World War II

World War II

World War II was the deadliest, most costly, most widespread war in human history. Many advances going from antibiotics to the atomic bomb were spent unprecedented sums of money to research and development to win the war. The war not only advances in science but in industry, economies, and labor force, in fact, most of the deaths in the war were non-military deaths. In some places hunger and viruses, civilians in the middle of battles found themselves targeted by hostile powers using way ranging from strategic bombing to ruthless killing in the infamous Nazi concentration camps. Millions of people died either soldiers or civilians, many more were permanently moved away from their homes or even their countries ("Introduction to World").

This war started with Germans invading Poland and Slovakia. Before the invasion, they already had a subsequent with France and the British Empire. Germany set out to establish the largest empire in Europe. From 1939 to 1941 many treaties were signed to try to defeat the Germans. Even before the Germans tried to overtake Europe, they tried to take the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia). After this attack Italy and Germany partnered up to try to overtake the rest of Europe. Germany and Italy then lent support to the Nationalist insurrection led by general Francisco Franco in Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic that showed leftist tendencies. Both sides used this war as an opportunity to test improved weapons and tactics. The Bombing of Guernica, a city of 5000 - 7000 inhabitants, was considered a horrifying attack at the time, with a propaganda figure of 1,654 people killed widely circulated in the west, leading to charges of "terror bombing". In reality the attack was tactical operation against a city with militarily important communications close to the front-line, and modern estimates yield no more than 300 - 400 dead at the high-end ("Breakthrough").

In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Beijing after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend material support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December 1937 and committed the Nanking Massacre.

In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; although this maneuver bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defenses at Wuhan, the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories, however, did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing to continue their resistance (Benson, Brannen, and Valentine). These attacks led the U.S, Britain, Australia and other Allies to formally declare war on Japan. Germany and the other members of the Tripartite Pact responded by declaring war on the United States. In January, the United States,