The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization responsible for maintaining international

peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation, and being a
center for harmonizing the actions of nations.[2] It is the largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and
most powerful intergovernmental organization in the world. The UN is headquartered on international
territory in New York City; other main offices are in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna and The Hague.
The UN was established after World War II with the aim of preventing future wars, succeeding the
ineffective League of Nations.[3] On 25 April 1945, 50 governments met in San Francisco for a conference and
started drafting the UN Charter, which was adopted on 25 June 1945 and took effect on 24 October 1945, when the
UN began operations. Pursuant to the Charter, the organization's objectives include maintaining international peace
and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development, and
upholding international law.[4] At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; this number grew to 193 in 2011,
[5]
 representing the vast majority of the world's sovereign states.
The organization's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between
the United States and Soviet Union and their respective allies. Its missions have consisted primarily of unarmed
military observers and lightly armed troops with primarily monitoring, reporting and confidence-building roles.[6] UN
membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization beginning in the 1960s. Since then, 80 former
colonies have gained independence, including 11 trust territories that had been monitored by the Trusteeship
Council.[7] By the 1970s, the UN's budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its
spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN shifted and expanded its field operations,
undertaking a wide variety of complex tasks.[8]
The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly; the Security Council; the Economic and Social Council;
the Trusteeship Council; the International Court of Justice; and the UN Secretariat. The UN System includes a
multitude of specialized agencies, such as the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food
Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF. Additionally, non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative
status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN's work. The UN's chief administrative officer is
the Secretary-General, currently Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres since 1 January 2017. The
organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states.
The UN, its officers, and its agencies have won many Nobel Peace Prizes, though other evaluations of its
effectiveness have been mixed. Some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace
and human development, while others have called it ineffective, biased, or corrupt.

Background
In the century prior to the UN's creation, several international treaty organizations such as the International
Committee of the Red Cross was formed to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife.
[9]
 In 1914, a political assassination in Sarajevo set off a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I. As
more and more young men were sent down into the trenches, influential voices in the United States and Britain
began calling for the establishment of a permanent international body to maintain peace in the postwar world.
President Woodrow Wilson became a vocal advocate of this concept, and in 1918 he included a sketch of the
international body in his 14-point proposal to end the war. In November 1918, the Central Powers agreed to an
armistice to halt the killing in World War I. Two months later, the Allies met with Germany and Austria-Hungary at
Versailles to hammer out formal peace terms. President Wilson wanted peace, but the United Kingdom and France
disagreed, forcing harsh war reparations on their former enemies. The League of Nations was approved, and in the
summer of 1919 Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations to the US
Senate for ratification. On 10 January 1920, the League of Nations formally comes into being when the Covenant of
the League of Nations, ratified by 42 nations in 1919, takes effect.[10] However, at some point the League became
ineffective when it failed to act against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria as in February 1933, 40 nations voted
for Japan to withdraw from Manchuria but Japan voted against it and walked out of the League instead of
withdrawing from Manchuria.[11] It also failed against the Second Italo-Ethiopian War despite trying to talk to Benito
Mussolini as he used the time to send an army to Africa, so the League had a plan for Mussolini to just take a part of
Ethiopia, but he ignored the League and invaded Ethiopia, the League tried putting sanctions on Italy, but Italy had
already conquered Ethiopia and the League had failed.[12] After Italy conquered Ethiopia, Italy and other nations left
the league. But all of them realized that it had failed and they began to re-arm as fast as possible. During 1938,
Britain and France tried negotiating directly with Hitler but this failed in 1939 when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia.
When war broke out in 1939, the League closed down and its headquarters in Geneva remained empty throughout
the war.[13] Although the United States never joined the League, the country did support its economic and social
missions through the work of private philanthropies and by sending representatives to committees.
1942 "Declaration of United Nations" by the Allies of World War II
Main article: Declaration by United Nations

1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the UN original three branches: The Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an
international assembly of forty UN member states

The earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the U.S. State Department in
1939.[14] The text of the "Declaration by United Nations" was drafted at the White House on 29 December 1941,
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins. It
incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France. "Four Policemen" was coined to refer to four major
Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Republic of China, which emerged in the
Declaration by United Nations.[15] Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries.
[a]
 "On New Year's Day 1942, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Maxim Litvinov, of the USSR, and T. V.
Soong, of China, signed a short document which later came to be known as the United Nations Declaration and the
next day the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures."[16] The term United Nations was
first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was
the addition of a provision for religious freedom, which Stalin approved after Roosevelt insisted.[17][18] By 1 March
1945, 21 additional states had signed.[19]
A JOINT DECLARATION BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN
AND NORTHERN IRELAND, THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, CHINA, AUSTRALIA, BELGIUM,
CANADA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, GREECE,
GUATEMALA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, LUXEMBOURG, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA,
NORWAY, PANAMA, POLAND, SOUTH AFRICA, YUGOSLAVIA
The Governments signatory hereto,
Having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the
President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Great Britain dated August 14, 1941, known as
the Atlantic Charter,
Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and
religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that
they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world,
DECLARE:

1. Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of
the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.
2. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a
separate armistice or peace with the enemies.
The foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material
assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.

— The Washington Conference 1941–1942

During the war, "the United Nations" became the official term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the
Declaration and declare war on the Axis.[20]

Founding

The UN in 1945: founding members in light blue, protectorates and territories of the founding members in dark blue

The UN was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the Allied Big Four (the United States,
the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China) at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference from 21 September 1944 to 7
October 1944 and they agreed on the aims, structure and functioning of the UN.[21][22][23] After months of planning,
the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco, 25 April 1945, attended by 50
governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the UN Charter.[24][25][26] "The
heads of the delegations of the sponsoring countries took turns as chairman of the plenary meetings: Anthony Eden,
of Britain, Edward Stettinius, of the United States, T. V. Soong, of China, and Vyacheslav Molotov, of the Soviet
Union. At the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mister Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and
Mister Gromyko for Mister Molotov."[27] The UN officially came into existence 24 October 1945, upon ratification of
the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet
Union, the UK and the US—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.[28]
The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented,[b] and the Security Council took place
in Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, London beginning on 10 January 1946.[28] The General Assembly selected
New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, construction began on 14 September 1948 and the facility
was completed on 9 October 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is
designated as international territory.[31] The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN
Secretary-General.[28]

Cold War era

Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active Secretary-General from 1953 until his death in 1961.

Though the UN's primary mandate was peacekeeping, the division between the US and USSR often paralysed the
organization, generally allowing it to intervene only in conflicts distant from the Cold War.[32] Two notable exceptions
were a Security Council resolution on 7 July 1950 authorizing a US-led coalition to repel the North Korean invasion
of South Korea, passed in the absence of the USSR,[28][33] and the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement in 27
July 1953.[34]
On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly approved a resolution to partition Palestine, approving the creation of
the state of Israel.[35] Two years later, Ralph Bunche, a UN official, negotiated an armistice to the resulting conflict.
[36]
 On 7 November 1956, the first UN peacekeeping force was established to end the Suez Crisis;[37] however, the UN
was unable to intervene against the USSR's simultaneous invasion of Hungary following that country's revolution.[38]
On 14 July 1960, the UN established United Nations Operation in the Congo (UNOC), the largest military force of its
early decades, to bring order to the breakaway State of Katanga, restoring it to the control of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo by 11 May 1964.[39] While travelling to meet rebel leader Moise Tshombe during the
conflict, Dag Hammarskjöld, often named as one of the UN's most effective Secretaries-General,[40] died in a plane
crash; months later he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[41] In 1964, Hammarskjöld's successor, U
Thant, deployed the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, which would become one of the UN's longest-running
peacekeeping missions.[42]
With the spread of decolonization in the 1960s, the organization's membership saw an influx of newly independent
nations. In 1960 alone, 17 new states joined the UN, 16 of them from Africa.[37] On 25 October 1971, with opposition
from the United States, but with the support of many Third World nations, the mainland, communist People's
Republic of China was given the Chinese seat on the Security Council in place of the Republic of China that
occupied Taiwan; the vote was widely seen as a sign of waning US influence in the organization.[43] Third World
nations organized into the Group of 77 coalition under the leadership of Algeria, which briefly became a dominant
power at the UN.[44] On 10 November 1975, a bloc comprising the USSR and Third World nations passed a
resolution, over strenuous US and Israeli opposition, declaring Zionism to be racism; the resolution was repealed on
16 December 1991, shortly after the end of the Cold War.[45][46]
With an increasing Third World presence and the failure of UN mediation in conflicts in the Middle East, Vietnam,
and Kashmir, the UN increasingly shifted its attention to its ostensibly secondary goals of economic development
and cultural exchange.[47] By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its
peacekeeping budget.

