Everything about Causes Of World War Ii totally explained
The culmination of events that led to World War II are generally understood to be the invasion of Poland by Germany and of China by the
Empire of Japan. These military aggressions were the decisions made by authoritarian ruling elites in Germany and Japan. World War II started after these aggressive actions were met with an official
declaration of war and/or
armed resistance.
Anti-Communism
The
October Revolution led many Germans to fear that a Communist revolution would occur in their own country.
Shortly after World War I, the Communists attempted to seize power in the country, leading to the establishment of the short-lived
Bavarian Soviet Republic. The
Freikorps helped to put down the rebellion and their forces were an early component of the Nazi Party.
Neville Chamberlain and most of his fellow conservatives were vehemently Anti-Communist. They considered it the main threat to Britain. They regarded Hitler's Germany as a bulwark against Communism.
Lord Halifax acknowledged to Hitler that the Nazis had destroyed Communism in Germany and thus blocked off Communist penetration of Europe.
This fear of Communism eventually led to a plan by the British government to adopt a policy of appeasement with the aim of pushing Germany eastwards to destroy the Soviet Union, while the United States remained neutral throughout the entire pre-war years.
Policy of Appeasement
The
United Kingdom and
France pursued a controversial policy of
appeasement towards Germany in the late 1930s.
Under the policy of appeasement, Germany was allowed to expand eastwards without facing any resistance from Britain or France.
This led Adolf Hitler to increase his ambitions in Europe and make bolder, more aggressive moves.
Expansionism
Expansionism is the doctrine of expanding the territorial base (or economic influence) of a country, usually by means of military aggression.
In Europe,
Italy’s
Mussolini sought to create a New
Roman Empire based around the
Mediterranean and invaded
Albania in early 1939, start of the war, and later invaded
Greece. Italy had also invaded
Ethiopia as early as 1935. This provoked little response from the
League of Nations and the former
Allied powers, a reaction to empire-building that was common throughout the war weary and depressed economy of the 1930s. Germany came to Mussolini's aid on several occasions. Italy’s expansionist desires can be tied to bitterness over minimal gains after helping the Allies achieve victory in
World War I. At
Versailles, Italy had been promised large chunks of
Austrian territory but received only
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and promises believed to have been made about
Albania and
Asia Minor were ignored by the more powerful nations' leaders.
After
World War I, the German state had lost land to
Lithuania, France,
Poland, and
Denmark. Notable losses included the
Polish Corridor,
Danzig, the
Memel Territory (to
Lithuania), the
Province of Posen, the French province of
Alsace-Lorraine, and the most economically valuable eastern portion of
Upper Silesia. The economically valuable regions of the
Saarland and the
Rhineland were placed under the authority (but not jurisdiction) of France. Majority of those territories were inhabited by non-Germans.
The result of this loss of land was population relocation, bitterness among Germans, and also difficult relations with those in these neighboring countries, contributing to feelings of
revanchism which inspired
irredentism. Under the Nazi regime, Germany began its own program of expansion, seeking to restore the "rightful" boundaries of
pre-World War I Germany, resulting in the reoccupation of the Rhineland and action in the Polish Corridor, leading to a perhaps inevitable war with Poland. However, because of Allied
appeasement and prior inaction, Hitler estimated that he could invade Poland without provoking a general war or, at the worst, only spark weak Allied intervention after the result was already decided.
Also of importance was the idea of a
Greater Germany, where supporters hoped to unite the German people under one nation, which included all territories where Germans lived, disregarding the fact of them being minority in this territory. Germany's pre-World War II ambitions in both Austria and parts of
Czechoslovakia mirror this goal. After the Treaty of Versailles, an
Anschluss, or union, between Germany and a newly reformed
Austria was prohibited by the Allies. Such a plan of unification, predating the creation of the German State of 1871, had been discarded because of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire's multiethnic composition as well as competition between
Prussia and Austria for
hegemony. At the end of World War I, the majority of Austria's population supported such a union.
