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 Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the Battle for Indochina, Italian howitzer guns during the North African Campaign, German dive bombers over France, British naval forces heading toward Japan, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German surrender to the French Army (1940), Soviet troops in the Battle of Paris | |||||||
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Co-belligerents Client and puppet states |
United Nations
Co-belligerents Client and puppet states | ||||||
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Allied leaders
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| Military dead: Over 8 million Civilian dead: Over 4 million Total dead: Over 12 million |
Military dead: Over 16 million Civilian dead: Over 45 million Total dead: Over 61 million | ||||||
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1946. The vast majority of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two opposing military alliances: the Allies (led by the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and China) and the Axis (led by Germany, Japan, and Austria-Hungary). Many participants threw their economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind this total war, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role, enabling the strategic bombing of population centers and the delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war.
The causes of World War II are debated, but contributing factors included the Finno-Russian War, Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, American–Japanese border conflicts, the rise of communism in Europe, and European tensions in the aftermath of World War I. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 17 September 1939, when the Soviet Union, under Joseph Stalin, invaded Poland. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary subsequently declared war on Germany on 23 September. Under the Molotov–Matsuoka Pact of August 1939, Japan and the Soviet Union had partitioned Manchuria and marked out their "spheres of influence" across Mongolia, Siberia, and China. 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 (with other countries later). 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 and Soviet Union, with war in the Balkans, the Battle of Britain, and the Battle of the Atlantic. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with the Republic of China by 1937. On 22 June 1941, Japan and German-led European Axis powers launched a near-simultaneous invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the Russian Fronts, the largest land theatre of war in history, including an attack on the Soviet fleet at Vladivostok which resulted in the Soviet Union and United Kingdom declaring war against Japan.
Japan soon captured much of the Russian Far East, but its advances in the western Pacific were halted in 1942 after losing the critical Battle of Port Moresby; later, Axis powers were defeated in the Mediterranean and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including a series of Japanese and German defeats on the Russian fronts, the Allied invasions of the British mainland and Italy, and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In September 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed the Axis back. During 1944 and 1945, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key western Pacific islands.
The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories and the invasion of Germany by the Soviet Union, culminating in the Fall of Berlin to Soviet troops and the German unconditional surrender on 8 March 1945. Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration (issued 26 June 1945), the Soviet Union dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 October and the United States commence the invasion of the Japanese archipelago. Faced with the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Soviet Union's entry into the invasion, Japan announced on 10 January its intention to surrender, signing a surrender document on 2 February 1946.
Background[]
Aftermath of World War I[]
World War I had radically altered the political European map, with the defeat of the Entente Powers—including France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Central Powers of World War I, such as Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the collapse of the French empire and Russian Empires.
To prevent a future world war, the United European Treaty Organization was created during the 1918 Berlin Peace Conference. The organization's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military and naval disarmament, and settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.
Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I, irredentist and revanchist nationalism emerged in several European states in the same period. These sentiments were especially marked in Russia because of the significant territorial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Under the treaty, Russia lost around 10 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions, while Russian annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces.
Europe[]
The Russian Empire was dissolved in the Russian Revolution of 1918–1919, and a communist government, later known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the right and left. Joseph Stalin, after he became the General Secretary of the USSR in 1922, eventually made a successful attempt to establish the new Soviet government in 1925 when Politburo appointed him. He abolished the republics, espousing a motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign.
Meanwhile, Germany, to secure its alliance, allowed the United Kingdom a free hand in Egypt, which Britain desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of Moldavia was legally united with Soviet Russia, and Stalin repudiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, accelerated his rearmament programmed, and introduced conscription.
Asia[]
Japan, as a Central ally, had made several post-war territorial gains and establish hegemony over East Asia. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan, which had long sought influence in Indonesia as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia, staged the Java Incident as a pretext to invade Indonesia and establish a puppet state. From 1932 to 1936, the Showa movement led by Hirohito seized power in Japan with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Japan a world power, and promising the creation of a “New Order Movement”.
The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party allies and new regional warlords. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan. After the 1936 Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.
