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124-668: Once allies during World War II , the United States and the Soviet Union became competitors on the world stage and engaged in the Cold War , so called because it never resulted in overt, declared total war between the two powers. It was instead characterized by espionage , political subversion and proxy wars . Western Europe and Asia were rebuilt through the American Marshall Plan , whereas Central and Eastern Europe fell under

248-566: A United States Army sergeant wrote, "Our own Army and the British Army along with ours have done their share of looting and raping ... This offensive attitude among our troops is not at all general, but the percentage is large enough to have given our Army a pretty black name, and we too are considered an army of rapists." Robert Lilly's analysis of military records led him to conclude about 14,000 rapes occurred in Britain, France, and Germany at

372-612: A general election . Following a landslide victory, Labour held more than 60% of the seats in the House of Commons and formed a new government on 26 July 1945 under Clement Attlee . Britain's war debt was described by some in the American administration as a "millstone round the neck of the British economy". Although there were suggestions for an international conference to tackle the issue, in August 1945

496-548: A third world war . The devastated great powers of Western Europe formed the European Coal and Steel Community , which later evolved into the European Economic Community and ultimately into the current European Union . This effort primarily began as an attempt to avoid another war between Germany and France by economic cooperation and integration, and a common market for important natural resources. The end of

620-513: A United States analysis released years after the war, US casualties were 10,380 dead and 36,550 wounded; Japanese dead were 255,795. As a result of the new borders drawn by the victorious nations, large populations suddenly found themselves in hostile territory. The Soviet Union took over areas formerly controlled by Germany, Finland, Poland, and Japan. Poland lost the Kresy region (about half of its pre-War territory) and received most of Germany east of

744-608: A domination of the world completely different from any known in world history. The domination at which the Nazis aim is not limited to the displacement of the balance of power and the imposition of the supremacy of one nation. It seeks the systematic and total destruction of those conquered by Hitler and it does not treaty with the nations which it has subdued. He destroys them. He takes from them their whole political and economic existence and seeks even to deprive them of their history and culture. He wishes only to consider them as vital space and

868-638: A government-in-exile in London, with each contributing a contingent of escaped troops. Nevertheless, by roughly one year since Germany's violation of the Munich Agreement, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini. Before they were formally allied, the United Kingdom and the United States had cooperated in a number of ways, notably through the destroyers-for-bases deal in September 1940 and

992-549: A greatly weakened economy and humiliated populace. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , and the ensuing Great Depression , led to political unrest across Europe, especially in Germany, where revanchist nationalists blamed the severity of the economic crisis on the Treaty of Versailles. The far-right Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler , which had formed shortly after the peace treaty, exploited growing popular resentment and desperation to become

1116-457: A major victory for peace, the open flaunting of its terms demonstrated the failure of appeasement. Britain and France, which had been the main advocates of appeasement, decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert an imminent German attack on Poland;

1240-599: A quarter of the Soviet Union's capital resources were destroyed, and industrial and agricultural output in 1945 fell far short of pre-war levels. To help rebuild the country, the Soviet government obtained limited credits from Britain and Sweden; it refused assistance offered by the United States under the Marshall Plan. Instead, the Soviet Union coerced Soviet-occupied Central and Eastern Europe to supply machinery and raw materials. Germany and former Nazi satellites made reparations to

1364-608: A revival of the Italian republican movement. In the 1946 Italian constitutional referendum , held on 2 June, a day celebrated since as Festa della Repubblica , the Italian monarchy was abolished, having been associated with the deprivations of the war and the Fascist rule, especially in the North , and Italy became a republic. This was the first time that Italian women voted at the national level, and

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1488-508: A sense of ethnic kinship or to the leadership of Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin . The population of Germany was treated significantly worse. Rape and murder of German civilians was as bad as, and sometimes worse than, Nazi propaganda had anticipated. Political officers encouraged Soviet troops to seek revenge and terrorise the German population. On "the basis of Hochrechnungen (projections or estimations)", "1.9 million German women altogether were raped at

1612-640: A separate colony. British Malaya covers the areas of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore , while British Borneo covers the area of Brunei , including Sabah and Sarawak of Malaysia. British Hong Kong consisted of Hong Kong Island , the Kowloon Peninsula , and the New Territories . Territories controlled by the Colonial Office , namely the Crown Colonies , were controlled politically by

1736-599: A vacant territory over which he has every right. The human beings who constitute these nations are for him only cattle. He orders their massacre or migration. He compels them to make room for their conquerors. He does not even take the trouble to impose any war tribute on them. He just takes all their wealth and, to prevent any revolt, he scientifically seeks the physical and moral degradation of those whose independence he has taken away. France experienced several major phases of action during World War II: In Africa these included: French West Africa , French Equatorial Africa ,

1860-792: A weaker interpretation of the Charter to permit the Soviet Union to continue to control the Baltic states. In March 1944 the US accepted Churchill's view that the Atlantic Charter did not apply to the Baltic states. With the return of Soviet troops at the end of the war, the Forest Brothers mounted a guerrilla war . This continued until the mid-1950s. An estimated one million military and civilian Filipinos were killed from all causes; of these 131,028 were listed as killed in seventy-two war crime events. According to

1984-521: A whole, but its youth in particular, ended up being deeply scorched psychologically by the ordeal which they went through during the previous decade, from the time when the Nazis took power promising them a thousand years of world dominance, until their major cities were destroyed, turned to rubble by the Allied bombardments. The trauma caused to them was multifaceted as it permeated all levels of society, by means of

