Changes

During the war, eight major world powers fought, along with several lesser states joining with one side or the other. On the side which lost were the Axis Powers Germany, [[Japan]], and [[Italy]]. Against them came to be the Allied Powers [[United States]], [[Great Britain]] and the Commonwealth, the [[Soviet Union]] with its [[Comintern]] allies, and the [[Republic of China]]. The conflict was the deadliest in human history with estimated deaths ranging from 50 million to over 70 million depending on research methodology.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second</ref>   

During the war, eight major world powers fought, along with several lesser states joining with one side or the other. On the side which lost were the Axis Powers Germany, [[Japan]], and [[Italy]]. Against them came to be the Allied Powers [[United States]], [[Great Britain]] and the Commonwealth, the [[Soviet Union]] with its [[Comintern]] allies, and the [[Republic of China]]. The conflict was the deadliest in human history with estimated deaths ranging from 50 million to over 70 million depending on research methodology.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second</ref>   

 

==Causes: Europe==

==Failure of the League treaty==

The war began with the German invasion of Poland on the 1st September 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany in response.

The causes of World War II are complicated. The immediate causes of World War II are generally held to be the Japanese attacks on China and the British and Dutch colonies, and the German invasion of Poland on the 1st September 1939. Following the two day deadline for the withdrawal of German forces, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany, followed quickly by France, South Africa, Canada and Nepal.  

 

The condition of Germany in the aftermath of [[World War I]] is also considered to be a contributing factor.  The [[Weimar Republic]] that was founded at the end of WWI, was struggling from the beginning. One reason were the harsh terms of [[Versailles]] treaty. Although the terms of the treaty were never fully enforced, the psychological damage was immense, since they were perceived as a grave injustice. The republic was also struggling with the rejection by monarchist, who were still occupying important position in the state. Many WWI veterans believed that the German forces in WWI were not defeated, but that the social democratic leaders, who founded the Weimar republic to thwart a communist revolution, surrendered to the allies for political gains. It was known as the "stab-in-the-back myth", and was used to discredit the republic. [http://www.germannotes.com/hist_weimar_dolch.shtml] Although the Weimar Republic enjoyed a time of economic resurgence after the early years of hyper-inflation it failed to gain deep public support. The Weimar Republic was famously called a ''democracy without democrats''.  

The condition of Germany in the aftermath of [[World War I]] is also considered to be a contributing factor.  The [[Weimar Republic]] that was founded at the end of WWI, was struggling from the beginning. One reason were the harsh terms of [[Versailles]] treaty. Although the terms of the treaty were never fully enforced, the psychological damage was immense, since they were perceived as a grave injustice. The republic was also struggling with the rejection by monarchist, who were still occupying important position in the state. Many WWI veterans believed that the German forces in WWI were not defeated, but that the social democratic leaders, who founded the Weimar republic to thwart a communist revolution, surrendered to the allies for political gains. It was known as the "stab-in-the-back myth", and was used to discredit the republic. [http://www.germannotes.com/hist_weimar_dolch.shtml] Although the Weimar Republic enjoyed a time of economic resurgence after the early years of hyper-inflation it failed to gain deep public support. The Weimar Republic was famously called a ''democracy without democrats''.  

[[Image:58742big.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Japanese Expansion in Asia, 1928 - 1941. [http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/maps2.html]]]

[[Image:58742big.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Japanese Expansion in Asia, 1928 - 1941. [http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/maps2.html]]]

 

In the early 1930 Germany was in a permanent political and constitutional crisis, caused by rising unemployment during the great depression. Germany was hit harder than most other countries. The National Socialists, known as the Hitler movement, promised to restore national pride and statue, by disbanding the Versailles treaty, and reverting the injustices imposed onto Germany by its international enemies. It was common to blame the "international Jewdom." Part of this ideology was that Germany deserved to be larger, and that in order to survive, it would have to conquer the East.