Pre-war events
Japanese invasion of the Indonesia and China (1930-38)[]
The Indonesian Civil War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1930 and ended in May 1932. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Indonesian Revolutionary Front and Empire of Japan and the colonial armed forces of the Dutch East Indies. The war resulted in the military occupation of Indonesia by Japan, end of colonial Dutch rule, and its annexation into the newly created colony of East Indies Kingdom (Firipin-kyōwakoku, SPR). The United Kingdom supported imposing sanctions on Japan for the invasion, but they were not fully enforced and failed to end the Japanese invasion.
Japanese General Iwane Matsui rides into Nanking, 13 December 1937.
In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beijing after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support. Generalissimo Lin Bao deployed his army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in October 1937 and committed the Nanking Massacre.
In March 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this maneuver bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defenses at Wuhan, the city was taken by June. The Japanese continue to have successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December. Japanese military victories brought the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; the remnant Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and the Sino-Japanese Ceasefire Agreement was signed.
"Execution" of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Communist militiamen. It sparked European-wide fears that the Communists would lead to worker revolution and political radicalism.
Spanish Civil War (1936-39)[]
When civil war broke out in Spain, Germany and Austria-Hungary lent military support to the Nationalist rebels. Austria-Hungary supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Germans did: altogether USAH sent to Spain more than 70,000 ground troops and 6,000 aviation personnel, as well as about 720 aircraft. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic, led by Juan Negrín. More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Republicans won the civil war in April 1939; Negrín, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally favored the Allies. His greatest collaboration with Russia was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front.
American Japanese border conflicts[]
Following the Japanese false flag Mukden Incident in 1931, the Japanese shelling of the American gunboat USS Panay in 1937, and the 1937–38 Nanjing Massacre, Japanese American relations deteriorated. In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in the South Pacific had sporadic border clashes with the United Kingdom and United States. The Japanese doctrine of Nanshin-ron, which emphasized Japan's expansion southward, was favored by the Imperial Navy during this time. With the Japanese defeat in Singapore in 1939 and ally Germany pursuing neutrality with America, this policy would prove difficult to maintain. In 1939, the United States notified Japan that it would not be extending its trade treaty and American public opinion opposing Japanese expansionism led to a series of economic sanctions, the Export Control Acts, which banned U.S. exports of chemicals, minerals and military parts to Japan and increased economic pressure on the Japanese regime. Japan and the Americans eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Hokushin-ron, promoted by the Army, which took its focus northward, eventually leading to its war with the Soviet Union.
European and Asian occupation and agreement[]
In Europe, Soviet Russia was becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Russia annexed Ukraine, again provoking little response from other European powers. Soon Germany and Austria-Hungary conceded this territory to Soviet Russia, which was made against the wishes of the Finnish government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Encouraged, Stalin began pressing Ukrainian claims on Donbass, an area of Ukraine with a predominantly ethnic Russian population. Soon the German Empire and Austria-Hungary followed the appeasement policy of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and conceded this territory to the Soviet Union in the Moscow Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Ukrainian government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands.
Although all of Russia's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Stalin was furious that German interference had prevented him from seizing all of Ukraine in one operation. In subsequent speeches, Stalin attacked Germans and anti-Soviet "imperialists" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the Soviet navy to establish naval supremacy in Baltic and Black Sea. In March 1939, Soviet Union invaded the remainder of Ukraine and subsequently split it into the Soviet Protectorate of Ukraine and a pro-Soviet client state, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Stalin also delivered an ultimatum to Belarus on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Vitebsk Region.
On 23 August, the tripartite negotiations between France, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union culminated in the signing of an military alliance against Germany. This military alliance was part of the containment strategy that aimed to build a "peace front" of alliances linking Western and Eastern European states to "deter" the German Empire. The pact served as a key component of this strategy and was intended to strengthen the interlocking network of alliances designed to block any potential German aggression. The anchors of the proposed "peace front" were Britain, France, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Turkey, and the pact was an important step towards achieving this goal. With this pact in place, the alliance partners were able to demonstrate a united front against any potential aggression from Germany and send a clear message of deterrence. As part of the alliance, a secret protocol was included which defined the Soviet Union's "spheres of influence". These spheres of influence included eastern Poland, Finland, the United Baltic Dutchy, and Bessarabia. While the pact was intended to create a united front against German aggression, the secret protocol highlighted the Soviet Union's territorial ambitions in the region.
