The reasons why between 1937 to 1939 many European nations became involved in conflict and how this conflict spread quickly into war mby 1941.

During the period 1937 to 1939 many European nations became involved in war. This was because of many reasons, namely: The Failure of the Munich Agreement, the policy of Lebensraum, the Invasion of Poland & the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression. This European conflict in 1939 spread quickly into a World War by 1941. Reasons for this are America’s plan of Isolationism, The Italian Campaigns, the attack on Pearl Harbour & Operation Barbarrosa.

By 1938 Hitler had decided to begin his plan to add living space (Lebensraum) to Germany. His first target was Austria, as he himself was of Austrian birth & 96% of Austria was German speaking. This plan to amalgamate with Austria was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler non the less, did not care. He began his plan by first ordering Austrian Nazis to bomb public buildings & stage mass parades in order to stir up disunity. Hitler then summoned the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg to Germany. Here he ranted, raved and blatantly threatened him. Schuschnigg became worried and ordered a plebiscite to be held in order to let the Austrians decide whether they wanted to remain independent or join with Germany. Hitler was furious at this move & ordered invasion plans to be drawn up, forced the aban

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By now, Hitler’s aims had changed & he looked now further East towards Russia. Americans realised that if Western Europe fell to Hitler, then the USA might be next. These conflicts in Europe however, had turned the World into a place of all-out war by 1941. Later in August Nazi Germany & Communist Russia suprisingly signed a non-aggression pact. Under this policy the USA avoided commitments to other powers wherever possible. It was code named “Operation Barbarrosa. From here on they took a more harsh line in their dealings with him. Two days later Austria was made a province of Germany. In order to distract Poland, he made several speeches designed to reassure Poland that Germany regarded her as a friend.

During these times between 1937 and 1941 many steps in foreign policy were taken & opinion was greatly changed. It froze fuel, immobilised equipment & killed many German troops who only came with summer uniforms. So on the 31st of March 1939 they pledged their support to Poland. In June 1940 Mussolini had declared war but defeats in Greece & Libya. The next day America declared war on Japan; three days later Germany & Italy declared war on America.

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