2108-416: A widespread famine, which was followed by the wave of denazification which swept throughout their humiliated country, ending with the pervasive shame of their parents who believed in the illusive promises of their defeated Führer . The Soviet Union , too, had been heavily affected. In response, in 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall devised the "European Recovery Program", which became known as

2232-553: Is considered shameful, the subject of the "comfort women" was ignored for decades after 1945 as the victims were considered pariahs. Dutch comfort women brought a successful case before the Batavia Military Tribunal in 1948. Allies of World War II The Allies , formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during World War II (1939–1945) to oppose

2356-515: Is uncertain as neither the Polish Communist government or the Soviet government kept track of the number of expelled people. The number of Polish citizens inhabiting Polish borderlands ( Kresy region) was about 13 million before World War II broke out according to official Polish statistics. Polish citizens killed in the war that originated from the Polish borderlands territory (killed by either

2480-609: The Anglo-French Supreme War Council to coordinate military decisions. A Polish government-in-exile was set up in London, joined by hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers, which would remain an Allied nation until the end. After a quiet winter, Germany began its invasion of Western Europe in April 1940, quickly defeating Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. All the occupied nations subsequently established

2604-631: The Axis powers . Its principal members by the end of 1941 were the " Big Four " – the United Kingdom , United States , Soviet Union , and China . Membership in the Allies varied during the course of the war. When the conflict broke out on 1 September 1939, the Allied coalition consisted of the United Kingdom, France , and Poland , as well as their respective dependencies , such as British India . They were joined by

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2728-528: The British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) were also involved in rapes: A former prostitute recalled that as soon as Australian troops arrived in Kure in early 1946, they "dragged young women into their jeeps, took them to the mountain, and then raped them. I heard them screaming for help nearly every night". Such behavior was commonplace, but news of criminal activity by Occupation forces

2852-535: The British West Indies , British Honduras , British Guiana and the Falkland Islands . The Dominion of Newfoundland was directly ruled as a royal colony from 1933 to 1949, run by a governor appointed by London who made the decisions regarding Newfoundland. British India included the areas and peoples covered by later India , Bangladesh , Pakistan and (until 1937) Burma/Myanmar , which later became

2976-702: The Gleichschaltung in 1933, the League of German Girls became the only girls' organization in the Third Reich. All other groups, including church groups and scouting organizations, were either absorbed into the Hitler Youth or banned. In 1936, the First Hitler Youth Law made membership compulsory for all girls aged 10 or older. The same law also made membership in the male Hitler Youth compulsory for all boys above

3100-618: The Lend-Lease loan were amended towards the Soviets, to be put in line with British terms. The United States would now expect interest with the repayment from the Soviets, following the initiation of the Operation Barbarossa , at the end of the war—the United States were not looking to support any "postwar Soviet reconstruction efforts", which eventually manifested into the Molotov Plan . At

3224-536: The Marshall Plan . Under the plan, during 1948–1952 the United States government allocated US$ 13 billion (US$ 177 billion in 2023 dollars) for the reconstruction of the affected countries of Western Europe . By the end of the war, the economy of the United Kingdom was one of severe privation. More than a quarter of its national wealth had been consumed. Until the introduction in 1941 of Lend-Lease aid from

3348-562: The Nazi Party . During wartime, Das deutsche Mädel urged on the ten-year-olds just joining that "It is as if the Führer had spoken to you, ten-year-old girls as well, who are now joining the community. From this day on, your small strength, too, will contribute to winning the war and building a greater and more beautiful Reich.", and instructed One thing is expected of you. During your six month probationary period, during which you may not wear

3472-645: The Oder–Neisse line , including the industrial regions of Silesia . The German state of the Saar was temporarily a protectorate of France but later returned to German administration. As set forth at Potsdam, approximately 12 million people were expelled from Germany, including seven million from Germany proper, and three million from the Sudetenland . During the war, the United States government interned approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along

3596-690: The Paris Peace Treaties, 1947 , reparations were also assessed from the countries of Italy , Romania , Hungary , Bulgaria , and Finland . US policy in post-war Germany from April 1945 until July 1947 had been that no help should be given to the Germans in rebuilding their nation, save for the minimum required to mitigate starvation. The Allies' immediate post-war "industrial disarmament" plan for Germany had been to destroy Germany's capability to wage war by complete or partial de-industrialization. The first industrial plan for Germany, signed in 1946, required

3720-461: The Republic of Austria . Following the war, the Allies rescinded Japanese Empire pre-war annexations such as Manchuria , and Korea became militarily occupied by the United States in the south and by the Soviet Union in the north . The Philippines and Guam were returned to the United States. Burma, Malaya, and Singapore were returned to Britain and Indochina back to France. The Dutch East Indies

3844-617: The Soviet Union , $ 25 million to Ethiopia and $ 5 million to Albania . In 1954 the Free Territory of Trieste , an independent territory between northern Italy and Yugoslavia under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council , was divided between the two states, Italy and Yugoslavia. The Italian border that applies today has existed since 1975, when Trieste was formally re-annexed to Italy after

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3968-561: The Soviet sphere of influence and eventually behind an " Iron Curtain ". Europe was divided into a US-led Western Bloc and a USSR-led Eastern Bloc . Internationally, alliances with the two blocs gradually shifted, with some nations trying to stay out of the Cold War through the Non-Aligned Movement . The war also saw a nuclear arms race between the two superpowers; part of the reason that

