<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><ins class="ice-ins ice-cts-1" data-changedata="" data-cid="3" data-last-change-time="1524855250535" data-time="1524855250535" 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 related conflicts 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 global war 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_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll" title="List of wars and anthropogenic disasters 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 which 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/China" title="China">China</a>. It included&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres" title="Massacres">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 during World War II">strategic bombing</a>, starvation, disease, and the only use of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon" title="Nuclear weapon">nuclear weapons</a>&nbsp;in warfare.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGilbert2001291_3-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGilbert2001291-3">[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-4">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESommerville2008p._5_(2011_ed.)_5-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-FOOTNOTESommerville2008p._5_(2011_ed.)-5">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-6"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-6">[4]</a></sup></ins></p>

<p><ins class="ice-ins ice-cts-1" data-changedata="" data-cid="3" data-last-change-time="1524855250535" data-time="1524855250535" 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>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>

<p><ins class="ice-ins ice-cts-1" data-changedata="" data-cid="3" data-last-change-time="1524855250535" data-time="1524855250535" data-userid="162" data-username="Author">The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway" title="Battle of Midway">Battle of Midway</a>, and Germany and Italy were&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein" title="Second Battle of El Alamein">defeated in North Africa</a>&nbsp;and then, decisively, at&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad" title="Battle of Stalingrad">Stalingrad</a>&nbsp;in the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)" title="Eastern Front (World War II)">Eastern Front</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_invasion_of_Sicily" title="Allied invasion of Sicily">Allied invasion of Sicily</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_invasion_of_Italy" title="Allied invasion of Italy">Allied invasion of Italy</a>&nbsp;which brought about Italian surrender, and Allied victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings" title="Normandy landings">invaded German-occupied France</a>, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Guangxi_Campaign" title="Second Guangxi Campaign">South</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_West_Hunan" title="Battle of West Hunan">Central China</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Campaign" title="Burma Campaign">Burma</a>, while the Allies crippled the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Japanese_Navy" title="Imperial Japanese Navy">Japanese Navy</a>and captured key Western Pacific islands.</ins></p>

<p><ins class="ice-ins ice-cts-1" data-changedata="" data-cid="3" data-last-change-time="1524855250535" data-time="1524855250535" data-userid="162" data-username="Author">The war in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe" title="Europe">Europe</a>&nbsp;concluded with an&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Allied_invasion_of_Germany" title="Western Allied invasion of Germany">invasion of Germany</a>&nbsp;by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin" title="Battle of Berlin">capture of Berlin</a>&nbsp;by Soviet troops, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler" title="Death of Adolf Hitler">suicide of Adolf Hitler</a>&nbsp;and the subsequent&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Instrument_of_Surrender" title="German Instrument of Surrender">German unconditional surrender</a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_in_Europe_Day" title="Victory in Europe Day">8 May 1945</a>. Following the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declaration" title="Potsdam Declaration">Potsdam Declaration</a>&nbsp;by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki" title="Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki">dropped atomic bombs</a>&nbsp;on the Japanese cities of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima" title="Hiroshima">Hiroshima</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagasaki" title="Nagasaki">Nagasaki</a>&nbsp;on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall" title="Operation Downfall">invasion of the Japanese archipelago</a>&nbsp;imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Manchuria" title="Soviet invasion of Manchuria">Soviet invasion of Manchuria</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan" title="Surrender of Japan">Japan formally surrendered</a>&nbsp;on 2 September 1945. Thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.</ins></p>

<p><ins class="ice-ins ice-cts-1" data-changedata="" data-cid="3" data-last-change-time="1524855250535" data-time="1524855250535" data-userid="162" data-username="Author">World War&nbsp;II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world. The&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations">United Nations</a>&nbsp;(UN) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_power" title="Great power">great powers</a>&mdash;China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States&mdash;became the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_members_of_the_United_Nations_Security_Council" title="Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council">permanent members</a>&nbsp;of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council" title="United Nations Security Council">United Nations Security Council</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-The_UN_Security_Council_9-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-The_UN_Security_Council-9">[7]</a></sup>&nbsp;The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpower" title="Superpower">superpowers</a>, setting the stage for the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War" title="Cold War">Cold War</a>, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonisation_of_Africa" title="Decolonisation of Africa">decolonisation of Africa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonisation_of_Asia" title="Decolonisation of Asia">Asia</a>&nbsp;began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post%E2%80%93World_War_II_economic_expansion" title="Post–World War II economic expansion">economic recovery</a>. Political integration, especially&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_integration" title="European integration">in Europe</a>, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and to create a common identity.<sup id="cite_ref-10"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II#cite_note-10">[8]</a></sup></ins></p>