Post-Cold War

Kofi Annan, Secretary-General from 1997 to 2006

Flags of member nations at the United Nations Headquarters, seen in 2007

After the Cold War, the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties, taking on more missions in ten years
than it had in the previous four decades.[48] Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council
resolutions more than doubled, and the peacekeeping budget increased more than tenfold.[49][50][51] The UN negotiated
an end to the Salvadoran Civil War, launched a successful peacekeeping mission in Namibia, and oversaw
democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa and post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia.[52] In 1991, the UN authorized
a US-led coalition that repulsed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.[53] Brian Urquhart, Under-Secretary-General from 1971
to 1985, later described the hopes raised by these successes as a "false renaissance" for the organization, given
the more troubled missions that followed.[54]
Though the UN Charter had been written primarily to prevent aggression by one nation against another, in the early
1990s the UN faced a number of simultaneous, serious crises within nations such as Somalia, Haiti, Mozambique,
and the former Yugoslavia.[55] The UN mission in Somalia was widely viewed as a failure after the US withdrawal
following casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu, and the UN mission to Bosnia faced "worldwide ridicule" for its
indecisive and confused mission in the face of ethnic cleansing.[56] In 1994, the UN Assistance Mission for
Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan genocide amid indecision in the Security Council.[57]
Beginning in the last decades of the Cold War, American and European critics of the UN condemned the
organization for perceived mismanagement and corruption.[58] In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan, withdrew his
nation's funding from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) over allegations of
mismanagement, followed by the UK and Singapore.[59][60] Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General from 1992 to
1996, initiated a reform of the Secretariat, reducing the size of the organization somewhat.[61][62] His successor, Kofi
Annan (1997–2006), initiated further management reforms in the face of threats from the US to withhold its UN
dues.[62]
From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, international interventions authorized by the UN took a wider variety of
forms. The UN mission in the Sierra Leone Civil War of 1991–2002 was supplemented by British Royal Marines,
and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was overseen by NATO.[63] In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq despite
failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization, prompting a new round of questioning of the
organization's effectiveness.[64] Under the eighth Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the UN intervened with
peacekeepers in crises such as the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of
Congo and sent observers and chemical weapons inspectors to the Syrian Civil War.[65] In 2013, an internal review of
UN actions in the final battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered
"systemic failure".[66] In 2010, the organization suffered the worst loss of life in its history, when 101 personnel died in
the Haiti earthquake[67]
The Millennium Summit was held in 2000 to discuss the UN's role in the 21st century.[68] The three day meeting was
the largest gathering of world leaders in history, and culminated in the adoption by all member states of
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a commitment to achieve international development in areas such
as poverty reduction, gender equality, and public health. Progress towards these goals, which were to be met by
2015, was ultimately uneven. The 2005 World Summit reaffirmed the UN's focus on promoting development,
peacekeeping, human rights, and global security.[69] The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to
succeed the Millennium Development Goals.[70]
In addition to addressing global challenges, the UN has sought to improve its accountability and democratic
legitimacy by engaging more with civil society and fostering a global constituency.[71] In an effort to enhance
transparency, in 2016 the organization held its first public debate between candidates for Secretary-General.[72] On 1
January 2017, Portuguese diplomat António Guterres, who previously served as UN High Commissioner for
Refugees, became the ninth Secretary-General. Guterres has highlighted several key goals for his administration,
including an emphasis on diplomacy for preventing conflicts, more effective peacekeeping efforts, and streamlining
the organization to be more responsive and versatile to global needs.[73]

Structure
Main article: United Nations System
The UN system is based on five principal organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC), the International Court of Justice and the UN Secretariat.[74] A sixth principal organ,
the Trusteeship Council, suspended operations on 1 November 1994, upon the independence of Palau, the last
remaining UN trustee territory.[75]
Four of the five principal organs are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City.[76] The International
Court of Justice is located in The Hague, while other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva,
[77]
 Vienna,[78] and Nairobi.[79] Other UN institutions are located throughout the world. The six official languages of the
UN, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and
Spanish.[80] On the basis of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the UN and its
agencies are immune from the laws of the countries where they operate, safeguarding the UN's impartiality with
regard to the host and member countries.[81]
Below the six organs sit, in the words of the author Linda Fasulo, "an amazing collection of entities and
organizations, some of which are actually older than the UN itself and operate with almost complete independence
from it".[82] These include specialized agencies, research and training institutions, programmes and funds, and other
UN entities.[83]
The UN obeys the Noblemaire principle, which is binding on any organization that belongs to the UN system. This
principle calls for salaries that will draw and keep citizens of countries where salaries are highest, and also calls for
equal pay for work of equal value independent of the employee's nationality.[84][85] In practice, the ICSC takes
reference to the highest-paying national civil service.[86] Staff salaries are subject to an internal tax that is
administered by the UN organizations.[84][87]
Principal organs of the United Nations  [88]

 v
 t
 e

UN General Assembly UN Secretariat

— Deliberative assembly of all UN member states — — Administrative organ of the UN —

 May resolve non-compulsory recommendations to  Supports the other UN bodies administratively (for 

states or suggestions to the Security Council (UNSC); example, in the organization of conferences, the writing it
 Decides on the admission of new members, of reports and studies and the preparation of the budget); 
following proposal by the UNSC;  Its chairperson – the UN Secretary General – is 
 Adopts the budget; elected by the General Assembly for a five-year mandate ju
 Elects the non-permanent members of the UNSC; all and is the UN's foremost representative. n
members of ECOSOC; the UN Secretary
General (following his/her proposal by the UNSC); and
the fifteen judges of the International Court of Justice
(ICJ). Each country has one vote.

UN Security Council UN Economic and Social Council

—
— For international security issues — — For global economic and social affairs —

 Responsible for the maintenance of international  Responsible for co-operation between states as 
peace and security; regards economic and social matters; p
  May adopt compulsory resolutions;  Co-ordinates co-operation between the UN's m
 Has fifteen members: five permanent numerous specialized agencies; 
members with veto power and ten elected members.  Has 54 members, elected by the General Assembly la
to serve staggered three-year mandates.

General Assembly
Main article: United Nations General Assembly

Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet general secretary, addressing the UN General Assembly in December 1988

The General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the UN. Composed of all UN member states, the
assembly meets in regular yearly sessions, but emergency sessions can also be called.[89] The assembly is led by
a president, elected from among the member states on a rotating regional basis, and 21 vice-presidents.[90] The first
session convened 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall in London and included representatives of 51
nations.[28]
When the General Assembly decides on important questions such as those on peace and security, admission of
new members and budgetary matters, a two-thirds majority of those present and voting is required.[91][92] All other
questions are decided by a majority vote. Each member country has one vote. Apart from approval of budgetary
matters, resolutions are not binding on the members. The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters
within the scope of the UN, except matters of peace and security that are under consideration by the Security
Council.[89]
Draft resolutions can be forwarded to the General Assembly by its six main committees:[93]

 First Committee (Disarmament and International Security)

 Second Committee (Economic and Financial)
 Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural)
 Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization)
 Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary)
 Sixth Committee (Legal)
As well as by the following two committees:

 General Committee – a supervisory committee consisting of the assembly's president, vice-president, and
committee heads
 Credentials Committee – responsible for determining the credentials of each member nation's UN
representatives
Security Council
Main article: United Nations Security Council
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, demonstrates a vial with alleged Iraqi chemical weapon probes to the UN Security
Council on Iraq war hearings, 5 February 2003

The Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries. While other organs of the UN
can only make "recommendations" to member states, the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions
that member states have agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25.[94] The decisions of the Council
are known as United Nations Security Council resolutions.[95]
The Security Council is made up of fifteen member states, consisting of five permanent members—China, France,
Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms
by the General Assembly (with end of term date)—Belgium (term ends 2020), Côte d'Ivoire (2019), Dominican
Republic (2020), Equatorial Guinea (2019), Germany (2020), Indonesia (2020), Kuwait (2019), Peru (2019), Poland
(2019), and South Africa (2020).[96] The five permanent members hold veto power over UN resolutions, allowing a
permanent member to block adoption of a resolution, though not debate. The ten temporary seats are held for two-
year terms, with five member states per year voted in by the General Assembly on a regional basis.[97] The
presidency of the Security Council rotates alphabetically each month.[98]

UN Secretariat
Main articles: United Nations Secretariat and Secretary-General of the United Nations

Current secretary-general, António Guterres

The UN Secretariat is headed by the secretary-general, assisted by the deputy secretary-general and a staff of

international civil servants worldwide.[99] It provides studies, information, and facilities needed by UN bodies for their
meetings. It also carries out tasks as directed by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and
Social Council, and other UN bodies.[100]
The secretary-general acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the UN. The position is defined in the UN
Charter as the organization's "chief administrative officer".[101] Article 99 of the charter states that the secretary-
general can bring to the Security Council's attention "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance
of international peace and security", a phrase that Secretaries-General since Trygve Lie have interpreted as giving
the position broad scope for action on the world stage.[102] The office has evolved into a dual role of an administrator
of the UN organization and a diplomat and mediator addressing disputes between member states and finding
consensus to global issues.[103]
The secretary-general is appointed by the General Assembly, after being recommended by the Security Council,
where the permanent members have veto power. There are no specific criteria for the post, but over the years it has
become accepted that the post shall be held for one or two terms of five years.[104] The current Secretary-General
is António Guterres, who replaced Ban Ki-moon in 2017.

