What started started World War 2?

Answer 1

WW2 was started by Germany in 1939. Hilter invaded Poland.

In reading history books, the blame seems to be placed on the Versailles Treaty of World War I.

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/versaillestreaty/vercontents.HTML

It put extreme restrictions upon Germany and forced the country into deep unrest and unemployment. This enabled factions such as the Nazis, led by ex-World War I corporal Adolph Hilter to preach his brand of subversive rhetoroic. This eventually led to the entire nation following Hitler into the annexing back of territories taken by the Versailles Treaty, and eventually the invading of Poland.

This forced France and Britain to declare war on Germany due to their defensive pact with Poland.

The origins of WWII are complex. Some historians have pointed back to the Treaty of Versailles, calling it unjust and cumbersome. Yet the treaty was not as unjust as some would see it. The lands taken from Germany were lands that were conquered (Alsace-Lorraine) or partitioned (Lower Silesia, the Polish Corridor) by Germany, Russia, and Austria in the late 1700's. The treaty itself wasn't unfair, rather was seen as such in Germany. This is because of the great myth that Gerrmany was never defeated on the battlefield in WWI (propagated by Field Marshals Hindenburg and Luddendorf, even though they were the two who told the government to seek an aarmistice) also contributed to mightily to the treaties as been seen as unfair andf contributed greatly to revisionists such as Hitler coming to power. Yet the treaty itself is not what started WWII (though it didn't stop it from happening). Rather it was the unwillingness of Great Powers such as Great Britain, and France along with the The League of Nations, to uphold the treaty doctrine and its provisions. When Germany announced that it had an air force, that they were re-introducing military conscription, that they were re-occuping the demilitrized Rhineland, that they had reached a naval agreement with Great Britain that allowed them to build a navy thirty-five percent the size of Great Britains (roughly the size of France's) the League of Nations only provided paper protests and the Versailles treaty became as dead as a door-nail. WWII was started not onyl by Hitler's aspirations, but by an enfeebled West which did not comprehend the magnitude of its inactions.

These books are highly recommend:

• "The Origins of The Second World War" by A.J.P. Taylor
• "Heroes" by Robert Cormier

It really began in 1937 with Japan's invasion of China. The first shots were fired in China and the first lives lost there as well. This was the beginning of Japan's Co-Prosperity Sphere plan that was to eventually encompass all of Asia.

The war in Europe began in 1939 for certain. The causes there appear to indeed be complex but in my evaluation there are a few distinct causes behind its outbreak.

The treaty of Versailles was indeed an extremely oppressive mandate for the German people to bear, (take the time to actually read through the treaty its 440 articles long). It served to destabilize the government and economy of a war shattered economy in the midst of a world depression.

WWI was also a major cause for WWII as the majority of the people of the victorious nations and their governments had no desire to engage in a second major conflict in Europe that was certain to cost more untold millions of lives and an unknown amount of national resources. As for the defeated German veterans they did indeed feel betrayed by their leaders for ending the war and they would later make up the beginnings of what would later become the Nazi party.

England and Frances treaty with Poland had a great deal to do with the war in Europe. I suggest that if England and France had instead decided to not fulfill their obligations under the treaty that instead the war in Europe might very well have ended up with just a war between Germany and Russia.

Communism was already being considered a major threat to western nations and the threat of communism in Germany helped to propel Hitler to power.

Only after great reluctance did the Allies accept and aid Russia in her fight with Germany and the primary reason for that was that they were very concerned that Germany would defeat Russia and then become too powerful to stop. Keep in mind that Russia also invaded Poland in 1939 as part of their treaty with Germany and later in November of 1939 Russia invaded Finland.

At the outbreak of the European element of the war Russia was on the Axis side as far as the Allies were concerned. It was only Germanys alarming early success in the invasion of Russia that compelled the Allies to take Russia into the Allied fold.

On August 31, Hitler staged a Polish attack on a minor German radio station so that he could have a reason to invade Poland. On September 1, Hitler declared war on Poland stating one of his reasons for the invasion was because of "the attack by regular Polish troops on the Gleiwitz transmitter." On September 3, Britain and France both declared war on Germany, thus starting World War Two.

