World War II

WORLD WAR II

The immediate causes of World War II were some basic causes, which may be summarized as follows: (1) Aggressive nationalism and imperialism on the part of Germany, Italy, and Japan; (2) The development of new alliances; (3) The collapse of collective security; (4) Appeasement; (5) Fascism and its doctrines of national aggression, racism, violence and disregard of human rights by Mussolini; (6) The failure of the United States to enter actively into European affairs in the 1920's and 1930's, and to help stop aggression.
The Axis powers included Germany, Hungary& Japan. The Allied powers consisted of the United States, Britain and France. After the outbreak of the war in 1939 the Nazis had a nearly unbroken string of victories. Poland was overrun in less than a month. In 1940, following a period of inactivity after the conquest of Poland, the Nazis invaded and occupied Denmark, Norway, Holland and Belgium, without warning. France was attacked next. After Paris fell, Fran...