Second World War

Follow the story · Four stages

1. 01

   Background

   The unsettled consequences of the First World War and the Great Depression aided radical politics but did not make a new war inevitable. Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan pursued conquest and racial or imperial domination; weak collective security and concessions to aggression failed to stop them. Japan's full-scale war in China from 1937 formed the immediate Asia-Pacific prehistory of the 1939–1945 global frame.

   • The unsettled consequences of the First World War and the Great Depression aided radical politics but did not make a new war inevitable.
   • Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan pursued conquest and racial or imperial domination; weak collective security and concessions to aggression failed to stop them.
   • Japan's full-scale war in China from 1937 formed the immediate Asia-Pacific prehistory of the 1939–1945 global frame.

   
2. 02

   Course

   Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, overran much of Europe, and attacked the Soviet Union in 1941; Nazi Germany and collaborators carried out the Holocaust and other mass murder under cover of war and occupation. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and European and American possessions in December 1941, joining the European and Asia-Pacific wars more tightly. Campaigns in China, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, North and East Africa, the Middle East, and Europe depended on millions of colonial and dominion soldiers and laborers as well as Soviet, Chinese, American, and other forces.

   • Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, overran much of Europe, and attacked the Soviet Union in 1941; Nazi Germany and collaborators carried out the Holocaust and other mass murder under cover of war and occupation.
   • Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and European and American possessions in December 1941, joining the European and Asia-Pacific wars more tightly.
   • Campaigns in China, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, North and East Africa, the Middle East, and Europe depended on millions of colonial and dominion soldiers and laborers as well as Soviet, Chinese, American, and other forces.

   
3. 03

   Outcome

   Germany surrendered in May 1945, but fighting continued in Asia and the Pacific. The United States used atomic bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, and Japan announced surrender in August before signing it formally on 2 September. The war killed tens of millions, displaced still more, destroyed the Axis regimes, and left occupation, war-crimes trials, refugee crises, and reconstruction.

   • Germany surrendered in May 1945, but fighting continued in Asia and the Pacific.
   • The United States used atomic bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, and Japan announced surrender in August before signing it formally on 2 September.
   • The war killed tens of millions, displaced still more, destroyed the Axis regimes, and left occupation, war-crimes trials, refugee crises, and reconstruction.

   
4. 04

   Historical significance

   The conflict accelerated the decline of European empires, strengthened the United States and Soviet Union, and led to the United Nations and a nuclear age. Colonial troops and Asian and African societies bore central burdens while wartime promises and Japanese defeat opened new independence struggles. Bandung's 1955 delegates responded to this postwar world, although decolonization arose through local movements and conflicts rather than from the war alone.

   • The conflict accelerated the decline of European empires, strengthened the United States and Soviet Union, and led to the United Nations and a nuclear age.
   • Colonial troops and Asian and African societies bore central burdens while wartime promises and Japanese defeat opened new independence struggles.
   • Bandung's 1955 delegates responded to this postwar world, although decolonization arose through local movements and conflicts rather than from the war alone.