The Diplomatic history of World War II
World War II includes the major foreign policies and interactions inside the opposing coalitions, the Allies and the Axis powers. The military history of the war is covered at World War II. The prewar diplomacy is covered in Causes of World War II and International relations (1919–1939).

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Contents

1 The United Nations

1.1 Cairo Conference 1.2 Big Three conferences

1.2.1 Tehran conference 1.2.2 Yalta conference 1.2.3 Potsdam conference

1.3 Dumbarton Oaks Conference 1.4 San Francisco
San Francisco Conference

2 Britain – United States

2.1 Casablanca
Casablanca conference

3 Britain

3.1 India 3.2 Britain and France

3.2.1 Plans for intervention in the Winter War
Winter War against USSR 3.2.2 German invasion 1940

3.3 Britain and Soviet Union 3.4 Middle East

3.4.1 Iraq 3.4.2 Iran (Persia)

3.5 Commonwealth

4 United States

4.1 1941-42

5 China

5.1 Wartime

6 Soviet Union 7 France

7.1 French Republic 7.2 Vichy France

7.2.1 Relationships with Germany 7.2.2 French fleet 7.2.3 North Africa

7.3 Free France

8 Neutrals

8.1 Latin America

8.1.1 Argentina

8.2 Baltic States 8.3 Ireland 8.4 Portugal 8.5 Spain 8.6 Sweden 8.7 Switzerland 8.8 Turkey

9 Axis

9.1 Germany

9.1.1 Hitler 9.1.2 Forced labour 9.1.3 Threatening Poland 9.1.4 Worldwide Fascist groups

9.2 Italy 9.3 Balkans

9.3.1 Greece 9.3.2 Yugoslavia and Croatia

9.4 Japan

9.4.1 Imperial conquests 9.4.2 Imperial rule 9.4.3 Puppet states in China 9.4.4 Military defeats 9.4.5 Deaths

9.5 Finland

10 Governments in Exile

10.1 Poland: in exile and underground 10.2 Norway 10.3 Netherlands 10.4 Czechoslovakia 10.5 Belgium 10.6 Yugoslavia in exile 10.7 Korea

11 List of all War Declarations and other outbreaks of hostilities 12 See also 13 Notes 14 Further reading

14.1 Allies 14.2 Primary sources 14.3 Governments in exile 14.4 Axis 14.5 Historiography

15 External links

The United Nations[edit] See also: Allies of World War II Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were the "Big Four" Allied powers,[1] who called themselves "The United Nations." They were joined by numerous other countries, such as Canada,[2] and other Commonwealth countries, as well as governments in exile, such as the Free France
Free France and the Netherlands.

UN vs Axis War Production, near equality of strength in 1942

Cairo Conference[edit] Main article: Cairo Conference

Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek of China with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference in 1943.

The Cairo Conference
Cairo Conference held in Cairo, Egypt, outlined the Allied position against Japan during World War II
World War II and made decisions about postwar Asia. The meeting was attended by President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not attend the conference because his meeting with Chiang could have caused friction between the Soviet Union and Japan.[3] Big Three conferences[edit] See also: List of World War II
World War II conferences

Stalin (left), Roosevelt and Churchill at Tehran, Nov. 1943

Britain, the USSR and the US, were in frequent contact through ambassadors, top generals, foreign ministers and special emissaries such as the American Harry Hopkins. There were numerous high-level conferences; in total Churchill attended 14 meetings, Roosevelt 12, and Stalin 5. Most visible were the three summit conferences that brought together the three top leaders.[4][5] Tehran conference[edit] Main article: Tehran Conference The first meeting of the Big Three, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, came at the Tehran Conference
Tehran Conference in Iran from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It agreed on an invasion of France
France in 1944 (the "Second front") and dealt with Turkey, Iran, Yugoslavia and the war against Japan as well as the post-war settlement.[6] Yalta conference[edit] Main article: Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference met in the Crimea (Russia) February 4–11, 1945. It focused on postwar plans for European boundaries. The Soviets already controlled Poland. The new boundaries of Poland were especially important, with Stalin seeking control of western Belorussia and western Ukraine. Poland was to gain parts of Germany. Stalin promised free elections in Poland under the auspices of a government he controlled. At Roosevelt's strong urging, Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan three months after the defeat of Germany. It was agreed the USSR would be a member of the United Nations Security Council, with a veto, and Ukraine and Belorussia would be UN members, but not the other 12 Soviet republics. Germany was to be divided into three zones of occupation, and France
France was also to get a zone. In a decision that became highly controversial, all civilians would be repatriated.[7]

Clement Attlee, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, circa 28 July – 1 August 1945

Potsdam conference[edit] Main article: Potsdam Conference The Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference was held July 17-Aug. 2, 1945, at Potsdam, Germany, near Berlin. Stalin met with the new U.S. President Harry S. Truman and two British prime ministers in succession—Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee. It demanded "unconditional surrender" from Japan, and finalized arrangements for Germany to be occupied and controlled by the Allied Control Commission. The status of other occupied countries was discussed in line with the basic agreements made earlier at Yalta.[8] Dumbarton Oaks Conference[edit] Main article: Dumbarton Oaks Conference The Dumbarton Oaks Conference
Dumbarton Oaks Conference or, more formally, the Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization was an international conference at which the United Nations
United Nations was formulated and negotiated among international leaders. The conference was held at Dumbarton Oaks from August 21, 1944 to October 7, 1944. At the conference, delegations from the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States
United States and the Republic of China deliberated over proposals for the establishment of an organization to maintain peace and security in the world. San Francisco
San Francisco Conference[edit] Main article: San Francisco
San Francisco Conference San Francisco Conference
San Francisco Conference was a convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, United States. At this convention, the delegates reviewed and rewrote the Dumbarton Oaks agreements.[9] The convention resulted in the creation of the United Nations
United Nations Charter, which was opened for signature on 26 June.The heads of the delegations of the four sponsoring countries (China, Britain, the United States
United States and the Soviet Union) took turns as chairman of the plenary meetings.[10] Britain – United States[edit] Main article: United Kingdom– United States
United States relations World War II See also: Lend-Lease, Destroyers for Bases Agreement, and Manhattan Project Though most Americans favoured Britain in the war, there was widespread opposition to American military intervention in European affairs. President Roosevelt's policy of cash-and-carry still allowed Britain and France
France to purchase munitions from the United States
United States and carry them home.

