World War II (Central Victory)

World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict between 1939 and 1948, which involved most of the world's nations, including all great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilised. 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. Over a 116 million people, the majority civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.

The start of the war is generally held to be September 7, 1939, with the invasion of Eastern Europe by Russia and subsequent declarations of war on Austria-Hungary by Serbia. Many countries were already at war before this date, such as Ethiopia and Italy in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and China and Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Many who were not initially involved joined the war later, as a result of events such as the Russia invasion of the Ottoman Empire, the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and French colonies, and subsequent declarations of war on Japan by the United States, the British Commonwealth,undefinedand on Germany by France and Britain.

In 1948, the war ended in a victory for the Axis. Germany and Japan subsequently emerged as the world's two superpowers. The Congress of Warsaw was held in Europe with the hope of preventing another world conflict. The acceptance of puppet statism stalled decolonization movements in Africa, while the continental states began moving toward reunification.

Causes
A variety of events led to the escalation of hostilities between the Axis and Allied powers prior to the start of the war. In the aftermath of World War I, a the defeated Allies signed the Treaty's of Berne, Mexico City, and Brest-Litovsk. This caused the various Allies to lose home territory and portions of their overseas colonies, imposed massive reparations and limited the size and makeup of Allied armed forces.

The Russian Civil War led to the creation of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. After Lenin's death, Stalin seized power in Russia and repudiated the New Economic Policy favouring the Five Year Plans instead. In Italy, Benito Mussolini seized power as a fascist dictator, promising to create a "New Roman Empire."

The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in Chinaundefinedas the first step of its right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as justification to invade Manchuria and established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Too weak to resist Japan, China appealed to Japan after they fought several minor conflicts, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until signing the Tanggu Truce in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.

Adolf Hitler, became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished the monarchies of the various German states, dismantled Prussia incorperating the provinces of Prussia into a new federal German state, and soon began a massive military expansion campaign. Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when Russian missionaries where caught spreading communist ideals in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. The Russian government was also building up its military and Stalin repudiated the most of the terms from the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and speeding up his rearmament programme.

Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front. Russia, wanting to distract Germany if they went to war, wrote a treaty of mutual assistance with France. The Franco-Russian pact formally allied France and Russia against Germany.

In June 1935, Germany made an independent naval agreement with the United Kingdom, easing prior restrictions. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August.undefinedIn October, Italy invaded Ethiopia, with Germany the only major European nation oppossing her invasion. Italy then esstablished relations with Serbia, signing the Alexander Pact.

Stalin defied the Brest-Litovsk treaty by openly refusing to pay war reparations to Germany in March 1936. He received little response from other European powers. Kaiser Wilhelm II was so outraged he proposed war against Russia, but the Reichstag refused to proposal because Germany was in no immediate threat from Russian refusal. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, Wilhelm II and Mussolini supported fascist Generalissimo Francisco Franco's nationalist forces in his civil war against the Russian-supported Spanish Republic. Both sides used the conflict to test new weapons and methods of warfare,undefinedand the nationalists won the war in early 1939. Mounting tensions led to several efforts to strengthen or consolidate power. In October 1936, Germany and Sweden formed the Stockholm-Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Sweden would join in the following year. In China, after the Xian Incident the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire in order to present a united front to oppose Japan.

Invasion of Ethiopia
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana) and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia). The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa.

Japanese invasion of China
A Chinese machine gun nest in the Battle of Shanghai.In July 1937, Japan captured the former imperial capital of Beiping after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Russians 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 3 month of fighting Shanghai fell. The Japanese continue to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December 1937 and committed the Nanking Massacre.

In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; although this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, the city was taken by October.undefinedHowever, Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve, instead the Chinese government relocated to Chongqing to contiunue their resistance.

Japanese invasion of the Russia and Mongolia
Russian troops during the Battle of Khalkin Gol. On July 29, 1938, the Japanese invaded Russia and were checked at the Battle of Lake Khasan. Although the battle was a Russian victory, the Japanese dismissed it as an inconclusive draw, and on May 11, 1939 decided to move the Japanese-Mongolian border up to the Khalkin Gol River by force. Stalin replaced the former Soviet commander with Zhukov on Timoshenko's advice. Zhukov, along with reinforcements sent from Moscow, checked the Japanese assault on Mongolia and handed the Japanese Kwangtung Army their first major defeat.

These two battles were significant in that they persuaded the Japanese Government to favor the anti-American plan proposed by the Japanese Navy. ensured hat Russia would only be engaged in single front warfare against Germany and Finland. They also prevented the sacking of experienced Russian military leaders such as Zhukov and Yakovlev, who would later play a vital role in the defence of Leningrad.

War breaks out in Europe
On September 7, 1939, Russia attacked easter Europe, and the Baltic states. Germany and Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia but provided little military support to their puppets. On September 17, 1939, France and Britain declare war on Germany, and Serbia declared war on Austria-Hungary. By early October, Belarus and the Ukraine was under Russian occupation. At the same time as the battle in Poland, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September.

Following the invasion of eastern Europe Russia forced the Baltic countries to allow it to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of "mutual assistance." Finland rejected territorial demands and was invaded by the Soviet Union in November 1939.undefinedThe Netherlands, finalizing their alliance with Germany, declared war on France and Britain. Belgium declared war on the Netherlands and invaded both the Netherlands and Germany in December 1939. In June 1940, the Russia had annexed the neutral Baltic States, Belarus, and the Ukraine.

In the Balkans, Bulgaria invaded Serbia attempting to take some preasure of the Austro-Hungarians.undefinedIn April, German and British ships clashed in the North Sea resulting in a disatorous defeat for the British.undefinedBritish discontent over the battle led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain by Winston Churchill on May 10, 1940.

Allied advances
On that same day, Germany and the Netherlands invaded France and Belgium. The Belgium was overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days respectively. The French fortified positions were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by French planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.undefinedBritish troops were forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, abandoning their heavy equipment by the end of the month. On June 10, Italy invaded, declaring war on both Austria-Hungary and Germany, twelve days later France surrendered and was soon under German occupation. On July 14, the British attacked the French fleet in Algeria to prevent its possible seizure by Germany.

With France neutralised, Germany began an air superiority campaign over Britain to prepare for an invasion. The campaign was postponed, due to increasing Russian offensives in the east that September. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Cyprus in June, and making an incursion into Egypt in September 1940. Japan increased its blockade of China in September by seizing several bases in the northern part of the now-isolated French Indochina.

Throughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow 'Cash and carry' purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased and, after the Japanese incursion into Indochina, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan. In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases.undefinedStill, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941, due to the humiliation of giving up land to Mexico in 1922.

At the end of September 1940, the Axis Pact united Japan, the Netherlands, Mexico, Ottoman Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Germany to formalize the Axis Powers. The Axis Pact stipulated that any country not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all seven. During this time, the United States continued to support the United Kingdom and China by introducing the Lend-Lease policy authorizing the provision of war materiel and other itemsundefinedand creating a security zone spanning roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean where the United States Navy protected British convoys.undefinedAs a result, Germany and the United States found themselves engaged in sustained, if undeclared, naval warfare in the North and Central Atlantic by October 1941, even though the United States remained officially neutral.