The Second World War was made POSSIBLE but not started by the Versailles Treaty which completely limited Germany's arms industry (They were forbidden to have an air or tank force, the navy was restricted and the Heer was limited to 100,000 men) and brought great shame upon one of the world's most nationalistic people (At least at the time).

A glimpse of the nature of WWII was seen in the mid '30s with the intervention of Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War. Indeed, this was were Germany proved it's Bf-109, Ju-87 and He-111 designs. For both the USSR and Germany, this was an opportune moment to flex some military muscle, but Germany also saw it as the perfect opportunity to grant their fledgling army some battle experience.

To those who say that WWII truly began in 1937, this is only partly true. Like the Spanish Civil War, it provided a glimpse of the future but was not a WORLD war, rather a localized conflict. I would place the starting date of WWII later than 1939 rather than earlier. By the time Poland was invaded only the Commonwealth, Britain and France had actually declared war on Germany. Then, in 1941, Germany declared war on the USSR and the United States, effectively bringing most if not all of the world's powerful nations into the conflict.

Most of us are pretty familiar with the backstory of WWII growing out of WWI. But there is a substantial backstory to WWI as well. WWI grew out of a series of conflicts going back to Napoleon. This influenced the beginning of WWI and the aftermath which lead to WWII.

We usually look at Europe as if it was always the way it is today. It is easy to forget, and most history books don't mention, that the Germany wasn't even a country until 1871, less than half a century before WWI. The beginnings of this state were in the conquests of Napoleon's. The northern states had been occupied by France under Napoleon, until Prussia (the most powerful German state) Austria (East of what is now Germany), Russia, and Britain united to defeat the French. This made Prussia even more powerful, and created resentment between the Germans and French, as well as giving the northern German states a taste of what it was like to be part of a larger nation, and simultaneously sparking their sense of Nationalism.

Germany as we know it was built by a thoroughly ruthless and Machiavellian man named Otto Von Bismarck. He wanted to create a united Germany out of what were at the time 38 separate states. Creating this united state was a challenge for several reasons. The other European powers didn't want to see another empire rising in their midst so soon after having had to put down the French. The various German states were independent and wanted to stay that way. He had to create his empire without building lasting resentments between the states he was seeking to unite and without alarming the other European powers. He did this basically by building a coalition, then provoking a state that was outside that coalition to attack it. This gave him an excuse to enlarge his military, increased the cohesiveness of the coalition he already had, and added another state to his coalition. He repeated this several times until the German states were under his control.

Next he had to take on Austria, which was culturally part of Germany, but was politically separate. To do this, he offered part of Germany to France (without signing the offer) if France would remain neutral if Austria attacked him. Then he cleverly (way to involved to detail here) provoked Austria to attack. After this he appeased the Austrians. The French had demanded Southern Germany in exchange for their neutrality. He rebuffed them (he hadn't signed the offer) and used the fact of their demand as proof to his people that France was a threat.

Naturally the French weren't too happy about Bismarck's deceit, and he further provoked them to attack him (it didn't take nearly as much political wrangling and backhanded diplomacy as it did with Austria!). He opposed the French claim on the Spanish crown. When the French got it they demanded that the Germans never again try to claim it. In response, he published a letter mocking France in the French newspapers. This ticked off the French people enough to declare war in 1870. The Austrians weren't all that upset with him because he'd worked hard to rebuild good relations with them, so they stayed out of it, and no one else really saw a reason to join with the French. As a result the French lost to a united Germany. Bismarck used this war to unite Germany, and build German pride and power by humiliating the French and forcing them to give Germany the territories of Alsace and Loraine, and demanding five years of reparations. It should be noted that at this time it was traditional for the winning power to demand reparations of the loser in European conflicts. In fact, the relatively light reparations Germany demanded of Austria were seen as a gesture of good will by the Austrians, and were part of Bismarck's diplomatic efforts to repair Germany's relationship with Austria after their war. However, the net effect was to build a lasting resentment against Germany in the hearts of the French.

