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<p><ins class="ice-ins ice-cts-1" data-changedata="" data-cid="2" data-last-change-time="1533761505640" data-time="1533761505640" data-userid="162" data-username="Author"><b>World War&nbsp;II</b>&nbsp;(often abbreviated to&nbsp;<b>WWII</b>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<b>WW2</b>), also known as the&nbsp;<b>Second World War</b>, was a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war" title="World war">global war</a>&nbsp;that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although conflicts reflecting the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology" title="Ideology">ideological</a>&nbsp;clash between what would become the Allied and Axis blocs began earlier.&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_by_country" title="World War II by country">The vast majority of the world&#39;s countries</a>&mdash;including all of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_power" title="Great power">great powers</a>&mdash;eventually formed two opposing&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_alliance" title="Military alliance">military alliances</a>: the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies_of_World_War_II" title="Allies of World War II">Allies</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_powers" title="Axis powers">Axis</a>. It was the most&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_globalization" title="Military globalization">global war</a>&nbsp;in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_war" title="Total war">total war</a>, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_effort" title="War effort">war effort</a>, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll" title="List of wars by death toll">deadliest conflict</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_world" title="History of the world">human history</a>, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_(1912%E2%80%931949)" title="Republic of China (1912–1949)">China</a>. It included&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre" title="Massacre">massacres</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide" title="Genocide">genocide</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust" title="The Holocaust">the Holocaust</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II" title="">strategic bombing</a>, premeditated death from&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation" title="Starvation">starvation</a>&nbsp;and disease and the only use of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon" title="Nuclear weapon">nuclear weapons</a>&nbsp;in war.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGilbert2001291_2-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGilbert2001291-2">[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-3">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESommerville2008p._5_(2011_ed.)_4-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-FOOTNOTESommerville2008p._5_(2011_ed.)-4">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-5">[4]</a></sup></ins></p>

<p><ins class="ice-ins ice-cts-1" data-changedata="" data-cid="2" data-last-change-time="1533761505640" data-time="1533761505640" 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-6"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-6">[b]</a></sup><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 Axis, most crucially the German&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht" title="Wehrmacht">Wehrmacht</a>, 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. The Japanese conquests were perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance; as such, several armies from the conquered territories aided the Japanese.</ins></p>

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