1939

1939 was marked by escalating aggression in Europe and Asia and the start of a global conflict that would become World War II. In Central Europe, Germany extended its control over the Czech lands, dissolving Czechoslovakia in March and establishing the Slovak Republic as a German puppet state. Later that year, the Axis powers expanded their alliance when Italy joined Germany under the Pact of Steel, signed on May 22. In August, Germany and the Soviet Union concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a nonaggression treaty that included secret protocols for dividing Eastern Europe.

The invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, by Germany triggered the outbreak of World War II, with Britain and France declaring war on Germany on September 3. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on September 17, following the pact with Germany. These events effectively began the European phase of World War II and redrew national borders in the region.

In Spain, the civil war ended in 1939 with the victory of Franco's Nationalists, leading to a long period of authoritarian rule. In Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese War continued, contributing to the broader regional tensions that would intersect with global conflict.

Culturally, 1939 saw the New York World’s Fair, a prominent international event. Late in the year, the Winter War began when the Soviet Union invaded Finland on November 30, 1939, a conflict that would extend into 1940.

1939 thus established the geopolitical landscape of the early World War II era, with a rapidly shifting balance of power and renewed global conflict.