ABSTRACT
It is possible to argue that the war that broke out in 1939 was not simply a limited European war but a world war. The French and British Empires rallied to support the home countries. Economic warfare was carried on against Germany across the world. The entry of Italy into the war in the summer of 1940 spread the physical area of conflict to Africa and the Middle East. Yet until 1941 the war was essentially about the domination of the European continent by the European great powers. Not until Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the Japanese attacked the United States in December of the same year did the war assume world proportions and become, as Hitler had perhaps always intended, a real contest for world power.
