Beginning of World War II

World War II was the largest conflict
in all of human history.

The largest and bloodiest conflict

And so you can imagine it is quite complex

My goal in this video is to start giving
us a survey, an overview of the war.

And I won't even be able to cover it all in this video.

It is really just a think about how did things get started.

Or what happened in the lead up?

And to start I am actually going to focus
on Asia and the Pacific.

Which probably doesn't get enough attention
when we look at it from a western point of view

But if we go back even to the early 1900s.

Japan is becoming more and more militaristic.

More and more nationalistic.

In the early 1900s it had already occupied...

It had already occupied Korea as of 1910.

and in 1931 it invades Manchuria.

It invades Manchuria.

So this right over here, this is in 1931.

And it installs a puppet state,
the puppet state of Manchukuo.

And when we call something a puppet state,

it means that there is a government there.

And they kind of pretend to be in charge.

But they're really controlled like
a puppet by someone else.

And in this case it is the Empire of Japan.

And we do remember what is happening in China in the 1930s.

China is embroiled in a civil war.

So there is a civil war going on in China.

And that civil war is between

the Nationalists, the Kuomintang
and the Communists

versus the Communists

The Communists led by Mao Zedong.

The Kuomintang led by general Chiang Kai-shek.

And so they're in the midst of the civil war.

So you can imagine Imperial Japan
is taking advantage of this

to take more and more control
over parts of China

And that continues through the 30s

until we get to 1937.

And in 1937 the Japanese use some pretext

with, you know, kind of a false flag, kind of...

well, I won't go into the depths of what started it

kind of this Marco-Polo Bridge Incident

But it uses that as justifications

to kind of have an all-out war with China

so 1937...you have all-out war

and this is often referred to as
the Second Sino-Japanese War

...Sino-Japanese War

Many historians actually would even consider
this the beginning of World War II.

While, some of them say, ok this is the beginning of the Asian Theater of World War II

of the all-out war between Japan and China,

but it isn't until Germany invades Poland
in 1939 that you truly have

the formal beginning, so to speak,
of World War II.

Regardless of whether you consider this
the formal beginning or not,

the Second Sino-Japanese War,
and it's called the second because

there was another Sino-Japanese War
in the late 1800s

that was called
the First Sino-Japanese War,

this is incredibly, incredibly brutal
and incredibly bloody

a lot of civilians affected

we could do a whole series of videos
just on that

But at this point it does become all-out war

and this causes the civil war
to take a back seat

to fighting off the aggressor
of Japan in 1937.

So that lays a foundation for what's happening
in The Pacific, in the run-up to World War II.

And now let's also remind ourselves
what's happening...

what's happening in Europe.

As we go through the 1930s

Hitler's Germany, the Nazi Party,
is getting more and more militaristic.

So this is Nazi Germany...

Nazi Germany right over here.

They're allied with Benito Mussolini's Italy.

They're both extremely nationalistic;
they both do not like the Communists, at all

You might remember, that in 1938...

1938, you have the Anschluss,
which I'm sure I'm mispronouncing,

and you also have the takeover
of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.

So the Anschluss was the unification with Austria

and then you have the Germans taking over the of Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia

and this is kind of the famous,
you know,

the rest of the, what will be called the Allied Powers

kind of say, "Okay, yeah, okay maybe Hitler's
just going to just do that...

well we don't want to start another war.

We still all remember World War I; it was really horrible.

And so they kind of appease Hitler
and he's able to, kind of, satisfy his aggression.

so in 1938 you have Austria,
Austria and the Sudetenland

...and the Sudetenland...

are taken over,
are taken over by Germany

and then as you go into 1939,
as you go into 1939

in March they're able to take over
all of Czechoslovakia

they're able to take over
all of Czechoslovakia

and once again the Allies are kind of,
they're feeling very uncomfortable,

they kind of, have seen something like this before

they would like to push back, but they still are,

kind of, are not feeling good
about starting another World War

so they're hoping that maybe Germany stops there.

So let me write this down...

So all of Czechoslovakia...

...Czechoslovakia...
is taken over by the Germans.

This is in March of 1939.

And then in August you have the Germans,
and this is really in preparation for,

what you could guess is about to happen,
for the all-out war that's about to happen

the Germans don't want to fight
the Soviets right out the gate,

as we will see, and as you might know,
they do eventually take on the Soviet Union,

but in 1939 they get into a pact with
the Soviet Union.

And so this is, they sign

the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

with the Soviet Union,
this is in August,

which is essentially
mutual non-aggression

"Hey, you know, you do what you need to do,
we know what we need to do."

and they secretly started saying
"Okay were gonna, all the countries out here,

we're going to create these
spheres of influence

where Germany can take, uh,
control of part of it

and the Soviet Union, and Stalin is in charge
of the Soviet Union at this point,

can take over other parts of it.

And then that leads us to the formal start

where in September,
let me write this in a different color...

so September of 1939,
on September 1st, Germany invades Poland

Germany invades Poland on September 1st,

which is generally considered
the beginning of World War II.

and then you have the Great Britain and France declares war on Germany

so let me write this

World War II... starts

everyone is declaring war on each other,
Germany invades Poland,

Great Britain and France
declare war on Germany,

and you have to remember at this point

Stalin isn't so concerned about Hitler
he's just signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

and so in mid-September, Stalin himself invades Poland as well

so they both can kind of carve out...

...their spheres of influence...

so you can definitely sense that things are
not looking good for the world at this point

you already have Asia in the
Second Sino-Japanese War,

incredibly bloody war,

and now you have kind of,

a lot of very similar actors
that you had in World War I

and then they're starting to get into
a fairly extensive engagement.