"A Fourteen-Year Second World War?! " Topic

"Strangehistory recently featured the longest European war of the twentieth century, that between Greece and Albania (1940-1987). While looking at this Beach was intrigued, nay amazed by the true duration of the Second World War. In fact, this morning his room has taken on a strange orange sheen. For example, how long was Britain at war with Germany. 1939-1945, of course? Cue, grating sound like that heard on television quiz shows when a wrong answer is proffered. Britain was actually at war with Germany from 1939-1951, when the different sides finally got around to signing a peace treaty. In fact, most of the major Allies including Norway, the US, the fighting Dominions, and the Netherlands continued to be legally at war with Germany until 1951 as well. So the Second World War actually lasted for a dozen years? Well, technically even longer because the Soviet Union took until 1955 to sign a peace treaty with West Germany. That means that Germany and the Soviet Union were at war from 1941 to 1955: fourteen long years!

Why did it take the various powers so long to actually put biro to paper? It was not Germany's fault: or rather it was not either Germanys fault as by this date there were two of them. In fact, Germany/the Germanies had been keen to sign peace treaties with all the powers and end the occupation, or rather turn occupying troops into guardians against the opposing superpowers, and yet it never happened. The bottom line was that the ongoing state of war gave ‘the Allies' by then, of course, fighting like rabid dogs among themselves, a solid legal …"
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Amicalement
Armand

Let's not forget that the opening Japanese invasion that would feed into WWII and not be resolved until 1945 was begun in 1931, and Italy was playing the Game of Empire in Africa in 1935. You could argue that Hitler and the formation of the Axis was what turned it all into "a" World War, but it started well before Austria and Poland.

remember Japan invaded China IN 1931

The chinese were alone against Japan for a very long time

In a sense WW2 started in 1914

And so on back to the original, and highly controversial, creation of the universe.

This is legalistic logic-chopping, but it's still true, because actual fighting was still going on in the Ukraine well into the 1950s.

> And so on back to the original, and highly controversial, creation of the universe.

Nope, before WW1 anything was possible. WW1 is the true turning point from old world to new.