The Soviet Union had lost large parts of former
Russian Empire territories to
Poland,
Finland,
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania and
Romania in World War I and the
Russian Civil War and was interested in regaining lost territories. Also during
Russo-Japanese war some territories had been lost to
Japan.
Hungary, an ally of Germany during World War I, had also been stripped of enormous territories after the partition of the Austria-Hungary empire and hoped to regain those lands by allying with Germany.
Greater Hungary was a popular topic of discussion.
Romania, while on the winning side in World War I, found itself on the losing side in early stages of
World War II. As result of
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Bessarabia and Northern
Bukovina were ceded to
Soviet Union,
Second Vienna Award resulted loss of
Northern Transylvania to
Hungary, and
Treaty of Craiova resulted returing
Southern Dobruja to
Bulgaria.
Greater Romania was a concept that caused Romania to side more and more with
Nazi Germany.
Bulgaria, also an ally of Germany during World War I, had lost territories to
Greece,
Romania, and
Yugoslavia in World War I and the
Second Balkan War.
Finland lost territory to the
Soviet Union during the early stages of World War II in the lop-sided
Winter War. When
Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in
1941, Finland was drawn into what was called the
Continuation War to regain what it had lost.
In
Asia,
Japan harbored expansionist desires, fuelled at least partially by the minimal gains the Japanese saw after World War I. Despite having taken a German colony in China and a few other Pacific islands, as well as swaths of
Siberia and the Russian port of
Vladivostok, Japan was forced to give up all but the few islands it had gained during World War I.
Thailand had lost territories to France and the United Kingdom in the end of 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century, and wanted to regain those areas.
In many of these cases, the roots of the expansionism leading to World War II can be found in perceived national slights resulting from previous involvement in World War I, nationalistic goals of re-unification of former territories or dreams of an expanded empire.
Fascism
Fascism is a philosophy of government that's marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a
dictator, and often has a policy of belligerent
nationalism that gained power in many countries across Europe in the years leading up to World War II. In general, it believes that the government should control industry and people for the good of the country.
In many ways, fascism viewed the
army as a model that a whole society should emulate. Fascist countries were highly
militaristic, and the need for individual heroism was an important part of fascist ideology. In his book
The Doctrine of Fascism,
Benito Mussolini declared that "fascism does not, generally speaking, believe in the possibility or utility of perpetual peace".
(External Link
) Fascists believed that war was generally a positive force for improvement and were therefore eager at the prospect of a new European war. Fascism ultimately proved to be one of beliefs that was universal with many invading
Axis countries.
Isolationism
Isolationism was the dominant foreign policy of the United States following World War I. Although the U.S. remained active in the
Western Hemisphere and the
Pacific, it withdrew from European political affairs but retained strong business connections.
Popular sentiment in Britain and France was also isolationist and very war weary after the slaughter of World War I. In reference to Czechoslovakia,
Neville Chamberlain said, "How horrible, fantastic it's that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. I'm myself a man of peace from the depths of my soul."
Within a few years of this statement, the world was engulfed in
total war.
Militarism
A highly
militaristic and aggressive attitude prevailed among the leaders of Germany, Japan and Italy. Compounding this fact was the traditional militant attitude of the three had a similar track record that's often underestimated.
Nationalism
Nationalism is the belief that groups of people are bound together by territorial, cultural and ethnic links. Nationalism was used by their leaders to generate public support for German, Italian and Japanese aggression.
Fascism in these countries was built largely upon a theory of nationalism and the search for a cohesive "
nation state". Hitler and his Nazi Party used nationalism to great effect in Germany, already a nation where fervent nationalism was prevalent. In Italy, the idea of restoring the Roman Empire was attractive to many Italians. In Japan, nationalism, in the sense of duty and honor, especially to the emperor, had been widespread for centuries.
Racism
Twentieth-century events marked the culmination of a millennium-long process of intermingling between Germans and
Slavs. Over the years, many Germans had settled to the east (the
Volga Germans). Such
migratory patterns created enclaves and blurred ethnic frontiers. By the 19th and 20th centuries, these migrations had acquired considerable political implications. The rise of the nation-state had given way to the politics of identity, including
Pan-Germanism and
Pan-Slavism. Furthermore,
Social-Darwinist theories framed the coexistence as a "Teuton vs. Slav" struggle for domination, land and limited resources. Integrating these ideas into their own world-view, the Nazis believed that the Germans, the "
Aryan race", were the
master race and that the Slavs were inferior. During World War II, Hitler used racism against "Non-Aryan" peoples.
Interrelations and economics
Treaty of Versailles
The
Treaty of Versailles was neither lenient enough to appease
Germany, nor harsh enough to prevent it from becoming the dominant continental power again.
The treaty placed the blame, or "
war guilt" on Germany and Austria-Hungary, and punished them from their "responsibility" rather than working out an agreement that would assure peace in the long-term future. The treaty resulted in harsh monetary
reparations, territorial dismemberment, mass ethnic resettlements and indirectly hampered the German economy by causing rapid hyperinflation - see
inflation in the Weimar Republic. The
Weimar Republic printed trillions to help pay off its debts and borrowed heavily from the United States (only to
default later) to pay war reparations to Britain and France, who still carried war debt from World War I.
The treaty created bitter resentment towards the victors of the World War I, who had promised the people of Germany that U.S. President
Woodrow Wilson's
Fourteen Points would be a guideline for peace; many Germans felt that the German government had agreed to an
armistice based on this understanding, while others felt that the
German Revolution had been orchestrated by the "November criminals" who later assumed office in the new Weimar Republic. Wilson wasn't able to get the Allies to agree to adopt them, nor could he persuade the
U.S. Congress to join the
League of Nations.
Contributing to this, the Allies didn't occupy any part of Germany, with the Western front having been in France for years. Only the German colonies were taken during the war, and Italy took South Tyrol after an armistice had been agreed upon. The war in the east ended with the collapse of Russian Empire, and German troops occupied (with varying degree of control) large parts of Eastern and Central Europe. The
Kaiserliche Marine spend most of the war in port, only to be turned over and scuttled. The lack of an obvious military defeat was one of the pillars that held together the
Dolchstosslegende and gave the Nazis another tool at their disposal.
An opposite view of the treaty held by some is that it didn't go far enough in permanently neutering the capability of Germany to be a great power by dividing Germany into smaller, less powerful states. In effect, this would have undone
Bismarck's work and would have accomplished what the French delegation at the
Paris Peace Conference wanted. However, this could have had any number of unforeseeable consequences, especially amidst the rise of communism. Regardless, the Treaty of Versailles is generally agreed to be a very poor treaty which helped the rise of the Nazi Party.
Competition for resources
Other than a few
coal and
iron deposits, Japan lacks true
natural resources. Japan, the only Asian country with a burgeoning industrial economy at that time, feared that a lack of raw materials might hinder its ability to fight a total war against a reinvigorated Soviet Union. In the hopes of expanding its resources, Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and set about to consolidate its resources and develop its economy. Insurgency by nationalists south of Manchuria compelled the Japanese leaders to argue for a brief, three month war to knock out Chinese power from the north. When it became clear that this time estimate was absurd, plans for obtaining more resources began. The Imperial Navy eventually began to feel that it didn't have enough fuel reserves.
To remedy this deficiency and ensure a safe supply of oil and other critical resources, Japan would have to challenge the
European colonial powers over the control of oil rich areas such as the
Dutch East Indies. Such a move against the colonial powers was however expected to lead to open conflict also with the United States. On August 1941, the crisis came to a head as the United States, which at the time supplied 80% of Japanese oil imports, initiated a complete oil embargo. This threatened to cripple both the Japanese economy and military strength once the strategic reserves would run dry. Faced with the choice of either trying to appease the U.S., negotiate a compromise, find other sources of supply or go to war over resources, Japan chose the latter. Hoping to knock out the U.S. for long enough to be able to achieve and consolidate their war-aims, the Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. Navy at
Pearl Harbor on
December 7,
1941. They mistakenly believed they'd have about a two year window to consolidate their conquests before the United States could effectively respond and that the United States would compromise long before they could get anywhere near Japan.This was a cause of World War II.