4092-565: The Tehran conference , Stalin judged Roosevelt to be a "lightweight compared to the more formidable Churchill". During the meetings from 1943 to 1945, there were disputes over the growing list of demands from the USSR. Tensions increased further when Roosevelt died and his successor Harry Truman rejected demands put forth by Stalin. Roosevelt wanted to play down these ideological tensions. Roosevelt felt he "understood Stalin's psychology", stating "Stalin

4216-627: The Treaty of Osimo . In 1950, Italian Somaliland was made a United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration until 1 July 1960. The Federal State of Austria had been annexed by Germany in 1938 ( Anschluss , this union was banned by the Treaty of Versailles ). Austria (called Ostmark by the Germans) was separated from Germany and divided into four zones of occupation. With the Austrian State Treaty , these zones reunited in 1955 to become

4340-565: The Truman administration accepted that economic recovery in Europe could not go forward without the reconstruction of the German industrial base on which it had previously been dependent. In July 1947, President Truman rescinded on "national security grounds" the directive that had ordered the US occupation forces to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany." A new directive recognised that "[a]n orderly, prosperous Europe requires

4464-602: The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . Additionally, the Soviet Union transferred more than two million people within their own borders; these included Germans, Finns, Crimean Tatars , and Chechens . As Soviet troops marched across the Balkans, they committed rapes and robberies in Romania , Hungary , Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The population of Bulgaria was largely spared of this treatment, possibly due to

4588-466: The Winter War of 1939–1940, the Soviet Union invaded neutral Finland and annexed some of its territory. From 1941 until 1944 , Finland aligned itself with Nazi Germany in a failed effort to regain lost territories from the Soviets. Finland retained its independence following the war but remained subject to Soviet-imposed constraints in its domestic affairs. In 1940 the Soviet Union invaded and annexed

4712-579: The homeland . The United States felt that the Japanese and German expansion should be contained, but ruled out force until Japan's attack. The Soviet Union, having been betrayed by the Axis attack in 1941, greatly despised German belligerence and the unchallenged Japanese expansion in the East, particularly considering their defeat in previous wars with Japan; the Soviets also recognized, as the U.S. and Britain had suggested,

4836-555: The liberation of Italy . Unlike in Germany and Japan, no war crimes tribunals were held against Italian military and political leaders, though the Italian resistance summarily executed some of them (such as Mussolini ) at the end of the war; the Togliatti amnesty , taking its name from the Communist Party secretary at the time, pardoned all wartime common and political crimes in 1946. The 1947, Treaty of Peace with Italy spelled

4960-706: The 1960s. The aftermath of World War II saw the rise of communist influence in East Asia, with the People's Republic of China , as the Chinese Communist Party emerged victorious from the Chinese Civil War in 1949. At the end of the war, millions of people were dead and millions more homeless, the European economies had collapsed, and much of Europe's industrial infrastructure had been destroyed. The German people as

5084-403: The Allies after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The United States, while providing some materiel support to European Allies since September 1940, remained formally neutral until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, after which it declared war and officially joined the Allies. China had already been at war with Japan since 1937 , and formally joined

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5208-408: The Allies in December 1941. The Allies were led by the so-called "Big Three"—the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States—which were the principal contributors of manpower, resources, and strategy, each playing a key role in achieving victory. A series of conferences between Allied leaders, diplomats, and military officials gradually shaped the makeup of the alliance, the direction of

5332-450: The American Lend-Lease program, which provided Britain and the Soviet Union with war materiel beginning in October 1941. The British Commonwealth and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union reciprocated with a smaller Reverse Lend-Lease program. The First Inter-Allied Meeting took place in London in early June 1941 between the United Kingdom, the four co-belligerent British Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa),

5456-446: The Axis occupation to small nations far removed from the war. The Declaration officially recognized the Big Three and China as the "Four Powers", acknowledging their central role in prosecuting the war; they were also referred to as the " trusteeship of the powerful", and later as the " Four Policemen " of the United Nations. Many more countries joined through to the final days of the war, including colonies and former Axis nations. After

5580-441: The Axis powers shortly thereafter. By the end of 1941, the main lines of World War II had formed. Churchill referred to the "Grand Alliance" of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, which together played the largest role in prosecuting the war. The alliance was largely one of convenience for each member: the U.K. realized that the Axis powers threatened not only its colonies in North Africa and Asia but also

5704-429: The British Government during the Second World War and made part of the British Army structure. It was mostly Greek Cypriot volunteers and Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Cyprus but also included other Commonwealth nationalities. On a brief visit to Cyprus in 1943, Winston Churchill praised the "soldiers of the Cyprus Regiment who have served honourably on many fields from Libya to Dunkirk". About 30,000 Cypriots served in

5828-442: The Cold War never became a "hot" war was that the Soviet Union and the United States had nuclear deterrents against each other, leading to a mutually assured destruction standoff. As a consequence of the war, the Allies created the United Nations , an organization for international cooperation and diplomacy, similar to the League of Nations . Members of the United Nations agreed to outlaw wars of aggression in an attempt to avoid

5952-477: The Cyprus Regiment. The regiment was involved in action from the very start and served at Dunkirk , in the Greek Campaign (about 600 soldiers were captured in Kalamata in 1941), North Africa ( Operation Compass ), France, the Middle East and Italy. Many soldiers were taken prisoner especially at the beginning of the war and were interned in various PoW camps ( Stalag ) including Lamsdorf ( Stalag VIII-B ), Stalag IVC at Wistritz bei Teplitz and Stalag 4b near Most in