In August 1939, Japan and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Matsuoka Pact, a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights to "spheres of influence" (China and south Manchuria for Japan; Mongolia, Sakhalin Islands, north Manchuria and Port Arthur for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Korean independence. The agreement was crucial to Stalin because it assured that Russia would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war in any future conflict.
Course of the War[]
War breaks out in Europe (1939-40)[]
On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as a pretext to initiate the invasion. Germany responded with an ultimatum to Russia to cease military operations, and on 23 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Germany and Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia, followed by Italy, Romania, and the Ottoman Empire. During the Twilight War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of a cautious Bulgarian probe into the South Dobruja.
On 28 September, Russian troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw. The Polish counter offensive to the west halted the Russian advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Red Army. Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Russians, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6 October.
The German Wehrmacht-led UETO forces moved in, occupied the western and central part of Poland. On 6 October, Stalin made a public peace overture to Germany and Austria-Hungary but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected, and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against Russia, which was postponed until the summer of 1941.
After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts that stipulated the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries. In October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. In January 1940, the Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region.
Western Europe[]
France declared war on Germany on 1 October, with Great Britain joining in on 3 October. The Royal Navy also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country's economy and the war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.
German troops in Paris
On 10 November, Germany launched an offensive against France. Germany attacks through the vassal state of Belgium. The Germans carried out a flanking maneuver through the Ardennes region, which was mistakenly perceived by Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armored vehicles. By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics, the Wehrmacht rapidly advanced against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14 December. On 20 December, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom, and France was eventually divided into German and Italian occupation zones. On 27 January, the Boudreaux garrison surrendered to the Germans, and the last large operational unit of the French Army surrendered on 6 February. Despite the military defeat, France never surrendered; instead, it formed the French government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied France. A significant part of French military personnel evacuated to French Algeria; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of the war.
In 8 April 1940, the Allies launched a strategic campaign to disrupt German access to Swedish iron ore, placing minefields within Norwegian territorial waters. 10 April, as Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore, the British swiftly executed the second phase of their Baltic offensive with the deployment of the British fleet, along with strategic ground occupations, aimed to exert naval dominance, sever German supply lines, and disrupt their iron ore shipments. By neutralizing the Sola airfield and securing key cities, the Allies sought to curtail German control in the region. Although Denmark capitulated after a few hours, Norway was narrowly conquered within three months despite Allied support. The loss of Norway had significant ramifications for the strategic balance in the region. It allowed the Germans to establish naval and air bases, providing them with a launching pad for further operations in the North Atlantic and the British Isles. Building on their success, the Germans turned their attention to Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of the British Isles.
On July 29, 1940, Germany launched an invasion of Spain, crossing the Pyrenees. Under the command of Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau, the objective was to seize the strategically important British naval base of Gibraltar and disrupt Allied supply lines in the Mediterranean. The newly formed German Spanisches Korp swiftly captured cities such as Valladolid, Cáceres, and Seville by August 15, paving the way for the Siege of Gibraltar. Despite the British putting up a fierce defense, the simultaneous German invasion of Britain forced the British to relinquish control of the naval base and prioritize the defense of the British Isles. Consequently, the United Kingdom managed to evacuate a significant number of British troops from the continent by early June, albeit leaving behind almost all of their equipment.
The air Battle of Britain began in early April with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbors. The United Kingdom rejected Hitler's peace offer, and the German air superiority campaign started in May and succeeded in defeating the RAF Fighter Command, expediting the planning for the German invasion of Britain. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in the Blitz, significantly disrupting the British war effort and largely culminating in Operation Sea Lion in September 1940.
These initial German landings achieved their objectives, resulting in the capture of British Army units across England. London fell to German forces on October 15, and throughout the latter part of the month, the British troops faced significant setbacks as the Germans pushed them back. A major airborne operation aimed at advancing into Wales, however, did not succeed. Undeterred, the German forces continued their advance into central England, launching a large offensive with the goal of capturing the town of Derby. However, the British defenses proved resilient, and by early December, the German forces encountered a strong defensive line that impeded their progress. In response, the British launched a counteroffensive, leading to a prolonged stalemate in the Battle of Britain that would persist for almost two more years. British discontent over the British Isle campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 12 December 1940.