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an international organization founded after World War I to prevent future wars. The League's methods included
disarmament; preventing war through
collective security; settling disputes between
countries through
negotiation diplomacy; and improving global
welfare. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift in thought from the preceding hundred years. The old philosophy, growing out of the
Congress of Vienna (1815), saw Europe as a shifting map of alliances among nation-states, creating a balance of power maintained by strong armies and secret agreements. Under the new philosophy, the League was a government of governments, with the role of settling disputes between individual nations in an open and legalist forum. The impetus for the founding of the League came from U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, though the United States never joined. This also lessened the power of the League—the addition of a burgeoning industrial and military world power would have added more force behind the League's demands and requests.
The League lacked an armed force of its own and so depended on the members to enforce its resolutions, keep to economic sanctions which the League ordered, or provide an army, when needed, for the League to use. However, they were often very reluctant to do so.
After numerous notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis Powers in the 1930s. The absence of the U.S., the reliance upon unanimous decisions, the lack of an armed force, and the continued self-interest of its leading members meant that this failure was arguably inevitable.
The Great Depression
Fallout from the collapse of the United States economy following the
1929 Stock Market Crash reverberated throughout the world. European countries, especially Germany, were hit hard by the
Great Depression, which led to high rates of
unemployment,
poverty,
civil unrest, and an overall feeling of despair that led to the rise of
Adolf Hitler and other militaristic fascists.
It is widely debated that the great Depression was the cause for the outbreak of WW2 as well as the rise of extremist parties (Nazis; Communists); Britain and France's appeasement of Hitler's foreign policy; the isolationism policies of the USA up until 1941 and the collapse of political stability throughout the 1920s and 30s across the globe.
(Historian Tim Mason suggests that Hitler's aggressive foreign policy in the 1930s was to distract away from domestic and economic problems in Germany and to set out on a war of plunder to search for new resources and raw materials.)
European Civil War
Some academics examine World War II as the final portion of a wider
European Civil War that began with the
Franco-Prussian War in
July 19,
1870. The proposed period would include many (but not all) of the major European regime changes to occur during the period, including those during the
Spanish Civil War and
Russian Civil War.
Specific events
Franco-Prussian War
The
Franco-Prussian War was initiated by
Napoleon III of France, who was alarmed at the rapid growth in population and unity among the German people. This period marked a relative decline in the strength of France, which continued into the 20th century.
The war was an overwhelming Prussian victory, and
Germany unified soon after.
Alsace-Lorraine, a border territory, was transferred from France to Germany. The resulting disruption in the balance of power led France to seek alliances with Russia and the United Kingdom.
World War I
Due to the fact that World War I lacked a dramatically decisive conclusion, many people view the Second World War as a continuation of the first.
Allied troops hadn't entered Germany, and its people anticipated a treaty along the lines of the
Fourteen Points. This meant the German people argued that had the "traitors" not surrendered to the Allies, Germany could have gone on to win the war, however unlikely the reality. This peace proposal was largely abandoned in favor of punishing Germany for its alleged "war responsibility", an ineffective compromise that left Germany smaller, weaker and embittered, but capable of rebounding and seeking
revenge.
Large groups of nationalistic minorities still remained trapped in other nations. For example, Yugoslavia (originally the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) had 5 major ethnic groups (the Serbs, Croats, Macedons, Montenegrins, and the Slovenes), and it was created after the war. Other examples abound in the former lands of Austria-Hungary which were divided up quite arbitrarily and unfairly after the war. For example, Hungary was held responsible for the war and stripped of two thirds of its territory while Austria, which had been an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian government, had its territory expanded.
The Germans had a difficult time accepting defeat. At the end of the war, the navy was in a state of mutiny, and the army was retreating (but not routing) in the face of an enemy with more men and material. Despite this reality, some Germans, notably Hitler, advanced the idea that the army would somehow have triumphed if not for the
German Revolution at home. This
"Stab in the Back" theory was used to convince the people that a second
World war would be winnable.