As a result, Bismarck was able to unite all of the German states except Austria into a German Empire under Keiser William I in 1871. Bismarck was Chancellor. All of the other European powers were very worried by Germany's new power. After its war on France and its subsequent unification Germany had the strongest Military of the continental powers, and was an industrial powerhouse. Its ultimate power was actually somewhat limited because unlike Britain and France, Germany was not a colonial power, so it did not have the massive resources at its disposal the other powers had in their colonies. However, by not competing with the other powers for colonial assets, Bismarck was able avoid conflict.

However, eventually William I was replaced by a new Keiser, William II, who was less willing to allow Bismarck to be the power behind his throne. Bismarck eventually had to resign. William II began to compete for colonial resources, and eventually resulting in the cancellation of the nonaggression pact between Germany and Russia, and turning the other European powers even more firmly against Germany. William II's domestic policy also destabilized Germany and gave socialist movements the opportunity to expand their power bases.

In short this set the stage for WWI. In addition, the French animosity against Germany which their earlier defeat had sparked drove them to seek revenge after the war. This in turn set the stage for WWII.

The point of view that the Versailles Treaty was too onerous, and that this is the cause of World War II, is an American high school history teacher's myth. It is a point of view that can be traced to the isolationists of the 1930s, who declared that World War I had been a mistake, and resisted American preparations for and involvement in World War II right up until Pearl Harbor.

German territories that were taken from Germany after World War I by treaty were the result of Prussian imperial victories in the 18th and 19th centuries: the partitions of Poland, the Franco-Prussian War, the brief war against Denmark (1864). They were ethnically mixed border regions where much of the population was not German and had resisted Germanization in the century before World War I.

Although the Versailles treaty imposed monetary reparations on the Germany, Allied assistance to the Weimar Republic, both through the Dawes Plan and through investment in Germany during the 1920s, greatly exceeded the repartions taken from Germany under provisions of the Versailles Treaty.

Readers would do well to revisit a forgotten treaty, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918), to see what peace conditions imperial Germany imposed on Russia (the Soviet Union) as the price of peace after the Russians were defeated and forced out of the war in 1917.

Much of the "Poland" that was invaded by the USSR was NOT Poland but Polish-occupied Ukraine, which was a subjected population oppressed - due to their religion -by the occupation force of Poland's Military Dictatorship.

Another view on WW2, though not politically correct, is that there was only one war, it started in 1914 and finished in 1945 - with a break from 1918-1939 while the Germans re-grouped. Kaiser Wilhelm was very similar to Hitler - a hate-filled expansionist with visions of world domination, due to him being the weak and crippled runt of the Royal Household.

World War Two was not started by Hitler. The first thing that must be learnt from conflict such as the significant World War's is that it was not caused by one single person or country, or by the country which attacks first.War is caused by the mistakes of everyone, but most importantly the belief's that people force upon one another which cause other's to feel inferior or not one of the 'cool kids on the block'. It is due to the injust things we do or say to one another that cause conflict and it is easy to point the finger when your the 'victor'. Remember history books are always written by the 'winner's' so you don't get both sides of the story. People believe what they want to believe and when your told that you or your country won and it was all their fault, you don't say not that's not right you except that your superior. Look at both sides.

About the idea that WWII was started by Japan in 1937: The reason we say it started in 1939 by Hitler's invasion of Poland is because that's the momeny when the first main Allied nation declared war on an Axis nation (Britain declares war on Germany). Yes, we could be specific and say the first shots of origin started with Japan's invasion, but no real main Allied nation had declared war at that time.

This is a very debatable topic and there is more then one answer to this question. first of all Hitler's absession of world domination and racial purity was a great contribution. As someone mentioned earlier the treaty of versaille enraged Hitler and the NAZI pary for the lack of freedom, and the sever charges which were imposed (some argue they were far too harsh) The attack of Poland was the begining of World War 2, but it was not the spark that ignited it, it was just a consequence of what some other elements provoked. It is however one of the main events in World War 2 and should not be forgotten.

World War 2 started in late 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The war in Africa began in 1935 when Italy invaded Ethiopia. In Europe, War was not started by an invasion of Another Country, it was started by a fake SS invasion of a German Radio station at Gleiwitz on the boarder of Poland, August 31, 1939. The SS soldiers wore captured polish uniforms and used polish prisoners as muder victums of the Raid. Hitler used this as a pretex to invade Poland the next day, September 1, 1939. France and Britain then declared war to back Poland and the War was on. This fake Operation was called "Canned Goods".