Roosevelt and Churchill drafted the Atlantic Charter
Atlantic Charter in August 1941

Churchill, who had long warned against Germany and demanded rearmament, became prime minister after Chamberlain's policy of appeasement had totally collapsed and Britain was unable to reverse the German invasion of Norway
German invasion of Norway in April 1940. After the fall of France Roosevelt gave Britain all aid short of war. The Destroyers for Bases Agreement of September 1940, gave the United States
United States a ninety-nine-year lease on strategically located bases in the Atlantic in exchange for the Royal Navy receiving fifty old destroyers to use in anti-submarine warfare. Roosevelt also sold (for cash) munitions that were carried away in British ships, including over half a million rifles, 85,000 machine guns, 25,000 automatic rifles, mortars, hundreds of field guns, with supplies of the necessary ammunition. The British needed these munitions to reequip the soldiers who lost all their arms when Dunkirk was evacuated in June 1940.[11] Beginning in March 1941, the United States
United States enacted Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease sending tanks, warplanes, munitions, ammunition, food, and medical supplies. Britain received $31.4 billion out of a total of $50.1 billion of supplies sent to the Allies. In sharp contrast to the First World War, these were not loans and no repayment was involved.[12] Millions of American servicemen were based in Britain during the war, which led to a certain amount of friction with British men and intermarriage with British women. This animosity was explored in art and film, most particularly A Matter of Life and Death and A Canterbury Tale.[13] In 1945 Churchill sent a British fleet to help the United States
United States attack and invade Japan. Casablanca
Casablanca conference[edit] Main article: Casablanca
Casablanca Conference From January 14–24, 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill and the Combined Staff met in Casablanca, Morocco. They decided on the major Allied strategy for 1943 in Europe, especially the invasion of Italy and planning for the invasion of France. At Roosevelt's suggestion they agreed on a policy of "unconditional surrender." This policy uplifted Allied morale, but it also made the Nazis resolve to fight to the bitter end. Roosevelt also tried to establish a working relationship between the two main French allies, Henri Giraud, the French high commissioner in North Africa, and General de Gaulle, leader of the Free French.[14] Britain[edit] See also: Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II

The heads of government of five members of the Commonwealth of Nations at the 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference.

Britain's declaration of war against Germany in September 1939 included the Crown colonies and India, which it directly controlled. The dominions were independent in foreign policy but all of them (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa) soon declared war on Germany. The fears in London
London that South Africa would take the advice of Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog
J. B. M. Hertzog and remain neutral were relieved when the parliament voted 80 to 67 for war, and Hertzog resigned.[15] After the French defeat in June 1940, Britain and its empire stood alone in combat against Germany, until June 1941. The United States
United States gave strong diplomatic, financial and material support, starting in 1940, especially through Lend Lease, which began in 1941, In August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met and agreed on the Atlantic Charter, which proclaimed "the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they live" should be respected. This wording was ambiguous and would be interpreted differently by the British, Americans, and nationalist movements. Starting in December 1941, Japan overran British possessions in Asia, including Hong Kong, Malaya, and especially the key base at Singapore, and marched into Burma, headed toward India. Churchill's reaction to the entry of the United States
United States into the war was that Britain was now assured of victory and the future of the empire was safe, but the rapid defeats irreversibly harmed Britain's standing and prestige as an imperial power. The realisation that Britain could not defend them pushed Australia and New Zealand into permanent close ties with the United States.[16] India[edit] Serious tension erupted over American demands that India
India be given independence, a proposition Churchill vehemently rejected. For years Roosevelt had encouraged Britain's disengagement from India. The American position was based on principled opposition to colonialism, practical concern for the outcome of the war, and the expectation of a large American role in a post-colonial era. However, in 1942 when the Congress Party launched a Quit India
India movement, the British authorities immediately arrested tens of thousands of activists, including Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, and imprisoned them until 1945. Meanwhile, India
India became the main American staging base for aid to China. Churchill threatened to resign if Roosevelt pushed too hard regarding independence, so Roosevelt backed down.[17][18] Britain and France[edit] In spring 1939 both Britain and France
France formally announced they would defend the integrity of Poland. Hitler
Hitler did not believe they would fight in such a faraway hopeless cause, and he invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and France
France declared war on September 3, 1939. But there was little they could or did do to help Poland. Plans for intervention in the Winter War
Winter War against USSR[edit] The USSR launched the Winter War
Winter War against Finland in November 1939. The Finns made a remarkable defense against the much larger Soviet forces. The unprovoked invasion excited widespread outrage at popular and elite levels in support of Finland not only in wartime Britain and France
France but also in neutral United States.[19] The League of Nations declared the USSR was the aggressor and expelled it. "American opinion makers treated the attack on Finland as dastardly aggression worthy of daily headlines, which thereafter exacerbated attitudes toward Russia."[20] Elite opinion in Britain and France
France swung in favor of military intervention. Winston Churchill, as head of the Royal Navy, and French Premier Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud were the chief advocates. It came when there was a military stalemate on the continent called the "Phony War". Months of planning at the highest civilian, military and diplomatic levels in London
London and Paris, saw multiple reversals and deep divisions.[21] Finally the British and French agreed on a plan that involved uninvited invasions of neutral Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark's Faroe Islands, with the goals chiefly of damaging the German war economy and also assisting Finland in its war with the Soviet Union. An allied war against the Soviet Union was part of the plan.[22] The actual Allied goal was not to help Finland but to engage in economic warfare against Germany by cutting off shipments of Swedish iron ore, which they calculated would seriously weaken German war industry. The British Ministry of Economic Warfare stated that the project against Norway would be likely to cause "An extremely serious repercussion on German industrial output...and would in any case have a profound effect on the duration of the war."[23] The idea was to shift forces away from doing little on the static Western front into an active role on a new front. The British military leadership by December became enthusiastic supporters when they realized that their first choice, an attack on German oil supplies, would not get approval but this plan would win strong support. The poor performance of the Soviet army against the Finns strengthened the confidence of the Allies that the invasion, and the resulting war with Russia, would be worthwhile. However the civilian leadership of Neville Chamberlain's government in London
London drew back and postponed invasion plans. The neutrals refused to cooperate. Meanwhile Finland was overwhelmed and gave in to Moscow on 13 March 1940 and the plan was postponed. War plans against the USSR were dropped and the new goal was to mine the Norwegian coast to prevent the passage of ships carrying iron ore from northern Norway. There were more delays and when mining operations finally started on 9 April it was too late--the Germans hours before had invaded Norway and had the upper hand in the Norwegian Campaign.[24] German invasion 1940[edit] When Germany began its attack on France
France in April 1940, British troops and French troops again fought side by side, but defeat came quickly. The Royal Navy evacuated 198,000 British and 140,000 French soldiers in the Dunkirk evacuation
Dunkirk evacuation in late May/early June 1940. Tens of thousands of tanks, trucks and artillery guns were left behind, as well as all of the radios, machine guns, rifles, tents, spare parts and other gear. The new Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill pledged that Britain would continue to fight for France's freedom, even if it must do so alone.[25] After Mers el Kebir, Britain recognised Free France as its ally and the legitimate government of France.

