ZahidulAlam @ZahidulAlam

World War II was the largest and most devastating war in the history of mankind. Although the six years from 1939 to 1945 are considered the period of World War II, several conflicts in Asia before 1939 are considered part of World War II.

All the great powers and most of the states of the world at that time were involved in this war, and two opposing military alliances were formed; the Allies and the Axis Powers . This great war is considered the most extensive war in history, in which more than 100 million military personnel from 30 countries participated. The participating states quickly became involved in an all-out war and began to apply their full economic, commercial, and technological capabilities, making no distinction between military and civilian resources.

In addition, this war, which was notorious for its indiscriminate killings of civilians, the Holocaust ( the genocide of the Jews by Hitler ), and the only use of nuclear weapons in world history , claimed the lives of between 50 million and 85 million people. These statistics prove that it was the most brutal war in world history. [ 1 ]

Japan had already invaded the Republic of China in 1937 , seeking to establish its sole hegemony in East Asia . [ 2 ] Germany then invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 , prompting France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany. This latter event is considered to be the beginning of World War II.

Through a series of campaigns and treaties from 1939 to 1941, Germany formed an alliance with Italy and was able to gain control of most of continental Europe. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , Germany and the Soviet Union divided up their occupied Poland , Finland , and the Baltic states . At this time, only the United Kingdom and other British Commonwealth countries were fighting against the Axis powers (such as the North African Wars and the protracted Battle of the Atlantic ).

In June 1941, the European Axis powers invaded the Soviet Union, resulting in the largest battlefield in military history. This attack diverted a large portion of the Axis forces from the main battle. In December 1941, Japan joined the Axis and, following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the European colonies in the Pacific, rapidly conquered most of the western Pacific.

On December 7, 1941, the United States joined the Allies. Germany and Japan , the two Axis powers, had originally brought the United States into the war by attacking it. Japan, on the other hand, had an old rivalry with China ; the Second Sino-Japanese War had been going on between the two countries since the mid-1930s . As a result, China also joined the Allies. World War II ended in 1945 with the unconditional surrender of both Germany and Japan.

This war saw the destructive application of many newly discovered technologies. The most horrific application of these was nuclear weapons . This deadly weapon was invented in the midst of the Great War and ended the war with its devastation. Excluding all reconstruction work, the total cost in 1945 alone was 1 trillion US dollars. Immediately after this war, the whole of Europe was divided into two parts; one part became Western Europe and the other part was included in Soviet Russia . Later, this Russian Union broke up and many small states were born. NATO was formed by the countries of Western Europe and the borders of the countries of the whole of Europe began to be determined. The Cold War broke out with the countries included in the Wars Pact . Thus, World War II brought a new drama to the world stage.

Causes of war

There is considerable debate about the causes of World War II. However, there is a general understanding that is largely acceptable. This cause became the basis for the post-war settlement of the Allied Powers through the policy of appeasement, with the United States and France playing the leading role . This cause was established after World War I by blaming the dominance and imperialism of Germany and Japan, the details of which are mentioned here.

After World War I, Germany lost almost all of its wealth, prestige, and power. The main reason for its imperialist ideology was to restore Germany's lost economic , military, and land-based resources and re-emerge as a world power. In addition , it also aimed to control the resource-rich lands of Poland and Ukraine . One of Germany's national aspirations was to get out of the Treaty of Versailles , which had been signed after World War I. In this context, Hitler and his Nazi forces believed that a national revolution would be possible to organize the country.