World War II

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and ended on September 2, 1945 after the Japanese surrender. The principal combatants were Great Britain and the British Dominions, France, the Soviet Union, the United States, China and others - making up the Allied Powers - and Germany, Japan, Italy, and others - making up the Axis Powers. Combat took place all over the world. Its causes were many but most stem from the results of the First World War, which created the atmosphere in which Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party could wrest control of Germany and put Japan in a position where they felt that they should have supremacy in the Pacific. The Second World War saw the deaths of millions of civilians and combatants, genocide, continent-wide destruction, the nuclear age, the rise of the Soviet Union and the United States as superpowers, and the United Nations.

World War II Timeline

Articles by Eric Grenier:

The Jews in France 1919-1939 - Details the rise of anti-Semitism in France prior to the Second World War.
The Defeat of Nationalist China - The reasons for the defeat of Chiang Kai-Shek's China.
The Nazi Empire - What the Nazis planned for the future of Europe.