THE SECOND WORLD WAR

CAUSES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Deep:

The humiliating treaty of Versailles and what followed (crisis of 1923 in

Germany).

The economic crisis of the 30s: power the labor movement and put on the
defensive Capital and the middle classes.

Immediate:

The expansionism of the Axis powers in the 30s and the policy of appeasement
of Western democracies (whose best example will be the Munich Conference
and the surrender to Hitler of the Czech Sudetenland).

Example from Germany: Remilitarization of the Rhineland, Anschluss,

Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Poland.

Example from Italy: Abyssinia, Albania.

Example from Japan: Manchuria, China.

MAIN CONTENDERS

-The Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) and their allies of degree or by
force (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, Slovakia and Croatia).

-The Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union), to
which we must add China. All of them are still permanent members of the UN
Security Council with the right of veto.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

The blitzkrieg (tanks and fighters, penetration in depth and artillery to annihilate
bags of resistance), the aerial battles (battle of England) and naval airplanes
(Midway), the amphibious landings (Normandy, Guadalcanal, IwoJima,
Okinawa), the total war (submarine warfare - battle of the Atlantic - against all
types of ships, aerial bombardment of cities, atomic bombs dropped on cities),
technical novelties (radar, sonar, fighter and bomber, modern submarines,
precision artillery, rockets-bomb, energy from nuclear fission, which catapulted
the world into a new nuclear age).

Planetary war scenario (Europe, North Africa, Far East, Pacific).

Actually, it was about two overlapping wars: The war in Europe and Russia
against Germany and the war in the Far East and the Pacific against Japan.
Japan and Germany never collaborated (it would have been very easy to do it
against the USSR), and the USSR only in the last days of World War II (and
opportunism) declared war on Japan (the result: the division of Korea into two
States , with a North Korea that is still a focus of international disturbance).

STAGES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Triumphs of the Axis in Europe, between September 1939 and December 1941:
Poland, shared with the USSR according to the German-Soviet Non-Aggression
Pact; Denmark and Norway; Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg;
France (evacuation of Dunkirk). Britain remains alone (although it has the
Commonwealth and the support of the United States). Great Britain wins the
battle of England (between July 1940 and May 1941, the RAF defeats the
Luftwaffe and can not carry out the operation León Marino). Germany sends
North Africa to the Afrika Korps (February 1941 - May 1943, with Rommel at the
head) and cornered the British in Egypt. German invasion of Yugoslavia (spring
of 1941). Operation Barbarossa: Germany invades the USSR (June 1941). The
wide scale of its conquests will disseminate its resources and will dangerously
expand the supply lines.

Japanese aggression to the United States (Pearl Harbor, December 1941) and
great Japanese expansion by the Asian and Pacific SE. The United States
enters the war against the Axis.

Change of tendency of the war until the Allied victory, from 1942: Germany is
stopped in the 3 lines of advance on the Soviet territory (Leningrad, Moscow,
Stalingrad and siege of Stalingrad between November 1942 and February
1943). The Soviet counter-offensives are crushing since Kurst (July-August
1943) to Berlin (April 1945). Germany and Italy are defeated in Africa (Battle of
Alamein in October 1942, Operation Antorcha in November 1942, surrender of
Tunisia in May 1943). I jump to Sicily and Naples. Italian capitulation and
German invasion of Italy. Slow progression of the allies in the Italian peninsula.
Landing in Normandy (June 1944). The fall of the Third Reich is a matter of time
(attempted attack of the Walkiria operation by Staufenberg and other officers,
German counter-offensive of the Ardennes, frustrated). Mussolini's shooting
(April 29, 1945) Hitler's suicide (April 30, 1945). Unconditional surrender of
Germany (May 7 and 8, 1945).

Japanese defeat in Midway (June 1942). Superiority of the United States in

military equipment and economic support. Strides towards Japan (cutting off
supply lines) led by Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur: Guadalcanal,
Saipan and Guam in the Marianas, Philippines (October 1944: Battle of the Gulf
of Leyte-February 1945), Anglo-American reconquest of Burma, Iwojima
(February 1945), Okinawa (April-June 1945). Will of unprecedented resistance
of Japan (kamikazes) and atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Na