6076-421: The Czech Republic. The soldiers captured in Kalamata were transported by train to prisoner of war camps. After Germany invaded Poland, France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. In January 1940, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier made a major speech denouncing the actions of Germany: At the end of five months of war, one thing has become more and more clear. It is that Germany seeks to establish

6200-406: The Declaration was signed by Iraq, Iran, Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia. A Tripartite Treaty of Alliance with Britain and the USSR formalised Iran's assistance to the Allies. In Rio de Janeiro , Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas was considered near to fascist ideas, but realistically joined the United Nations after their evident successes. In 1944, Liberia and France signed. The French situation

6324-493: The French Resistance (called the épuration sauvage , "wild purge"). French women who had had romantic liaisons with German soldiers were publicly humiliated and had their heads shaved. There were also a wave of summary executions estimated to have killed about 10,000 people. When the Provisional Government of the French Republic established control, the Épuration légale ("legal purge") began. There were no international war crimes trials for French collaborators, who were tried in

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6448-410: The French likewise had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921 . The Soviet Union , which had been diplomatically and economically isolated by much of the world, had sought an alliance with the western powers, but Hitler preempted a potential war with Stalin by signing the Nazi–Soviet non-aggression pact in August 1939. In addition to preventing a two-front war that had battered its forces in

6572-475: The German Nazi regime or the Soviet regime, or expelled to distant parts of Siberia ) were accounted as Russian, Ukrainian or Belarusian casualties of war in official Soviet historiography. This fact imposes additional difficulties in making the correct estimation of the number of Polish citizens forcibly transferred after the war. The border change also reversed the results of the 1919–1920 Polish–Soviet War . Former Polish cities such as Lwów came under control of

6696-417: The German population in an attempt to stop rape and robbery by the troops. Not all Soviet soldiers participated in these activities. Foreign reports of Soviet brutality were denounced as false. Rape, robbery, and murder were blamed on German bandits impersonating Soviet soldiers. Some justified Soviet brutality towards German civilians based on previous brutality of German troops toward Russian civilians. Until

6820-433: The Jungmädel Challenge ( Jungmädelprobe ), which consisted of participation in a one-day trip with the group, and a number of sports requirements. Girls had six months to meet all the requirements of the Jungmädel Challenge and, on October 2nd of each year, those who passed became full members in another ceremony in which they were officially presented with the right to wear the black neckerchief and brown leather knot. A girl

6944-431: The League of Nations mandates of French Cameroun and French Togoland , French Madagascar , French Somaliland , and the protectorates of French Tunisia and French Morocco . French Algeria was then not a colony or dependency but a fully-fledged part of metropolitan France . Jungm%C3%A4delbund The Jungmädelbund ( German for "Young Girls' League") was the section of the Hitler Youth for girls between

7068-463: The Netherlands used JSP to support their military operations in the region after World War II. General Douglas MacArthur established the International Military Tribunal for the Far East . The Allies collected reparations from Japan. To further remove Japan as a potential future military threat, the Far Eastern Commission decided to de-industrialise Japan, with the goal of reducing Japanese standard of living to what prevailed between 1930 and 1934. In

7192-424: The Pacific coast of the United States in the wake of Imperial Japan 's attack on Pearl Harbor . Canada interned approximately 22,000 Japanese Canadians, 14,000 of whom were born in Canada. After the war, some internees chose to return to Japan, while most remained in North America. The Soviet Union expelled at least 2 million Poles from the east of the new border approximating the Curzon Line . This estimate

7316-436: The Red Cross was also permitted to visit and assist prisoners in the US occupation zone of Germany, although only with very small quantities of food. The Red Cross petitioned successfully for improvements to be made in the living conditions of German POWs. As France was liberated from German occupation, an épuration (purge) of real and suspected Nazi collaborators began. At first this was undertaken in an extralegal manner by

7440-460: The Soviet Union in July, with both nations committing to assisting one another by any means, and to never negotiate a separate peace. The following August saw the Atlantic Conference between American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , which defined a common Anglo-American vision of the postwar world, as formalized by the Atlantic Charter . At the Second Inter-Allied Meeting in London in September 1941,

7564-501: The Soviet Union occupied and subsequently annexed the strategic island of Sakhalin . In the east, the Sudetenland reverted to Czechoslovakia following the European Advisory Commission 's decision to delimit German territory to be the territory it held on 31 December 1937. Close to one-quarter of pre-war (1937) Nazi Germany was de facto annexed by the Allies; roughly 10 million Germans were either expelled from this territory or not permitted to return to it if they had fled during

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7688-417: The Soviet Union, owing to the independent nature of the military victory of the Partisans of Josip Broz Tito during World War II in Yugoslavia . The Allies established the Far Eastern Commission and Allied Council for Japan to administer their occupation of that country while the establishment Allied Control Council , administered occupied Germany. In accordance with the Potsdam Conference agreements,

7812-399: The Soviet Union, were accepted as members of the United Nations as a way to provide greater influence to Stalin, who had only Yugoslavia as a communist partner in the alliance. British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain delivered his Ultimatum Speech on 3 September 1939 which declared war on Germany , a few hours before France. As the Statute of Westminster 1931 was not yet ratified by