Secretaries-General of the United Nations[105]

Country of
No. Name Took office Left office Notes
origin

1 Trygve Lie  Norway 2 February 1946 10 November 1952 Resigned

18 September
2 Dag Hammarskjöld  Sweden 10 April 1953 Died in office
1961

3 U Thant  Burma 30 November 1961 31 December 1971

4 Kurt Waldheim  Austria 1 January 1972 31 December 1981

5 Javier Pérez de Cuéllar  Peru 1 January 1982 31 December 1991

6 Boutros Boutros-Ghali  Egypt 1 January 1992 31 December 1996

7 Kofi Annan  Ghana 1 January 1997 31 December 2006

8 Ban Ki-moon  South Korea 1 January 2007 31 December 2016

9 António Guterres  Portugal 1 January 2017 –

International Court of Justice

Main article: International Court of Justice

The court ruled that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), located in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is the primary judicial organ of the
UN. Established in 1945 by the UN Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court
of International Justice. The ICJ is composed of 15 judges who serve 9-year terms and are appointed by the
General Assembly; every sitting judge must be from a different nation.[106][107]
It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, sharing the building with the Hague Academy of International Law, a
private centre for the study of international law. The ICJ's primary purpose is to adjudicate disputes among states.
The court has heard cases related to war crimes, illegal state interference, ethnic cleansing, and other issues.
[108]
 The ICJ can also be called upon by other UN organs to provide advisory opinions.[106] It is the only organ that is
not located in New York.

Economic and Social Council

Main article: United Nations Economic and Social Council
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic
and social co-operation and development. ECOSOC has 54 members, which are elected by the General Assembly
for a three-year term. The president is elected for a one-year term and chosen amongst the small or middle powers
represented on ECOSOC. The council has one annual meeting in July, held in either New York or Geneva. Viewed
as separate from the specialized bodies it co-ordinates, ECOSOC's functions include information gathering, advising
member nations, and making recommendations.[109][110] Owing to its broad mandate of co-ordinating many agencies,
ECOSOC has at times been criticized as unfocused or irrelevant.[109][111]
ECOSOC's subsidiary bodies include the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which advises
UN agencies on issues relating to indigenous peoples; the United Nations Forum on Forests, which co-ordinates
and promotes sustainable forest management; the United Nations Statistical Commission, which co-ordinates
information-gathering efforts between agencies; and the Commission on Sustainable Development, which co-
ordinates efforts between UN agencies and NGOs working towards sustainable development. ECOSOC may also
grant consultative status to non-governmental organizations;[109] by 2004, more than 2,200 organizations had
received this status.[112]

Specialized agencies
Main article: List of specialized agencies of the United Nations
The UN Charter stipulates that each primary organ of the United Nations can establish various specialized agencies
to fulfil its duties.[113] Some best-known agencies are the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Food and
Agriculture Organization, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the World
Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO). The UN performs most of its humanitarian work through these
agencies. Examples include mass vaccination programmes (through WHO), the avoidance of famine and
malnutrition (through the work of the WFP), and the protection of vulnerable and displaced people (for example,
by UNHCR).[114]

Membership
Main article: Member states of the United Nations
With the addition of South Sudan 14 July 2011,[5] there are 193 UN member states, including
all undisputed independent states apart from Vatican City.[115][c] The UN Charter outlines the rules for membership:

1. Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states that accept the obligations
contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out
these obligations.
2. The admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the
General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. Chapter II, Article 4.[116]
In addition, there are two non-member observer states of the United Nations General Assembly: the Holy
See (which holds sovereignty over Vatican City) and the State of Palestine.[117] The Cook Islands and Niue,
both states in free association with New Zealand, are full members of several UN specialized agencies and have
had their "full treaty-making capacity" recognized by the Secretariat.[118]

Group of 77
Main article: Group of 77
The Group of 77 (G77) at the UN is a loose coalition of developing nations, designed to promote its members'
collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the UN. Seventy-seven nations
founded the organization, but by November 2013 the organization had since expanded to 133 member countries.
[119]
 The group was founded 15 June 1964 by the "Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" issued at
the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The group held its first major meeting
in Algiers in 1967, where it adopted the Charter of Algiers and established the basis for permanent institutional
structures.[120] With the adoption of the New International Economic Order by developing countries in the 1970s, the
work of the G77 spread throughout the UN system.

Objectives
Peacekeeping and security
Main articles: United Nations peacekeeping and List of United Nations peacekeeping missions

Bolivian "Blue Helmet" at an exercise in Chile, 2002

The UN, after approval by the Security Council, sends peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently
ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming
hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member
states. These soldiers are sometimes nicknamed "Blue Helmets" for their distinctive gear.[121][122] The peacekeeping
force as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.[123]
In September 2013, the UN had peacekeeping soldiers deployed on 15 missions. The largest was the United
Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), which included
20,688 uniformed personnel. The smallest, United Nations Military Observer Group in India and
Pakistan (UNMOGIP), included 42 uniformed personnel responsible for monitoring the ceasefire in Jammu and
Kashmir. UN peacekeepers with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) have been stationed
in the Middle East since 1948, the longest-running active peacekeeping mission.[124]
A study by the RAND Corporation in 2005 found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It
compared efforts at nation-building by the UN to those of the United States, and found that seven out of eight UN
cases are at peace, as compared with four out of eight US cases at peace.[125] Also in 2005, the Human Security
Report documented a decline in the number of wars, genocides, and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold
War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—
has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict in that period.[126] Situations in which the UN has not only
acted to keep the peace but also intervened include the Korean War (1950–53) and the authorization of intervention
in Iraq after the Gulf War (1990–91).[127]

The UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus was established in 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

The UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures. In many cases, member states have shown reluctance to
achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. Disagreements in the Security Council about military action and
intervention are seen as having failed to prevent the Bangladesh genocide in 1971,[128] the Cambodian genocide in
the 1970s,[129] and the Rwandan genocide in 1994.[130] Similarly, UN inaction is blamed for failing to either prevent
the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 or complete the peacekeeping operations in 1992–93 during the Somali Civil War.
[131]
 UN peacekeepers have also been accused of child rape, soliciting prostitutes, and sexual abuse during various
peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[132] Haiti,[133] Liberia,[134] Sudan and what is now
South Sudan,[135] Burundi, and Ivory Coast.[136] Scientists cited UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the likely source of
the 2010–13 Haiti cholera outbreak, which killed more than 8,000 Haitians following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[137]
In addition to peacekeeping, the UN is also active in encouraging disarmament. Regulation of armaments was
included in the writing of the UN Charter in 1945 and was envisioned as a way of limiting the use of human and
economic resources for their creation.[94] The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the
charter, resulting in the first resolution of the first General Assembly meeting calling for specific proposals for "the
elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass
destruction".[138] The UN has been involved with arms-limitation treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty (1967),
the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968), the Seabed Arms Control Treaty (1971),
the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1992), and the Ottawa
Treaty (1997), which prohibits landmines.[139] Three UN bodies oversee arms proliferation issues: the International
Atomic Energy Agency, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission.[140]

Human rights
One of the UN's primary purposes is "promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental
freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion", and member states pledge to undertake
"joint and separate action" to protect these rights.[113][141]

Eleanor Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1949

In 1948, the General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by a committee headed
by American diplomat and activist Eleanor Roosevelt, and including the French lawyer René Cassin. The document
proclaims basic civil, political, and economic rights common to all human beings, though its effectiveness towards
achieving these ends has been disputed since its drafting.[142] The Declaration serves as a "common standard of
achievement for all peoples and all nations" rather than a legally binding document, but it has become the basis of
two binding treaties, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[143] In practice, the UN is unable to take significant action against human rights
abuses without a Security Council resolution, though it does substantial work in investigating and reporting abuses.
[144]

In 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, followed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.[145] With the end of the Cold War, the push for
human rights action took on new impetus.[146] The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was formed in 1993
to oversee human rights issues for the UN, following the recommendation of that year's World Conference on
Human Rights. Jacques Fomerand, a scholar of the UN, describes this organization's mandate as "broad and
vague", with only "meagre" resources to carry it out.[147] In 2006, it was replaced by a Human Rights
Council consisting of 47 nations.[148] Also in 2006, the General Assembly passed a Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples,[149] and in 2011 it passed its first resolution recognizing the rights of LGBT people.[150]
Other UN bodies responsible for women's rights issues include United Nations Commission on the Status of
Women, a commission of ECOSOC founded in 1946; the United Nations Development Fund for Women, created in
1976; and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women,
founded in 1979.[151] The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, one of three bodies with a mandate to oversee
issues related to indigenous peoples, held its first session in 2002.[152]

Economic development and humanitarian assistance

Millennium Development Goals[153]

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

 2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Another primary purpose of the UN is "to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an
economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character".[141] Numerous bodies have been created to work towards this
goal, primarily under the authority of the General Assembly and ECOSOC.[154] In 2000, the 192 UN member states
agreed to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015.[155] The Sustainable Development Goals were
launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals.[70] The SDGs have an associated financing
framework called the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
The UN Development Programme (UNDP), an organization for grant-based technical assistance founded in 1945, is
one of the leading bodies in the field of international development. The organization also publishes the UN Human
Development Index, a comparative measure ranking countries by poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, and
other factors.[156][157] The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), also founded in 1945, promotes agricultural
development and food security.[158] UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) was created in 1946 to aid
European children after the Second World War and expanded its mission to provide aid around the world and to
uphold the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[159][160]

Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Programme reading the news that smallpox has been globally
eradicated in 1980

The World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are independent, specialized agencies and
observers within the UN framework, according to a 1947 agreement. They were initially formed separately from the
UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944.[161] The World Bank provides loans for international development,
while the IMF promotes international economic co-operation and gives emergency loans to indebted countries.[162]

