Why Did World War II Start?

In the past 60 years or so fans of military history, political history and general history have been treated to dozens of books and films about this very subject. While the reasons for World War II are rather complex, the general feeling is that this major world conflict began because of the ambitions of one man.

Adolf Hitler was a dynamic speaker who found an outlet for his ideas in the frustrated and angry people of Germany. Between 1918 and 1938 this country struggled under strict limitations set at the end of World War I. Germany was on the defeated side in that war and suffered economically and socially for 20 years after the fighting stopped.

This was one of the major factors in Hitler’s push to give Germany room to grow. The term often used was “lebensraum” (room to live). Hitler played on the emotions of the citizens, many of whom had friends and family members living in areas that were not under the control of the German state. At first, some of this room to live was acquired without a fight. Austria and Czechoslovakia came under German control in the last two years of the 1930s. There was no military resistance from the victorious British, French or others who had come out of the first war in much better shape than Germany.

Because Hitler found it rather easy to move into these two countries he felt he could repeat the process in other locations. The British and French didn’t want to risk another war by interfering at first, but there came a time when they could no longer stand aside as the German army moved in several directions. German soldiers moved into Poland, using not only troops on foot but also bombing raids that created massive destruction.

These were the basic political and military reasons for the start of World War II. Eventually, Hitler’s actions pushed Britain and France into war. Germany was soon aided by the Soviet Union and Italy, whose leaders also had designs far beyond their own borders. Political unrest in Japan and China, as well as in parts of Southeast Asia, led to military action in that region as well. The United States was soon to enter the battle, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

When looking for reasons why World War II started, it is wise to go back further than the mid-1930s and Hitler’s move into surrounding countries. The changes that led to the second great war started in the early 1920s, as Hitler and those who worked with him sought to establish a new sort of world government that didn’t include certain races and populations outside of Germany.

His efforts were helped considerably by the dissatisfaction that ran deep within the German people. Many had lost contact with relatives when Germany lost territory after World War I. The country was in serious financial trouble and as poverty spread, the peoples’ anger grew. As mentioned, the reasons for the start of World War II are complex. But Hitler found fertile “soil” among the population in which to plant the seeds of doubt and anger.

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