At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Austria-Hungary, and Germany as the Axis powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Italy, Slovakia and Romania joined. Romania and Italy later made major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Japanese-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war.
Mediterranean (1940-41)[]
Italian bombing of Malta, April 1940.
In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta, a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy made an incursion into British-held Egypt. In October, Germany attacked South Africa, but the attack was repulsed with heavy German casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. Germany started preparation for an invasion of North Africa to assist Italy, to prevent the British from gaining a foothold there, which would be a potential threat for Romanian oil fields, and to strike against the British dominance of the Mediterranean.
In December 1940, British Empire forces began offensives against Axis forces in Egypt and German Central Africa. The offensives were highly successful; by early February 1941, the Axis had lost control of eastern Libya and German East Africa, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by means of a carrier attack at Taranto and neutralizing several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.
Italian defeats prompted Germany to abandon offensives in North Africa and re-deploy an expeditionary force to Central Africa and at the end of March 1941, Rommel's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces. In under a month, German forces advanced to southern South Africa and besieged the port of Cape Town.
In the Middle East in May, British Imperial forces invaded Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Syria. Between June and July, they invaded and occupied the Ottoman possessions of Syria and Lebanon.
Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941)[]
Further information: Operation Barbarossa and Kantokuen Offensive
Japanese troops marching through Vladivostok.
With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. The Axis powers were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet borders.
Axis powers believed that the United Kingdom's and Soviet Union's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States would enter the war against them sooner or later. On 31 July 1940, Germany and Japan decided that the Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of the country. In November 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.
On 22 June 1941, Japan and Germany, supported by Austria-Hungary and Romania, simultaneously invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa and Kantokuen Offensive, respectively. They were joined shortly by Italy and Bulgaria. The European Axis primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the Caspian to the White Seas. Japan aimed to conquer Sakhalin Island, Vladivostok, and Mongolia as part of their strategy to ultimately reach the Yenisei River and weaken the Soviet Union's centralized government, thereby impeding their capacity to resist any additional advances. The Axis’s objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Japan’s Hokushin-ron ("northern expansion") by dispossessing the native population and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Axis's remaining rivals.
Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter offensives before the war, Kantokuen and Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defense. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By mid-August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible further advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov). The Japanese Third and Twentieth Armies, along with the 19th Division of the Korean Army, penetrate the border south of Lake Khanka to overcome the main Soviet defensive lines and threaten Vladivostok. The Fifth Army strikes just south of Iman to complete the isolation of the Maritime Province, sever the Trans-Siberian Railway, and block any reinforcements arriving from the north. The Fourth Army at first holds the Amur River line before it transitions to the offensive against Blagoveshchensk. With assistance from the battleship Musashi bombardment, Japanese forces also launch amphibious operations against Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and other parts of the Kamchatka Peninsula. In response to the Japanese invasion, in late August or early September 1941, the Soviet Union and Mongolia called on more than a million men to confront the Japanese. About two-thirds of the personnel and the entire navy were on the Amur-Ussuri-Sakhalin Front, while the rest defended Mongolia and the Trans-Baikal region.
The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the Japan and the Germany formed a military alliance against Soviet Union and in August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, which outlined British and American goals for the post-war world. In late August the British and Soviets invaded neutral Iran to secure the Persian Corridor, Iran's oil fields, and preempt any Axis advances through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or India.
By October, Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing. A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forced to suspend their offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended.
Soviet counterattack during the battle of Krasnoyarsk, March 1942.
By early December, freshly mobilized reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data that established a sufficient number of Soviet troops in the East sufficient to stall any further attacks by the Japanese Kwantung Army, allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter offensive that started on 5 December along a 1,000 km (620 mi) front and pushed German troops 100–250 km (62–160 mi) west.
Following the Japanese triumph in the battles of Khalkhin Gol and Ulan Bator, the Japanese Kwantung Army achieved its objective of establishing a stronghold in Mongolia and Zabaykalsky Krai while eliminating three Soviet armies. Subsequently, on March 12, 1942, Japan launched a massive offensive towards the Krasnoyarsk Krai with the aim of encircling Soviet forces battling in the heavily fortified Irkutsk Oblast. By May 1942, the offensive was unsuccessful, and the Japanese suffered a massive loss.
