Background

The signing of the Treaty of Versailles ended World War I, but laid the foundations
for the start of World War II. At the end of World War I (June 28, 1919), the Allies including France, Britain, the U.S., and Italy - created a contract called the Treaty of
Versailles that outlined the Central Powers' punishments for starting the war. The
harshest penalties were for Germany (the most powerful country of the Central
Powers), including paying 6,600 million British pounds, giving up some of its land
for several years, agreeing to never merge with Austria, and limiting its military
tremendously. The German people disliked these new rules, but as the losers of the
war, they could not protest.
Hitler's Rise to Power
Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, which described his struggle for power and outlined
his philosophy, policies and beliefs. Things soon got worse for the Germans,
and for the rest of the world as well, when the stock market crash in October of
1929 signaled the start of the Great Depression. The crash brought on
unemployment, poverty and despair throughout Germany. And in these times
of trouble, a man named Adolf Hitler was becoming increasingly powerful. He
had already become head of the NSDAP (a.k.a. the Nazi Party), had tried
without success to take over the government (later known as the Beer Hall
Putsch), and had written a book called "Mein Kampf" in prison. Then, in 1933,
Adolf Hitler, by promising the people revenge for the Treaty of Versailles, was elected the German Chancellor.
Later, he used a law in the German Constitution (Article 48, the Enabling Act) to appoint himself Fuhrer of
Germany.

Aggression and Appeasement

Hitler built up Germany's army to an incredible strength. Soon, he believed they
were ready to re-arm the Rhineland. All of these actions were strictly forbidden in
the Treaty of Versailles. Once he became Fuhrer, Hitler withdrew from the League
of Nations, an organization created by the Treaty of Versailles to keep peace in
Europe, and began to rebuild Germany's military, which was strictly against the
Treaty of Versailles. Soon, Hitler decided to station soldiers in the Rhineland, an
area that had been demilitarized. After re-arming the Rhineland, Hitler set his
sights on combining Germany with Austria. By this time, Neville Chamberlain, the
British Prime Minister, had become worried about Hitler's increasing
aggressiveness, but hesitated to do anything because he feared Hitler might try to
invade Britain.

When he returned to Britain after the Munich Conference, Chamberlain said he

believed that he and his country might now have "peace in our time."
The final example of Chamberlain's weakness came when Hitler announced that he
wanted a part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. His reasoning was that the
people in the Sudetenland spoke German and were of German origin; therefore they
should be part of Germany. To negotiate an agreement, Chamberlain, Hitler, Benito
Mussolini (the Italian dictator), and Edouard Daladier (a representative from France)
all met in Munich. At the Munich Conference, they decided that Hitler could have
Czechoslovakia if he promised not to invade any more countries. However, as soon as
Hitler occupied the Sudetenland, he proceeded to take over the whole of
Czechoslovakia! When Chamberlain realized what had happened, he agreed to protect
Poland. Because a large number of Jews lived in Poland, and Hitler hated Jews and
wanted to exterminate them, Poland was a likely target for Hitler's next attack.

The Final Steps to the War

In this cartoon, Germany is represented by the wolf and Russia is the bear.
Both of them have teamed up and agreed to split "Poland", represented by
Goldilocks. Surprisingly, though Britain guaranteed Poland protection, the
Soviet Union, led by Stalin, signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939. In this
agreement, the Soviet Union and Germany publically promised not to attack
each other, and secretly promised to split up Poland between themselves. So,
after ensuring that the Soviet Union, the closest country to Poland, would not
attack, Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Two days later, France
and the British Empire (including Australia and New Zealand) declared war on
Germany. World War II had begun.