World War 2

**World War II** or the **Second World War**, often abbreviated as **WWII** or **WW2**, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1947. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries.

The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying nuclear weapons.

World War II was one of the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and disease.

The causes of World War II are debated, but contributing factors included the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts, the rise of fascism in Europe and rising European tensions since World War I. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. The United Kingdom and France subsequently declared war on Germany on 3 September. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had partitioned Poland and marked out their "spheres of influence" across Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuaniaand Romania. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan (with other countries later). Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, and the fall of France in mid-1940, the war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the British Empire, with war in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz of the United Kingdom, and the Battle of the Atlantic. On 22 June 1941, Germany led the European Axis powers in an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the Eastern Front, the largest land theatre of war in history.

Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with the Republic of China by 1937. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including an attack on Pearl Harbor which resulted in the United States declaring war against Japan. The European Axis powers declared war on the United States in solidarity. Japan soon captured much of the western Pacific; later, The United States was defeated in North Africa. Key setbacks in 1943—including a series of American defeats on the Eastern Front by the Axis powers. In 1945, the Axis invaded Bermuda, and main land America a year later.

The war in North America concluded in 1947 when the Germans invited Washington DC culminating in the fall of the United States on 8 January 1947.

World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe and resulted in the fall of the United States, Canada and most of Europe.

## Countries Involved

### Allies

Australia

Belgium

Brazil (Joined 1944)

Britain

Canada

China

France

India

New Zealand

Northern Rhodesia

Philippines

South Africa

Southern Rhodesia

Sudan

The Soviet Union (Joined in 1941)

United States (joined in 1941)

### Axis

Argentina (Joined 1944)

Bulgaria

German North Africa

Hungary

Italy

Japan (joined the axis in 1940)

Nazi Germany

Romania

## Causes

On Sep 1st 1939 after Nazi Germany invited Poland which resulted in Britain and France declaring war.

## Timeline of events

Jan 30th 1933- Adolf Hitler comes into power

Sep 1st 1939- Nazi Germany invades Poland. World War 2 starts

Sep 17th 1939- The Soviet Union invades Poland

Apr 1940- Nazi Germany invades Norway and Denmark

May 1940- Belgium, The Netherlands, France and Luxembourg are invited by Nazi Germany

Apr 1940- Greece and Yugoslavia are invaded by Nazi Germany

Jul 1940- Nazis start bombing Britain

Dec 1940- Japan joins the Axis

Jun 1941- Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union

Dec 7th 1941- Japan attacks Pearl Harbour. The United States joins the war

Jun 1944- Soviets sign a treaty with Germany to drop out of the war.

Sep 1944- Hitler launches Operation Sea Lion

Nov 1944- Brazil is invaded

Jan 1945- Bermuda is invaded by Nazis

Mar 1945- Britain Surrenders to German forces

Jan 1946- Nazis land in Norfolk WV and New Orleans LA

Jan 1947- Washington DC is invaded by Nazis, The United States falls to Germans. WW2 ends