the USA. East Germany by USSR. (Read
more about the reunion of Germany in 1989 when you check our post about
the fall of the Berlin wall).
• Strengthening of nationalist movements in Africa and Asia. (From Britain –
India, Myanmar, Egypt, Sri Lanka; From America – Philippines; From France –
Indo-China; From Dutch – Indonesia)
• 5 crore deaths (2.2 crore soldiers and 2.8 crore civilians)
• Economics problems – Unemployment, low growth, etc.
• Emergence of two power blocks – USA and USSR. This resulted in the cold war.
• Emergence of third-world countries.
• UNO was set up in 1945.
Who won World War II?

World War II plays a key role in human history. The defeat of Nazi Germany resulted
in an increased commitment to humanistic values, rule of law, morality, and
international convention. Although World War II spanned six years, in 1945 the Axis
alliance suffered a devastating defeat. The Axis alliance consisted of Germany, Japan,
and Italy, with additional affiliate countries.

What Led to World War II? World War II was the result of unresolved conflicts
remaining from World War I (1914 to 1918) in addition to other causes, according to
History.com. Tensions were still high in Germany because of economic conditions
and the Treaty of Versailles terms, all of which contributed to the growth of the
National Socialist (Nazi) Party, led by Adolf Hitler.

The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, forced Germany to concede territories to

Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland and required demilitarization and occupation of
other European areas. It also asked that Germany accept full liability for initiating
World War I and limit its army of men and vessels, according to the Holocaust
Encyclopedia.

Hitler’s Rise Hitler quickly rose to power after becoming Reich Chancellor in 1933,
convincing Germans that they were the world’s superior race. Hitler began to
secretly violate the Versailles Treaty by sending troops to occupy targeted countries,
including Austria in 1938.

When World War II Began Though it was a violation, Hitler invaded Poland on
September 1, 1939, and two days later, France and Britain declared war, which
officially began World War II. On September 17, Poland was invaded by Soviet
troops, which quickly decimated the country. Germany and the Soviet Union were
left to divide control over Poland by early 1940. The Soviet Union, then led by Joseph
Stalin, began to invade the Baltic States and Finland. Soon after, Germany invaded
Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands, expanding a couple of months
later into France. This began to pave the way for Germany to take over Britain
through tactical air bombing. Britain’s Royal Air Force defeated the German Air
Force, which forced Hitler to postpone plans.

Hitler’s Master Plan In early 1941, the United States began to aid Britain, and Hitler
began to implement the second phase of his plan, which was to exterminate Jews
throughout German-occupied Europe to leave German Aryans as the master race.
More than four million Jews would die in Polish death camps at the hands of the
Nazis from 1941 through the end of the war.

Hitler hatched another plan in the summer of 1941 and ordered the invasion of the
Soviet Union, but was overpowered by Soviet military weapons. Germany’s second
attempted invasion of the Soviet Union was stalled because of winter weather.

The U.S. Steps In The U.S. entered World War II in December of 1941 when Pearl
Harbor, a U.S. naval base in Hawaii, was attacked by Japan, killing thousands of U.S.
troops. By December 8, the U.S., part of the Allied Powers, declared war on Japan,
which was part of the opposing Axis Powers.

The End of World War II By the summer of 1945, leaders from both sides, led by
President Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill, and Stalin, agreed to work with the
Japanese government to create the Potsdam Declaration. On September 2, 1945,
World War II officially ended when Japan formally surrendered.

World War II ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany in May 1945, but
both May 8 and May 9 are celebrated as Victory in Europe Day (or V-E Day). This
double celebration occurs because the Germans surrendered to the Western Allies,
including Britain and the U.S., on May 8, and a separate surrender took place on
May 9 in Russia.
In the East, the war ended when Japan surrendered unconditionally on Aug. 14,
1945, signing their surrender on Sept. 2. The Japanese surrender occurred after the
United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9,
respectively. The date of the Japanese surrender is known as Victory Over Japan
Day, or V-J Day.

Overview: World War II

The End in Europe

Within two years after starting the war in Europe with his invasion of Poland in
1939, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) subjugated much of the continent, including France
after a lightning-fast conquest. Then Der Führer sealed his fate with a poorly
thought-out invasion of the Soviet Union.
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) and the Soviet people did not concede, although they had
to overcome initial defeats. Soon, however, the overextended Nazi forces were
defeated at Stalingrad and the Soviets began to force them slowly back across
Europe. It took a long time and millions of deaths, but the Soviets eventually pushed
Hitler's forces back to Germany.
In 1944, a new front was reopened in the West when Britain, France, the U.S.,
Canada, and other allies landed in Normandy. Two enormous military forces,
approaching from the east and the west, eventually wore the Nazis down.