Prime Minister Churchill and General de Gaulle at Marrakesh, January 1944

The United States
United States maintained diplomatic relations with Vichy (until late 1942) and avoided recognition of de Gaulle's claim to be the one and only government of France. Churchill, caught between the U.S. and de Gaulle, tried to find a compromise.[26][27] Britain and Soviet Union[edit] In October 1944 Churchill and his Foreign Minister Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden met in Moscow with Stalin and his foreign minister Molotov. They planned who would control what in postwar Eastern Europe. They agreed to give 90% of the influence in Greece to Britain and 90% in Romania to Russia. Russia gained an 80%/20% division in Bulgaria and Hungary. There was a 50/50 division in Yugoslavia, and no Russian share in Italy.[28][29] Middle East[edit] Iraq[edit]

Gloster Gladiators of British RAF refuel in Iraq, 1941

Iraq was an independent country in 1939, with a strong British presence, especially in the oil fields. Iraq broke relations with Germany but there was a strong pro-German element. The regime of Regent 'Abd al-Ilah
'Abd al-Ilah was overthrown in 1941 by the Golden Square pro-Nazi army officers, headed by Rashid Ali. The short living pro-Nazi government was overpowered in May 1941 by British forces in Anglo-Iraqi War
Anglo-Iraqi War and the Regent returned to power. Iraq was later used as a base for allied attacks on Vichy-French held Mandate of Syria
Mandate of Syria and support for the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.[30] Iran (Persia)[edit] In 1939 the dictator of Iran was Shah Reza Pahlevi, an army officer who took control in a coup d'état in 1925 and called himself "shah." He was a modernizer who had little use for traditional religion, but collaborated with the Germans. Iran proclaimed neutrality when the war began in 1939. British and Soviet forces occupied Iran in August 1941, deposed the Shah, and installed his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Iran, with a largely rural population of 13 million, had oil wells and became a major route for shipping military supplies from the U.S. to the Soviet Union. At the Tehran Conference
Tehran Conference of 1943, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill issued the Tehran Declaration
Tehran Declaration that guaranteed the post-war independence and boundaries of Iran. However, when the war actually ended, Soviet troops stationed in northwestern Iran not only refused to withdraw but backed revolts that established short-lived, pro-Soviet separatist national states in the northern regions of Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, the Azerbaijan People's Government and the Republic of Kurdistan
Republic of Kurdistan respectively, in late 1945. Soviet troops did not withdraw from Iran proper until May 1946 after receiving a promise of oil concessions. The Soviet republics in the north were soon overthrown and the oil concessions were revoked.[31] Commonwealth[edit] The British dominions joined in the September 3 declaration of war, except for Canada. In a symbolic statement of autonomous foreign policy, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King delayed Parliament's vote on a declaration of war until September 10.[32] Britain generally handled the diplomatic relations of the Commonwealth nations. Canada hosted top level conferences between Britain and the U.S., but did not itself participate in the formal discussions. Australia, however, felt abandoned by London
London and moved to a close relationship with the U.S., playing a support role in the American war against Japan. Australian Prime Minister John Curtin
John Curtin stated, "I make it clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom."[33] U.S. President Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur, to move the American base from the Philippines to Brisbane, Australia. By September 1943, more than 120,000 American soldiers were in Australia. The Americans were warmly welcomed but there was some tensions. MacArthur worked very closely with the Australian government and took command of its combat operations. Fighting continued throughout Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia for the next two years. When the European war was declared over, Australia and the US still had a war to win against Japan. MacArthur promoted a policy of "island hopping" for his American troops while he suggested that the Australian troops should continue clearing and rounding up the Japanese from New Guinea, New Britain, Borneo and Bougainville.[34] United States[edit] Main article: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt § Third term (1941–45) President Roosevelt tried to avoid repeating what he saw as Woodrow Wilson's mistakes in World War I.[35] He often made exactly the opposite decision. Wilson called for neutrality in thought and deed, while Roosevelt made it clear his administration strongly favored Britain and China. Unlike the loans in World War I, the United States made large-scale grants of military and economic aid to the Allies through Lend-Lease, with little expectation of repayment. Wilson did not greatly expand war production before the declaration of war; Roosevelt did. Wilson waited for the declaration to begin a draft; Roosevelt started one in 1940. Wilson never made the United States
United States an official ally but Roosevelt did. Wilson never met with the top Allied leaders but Roosevelt did. Wilson proclaimed independent policy, as seen in the 14 Points, while Roosevelt always had a collaborative policy with the Allies. In 1917, United States
United States declared war on Germany; in 1941, Roosevelt waited until the enemy attacked at Pearl Harbor. Wilson refused to collaborate with the Republicans; Roosevelt named leading Republicans to head the War Department and the Navy Department. Wilson let General John J. Pershing make the major military decisions; Roosevelt made the major decisions in his war including the "Europe first" strategy. He rejected the idea of an armistice and demanded unconditional surrender. Roosevelt often mentioned his role in the Wilson administration, but added that he had profited more from Wilson's errors than from his successes.[36][37][38]