It depends who you ask, personnaly i would say Poland had a lot to do with it, as it would have been very difficult for Germany to go to war if a corridor to Danzig had been established through the no mans land that existed between Germany and Poland, Whatever people might think as far as German expansionism is concerned Danzig voted to be German in free elections monitored by the league of nations and although German claims of polish abuse of their citizens in that area may have been exaggerated, the Germans did make some very generous offers to the poles in return for access and control of danzig so much so that the British supported albeit in non diplomatic circles the German offer although they would not support any aggresive movement towards Poland by Germany,the support promised by Britain and France could have been part of the reason why Poland took such an aggresive stance against Germany but if you look at a map layout after Danzig voted for German control it was obvious something had to change because it left a German province inside polish territory with no point of access from Germany.

The planning of the Second World War started when Adolf Hitler joined a secret society called the Thule Society in 1919. It was in this group that he found the perverted beliefs that were later to lead him in his control of the German government.

In the Thule Society: "... the sun played a prime role... as a sacred symbol of the Aryans, in contrast to... the moon, revered by the Semitic peoples. The Fuhrer saw in the Jewish people, with their black hair and swarthy complexions, the dark side of the human species, whilst the blond and blue-eyed Aryans constituted the light side of humanity. ... Hitler undertook to extirpate from the material world its impure elements."1

In addition to sun (or light) worship, the Thule Society also practiced Satan worship: "The inner core within the Thule Society were all Satanists who practiced Black Magic."2

The Society was not a working-man's group as it included amongst its members: "judges, police-chiefs, barristers, lawyers, university professors and lecturers, aristocratic families, leading industrialists, surgeons, physicians, scientists, as well as a host of rich and influential bourgeois.... "3

The membership of the Thule Society also became the foundation of the Nazi Party: "... the Committee and the forty original members of the New German Workers' Party were all drawn from the most powerful occult society in Germany�the Thule Society."4

One of the founders of both groups, the Nazi Party and the Thule Society, was Dietrich Eckart: "a dedicated Satanist, the supreme adept of the arts and rituals of Black Magic and the central figure in a powerful and wide-spread circle of occultists�the Thule Group. (He was] one of the seven founder members of the Nazi Party...."

Eckart claimed to be the initiator of Hitler into the secrets of Satan worship. He is quoted as saying on his deathbed: "Follow Hitler. He will dance, but it is I who have called the tune! I have initiated him into the 'Secret Doctrine;' opened his centres in vision and given him the means to communicate with the Powers. Do not mourn for me: I shall have influenced history more than any German."

The person who suggested that Hitler was a member of the Thule society and planned the Second World War soon after the Treaty of Versailles, is, frankly talking rubbish. The Second World war began as a result of Hitler's desire for lebensraum in the East. In invading Poland, Hitler was convinced by people such as Ribbentrop, that Britain would not defend Poland, and Hitler, as an admirer of the monarchist system in the UK, did not want a war with the UK. Operation Sealion; the planned invasion of the UK, was, according to FM Kesselring, not even a real plan, again suggesting a a lack of agression towards Britain. Thus, the Second World War started not because of any occultist beliefs on Hitler's behalf, but simple Nationlaist and Supremicist beliefs and the desire for lebensraum in the East.

As for the Pacific War, Japan had long been coveting Mainland resources, invading China and (en route) Korea for centuries. Under the guise of The Co-Prosperity Sphere (8-Lands Under One Umbrella), Japan plotted an imerial takeover of Asia and the Pacific a la Western Imperialism less than a century earlier. The US opposed this movement and placed embargoes on Japan. Searching for supplies and rebelling against US intervention, Japan embarked on its Oriental conquest. Hoping to keep the US Air Force out of Japan's way, Adm. Yamamoto led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Unfortunatley they opened fire 30 minutes before the proclamation of war was officially delivered, so many viewed it as a violation of military convention (Adm. Yamamoto regretted this fact, he admired Western military practices). As for the Russians, they've long been in territorial disputes with China and Japan (Korea was just a trophy for the three countries), so Russo-Japanese animosity was already well-grounded by the time the Soviets invaded Japanese-acquired Manchuria (after joining the Allies near the end of the war).