In the early 1930 Germany was in a permanent political and constitutional crisis, caused by rising unemployment during the great depression. Germany was hit harder than most other countries. The National Socialists, known as the Hitler movement, promised to restore national pride and statue, by disbanding the Versailles treaty, and reverting the injustices imposed onto Germany by its international enemies. It was common to blame the "international Jewdom." Part of this ideology was that Germany deserved to be larger, and that in order to survive, it would have to conquer the East.

===The Ethiopian War===

===The Ethiopian War===

:''Main article: [[Spanish Civil War]]''

:''Main article: [[Spanish Civil War]]''

===Second Sino-Japanese War===

===Munich 1938===

:''Main article:[[Second Sino-Japanese War]]''

:''Main article [[Munich conference]]''

 

The [[Locarno Pacts]] formed the background for the events of 1938 when Czechoslovakia was dismembered at Munich. When the guarantee of Locarno became due in 1936, Britain dishonored its agreement, the Rhineland was remilitarized and the way was open for Germany to move eastward. Poland protested vigorously at the refusal to guarantee her frontiers.<ref>[http://sandiego.indymedia.org/media/2006/10/119975.pdf ''Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time''], Carroll Quigley, Collier-Macmillan, 1966, pg. 293.ISBN 0-945001-10-X</ref>

 

At Munich, Hitler, British Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]], [[Mussolini]] and French Premier [[Edouard Daladier]] carved up Czechoslovakia without consulting anyone, least of all the Czechs and Slovaks.<ref>''Tragedy and Hope'', Quigley, pg. 638.</ref> The outlawry of war was relatively meaningless without some sanctions that could compel the use of peaceful methods. Efforts in this direction were nullified by Britain.<ref>''Tragedy and Hope'', Quigley, pg. 296.</ref>

In 1937, when the Japanese invaded China, Soviet General Secretary [[Josef Stalin]] ordered the CCP to cease operations against China's government, the [[Kuomintang]] or KMT, and present a [[united front]] to the Japanese. This lasted until 1939.<ref>''While You Slept : Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn,  New York : The Devin - Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 46] pdf.</ref>

==Cause of war in Asia==

With the making of the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]] the Soviet Union was at war on the side of Germany. The KMT stopped major operations against the Japanese, instead, wasting its own men establishing an economic blockade of the communists at their capital of Ya'an, while the Japanese were overunning eastern portions of china and massacring people. The KMT quickly lost support as it was the commies who ran the guerrilla operations against the Japanese, while the KMT deliberately withheld troops to fight the communists

China was engaged at the same time in two separate wars. One was with Japan and the other with the [[Comintern]].  The Soviet Union fought China with an army of [[Chinese Communist Party|Chinese revolutionaries]], the CCP, directed and armed by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's ambitions in China were to transform all northern China — [[Sinkiang]], [[Mongolia]] and [[Manchuria]] — into Soviet dependencies and to convert what remained of China into a [[Communist]] satellite state.

===Treaty of Munich===

===Mukden Incident===

:''Main article [[Munich conference]]''

The Japanese invasion of [[Manchuria]] in 1931 marked the beginning of World War II in Asia.  In March 1932 the Japanese set up the [[puppet state]] of [[Manchukuo]]. On 24 February, 1933, the [[League of Nations]] adopted a resolution calling for the non-recognition of Manchukuo, however the [[Soviet Union]] nonetheless did recognize Manchukuo and sold Japan the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1935.

The [[Locarno Pacts]] formed the background for the events of 1938 when Czechoslovakia was dismembered at Munich. When the guarantee of Locarno became due in 1936, Britain dishonored its agreement, the Rhineland was remilitarized and the way was open for Germany to move eastward. Poland protested vigorously at the refusal to guarantee her frontiers.<ref>[http://sandiego.indymedia.org/media/2006/10/119975.pdf ''Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time''], Carroll Quigley, Collier-Macmillan, 1966, pg. 293.ISBN 0-945001-10-X</ref>

:''Main article:[[Second Sino-Japanese War]]''

In 1937 Japan moved south from Manchuria and began a full scale war against China. The Japanese army was much more powerful, and quickly drove the Chinese, under [[Chiang Kai-shek]] to remote mountain areas. Japan controlled the major cities and seacoast, andmost of China's population, and setg up a puppet regime.  The United States strongly objected to Japan's moves, and began large-scale support for China.  

