World War II began with Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany.
World War 1 was supposedly " the war to end all wars "but the resulting uneasy peace was dependent on a precarious balance of power in Europe .The balance was upset by Fuhrer Adolf Hitler's re militarization of Germany , his alliance with Italian distator Mussolini and his expansion of Germany ' s borders by annexation of Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia .
In March 1939 , hoping to discourage further German expansion , British , France , and Poland agreed to a military alliance . Crucially , British and the Soviet Union (USSR0) could not reach an agreement , and the USSR instead signed nonaggression treaty with Hitler , making war inevitable . Practically speaking , World War II began just before dawn on September 1 , 1939 , when some 1.25 million German troops swept across their country's border into Poland. . Dispensing with the formality of officially declaring war , Hitler had set in motion Operation Fall Weiss ( White Plan ) as the army crossed the border , the Luftwaffe ( German navy began bombing Polish port of Danzig . Polish defenses soon succumbed when Poland became the first country to experience the German biltzkreing , or " lightning war ".
Officially the war did not begin until two days later , at 11.00 am on September 3 , at the expiry of a Bristish ultimatum for German withdrawal from Poland . British prime minister Neville Chamberlain announced to the British people, " This country is now at war with Germany 'to withdraw by September 4 , but accepting that this was not going to happen , preempted their own deadline by declaring war at 5:00 that same afternoon . Hitler reportedly believed that European powers would react passively , as they had done over Austria and Czechoslovakia , and when informed of the declarations of war he asked , " So now what ?"
The answer was a Second World War .
HITLER'S RISE TO POWER
Adolf Hitler come to power by exploiting popular resentment at the depressed economic and social conditions that had arisen as a result of severe reparation imposed on Germany after WWI, and which were exacerbated by worldwide depression. People wanted someone to blame for their misery, and Hitler channeled their resentment toward non-Aryan minorities, the weak federal government, and a lack of lebensraum ("living space"). As leader of the National Socialist Party ( the Nazis), Hitler won important election victories in 1930 and 1932 and in 1934 he proclaimed the Third Reich, of which he became Fuhrer, assuming absolute power by suspending the constitution using violence and murder to silence all opposition.
HITLER'S RISE TO POWER
Adolf Hitler come to power by exploiting popular resentment at the depressed economic and social conditions that had arisen as a result of severe reparation imposed on Germany after WWI, and which were exacerbated by worldwide depression. People wanted someone to blame for their misery, and Hitler channeled their resentment toward non-Aryan minorities, the weak federal government, and a lack of lebensraum ("living space"). As leader of the National Socialist Party ( the Nazis), Hitler won important election victories in 1930 and 1932 and in 1934 he proclaimed the Third Reich, of which he became Fuhrer, assuming absolute power by suspending the constitution using violence and murder to silence all opposition.
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