Poll: When did WW2 begin?

[Best of the 3]

When Hitler wasn't accepted into art school.

 

[mad825]

When Poland was invaded.

Germany broke the treaty of versaille and thus the allies and Axis were at it again. Okay, Germany had violated the treaty many times within that year but it was Poland to call help from the English and French.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

tOMmorrow.
TIME OC[S AWAU!!!!!!
Seery bad spelling.
*TIME COPS AWAAAAY!!!
Anyway, I alswAYS though it was 1938/1939
Can;t quite rememeer it. Britsh by the way,

 

[JoJo]

Well I could be an utter asshat and say it started in 1918 with the treaty of Versailles, but instead I'll say that the British declaration of war was when it became a global conflict (due to British colonies getting involved).

I could also be a pedantic asshat and point out that the treaty of Versailles was actually signed in 1919 ;-)

OT: I'd say September 1939 since before that it was only conflicts that were regional and didn't involve two major powers fighting each other, China for example was an absolute mess at the time of it's war with Japan and couldn't even keep control of all the territory it's own borders, let alone anywhere-else. Abyssinia too was hardly going to rock the world. Britain, France and Germany on the other hand were all significant powers, two of which had large world-spanning empires, hence what upgraded the conflict to a World War.

 

[Frission]

Well if we're really going to be technical, WW2 started the moment Germany lost WW1 and The Treaty of Versailles was signed, which didn't leave anyone really happy, it basically just guaranteed bad blood would linger, even among allies.

But yea, that's just semantics. WW2 Started September, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland, which was what really put the "world" into world war 2.

EDIT: I really have this bad habit of opening a thread in a tab, forgetting about it, then coming back 20 minutes later without refreshing to see what everyone else has posted. Really ought to cut down on how often I'm ninja'd.

I don't know, if we're going to go with the long term view, then it was the fault of Bismarck. I we take the even longer term view, then it's when the Frankish, Anglo Saxon and Ostrogoth settled in.

 

[lacktheknack]

I think that September 1st, 1939 was the exact day it went from "Assorted Wars" to "World War".

I mean, if we're going to count the smaller wars leading up to it, we may as go back to the first war ever, whatever that was.

 

[Grey_Focks]

I don't know, if we're going to go with the long term view, then it was the fault of Bismarck. I we take the even longer term view, then it's when the Frankish, Anglo Saxon and Ostrogoth settled in.

Was actually kinda my point, if we just keep going back, we would find a cause for every other cause that leads to WW2, basically stemming from the dawn of man.

 

[LetalisK]

I'm going to be 'that guy' and say that 'WWII' is a misnomer... the first 'world war' was the Seven Years' War (which lasted nine years... -_- 1754-1763).

The REAL first world war was more impressive anyway, what with being able to wage it on such a scale with such relatively inferior technology. Yeah, I knew world wars back when they weren't so popular. *self-satisfied snort*

Joking aside, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way. Of course, here in America, we know it as the French and Indian War. And it was only here.

 

[Giftfromme]

I would yell at whoever voted 1941 for being ethnocentric, but then again I voted 1939, completely ignoring the Chinese, the Ethiopians and the Polish.

x2

I actually would like to know who voted 1941 so I could consider adding them to the ignore list.
Officially it was 1939 and that's what I stick up to, but I don't deny it could have been before. Still mostly were conflicts between two or three countries and not global like after 39.

It was me that voted 1941! Gonna add me to your list now?

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

If you really want to take diplomacy into the mix, you'll make your life hard and rather incompatible with textbooks on the subject.

My personal opinion? WWII was a logical consequence of WWI and what happened directly 'after' it. Hitler and his merry murderous folks and their rise to power is pretty much the product of how outside forces tried to tip the scale of power, influence and territory in their favour. Sadly enough, the very same thing happened right after WWII, only even worse.

The Sino-Japanese conflict was thrown into the mix, but it's been an age old story of very little sympathy and plenty of hatred. That it ended up being part of WWII was on one hand coincidence and bad timing, on the other hand yet again an attempt to tip the scale. A lot of the borders and regions of conflict that bother 'us', as in mankind in general, are little reported byproducts of WWII.

We don't seem to be neither willing nor able to just get along.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

When Hitler wasn't accepted into art school.

I would have preferred another bad artist to what Hitler became.

OT: I stick with the 1939 start date although September 1940 was when Japan formally entered an alliance with the Axis powers in Europe, therefore creating a global combined effort.

 

[health-bar]

no no, world war 2 started in 476 AD with the fall of the roman empire. that was the original event that caused the devolution of unified cities to eventually form a divided europe due to the loss of complex interaction. This loss of unification would cause the severe animosity between the European nations and cause world war 2.

 

[Cazza]

Precursor to war isn't war.

World War 2 started when Britain and France declared war on Germany. Quickly after that there allies joined the war turning war into a world war.

 

[GonvilleBromhead]

I would go for 1939, myself. This was when a series of regional conflicts became global - all inhabited continents had nations involved at this point (largely on account of the British Empire). On could argue 1941 as that was when conflict was occuring or had occured on every continent.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I've always been taught it was the 3rd of September, when major powers became at war, not just Germany and much smaller nations.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

It begins when I say it begins!

 

[Dimitriov]

It's 1939. It's actually pretty simple to choose that date. Remember the question is when did the WAR start (not when did the factors leading to the war start... because you could argue that all the way back to the bronze age), so you have to go by declarations of war.

Here's the world at war in '39:

Before that the areas actually at war were minuscule, and at this point it is clearly what could be called a global conflict. The US joining was just the icing on the cake.

I credit Britain and her colonies for filling in the map so nicely

 

[Slitzkin]

When Hitler wasn't accepted into art school.

When Henry Tandey spared Hitler's life in WWI. Only hindsight can make such a noble action cruel.
http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/tandey.htm

 

[TheIronRuler]

I would yell at whoever voted 1941 for being ethnocentric, but then again I voted 1939, completely ignoring the Chinese, the Ethiopians and the Polish.

.
I voted for 1937 (Marco-Polo bridge incident), but I added the 1941 dates because some of my American friends told me that the world war started a day after Pearl Harbor.

 

[TheIronRuler]

It's 1939. It's actually pretty simple to choose that date. Remember the question is when did the WAR start (not when did the factors leading to the war start... because you could argue that all the way back to the bronze age), so you have to go by declarations of war.

Here's the world at war in '39:

Before that the areas actually at war were minuscule, and at this point it is clearly what could be called a global conflict. The US joining was just the icing on the cake.

I credit Britain and her colonies for filling in the map so nicely

.
Well, France had some lovely African and Asian colonies to add to the blue font.
.

Precursor to war isn't war.

World War 2 started when Britain and France declared war on Germany. Quickly after that there allies joined the war turning war into a world war.

.
I voted 1937... Then again you can argue that it wasn't a world war till the USA went into action, since Canada was... Canada.