By Augst of 1940 the US and All of North america are at war with Europe

By Augst of 1940 the US and All of North america are at war with Europe and by Dec 1941 the Are at War with Japan and the rest of Aisia and the British empire . South America joins North America in this war .
How did this happen and how would this war end up .
 
Depends on the UK, really. And whether you consider the UK "Europe." I can vaguely see the US and an Imperial Germany with interests in South America coming to blows, and the rest of South America falling in, but for it to be against all of Europe (and not a total cakewalk for Europe), a number of things have to go wrong on both sides.

Some possibilities...

Financial crisis in Britain which sees cuts in the RN, with ships sold off to the US and others? That would weaken Europe's navy enough that a naval fight with the US could be on more even grounds. (The US could conceivably faced off the UK in a naval arms race with some PODs, but not so sure of Britain AND all the navies of Europe, unless some of those navies follow governments in exile.)

A more "total" victory for either side in WW1, so that come 1940 the winners can force the losers to fight alongside them, or be occupied and then see their resources used in the war.
 

MrP

Banned
Depends on the UK, really. And whether you consider the UK "Europe." I can vaguely see the US and an Imperial Germany with interests in South America coming to blows, and the rest of South America falling in, but for it to be against all of Europe (and not a total cakewalk for Europe), a number of things have to go wrong on both sides.

Some possibilities...

Financial crisis in Britain which sees cuts in the RN, with ships sold off to the US and others? That would weaken Europe's navy enough that a naval fight with the US could be on more even grounds. (The US could conceivably faced off the UK in a naval arms race with some PODs, but not so sure of Britain AND all the navies of Europe, unless some of those navies follow governments in exile.)

A more "total" victory for either side in WW1, so that come 1940 the winners can force the losers to fight alongside them, or be occupied and then see their resources used in the war.

If we had something like WWI, Europe's navies could weaken themselves in the fighting and will be less financially able to maintain a high level of effectiveness. Have a subsequent Depression like OTL and nobody can afford many new ships. So construction stagnates. Then you'd probably see comparable fleets. Quite how to get Germany, France, Britain, her Empire, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Japan all on the same side . . . I'm not even going to think about how difficult that'd be. As an aside, the USN could foresightedly replace her WWI-era ships (or not build as many), so her ships would be of higher modern quality (and thus speed) as opposed to stuff like the British R-class, which is too slow for almost everything by WWII.

IOTL the Washington Conference set ratios of RN:USN:IJN at 5:5:3. I think Italy and France were at 1.75. So that'd be 5:11.5 if the WT (or something broadly the same) exists ITTL and if it's followed scrupulously.
 
Well, there was no rule that Japan and the Europeans have to be allied. If European countries have to defend their colonies against rogue Japan as well as the US, that is going to eat up more manpower. (Got to defend Europe, Africa, East Asia, while also trying to fight the Americas.)
 

MrP

Banned
Well, there was no rule that Japan and the Europeans have to be allied. If European countries have to defend their colonies against rogue Japan as well as the US, that is going to eat up more manpower. (Got to defend Europe, Africa, East Asia, while also trying to fight the Americas.)

True, there could be a three-way war. I was probably being a bit boringly OTL in my thinking! :D
 
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