The major long-term goal of Roosevelt's foreign policy during the war was creating a United Nations
United Nations to resolve all world problems

1941-42[edit] After Pearl Harbor, antiwar sentiment in the United States
United States evaporated overnight; The nation was now united on foreign policy. On December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, which responded in kind. Roosevelt and his military advisers implemented a war strategy with the objectives of halting the German advances in the Soviet Union and in North Africa; launching an invasion of western Europe with the aim of crushing Nazi Germany between two fronts; and saving China and defeating Japan. Public opinion, however, gave priority to the destruction of Japan, so American forces were sent chiefly to the Pacific in 1942.[39] In the opening weeks of the war, Japan had conquered the Philippines, and the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, capturing Singapore
Singapore in February 1942. Furthermore, Japan cut off the overland supply route to China. The United States
United States flew supplies to China "over the hump" (The Himalayan Mountains) at enormous cost, until a road could be opened in 1945. Roosevelt met with Churchill in late December and planned a broad informal alliance among the U.S., Britain, China and the Soviet Union. This included Churchill's initial plan to invade North Africa (called Operation Gymnast) and the primary plan of the U.S. generals for a western Europe invasion, focused directly on Germany (Operation Sledgehammer). An agreement was also reached for a centralized command and offensive in the Pacific theater called ABDA
ABDA (American, British, Dutch, Australian) to save China and defeat Japan. Nevertheless, the Atlantic First strategy was intact, to Churchill's great satisfaction. On New Year's Day 1942, Churchill and FDR issued the "Declaration by United Nations", representing 26 countries in opposition to the Tripartite Pact
Tripartite Pact of Germany, Italy and Japan.[40] China[edit] See also: Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War and Chiang Kai-shek In 1931 Japan took advantage of China's very weak central government in the Warlord Era
Warlord Era and fabricated the Mukden Incident
Mukden Incident in 1931 to set up the puppet state of Manchukuo
Manchukuo in Manchuria. Puyi, who had been the last emperor of China, became "emperor" of China again; he was a Japanese puttpet. In 1937 the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
Marco Polo Bridge Incident triggered the Second Sino-Japanese War. The invasion was launched by the bombing of many cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing
Nanjing and Guangzhou. The latest, which began on 22 and 23 September 1937, called forth widespread protests culminating in a resolution by the Far Eastern Advisory Committee of the League of Nations. The Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army captured the Chinese capital city of Nanjing, and committed war crimes in the Nanjing massacre. The war tied down large numbers of Chinese soldiers, so Japan set up three different Chinese puppet states to enlist some Chinese support.[41]

The United States
United States was a strong supporter of China after Japan invaded in 1937. Even the isolationists who opposed war in Europe supported a hard-line against Japan. The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 saw aid flow into the Republic of China, led by Chiang Kai-shek.[42] American public sympathy for the Chinese was aroused by reports from missionaries, novelists such as Pearl Buck, and Time Magazine
Time Magazine of Japanese brutality in China, including reports surrounding the Nanking Massacre, also known as the 'Rape of Nanking'. Japanese-American relations were further soured by the USS Panay Incident during the bombing of Nanjing. Roosevelt demanded an apology from the Japanese, which was received, but relations between the two countries continued to deteriorate. By early 1941 the U.S. was preparing to send American planes flown by American pilots under American command, but wearing Chinese uniforms, to fight the Japanese invaders and even to bomb Japanese cities. The "Flying Tigers" under Claire Chennault
Claire Chennault arrived just as the U.S. entered the war.[43] To augment Chennault's 100 P-40Bs, in May 1941 Washington decided to send 144 Vultee P-48's, 125 P-43's and 66 Lockheed and Douglas medium bombers. The goal was to give China by early 1942, a respectable air force, judged by Far Eastern standards, sufficient to "(a) protect strategic points, (b) permit local army offensive action, (c) permit the bombing of Japanese air bases and supply dumps in China and Indo-China, and the bombing of coastal and river transport, and (d) permit occasional incendiary bombing of Japan."[44] A year before the U.S. officially entered the war (after Dec. 7, 1941), Chennault developed an ambitious plan for a sneak attack on Japanese bases. His Flying Tigers
Flying Tigers would use American bombers and American pilots, all with Chinese markings. The U.S. military was opposed to his scheme, and kept raising obstacles, but it was adopted by top civilian officials including Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (the Secretary of the Treasury who financed China) and especially President Roosevelt himself, who made it a high priority to keep China alive.[45] By October, 1941, bombers and crews were on their way to China. However the American attack never took place. The bombers and crews arrived after Pearl Harbor and were used for the war in Burma, for they lacked the range to reach China.[46][47][48] Wartime[edit] After the formal declaration of war in December 1941, the U.S. stepped up the flow of aid, but it had to be routed through India
India and over the Himalayan Mountains because Japan blocked the other routes. Chiang's beleaguered government was now headquartered in remote Chongqing. Madame Chiang Kaishek,[49] who had been educated in the United States, addressed the US Congress and toured the country to rally support for China. Congress amended the Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinese Exclusion Act and Roosevelt moved to end the unequal treaties. However, the perception that Chiang's government, with his poorly equipped and ill-fed troops was unable to effectively fight the Japanese or that he preferred to focus more on defeating the Communists grew. China Hands such as Joseph Stilwell argued that it was in American interest to establish communication with the Communists to prepare for a land-based counteroffensive invasion of Japan. The Dixie Mission, which began in 1943, was the first official American contact with the Communists. Other Americans, such as Claire Chennault, argued for air power. In 1944, Generalissimo Chiang acceded to Roosevelt's request that an American general take charge of all forces in the area, but demanded that Stilwell be recalled. General Albert Wedemeyer
Albert Wedemeyer replaced Stilwell, Patrick Hurley became ambassador, and Us-China relations became much smoother. After World War II
World War II ended in 1945, the showdown came between the Nationalists and the Communists in a full-scale civil war. American general George C. Marshall
George C. Marshall tried to broker a truce but he failed. The Kuomintang (Nationalist) military position steadily worsened and by 1949, the Communists were victorious and drove the Nationalists from the mainland onto the island of Taiwan and other islands. Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China, while the Republic of China remains in Taiwan to this day.[50] Soviet Union[edit]

Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov (left) meets with German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop at the signing the German-Soviet non-aggression pact on 23 August 1939

Joseph Stalin controlled the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, with Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov as his foreign minister.[51][52] Their policy was neutrality until August 1939. The Soviet military had conversations in Moscow with a high level military delegation from Britain and France. The Soviets demanded an agreement from Poland to allow Soviet troops to enter that country to defend it against Germany, but Poland refused. Those talks went nowhere.[53] On August 21, Hitler
Hitler made friendly proposals to Stalin that led to the Molotov–Ribbentrop nonaggression pact on August 23 that stunned the world. The Soviets achieved friendly relations with Germany in order to carve up Key elements of Eastern Europe, especially Poland and the Baltic states. Following the pact, Germany invaded and quickly defeated Poland; then the Soviets invaded and took control of its preassigned areas of eastern Poland. Both invaders systematically decimated the Polish elite. In the 1940 Katyn massacre, the NKVD
NKVD (Soviet secret police) executed 22,000 Polish military and police officers and civilian intelligentsia.[54] For the next two years, the USSR supplied Germany with oil and grain. Furthermore, the Kremlin ordered Communist parties around the world to denounce the imperialistic war waged by Britain and France
France against Germany. For example, B. Farnborough says, "During the entire period up to the fall of France
France the British Communist Party functioned as a propaganda agency for Hitler."[55] After he ignored repeated warnings, Stalin was stunned when Hitler invaded in June 1941. Stalin quickly came to terms with Britain and the United States, cemented through a series of summit meetings. The U.S. and Britain supplied war materials in large quantity through Lend Lease.[56] There was some coordination of military action, especially in summer 1944. At war's end the central issue was whether Stalin would allow free elections in eastern Europe.[57][58] France[edit] Further information: Military history of France
France during World War II French Republic[edit] France
France and Britain collaborated closely in 1939, and together declared war against Germany two days after it invaded Poland. Apart from the British Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), no independent nation joined their cause. Britain and France
France took a defensive posture, fearing German air attacks on cities. France
France hoped the Maginot Line
Maginot Line would protect it from an invasion. There was little fighting between the fall of Poland in mid-September and the following spring; it was the Phoney War
Phoney War in Britain or Drôle de guerre – the funny sort of war – in France. Britain tried several peace feelers, but Hitler
Hitler did not respond. When Germany had its hands free for an attack in the west, it launched its Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg against Denmark and Norway, easily pushing the British out. Then it invaded the Low Countries and tricked Britain and France into sending its best combat units deep into the Netherlands, where they became trapped in the Battle of France
Battle of France in May 1940. The Royal Navy rescued over 300,000 British and French soldiers from Dunkirk, but left behind all the equipment.[59] Vichy France[edit] Main article: Foreign relations of Vichy France Relationships with Germany[edit] Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June 1940, and the government surrendered in the Armistice of 22 June 1940
Armistice of 22 June 1940 with new new leader Marshal Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain (1856-1961). His Vichy regime was authoritarian, Catholic, paternal and anti-Semitic. His charisma and popularity from his heroic role in the First World War strengthened his authority, although he was increasingly too old to pay attention to details. After Germany seized all of Vichy in October 1942, it installed Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval as its puppet leaving Pétain as a helpless figurehead.[60] The armistice included numerous provisions that weakened France, all largely guaranteed by the German policy of keeping 2 million French prisoners of war and workers in Germany as hostages. Vichy France
Vichy France was nominally a neutral country. it never declared war on the Soviet Union or Britain, and was recognized diplomatically by the United States until 1942. Although Vichy France
Vichy France was nominally in control of all of France--apart from Alsace Lorraine--in practice the Germans controlled three-fifths of the country, including the northern and western coasts, the industrial northeast, and the Paris region. The Petain government relocated to the resort town of in Vichy and controlled the rest From the start, Germany wanted food, minerals, and industrial productions, as well as volunteers to work in German factories. Vichy was allowed to control its foreign colonies-- to the extent it could defend them against the Free French-- as well as its fleet, to the extent it could defend it against British naval attacks. In October 1942, Germany took it all over; the Vichy regime became entirely a puppet of the German occupiers.

Marshal Pétain, left, head of Vichy France, shaking hands with Hitler on October 24, 1940.

