The Second World War started in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. This invasion was the result of a series of events that had happened over a number of years.
The first cause was a disagreement between countries over how to treat people who weren't in their own country. Germany wanted to take over other countries and make them part of Germany, while other countries didn't like that idea and wanted everyone to be independent.
The second cause was the Treaty of Versailles. This was a treaty that was signed in 1919. After World War I, the treaty made Germany take responsibility for starting the war, and it also punished them by making them give up land, pay a lot of money, and limit the size of their military. This made the people of Germany very angry and they wanted revenge.
The third cause was the rise of Adolf Hitler, who was the leader of Germany at the time. He took advantage of the German people's anger, and he encouraged them to try and get revenge on all the other countries.
The fourth cause was a disagreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan. These countries all wanted more power, and so they became allies and planned to conquer other countries.
The fifth cause was the failure of other countries to take action against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Other countries were afraid for their own safety, so they didn't act in time to stop the wars from starting.
All of these things together led to the Second World War, which lasted from 1939 to 1945. During this time, Germany, Italy and Japan tried to take over other countries by invading them. This caused a lot of death and destruction, and led to the creation of the United Nations to help prevent these kinds of things from happening again.