Honoring its pledge to protect Poland, England declares war on Germany, because Germany invaded Poland. Democratic France Hitler also declares war on Poland as it, too, had pledged to protect Poland in April 1939. A few hours later Australia follows suit, under the leadership of Sir Robert Gordon Menzies. World War 2 has begun.

The Second World War was started by Germany in an unprovoked attack on Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany after Hitler had refused to abort his invasion of Poland.

Firstly,Hitler's world domination ideal and his foregin expanist policy (To rebuild a strong Germany.) Secondly, Britain and France policy of appeasement that simply make Hitler bolder until Hitler dared to declare a war. Thirdly, rise of militarism in Japan and Fascism in Italy. Lastly, Nazi-Soviet pact make Hitler bolder by knowing that Hitler does not need to make a 2 front war.(However, later when Hitler betrayed USSR, a 2 front war had caused which was one of the reason for his defeat.)

It began when Britain and France declared war on Germany in response to Germany's invasion of Poland.

For the European Theater it began witGermany's attack on Poland which

drew England and France into the fray. Pearl Harbor marked the start of

the Pacific Theater. Germany's decleration of war against the US folded

them together into a world wide conflict.

Most historians agree that the start of World War II was in 1939 when Adolf Hitler decided to invade Poland, causing Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany.

because Germany became to big for their boots and invaded Poland, England had warned Germany and they declared war in 1939
ironically World War 1 was one major force that started World War 2, you can say that Hitler invaded Poland dragging other European nations in and ultimately set in motion World War 2, but without World War 1 Hitler would not have done that, Japan invaded Pearl Harbor thus bringing United States into the war and and brought the war to Asia making it truly a World War, Japan did so partly because of the lack of resources to sustain the growing industry but more so because of the nationalism in the country, German people was in a lot of nationalism too, so one might say that nationalism started it, but the conditions for it to thrive in Germany wouldn't be possible if World War 1 didn't happen, also another factor was the failure of the league of nations (post World War 1 United Nations) which was established in the first place to prevent another world war, they fail to provide support to countries threatened by Nazi Germany, and fail to take the chance to stop Germany when it wasn't ready for war, when considering the effects of World War 1 that started World War 2, the treaty of Versailles was a major factor that placed Germany in the perfect condition for Hitler to rally the country for revenge.

World War 2 was caused by many reasons and they all are important , Different sources would have different answers, It depends on the perspective.if someone said that Humans caused it, he/she would not be incorrect because it was the bleak and ailing society of that day that forced many people to war, and that people chose not to let go of the anger from World War 1 and instead chose to take revenge on a global scale, or to be even more specific, look farther down the pages of history and one would be surprised how often history repeats itself and the factors that affects it the most are Human ones.
WW2 began in 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany after Germany's invasion of Poland.
In 1939 the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany occurred, and in 1937 invasion of the Republic of China by the Empire of Japan. Those events were believed to cause World War 2. It was the deadliest conflict in human history.
Adolf Hitler (a dictator in Germany) started adding countries to his land even though he wasn't supposed to, but the Allied Powers let it go not wanting to start another war. But when Hitler had plans to add Poland to his land, the Allies couldn't ignore him any longer and World War 2 started.

World War 2 in Europe began with the German invasion of Poland, which started on 1 September 1939.
I believe it was the invasion of Poland by Germany.
September 1939 when the Nazi Germans attacked and invaded Poland.
invasion of Poland, followed by the massing of German troops on its western border

Beacuse Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

WWII officially started in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland although before that Germany had taken over other countries like Chzeckozlovakia and Japan had been at war with many countries in Asia including China

OR..

World War II began when Germany invaded Poland, which prompted France and Britain to declare war on Germany.

Pealr Harbor did not start WW2 but did bring America into it.

Answer 2

World War 2 started on september 1st 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany. France and Britain declared war on germany because hitler sent 1 million troops to invade poland along with another 500,000 in support during the invasion. Germany invaded poland because Germany wanted to reclaim it's land what they lost because of the Treaty of Versailled which was signed when germany lost World War 1 the the Allied Forces.