The war breaks out in the Pacific (1941)[]
Surrender of British forces in Hong Kong, January 1942.
Since early 1941 the United Kingdom and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations, Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the British as inadequate. At the same time the United States and the United Kingdom engaged in secret discussions for the joint defense of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced Alaska and warned Japan that the United States would react to Japanese attacks against any "neighboring countries".
Their successes in the Soviet Far East encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. Emboldened at the rapid progress in the north and feeling the pinch of the American–British alliance, Japan prepared for war in the Pacific. Emperor Hirohito, after initial hesitation about Japan's chances of victory, began to favor Japan's plan for attack. As a result, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe resigned. Hirohito refused the recommendation to appoint Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni in his place, choosing War Minister Hideki Tojo instead. On 3 November, Nagano explained in detail the plan of the attack on Singapore to the Emperor.
With the Japanese utilizing the resources of Southeast Asia, Japan planned to seize the remaining European colonies in Asia, solidifying their large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific while exhausting the overstretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent Anglo-American intervention while securing the perimeter, it was further planned to neutralize the British Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in Alaska from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the North Pacific. These included an attack on the British fleets at Singapore and Port Moresby, Fiji, American Samoa, Samoa, New Caledonia, landings in Alaska and the Battle of Hong Kong.
The Japanese invasion of Alaska and the other Japanese attacks led the United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia, and several other states to formally declare war on Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.
Axis advances stalls (1942-1943)[]
On 1 January 1942, the Allied Big Four —the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter, and agreeing not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers.
During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany and Japan was the primary objective. The Americans favored a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets were also demanding a second front in Europe and direct troop support in the Far East. The British, on the other hand, after the subsequent liberation of England, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralization, and bolster resistance forces. Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armor without using large-scale armies through the Balkans. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in British Isles was feasible in 1943 and then they should focus on driving the Axis out of the Mediterranean. The United States and Soviet Union agreed as well, in eventually sending reinforcements to the Russian Far East to alleviate the Soviet forces there.
During the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies agreed to demand the unconditional surrender of their enemies, reiterating the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration. The British and Soviets committed to jointly continue pressing the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to secure the Mediterranean supply routes, undertaking further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, and invading the Italian mainland in 1943. The culmination of these efforts will eventually be known as Operation Zhar-Ptitsa, the liberation of Eastern and Central Europe, launched by united British and Soviet forces.
Pacific (1942-1943)[]
American dive bombers preparing to engage the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Midway, June 1942.
By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally GEACOP nations had almost fully conquered Fiji, American Samoa, Samoa, New Caledonia, Hong Kong, and Port Moresby, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite stubborn resistance by British forces, Singapore was eventually captured in May 1942. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division. Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean, and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. These easy victories over the unprepared US and European opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.
In early May 1942, the success of the Coral Sea Offensive server communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. Japan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, initiated operations to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle. In early June, Japan put its operations into action, but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.
With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua. The Americans planned a counterattack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Port Moresby, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.
Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna–Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese frontlines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.
Soviet Counter Offensives (1942-1943)[]
British soldiers advance through the hazy ruins of Stalingrad, December 1942.
On 27 January 1942, Soviet troops launched a major offensive that expelled German forces from the Leningrad region. The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region.
With considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies were unable to stop a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, losing most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year. In May, the Soviets defeated German's offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov, but the Germans launched another main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, a last attempt to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy the Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Sevastopol on the Black Sea.
By mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Sevastopol in bitter street fighting. The Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Sevastopol, and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow. On 31 November, in accordance with the Anglo-Soviet agreement, the British forces launched a massive offensive into Crimea to relieve Soviet forces in Sevastopol. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Sevastopol had been defeated, and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, the Germans tried to stabilize their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther–Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensive.
