<p><ins class="ice-ins ice-cts-1" data-changedata="" data-cid="30" data-last-change-time="1525912992106" data-time="1525912992106" data-userid="162" data-username="Author">The&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan" title="Empire of Japan">Empire of Japan</a>&nbsp;aimed to dominate&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia" title="Asia">Asia</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean" title="Pacific Ocean">Pacific</a>&nbsp;and was already&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War" title="Second Sino-Japanese War">at war</a>&nbsp;with the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_(1912%E2%80%9349)" title="Republic of China (1912–49)">Republic of China</a>&nbsp;in 1937,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBarrettShyu20016_7-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBarrettShyu20016-7">[5]</a></sup>&nbsp;but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939,<sup id="cite_ref-8"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-8">[6]</a></sup>&nbsp;the day of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland" title="Invasion of Poland">invasion</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Polish_Republic" title="Second Polish Republic">Poland</a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany" title="Nazi Germany">Nazi Germany</a>&nbsp;and the subsequent declarations of war on Germany by&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Third_Republic" title="French Third Republic">France</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a>. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_Pact" title="Tripartite Pact">treaties</a>, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Italy" title="Kingdom of Italy">Italy</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan" title="Empire of Japan">Japan</a>. Under the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact" title="Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact">Molotov&ndash;Ribbentrop Pact</a>&nbsp;of August 1939, Germany and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a>&nbsp;partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland" title="Soviet invasion of Poland">Poland</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War" title="Winter War">Finland</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_occupation_of_Bessarabia_and_Northern_Bukovina" title="Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina">Romania</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Baltic_states" title="Occupation of the Baltic states">Baltic states</a>. The war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the coalition of the United Kingdom and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations" title="Commonwealth of Nations">British Commonwealth</a>, with campaigns including the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Desert_Campaign" title="Western Desert Campaign">North Africa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Campaign_(World_War_II)" title="East African Campaign (World War II)">East Africa</a>&nbsp;campaigns, the aerial&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain" title="Battle of Britain">Battle of Britain</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz" title="The Blitz">Blitz bombing campaign</a>, and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkan_Campaign_(World_War_II)" title="Balkan Campaign (World War II)">Balkan Campaign</a>, as well as the long-running&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Atlantic" title="Battle of the Atlantic">Battle of the Atlantic</a>. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa" title="Operation Barbarossa">an invasion of the Soviet Union</a>, opening the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)" title="Eastern Front (World War II)">largest land theatre of war in history</a>, which trapped the major part of the Axis military forces into a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attrition_warfare" title="Attrition warfare">war of attrition</a>. In December 1941, Japan&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor" title="Attack on Pearl Harbor">attacked the United States</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Malaya" title="Japanese invasion of Malaya">European colonies</a>&nbsp;in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.</ins></p>