The small town of Montoire-sur-le-Loir
Montoire-sur-le-Loir was the scene of two meetings. On October 22, 1940, Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval met with Hitler
Hitler to set up a meeting on October 24 between Hitler
Hitler and Pétain. It ended in a much-publicized handshake between the two, but in fact their discussions had been entirely general and no decisions had been made. Hitler
Hitler was impressed with Petain's commitment to defending the French Empire. False rumours abounded that France
France had made major concessions regarding colonies and German control of French ports and the French feet.[61] Germany controlled the entire French economy, and demanded huge reparations in gold and food. However nearly 2 million French soldiers became prisoners of war in Germany.[62] They served as hostages and forced laborers in German factories. Vichy was intensely conservative and anti-Communist, but it was practically helpless. Vichy finally collapsed when the Germans fled in summer 1944.[63] The United States
United States granted Vichy full diplomatic recognition, sending Admiral William D. Leahy
William D. Leahy to Paris as American ambassador. President Roosevelt hoped to use American influence to encourage those elements in the Vichy government opposed to military collaboration with Germany. Vichy still controlled its overseas colonies and Washington encouraged Vichy to resist German demands such as for air bases in Syria or to move war supplies through French North Africa. The essential American position was that France
France should take no action not explicitly required by the armistice terms that could adversely affect Allied efforts in the war. When Germany took full control, the U.S. and Canada cut their ties with Vichy.[64] by 1942, Germany was demanding that Vichy turnover the Jews for deportation to German concentration camps. Reluctantly at first, then more enthusiastically, Vichy complied. They turned over 80,000 of the 330,000 French and foreign Jews living in Vichy; the Germans killed 77,000. When Germany tried to seize the French fleet at Toulon in November, 1942, the French navy scuttled all its ships. French fleet[edit] Britain feared that the powerful French navy could end up in German hands and be used against its own naval forces, which were so vital to maintaining north Atlantic shipping and communications. Under the armistice, France
France had been allowed to retain the French Navy, the Marine Nationale, under strict conditions. Vichy pledged that the fleet would never fall into the hands of Germany, but refused to send the fleet beyond Germany's reach by sending it to Britain or to far away territories of the French empire such as the West Indies. Shortly after France
France gave up it attacked a large French naval contingent in Mers-el-Kebir, killing 1,297 French military personnel. Vichy severed diplomatic relations but did not declare war on Britain. Churchill also ordered French ships in British ports to be seized by the Royal Navy. The French squadron at Alexandria, Egypt, under Admiral René-Emile Godfroy, was effectively interned until 1943. The American position towards Vichy France
Vichy France and Free France
Free France was inconsistent. President Roosevelt disliked and distrusted de Gaulle, and agreed with Ambassador Leahy's view that he was an "apprentice dictator."[65] North Africa[edit] Preparing for a landing in North Africa in late 1942, the US looked for a top French ally. It turned to Henri Giraud
Henri Giraud shortly before the landing on 8 November 1942, but he had little local support. By hapstance the Vichy leader Admiral François Darlan was captured and supported the Americans. The Allies, with General Dwight D. Eisenhower in charge, signed a deal with Admiral Darlan on 22 November 1942 in which the Allies recognized Darlan as high commissioner for North Africa and West Africa.[66] The Allied world was stunned at giving a high command to man who days before had been collaborating with the Nazis; Roosevelt and Churchill supported Eisenhower, for he was following a plan that had been worked out in London
London and had been approved by Roosevelt and Churchill. Darlan was assassinated on 24 December 1942, so Washington turned again towards Giraud, who was made High Commissioner of French North and West Africa. Giraud failed to build a political base and was displaced by the last man with any standing, de Gaulle.[67] Free France[edit] See also: Free French
Free French Forces

General de Gaulle speaking on BBC Radio
BBC Radio during the war

Free France
Free France was the insurgent French government based in London
London and the overseas French colonies and led by charismatic general Charles de Gaulle. He was the most senior French military officer to reject the June 1940 surrender ("Armistice") and oppose the Vichy government of Marshall Pétain. From London
London on 18 June 1940 he gave an impassioned radio address exhorting the patriotic French people to resist Nazi Germany[68] He organized the Free French
Free French Forces from soldiers that had escaped with the British at Dunkirk. With British military support the Free French
Free French gradually gained control of all French colonies except Indochina, which the Japanese controlled. The U.S., Britain and Canada wanted Vichy to keep nominal control of the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon for reasons of prestige, but de Gaulle seized them anyway in late 1941.[69] When the British and Americans landed in France
France in June 1944 de Gaulle headed a government in exile based in London, but he continued to create diplomatic problems for the U.S. and Britain. He refused to allow French soldiers to land on D-Day, and insisted that France
France be treated as a great power by the other Allies, and that he himself was the only representative of France. Churchill, caught between the U.S. and de Gaulle, tried to find a compromise.[26][27] The U.S. and Britain allowed de Gaulle the honor of being the first to march into Paris at the head of his army after the Germans had fled.[70] Neutrals[edit] The main neutrals were Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.[71] The Soviet Union was officially neutral until June 1941 in Europe, and until August 1945 in Asia, when it attacked Japan in cooperation with the U.S. Latin America[edit] The U.S. believed, falsely, that Germany had a master plan to subvert and take control of the economy of much of South America. Washington made anti-Nazi activity a high priority in the region. By July 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the creation of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) in response to perceived propaganda efforts in Latin America by Germany and Italy. Through the use of news, film and radio broadcast media in the United States, Roosevelt sought to enhance his Good Neighbor policy, promote Pan-Americanism and forestall military hostility in Latin America through the use of cultural diplomacy.[72][73] Three countries actively joined the war effort, while others passively broke relations or nominally declared war.[74] Cuba declared war in December 1941 and actively helped in the defense of the Panama Canal. It did not send forces to Europe. Mexico declared war on Germany in 1942 after u-boats sank Mexican tankers carrying crude oil to the United States. It sent a 300-man fighter squadron to the war against Japan in 1945.[75] Brazil declared war against Germany and Italy on 22 August 1942 and sent a 25,700-man infantry force that fought mainly on the Italian front, from September 1944 to May 1945. Its Navy and Air Force acted in the Atlantic Ocean.[76] Argentina[edit] Main article: Argentina during World War II Argentina hosted a strong, very-well-organized pro-Nazi element before the war that was controlled by German ambassadors. Brazil, Chile and Mexico had smaller movements.[77] American foreign-policy worked to unite all of Latin America in a coalition against Germany. Argentina proved recalcitrant, and the US worked to undermine the Argentine government. The American policy backfired when the military seized power in a coup in 1943. Relationships grew worse to the point that Washington seriously considered economic and diplomatic isolation of Argentina and tried unsuccessfully to keep it out of the United Nations in 1945. Historians now agree that the supposed affinity between Argentina and Germany was greatly exaggerated.[78] The Argentine government remained neutral until the last days of the war but quietly tolerated entry of Nazi leaders fleeing Germany, Belgium and Vichy France
Vichy France in 1945. Indeed, a conspiracy theory grew up after the war that greatly exaggerated the Nazi numbers and amount of gold they brought. Historians have shown there was little gold and probably not many Nazis, but the myths live on.[79][80] Baltic States[edit] Main article: Occupation of the Baltic states Despite declaring neutrality the Baltic states were secretly assigned to the Soviet Sphere of influence
Sphere of influence via the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and subsequently occupied by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Diplomatic legations continued to represent the Baltic states throughout the period. The United States
United States never recognized control by Germans or USSR. Ireland[edit] Main article: Irish neutrality during World War II Ireland tried to be strictly neutral during the war, and refused to allow Britain to use bases. However it had large sales of exports to Britain, and tens of thousands joined the British armed forces.[81] Portugal[edit] Main article: Portugal during World War II

