Fascism was on the rise, and with it the thirst for world domination. Germany was humiliated and beaten down in the last world war. Adolf Hitler came to power with a promise to restore that lost pride and recapture the lands Germany lost in WW I. Germany began to systematically take back thatland. Italy had chosen a Fascist Dictator in the form of Benito Mussolini, while Japan was busy taking over neighboring countries as well.
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 the Second World War began.
Diplomacy Attempted
Europe, Great Britain in particular, felt they could practice a type of diplomacy called appeasement. Basically, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and leaders from France agreed to give Hitler what he wanted as long as he promised not to invade anyone else. That didn't work; in fact,
many recognize today that this was a dangerous way to relate with a rising dictator. Germany also had a secret pact with the U.S.S.R., agreeing not to
attack each other, but overrun the countries between them. The U.S.S.R. was in for a surprise as well.
Main Events
After the events of the Invasion of Poland, the U.S. still considered this a European problem. While we supplied munitions to the Allies, few of our people fought in
the war at that time. On December 7, 1941, that was about to change. The Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor one Sunday morning,
and by the next day, Roosevelt
announced that we'd declared war on Japan. In turn, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. In that same year, Germany attacked the U.S.S.R. which hurt
them in the long run. The war played out in three "theaters" known as the Pacific Theater, European Theater, and the North African Theater, later known as the
Mediterranean Theater. |
