World War 2 did not begin in 1939 by accident. In this Road to WW2 documentary, Craig and Gaurav trace the causes of World War 2 from the Treaty of Versailles to Hitler's rise, Nazi Germany's rearmament, the Munich Agreement, and the collapse of appeasement across World War II Europe. From the wreckage of the Great War, a broken peace settled over the continent. The Treaty of Versailles left Germany humiliated, Italy restless, and the League of Nations too weak to stop what came next. Mussolini's March on Rome, the Locarno Treaties, the Great Depression, and the Nazi seizure of power turned a fragile recovery into a countdown. This episode follows the chain almost nobody stopped: the secret buildup of the Luftwaffe, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, the Spanish Civil War as a testing ground, the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, the Anschluss with Austria, the Sudetenland crisis, and Neville Chamberlain's deal at Munich. Britain and France were not simply naive. They were buying time. Then Hitler broke the promise, swallowed the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939, signed the Pact of Steel with Mussolini, and forced London and Paris to guarantee Poland. The next episode covers the invasion that finally started the war in Europe. If you enjoy deep World War 2 history with maps, photographs, and primary-source context, subscribe to the Pacific War Channel, check the Kings and Generals podcast, and join as a member for early access to upcoming battles, including Pearl Harbor and the wider WWII series.
