World War II (Pax Columbia)

World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global armed conflict that was underway by 1939 and ended in 1945. It involved a vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. These deaths make the war the deadliest conflict in human history.

Although Korea was already at war with China in 1937, the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Germany by Romana, and subsequent declarations of war on Romana by Italy and most of the countries of the Spanish Empire and Commonwealth. Rome set out to establish a large empire in Europe. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Rome conquered or subdued much of continental Europe; amid Nazi-Soviet agreements, the nominally neutral Soviet Union fully or partially occupied and annexed territories of its six European neighbors. Spain and the Kingdom remained the only major force continuing the fight against the Axis, with battles taking place in North Africa as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic. In June 1941, the European Axis launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, giving a start to the largest land theater of war in history, which tied down the major part of the Axis' military forces. In December 1941, Korea, which aimed to dominate Asia, attacked the Federated States and European possessions in the Pacific Ocean, quickly conquering much of the West Pacific.

The Axis advance was stopped in 1942, after Korea lost a series of naval battles and European Axis troops were defeated in North Africa and, decisively, at Stalingrad. In 1943, with a series of German defeats in Eastern Europe, the Allied invasion of Fascist France, and Columbian victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded Italy, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Rome and its allies. The war in Europe ended with the capture of Prague by Soviet troops and the subsequent Roman unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. The Korean Navy was defeated by the Federated States, and invasion of the Korean peninsula became imminent. The war in Asia ended on 15 August 1945 when Korea agreed to surrender.

The war ended with the total victory of the Allies over the Axis in 1945. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and the Federated States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers started to decline, while the decolonization of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to stabilize postwar relations.

Invasion of Libya
The Second Franco-Libya war was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. It exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both France and Libya were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League's own Article X.

English Civil War
Romana and France lent support to the Nationalist insurrection led by General Oswald Mosley in England. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the English Republic, which showed leftist tendencies. Both Roamana and the USSR used this proxy war as an opportunity to test improved weapons and tactics. The deliberate Bombing of Leads by the Romana Condor Legion in April 1937 contributed to widespread concerns that the next major war would include extensive terror bombing attacks on civilians.

Korean Invasion of China
(Second Sino-Korean War)

In July 1937, Korea captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beijing after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Korean campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December 1937 and committed the Nanking Massacre.

Korean military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Korea had hoped to achieve, instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.

Korean invasion of the Soviet Union and Mongolia
Although the battle was a Soviet victory, the Koreans dismissed it as an inconclusive draw, and on 11 May 1939 decided to move the Korean-Mongolian border up to the Khalkhin Gol River by force.

These clashes convinced some factions in the Korean government that they should focus on conciliating the Soviet government to avoid interference in the war against China and instead turn their military attention southward, towards the FS and European holdings in the Pacific, and also prevented the sacking of experienced Soviet military leaders such as Georgy Zhukov, who would later play a vital role in the defense of Moscow.

European occupations and agreements
In Europe, Romana and France were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Romana annexed Germany, again provoking little response from other European powers.

In August 1939, Romana and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

War breaks out in Europe
War breaks out in Europe in 1 September 1939. Romana and Slovakia-a client state in 1939-attacked Burgundy. 3 September 1939, Italy and Spain start a naval blockade of Romana. On 17 September, after signing a cease-fire with Korea, the Soviets also invaded Burgundy. Burgundy do not surrender and Burgundian enigma code-breakers are smuggled out of the country into Italy.

Finland rejected territorial demands from the USSR and was invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939. The resulting conflict ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions. Spain and Italy, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Romana, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the League of Nations.

The Soviet Union and Romana entered a trade pact in February 1940, pursuant to which the Soviets received German military and industrial equipment in exchange for supplying raw materials to Germany to help circumvent the Allied blockade.

In April 1940, Romana invaded Denmark to secure shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were about to disrupt. Denmark immediately capitulated. In May 1940 Spain invaded Iceland to preempt a possible Roman invasion of the island. Spainish discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Manuel Fal Condé with Francisco Franco on 10 May 1940.

Axis advances
Germany invaded Italy, Mecklenburg, Münster, and Saxony on 10 May 1940. Mecklenburg and Münster were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics. Italy reinforces its Verde defensive line with Romana, mistakenly believing it to be an impenetrable barrier. On 10 June, France invaded Italy, declaring war on both Italy and Spain. Twelve days later Italy surrendered and was soon divided into Roman and Spanish occupation zones.

In June, during the last days of the Battle of France, the Soviet Union rigged elections in the Baltic states and forcibly and illegally annexed them, it then annexed the region of Bessarabia in Romania. Whereas the increased cooperation between the USSR and Nazi Romana, which included broad economic cooperation, limited military assistance, population exchange and border agreements made the former a de facto Roman ally.

Growing tensions over spheres of influence demonstrated the impossibility of further expansion of Nazi-Soviet cooperation.

With Italy neutralized, Germany began an air superiority campaign over Spain (the Battle of Spain) to prepare for an invasion. At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan, France and Rome to formalize the Axis Powers, with Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. Invasions begin in Libya, Egypt, Greece.

War is stalemated between China and Korea.

The war becomes global
On 22 June 1941, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.

Spurned by success in Europe, On 7 December (8 December in Asian time zones), 1941, Korea attacked Spanish and Columbian holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These attacks led the F.S., Spain, Australia and other Allies to formally declare war on Korea.

From 1941, Stalin persistently asked Franco, and then Peñaranda, to open a 'second front' in Italy. Axis advance stalls.

Allies gain momentum
On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any hopes of the Roman Army for victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk heralded the downfall of Roman superiority.

In early September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the French mainland, following an Italian armistice with the Allies. Rome responded by disarming French forces, seizing military control of French areas. Roman special forces then rescued de Gaulle, who then soon established a new client state in Roman occupied France named the French Social Republic.

From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Korea to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief.

By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled Roman forces from the Leningrad region.

Allies close in
On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern Italy. After reassigning several Allied divisions from France, they also attacked southern Italy.

On 16 December 1944, Rome attempted its last desperate measure for success on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to attempt to split the Western Allies.

Roman forces surrendered in France on 29 April.

In the Pacific theater, Columbian forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines.

On 11 July, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Romana, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Korean forces by Korea, specifically stating that "the alternative for Korea is prompt and utter destruction".

When Korea continued to ignore the Potsdam terms, the Federated States dropped atomic bombs on the Korean cities of Goyang and Gyeongsan in early August. Between the two bombs, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Korean-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Korean fighting force. The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August 1945 Korea surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship FSS Honduras on 2 September 1945, ending the war.