In Jordan, UNHCR remains responsible for the Syrian refugees and the Zaatari refugee camp.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which focuses on international health issues and disease eradication, is
another of the UN's largest agencies. In 1980, the agency announced that the eradication of smallpox had been
completed. In subsequent decades, WHO largely eradicated polio, river blindness, and leprosy.[163] The Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), begun in 1996, co-ordinates the organization's response to the AIDS
epidemic.[164] The UN Population Fund, which also dedicates part of its resources to combating HIV, is the world's
largest source of funding for reproductive health and family planning services.[165]
Along with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the UN often takes a leading role in co-
ordinating emergency relief.[166] The World Food Programme (WFP), created in 1961, provides food aid in response
to famine, natural disasters, and armed conflict. The organization reports that it feeds an average of 90 million
people in 80 nations each year.[166][167] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
established in 1950, works to protect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless people.[168] UNHCR and
WFP programmes are funded by voluntary contributions from governments, corporations, and individuals, though
the UNHCR's administrative costs are paid for by the UN's primary budget.[169]

Other
Since the UN's creation, over 80 colonies have attained independence. The General Assembly adopted
the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960 with no votes against
but abstentions from all major colonial powers. The UN works towards decolonization through groups including
the UN Committee on Decolonization, created in 1962.[170] The committee lists seventeen remaining "Non-Self-
Governing Territories", the largest and most populous of which is Western Sahara.[171]
Beginning with the formation of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 1972, the UN has made
environmental issues a prominent part of its agenda. A lack of success in the first two decades of UN work in this
area led to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which sought to give new impetus to these efforts.[172] In
1988, the UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), another UN organization, established
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses and reports on research on global warming.
[173]
 The UN-sponsored Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, set legally binding emissions reduction targets for ratifying
states.[174]
The UN also declares and co-ordinates international observances, periods of time to observe issues of international
interest or concern. Examples include World Tuberculosis Day, Earth Day, and the International Year of Deserts and
Desertification.[175]

Funding
Top 25 contributors to the United Nations budget for the period 2019–2021[176]

Member state Contribution

(% of UN budget)

 United States 22.000

 China 12.005

 Japan 8.564

 Germany 6.090

 United Kingdom 4.567

 France 4.427

 Italy 3.307

 Brazil 2.948

 Canada 2.734

 Russia 2.405

 South Korea 2.267

  Australia 2.210

 Spain 2.146

 Turkey 1.371

 Netherlands 1.356

 Mexico 1.292

 Saudi Arabia 1.172

  Switzerland 1.151

 Argentina 0.915

 Sweden 0.906

 India 0.834

 Belgium 0.821

 Poland 0.802

 Algeria 0.788

 Norway 0.754

The UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The General Assembly
approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is broadly based on the relative
capacity of each country to pay, as measured by its gross national income (GNI), with adjustments for external debt
and low per capita income.[177] The two-year budget for 2012–13 was $5.512 billion in total.[178]
The Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be unduly dependent on any one member to
finance its operations. Thus, there is a "ceiling" rate, setting the maximum amount that any member can be
assessed for the regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly revised the scale of assessments in response to
pressure from the United States. As part of that revision, the regular budget ceiling was reduced from 25% to 22%.
[179]
 For the least developed countries (LDCs), a ceiling rate of 0.01% is applied.[177] In addition to the ceiling rates, the
minimum amount assessed to any member nation (or "floor" rate) is set at 0.001% of the UN budget ($55,120 for
the two year budget 2013–2014).[180]
A large share of the UN's expenditure addresses its core mission of peace and security, and this budget is assessed
separately from the main organizational budget.[181] The peacekeeping budget for the 2015–16 fiscal year was $8.27
billion, supporting 82,318 troops deployed in 15 missions around the world.[124] UN peace operations are funded by
assessments, using a formula derived from the regular funding scale that includes a weighted surcharge for the five
permanent Security Council members, who must approve all peacekeeping operations. This surcharge serves to
offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. the largest contributors for the UN
peacekeeping financial operations for the period 2019–2021 are : the United
States 27.89% China 15.21%, Japan 8.56%, Germany 6.09% , the United
Kingdom 5.78%, France 5.61%, Italy 3.30% and the Russian Federation 3.04%.[182]
Special UN programmes not included in the regular budget, such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme, are
financed by voluntary contributions from member governments, corporations, and private individuals.[183][184]

Evaluations, awards, and criticism

Main articles: Reform of the United Nations and Reform of the United Nations Security Council
See also: Criticism of the United Nations

The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize to the UN—diploma in the lobby of the UN Headquarters in New York City

A number of agencies and individuals associated with the UN have won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of
their work. Two Secretaries-General, Dag Hammarskjöld and Kofi Annan, were each awarded the prize (in 1961 and
2001, respectively), as were Ralph Bunche (1950), a UN negotiator, René Cassin (1968), a contributor to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the US Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1945), the latter for his role in
the organization's founding. Lester B. Pearson, the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, was awarded
the prize in 1957 for his role in organizing the UN's first peacekeeping force to resolve the Suez Crisis. UNICEF won
the prize in 1965, the International Labour Organization in 1969, the UN Peace-Keeping Forces in 1988, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (which reports to the UN) in 2005, and the UN-supported Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded in 1954 and
1981, becoming one of only two recipients to win the prize twice. The UN as a whole was awarded the prize in 2001,
sharing it with Annan.[185] In 2007, IPCC received the prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater
knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to
counteract such change."[186]

Marking of the UN's 70th anniversary – Budapest, 2015

Since its founding, there have been many calls for reform of the UN but little consensus on how to do so. Some
want the UN to play a greater or more effective role in world affairs, while others want its role reduced to
humanitarian work. There have also been numerous calls for the UN Security Council's membership to be
increased, for different ways of electing the UN's Secretary-General, and for a UN Parliamentary Assembly.
Jacques Fomerand states the most enduring divide in views of the UN is "the North–South split" between richer
Northern nations and developing Southern nations. Southern nations tend to favour a more empowered UN with a
stronger General Assembly, allowing them a greater voice in world affairs, while Northern nations prefer an
economically laissez-faire UN that focuses on transnational threats such as terrorism.[187]
After World War II, the French Committee of National Liberation was late to be recognized by the US as the
government of France, and so the country was initially excluded from the conferences that created the new
organization. The future French president Charles de Gaulle criticized the UN, famously calling it
a machin ("contraption"), and was not convinced that a global security alliance would help maintain world peace,
preferring direct defence treaties between countries.[188] Throughout the Cold War, both the US and USSR repeatedly
accused the UN of favouring the other. In 1953, the USSR effectively forced the resignation of Trygve Lie, the
Secretary-General, through its refusal to deal with him, while in the 1950s and 1960s, a popular US bumper sticker
read, "You can't spell communism without U.N."[189] In a sometimes-misquoted statement, President George W.
Bush stated in February 2003 (referring to UN uncertainty towards Iraqi provocations under the Saddam Hussein
regime) that "free nations will not allow the UN to fade into history as an ineffective, irrelevant debating society."[190][191]
[192]
 In contrast, the French President, François Hollande, stated in 2012 that "France trusts the United Nations. She
knows that no state, no matter how powerful, can solve urgent problems, fight for development and bring an end to
all crises ... France wants the UN to be the centre of global governance."[193] Critics such as Dore Gold, an Israeli
diplomat, Robert S. Wistrich, a British scholar, Alan Dershowitz, an American legal scholar, Mark Dreyfus, an
Australian politician, and the Anti-Defamation League consider UN attention to Israel's treatment of Palestinians to
be excessive.[194] In September 2015, Saudi Arabia's Faisal bin Hassan Trad has been elected Chair of the UN
Human Rights Council panel that appoints independent experts,[195] a move criticized by human rights groups.[196][197]
Since 1971, the Republic of China on Taiwan has been excluded from the UN and since then has always been
rejected in new applications. Taiwanese citizens are also not allowed to enter the buildings of the United Nations
with ROC passports. In this way, critics agree that the UN is failing its own development goals and guidelines. This
criticism also brought pressure from the People's Republic of China, which regards the territories administered by
the ROC as their own territory.[198][199]
Critics have also accused the UN of bureaucratic inefficiency, waste, and corruption. In 1976, the General Assembly
established the Joint Inspection Unit to seek out inefficiencies within the UN system. During the 1990s, the US
withheld dues citing inefficiency and only started repayment on the condition that a major reforms initiative be
introduced. In 1994, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was established by the General Assembly to
serve as an efficiency watchdog.[200] In 1994, former Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN
to Somalia Mohamed Sahnoun published "Somalia: The Missed Opportunities",[201] a book in which he analyses the
reasons for the failure of the 1992 UN intervention in Somalia, showing that, between the start of the Somali civil war
in 1988 and the fall of the Siad Barre regime in January 1991, the UN missed at least three opportunities to prevent
major human tragedies; when the UN tried to provide humanitarian assistance, they were totally outperformed
by NGOs, whose competence and dedication sharply contrasted with the UN's excessive caution and bureaucratic
inefficiencies. If radical reform were not undertaken, warned Mohamed Sahnoun, then the UN would continue to
respond to such crises with inept improvization.[202] In 2004, the UN faced accusations that its recently ended Oil-for-
Food Programme — in which Iraq had been allowed to trade oil for basic needs to relieve the pressure of sanctions
— had suffered from widespread corruption, including billions of dollars of kickbacks. An independent inquiry
created by the UN found that many of its officials had been involved, as well as raising "significant" questions about
the role of Kojo Annan, the son of Kofi Annan.[203]
In evaluating the UN as a whole, Jacques Fomerand writes that the "accomplishments of the United Nations in the
last 60 years are impressive in their own terms. Progress in human development during the 20th century has been
dramatic, and the UN and its agencies have certainly helped the world become a more hospitable and livable place
for millions."[204] Evaluating the first 50 years of the UN's history, the author Stanley Meisler writes that "the United
Nations never fulfilled the hopes of its founders, but it accomplished a great deal nevertheless", citing its role in
decolonization and its many successful peacekeeping efforts.[205] The British historian Paul Kennedy states that while
the organization has suffered some major setbacks, "when all its aspects are considered, the UN has brought great
benefits to our generation and ... will bring benefits to our children's and grandchildren's generations as well."[206]