7936-435: The Soviet Union. Soviet ex- POWs and civilians repatriated from abroad were suspected of having been Nazi collaborators, and 226,127 of them were sent to forced labour camps after scrutiny by Soviet intelligence, NKVD . Many ex-POWs and young civilians were also conscripted to serve in the Red Army. Others worked in labour battalions to rebuild infrastructure destroyed during the war. The economy had been devastated. Roughly

8060-420: The Soviet Union. The reconstruction programme emphasised heavy industry to the detriment of agriculture and consumer goods. By 1953, steel production was twice its 1940 level, but the production of many consumer goods and foodstuffs was lower than it had been in the late 1920s. The immediate post-war period in Europe was dominated by the Soviet Union annexing , or converting into Soviet Socialist Republics , all

8184-468: The UK and therefore also entered hostilities with Britain's declaration of war. At the outbreak of World War II, the British Indian Army numbered 205,000 men. Later during World War II, the British Indian Army became the largest all-volunteer force in history, rising to over 2.5 million men in size. Indian soldiers earned 30 Victoria Crosses during the Second World War. It suffered 87,000 military casualties (more than any Crown colony but fewer than

8308-403: The US announced unexpectedly that the Lend-Lease programme was to end immediately. The abrupt withdrawal of American Lend-Lease support to Britain on 2 September 1945 dealt a severe blow to the plans of the new government. It was only with the completion of the Anglo-American loan by the United States to Great Britain on 15 July 1946 that some measure of economic stability was restored. However,

8432-443: The US, the UK had been spending its assets to purchase American equipment including aircraft and ships—over £437 million (equal to some £28 billion in 2024) on aircraft alone. Lend-Lease came just before its reserves were exhausted. Britain had placed 55% of its total labour force into war production. In spring 1945, the Labour Party withdrew from the wartime coalition government, in an effort to oust Winston Churchill , forcing

8556-404: The United Kingdom). The UK suffered 382,000 military casualties. Kuwait was a protectorate of the United Kingdom formally established in 1899. The Trucial States were British protectorates in the Persian Gulf. Palestine was a mandate dependency created in the peace agreements after World War I from the former territory of the Ottoman Empire , Iraq . The Cyprus Regiment was formed by

8680-405: The United States, which had attempted to peacefully negotiate for peace in Asia, was especially angered by the invasion and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia , just six months after signing the Munich Agreement , which sought to appease Hitler by ceding the mainly ethnic German Czechoslovak borderlands; while most of Europe had celebrated the agreement as

8804-418: The advantages of a two-front war . Franklin D. Roosevelt , Winston Churchill , and Joseph Stalin were The Big Three leaders. They were in frequent contact through ambassadors, top generals, foreign ministers and special emissaries such as the American Harry Hopkins . It is also often called the "Strange Alliance", because it united the leaders of the world's greatest capitalist state (the United States),

8928-557: The age of 10. New members had to register for their service between March 1 and March 10 of every year. Registration was held at a local League of German Girls administrative office. Girls had to have completed fourth grade and meet the following requirements: If a girl met those requirements, she was assigned to a Jungmädel group based on the geographical location she lived at. In order to become an official member, she had to now attend preparatory service which consisted of her participation of one Jungmädel meeting, one sports afternoon which

9052-603: The ages of 10 and 13. It was called the Jungmädelbund in German, and commonly abbreviated in period and contemporary historical writings as JM. Since this was a girls' organization, it fell under the League of German Girls (BDM), which was led by the BDM-Reichsreferentin (National Speaker of the BDM), who reported to the overall head of the Hitler Youth, Baldur von Schirach (who was later succeeded by Artur Axmann ). After

9176-512: The countries invaded and annexed by the Red Army driving the Germans out of central and eastern Europe. New satellite states were set up by the Soviets in Poland , Bulgaria , Hungary , Czechoslovakia , Romania , Albania , and East Germany ; the last of these was created from the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. Yugoslavia emerged as an independent Communist state allied but not aligned with

9300-558: The declaration; the Big Four were listed first: The United Nations began growing immediately after its formation. In 1942, Mexico, the Philippines and Ethiopia adhered to the declaration. Ethiopia had been restored to independence by British forces after the Italian defeat in 1941. The Philippines, still owned by Washington but granted international diplomatic recognition, was allowed to join on 10 June despite its occupation by Japan. In 1943,

9424-463: The destruction of 1,500 manufacturing plants to lower German heavy industry output to roughly 50% of its 1938 level. Dismantling of West German industry ended in 1951. By 1950, equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants , and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6.7 million tons. After lobbying by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Generals Lucius D. Clay and George Marshall ,

9548-469: The domestic courts. Approximately 300,000 cases were investigated; 120,000 people were given various sentences including 6,763 death sentences (of which only 791 were carried out). Most convicts were given amnesty a few years later. The aftermath of World War II left Italy with an anger against the monarchy for its endorsement of the Fascist regime for the previous twenty years. These frustrations contributed to

9672-597: The dominant political movement in Germany. By 1933, they gained power and rapidly established a totalitarian regime known as Nazi Germany . The Nazi regime demanded the immediate cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims over German-populated Austria and the German-populated territories of Czechoslovakia. The likelihood of war was high, but none of the major powers had the appetite for another conflict; many governments sought to ease tensions through nonmilitary strategies such as appeasement . Japan, which

