Alright. So Hitler's Germany was VERY successful in its conquests before and early in WWll for this one reason: no one stopped him. Hitler was elected the supreme chancellor of Germany because he promised his people to get them out of the depression that was facing Germany since WWl. In the Treaty of Versailles, which was the end of WWl, it stated that Germany had to pay all of the reparations of the war because they "started it". Obviously Germany could not pay for all of this and they went into a deep depression. Hitler comes along promising to make Germany great again and is re-elected. Okay, enough back story. Now that Hitler is elected he believes that he is the leader of a Third Reich that will last 1,000 years. With this new idea he also believes that Germans need more space to spread out if they are going to the dominating force in Europe. So, Hitler's army starts walking into surrounding countries and saying that they are his now...and no one stops him. Allied countries even appease Hitler by signing the Munich Pact which said he could have the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland if he promised not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. He later went back on his promise and captured the rest of Czechoslovakia which enraged France and England, but the last straw before war was declared was when Hitler decided to invade Poland on September 1, 1939.
Many believed the Church needed to be reformed. In the 1500s Kings such as Charles V had a sole political strategy: centralisation. This 'centralisation' included forming one State religion throughout the empire. However followers of Calvin and Luther (generally Protestants) were not very pleased with this. God was in their eyes more important than the sovereign. A King strenghtening his centralisation policy of setting Catholicism as the sole religion, consequently sparked political conflicts in the empire as well.
For example, the area what we nowadays call Germany existed in that time from seperate semi-sovereign areas headed by a so-called 'elector'. Electors chose the ruling emperor/king. In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg was signed as a direct effect of the wars between the ultimate sovereign and the semi-sovereign electors. Charles V agreed upon the division of religion within his empire ("cuius regio, eius religio"): the ruler dictated the religion of the ruled in the seperate areas that made up the Holy Roman Empire (HRE).
So, the reformation led to warfare because of different ideas by the ruler and his people. That led to political conflict mainly because the people also didn't agree with the ruler's centralisation policy.
Well the glaciers slid across parts of the north making flat plains, and when the ice melted, it cut and eroded away the dirt and rock making mountains and canyons and rivers. Also when the ice melted it drained into the flat lower areas made by the previous glaciers thus making lakes and contributing to the rivers that were already cutting through the mountain/plains areas.
They were going against the worlds most powerful army at the time
Not everyone wanted a war, there were both Patriots (who wanted war), Loyalists (who wanted to stay with England), and Neutrals (who didn't chose a side)