When did WW2 start?

Was watching QI last night (old episode) and this question came up...of course one said 1939 and got the wrong answer siren! They went on to explain that that's a very Anglo/Franco view of the war...the answer was 1937 or even 1935.

 

As I keep saying, that tends to be an American viewpoint. I've even seen 1931 in Manchuria touted as the "start date".
Expected better from Stephen Fry though.

 

Conversely, it is very Sin-Japanese-centric to say that their regional war was the "start" of World War II. It could as easily be said that the German invasion of Poland elevated it to being an actual global war, which the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in the Pacific confirmed it as.

 

I am a bit of a traditionalist and go with 11.00 am following the "final note", although it did not evolve fully into a "World War" until after December 7th 41.

 

Nah....'36. The Spanish civil war was in full swing, with international representatives all playing proxy war; the Italians were waging war in Africa; the Chinese and Japanese were still in conflict (since '31); Russia and Japan were skirmishing, and Herr Hitler was actively planning for a European war. The world was at war, the dots just hadn't been fully connected.

 

Not sure how this show can call one answer wrong when they give two possible answers themselves!

1937 is a good answer though - the first members of what would become the Allies and Axis were at war and remained so through 1945.

However the war which started September 1, 1939 was completely separate from the Sino-Japanese conflict. No party in either war was involved in the other. Even the Tripartite Pact would not exist for another year, and when it was enacted, it did not bring Japan into the European war.

If the war which started in China in 1937 was World War II, none of the European nations or the British Empire were involved in WWII until Dec 8 local time, 1941.

 

Hey, hey, hey!

Remember the USS Panay!




Intentionally sunk by the Japanese. Was the Army looking to start a conflict with the US? Just trying to drive the Imperialists out of China, maybe? But an act of war which the US and Japanese governments side-stepped in 1937.

 

I loathe that term.
European civil war , what nonsense.

 

Civil war definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
A civil war is a war which is fought between different groups of people who live in the same country.

There was no country called "Europe" therefore there never was a European Civil War.
The EU wasn't formed until 1993 & there haven't been any wars between member states.


Oh btw OP.
See your own comment on WW2T in 2013.
European Civil War

'The "civil war" idea is absurd. Special definitions allow anything to be anything else. But they're just a stunt, not history.'

 

....IMO, the World was not and could not be affected by the Asian problems .....but when you get Russia, Germany, England, France --the US-involved, that '''could'' affect the World in a much greater [ '''Worldy''' ] way.....so, the World war started with the European/etc incidents

 

Well...World War I Part 2 just does not have that special ring.

 

Let's hope we avoid that......