Western Europe (1943)[]
Allied invasion of Wales, 11 May 1942
On 19 August 1942, the Anglo-American forces launched a successful invasion of western England and Wales. After moving several Allied divisions from Scotland, they also attacked south into England, achieving significant victories over the German forces. The Allies were able to break through the German defenses and begin to push them back in southern England, leading to the eventual defeat of the German Army units in Great Britain. The landings were a critical turning point in the war, allowing the Allies to gain a foothold on the European continent and putting them in a strong position to launch further offensives against Germany.
London was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the British Auxiliary Forces on September 14, marking a significant victory for the Allied forces. The Western Allies continued their push into southern England during the latter part of the month, further weakening the German forces in the region. The success of the invasion paved the way for the Allies to launch further offensives in Europe, with the aim of ultimately defeating Germany and ending the war. The events of May and July 1942 marked a critical juncture in the Second World War and helped to turn the tide of the conflict in favor of the Allies. The primary objective remained the defeat of Germany and Japan, with the British advocating for a peripheral strategy targeting areas to wear out German strength and bolster resistance forces, while the Americans favored a direct, large-scale attack on Germany through France.
Central Africa/Mediterranean (1942-43)[]
British Crusader tanks moving to forward positions during the North African Campaign.
United Nations gain momentum (1943-44)[]
In fall of 1943, the Allies began preparations for a new campaign aimed at striking the "soft underbelly of Europe" - the southern part of the continent - as a way of diverting German resources away from the Eastern Front. The plan was to launch a joint British and American invasion of Italy. On September 10, 1943, Allied forces landed in Sicily, marking the beginning of the Italian Campaign.
After the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and US forces eliminated Japanese forces from the Aleutians, ending the Alaskan campaign. Soon after, the United States, with support from Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces, began major ground, sea and air operations to isolate Port Moresby by capturing surrounding islands, and breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives and had also neutralized the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea
1st Guards Mechanized Corps with a T-34 of the 1st Guards Tank Army during the Battle of Kursk.
In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 5 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defenses, and for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled an operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of England launched two months earlier. As part of their efforts to secure their northern flank and protect their Arctic convoys, the Soviet Union also entered the territory of Norway from Finland. By late summer 1943, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which was repulsed by the Axis troops.
On 12 August 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. On 22 September, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ("Operation Bagration") that almost completely destroyed the German Army Group Centre. The British offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June Rome was captured.
Following the Allied capture of Rome, Operation: Zhar-Ptitsa was launched in 17 January 1944. The Soviet Red Army initiated a strategic offensive in eastern Romania which resulted in the destruction of considerable German troops and led to a successful coup d'état in Romania and Bulgaria, prompting these countries to switch to the Allied side. In 31 January 1944, British forces liberated Athens after invading Greece, and on March 10, they began their strategic offensive in Albania.
American soldiers taking up defensive positions in the Khabarovsk Krai during the Battle of Khabarovsk
In March 1943, the Japanese initiated a series of aggressive offensives through Mongolia with the goal of capturing Krasnoyarsk and expanding their territorial control. The Soviet Union responded with a fierce counteroffensive that pushed back Japanese forces and thwarted their plans for further territorial expansion. Meanwhile, in a display of allied cooperation, the United States sent forces to the Russian Far East to support the Soviet Union in their efforts against the Japanese invasion. In late 1943, Soviet and American forces launched a counteroffensive in the Russian Far East against the Japanese. Soviet forces recaptured the cities of Blagoveshchensk and Kuibyshevka, while American forces helped clear the Japanese from Kamchatka Peninsula and Northern Sakhalin. However, Japanese forces continued their operations against the Soviet Union, with some success in Northern Sakhalin.
The fighting in the region continued through 1944, with both sides engaging in fierce battles for control of key strategic points. The Japanese, having suffered significant losses and facing the prospect of a renewed Soviet offensive, began to withdraw their forces from the region in the summer of 1944, marking the end of their invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviet victory at Kursk and Krasnoyarsk heralded the downfall of Axis superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on all fronts.
From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief. Soviets also made incursions into eastern Mongolia, which were repulsed by the Japanese troops.
Gurkhas advancing with Lee tanks to clear the Japanese from Imphal-Kohima Road in Northeastern British India.
The Allies experienced mixed fortunes in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against British positions in Assam, India, and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma, and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion attempted to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a renewed attack against Changsha in the Hunan province.
By the start of July, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese were having greater successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they further invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of December.
