Which country started the world war second?

Answer 1

In 1931, the Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria in an event commonly known as the Manchurian Incident. Essentially, this was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia. This proved to be one of the causes of World War II.

Japan modernized between 1868 and World War One. It emerged as a modern industrial economy with giant companies - zaibatsus - that assumed great importance as trading enterprises. Japan's expansion was marked by wars of expansion - defeats China over Korea in 1894-5 and Russia over Manchuria in 1904-5. The latter war sees the Japanese navy sink Russia's at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. The Japanese navy had led Japan into the ranks of modern industrialized powers. In World War One Japan acquired German islands north of the Equator. In the Depression Years, Japan moves to acquire an Empire - 'The East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere'. This was due largely to the break-up of the world into trade blocs with Japan frozen out of many markets. The 1929 Depression hit Japan hard. The civilian government had no solutions to the problems presented by the worldwide depression and the civilian government looked weak. The unemployed of Japan looked to the strength of the army to assist their plight rather than to weak politicians. "The voice of senior army generals were heard and they argued campaign to win new colonies abroad so that the industries there could be exploited for Japan. " Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, which caused many blames by the League of Nations. By 1931, Japan had invested vast sums of money into the economy of Manchuria, which was effectively controlled by the South Manchuria Railway Company.

In 1937 Japan invaded China and, after the collapse of France, moved to acquire bases in French Indo-China- this led by degrees to the war in the Pacific, especially after the US oil embargo in July 1941. Japan struck at US and UK bases in Dec.1941.

The most obvious target was a full-scale invasion of Manchuria. The Manchurian Incident marked a significant change in Japan's foreign policy, especially towards its colony of Korea.

The Japanese wanted to compete in a geopolitical struggle for domination with the United States, the Soviet Union, and many of European countries that had ambitions to hold their colonies in Asia. The invasion of Manchuria and the war mobilization efforts attempted to create a strong empire, which could eventual compete with these "world powers".

The Japanese government set up a "puppet state of Manchukuo" after they took over Manchuria. Manchuria was also taken in an effort to curb the advance of Chinese nationalist forces, which were threatening Japanese interests on the Asian continent. Manchuria was also used for their vast Natural Resources and raw materials, which would help further the economic goals of Japan.

The war effort in Korea and China included the mobilization of labor, in which the workers could be moved to various parts of the Japanese Empire, all to insure production for the war effort. Koreans worked in factories and mines in Manchuria, northern Korea and Japan. About 4,000,000 Koreans and Chinese were displaced from their homes and shipped to these factories so that they would be productive in Japan's war efforts. The war mobilization scattered Koreans and Chinese, as manpower, all over East Asia, in an effort to maximize production for the mother country.

The Italian invasion of Ethiopia was initiated in the month of October 1935. It was a brief colonial war that is also remembered in history as the second Italo-Abyssinian war. Mussolini, who was the leader of Italy, had his eye set on annexing Ethiopia into Italy's newly created colony of East Africa. Although the Italian military was successful in occupying Ethiopia, the Abyssinians did not capitulate or surrender to the Italian forces.

In the context of political history this colonial war is remembered for exposing the weak bond on which the League of Nations was found. It was quite clear following this event that the League of Nations was a total failure in terms of accomplishing the objectives for which it was established. This is because both Italy as well as Ethiopia were members of the League of Nations yet the League was not able to prevent Italy from forcefully violating the rights of Ethiopia as well as acting outside of the League's articles.

Another important element of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia is the fact that it was the first time that mustard gas and phosgene was used as illegal weapons by the Italian armed forces. The invasion did bear fruit. People respected the fact that Mussolini's fascist regime has reached its zenith and the new era which is known as the age of consensus in Italian history was born. Mussolini attracted the praise of notables like Churchill for achieving his objectives despite the fact that much social, political and human loss had been caused in the process.

The fact that Mussolini wanted to rebuild an Italian Empire reminiscent of the glorious Roman Empire of the past was no secret by this point in time. In order to do this Italy would have to take over the Mediterranean and the North African regions. This was one of the primary objectives of invading Ethiopia. Mussolini also wanted to settle the score with Ethiopia as the latter had defeated the Italians in the past during the battle of Adowa that took place in 1896.

Then Italy invaded Ethiopia based on the promise by Mussolini that he would acquire a place in the sun for his country so that the Italian Empire could match the colonial giants like France and Britian.

There were a number of factors that made the country of Ethiopia a prime candidate for the expansion of the Italian empire. The European imperialists had already engaged in the scramble for Africa as a result of which only a few places were left for the taking. Ethiopia was one of these countries. Furthermore by taking over Ethiopia Italy would be able to draw a unified connection between Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. Along with this it was believed that Ethiopia had a relatively weak army that consisted of indigenous tribal forces that were still making use of basic weapons such as spears and shields, whereas their air force consisted of only 12 fighter planes.

WWII was lead up to when the fascist Governments began to annex territories. Nazi Germany would annex/invade several countries in eastern Europe (Austria, Czechoslovakia, etc) under several pretenses (in 1938). The (Allied) powers in Europe, England and France, allowed this to happen because of they were unwilling to risk war. Eventally, Germany invaded Poland (in 1939), which caused England, France, and several other countries to declare war on it, starting WWII.

Answer 2

Russia started the second world war, this was the time when Hitler invaded Poland.

Hope this helped (: