After the Great War 1914-1918, Germany lost both large areas of land, their economy was in ruins, and people died from poverty and hunger. The authoritarian party NSDAP. They gave soup for the poor, and did a lot of things to win hearts and minds. The economy went up, almost no unemployment, and the military was rebuild. In 1936, Germany decided to take over the demilitarized Rhineland. German troops had strict orders that if they encountered French troops, they would retreat immediately. Germany had still inferior equipment, and also lacked of tanks and troops.
Germany made an agreement with their allied, Soviet, and they both invaded Poland. The UK and France decided to give Germany a choice; Either you move out of Poland, or we will declare war against you. Germany stayed, and battles on the ocean started. Germany used the blitzkrieg to win battles, an idea developed in the beginning of WW1, but first performed under Poland. Under WW1, the idea was that tanks should only support the troops, and people still believed that the infantry was the queen of the battle, which many, to a certain degree, still believe today. They moved in with tanks, air support, and the infantry was largely mechanized. The German troops hadn't slept for 14 days, and they still managed to fight. Brave soldiers indeed.

If anyone wants to correct me, please do. I'll continue later, when my hands have had some rest.

You say how it started, but not why...

You also forgot the Versailles treaty, which was a major player in Hitler's mentality.

__________________
Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything...

Show your kids you love them by buying them the No. 7 brand.

It's up to you, but why bother? All of this is common knowledge, or for those who are unfamiliar, it can be found in a near endless list of books.

oc

It was, of course. But that's not the most important. The most important thing, in my view, was the poverty in Germany. Hitler didn't want to cut down on luxury, like they did in the UK, in order to keep the morale of the German people high. You can only imagine how much effect economy has. Remember, the american people care more about economy then the 50 000 Iraqis that was brutally murdered. Of course, the versailles treaty was an important aspect, but I believe it is overrated. As far as I know, Germany wanted to take back their land in Poland, France, the now called Czech republic. From what I know, Germany went against Russia because of several reasons. One of them was that Hitler hated communsts, especially their economic control, among other important issues. The other was that Soviet started getting allies around in Europe and other places. What Germany did was invade Soviet as a pre-emptive strike, before they would get too powerful. UK, in my opinion, didn't care about Poland at all. If they did, they would give Soviet the same opportunity to withdraw from Poland, which they didn't, and when they started dividing Europe, Soviet was allied with Poland, and oppressed by the dictators there. The only word that can describe my feelings is realpolitik.

I was just checking if I got things straight.

Glancing through, it seems about right. Of course, one would have to elaborate if this would to be turned into an essay fo full length.

But WWII had two major theaters, European AND the Pacific theater. You might want to include the development of Japanese imperialism and their long-lasting war with China.

I don't know too much about that front, sorry. Maybe you can help me out?
The point is, that some people actually believe WW2 started because the Germans would start killing Jews, or, that they went to war against France and the UK.

Too many believe that, and that's why they should glance over a history book every once and a while.

http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/ww2.htm
It has a nice general timeline for the second World War.

I have a good book on the WWII in general, but its a book...
A nice wide google search with WW2 japan, will probably give enough information to summarize the Pacific Campaign.

All wars boil down into it's basic components. Fighting over limited resources.

The Japanese needed oil and iron, and the Germans needed lebensraum (living space). It was a popular concept in 19th and 20th century Germany, getting more land for expansion. If fact Hitler compared the "lebensraum" invasion of Russia to the USA's "manifest destiny" western expansion.

The details and characters might change throughout history, but humans are always fighting over the same things.

And the US wanted to kill 5 million Vietnamese ten years later, and so they did, and secure world domination.