Weimar Republic
The
Weimar Republic governed Germany from 1919 to 1933. The republic was named after the city of
Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new
constitution after the
German Empire was abolished following the nation's defeat in World War I. It was a
liberal democracy in the style of France and the United States.
The
Beer Hall Putsch was a failed Nazi
coup d'état which occurred in the evening of Thursday,
November 8 to the early afternoon of Friday,
November 9 1923.
Adolf Hitler, using the popular World War I General
Erich Ludendorff, unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the Weimar Republic.
Economic depression
The
Great Depression resulted in 33% unemployment rate in Germany and a 25% unemployment rate in the U.S. This led many people to support dictatorships just for a steady job and adequate food.
The Great Depression hit Germany second only to the United States. Severe unemployment prompted the Nazi Party, which had been losing favor, to experience a surge in membership. This more than anything contributed to the rise of Hitler in Germany, and therefore World War II in Europe. After the end of World War I many American industries and banks invested their money in rebuilding Europe. This happened in many European countries, but especially in Germany. After the
1929 crash, many American investors fearing that they'd lose their money, or having lost all their capital, stopped investing as heavily in Europe.
Nazi dictatorship
Hitler was appointed
chancellor on
January 30,
1933. The
arson of the parliament building on
February 27 (which some have claimed the Nazis had instigated) was used as an excuse for the cancellation of civil and political liberties, enacted by the aged President
Paul von Hindenburg and the rightist
coalition cabinet led by Hitler.
After new elections, a Nazi-led majority abolished
parliamentarism, the Weimar constitution, and practically the parliament itself through the
Enabling Act on
March 23, whereby the Nazis' planned
Gleichschaltung ("bringing into line") of Germany was made formally legal, giving the Nazis
totalitarian control over German society. In the "
Night of the Long Knives", Hitler's men murdered his main political rivals. After Hindenburg died on
August 2,
1934, the authority of the presidency fell into the hands of Adolf Hitler. Without much resistance from the army leadership, the Soldiers' Oath was modified into an oath of obedience to Adolf Hitler personally.
In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the spirit of the
Locarno Pact, Germany
remilitarized the Rhineland on Saturday,
March 7,
1936. The occupation was done with very little military force; the troops entered on bicycles and could easily have been stopped had it not been for the appeasement mentality. France couldn't act because of political instability at the time. In addition, since the remilitarization occurred on a weekend, the British Government couldn't find out or discuss actions to be taken until the following Monday. As a result of this, the governments were inclined to see the remilitarization as a
fait accompli.
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
Benito Mussolini attempted to expand the Italian Empire in Africa by invading Ethiopia, which had so far successfully resisted European colonization. With the pretext of the Walwal incident in September 1935, Italy invaded on
October 3,
1935, without a formal declaration of war. The League of Nations declared Italy the aggressor but failed to impose effective sanctions.
The war progressed slowly for Italy despite its advantage in weaponry and the use of
mustard gas. By
March 31,
1936, the Italians won the last major battle of the war, the
Battle of Maychew. Emperor
Haile Selassie fled into exile on
May 2, and Italy took the capital,
Addis Ababa, on
May 5. Italy annexed the country on
May 7, merging
Eritrea,
Abyssinia and
Somaliland into a single state known as
Italian East Africa.
On
June 30,
1936, Emperor Haile Selassie gave a stirring speech before the League of Nations denouncing Italy's actions and criticizing the world community for standing by. He warned that "It is us today. It will be you tomorrow". As a result of the League's condemnation of Italy, Mussolini declared the country's withdrawal from the organization.
Spanish Civil War
Germany and Italy lent support to the
Nationalist insurrection led by general
Francisco Franco in Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the
Spanish Republic which showed leftist tendencies. Both sides used this war as an opportunity to test improved weapons and tactics. The
Bombing of Guernica was a horrific attack on civilians which foreshadowed events that would occur throughout Europe.
Second Sino-Japanese War
The
Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937 when Japan attacked deep into China from its foothold in
Manchukuo.
