Events of World War II Timeline: Events Leading to War
Dictators in Germany and Italy: 1930
At the beginning of the 20th century (1914-1918) , World War One caused terrible damage in Europe. After this war, all the countries that were involved in this war faced a big economic crisis. Many European countries were dependent of the US economy and when in 1929, this economy crashed, the whole world economy was affected. The recovery from the war was even harder for Germany because they had to pay for the damages they caused. Italy was also struggling with its economy; it was one of the worst economy in Europe. People lost faith in the government; they had no money or no work. It was the perfect time for someone confident, ambitious and charismatic to overthrown the government in place and to become a strong leader: a dictator. Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler were respectively dictators in Italy and Germany. They were full of promises and were both involved in politics. Mussolini was the leader of the fascist party and him and his Black Shirts (fervent fans of Mussolini’s speech) were feared. This party was composed of world war one veterans, nationalists and also people fearing the rise of communism and Stalin’s consolidation of power. He had a total control on the private life of the Italian citizens and the time of capitalism was over in Italy. In Germany, something similar happened. The Fascist party became the main party. The ideas of this party were ant capitalists and nationalists. The Treaty of Versailles and the economic crisis were really hard conditions for the economy in Germany. So this party provided hope for thousands of poor German citizens. Soon, the Fascist party became and the Nazi party and became ultra nationalist. A charismatic and angry man was about to become the leader of this party: Adolf Hitler. He brought some ideas to boost economy and declared a guilty: the Jews. He introduced the idea if a pure race and he (like Mussolini) eradicated the other parties. These components immediately worried the “capitalists” country because there was no democracy in Italy or Germany. The United States knew what was happening and disagreed with it but decided to not intervene.
Military Leader in Japan: 1930
Once again, Hirohito’s reign took place during the economic crisis in 1930’s. During his reign, he developed the army and the Japan soon became a strong military nation. He was referred by “His Majesty the Emperor” and had all the powers. There was no opposition in politics and the whole country followed his ideas. Japan had a strong army but also ultra nationalist and imperialist army leaders. With those ideas of acquiring new territories, expanding their ideals and with strong leaders, they saw a great opportunity in forming an alliance with Germany who seemed a strong and imperialist nation. The power of Hirohito kept increasing: He organized ceremonies and special occasion to show all his power to the Japanese citizens. The major general of the army was Hideki Tojo, a nationalist, fascist and imperialist soldier. He after became War Minister, then Prime Minister and had responsibilities for the attack or Pearl Harbor . At first, Japan showed its power to the rest of the word by invading China. The United States, such as other European nations, were worried about these ideas that strangely looked like the ideas of Adolf Hitler and his thirst of power. The United States declared several times their disagreement with the actions of Japan and stopped commercials exchanges with Japan. All of these things brought a climate of tension in the world relation and were some of the factors that started World War II.
Invasion of Poland: Sept. 17, 1939
During the 1930s, Hitler was a strong leader in Germany. The Nazi party was now the most powerful party in the country and was feared by all the opponents. Germany counted 80 000 000 inhabitants by this time period while France counted only 40 000 000 inhabitants and its economy was excellent. Hitler pertinently knew those things and he was ready to make in action his imperialist ideas. But that was not the only reason. After world war one, Germany was cut in two parts to give Poland access to the sea. Hitler, such as all the nationalists and ancient German soldiers from this war, wanted to connect those two parts. In the summer of 1939, Germany signed a nonaggression pact with USSR. This pact stated that the two powers would invade Poland and share it in half without to fear being attacked by the other power. And, on September 1st 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Poland was not prepared at all for a war and even less against the powerful and modern German army. And, of course, as they agreed, USRR invaded Poland on September 17th 1939. Following to these events, France and Great Britain declared war to Germany. The United States of America remained neutral but could observe the power of Germany and fear it.