Other
The United Nations has inspired the extracurricular activity Model United Nations (MUN). MUN is a simulation of
United Nations activity based on the UN agenda and following UN procedure. MUN is usually attended by high
school and university students who organize conferences to simulate the various UN committees to discuss
important issues of the day. [207] Today Model United Nations educates tens of thousands on United Nations activity
around the world. Model United Nations has many famous and notable alumni, such as former Secretary-General of
the United Nations Ban Ki-moon.[208]

World War II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"The Second World War", "WWII", and "WW2" redirect here. For other uses, see The Second World War
(disambiguation) and WWII (disambiguation).
 World War II

(clockwise from top left)

 Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing

 Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein

 German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943

 US naval force in the Lingayen Gulf

 Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender

 Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

Date 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945
(6 years and 1 day)[a]
Location Europe, Pacific, Atlantic, South-East
Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean, North
Africa, Horn of Africa, Australia,
briefly North and South America
Result Allied victory

 Collapse of Nazi Germany

 Fall of the Japanese and Italian
Empires
 Allied military occupations
of Germany, Japan, Austria and foundation
of the Italian Republic
 Beginning of the Nuclear Age
 Dissolution of the League of
Nations and creation of the United Nations
 Emergence of the United States and
the Soviet Union as rival superpowers and
beginning of the Cold War (more ...)

Participants
 Allies Axis

Commanders and leaders

Main Allied leaders Main Axis leaders

 Joseph Stalin  Adolf Hitler

 Franklin D. Roosevelt  Hirohito

 Winston Churchill  Benito

 Chiang Kai-shek Mussolini

Casualties and losses

Military dead: Military dead:

Over 16,000,000 Over 8,000,000

Civilian dead: Civilian dead:

Over 45,000,000 Over 4,000,000

Total dead: Total dead:

Over 61,000,000 Over 12,000,000

(1937–1945) (1937–1945)

...further details ...further details

show
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Campaigns of World War II
World War II

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Y Z
 0–9

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
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
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 o Outline
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
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Bibliography

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World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that
lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually
formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more
than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial,
and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World
War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians
in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing,
premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937,[b] though neither side
had declared war on the other. World War II is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with
the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United
Kingdom. 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. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop
Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European
neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. 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. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and the long Battle of the
Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening
the largest land theatre of war in history. This Eastern Front trapped the Axis, most crucially the
German Wehrmacht, in a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United
States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U.S. declaration of war against Japan,
supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers quickly declared war on the U.S. in solidarity with
their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in
Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories.
The Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway; later, Germany and
Italy were defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943,
which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, and Allied
victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western
Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward
Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia, in Central
China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific
islands.
The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating
in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8
May 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender
under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on
6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional
atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its
intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by the
Allies, and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and against the
Japanese.
World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe. The United Nations (UN) was
established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts; the victorious great powers—China,
 France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—became the permanent members of
its Security Council. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the
nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned,
triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved
towards economic recovery and expansion. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end
pre-war enmities and create a common identity.

Contents

 1Chronology
 2Background
o 2.1Europe
o 2.2Asia
 3Pre-war events
o 3.1Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
o 3.2Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
o 3.3Japanese invasion of China (1937)
o 3.4Soviet–Japanese border conflicts
o 3.5European occupations and agreements
 4Course of the war
o 4.1War breaks out in Europe (1939–40)
o 4.2Western Europe (1940–41)
o 4.3Mediterranean (1940–41)
o 4.4Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941)
o 4.5War breaks out in the Pacific (1941)
o 4.6Axis advance stalls (1942–43)
o 4.7Allies gain momentum (1943–44)
o 4.8Allies close in (1944)
o 4.9Axis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)
 5Aftermath
 6Impact
o 6.1Casualties and war crimes
o 6.2Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour
o 6.3Occupation
o 6.4Home fronts and production
o 6.5Advances in technology and warfare
 7See also
 8Notes
 9Citations
 10References
 11External links

Chronology
See also: Timeline of World War II

Timelines of World War II

Chronological

Prelude
  (in Asia
 in Europe)

 1939
 1940
 1941
 1942

1943
 1944
 1945 onwards

By topic
 Diplomacy
 Declarations of war

o Engagements
o Operations
 Battle of Europe air operations

o Eastern Front
o Manhattan Project
 United Kingdom home front
 Surrender of the Axis armies

 v
 t
 e

The start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939,[2][3] beginning with the German invasion of
Poland; the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of
war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937,[4][5] or even the Japanese
invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931.[6][7]
Others follow the British historian A.J.P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its
colonies occurred simultaneously, and the two wars merged in 1941. This article uses the conventional dating.
Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935.
[8]
 The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought
between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939.[9]
The exact date of the war's end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the
war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan, which was on
2 September 1945 that officially ended the war in Asia. A peace treaty with Japan was signed in 1951.[10] A treaty
regarding Germany's future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take place in 1990 and resolved
most post-World War II issues.[11] No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed.[12]

Background
Main article: Causes of World War II
Europe
World War I had radically altered the political European map, with the defeat of the Central Powers—
including Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of
power in Russia, which eventually led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World
War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created
out of the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman and Russian Empires.

The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was created during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The
organisation'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,[13] its aftermath still
caused irredentist and revanchist nationalism in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked
in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses incurred by the Treaty of Versailles.
Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions, while
German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size
and capability of the country's armed forces.[14]
The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later
known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic
and hardline opponents on both the right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains;
however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure
Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led
by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy 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 Italy a world power, promising the creation of a "New Roman Empire".[15]

Adolf Hitler at a German National Socialist political rally in Nuremberg, August 1933

Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the
Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the
world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign.[16] Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed
Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early
1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of
Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.[17]
The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step
towards military globalisation; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with
Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of
Eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet
pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless.
[18]
 The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same
year.[19]
Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little
opposition due to appeasement.[20] In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later,
Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year.[21]
Asia
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[22] and new regional warlords. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan, which had long
sought influence in China[23] as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia, staged
the Mukden Incident as a pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.
[24]

China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the
League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. 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.[25] After the
1936 Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to
oppose Japan.[26]

Pre-war events
Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
Main article: Second Italo-Ethiopian War

Benito Mussolini inspecting troops during the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935

The Second Italo–Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The
war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom
of Italy (Regno d'Italia), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.[27] The war resulted in the military
occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale
Italiana, or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both
Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the
League's Covenant.[28] The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but
they were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion.[29] Italy subsequently dropped its objections to
Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.[30]

Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

Main article: Spanish Civil War
The bombing of Guernica in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, sparked fears abroad in Europe that the next war would be
based on bombing of cities with very high civilian casualties.

When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by
General Francisco Franco. Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis did: altogether
Mussolini sent to Spain more than 70,000 ground troops and 6,000 aviation personnel, as well as about 720 aircraft.
[31]
 The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic. 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 Nationalists won
the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally
favoured the Axis.[32] His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern
Front.[33]
Japanese invasion of China (1937)
Main article: Second Sino-Japanese War

Japanese Imperial Army soldiers during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937

In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge
Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China.[34] The Soviets quickly signed a non-
aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior co-operation with Germany.
From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan, engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou,
[35]
 and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan.[36][37] Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best
army to defend Shanghai, but, after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the
Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens of thousands if
not hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese.[38][39]
In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang but then the city
of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May.[40] In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding
the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was
taken by October.[41] Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan
had hoped to achieve; instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war.[42][43]
Soviet–Japanese border conflicts
Main article: Soviet–Japanese border conflicts
Red Army artillery unit during the Battle of Lake Khasan, 1938

In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union
and Mongolia. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was
favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. With the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing
Second Sino-Japanese War[44] and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove
difficult to maintain. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan
adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward, eventually leading to its
war with the United States and the Western Allies.[45][46]
European occupations and agreements

Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured just before signing the Munich Agreement, 29 September 1938

In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again
provoking little response from other European powers.[47] Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on
the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United
Kingdom and France followed the counsel of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory
to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in
exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands.[48] Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced
Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed Czechoslovakia's Zaolzie region.[49]
Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that
British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches
Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the
German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of
Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-
German client state, the Slovak Republic.[50] Hitler also delivered 20 March 1939 ultimatum to Lithuania, forcing the
concession of the Klaipėda Region.[51]
German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (right) and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, after signing the Molotov–
Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August 1939

Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, the United Kingdom and
France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same
guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece.[52] Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and
Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel.[53] Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to
"encircle" Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression
Pact.[54]
The situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish
border. On 23 August, when tripartite negotiations about a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom
and Soviet Union stalled,[55] the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany.[56] This pact had a secret
protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern
Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish
independence.[57] The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured
that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I. Immediately after
that, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a
formal mutual assistance pact with Poland, and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.[58]
In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which only
served as a pretext to worsen relations.[59] On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately
travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the
German minority would vote on secession.[59] The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the
night of 30–31 August in a stormy meeting with the British ambassador Neville Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that
Germany considered its claims rejected.[60]