The invasion was launched by the bombing of many cities such as
Shanghai,
Nanjing and
Guangzhou. The latest, which began on 22 and 23 September 1937, called forth widespread protests culminating in a resolution by the Far Eastern Advisory Committee of the
League of Nations.
The
Imperial Japanese Army captured the Chinese capital city of
Nanjing), and committed brutal
atrocities in the
Nanjing massacre.
Anschluss
The
Anschluss was the 1938 annexation of Austria into Germany. Such an action was expressly forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. Historically, the idea of creating a Greater Germany through such a union had been popular in Austria as well as Germany, peaking just after World War I; in the years prior to the actual Anschluss, many Austrians had lost interest. As such, the Austrian National Socialist Party and Austria's German nationalist movement became dependent on their northern neighbor. Hitlerian Germany pressed for the Austrian Nazi Party's legality, played a critical role in the assassination of Austrian chancellor,
Engelbert Dollfuss, and pressured for several Austrian Nazi Party members to be incorporated into offices within the administration.
Following a Hitler speech at the Reichstag, Dollfuss' successor,
Kurt Schuschnigg, made it clear that he could be pushed "no further". Amidst mounting pressures from Germany, he elected to hold a
plebiscite, hoping to retain autonomy. However, just days prior to the balloting, a successful Austrian Nazi Party
coup transferred power within the country. The takeover allowed German troops to enter Austria as "enforcers of the Anschluss", since the Party quickly transferred power to Hitler. Consequently, no fighting occurred and Britain, France and Fascist Italy, who all vehemently opposed such a union, did nothing. Just as importantly, the quarrelling amongst these powers doomed any continuation of a
Stresa Front and, with no choice but to accept the unfavorable Anschluss, Italy had little reason for continued opposition to Germany, and was if anything drawn in closer to the Nazis. Austria ceased to exist as an independent state.
Munich Agreement
The
Sudetenland was a predominantly German region within the recently formed country of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia had a modern army of 38 divisions, backed by a well-noted armament industry (Skoda) as well as a military alliance with France. The Sudetenland region formed about one third of Bohemia (western Czechoslovakia) in terms of territory, population, and economy. It contained most of the defensive system which ran across mountainous terrain and was larger than the
Maginot line. This was Czechoslovakia's only viable military defense. In order to build these positions, some land had been expropriated from the owner, but with compensation.
Hitler pressed for the Sudetenland's incorporation into the Reich, supporting German separatist groups within the Sudeten region. Alleged Czech brutality and persecution under
Prague helped to stir up nationalist tendencies, as did the Nazi press. After the Anschluss, all German parties (except German Social-Democratic party) merged with the
Sudeten German Party (SdP). Paramilitary activity and extremist violence peaked during this period and the Czechoslovakian government declared martial law in parts of the Sudetenland to maintain order. This only complicated the situation, especially now that Slovakian nationalism was rising, out of suspicion towards
Prague and Nazi encouragement. Citing the need to protect the Germans in Czechoslovakia as the situation deteriorated, Germany requested the immediate annexation of the Sudetenland.
In the
Munich Agreement of
September 30,
1938, British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain and French leaders appeased Hitler. The conferring powers allowed Germany to move troops into the region and incorporate it into the Reich "for the sake of peace." In exchange for this, Hitler gave his word that Germany would make no further territorial claims in Europe. Czechoslovakia, which at had already mobilized over one million troops and was prepared to fight, wasn't allowed to participate in the conference. When the French and British negotiators informed the Czecho-slovak representatives about the agreement, and that if Czechoslovakia wouldn't accept it, France and Britain would consider Czechoslovakia to be responsible for war, President
Edvard Beneš capitulated. Germany took the Sudetenland.
In March 1939, breaking the Munich Agreement, German troops invaded
Prague and with the Slovaks declaring independence, the country of Czechoslovakia disappeared. The entire ordeal ended the French and British policy of appeasement and enabled Germany to grow stronger in Europe.
Italian invasion of Albania
After German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Italy saw itself becoming a second-rate member of the Axis. Rome delivered Tirana an ultimatum on
March 25,
1939, demanding that it accede to Italy's occupation of Albania.
