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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
1939
to
1945.
The
vast
majority
of
the
world's
countries—including
all
the
great
powers—eventually
formed
two
opposing
military
alliances:
the
Allies
and
the
Axis.
A
state
of
total
war
emerged,
directly
involving
more
than
100
million
people
from
more
than
30
countries.
The
major
participants
threw
their
entire
economic,
industrial,
and
scientific
capabilities
behind
the
war
effort,
blurring
the
distinction
between
civilian
and
military
resources.
World
War
II
was
the
deadliest
conflict
in
human
history,
marked
by
70
to
85
million
fatalities,
most
of
whom
were
civilians
in
the
Soviet
Union
and
China.
It
included
massacres,
the
genocide
of
the
Holocaust,
strategic
bombing,
premeditated
death
from
starvation
and
disease,
and
the
only
use
of
nuclear
weapons
in
war.
Japan,
which
aimed
to
dominate
Asia
and
the
Pacific,
was
at
war
with
China
by
1937,[b]
though
neither
side
had
declared
war
on
the
other.
World
War
II
is
generally
said
to
have
begun
on
1
September
1939,
with
the
invasion
of
Poland
by
Germany
and
subsequent
declarations
of
war
on
Germany
by
France
and
the
United
Kingdom.
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.
Under
the
Molotov–Ribbentrop
Pact
of
August
1939,
Germany
and
the
Soviet
Union
partitioned
and
annexed
territories
of
their
European
neighbours,
Poland,
Finland,
Romania
and
the
Baltic
states.
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.
War
in
the
Balkans,
the
aerial
Battle
of
Britain,
the
Blitz,
and
the
long
Battle
of
the
Atlantic
followed.
On
22
June
1941,
the
European
Axis
powers
launched
an
invasion
of
the
Soviet
Union,
opening
the
largest
land
theatre
of
war
in
history.
This
Eastern
Front
trapped
the
Axis,
most
crucially
the
German
Wehrmacht,
in
a
war
of
attrition.
In
December
1941,
Japan
launched
a
surprise
attack
on
the
United
States
as
well
as
European
colonies
in
the
Pacific.
Following
an
immediate
U.S.
declaration
of
war
against
Japan,
supported
by
one
from
Great
Britain,
the
European
Axis
powers
quickly
declared
war
on
the
U.S.
in
solidarity
with
their
Japanese
ally.
Rapid
Japanese
conquests
over
much
of
the
Western
Pacific
ensued,
perceived
by
many
in
Asia
as
liberation
from
Western
dominance
and
resulting
in
the
support
of
several
armies
from
defeated
territories.
The
Axis
advance
in
the
Pacific
halted
in
1942
when
Japan
lost
the
critical
Battle
of
Midway;
later,
Germany
and
Italy
were
defeated
in
North
Africa
and
then,
decisively,
at
Stalingrad
in
the
Soviet
Union.
Key
setbacks
in
1943,
which
included
a
series
of
German
defeats
on
the
Eastern
Front,
the
Allied
invasions
of
Sicily
and
Italy,
and
Allied
victories
in
the
Pacific,
cost
the
Axis
its
initiative
and
forced
it
into
strategic
retreat
on
all
fronts.
In
1944,
the
Western
Allies
invaded
German-occupied
France,
while
the
Soviet
Union
regained
its
territorial
losses
and
turned
toward
Germany
and
its
allies.
During
1944
and
1945
the
Japanese
suffered
major
reverses
in
mainland
Asia,
in
Central
China,
South
China
and
Burma,
while
the
Allies
crippled
the
Japanese
Navy
and
captured
key
Western
Pacific
islands.
