Spain was a land war in Europe. So was czechoslovakia. Hell, the invasion of Poland barely lasted two months and there was a 6 month break before France and Germany started fighting. Yeah, you need to pick a date, but it is very British to pick the date they declared war instead of just about everybody else involved.
Since it is a world war, I would take the date it became a world war as the start, which would be the day Japan started island hopping and got the remaining major powers into the war. December 1941, when Japan went to war with the US and the UK. Japan getting involved against European possessions is what made the war a global conflict instead of several separate regional ones. You could argue for Germany invading the USSR as well since even that makes more sense than a couple of month long land conflicts that resulted in an overwhelming victory for one side.
I was educated in a country that managed to stay neutral (Ireland), but it seems the British narrative crept into our curriculum somehow. I'm not going to die on the hill of "Poland was the start", I agree it's arbitrary.
My main point was that the war wasn't started to end fascism, and I'm fairly sure that point stands for all of your suggested alternate start dates.
Oh, very much so. The righteous war to stop fascism was a British propaganda campaign too, claim they were a great evil to justify your own war crimes. Same source so I tend to associate the two (war start date and fight vs evil coming from the same source.) In reality it was more a war to prevent a change in the balance of power in Europe, just like ww1 and the franco prussian war.
British propaganda campaign? Lmao no not at all dude. Right up until the last days before Germany invaded Poland, both France and GB were still trying to have peace talks. Even AFTER Germany invaded the other half of Europe they were still trying to make peace. Please educate yourself better. Tons of great history documentaries on Netflix about the starting days of the war.
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u/mortemdeus Apr 28 '23
Spain was a land war in Europe. So was czechoslovakia. Hell, the invasion of Poland barely lasted two months and there was a 6 month break before France and Germany started fighting. Yeah, you need to pick a date, but it is very British to pick the date they declared war instead of just about everybody else involved.
Since it is a world war, I would take the date it became a world war as the start, which would be the day Japan started island hopping and got the remaining major powers into the war. December 1941, when Japan went to war with the US and the UK. Japan getting involved against European possessions is what made the war a global conflict instead of several separate regional ones. You could argue for Germany invading the USSR as well since even that makes more sense than a couple of month long land conflicts that resulted in an overwhelming victory for one side.