9796-570: The economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." From mid-1946 onwards Germany received US government aid through the GARIOA programme. From 1948 onwards West Germany also became a minor beneficiary of the Marshall Plan. Volunteer organisations had initially been forbidden to send food, but in early 1946 the Council of Relief Agencies Licensed to Operate in Germany was founded. The prohibition against sending CARE Packages to individuals in Germany

9920-540: The eight governments in exile ( Belgium , Czechoslovakia , Greece , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Yugoslavia ) and Free France . The meeting culminated with the Declaration of St James's Palace , which set out a first vision for the postwar world. In June 1941, Hitler broke the non-aggression agreement with Stalin and Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union , which consequently declared war on Germany and its allies. Britain agreed to an alliance with

10044-596: The eight European governments in exile, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter. In December, Japan attacked American and British territories in Asia and the Pacific, resulting in the U.S. formally entering the war as an Allied power. Still reeling from Japanese aggression, China declared war on all

10168-729: The end of the Italian colonial empire , along with other border revisions, like the transfer of the Italian Islands of the Aegean to the Kingdom of Greece and the transfer to France of Briga and Tenda , as well than to minor revisions of the Franco-Italian border. Moreover, under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, Istria , Kvarner , most of the Julian March as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara

10292-624: The end of the war by Red Army soldiers." About one-third of all German women in Berlin were raped by Soviet forces. A substantial minority were raped multiple times. In Berlin, contemporary hospital records indicate between 95,000 and 130,000 women were raped by Soviet troops. About 10,000 of these women died, mostly by suicide. Over 4.5 million Germans fled towards the West. The Soviets initially had no rules against their troops "fraternising" with German women, but by 1947 they started to isolate their troops from

10416-585: The end, the de-industrialisation programme in Japan was implemented to a lesser degree than the one in Germany. Japan received emergency aid from GARIOA , as did Germany. In early 1946, the Licensed Agencies for Relief in Asia were formed and permitted to supply Japanese with food and clothes. In April 1948 the Johnston Committee Report recommended that the economy of Japan should be reconstructed due to

10540-567: The fight against the Germans, whereas the United States had the luxury of flexing industrial power, but with the "minimum possible expenditure of American lives". Roosevelt and Churchill opened ground fronts in North Africa in 1942 and in Italy in 1943, and launched a massive air attack on Germany, but Stalin kept wanting more. Although the U.S. had a strained relationship with the USSR in the 1920s, relations were normalized in 1933. The original terms of

10664-523: The first 10 days of the occupation of Kanagawa prefecture. Historian Toshiyuki Tanaka relates that in Yokohama, the capital of the prefecture, there were 119 known rapes in September 1945. Historians Eiji Takemae and Robert Ricketts state that "When US paratroopers landed in Sapporo, an orgy of looting, sexual violence, and drunken brawling ensued. Gang rapes and other sex atrocities were not infrequent" and some of

10788-412: The first five years of the American occupation of Okinawa. However, he claims this is probably not the true figure, as most cases were unreported. During World War II the Japanese military established brothels filled with " comfort women ", a euphemism for the 200,000 girls and women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers. In Confucian nations like Korea and China, where premarital sex

10912-484: The form of dismantled factories , forced labour , and coal. The German standard of living was to be reduced to its 1932 level. Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the US and Britain pursued an "intellectual reparations" programme to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. The value of these amounted to around US$ 10 billion (US$ 156 billion in 2023 dollars). In accordance with

11036-610: The greatest socialist state (the Soviet Union) and the greatest colonial power (the United Kingdom). Relations between them resulted in the major decisions that shaped the war effort and planned for the postwar world. Cooperation between the United Kingdom and the United States was especially close and included forming a Combined Chiefs of Staff . There were numerous high-level conferences ; in total Churchill attended 14 meetings, Roosevelt 12, and Stalin 5. Most visible were

11160-652: The hands of US soldiers between 1942 and 1945. Lilly assumed that only 5% of rapes by American soldiers were reported, making 17,000 GI rapes a possibility, while analysts estimate that 50% of (ordinary peacetime) rapes are reported. Supporting Lilly's lower figure is the "crucial difference" that for World War II military rapes "it was the commanding officer, not the victim, who brought charges". According to German historian Miriam Gebhardt , as many as 190,000 women were raped by US soldiers in Germany. German soldiers left many war children behind in nations such as France and Denmark, which were occupied for an extended period. After

11284-649: The high cost to US taxpayers of continuous emergency aid. Survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , known as hibakusha (被爆者), were ostracized by Japanese society. Japan provided no special assistance to these people until 1952. By the 65th anniversary of the bombings, total casualties from the initial attack and later deaths reached about 270,000 in Hiroshima and 150,000 in Nagasaki. About 230,000 hibakusha were still alive as of 2010, and about 2,200 were suffering from radiation-caused illnesses as of 2007. In

11408-692: The independent dominions of the British Commonwealth : Canada , Australia , New Zealand and South Africa . Consequently, the initial alliance resembled that of the First World War . As Axis forces began invading northern Europe and the Balkans , the Allies added the Netherlands , Belgium , Norway , Greece , and Yugoslavia . The Soviet Union, which initially had a nonaggression pact with Germany and participated in its invasion of Poland , joined

