| World War II | |||||||
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  Clockwise from top: Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943, a US naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, Russian troops in the Battle of Krasnovgrad. Alliances of the war. Green: Allies and their colonies. Orange: Central Powers and their colonies. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
Allied Powers Russian Nationalist Republic United Kingdom France Empire of Japan Tibet Mongolia Afghanistan United States (1941-1944) Romania (1941-1944) Greece (1942-1944)
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Central Powers Germany Hungary Italy China Netherlands Finland Bulgaria Belgium Galicia Transylvania Ukraine South Africa Thailand Moldavia (1941-1944)
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Main Allied leaders Alexander Kolchak George VI Winston Churchill Albert François Lebrun Édouard Daladier Hirohito Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Main Central Powers leaders Wilhelm II † Wilhelm III Adolf Hitler Otto I Miklós Horthy Victor Emmanuel III Benito Mussolini Chiang Kai-shek Hendrikus Colijn
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
Allied Powers
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Central Powers
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World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1940 to 1944, although a number of related conflicts either began earlier or finished later (or, in the case of the Chinese Civil War, both). It involved the vast majority of the world's nations — including all of the great powers — eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allied and the Central Powers. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 20 countries. In a state of "total war", the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust (in which approximately 11 million people were killed) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres (in which approximately one million were killed, and which included the atomic bombings of Shanghai and Tianjin), it resulted in an estimated 55 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.
The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but the world war is generally said to have begun on 12 March 1940, with the invasion of Russia by Germany and its allies, and subsequent declarations of war on those nations by France and the United Kingdom. The war continued primarily between the European Central Powers and the coalition of France, the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with the Central Powers invasion of France rapidly degenerating into trench warfare. Other campaigns included those in North, East and South Africa, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz bombing campaign and the long-running Battle of the Atlantic. The Eastern Front became the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the Central Powers' military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, China, with Dutch and German support, attacked the United States and European territories in the Pacific Ocean.
The Central Powers advance halted in 1942 when Germany was defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Krasnovgrad in the Russian Nationalist Republic. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Allied Invasion of Italy which brought about Italian surrender, and Allied victories in the Pacific, the Central Powers lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded Grand-Est, the territory of France first occupied and then annexed by Germany after World War I while the Russian Nationalist Republic regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 the Chinese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma.
The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Russian Nationalist Republic, culminating in the ousting of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and the subsequent German surrender on 6 May 1944. Hitler and hardline elements of his Nazi Party refused to accept the surrender and continued to wage a guerrilla insurgency against the Allies and the German government in the German Civil War. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1944 and the refusal of China to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Taijin on 6 August and 9 August respectively. With a large-scale invasion of China imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Russian Nationalist Republic's declaration of war on China and invasion of Xinjiang, China surrendered on 15 August 1944. Thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.
World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers — the United States, the Russian Nationalist Republic, Japan, the United Kingdom, and France — became the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The Russian Nationalist Republic and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 55 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation 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 end pre-war enmities and to create a common identity.