WWII

Many called the First World War (1914-1918) "the war to end war."¹ And yet, only two decades later, most of the world was engaged in the biggest and deadliest armed conflict in recorded history, the Second World War (1939-1945). World War II was a complex event fought on different continents between the Allies and Axis Powers. In 1945, the world changed dramatically, not only because of the war's devastation but also because of the rearrangement of the global order.

Fig. 1 - Nazi German advance on Moscow in October 1941

World War II Summary

The Second World War (1939-1945) was the bloodiest conflict in the history of humankind. The war was fought between the Allies and Axis Powers in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Its death toll is difficult to determine with some estimates being upward of 70 million.

World War II: Causes

Historians identify several long-term and short-term causes of World War II.

Long-Term Causes

1. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919)
2. The Great Depression (1929)
3. Militarism in Germany and Japan
4. German Nazism
5. Japanese imperialism
6. The League of Nations' inability to prevent war

Short-Term Causes

1. The Mukden Incident (1931) and Japan's invasion of China in 1937 (Second Sino-Japanese War)
2. The Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
3. German annexation of Austria (1938) and Czechoslovakia (1938) and the invasion of Poland (1939)

World War II: Countries

The Second World War was fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers.

World War II: Allies

The Big Three (Grand Alliance) led several Allied countries to victory in Europe on May 8, 1945, and in Japan on September 2, 1945. The Allied leaders were:

• Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
• Winston Churchill (Britain)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (United States) followed by Harry Truman after April 1945

The Allied leadership met at wartime conferences to discuss joint strategy as well as the global order after the war:

• Casablanca, January 14-24, 1943*
• Cairo, November 22-26, 1943*
• Tehran, November 28-December 1, 1943
• Yalta, February 4-11, 1945
• Potsdam, July 17-August 2, 1945

*excluding Stalin.

Axis Initiative and Allied Reaction

The Second World War was a very complex event fought in multiple war theaters, including:

• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• North Africa

Initially, the Axis Powers were successful.

The Allies generally responded to these actions. As time went on, the momentum shifted to the Allied side.

Fig. 2 - German Luftwaffe bomber over East London, September 7, 1940

World War II: Axis Powers

In addition to Germany occupying much of Europe and Africa, it is important to look at Japan and Italy briefly.

Japan

Japan annexed Korea in 1910 and Chinese Manchuria in 1931. Japan called its empire the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. During the war, Japan invaded:

• Vietnam
• Burma (Myanmar)
• Laos
• Thailand
• Cambodia
• Philippines

Japan primarily fought the United States in the Asia-Pacific theater.

Italy

Between 1922 and 1943, fascist Benito Mussolini ruled Italy. Mussolini sought to expand its African colonies by acquiring Tunisia and Algeria, but they were under the German collaborationist Vichy regime. Italy invaded places like Egypt and fought the British troops in Africa. The fascist government collapsed in 1943, and the Allied liberation of Italy began.

World War II: Timelines

Many major events took place during the war, including:

Fig. 3 - Europe at the height of Nazi German occupation, 1941-1942, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Rise of the Third Reich: WWII and the Nazi Party

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) came into power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 after involvement with the Nazi (National-Socialist) Party for several years. Hitler's beliefs included:

• Grievances over the unfair terms of the Treaty of Versailles after WWI in which Germany was to pay reparations and lost historical territories. These terms sent Germany into economic turmoil in the 1920s.
• Racial superiority of the "Aryan race" over others, especially the Jews, Slavs, and the Roma.
• Lebensraum ("living space"): an expansionist ideology seeking to conquer others' land, especially the Soviet Union, for ethnic Germans.
• Militarism.

Fig. 4 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini

In the lead-up to WWII, Hitler pursued his goal of the Third Reich "super state" by:

• establishing and enlarging the Wehrmacht (armed forces)
• creating an air force
• building up a fleet of U-boats

These actions contradicted the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, including:

• Remilitarization of Rhineland
• Annexation of Austria

When Hitler went to reclaim the historical German Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, Britain, France, and Italy decided to acknowledge Germany's annexation of that territory through the 1938 Munich Agreement, on the condition that Hitler would not attempt any further expansion. Some historians called it appeasement. On September 1, 1939, Hitler's army invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany, and the Second World War began.

Nazi Occupation in WWII

By the middle of 1940, Germany was occupying much of Western Europe. They had achieved this feat by engaging in a military tactic that came to be called Blitzkrieg ("lightning war") which combined the elements of speed, surprise, and military power. Some historians consider Blitzkrieg to be highly effective and responsible for Germany's swift occupation of Europe.

German tactics involved:

• Surprise bombings on locations like military or communication headquarters and bridges
• Large brigades of tanks and heavy artillery would sweep through enemy territory
• Paratroopers were placed in strategic positions in enemy territory to prevent retreats or interfere with supply lines

Despite these initial successes, the Allies were able to challenge Germany all the way to victory.

The Holocaust in WWII

Shortly after Hitler came into power in 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was opened. Labeled as a camp for political prisoners, it soon became one of the death camps where thousands of Jewish people were killed during the war. The Nazis targeted the Jews and other minorities based on their hierarchic racialist ideas.

The Nazis used:

• extermination camps
• labor camps
• ghettos

for those they perceived inferior.

Some locations include:

• Dachau
• Auschwitz
• Birkenau
• Treblinka
• Majdanek

In camps, people died from overwork, starvation, and disease or were killed in gas chambers.

Fig. 6 - Prisoners in the Ebensee concentration camp

Medical experimentation was also a frequent occurrence in concentration camps. Thousands fell victim to the cruel and frequently deadly experiments by German doctors done on behalf of the German army, pharmaceutical companies, and sometimes for the doctors' own interests.

Fig. 7 - Montgomery (UK), Zhukov (Soviet Union), and Rokossovsky (Soviet Union) at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, 1945

The End of War War II

After the launch of the second front in continental Europe through Normandy Landings, the Allies wore down the Nazi war machine. The Americans and Soviets linked up in Germany in April 1945. A victory was declared on May 8, 1945 (V/E Day) by the western Allies, and May 9 (Victory Day) for the Soviet Union.

In the Asia-Pacific theater, Japan was suffering defeat after defeat but did not officially surrender. Some scholars believe the latter to be linked to Japanese culture. President Harry Truman ordered the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. Their use led to a large civilian death toll of up to 200,000 and injuries, cancer, and radiation birth defects.

Some historians believe that Truman wanted to show off these new weapons to its wartime ally and a new ideological rival, the Soviet Union. On September 2, 1945, Japan signed official surrender documents, and WWII came to an end.

Fig. 8 - Mamoru Shigemitsu signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945