Course of the war

Further information: Diplomatic history of World War II
War breaks out in Europe (1939–40)

Soldiers of the German Wehrmacht tearing down the border crossing into Poland, 1 September 1939
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as a pretext
to initiate the attack.[61] The Battle of Westerplatte is often described as the first battle of the war.[62] The United
Kingdom responded with an ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the
ultimatum was ignored, France and Britain, along with their empires, declared war on Germany. As part of
this, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada also joined the war. The alliance provided no direct military
support to Poland, outside of a cautious French probe into the Saarland.[63] The Western Allies also began a naval
blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort.[64] Germany responded by
ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the
Atlantic.[65]

Soldiers of the Polish Army during the defence of Poland, September 1939

On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw. The Polish counter offensive to the west halted
the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht. Remnants of the
Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw. On 17 September 1939, after signing a cease-fire with Japan,
the Soviets invaded Eastern Poland[66] under a pretext that the Polish state had ostensibly ceased to exist.[67] On 27
September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish
Army surrendered on 6 October. Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead it formed the Polish
government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland.[68] A significant part of Polish
military personnel evacuated to Romania and the Baltic countries; many of them would fight against the Axis in other
theatres of the war.[69]
Germany annexed the western and occupied the central part of Poland, and the Soviet Union annexed its eastern
part; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia. On 6 October, Hitler made a public
peace overture to the United Kingdom and France, but said that the future of Poland was to be determined
exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected,[60] and Hitler ordered an immediate
offensive against France,[70] which would be postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather.[71][72][73]

Finnish machine gun nest aimed at Soviet Red Army positions during the Winter War, February 1940

The Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the states that were in the Soviet
"sphere of influence" under the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact—to sign "mutual assistance pacts" that stipulated
stationing Soviet troops in these countries. Soon after, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there.[74][75]
[76]
 Finland refused to sign a similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union
invaded Finland in November 1939,[77] and the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations.[78] Despite
overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March
1940 with minimal Finnish concessions.[79]
In June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,[75] and the disputed Romanian
regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertza. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and
economic co-operation[80][81] gradually stalled,[82][83] and both states began preparations for war.[84]
Western Europe (1940–41)
Main article: Western Front (World War II)

German advance into Belgium and Northern France, 10 May-4 June 1940, swept past the Maginot Line (shown in dark red)

In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the
Allies were attempting to cut off.[85] Denmark capitulated after a few hours, and Norway was conquered within two
months[86] despite Allied support. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the appointment of Winston
Churchill as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940.[87]
On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France. To circumvent the strong Maginot
Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Luxembourg.[88] The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region,
[89]
 which was mistakenly perceived by Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles.[90][91] By
successfully implementing new blitzkrieg tactics, the Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the
Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille.
The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June,
although abandoning almost all their equipment.[92]
On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom.[93] The Germans turned
south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14 June. Eight days later France signed an
armistice with Germany; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones,[94] and an unoccupied rump
state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its
fleet, which the United Kingdom attacked on 3 July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany.[95]

London seen from St. Paul's Cathedral after the German Blitz, 29 December 1940

The Battle of Britain[96] began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours.[97] The United Kingdom
rejected Hitler's ultimatum,[which?][98] and the German air superiority campaign started in August but failed to defeat RAF
Fighter Command. Due to this the proposed German invasion of Britain was postponed indefinitely on
17 September. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities
in the Blitz, but failed to significantly disrupt the British war effort[97] and largely ended in May 1941.[99]
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.[100] The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on
27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship  Bismarck.[101]
In November 1939, the United States was taking measures to assist China and the Western Allies, and amended
the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies.[102] In 1940, following the German capture of
Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September the United States further agreed
to a trade of American destroyers for British bases.[103] Still, a large majority of the American public continued to
oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941.[104] In December 1940 Roosevelt accused Hitler
of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an
"arsenal of democracy" and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of aid to support the British war effort.[98] The United
States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany.[105]
At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy 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.[106] The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia
and Romania joined.[107] Romania and Hungary would make major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet
Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union.[108]
Mediterranean (1940–41)
Main article: Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II

Soldiers of the British Commonwealth forces from the Australian Army's 9th Division during the Siege of Tobruk; North African
Campaign, August 1941

In early June 1940 the Italian Regia aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta, a British possession. In late summer
through early autumn Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt. In
October Italy attacked Greece, but the attack was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within
days with minor territorial changes.[109] Germany started preparation for an invasion of the Balkans 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.[110]
In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East
Africa.[111] The offensives were highly successful; by early February 1941 Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, 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 a carrier attack at Taranto and neutralising several
more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.[112]

German panzers of the Afrika Korps advancing across the North African desert, 1941
Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa, and at the end of March
1941 Rommel's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces.[113] In under a
month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged the port of Tobruk.[114]
By late March 1941 Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact; however, the Yugoslav government
was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany responded with simultaneous invasions of
both Yugoslavia and Greece, commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month.
[115]
 The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May completed the German conquest of the
Balkans.[116] Although the Axis victory was swift, bitter and large-scale partisan warfare subsequently broke out
against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the war.[117]
In the Middle East, in May Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German
aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria.[118] Between June and July they invaded and occupied the French
possessions Syria and Lebanon, with the assistance of the Free French. [119]
Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941)
Main article: Eastern Front (World War II)

European theatre of World War II animation map, 1939–1945 – Red: Western Allies and Soviet Union after 1941; Green: Soviet
Union before 1941; Blue: Axis powers

With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations.
With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the
European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed
the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941.[120] By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations
for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.[121]
Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and
the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later.[122] He therefore decided to try to strengthen
Germany's relations with the Soviets, or failing that to attack and eliminate them as a factor. In November
1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed
some interest, but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered
unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.[123]

German soldiers during the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Axis powers, 1941
On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa,
with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary.
[124]
 The primary targets of this surprise offensive[125] 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. Hitler's
objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism,
generate Lebensraum ("living space")[126] by dispossessing the native population[127] and guarantee access to the
strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.[128]
Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the war,[129] Barbarossa forced
the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence. 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.
[130]
 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).[131]

Soviet civilians leaving destroyed houses after a German bombardment during the Battle of Leningrad, 10 December 1942

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[132] prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider its grand strategy.[133] In July, the
UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany[134] The British and Soviets invaded neutral
Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oil fields.[135] In August, the United Kingdom and the United States
jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, which outlined British and American goals for the war, even though America had
yet to officially join.[136]
By October Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges
of Leningrad[137] and Sevastopol continuing.[138] 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[139] were forced to suspend their offensive.[140] 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.[141]
By early December, freshly mobilised reserves[142] allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops.
[143]
 This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be
sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army,[144] allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-
offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–
155 mi) west.[145]
War breaks out in the Pacific (1941)
Main article: Pacific War
In 1939, the United States had renounced its trade treaty with Japan, and beginning with an aviation gasoline ban in
July 1940, Japan became subject to increasing economic pressure.[98] During this time, Japan launched its first
attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September.
[146]
 Despite several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. To
increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war
with the Western powers, Japan invaded and occupied northern Indochina.[147] Afterwards, the United
States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan.[148]
Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in early 1940. In August, Chinese
communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied
areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.[149] Continued antipathy between Chinese
communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-
operation.[150] In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was
repulsed during Battle of Shanggao.[151] In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and
clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.[152]

Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero" fighters on the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Shōkaku, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor

German successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast
Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan some oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations
for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941.[153] In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern
Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, United Kingdom and
other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo.[154][155] At
the same time, Japan was planning an invasion of the Soviet Far East, intending to capitalise off the German
invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions.[156]
Since early 1941 the United States 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 Americans as inadequate.[157] At the same time the United States, the United Kingdom,
and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a
Japanese attack against any of them.[158] Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled
for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the United States would react to Japanese attacks against any
"neighboring countries".[158]

The USS  Arizona was a total loss in the Japanese surprise air attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Sunday 7
December 1941.

Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American-British-Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for
war. On 20 November a new government under Hideki Tojo presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called
for the end of American aid to China and for lifting the embargo on the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In
exchange, Japan promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw its forces from southern
Indochina.[157] The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without
conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers.[159] That meant Japan was essentially forced
to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East
Indies by force;[160][161] the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the
oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.[162]
Japan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the
Central Pacific. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the
over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war.[163][164] To prevent American intervention while securing the
perimeter, it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in
the Philippines from the outset.[165] 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 Central Pacific.[166] These
included an attack on the American fleets at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, landings in Thailand and Malaya,
[166]
 and the Battle of Hong Kong.[167]
These attacks led the United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia and several other states to formally declare
war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis
countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan.[168] Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared
war on the United States[169] in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war
vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.[124][170]
Axis advance stalls (1942–43)

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British PM Winston Churchill seated at the Casablanca Conference, January 1943

On 1 January 1942, the Allied Big Four[171]—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,[172] and agreeing not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers.[173]
During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating
Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany
through France. The Soviets were also demanding a second front. The British, on the other hand, argued that
military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing
demoralisation, 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 armour without using large-scale armies.
[174]
 Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should
instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.[175]
At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration,
and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press
the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes.[176] Although the
British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans
extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland
and to invade France in 1944.[177]
Pacific (1942–43)

