Pre-War
Once World War 1 ended, the German economy was really bad. During these times Adolf Hitler came into power in Germany. He was a great speaker and since he was, the Germans thought he was their only hope. They believed that he would save them from poverty. Hitler demanded more living space for the Germans. That had meant war.
Start of War
Hitler had one ally from Italy. His name was Benito Mussolini. He was the leader of Italy. These two men had their armies invade Ethiopia first. This was totally unexpected when this happened. Once this happened they easily made their way through taking Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and France. His first real challenge was Britain. They fought back and had held them off.
U.S and Canadian Involvement
Meanwhile, Japan, who had signed a pact with Germany and Italy bombed Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The U.S (with Canada) then declared war on Japan. They joined just in time because Germany had attacked Britain again and Britain needed help. When the U.S started to help Britain Hitler retreated again. Instead they invaded Greece and Yugoslavia. Once that was done the big part of the war had started. Germany had then started to fight against Russia. Russia army, "The Red Army" was very powerful. U.S and Britain helped by sending Russia supplies. Germans were starving and freezing in the cold winter. Hitler refused to stop fighting. Americans worked hard at freeing France, Denmark and Belgium while The Red Army invaded Germany while the U.S freed the other countries. Italy then wanted to make peace, but that made Hitler mad and he invaded Italy. Once the countries were free, the Americans helped The Red Army in Germany. This is when they had found the concentration camps. In these camps, the Germans were killing Jews. They had killed over 6 million Jews with poison gas.
Success
Hitler had decided he would not let the allies capture him, so he shot himself. The war wasn't over yet though. Americans were still at war with Japan. It had ended with the Americans dropping an atomic bomb on Japan. At last there was peace. The process of rebuilding was slow, expensive and painful.
LEST WE FORGET!