September 1939 exposed the weakness of the great powers: Britain and France formally declared war but refrained from real action. The United States pretended it was “not their war.” At the same time, the Soviet Union was dividing spheres of influence with Hitler.
Yet at that moment the aggressor could still have been stopped relatively easily — and even more so in 1938 or 1936. But instead of decisiveness, the world chose fear and the illusion that a few territorial gifts would pacify Führer. The result was world war that claimed tens of millions of lives.
WW2 didn't end. The allies let the countries that were liberated govern themselves, and the Russians did not.
That wasn't the case for the colonies in Asia. They had to fight the Allies for their independence.
In 1936 the UK for one could not have prosecuted a war - it lack the equipment, industrial supply chain etc. Chamberlain pushing defence spend from under 3% to 9% provided the essential foundation. This went up another 3-fold and only by 1943 did UK industrial production outstrip Germany's.
while Germany had been preparing for war almost since Hitler took office and certainly after he consolidated power.
Much easier with hindsight. I think the horrors of WW1 would have made them try everything before going to war again.
I don't agree that Germany could've been stopped relatively easily, as evidenced by them steamrolling France and trapping the entire British army on a single beach. Added to that, it's likely the soviet Union would've been involved directly on Germany's side if attacked in Poland. It took 6 yrs 1/
To weaken Germany enough for defeat and that included a campaign through North Africa into Europe and an extensive British bombing campaign against German industry. There had also been the world's deadliest war just 2 decades earlier. However none of that is applicable to current Russia.
To be fair, they had just been through an unprecedented world war that had cost millions. I can understand their caution.
To be fair, that experience should have been the exact reason for making absolutely certain not to repeat that history again. Only thing their "caution" (cough cough cowardice) accomplished was making the eventual body count many times greater.
I don't know. They were traumatised and it was all starting again. Chamberlain was rightly criticised, but I think he was motivated by a desire to stop mass death. They didn't want to believe they had to go through it all again.
Granting a genocidal maniac a free ticket to annex whatever foreign land he wants is hardly an effective method to prevent mass death. Which is a lesson the world is soon going to learn (all over again) this time with Putin. Unless he gets stopped soon.
That's with hindsight. I don't think they quite understood Hitler or his mindset. They thought him a fool and largely harmless.
You are probably right but I refuse to take that as an excuse, because history shows that many other contemporaries assessed Hitler exactly for what he turned out to be. The world was warned. Everything that happened was preventable. As it is now. But many world leaders today might be even dumber. 🫤
Trump has that same dangerous fool vibe.
Trump is a trigger happy simpleton, problem is he doesn't have a finger on a gun but on a nuclear arsenal. For all those claims of being anti-war that got him elected (among many other stupid and all too transparent lies) this one is the most obvious deception. I see him as a warmonger.
The exact same thing is happening again. For ruSSia WW2 never ended. Now when they don't have the Nazis to ally themselves with, it should be easy to defeat them. Still Europe does nothing while putin and his war criminals keep destroying the planet. It's pathetic. Europe needs to step up.
‘Refrained from real action’ I can’t agree with you there.