The Second World War

1939–1945 CE — Global, Global

Today: Worldwide (the war in Europe began with the invasion of Poland)

Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and Britain and France declared war; by 1941 the fighting spanned three continents. The Axis — Germany, Italy, and Japan — faced the Allies, principally Britain, the Soviet Union (invaded by Germany in June 1941, having been its partner until then), and the United States (which entered after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor that December). Germany overran France in six weeks, then stalled and bled to death on the Eastern Front; Japan seized much of the Pacific and Southeast Asia before being pushed back island by island. It ended in 1945 with Germany's surrender in May and Japan's in September, after two atomic bombs. Between 70 and 85 million people died, most of them civilians — the deadliest conflict in recorded history. It finished off the European empires, left two superpowers facing each other across a divided continent, and closed with a weapon that changed what war between great powers could mean.

Worth knowing: The Soviet Union bore a share of the dying that is hard to hold in the mind: around 27 million dead, roughly one in seven of its people, and by some counts about eight of every ten German soldiers killed in the war died on the Eastern Front.

Pattern: Imperial overstretch — A state's commitments outrun the resources and logistics needed to hold them; the margin fails first.

Entry 215 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.