What led Germany to start world war 2?

Answer 1

One of Adolf Hitler's primary stated goals before World War II was to bring all German people in Europe into a single country under his control. To that end, he spent much of 1937-1939 seizing territory from neighboring countries, in the name of German unification. He engineered the annexation of Austria, the seizure of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, and then the dissolution of the rest of Czechoslovakia.

After all that was done, he turned his sights to Poland. A large portion of western Poland had been ruled by Germany before the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Hitler demanded that territory back, along with an important seaport city called Danzig (now called Gdansk). However, Britain and France were no longer willing to allow Hitler to attack his neighbors; additionally, they were allied with Poland, so they were obligated to help if attacked. At first Hitler tried negotiating with Poland but his demands were too strict and Poland refused to accept.

Hitler believed the Allies would not defend Poland; they had done nothing to help Austria or Czechoslovakia, so why would they now? So German agents pretended to be Polish spies, and they launched attacks on some German buildings near the border with Poland- Hitler wanted to use this as proof that Poland was attacking them, to justify declaring war and invading Poland. Nobody believed Hitler's stories, and when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. World War II had officially begun.