Location of the Azores Islands

Portugal controlled strategically vital Azores islands in the Atlantic, and Britain and the U.S. made plans called Operation Alacrity to invade them if necessary. Portugal although it had an alliance with Britain was officially neutral; its highest goal was to avoid a German invasion. Its dictator Salazar collaborated with the British and sold them rubber and tungsten ("wolfram").[82] In late 1943 he allowed the Allies to establish air bases in the Azores to fight U-boats. He helped Spain avoid German control. Tungsten was a major product, and he sold to Germany; he stopped in June 1944, when the threat of a German invasion of Portugal was no longer possible.[83][84] He worked to regain control of East Timor after the Japanese seized it.[85] He admitted several thousand Jewish refugees. Lisbon maintained air connections with Britain and the U.S. Lisbon was a hotbed of spies and served as the base for the International Red Cross in its distribution of relief supplies to POWs held by Germany. The Quakers and other peace groups used it as a base for their aid to refugees.[86] Spain[edit] Main article: Spain in World War II

Nazi leaders (from left) Karl Wolff
Karl Wolff and Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler meet with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco and his Foreign Minister Serrano Súñer in Madrid, October 1940.

Nazi leaders spent much of the war attempting to persuade the Franco regime to enter the war and allow a German army to march on Gibraltar. The overtures proved futile. Franco was sympathetic but remained emphatically neutral. However, Spain did need to pay off its heavy debt to Germany. Therefore, Franco did provide various kinds of support to Italy and Germany.[87] It sold Germany supplies, especially wolfram, the hard-to-find tungsten ore. It formed 45,000 volunteers into the Blue Division, which fought exclusively on the Eastern Front. Spain was neutral and traded as well with the Allies. Germany had an interest in seizing the key fortress of Gibraltar, but Franco stationed his army at the French border to dissuade Germany from occupying the Iberian Peninsula. Franco displayed pragmatism and his determination to act principally in Spanish interests, in the face of Allied economic pressure, Axis military demands, and Spain's geographic isolation. As the war progressed he became more hard-line toward Germany and more accommodating to the Allies.[88] Sweden[edit] Main article: Sweden during World War II

En svensk tiger, A famous World War II
World War II poster reminding Swedes to be wary of spies asking questions.

Sweden remained neutral during the war, avoiding the fate of its neighbors, occupied Norway and defeated Finland. The dominant historiography for decades after the war ignored issues of the Holocaust
Holocaust and depended on the "small state realist" argument. It held that that neutrality and cooperation with Germany were necessary for survival, for Germany was vastly more powerful, concessions were limited and were only made where the threat was too great; neutrality was bent but not broken; national unity was paramount; and in any case Sweden had the neutral right to trade with Germany. Germany needed Swedish iron and had nothing to gain—and much iron to lose—by an invasion.[89] The nation was run by a unity government that included all major parties in the Riksdag. Its key leaders included Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson
Per Albin Hansson and Foreign Minister Christian Günther. King Gustav V had pro-Nazi proclivities that the government had to keep in check. Switzerland[edit] Main article: Switzerland during the World Wars Switzerland was neutral and did business with both sides. It mobilized its army to defend itself against any invasion. The Germans did make plans, but never invaded.[90] Cut off from the Allies, Swiss trade was mostly with Germany, with Swiss banks a favourite place for Nazis to store their loot. The Swiss depended on German permission to import its food and fuel. Smuggling high precision tools and weapons (such as jewel bearings, diamond dies, and chronographs) to Britain took place on a large scale.[91] Switzerland became a convenient center for spies and espionage.[92] Swiss banks paid Germany 1.3 billion Swiss Francs for gold; Germany used the Francs to buy supplies on the world market. However much of the gold was looted and the Allies warned Switzerland during the war. In 1947 Switzerland paid 250 million francs in exchange for the dropping of claims relating to the Swiss role in the gold transactions.[93] Switzerland took in 48,000 refugees during the war, of whom 20,000 were Jewish. They also turned away about 40,000 applicants for refugee status.[94][95] Switzerland's role regarding Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany became highly controversial in the 1990s.[96] Wylie says, "Switzerland has been widely condemned for its part in the war. It has been accused of abetting genocide, by refusing to offer sanctuary to Hitler's victims, bankrolling the Nazi war economy, and callously profiting from Hitler's murderous actions by seizing the assets of those who perished in the death camps."[97][98] On the other hand, Churchill told his foreign minister in late 1944:

"Of all the neutrals, Switzerland has the great right to distinction. She has been the sole international force linking the hideous-sundered nations and ourselves. What does it matter whether she has been able to give us the commercial advantages we desire or has given too many to the German, to keep herself alive? She has been a democratic state, standing for freedom in self defence among her mountains, and in thought, despite of race, largely on our side."[99]

Turkey[edit] Main article: History of the Republic of Turkey

Roosevelt, İnönü of Turkey and Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference which was held between December 4–6, 1943.

Turkey was neutral in the war, but signed a treaty with Britain and France
France in October 1939 that said the Allies would defend Turkey if Germany attacked it. The deal was enhanced with loans of ₤41 million. An invasion was threatened in 1941 but did not happen and Ankara refused German requests to allow troops to cross its borders into Syria or into the USSR. Germany had been its largest trading partner before the war, and Turkey continued to do business with both sides. It purchased arms from both sides. The Allies tried to stop German purchases of chrome (used in making better steel). Starting in 1942 the Allies provided military aid and pressed for a declaration of war. Turkey's president conferred with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference
Cairo Conference in November, 1943, and promised to enter the war when it was fully armed. By August 1944, with Germany nearing defeat, Turkey broke off relations. In February 1945, it declared war on Germany and Japan, a symbolic move that allowed Turkey to join the future United Nations. Meanwhile, relations with Moscow worsened, setting stage for the Truman Doctrine
Truman Doctrine of 1947 and the start of the Cold War.[100][101] Axis[edit] Main article: Axis powers

Animation of the European Theatre.