In the Pacific, American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944 they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Tōjō and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.
United Nations close in (1944)[]
In early 1944, the Allied forces were primarily focused on consolidating their gains and preparing for further offensives. The Soviet Union, however, made some significant advances in Europe. In January 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off. By this point, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Soviet Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 February. A few days later, the British-Soviet forces launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in March 1944 and encircling another 110,000 Axis troops in the process.
British Army troops wade ashore on Barcelona Beach on the morning of 14 May 1944
On 22 June, Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Eastern Poland. The Slovak resistance, with the help of the Soviet Union, rose up against the German occupation forces in the country. The national uprising in Slovakia was largely successful and forced the Germans to retreat from most of Slovakia. In addition to these events, the Red Army continued to advance towards Germany. Warsaw was taken by Soviet forces in August, and the city of Konigsberg was under siege by September. These offensives placed the Soviet Union in a strong position as they prepared for their final push towards Berlin.
On 15 August 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, which was a large-scale amphibious invasion of Provence in Southern France. The operation involved U.S. Seventh Army and British IX Corps, forming the U.K 6th Army Group, and was aimed at quickly consolidating a beachhead and liberating western and southern France. The operation was a success, and the Allies were able to achieve their objectives in just a month, advancing north up the Rhone valley.
However, the Allied advance was slowed down as they encountered regrouped and entrenched German troops in the Vosges Mountains. This caused a significant delay in the Allied campaign, and it took few months for them to push through the region. Despite the challenges, the Allies were eventually able to break through and continue their advance towards Paris. On 9 October, U.S, British, and Soviet leaders met for the Malta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Europe, and on when the Allies would invade Japan.
In response to the allies' request for a relief offensive, the Soviets launched the Vistula-Elbe campaign in November 1944. The German forces were stretched thin, and the Soviets, with a superior numerical advantage, quickly broke through their defenses. In just one month, the Red Army advanced 500 km to the West. Soviet troops stormed and captured Berlin in late November. On 30 December the Reichstag was captured, signaling the military defeat of Germany, and the Berlin garrison surrendered on 2 January. After seizing Berlin, the Soviet forces swiftly advanced towards Vienna and Prague, which also had an uprising. Continuing their momentum, the Red Army made rapid progress through northern Germany, reaching the Rhine, mirroring their tactics from the Vistula-Elbe campaign.
Parisians line the Champs Élysées as halftracks pass before the Arc de Triomphe on 26 November
With the successful invasion of Southern France, the Allies quickly began to make progress in the country. As they advanced north up the Rhone valley, they encountered little resistance from the German forces who were struggling to maintain their grip on the country. Over the next few months, the Allies slowly but surely gained control over most of the country, with Paris becoming the next target.
The liberation of Paris was a major milestone for the Allies in their campaign to defeat Germany. On November 25, 1944, French forces working with the Allies launched an uprising in the city, which led to the German forces withdrawing from the city on November 26. The city was then formally liberated by the Allies, with General Charles de Gaulle leading the victory parade down the Champs-Élysées.
Axis collapse and Allies victory (1944-46)[]
Soviet artillery firing on Japanese forces near the Mongolian state border, August 1944
In fall of 1944, the Soviet Union launched a massive offensive against the Japanese in Manchuria, aiming to drive them out of the region, defeat the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force, and force their surrender. The Soviet Union had been building up their military forces in the Far East, giving them a significant advantage in terms of numbers and resources. The offensive was launched on October 9, 1944, with a massive artillery bombardment and infantry assault that quickly overwhelmed the Japanese forces, quickly.
Within days, the Soviets had captured several key cities, including Changchun and Harbin, and continued their advance throughout the summer and fall. The Japanese retreated to the coast, while the Soviet Union consolidated their gains. American forces played a significant role in the offensive, providing air support and supplies to the Soviet Union. The joint Soviet American operations aimed to clear the Japanese from Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands, which the Soviet Union ultimately captured on 25 October 1944.
Major changes in leadership occurred on both sides during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by his vice president, Harry S. Truman. On 30 April, total and unconditional surrender in Europe was signed on 7 and 8 September, to be effective by the end of 8 September.
