World War II (The German Century)

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World War II
Clockwise from top left: German Panzer IV tanks passing through a town in France; German soldiers marching past the Arc de Triomphe after the surrender of Paris, June 14, 1943; Column of French Renault R35 tanks at Sedan, Ardennes; British soldiers at Veules-les-Roses; French soldiers on review within the Maginot Line fortifications.
Date 22 June 1939 – 9 May 1944 Location Europe, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean, North Africa and Horn of Africa, briefly South America Result Western Axis victory: Collapse of the French Fourth Republic and the Spanish Republic Abolition of the Romanian monarchy and rise of the Socialist Republic of Romania Fall of the Portuguese and Australian colonial empires Dissolution of the League of Nations Creation of the United Nations Emergence of the United States and Germany as superpowers
Belligerents
Western Axis: Germany Hungary Poland-Lithuania Livonia Finland Bulgaria Japan Romania (1939-1941) United Kingdom Belarus (1941 onwards) Ukraine (1941 onwards) Wallonia (1940) Supported By: South African Republic Western Cape Rhodesia Flanders Denmark Two Sicilies Venice	Allies: Soviet Union France China Spain Portugal Northern Italian States Greece Serbia Australia New Zealand Supported By: United States Canada Brazil Norway (disputed) Newfoundland Argentina Turkey
Commanders and leaders
Wilhelm II Wilhelm III Adolf Hitler Franz Halder Walther von Brauchitsch Fedor von Bock Wilhelm Keitel Karl Dönitz Albert Speer Otto II Miklós Horthy Béla Imrédy Károly Bartha Iván Hindy Ferenc Szombathelyi	Leon Trotsky Georgy Zhukov Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy Semyon Budyonny Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Markian Popov Fyodor Kuznetsov Dmitry Pavlov Ivan Tyulenev Mikhail Kirponos † Philippe Pétain Pierre Laval René Bousquet Joseph Darnand Jean Decoux Chiang Kai-shek
Casualties and losses
Over 61,000,000	Over 12,000,000

World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1944, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Western Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 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 Hitler's possible genocidal campaign against European Jews (in which it is believed that 6 to 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 Madrid and Lisbon), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These events made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.

The events that lead to World War II began after the end of World War I, the Allied Powers lost the war. Colonies that belonged to Britain, France and Belgium were handed over to the victorious Central Powers and Russia was engulfed in civil war. Despite a failed rebellion in Ireland, Britain managed to recover from the war meanwhile France was left humiliated. The French government was overthrown in a revolution and a military dictatorship with fascist ideals was established under General Philippe Pétain. Italy and Belgium were dissolved into smaller states; all of them (excluding the Northern Italian States) were pro-German client states. Like France, the Northern Italian States felt humiliated after losing the war and a fascist dictatorship rose to power. The Soviet Union on the other hand, held a grudge towards Germany over the loss of territory following the Russian Civil War. Trotsky never gave up the Soviet land claim over Poland-Lithuania, United Baltic Duchy and Finland.

In 1933, after four years of the Great Depression, rebellions, uprising, riots, and other forms of civil unrest plagued Europe, North America, Oceania and Asia. Countless hundreds of people were killed or wounded during this period known as the Crisis of 1933. The crisis lead to the dissolution of the United States of Greater Austria as a result. It was revealed that the Soviet Union had funded anti-government groups in a effort to spread socialism across the globe. The result was world-wide outrage, in Germany, Anti-Communist politician Adolf Hitler was appointed Deputy Chancellor by Emperor Wilhelm II. Hitler helped create the Western Axis alliance and began preparing for war with the Soviet Union. In turn, Trotsky viewed Hitler to be a threat and began to bulk up the Soviet military. War finally broke out in 1939, when the Soviets invaded the United Baltic Duchy and Poland-Lithuania.