The Largest War There Ever Was - Prelude

   June 28, 1919. The Treaty of Versailles has just been signed, following four years of the bloodiest fighting that Europe has ever seen. The mighty German Empire, which managed to destroy the Russian armies in the East and push back French and British armies to the outskirts of Paris, has been dismantled, with its colonies transferred to British or French control and large chunks of its land given to Poland, France, and Denmark. The Hapsburg-ruled Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had ruled over huge swaths of Eastern and Southern Europe, has collapsed. Similarly, the once grand Ottoman Empire has imploded in the face of Arab revolts and external pressure. The Russian Empire self-destructed in spectacular fashion, and following a five year long civil war, the Romanov dynasty had been replaced by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
   On the victors side, Italy found herself intensely dissatisfied. England and France had promised Italy control of the Adriatic coast, but had not delivered. France was exhausted from the four years of bloody fighting on her soil, while England was massively overstretched, at this point controlling the largest Empire the world would ever know. America, disgusted by the huge and costly intervention into European politics, withdrew into an isolationist phase, abandoning the proposed liberal order (the League of Nations) which President Woodrow Wilson once dreamed of. Japan was hungry for more expansion, with neighboring China in chaos. This deadly brew would lead to an even more horrific war - World War II.
   Benito Mussolini served as an infantryman in World War I. Originally a socialist, he supported the Italian intervention in the war (much to the disgust of his leftist brethren) and was expelled from the Italian socialist movement. Undeterred, he founded the fascist party upon his return from war, and his movement rapidly gained popularity. Fascism was the perfect movement for the time - it combined revolutionary action with traditional ideals, and it trampled on the liberal democratic state that was blamed for Italy's weakness during the war. Mussolini's Doctrine of Fascism provides the best explanation of the Fascist doctrine, but to summarize the ideology in a single quote, Fascism can be defined as "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state". The promise of a powerful, militaristic, and mighty state, ruled by one man, resonated with the Italian people. In October of 1922, his Fascist party staged the March on Rome, a successful coup that allowed Mussolini to gain power in Italy.
    In the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, who successfully spearheaded the Bolshevik takeover in Russia, was dead. Lenin had explicitly attempted to warn the Communist Party about Joseph Stalin, who had gradually been accumulating power since 1917, but Stalin managed to deceive the Communist Party and spin the note in his favor. By 1927, Stalin had become the unquestioned leader of the Soviet Union. Purges of political rivals soon followed - during his long rule, Stalin had reportedly personally signed off on the executions of tens of thousands. Paranoid about a potential uprising in the Ukraine, Stalin also instigated a man-made famine, killing around five million. However, Stalin's rule also brought rapid industrialization to the Soviet Union. Government-built industrial cities and Five-year plans resulted in Soviet industrial output skyrocketing, though this did not benefit the average Soviet citizen - heavy industry was to be prioritized over the production of consumer goods.
   Germany, however, was to be the epicenter of it all. A young corporal named Adolf Hitler had just returned from the battlefields of the First World War, and he was deeply angered at the Jews and Socialists for "backstabbing" Germany in 1918, during its last-ditch offensive into France. He also blamed the social democrats for accepting the "rape of Germany" brought upon by the Versailles Treaty, which included massive war reparations that led to hyperinflation. These ideas brought him to join the German Workers Party, which would eventually evolve into the Hitler-led National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party. Hitler's rhetoric struck a chord with the German people, and in 1923, Hitler attempted to stage a coup, but it ended in disaster, with his forces being arrested by the police. Hitler was imprisoned for nine months, and during his time in prison, he dictated his now infamous manifesto, "Mein Kampf", to his secretary, Rudolf Hess. During his trial, Hitler also garnered even more press coverage, using his time at the court in order to give tirades about the Jews and Communists rather than testify towards his own defense. Nevertheless, this publicity stunt did not initially give the Nazi party success. Upon Hitler's return in 1924, the Nazis garnered 3% of the vote, and in 1928, they garnered 2.6%. However, in 1930, the storm of the Great Depression slammed Germany, and the economy began to disintegrate. Hitler, once again, blamed Jews and Communists, and promised to give jobs to the German people. This strategy worked, and in 1932, the Nazis became the largest political party in the Reichstag. Following more political maneuvering and downright brutal tactics, the Nazis brought Germany under single-party, totalitarian rule, with Adolf Hitler as the strongman at the top.
   World War II is often said to have broken out on September 1, 1939, but there was certainly conflict before this date. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia, and the technological disparity was simply too great - the Italians had tanks and mustard gas, whereas some Ethiopian units still carried bows and spears. Ethiopia would fall in June of 1936. In 1936, civil war would break out in Spain, with a scattered coalition of leftists fighting against a nationalist insurgency. The nationalists, led by General Fransisco Franco, would eventually win out, in large thanks to German and Italian aid. In 1937, the Japanese invaded China, kicking off a brutal war which would last until 1945. Germany was not sitting idle, either. In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria, as part of the Nazi agenda to unite all Germanic peoples. Later that year, Hitler would demand the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, a German speaking region that Hitler claimed had been "oppressed" by the Czech government. Neville Chamberlain (the British Prime Minister), desperate to avoid war with Hitler, signed the Munich Pact in September of 1938, which effectively gave Hitler permission to invade the Sudetenland. Hitler annexed the Sudetenland the next day, while Chamberlain went home to England and proclaimed that he had achieved "Peace in Our Time". Later, in March of 1939, Hitler annexed the whole of Czechoslovakia. Mussolini, not to be outdone, annexed Albania in April of 1939. In a few strokes, Hitler had already dramatically increased the size of Germany, while Mussolini had added two colonies to the Italian Empire. Japanese forces were rampaging through China, and America was still stuck in an isolationist mindset. France and England, weary of another war, were too lethargic to take on Germany.
    This combination could not end well. The Pact of Steel would be formed in 1939, and Japan would later join in 1940, forming the Axis powers. France and Britain would both sign defense pacts with Poland in 1939, in order to stave off a potential German attack. Stalin, paranoid of all sides involved (but especially afraid of Hitler) signed a pact with Germany, which included a non-aggression guarantee as well as plans for the partition of Eastern Europe. This pact was an attempt to stave off German attack, and there is an ongoing debate as to whether Stalin planned on preemptively striking at Hitler while Hitler's forces were concentrated in the West. Regardless, both the Soviets and the Germans knew that the peace could not last - Hitler's anti-Slavic, anti-Communist beliefs made the Soviet Union his first target. France, meanwhile, had not adopted her military tactics since World War I - which would prove to be disastrous in 1940. The evening of August 31, 1939 would mark the end of a period marked by tension, and the dawn of September 1, 1939 would mark the beginning of a six-year long explosion which would kill 60 million people.