The Skelter Team

The Second World War

The Second World War was a global military conflict which took place between 1939 and 1945. It became involved most of the world's nations, including all great powers, by creating two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. It was the greatest war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized and a state of "total war" on the big contenders spent all their economic, military and scientific service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between resources civilian and military. Marked by events of great significance involving the mass death of civilians, the Holocaust and the use for the first and last time of nuclear weapons in a military conflict, World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, one with a final score of 50 to 70 million victims.

It is generally accepted that the conflict began on September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland and the subsequent declaration of war by France and most of the countries of the British Empire and the Commonwealth of the Third Reich. Nazi Germany sought to create an empire in Europe. From late 1939 to early 1941, thanks to a dazzling series of military campaigns and the signing of treaties, Germany conquered or subjected much of continental Europe. Based on agreements between the Nazis and the Soviets, the nominally neutral Soviet Union occupied and annexed territories of its six neighboring nations in Europe. The UK and the Commonwealth remained the only major force capable of fighting against the Axis powers in North Africa and in extensive naval warfare. In June 1941 the European powers began Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, thus initiating the largest land theater of war in history, which was used from that time most of the Axis military power. In December 1941, the Empire of Japan, which had been at war with China since 19,372 and meant to dominate a part of Asia, attacked the United States and European possessions in the Pacific Ocean, quickly conquering much of the region.

The Axis advance was stopped in 1942 after the defeat of Japan in several naval battles and of European Axis troops in North Africa and in the decisive battle of Stalingrad. In 1943, following the various setbacks of the Germans in Eastern Europe, the Allied invasion of Fascist Italy and the U.S. victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and had to retreat in all strategic fronts. In 1944 the Western Allies invaded France, while the Soviet Union regained territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies.

The war in Europe ended with the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy was defeated by the United States and the Japanese Archipelago invasion became imminent. Following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States, the war in Asia ended on 15 August 1945 when Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.

The war finished with total victory of the Allies over the Axis in 1945. World War II altered the political and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was created after the conflagration to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and the United States rose as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Declined while the influence of the great European powers embodied in the beginning of the decolonization of Asia and Africa. Most countries whose industries had been damaged economic recovery began, while political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to establish postwar relations.