11532-576: The islands. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese were forced to relocate to the Japanese main islands. Okinawa became a main US staging point. The US covered large areas of it with military bases and continued to occupy it until 1972, years after the end of the occupation of the main islands. The bases still remain. To skirt the Geneva Convention , the Allies classified many Japanese soldiers as Japanese Surrendered Personnel (JSP) instead of POWs and used them as forced labour until 1947. The UK, France, and

11656-418: The last world war, the agreement secretly divided the independent states of Central and Eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland ; two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Roughly two weeks after Germany's attack, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. Britain and France established

11780-541: The loan was made primarily to support British overseas expenditure in the immediate post-war years and not to implement the Labour government's policies for domestic welfare reforms and the nationalisation of key industries. Although the loan was agreed on reasonable terms, its conditions included what proved to be damaging fiscal conditions for sterling . From 1946 to 1948, the UK introduced bread rationing, which it had never done during

11904-434: The neutral Baltic states , Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania . In June 1941, the Soviet governments of the Baltic states carried out mass deportations of "enemies of the people"; as a result, many treated the invading Nazis as liberators when they invaded only a week later. The Atlantic Charter promised self-determination to people deprived of it during the war. The British Prime Minister , Winston Churchill , argued for

12028-511: The opposing Central Powers in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920 . Germany resented signing the Treaty of Versailles , which required that it take full responsibility for the war, lose a significant portion of territory, and pay costly reparations, among other penalties. The Weimar Republic , which formed at the end of the war and subsequently negotiated the treaty, saw its legitimacy shaken, particularly as it struggled to govern

12152-432: The parliaments of Australia and New Zealand, the British declaration of war on Germany also applied to those dominions . The other dominions and members of the British Commonwealth declared war from 3 September 1939, all within one week of each other; they were Canada , British India and South Africa . During the war, Churchill attended seventeen Allied conferences at which key decisions and agreements were made. He

12276-535: The rape victims committed suicide. General Robert L. Eichelberger , the commander of the US Eighth Army, recorded that in the one instance when the Japanese formed a self-help vigilante guard to protect women from off-duty GIs, the Eighth Army ordered armoured vehicles in battle array into the streets and arrested the leaders, and the leaders received long prison terms. According to Takemae and Ricketts, members of

12400-442: The reunification of Germany, East German histories virtually ignored the actions of Soviet troops, and Russian histories still tend to do so. Reports of mass rapes by Soviet troops were often dismissed as anti-Communist propaganda or the normal byproduct of war. Rapes also occurred under other Allied forces in Europe, though the majority were committed by Soviet troops. In a letter to the editor of Time published in September 1945,

12524-440: The second time overall considering the local elections that were held a few months earlier in some cities. King Victor Emmanuel III 's son, King Umberto II , was forced to abdicate and exiled. The Republican Constitution was approved on 1 January 1948, resulting from the work of a Constituent Assembly formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during

12648-616: The systematic Nazification of the country with the strategic creation of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda which took over the media and all institutions, and put in place the systematic indoctrination of the very young via the creation of the Hitler Youth , the Deutsches Jungvolk , the League of German Girls and the Jungmädelbund . Then by the end of the war, once their major cities were devastated, ensued

12772-536: The three summit conferences that brought together the three top leaders. The Allied policy toward Germany and Japan evolved and developed at these three conferences. There were many tensions among the Big Three leaders, although they were not enough to break the alliance during wartime. In 1942 Roosevelt proposed becoming, with China, the Four Policemen of world peace. Although the 'Four Powers' were reflected in

12896-512: The victims of these acts were described as Marocchinate meaning literally "Moroccaned" (or people who have been subjected to acts committed by Moroccans). According to Italian victims associations, a total of more than 7,000 civilians, including children, were raped by Goumiers. In the first few weeks of the American military occupation of Japan, rape and other violent crime was widespread in naval ports like Yokohama and Yokosuka but declined shortly afterward. There were 1,336 reported rapes during

13020-444: The village, as all the young men had been mobilized for the war. Soon after landing, the marines "mopped up" the entire village, but found no signs of Japanese forces. Taking advantage of the situation, they started "hunting for women" in broad daylight and those who were hiding in the village or nearby air raid shelters were dragged out one after another. According to Toshiyuki Tanaka, 76 cases of rape or rape-murder were reported during

13144-553: The war ended, the Allies, and the Declaration that bound them, would become the basis of the modern United Nations ; one enduring legacy of the alliance is the permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council , which is made up exclusively of the principal Allied powers that won the war. The victorious Allies of World War I —which included what would become the Allied powers of the Second World War—had imposed harsh terms on

13268-513: The war opened the way for decolonization from the great powers. Independence was granted to India and Pakistan (from the United Kingdom), Indonesia (from the Netherlands ), the Philippines (from the US), as well as Israel and a number of Arab nations from specific Mandates which had been granted to great powers by the League of Nations . Independence for the nations of Sub-Saharan Africa came in

13392-557: The war, Britain could remain the sole great power in Europe facing the Communist threat, as it was in 1940 and 1941 against Nazism. During the early part of 1945, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, Uruguay, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria (these latter two French colonies had been declared independent states by British occupation troops, despite protests by Pétain and later De Gaulle) and Ecuador became signatories. Ukraine and Belarus , which were not independent states but parts of

13516-416: The war, and ultimately the postwar international order. Relations between the United Kingdom and the United States were especially close , with their bilateral Atlantic Charter forming the groundwork of their alliance. The Allies became a formalized group upon the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942, which was signed by 26 nations around the world; these ranged from governments in exile from