Celebrating Victory
In Berlin, the Soviet forces were fighting their way through the German capital.
Hitler, once the charismatic ruler of an empire, was reduced to hiding in a bunker,
giving orders to forces that only existed in his head. The Soviets were getting close to
the bunker, and on April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler killed himself.
Command of the German forces passed to Admiral Karl Doenitz (1891–1980), and
he quickly sent out peace feelers. He soon realized an unconditional surrender would
be required, and he was ready to sign. But with the war over, the tenuous alliance
between the U.S. and the Soviets was turning frosty, a new wrinkle that would
eventually lead to the Cold War. While the Western Allies agreed to the surrender on
May 8, the Soviets insisted on their surrender ceremony and process. This took place
on May 9, the official end to what the USSR called the Great Patriotic War.

Victory in Japan
Victory and surrender would not come easily for the Allies in the Pacific Theater. The
war in the Pacific had started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii
on Dec. 7, 1941. After years of battles and unsuccessful attempts at negotiating a
treaty, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early
Aug. 1945. A week later, on Aug. 15, Japan announced its intention to surrender. The
Japanese foreign affairs minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu (1887–1957), signed the
official document on Sept. 2.
Adolf Hilter

I was born in 1889. I first hoped to become an artist, but I wasn’t talented enough. So, I turned to
politics instead. My dream is to make Germany the most powerful empire on Earth. But for this, I need\
Lebensraum that is, I needed to take over the world. In the start,I am aiming d to get a good portion of
Europe. In German. Führer is the word for “leader,” and Führer was what Germans called Hitler. Hitler
ruled over Germany from 1933 until 1945, when during the last days of World War II, He killed himself
rather than surrender and face Trail. From the start, Hitler convinced Germans that Jews were to blame
for all the country's problems. In speeches, he worked giant crowds into a frenzy by screaming that
something had to be done. His answer was to get rid of Jews, all of them. He saw to it that thirteen
million people were killed, six million of them Jews. How can a person be so evil? Thousands of books
have been written about Hitler in the sixty years of his death, but none of them have found the answer.

BENITO MUSSOLINI
 Benito Mussolini; 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who
founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on
Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 1943, and "Duce" of Italian Fascism from the establishment
of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 until his execution in 1945 by Italian partisans. As
dictator of Italy and principal founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired and supported the
international spread of fascist movements during the inter-war period

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War

Mussolini took power in Italy in 1922 on an ultra-nationalist platform. A march by his followers
forced the king to appoint him Prime Minister. By 1925, Mussolini had declared himself "Il
Duce" (Italian for the leader) and ruled as a dictator. But why did Mussolini invade Ethiopia?
There are a number of reasons:

• To avenge the 1896 defeat.

• To expand Italian imperial holdings.
• To unify the Italian people.
• To gain resources.

An Italian invasion of Ethiopia would unify the Italian people behind Mussolini's project of
making Italy great again.

When Did Italy Invade Ethiopia?

Italy invaded Ethiopia on October 3, 1935. Newspapers around the world reported "Mussolini
invades Ethiopia" the next day. The invasion took place 8 months after a border incident at the
town of Wal Wal. Wal Wal was located 50 miles inside Ethiopia. In November of 1934, Italian
troops marched to Wal Wal and skirmished with Ethiopian forces. 150 Ethiopians were killed,
and two Italians were killed. Nonetheless, Mussolini used this as a justification for a full-scale
invasion the following year.

Here is a timeline of some of the major events of the war:

• November 22, 1934 - Wal Wal Incident occurs.

• October 3, 1935 - Mussolini invades Ethiopia.
• October 6, 1935 - Italy takes Adowa.
• May 5, 1936 -Italy takes the capital of Addis Ababa.
• 1941 - Ethiopia becomes the first nation liberated from Axis rule by Ethiopian and British
troops.
Why Did Japan Invade Manchuria?
The Japanese justified their invasion as a response to the Mukden Incident, in which an
explosion occurred on the Japanese owned South Manchuria Railroad. The Japanese claimed
this was an attack by China and their invasion was an effort to restore order. However, most
historians believe this was a false flag operation; and the attack was carried out by the Japanese
military, itself. Furthermore, the supposed explosion was so minor that the railroad did not
even need repairs for trains to pass.

Therefore, there were really other motivations for why the Japanese invaded Manchuria; in
particular the desire to obtain natural resources and gain a territorial foothold in China.

Manchuria as a Foothold in China

Manchuria was also an important foothold in China for Japan. The area on the eastern coast
had warm water ports and would make it easier for Japan to transport goods from its holdings
in Korea and trade for other goods using the railroads in Manchuria. In fact, the Japanese
already had the right to manage the railroad and some mining activities in Manchuria. The
invasion would make sure these rights were both protected and expanded.

When Did Japan Invade Manchuria?

The Japanese invaded Manchuria on September 18, 1931. Many historians believe hardliners in
the the Kwantung Army, the Japanese force stationed in Manchuria, acted on their own accord
and hoped to put the civilian government in Tokyo in a position where they were forced to
support a larger invasion. This proved true, as at least 60,000 soldiers were eventually deployed
to Manchuria.