British and French declaration of war on Germany
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This is a timeline of declarations of war during World War II. A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is usually the act of delivering a performative speech or the presentation of a signed document by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more sovereign states. The official international protocol for declaring war was defined in The Hague Peace Conference of 1907 (or Hague II).''On the Opening of Hostilities''
1907;
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
Law School Library; retrieved March 2014. For the diplomatic maneuvering behind these events, which led to hostilities between nations during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, see Diplomatic history of World War II.


List of war declarations

Below is a table showing the outbreak of wars between nations which occurred during World War II. Indicated are the dates (during the immediate build-up to, or during the course of, World War II), from which a ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' state of war existed between nations. The table shows both the "Initiator Nation(s)" and the nation at which the aggression was aimed, or "Targeted Nation(s)". Events listed include those in which there were simple diplomatic breaking of relations that did not involve any physical attack, as well as those involving overt declarations or acts of aggression. In rare cases, war between two nations occurred twice, with an intermittent period of peace. The list here does not include peace treaties or periods of any armistice. Key to type (fourth column): A = Attack without prior, formal declaration of war;
C = Declaration and/or attack without standard, formal procedure, sometimes preceded by a '' casus belli'' thus '' fait accompli'';
U = State of war arrived at through use of ultimatum;
W = Formal declaration of war made.


Gallery

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0527-0001-293, Warschau, Empfang Goebbels bei Marschall Pilsudski.jpg, German ambassador,
Hans-Adolf von Moltke Hans-Adolf Helmuth Ludwig Erdmann Waldemar von Moltke (29 November 188422 March 1943) was a German landowner in Silesia who became a diplomat. He served as ambassador in Poland during the Weimar Republic. After the German invasion of Poland, he ...
, Polish leader
Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...
, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and
Józef Beck Józef Beck (; 4 October 1894 – 5 June 1944) was a Polish statesman who served the Second Republic of Poland as a diplomat and military officer. A close associate of Józef Piłsudski, Beck is most famous for being Polish foreign minister in ...
, Polish Foreign minister meeting in
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
on June 15, 1934, five months after signing the Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact. File:MunichAgreement.jpg, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, landing at
Heston Heston is a suburban area and part of the Hounslow district in the London Borough of Hounslow. The residential settlement covers a slightly smaller area than its predecessor farming village, 10.8 miles (17.4 km) west south-west of Charing ...
aerodrome on 30 September 1938 after his meeting with Hitler at
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
. In his hand he holds the peace agreement between Britain and Germany. File:Armia Czerwona,Wehrmacht 23.09.1939 wspólna parada.jpg, Common parade of German
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
and Soviet
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
on September 23, 1939 in
Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress * Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria * Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France ** Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Br ...
,
Eastern Poland Eastern Poland is a macroregion in Poland comprising the Lublin, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie, and Warmian-Masurian voivodeships. The make-up of the distinct macroregion is based not only of geographical criteria, but also econo ...
at the end of the Poland Campaign. In the center is Major General
Heinz Guderian Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (; 17 June 1888 – 14 May 1954) was a German general during World War II who, after the war, became a successful memoirist. An early pioneer and advocate of the "blitzkrieg" approach, he played a central role in th ...
; and on the right is Brigadier General
Semyon Krivoshein Semyon Moiseevich Krivoshein (russian: Семён Моисе́евич Кривоше́ин; November 28, 1899 in Voronezh, Russian Empire – September 16, 1978 in Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Soviet tank commander, who played a vital part in th ...
. File:Moscow negotiations paaskivi yrjokoskinen nykopp paasonen 1939.png, alt=A group of four men wearing hats and a train behind., Counsellor of state J.K. Paasikivi and his team arriving from Moscow for the first round of negotiations on 16 October 1939. From left, minister Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen, J.K. Paasikivi, chief of staff Johan Nykopp and colonel
Aladár Paasonen Colonel Aladár Antero Zoltán Béla Gyula Árpád Paasonen (December 11, 1898 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary – July 6, 1974 in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, United States), known as Aladár Paasonen, was a Finnish military officer who served as Chief ...
. File:German paratroopers jumping From Ju 52s over Crete.jpg, German paratroopers taking the Greek island of
Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
, May 1941. File:Attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese planes view.jpg, Photograph from a Japanese plane of
Battleship Row Battleship Row was the grouping of eight U.S. battleships in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941. These ships bore the brunt of the Japanese assault. They were moored next to Ford Island when the attack co ...
at the beginning of the surprise
Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS ''Oklahoma''. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS ''Neosho'' and one over the Naval Yard.


See also

* Diplomatic history of World War II *
Allies of World War II The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy ...
*
Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
:
German Instrument of Surrender The German Instrument of Surrender (german: Bedingungslose Kapitulation der Wehrmacht, lit=Unconditional Capitulation of the " Wehrmacht"; russian: Акт о капитуляции Германии, Akt o kapitulyatsii Germanii, lit=Act of capi ...
and Surrender of Japan


Notes


References

{{World War II
declaration Declaration may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Declaration'' (book), a self-published electronic pamphlet by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri * ''The Declaration'' (novel), a 2008 children's novel by Gemma Malley Music ...
Chronology of World War II Modern history timelines