Third World War (Fidem Pacis)

The Second Great War was a global conflict fought from 1939-1965 between two opposing alliances - the Central Powers led by Albion, the Holy Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Axis led by the Union of National Socialist Republics, France and New France. It is often divided into two parts, from 1939-1948 and then from 1961-1965, separated by an unofficial ceasefire during which little action happened. Geographically the war is also divided into three main theatres of conflict - Europe and North Africa; Asia and the Pacific; and North Leifria.

Background
The European and Asian theatres are considered to have two completely separate origins. In Europe, the Union of National Socialist Republics had aggressively expanded throughout the 30's, annexing one by one Moldova, Latvia and Estonia. For each of these the Central Powers had tried to appease the UNSR, but this only served to encourage it in its ambitions. However, the final straw was reached when the UNSR invaded Finland in 1939, and Albion and the Holy Roman Empire declared war three days later.

In the east, the Ren empire of China had been following a similar course. In the chaos that followed the Xinhai Revolution China had lost many of its tributaries and much influence in Asia. The countries to the south were controlled by European colonial empires, and Korea and Japan to the east had begun to rapidly grow to fill the political void. In 1936 China occupied and annexed Tibet, in 1937 it invaded Korea, and on the same day in 1941 it launched surprise attacks on Kyushu, Hawaii, Siam and Malaya.