In the lesson, you learned about historical developments before and during World War II. Based on that information, write a 150 - to 200-word essay on the factors that account for Germany's early success in the war.

Germany was preparing itself for the war years before the rest of the European countries, this is because when Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, he had a clear ideological vision of invading Eastern Europe in order to:

Exterminate the local populations, especially the Slavic People (Poles, Russians, Ukranians) who he deem to be inferior. Make room for the German population to move, in order to expand the German living space (lebensraum), because Hitler considered that Germany was overcrowded.

During his rule, Hitler rebuilt the German military power, and when he invaded Poland in 1939, he had a very large army and powerful military equipment at his disposal.

His early war strategy also paid off: he decided to implement a quick, powerful invasions of neighboring countries Poland, Belgium and France known as Blitzkrieg (German for "lighting war). The neighboring countries were unprepared, got overwhelmed, and quickly surrendered. For over a year, Britain was the only remaning adversary to Nazi Germany, and was only able to resist because it is an Island.