King Zog refused to accept money in exchange for countenancing a full Italian takeover and colonization of Albania. On
April 7, 1939, Mussolini's troops invaded Albania. After short campaign Albania was occupied and were still fighting bravely.
Soviet-Japanese Border War
In 1939, the Japanese attacked north from Manchuria into
Siberia. They were decisively beaten by Soviet units under General
Georgy Zhukov. Following this battle, the Soviet Union and Japan were at peace until 1945. Japan looked south to expand its empire, leading to conflict with the United States over the Philippines and control of shipping lanes to the Dutch East Indian. The Soviet Union focused on the west, leaving 1 million to 1.5 million troops to guard the frontier with Japan.
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Nominally, the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a
non-aggression treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It was signed in
Moscow on
August 23,
1939, by the Soviet foreign minister
Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister
Joachim von Ribbentrop.
In 1939, neither Germany nor the Soviet Union were ready to go to war with each other. The Soviet Union had lost territory to Poland in 1920. Although officially labeled a "non-aggression treaty", the pact included a secret protocol, in which the independent countries of
Finland,
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Poland and
Romania were divided into
spheres of interest of the parties. The secret protocol explicitly assumed
"territorial and political rearrangements" in the areas of these countries.
Subsequently all the mentioned countries were invaded, occupied or forced to cede part of their territory by either the Soviet Union, Germany, or both.
Invasion of Poland
There some debate towards the claim that Poland had in 1933 tried to get France to join it in preventive attack after Nazis won in Germany
(External Link) Tensions had existed between Poland and Germany for some time in regards to the
Free City of Danzig and the
Polish Corridor. Finally, after issuing several proposals, Germany declared that diplomatic measures had been exhausted and invaded Poland on
September 1,
1939. Britain and France had previously warned that they'd honor their alliances to Poland and issued an ultimatum to Germany: withdraw or war would be declared. Germany declined, and World War II began. The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on
September 17.
Invasion of the Soviet Union
By attacking the Soviet Union in June 1941, Hitler enlarged the scale of the war, committing what today is regarded as a strategic blunder. Leaving a determined United Kingdom at his rear, in effect, opened up a debilitating
two front war. Hitler also believed that the Soviet Union could be defeated in a fast-paced and relentless assault that capitalized on the Soviet Union's ill-prepared state.
One theory states that if Germany hadn't attacked,
Stalin would have done so within the next couple of months, unleashing the
Red Army and all the force the Soviet Union could bear. This would have been a disaster for the Germans, as the
Wehrmacht would lose the element of surprise and the ability to maneuver, which contributed to the military's ability to confront the Soviets so successfully early on. Furthermore, the terrain of Germany's east wouldn't have been favorable for defensive warfare because it's flat and relatively open. Still, the view promoted by
Viktor Suvorov relies on numerous assumptions, including the underlying notion that a war between the two powers was, for various reasons, inevitable. However due to Russia's disastrous first few months of their war it's highly unlikely that any plans for the invasion of Germany had been put into any operation.
Suvorov's view that a Soviet invasion of Germany was imminent in 1941 is opposed by many historians like
David Glantz,
Gabriel Gorodetsky,
Makhmut Gareev and
Dmitri Volkogonov. But the Soviet assault thesis has gained some support among Russian professional historians like
V.D.Danilov,
V.A.Nevezhin,
B.V. Sokolov and
Mikhail Meltyukhov.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The
Imperial Japanese Navy attacked
Pearl Harbor on
December 7,
1941, hoping to destroy the
United States Pacific Fleet at anchor. Even though the Japanese knew that the U.S. had the potential to build more ships, they hoped that they'd feed reinforcements in piecemeal and thus the Japanese Navy would be able to defeat them in detail. This nearly happened during the
Battle of Wake Island shortly after.
Within days, Germany declared war on the United States, effectively ending isolationist sentiment in the U.S. which had so far prevented it from entering the war.
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External Link Exchanges
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<a href="http://causes_of_world_war_ii.totallyexplained.com">Causes of World War II Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
