The German army invaded Poland September 1, 1939.
Before dawn September 1, 1939, 1.5 million German soldiers began marching. They walked across the 1,700-mile (2,736-kilometer) border between German territory and Poland, accompanied by tanks, military vehicles, and about 300,000 horses pulling artillery. At the same time German warships attacked Polish navy ships in the Baltic Sea, and German bombs fell from the sky on Poland’s cities and airfields.
Poland’s people and military tried to resist the massive German invasion, but it was hopeless. Germany was determined to have Poland as part of its empire, and its actions started the largest war in history—World War II.
GERMANY’S ANGER HAS A BEGINNING
Europe was in a shambles after World War I ended. But Germany felt the devastation most. The Germans lost some of their territory under the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Germany was forced to accept responsibility for starting the war with its aggressive plans to build up its navy and conquer its neighbors. Germany also had to pay for the damage its policies caused during the war. These reparations had a disastrous effect on the German economy. Germans were angry and turned away from traditional political parties. The situation was ripe for the rise of a new leader with new ideas.
That leader turned out to be Adolf Hitler, head of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, known as the Nazi Party. Hitler used fiery speeches to gain the support of many Germans. After he was appointed chancellor of the country in 1933, Hitler promised to return Germany to its status as a great European power.
THE RISE OF HITLER AND THE AXIS
Hitler took steps to reverse what he saw as Germany’s humiliation. The country began to re-arm and to build a navy, in direct defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1936 Hitler ordered German soldiers to enter the Rhineland, the German territory on the French border that had been ordered demilitarized. Great Britain and France offered no opposition, which encouraged Hitler to be even bolder.
That same year the Spanish Civil War began. Both Hitler and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini sent military aid to the conservative Nationalist forces in Spain, which later won the war. Mussolini also attacked Ethiopia in East Africa, with only slight protests by Britain and France.
In October 1936 Hitler and Mussolini signed a friendship treaty. Mussolini called the treaty a “Rome-Berlin axis around which all European states that desire peace can revolve.”1 Germany and Italy came to be known as the Axis powers.
Hitler did his best to reassure other countries regarding his plans. He had earlier said that Germany would not invade Poland or annex Austria. But in 1938 Hitler announced the Anschluss, a union between Germany and Austria. This meant that Czechoslovakia was now almost surrounded by German-controlled territory.
Hitler next turned his attention to the German minority living in the Sudetenland, areas on the borders of Czechoslovakia. French and British leaders finally decided to take action and met with Hitler in Munich. But Hitler got what he wanted, and the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia were given to Germany. Again Hitler reassured other countries. In a speech about the Sudetenland, he promised, “It is the last territorial claim which I have to make in Europe.”2 In private, however, he said, “Our enemies are little worms; I came to know them in Munich.”3
JAPAN’S RISE
After World War I Japan had become a major force in the Pacific and the third largest naval power in the world. Japan had ruled Korea since 1910, but also took over the northern Chinese region of Manchuria in 1931, renaming it Manchukuo. Tensions continued with China throughout the 1930s, leading to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War between the two countries in 1937.
In December 1937 the Japanese Imperial Army captured the capital city of Nanking, China. The battle for Nanking was much more difficult than the Japanese army expected, with many casualties. The retreating Chinese destroyed buildings, crops, and anything in the area that the Japanese might be able to use. The angry Japanese soldiers took their revenge on Nanking’s residents after the city’s capture. Their actions included mass rapes, murder, and torture of thousands of Chinese people.
U.S. leaders were upset with Japan’s actions and began restricting exports to Japan. Almost one-third of Japan’s imports came from the U.S., especially the scrap metal and iron needed for the war with China. Gaining control of other Asian countries would provide Japan with the resources it needed. Like Hitler in Europe, the Japanese began to plan further expansion of their empire.
