![]() Italy’s desire to create the Third Rome pushed the nation to closer ties with Nazi Germany. The Anschluss of Austria and the annexation of the rump of Czechoslovakia was a further extension of Hitler’s desire for Lebensraum. Remilitarizing the Rhineland in 1936 violated Versailles and the Locarno Treaties (which defined the borders of Europe) once again. By 1935 Hitler had established the Luftwaffe, a direct violation of the 1919 treaty. Declaring that Germany needed Lebensraum or “living space,” Hitler began to test the Western powers and their willingness to monitor the treaty’s provision. ![]() ![]() Coming to power in 1933, Hitler capitalized on this economic decline and the deep German resentment due to the emasculating Treaty of Versailles, signed following the armistice of 1918. The Great Depression that began on Black Tuesday, 1929 plunged the worldwide recession. The years between the first and second world wars were a time of instability. War Plan Orange, as it was called, would be updated continually as technology advanced and greatly aided the U.S. Navy first developed plans in preparation for a naval war with Japan in 1890. Japan’s unexpected victory over czarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) left open the door for Japanese expansion in Asia and the Pacific. No one historic event can be said to have been the origin of World War II. From the invasion of Poland until the war ended with Japan’s surrender in September 1945, most nations around the world were engaged in armed combat. The two dates most often mentioned as “the beginning of World War II” are July 7, 1937, when the “ Marco Polo Bridge Incident” led to a prolonged war between Japan and China, and September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, which led Britain and France to declare war on Hitler’s Nazi state in retaliation. Others to Italy’s invasion and defeat of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, Adolf Hitler’s re-militarization of Germany’s Rhineland in 1936, the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 are sometimes cited. Others point to 1931, when Japan seized Manchuria from China. Some say it was simply a continuation of the First World War that had theoretically ended in 1918. What Happened in World War II: When did World War II begin? The fundamentally disparate, one-time allies became engaged in what was to be called the Cold War, which dominated world politics for the latter half of the 20th century. The USA and USSR emerged from World War II as global superpowers. economy, and by the war’s end, the nation would have a gross national product that was nearly greater than all the Allied and Axis powers combined. The war precipitated the revival of the U.S. Despite winning the war, Britain largely lost much of its empire, which was outlined in the basis of the Atlantic Charter. ![]() dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese towns of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The Japanese would go on to fight for nearly four more months until their surrender on September 2, which was brought on by the U.S. Seven days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, Germany unconditionally surrendered on May 7, 1945. The primary combatants were the Axis nations of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, and the Allied nations, Great Britain (and its Commonwealth nations), the Soviet Union, and the United States. Western technological advances had turned upon itself, bringing about the most destructive war in human history. The carnage of World War II was unprecedented and brought the world closest to the term “total warfare.” On average 27,000 people were killed each day between September 1, 1939, until the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. World War II: Facts & Info About the Bloodiest War in History Close ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |