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World War II was fought between two major coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all major regions and most countries became involved, with the conflict expanding into Europe, the Mediterranean and Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The Axis coalition was led primarily by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, with Japan as the other central power; the Allies were led by the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the Soviet Union, China, and later the United States after Japan’s attack on American and British territories in December 1941. The coalitions formed and operated through a mix of formal alliances, wartime coordination, and shared strategic goals. In 1942, the Allies issued the Declaration by United Nations, affirming the Atlantic Charter and committing not to sign a separate peace with the Axis. Allied strategy emphasized defeating Germany first, while balancing competing priorities such as opening a second front in Europe, conducting peripheral operations to weaken German strength, and applying sustained pressure through bombing and offensives. As the war progressed, Axis advances were gradually halted and reversed across multiple theaters, culminating in Germany’s unconditional surrender in May 1945 and Japan’s surrender in August 1945, after which the defeated leaders were tried for war crimes.
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World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing approximately 60–75 million deaths among military personnel and civilians. Civilians constituted the majority of those killed, with deaths resulting from combat, massacres, starvation, disease, forced displacement, and genocides, most notably the Holocaust. The war’s global scale and emphasis on total war blurred the distinction between military and civilian targets. Civilian populations were deliberately targeted or exposed to extreme violence across multiple theatres. Examples included the Nanjing Massacre, Japanese bombing of Chinese cities, the Three Alls scorched-earth policy in occupied China, the siege of Leningrad, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These actions demonstrate how occupation, racial ideology, strategic bombing, blockade, starvation, and genocide made civilians central victims of the conflict.
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