At Munich, Hitler, British Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]], [[Mussolini]] and French Premier [[Edouard Daladier]] carved up Czechoslovakia without consulting anyone, least of all the Czechs and Slovaks.<ref>''Tragedy and Hope'', Quigley, pg. 638.</ref> The outlawry of war was relatively meaningless without some sanctions that could compel the use of peaceful methods. Efforts in this direction were nullified by Britain.<ref>''Tragedy and Hope'', Quigley, pg. 296.</ref>

[[CCP]] Chairman [[Mao Zedong]] sent a secret directive to his followers IN 1944 which said:

:"The Sino-Japanese war affords our party an excellent opportunity for expansion . . . the first stage is a compromising stage . . . but in reality this will serve as camouflage for the… development of our party. The second [stage]. . . should be spent in laying the foundation of our party's political and military powers . . . until we can match and break the [[Kuomintang]]. The third is an offensive stage . . . in which our forces. . . isolate and disperse…and wrest the leadership from the hands of the Kuomintang."<ref>Documents on the Problem of the Chinese Communist Party (Chungking, 1944).</ref>

==Polish Partition==

==War Begins in Euope==

[[Image:Communazi Peace Pact.jpg|thumb|300px|right|By terms of a secret protocol to the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], Poland was partitioned with Germany and the USSR each occupying 200,000 square kilometers.]]

[[Image:Communazi Peace Pact.jpg|thumb|300px|right|By terms of a secret protocol to the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], Poland was partitioned with Germany and the USSR each occupying 200,000 square kilometers.]]

:''See also: [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]]''

:''See also: [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]]''

==Further reading==

==Further reading==

*Gerhard L. Weinberg, ''Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Starting World War II, 1937-1939'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

* Gerhard L. Weinberg, ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'', Cambridge: University Press, 1994.

* Barnhart, Michael A. ''Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919–1941'' (1987)

*[http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~epf/1997/padilla.html Kursk: The Turning Point on the Eastern Front in World War II], by Roberto R. Padilla II

* Dallek, Robert. ''Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945'' (1995).

* Feis, Herbert. ''The Road to Pearl Harbor: The coming of the war between the United States and Japan.'' classic history by senior American official.

* Kawamura, Noriko. "Emperor Hirohito and Japan's Decision to Go to War with the United States: Reexamined" ''Diplomatic History''  (2007)  31 (1), 51–79. [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00591.x online at Blackwell-Synergy]]

* Sun, Youli.  ''China and the Origins of the Pacific War, 1931-1941.'' (1993). 244 pp. 

* Tarling, Nicholas.  ''Britain, Southeast Asia and the Onset of the Pacific War.'' (1996). 434 pp. 

* Thorne, Christopher G. ''The Issue of War: States, Societies, and the Coming of the Far Eastern Conflict of 1941-1945'' (1985) sophisticated analysis of each major power.

* Tohmatsu, Haruo and H. P. Willmott. ''A Gathering Darkness: The Coming of War to the Far East and the Pacific'' (2004), short overview.

* Wetzler, Peter. ''Hirohito and War: Imperial Tradition and Military Decision Making in Prewar Japan'' (1998), chaps. 2, 3;

* Yomiuri Shimbun. ''Who Was Responsible? From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor'' (2007)

ISBN 4643060123 [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fb20070311a1.html review]

==References==

==References==

* [http://www.onpower.org/history_wwii.html/ World War II]

* [http://www.onpower.org/history_wwii.html/ World War II]

* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]

* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]

* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]

* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]

* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]

* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]