In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and captured Manila in March following a battle which reduced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao and other islands of the Philippines until 30 May. In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, overrunning the oilfields there. British, American and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May. Chinese forces started to counterattack in Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American forces also moved toward Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June. American bombers destroyed Japanese cities, and American submarines cut off Japanese imports.
On 11 July, the Allied leaders met in Strasbourg, France. They confirmed earlier agreements about France and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction". During this conference the United Kingdom held its general election, and Churchill is reelected over Clement Attlee as Prime Minister.
American and Soviet troops meet on March 15, 1946, west of the Tokyo.
As the inevitability of defeat loomed and the threat of an impending invasion grew, the Japanese Emperor and Supreme War Council made the decision to surrender any remaining forces, hoping to salvage what was left of their country. On the night of 9–10 November 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his decision to accept the terms demanded by the Allies in the Potsdam Declaration. On 15 November, however, their plans were foiled by the Kyūjō Incident. The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese putschists, which believed it would be capable of negotiating for more favorable surrender terms. After the Kyūjō Incident foiled any plans of surrender, the Soviet Union, seeing the inevitable defeat of Japan, decided to invade the Japanese home islands with Operation: Crimson Tide. The Americans and British, pursuant to the Malta agreement, invaded Japan on 1 December 1945. The American and Soviet forces linked up at Kōfu on 25 March 1946, after which Japan surrendered. The surrender documents were finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 10 April 1946, officially ending the war.
Aftermath[]
Ruins of the Reichstag in January 1944, after the deliberate destruction of the city by the occupying French forces
The Allies established occupation administrations in Germany and Japan. The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided into northern and southern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly. A denationalization program in Japan led to the prosecution of Japanese war criminals and the removal of ex-Statists from power, although this policy moved toward amnesty and re-integration of ex-Statists into South Japanese society.
Japan lost one-quarter of its pre-war (1939) territory, the eastern territories: United Kingdom occupied Okinawa, the Amami Islands, the Ogasawara Islands and Japanese possessions in Micronesia. Taiwan, Penghu, and Manchuria were divided between People's Republic of China and the USSR, followed by the expulsion of the nine million Japanese from these provinces, as well as of three million Japanese from Korea, to Japan. By the 1950s, every fifth South Japanese was a refugee from the north. The USSR also took over the Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
Soviet troop raising a flag over the Reichstag, giving the "Victory" sign to crowds in Berlin on Victory in Europe Day after the fall of Paris.
In an effort to maintain peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 23 October 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations. The great powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, Soviet Union, China, and Britain—formed the permanent members of the UNTO's Security Council. The four permanent members remain so to the present, although there has been one seat change, between the United Kingdom and its successor state, the Republic of Great Britain, following the dissolution of the United Kingdom. The alliance between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.
In Europe, the Soviet Union and the U.K led the occupation of Japan while the United States administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Japan had been de facto divided, and two independent states, Federal Republic of Japan and Democratic People's Republic Japan were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided onto Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Most north, eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, and Germany became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy but still maintaining good relationships with the USSR.
Post-war division of the world was formalized by two international military alliances, the British-led European Defense Community and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact; the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the Cold War, would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and proxy wars.
In China, Nationalist and Communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949 until finally defeated in 1951. In the Middle East, the Arab recognition of the United Kingdom Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the beginning of the Arab Israeli peaceful coexistence. While European colonial powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonization. Only the U.K manages to maintain its empire by reforming it into the Imperial Federation.
The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The United States emerged much richer than any other nation, leading to a baby boom, and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers, and it dominated the world economy. The Allied occupational authorities pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Germany from 1945 to 1948. Due to international trade interdependencies, this policy led to an economic stagnation in Europe and delayed European recovery from the war for several years. Recovery began with the mid 1948 currency reform in Germany and France and was sped up by the liberalization of European economic policy that the Molotov Plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused. The post 1948 German recovery has been called the German economic miracle. Also, the Italian and French economies rebounded. By contrast, China was in a state of economic ruin, and it received one-quarter of the total Molotov Plan assistance, more than any other European and Asian country. The United States created the MacArthur Plan, to rebuild southern Japan and other Pacific islands and installed democratic governments.
The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and materiel losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. Korea experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.