World War II The Great War - 1083 Words

World War II The devastation left by the Great War (aka World War 1) had greatly destabilized Europe, and in many aspects World War II grew out of issues left unresolved by the conflicts of WW1. In particular, political and economic instability in Germany left by the harsh punishments and terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty, fueled the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. In the years between the first and second world wars there was a time of great instability with a world wide depression. It was also a time when Germany, Italy and Japan developed intense nationalist feelings that led to a desire to expand. Germany in Northern and Eastern Europe, Italy in Africa and Greece, and Japan in Asia and the South†¦show more content†¦This even struck off the beginning of World War II. Britain and France both declared war on Germany in support of Poland, but they were slow to take any effective actions to prevent the invasion. The French military and government expec ted Poland would hold out till spring, this would allow France time to mobilize troops. But according to History.net, Germany demonstrated the effectiveness of combined arms warfare, in which infantry, armor, artillery and aircraft work in coordination. This type of war required rapid communication; in preparation, the Germans had developed radios small enough that every vehicle could be equipped with one. Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east on September 17th. Under attack from both sides, Poland fell quickly, and soon Germany and the Soviet Union had divided control over Poland, because of the secret protocol appended to the Nonaggression Pact. Stalin’s forces then moved on to take over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. During the next six months, the lack of action by Germany and the Allies led to talk of a â€Å"phony war.† But at sea the British and German navies fought fiercely. Germany had a great advantage over Britain. The use of U-boats devastated the Brit ish navy. Blitzkrieg was a new style of war brought into World War II by Germany. Blitzkrieg meant lightning war, the Germans actually used the term blitzkrieg to refer to a war of short duration, but it came to refer to combined-arms tactics of rapid