Map of Japanese military advances through mid-1942

By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost fully conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East
Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners.
[178]
 Despite stubborn resistance by Filipino and US forces, the Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in
May 1942, forcing its government into exile.[179] 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.[180] Japanese
forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean,[181] and bombed the Allied
naval base at Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at
Changsha.[182] These easy victories over unprepared US and European opponents left Japan overconfident, as well
as overextended.[183]
In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever
communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted
when an Allied task force, centred on two American fleet carriers, fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in
the Battle of the Coral Sea.[184] Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway
Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy
the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.[185] In mid-May, Japan started the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign in China, with the goal
of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying
air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups.[186][187] 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.
[188]

US Marines during the Guadalcanal Campaign, in the Pacific theatre, 1942

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 Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua.[189] The Americans
planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a
first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.[190]
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.[191] 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.[192] 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.[193] The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February
which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.[194]
Eastern Front (1942–43)

Red Army soldiers on the counterattack during the Battle of Stalingrad, February 1943

Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and
southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year.[195] In May the Germans
defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov,[196] and then launched their main summer
offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy 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 Stalingrad on the Volga.[197]
By mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting. The Soviets began their second
winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad,[198] and an assault on
the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously.[199] By early February 1943, the German Army
had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been defeated,[200] and the front-line had been
pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered
off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Soviet city
of Kursk.[201]
Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–43)

American 8th Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombing raid on the Focke-Wulf factory in Germany, 9 October 1943

Exploiting poor American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American
Atlantic coast.[202] By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, Operation Crusader,
in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made.[203] In North Africa, the Germans
launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February,
[204]
 followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives.
[205]
 Concerns the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in
early May 1942.[206] An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces
were stopped at El Alamein.[207] On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the
disastrous Dieppe Raid,[208] demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe
without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.[209][page  needed]
In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein[210] and, at a high cost,
managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta.[211] A few months later, the
Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across
Libya.[212] This attack was followed up shortly after by Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted
in the region joining the Allies.[213] Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of
Vichy France;[213] although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their
fleet to prevent its capture by German forces.[213][214] The Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which
was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.[213][215]
In June 1943 the British and Americans began a strategic bombing campaign against Germany with a goal to
disrupt the war economy, reduce morale, and "de-house" the civilian population.[216] The firebombing of
Hamburg was among the first attacks in this campaign, inflicting significant casualties and considerable losses on
infrastructure of this important industrial centre.[217]
Allies gain momentum (1943–44)
U.S. Navy SBD-5 scout plane flying patrol over USS  Washington and USS  Lexington during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands
campaign, 1943

After the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943,
Canadian and US forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians.[218] Soon after, the United
States, with support from Australian and New Zealand forces, began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing
surrounding islands, and breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.[219] By
the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and had also neutralised the major
Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New
Guinea.[220]
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 4 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
defences,[221] and for the first time in the war Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or
operational success.[222] This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9
July, which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.
[223]

Red Army troops in a counter-offensive on German positions at the Battle of Kursk, July 1943

On 12 July 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,[224] giving
the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front.[225][226] The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the
hastily fortified Panther–Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper
Offensives.[227]
On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following Italy's armistice with the Allies.
[228]
 Germany with the help of fascists responded by disarming Italian forces that were in many places without
superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas,[229] and creating a series of defensive lines.[230] German
special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy
named the Italian Social Republic,[231] causing an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines
until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.[232]
German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly
effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval
campaign.[233] In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in
Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran.[234] The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese
territory[235] and the military planning for the Burma Campaign,[236] while the latter included agreement that the
Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three
months of Germany's defeat.[237]
Ruins of the Benedictine monastery, during the Battle of Monte Cassino, Italian Campaign, May 1944

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.[238][239][240] In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against
the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with landings at Anzio.[241]
On 27 January 1944, Soviet troops launched a major offensive that expelled German forces from the Leningrad
region, thereby ending the most lethal siege in history.[242] 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.[243] By late May 1944, the
Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which
were repulsed by the Axis troops.[244] The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing
several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June Rome was captured.[245]
The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an
operation against British positions in Assam, India,[246] and soon besieged Commonwealth positions
at Imphal and Kohima.[247] In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back
to Burma by July,[247] and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese
troops in Myitkyina.[248] The second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure
railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields.[249] By June, the Japanese had conquered the
province of Henan and begun a new attack on Changsha in Hunan province.[250]
Allies close in (1944)

American troops approaching Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944

On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure,[251] the Western Allies invaded northern
France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France.[252] These landings
were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated on 25 August by
the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle,[253] and the Western
Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to
advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed.[254] After that,
the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Ruhr river in a large offensive. In Italy, Allied
advance also slowed due to the last major German defensive line.[255]
German SS soldiers from the Dirlewanger Brigade, tasked with suppressing the Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation,
August 1944

On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ("Operation Bagration") that destroyed the
German Army Group Centre almost completely.[256] Soon after that, another Soviet strategic offensive forced German
troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviets formed the Polish Committee of National
Liberation to control territory in Poland and combat the Polish Armia Krajowa; The Soviet Red Army remained in
the Praga district on the other side of the Vistula and watched passively as the Germans quelled the Warsaw
Uprising initiated by the Armia Krajowa.[257] The national uprising in Slovakia was also quelled by the Germans.[citation
needed]
 The Soviet Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German
troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to
the Allied side.[258]
In September 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.[259] 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 October. A few days
later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of
Budapest in February 1945.[260] Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to
the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish
armistice on relatively mild conditions,[261] although Finland was forced to fight their former ally Germany.[262]

General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte, 20 October 1944

By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam,
pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River[263] while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944,
Chinese forces captured Mount Song and reopened the Burma Road.[264] In China, the Japanese had more
successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August.[265] Soon after,
they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by
the end of November[266] and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.[267]
In the Pacific, US 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 the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, 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 in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.[268]
Axis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)
Yalta Conference held in February 1945, with Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin

On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves
to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes and along the French–German border to split the Western
Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp to prompt a
political settlement.[269] By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.[269] In Italy,
the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles
attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia.[270] On 4
February Soviet, British and US leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war
Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.[271]
In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while Western Allies entered western Germany and closed
to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the
German Army Group B.[272] In early March, in an attempt to protect its last oil reserves in Hungary and to retake
Budapest, Germany launched its last major offensive against Soviet troops near Lake Balaton. In two weeks, the
offensive had been repulsed, the Soviets advanced to Vienna, and captured the city. In early April, Soviet
troops captured Königsberg, while the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western
Germany capturing Hamburg and Nuremberg. American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe river on 25 April, leaving
several unoccupied pockets in southern Germany and around Berlin.

The German Reichstag after its capture by the Allied forces, 3 June 1945.

Soviet and Polish forces stormed and captured Berlin in late April. In Italy, German forces surrendered on 29 April.
On 30 April, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany,[273] Berlin garrison
surrendered on 2 May.
Several changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was
succeeded by Harry S. Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April.[274] Two days later, Hitler
committed suicide in besieged Berlin, and he was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.[275] Total and
unconditional surrender in Europe was signed on 7 and 8 May, to be effective by the end of 8 May.[276] German Army
Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May.[277]
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 recaptured
Manila in March. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the
war.[278] Meanwhile, the United States Army Air Forces launched a massive firebombing campaign of strategic cities
in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. A devastating bombing raid on Tokyo of
9–10 March was the deadliest conventional bombing raid in history.[279]

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.

In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, over-running 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.
[280]
 Chinese forces started a counterattack in the Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June
1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March,
and Okinawa by the end of June.[281] At the same time, American submarines cut off Japanese imports, drastically
reducing Japan's ability to supply its overseas forces.[282]
On 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany,[283] and the
American, British and Chinese governments reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of Japan, specifically
stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction".[284] During this conference, the United
Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.[285]
The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese government, which believed it would be capable
of negotiating for more favourable surrender terms.[286] In early August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on
the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta
agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest
Japanese fighting force,[287] thereby persuading previously adamant Imperial Army leaders to accept surrender terms.
[288]
 The Red Army also captured the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August
1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed at Tokyo Bay on the deck of the American
battleship USS  Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.[289]

Aftermath
Main articles: Aftermath of World War II and Consequences of Nazism

Ruins of Warsaw in January 1945, after the deliberate destruction of the city by the occupying German forces

The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany. The former became a neutral state, non-
aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided into western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the
Western Allies and the Soviet Union. A denazification programme in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war
criminals in the Nuremberg trials and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards
amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.[290]
Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and most
of Pomerania were taken over by Poland,[291] and East Prussia was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union,
followed by the expulsion to Germany of the nine million Germans from these provinces,[292][293] as well as three million
Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. By the 1950s, one-fifth of West Germans were refugees from
the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line,[294] from which 2 million Poles
were expelled;[293][295] north-east Romania,[296][297] parts of eastern Finland,[298] and the three Baltic
states were incorporated into the Soviet Union.[299][300]

Defendants at the Nuremberg trials, where the Allied forces prosecuted prominent members of the political, military, judicial and
economic leadership of Nazi Germany for crimes against humanity

In an effort to maintain world peace,[301] the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on
24 October 1945,[302] and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 as a common standard for
all member nations.[303] The great powers that were the victors of the war—France, China, the United Kingdom, the
Soviet Union and the United States—became the permanent members of the UN's Security Council.[304] The five
permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic
of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state,
the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The alliance between the Western
Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.[305]

Post-war border changes in Central Europe and creation of the Eastern Bloc

Germany had been de facto divided, and two independent states, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German
Democratic Republic,[306] were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones. The rest of Europe
was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence.[307] Most 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, East Germany,[308] Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia,
and Albania[309] became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy,
causing tension with the Soviet Union.[310]
Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and
the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[311] 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.[312]
In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western
Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.[313] Korea, formerly under Japanese rule,
was divided and occupied by the Soviet Union in the North and the United States in the South between 1945 and
1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate
government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.[314]

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming the Israeli Declaration of Independence at the Independence Hall, 14 May 1948

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.[315] In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of
Israel marked the escalation of the Arab–Israeli conflict. While European 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 decolonisation.[316][317]
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.
[318]
 The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years 1945–1948.
[319]
 Because of international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed
European recovery for several years.[320][321]
Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of
European economic policy that the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.[322][323] The post-
1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle.[324] Italy also experienced an economic
boom[325] and the French economy rebounded.[326] By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin,
[327]
 and although receiving a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country,
[328]
 it continued in relative economic decline for decades.[329]
The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in
the immediate post-war era.[330] Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most
powerful economies in the world by the 1980s.[331] China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.[332]

Impact
Main article: Historiography of World War II
Casualties and war crimes
Main articles: World War II casualties and List of war crimes §  1939–1945: World War II
World War II deaths

Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded.[333] Most
suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million
civilians.[334][335][336] Many of the civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass bombings, disease,
and starvation.[citation needed]
The Soviet Union alone lost around 27 million people during the war,[337] including 8.7 million military and 19 million
civilian deaths.[338] A quarter of the people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed.[339] Germany sustained 5.3
million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.[340]
Of the total number of deaths in World War II, approximately 85 per cent—mostly Soviet and Chinese—were on the
Allied side.[341] Many of these deaths were caused by war crimes committed by German and Japanese forces in
occupied territories. An estimated 11[342] to 17 million[343] civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Nazi racist
policies, including mass killing of around 6 million Jews, along with Roma, homosexuals, at least 1.9 million ethnic
Poles[344][345] and millions of other Slavs (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), and other ethnic and
minority groups.[346][343] Between 1941 and 1945, more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs, along with gypsies and Jews,
were persecuted and murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia.[347] Also, more than 100,000
Poles were massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Volhynia massacres, between 1943 and 1945.[348] At
the same time about 10,000–15,000 Ukrainians were killed by the Polish Home Army and other Polish units, in
reprisal attacks.[349]

Chinese civilians being buried alive by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army, during the Nanking Massacre, December 1937

In Asia and the Pacific, between 3 million and more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese (estimated at 7.5
million[350]), were killed by the Japanese occupation forces.[351] The most infamous Japanese atrocity was the Nanking
Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered.[352] Mitsuyoshi
Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Sankō Sakusen. General Yasuji
Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei and Shantung.[353]
Axis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such
weapons during its invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731)[354][355] and in early conflicts against the Soviets.
  Both the Germans and the Japanese tested such weapons against civilians,[357] and sometimes on prisoners of
[356]

war.[358]
The Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers,[359] and the imprisonment or
execution of thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD, along with mass civilian deportations to Siberia, in
the Baltic states and eastern Poland annexed by the Red Army.[360]
The mass bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime, although no positive or
specific customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World
War II.[361] The USAAF firebombed a total of 67 Japanese cities, killing 393,000 civilians and destroying 65% of built-
up areas.[362]
Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour
Main articles: Genocide, The Holocaust, Nazi concentration camps, Extermination camp, Forced labour under
German rule during World War II, Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany, and Nazi human experimentation

Schutzstaffel (SS) female camp guards removing prisoners' bodies from lorries and carrying them to a mass grave, inside the
German Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945

Nazi Germany was responsible for the Holocaust (killing approximately 6 million Jews), as well as for killing 2.7
million ethnic Poles[363] and 4 million others who were deemed "unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally
ill, Soviet prisoners of war, Romani, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah's Witnesses) as part of a programme
of deliberate extermination, in effect becoming a "genocidal state".[364] Soviet POWs were kept in especially
unbearable conditions, and 3.6 million Soviet POWs out of 5.7 died in Nazi camps during the war.[365][366] In addition
to concentration camps, death camps were created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people at an industrial scale.
Nazi Germany extensively used forced labourers; about 12 million Europeans from German occupied countries
were abducted and used as a slave work force in German industry, agriculture and war economy.[367]
The Soviet Gulag became a de facto system of deadly camps during 1942–43, when wartime privation and hunger
caused numerous deaths of inmates,[368] including foreign citizens of Poland and other countries occupied in 1939–
40 by the Soviet Union, as well as Axis POWs.[369] By the end of the war, most Soviet POWs liberated from Nazi
camps and many repatriated civilians were detained in special filtration camps where they were subjected
to NKVD evaluation, and 226,127 were sent to the Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators.[370]

Prisoner identity photograph taken by the German SS of a Polish girl deported to Auschwitz. Approximately 230,000 children
were held prisoner, and used in forced labour and medical experiments.

Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates.
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 per cent (for
American POWs, 37 per cent),[371] seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.[372] While 37,583
prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after
the surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56.[373]
At least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941
by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number
reached 10 million.[374] In Java, between 4 and 10 million rōmusha (Japanese: "manual labourers"), were forced to
work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas
in South East Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.[375]
Occupation
Main articles: German-occupied Europe, Resistance during World War II, Collaboration with the Axis Powers,
and Nazi plunder

Polish civilians wearing blindfolds photographed just before their execution by German soldiers in Palmiry forest, 1940

In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway,
Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies
through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichmarks (27.8 billion US dollars) by the end of the war; this figure
does not include the sizeable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods.
[376]
 Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 per cent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a
figure which increased to nearly 40 per cent of total German income as the war went on.[377]

Soviet partisans hanged by the German army. The Russian Academy of Sciences reported in 1995 civilian victims in the Soviet
Union at German hands totalled 13.7 million dead, twenty percent of the 68 million persons in the occupied Soviet Union.

In the East, the intended gains of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched
earth policies denied resources to the German invaders.[378] Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged
extreme brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances
were thus followed by mass executions.[379] Although resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did
not significantly hamper German operations in either the East[380] or the West[381] until late 1943.
In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,
essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples.[382] Although
Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in some territories, their
excessive brutality turned local public opinion against them within weeks.[383] During Japan's initial conquest it
captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~5.5×105 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943
was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (~6.8×106 t), 76 per cent of its 1940
output rate.[383]
Home fronts and production
Main articles: Military production during World War II and Home front during World War II
Allies to Axis GDP ratio between 1938 and 1945.

In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics.
In 1938 the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 per cent larger
population and a 30 per cent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); if
colonies are included, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.
[384]
 In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only an 89 per cent higher
GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 per cent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are
included.[384]
The United States produced about two-thirds of all the munitions used by the Allies in WWII, including warships,
transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition.[385] Though the Allies' economic and population
advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the
decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies, as the war largely settled into one
of attrition.[386] While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed[by whom?] to the Allies having more access
to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the labour force,
[387]
 Allied strategic bombing,[388] and Germany's late shift to a war economy[389] contributed significantly. Additionally,
neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so.[390] To
improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers;[391] Germany used about 12 million
people, mostly from Eastern Europe,[367] while Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.[374][375]
Advances in technology and warfare
Main article: Technology during World War II

B-29 Superfortress strategic bombers on the Boeing assembly line in Wichita, Kansas, 1944

Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers, and ground-support, and each role was advanced
considerably. Innovation included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and
personnel);[392] and of strategic bombing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the
enemy's ability to wage war).[393] Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and
surface-to-air artillery. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and, though late introduction meant it had little
impact, it led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.[394] Although guided missiles were being developed,
they were not advanced enough to reliably target aircraft until some years after the war.
Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines.
Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the war, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor,
and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.[395][396][397] In the
Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and
helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap.[398] Carriers were also more economical than battleships because of the
relatively low cost of aircraft[399] and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured.[400] Submarines, which had proved
to be an effective weapon during the First World War,[401] were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second.
The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while
Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII
submarine and wolfpack tactics.[402] Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh
light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious over the German submarines.[citation needed]

A V-2 rocket launched from a fixed site in Peenemünde, 21 June 1943

Land warfare changed from the static front lines of trench warfare of World War I, which had relied on
improved artillery that outmatched the speed of both infantry and cavalry, to increased mobility and combined arms.
The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the
primary weapon.[403] In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World
War I,[404] and advances continued throughout the war with increases in speed, armour and firepower.[citation needed] At the
start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications.[405] This
idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German
doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the
key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France.[403] Many means of destroying
tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry
antitank weapons, and other tanks were used.[405] Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the
backbone of all forces,[406] and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.[407] The
portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG34, and various submachine guns which
were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings.[407] The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating
many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon for most armed
forces.[408]
Nuclear Gadget being raised to the top of the detonation "shot tower", at Alamogordo Bombing Range; Trinity nuclear test, New
Mexico, July 1945

Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using
large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma
machine.[409] Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of
decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes[410] and British Ultra, a pioneering
method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to the United Kingdom by the Polish Cipher Bureau,
which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war.[411] Another aspect of military intelligence was the
use of deception, which the Allies used to great effect, such as in operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard.[410][412]
Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first
programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's
development of nuclear weapons, operations research and the development of artificial harbours and oil pipelines
under the English Channel.[citation needed] Penicillin was first mass-produced and used during the war (see Stabilization
and mass production of penicillin).[413]