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World War II
Date September 3, 1939 – September 2, 1945 Location Europe, Pacific, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Result Allied victory. Creation of the United Nations. Emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers. Creation of First World and Second World spheres of influence in Europe leading to the Cold War. (more...)
Belligerents
Allies	Axis powers
Commanders
Allied leaders	Axis leaders
Casualties and losses
Military dead: Over 14,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 36,000,000 Total dead: Over 50,000,000 ...further details.	Military dead: Over 8,000,000 Civilian dead: Over 4,000,000 Total dead Over 12,000,000 ...further details.

World War II (1939 - 1945), or the Second World War,^[1] was a global military conflict which involved the majority of the world's nations, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread and deadliest conflict in human history. Over 70 million people were killed, the majority of them civilians. The financial cost of the war is estimated at about a trillion 1944 U.S. dollars worldwide,^[2] making it the most expensive war as well.

2.   In 1933, Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany, and began a massive rearming campaign in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles, signed as a result of its defeat in World War I. On September 1, 1939, the German invasion of Poland began World War II. The United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany on September 3.

3.   At the end of September 1939, the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Italy, and Germany formalized the Axis Powers. The Allies, on the other hand, were countries allied to each other by a net of common defence pacts and military alliance, signed before the war. Within the ranks of the Allied powers, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States were known as "The Big Three". Within months, much of Europe had been occupied by the German military force. The war against Japan was fought over two-thirds of the globe.^[3]

4.   Western Allied forces entered Germany in February 1945. By early April, they finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany. Soviet forces stormed Berlin in late April. On April 28, Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans and two days later, Hitler committed suicide. Germany surrendered on May 7. On July 11, 1945, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany and reiterated the demand for Japan's unconditional surrender, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction". When Japan continued to reject the Potsdam terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, ending the war.

5.   In an effort to maintain international peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on October 24, 1945. Regardless, the alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over, and the two superpowers each quickly established their own spheres of influence. This set the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. Following the end of World War II, a rapid period of decolonization also took place within the holdings of the various European colonial powers. These occurred primarily due to shifts in ideology, the economic exhaustion from the war, and the increased demand by indigenous people for self-determination. For the most part, the transitions happened relatively peacefully. In the meantime, Western Europe itself began moving toward integration.  more... at Wikipedia

↑ Official military histories in Commonwealth nations refer to the conflict as the Second World War, while the United States' official histories refer to the conflict as World War II. The two terms are becoming interchangeable, even in formal military history. ↑ Coleman, P. (1999) "Cost of the War," World War II Resource Guide (Gardena, California: The American War Library) ↑ Euronet: Prelude to War