Causes of World War 2

Phillip Kwon

Imperialism Nationalism Invasion of Poland Great depression Invasion of China Racism Attack on Pearl harbor

Just like how the trigger event of World War 1 was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the trigger of World War 2 is said to be the invasion of Poland. The Germans attacked from north, west and south, and west Poland was annexed soon after. At this time, Poland was a neutral country, and being in the middle of Europe, the invasion by Germany posed a bigger threat to the bigger countries like UK and France, and they finally declared war on Germany.

This is the main event that brought the U.S. and Japan into the war. Japan was one of those countries that lacked TRUE and raw natural resources, so Japan began to move to northern China and invade Manchuria. Japan thought of challenging Europe for oil, but this meant a conflict with the U.S. Then, in 1941, Japan faced a crisis; U.S., who at the time supplied Japan with 80% of their oil, initiated an oil embargo. And so, Japan declared war and bombed Pearl Harbor. U.S. and Japan became opposing forces because the Japanese joined the Axis, while the U.S. joined the Allies.

U.S.A.’s economy collapsed after the stock market crash. The effect was all around the world, and it especially struck Germany hard, which meant there was unemployment, poverty and civil unrest. People wanted jobs, so they turned to Totalitarians (which means parties or people that think they have unlimited authority, so try to control everything) like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. Germany was the second most affected country, so they voted for Hitler, which, as most people see, the causes of World War 2 in Europe.

Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bombing was ordered by President Truman. Hiroshima was a industrial center, and Nagasaki was the center of the Imperial Army.

The holocaust resulted in the death of over 6 million European Jews at the hands of the Germans.

73 million peoples’ deaths