World War II unofficially started when a young Adolf Hitler rose to power in a financially and politically unstable Germany. Hitler's political party, the Nazis, rose to power by signing defense documents and treaties with Italy and Japan and this further secured Hitler's ambitions for world domination.
World War II officially started when Hitler began his invasion of Poland. This caused Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany. Over the course of the next six years, World War II would claim more lives and destroy more land and property, more than any other war that previously occurred in history.
Historians believe that one of the reasons that so many German citizens fell for the Nazi party was because the entire country was bitter from the loss of World War I and how the reparation costs of the war caused their country bankruptcy. Hitler promised stability for Germany, as long as he was made the president of Germany.
However, the action that caused Britain and France to worry was the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. This pact stated that Joseph Stalin was to aid the Germans on two fronts, one in France and one in Great Britain. France and Great Britain had to come to Poland's aid if it were ever attacked and sure enough, it was.
The next few years would be the bloodiest ever seen. Bloodshed, death, and loss wreaked the battlefields and after World War II, the world would never be the same. Let's hope that like World War I, there won't be another one. Until Saturday, Mr. Nations out!
The Hiroshima atomic bombing.
Fun Facts:
- Russian and the Red Army were accused of many war crimes, including mass rape.
- Prisoners of war had an 85% mortality rate.
- Germany had a total of 3,363 generals in World War II, while the U.S. had just over 1,500.
Those could also be called not-so-fun facts. Good blog post Mr. Nations!
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