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2007-04-08 08:13:15 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities History

4 answers

The axis tried to take over most of the world and the allies were in the way.

2007-04-08 08:21:13 · answer #1 · answered by Lionheart ® 7 · 1 0

Because the system of alliances held so dearly at the time meant you were only as strong as your allies, and the countries Germany sought to invade allied themselves with the Allies (France, Great Britain and the U.S.S.R.). The Axis powers didn't overtly provoke the Allies. In 1938 Germany annexed Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia (the Czech lands in Czechoslovakia) following its Anschluss (union) of Austria. The Allies were angered but the Munich Agreement of 1938 between Great Britain and Germany agreed to the disunion of Czechoslovakia to appease Hitler's desire for cultural union with the large number of German speakers living in that country. Germany next sought to annex Poland, one third of which was an integral part of Germany only twenty years before (German East Prussia and Pomerania are present day western Poland). Britain offered a guarentee to Poland that it would not give in to Hitler's demands for Polish lands as it had with Czechoslovakia. Hitler invaded Poland with a promise from the U.S.S.R. that it wouldn't honor its partnership with Britain. (Stalin actually co-invaded Poland from the East). Britain declared war on Germany, France supported Great Britain, Italy honored its commitment to the Axis, as did Japan. In this way, the Axis and Allied powers were pulled into a second world war.

2007-04-08 08:54:31 · answer #2 · answered by NYisontop 4 · 1 0

Uh, well, because they declared war against them. Hitler was up for a land grab of anything in Europe and the Allies were against that. Germany already ran through Czechoslovakia, Poland, and France (tried to go through Russia but made the same mistake as Napoleon did; that's another story altogether).

The Brits did an excellent job of holding off the Germans, keeping their record of being successfully uninvaded since 1066 (google "Battle of Britain" for more info). In fact, that should be England's motto: "Keeping Britain safe since 1066."

2007-04-08 08:28:18 · answer #3 · answered by chrstnwrtr 7 · 0 0

To answer that question you have to go back a little farther...to about World War I:

The early 1900s was around the time when the general philosophy among governments was: war is inevitable, survival of the fittest, etc. etc. So, to meet this philosophy, every country (especially in Western Europe) started to heavily ally with one another. Eventually, it got to the point where there were two major alliances: The Allies and the Central Powers (or Triple Entente). The Central Powers referred to mainly Germany, Austria-Hungry, and the Ottoman Empire, and the Axis referred to pretty much everyone else in Europe (mainly France, Britain and Russia - although they joined late and dropped out early). These treaties pretty much made it so that if any one country went to war, every other country in the alliance would have to join the fight as well. Anyway, once a relatively minor international event happened (Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, was assassinated in Serbia by a secret Bosnian liberation group called the Black Hand) the dominoes began to fall. Austria called for the unconditional surrender of Serbia to Austria, and when Serbia refused, a war between two countries became a war that spread over three continents.

So, fast forward 25 years, and you have a world scared by the death of millions of people because of an ideology that said war was necessary. Governments around the world, after WWI, became extremely timid at the idea of ever fighting a war again. So, when Hitler started to come to power in the mid 1930s (which happened because of World War I, but is not really relevant to answering this question), this "avoid war at all costs" mindset was in full swing. By the time Hitler gained enough control over Germany and he started to flex Germany's military muscle once again, instead of enforcing the treaty written after WWI, France and England started giving into his demands. So, after Hitler went too far with his demands and war became unavoidable, that is when all the Allies started to reform their alliances.

(Interesting side note: The United States was on the fence for a long time during both wars when it came to choosing who to side with. In WWI, we had diplomatic treaties with France and England, but we had economic treaties with Germany. It was only until Germany started attacking the US's Atlantic freighter ships (we were suppling both sides at the time, but Germany attacked the ships because they found greater benefit from none receiving supplies than both receiving supplies). Ultimately, that is what brought the US into WWI, not so much political ideology or loyalty - it mostly had to do with money. In WWII, as America still conducted trades with both sides of the war, although convertly this time, the isolationist ideal was on America's polical agenda, and until the Japanese attacked us, the debate of going to war was leaning more towards a "no" than a "yes". )

2007-04-08 08:45:59 · answer #4 · answered by Paul K 2 · 1 0

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