Japan quickly invaded and occupied most of Southeast Asia, Burma, the Netherlands East Indies, and many Pacific islands. declared war on Japan, and the war became truly global when the other Axis powers declared war on the U.S. bases at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines. In East Asia Japan expanded its war with China and seized European colonial holdings. In June Hitler abandoned his pact with the Soviet Union and launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive surprise invasion of Russia, reaching the outskirts of Moscow before Soviet counterattacks and winter weather halted the advance. Germany then launched massive bombing raids on Britain in preparation for a cross-Channel invasion, but, after losing the Battle of Britain, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely.īy early 1941 Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria had joined the Axis, and German troops quickly overran Yugoslavia and Greece in April. In May German forces swept through the Netherlands and Belgium on their blitzkrieg invasion of France, forcing it to capitulate in June and establish the Vichy France regime. In April 1940 Germany overwhelmed Denmark and began its conquest of Norway. By early 1940 the Soviet Union had divided Poland with Germany, occupied the Baltic states, and subdued Finland in the Russo-Finnish War.
Poland’s defeat was followed by a period of military inactivity on the Western Front, known as the Phony War.Īt sea Germany conducted a damaging submarine campaign by U-boat against merchant shipping bound for Britain. Two days later France and Britain declared war on Germany. After signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, Germany invaded Poland on Sept. He signed alliances with Italy and Japan to oppose the Soviet Union and intervened in the Spanish Civil War in the name of anticommunism.Ĭapitalizing on the reluctance of other European powers to oppose him by force, he sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 (the Anschluss) and to annex Czechoslovakia in 1939. In the mid-1930s Hitler began secretly to rearm Germany, in violation of the treaty. Political and economic instability in Germany, combined with bitterness over its defeat in World War I and the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, allowed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to rise to power. World War II, or Second World War, (1939–45) International conflict principally between the Axis powers-Germany, Italy, and Japan-and the Allied powers-France, Britain, the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!īelow is the article summary.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
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