13640-547: The war, the children and their mothers often suffered recriminations. In Norway, the "Tyskerunger" (German-kids) suffered greatly. During the Italian campaign, the Goumiers , French Moroccan colonial troops attached to the French Expeditionary Forces, have been accused of committing rape and murder against the Italian peasant communities, mostly targeting civilian women and girls, as well as a few men and boys. In Italy

13764-536: The war. The Soviet Union suffered enormous losses in the war against Germany. The Soviet population decreased by about 27 million during the war; of these, 8.7 million were combat deaths. The 19 million non-combat deaths had a variety of causes: starvation in the siege of Leningrad ; conditions in German prisons and concentration camps; mass shootings of civilians; harsh labour in German industry; famine and disease; conditions in Soviet camps; and service in German or German-controlled military units fighting

13888-666: The war. The remainder of Germany was partitioned into four zones of occupation, coordinated by the Allied Control Council . The Saar was detached and put in economic union with France in 1947. In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was created out of the Western zones. The Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic . Germany paid reparations to the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, mainly in

14012-558: The wording of the Declaration by United Nations , Roosevelt's proposal was not initially supported by Churchill or Stalin. Division emerged over the length of time taken by the Western Allies to establish a second front in Europe. Stalin and the Soviets used the potential employment of the second front as an 'acid test' for their relations with the Anglo-American powers. The Soviets were forced to use as much manpower as possible in

14136-543: Was "the most important of the Allied leaders during the first half of World War II". British West Africa and the British colonies in East and Southern Africa participated, mainly in the North African, East African and Middle-Eastern theatres. Two West African and one East African division served in the Burma Campaign . Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing colony, having received responsible government in 1923. It

14260-593: Was a principal allied power in the First World War, had since become increasingly militaristic and imperialistic; parallel to Germany, nationalist sentiment increased throughout the 1920s, culminating in the invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The League of Nations strongly condemned the attack as an act of aggression against China; Japan responded by leaving the League in 1933. The second Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japan's full-scale invasion of China. The League of Nations condemned Japan's actions and initiated sanctions;

14384-733: Was annexed by Yugoslavia causing the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus , which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic Italians ( Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic Istro-Romanians , choosing to maintain Italian citizenship, towards Italy, and in smaller numbers, towards the Americas , Australia and South Africa . The 1947 Treaty of Peace compelled Italy to pay $ 360 million (US dollars at 1938 prices) in war reparations : $ 125 million to Yugoslavia, $ 105 million to Greece , $ 100 million to

14508-457: Was not a sovereign dominion. It governed itself internally and controlled its own armed forces, but had no diplomatic autonomy, and, therefore, was officially at war as soon as Britain was at war. The Southern Rhodesian colonial government issued a symbolic declaration of war nevertheless on 3 September 1939, which made no difference diplomatically but preceded the declarations of war made by all other British dominions and colonies. These included:

14632-485: Was quickly suppressed. Rape committed by US soldiers occupying Okinawa was also a notable phenomenon. Okinawan historian Oshiro Masayasu (former director of the Okinawa Prefectural Historical Archives) writes: Soon after the U.S. marines landed, all the women of a village on Motobu Peninsula fell into the hands of American soldiers. At the time, there were only women, children and old people in

14756-493: Was rescinded on 5 June 1946. Following the German surrender, the International Red Cross was prohibited from providing aid such as food or visiting POW camps for Germans inside Germany. However, after making approaches to the Allies in the autumn of 1945 it was allowed to investigate the camps in the UK and French occupation zones of Germany, as well as to provide relief to the prisoners held there. On 4 February 1946,

14880-822: Was then a full member of the Jungmädel and remained in the group until the age of 14, at which point she transferred into the League of German Girls (also known as the BDM, or Bund Deutscher Mädel ). Members took part in athletics and sport along with receiving lessons in home economics . They also took part in charity collections. Along with their practical activities, groups also held weekly evening meetings where explicit instruction in Nazi ideology took place. Contemporary records suggest that ten- to fourteen-year-old girls learned about topics such as German fantasy stories, famous figures from German history and various individuals and groups involved in

15004-699: Was to be handed back to the Dutch but was resisted leading to the Indonesian war for independence. At the Yalta Conference , US President Franklin D. Roosevelt had secretly traded the Japanese Kurils and south Sakhalin to the Soviet Union in return for Soviet entry in the war with Japan. The Soviet Union annexed the Kuril Islands , provoking the Kuril Islands dispute , which is ongoing, as Russia continues to occupy

15128-443: Was to include a test of her courage, and a lecture about the tasks of the Jungmädel. After she fulfilled these requirements, a ceremony was held to introduce new members into the rank of the Jungmädel on 20 April, Hitler 's birthday. During the ceremony, new members were sworn in, presented with a membership certificate, and personally welcomed by their group leaders. In order to become a "full" member, however, each girl had to pass

15252-416: Was too anxious to prove a point ... he suffered from an inferiority complex." During December 1941, Roosevelt devised the name "United Nations" for the Allies and Churchill agreed. He referred to the Big Three and China as the " Four Policemen " repeatedly from 1942. The alliance was formalised in the Declaration by United Nations signed on 1 January 1942. There were the 26 original signatories of

15376-462: Was very confused. Free French forces were recognized only by Britain, while the United States considered Vichy France to be the legal government of the country until Operation Overlord , while also preparing U.S. occupation francs . Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944; the Prime Minister feared that after

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