The dictators of Germany and Italy, Hitler
Hitler and Mussolini, had numerous conferences. Neither ever met with top Japanese leaders. The Japanese ambassador to Germany handled many of the negotiations between Germany and Japan, but his coded messages home were intercepted and decrypted by the United States
United States starting in 1941. The U.S. shared them with Britain. They revealed important German plans.[102] Germany[edit] Germany's foreign policy during the war involved the creation of allied governments under direct or indirect control from Berlin. A main goal was obtaining soldiers from the senior allies, such as Italy and Hungary, and millions of workers and ample food supplies from subservient allies such as Vichy France.[103] By the fall of 1942, there were 24 divisions from Romania on the Eastern Front, 10 from Italy and 10 from Hungary.[104] When a country was no longer dependable, Germany would assume full control, as it did with France in 1942, Italy in 1943, and Hungary in 1944. Full control allowed the Nazis to achieve their high priority of mass murdering all Jewish population. Although Japan was officially a powerful ally, the relationship was distant and there was little coordination or cooperation, such as Germany's refusal to share the secret formula for making synthetic oil from coal until late in the war.[105]

Hitler
Hitler in action

DiNardo argues that in Europe Germany's foreign-policy was dysfunctional during the war, as Hitler
Hitler treated each ally separately, and refused to create any sort of combined staff that would synchronize policies, armaments, and strategies. Italy, Finland, Romania, and Hungary each dealt with Berlin separately, and never coordinated their activities. Germany was reluctant to share its powerful weapons systems, or to train Axis officers. There were some exceptions, such as the close collaboration between the German and Italian forces in North Africa.[106][107] Hitler[edit] Hitler
Hitler devoted most of his attention during the war to military and diplomatic affairs. He frequently met with foreign leaders, such as the January 10, 1943 he met with Rumanian Premier Marshal Ion Antonescu at German field headquarters, with top-ranking generals on both sides. On 9 August 1943, Hitler
Hitler summoned Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria to a stormy meeting at field headquarters, and demanded he declare war on Russia. The tsar refused, but did agree to declare war on far-away Britain. American news reports stated that Hitler
Hitler tried to hit him and the tsar suffered a heart attack at the meeting; he died three weeks later.[108] Forced labour[edit] Main article: Forced labour under German rule during World War II German policy was not to use or build factories in occupied Eastern Europe but to move millions of workers into German factories and farms.[109] Some were forced, some went voluntarily (going in search of food), and others were prisoners of war. They were closely watched, had poor food and housing, and were harshly treated. Their morale and levels of output were mediocre or poor.[110] At the peak the forced labourers comprised 20% of the German work force. Counting deaths and turnover, about 15 million individuals were forced labourers at one point or another during the war. Most came from Poland, Russia and other Eastern areas; all were repatriated at war's end.[111][112] Vichy France
Vichy France was one of the few countries that was able to have much influence on German policies, as it tried to protect the nearly two million French soldiers held as POWs inside Germany. Vichy arranged a deal whereby Germany would release one POW for every three Frenchmen who volunteered to work in Germany.[113] Threatening Poland[edit] In January 1934 Germany signed a non aggression pact with Poland followed by a trade treaty later in the year. By the spring Hitler
Hitler was openly pondering what inducements he might have to offer to obtain a military alliance with Poland.[114] Between 1919 and 1939 Poland pursued a policy of balance between Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany and obtained non-aggression treaties with the former.[115] In early 1939 Hitler
Hitler wanted Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact
Anti-Comintern Pact as a junior partner to help with the German invasion of the Soviet Union.[116] Steiner states that Hitler
Hitler "wanted to broker an agreement with Colonel Beck, Poland's all-powerful foreign minister, which would bring Danzig and the Polish Corridor back into the Reich but keep Poland as a friend."[117] Hitler
Hitler offered Poland a new non-aggression pact and recognition of its current frontiers if it agreed to permit the German-inhabited city of Danzig to return to Germany as well as allow an extraterritorial highway connecting Germany proper with Danzig and East Prussia going through Polish territory. Poland rejected the proposals.[118] For Poland these demands meant losing independence; Danzig in itself was not the primary issue.[119] By March Hitler
Hitler had given up on the Poles and in April began planning an invasion.[120] Poland had few friends in the international arena.[121] Two critical developments caught Poland by surprise. At the end of March 1939 Britain and France
France announced that if Germany invaded Poland they would declare war. In terms of helping Poland militarily in an actual war, everyone realized very little could be done because the British and French military thought that if Germany invaded "Polish resistance would collapse in the early stages of fighting." Neither "was thinking of any major offensive action in the West."[122] Their hope was that the threat of a two-front war would deter Germany. Hitler
Hitler believed that Britain and France
France were bluffing, but he handled the Soviet problem in late August, by an alliance agreement with Stalin, which included secret provisions to partition Poland—and indeed divide up much of eastern Europe.[123] The British and French offer was not a bluff—they did indeed declare war on Germany when it invaded Poland on 1 September, but neither was in a position to provide serious help. Poland had a million-man army, but fell far short in terms of leadership, training, and equipment. The Polish military budget was about 2% of Germany's; its commanding general, Marshal Smigly-Rydz was not well prepared for the challenge.[124] The Soviet Red Army
Red Army then invaded Poland without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, immediately after the undeclared war between the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol
Battles of Khalkhin Gol (Nomonhan) in the Far East had ended. Poland was then partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union. Worldwide Fascist groups[edit] During the war, Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany cultivated relationships with Fascist and extreme right groups in neutral and Allied-controlled territory such as the Ossewabrandwag, an Afrikaner paramilitary organisation based on the Nazi Party. Italy[edit] Main articles: History of Italy
History of Italy and Italian Social Republic Allied policy was to be friendly with Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy, in the hopes he would either remain neutral or moderate Hitler's expansion plans.[125] However, in May 1939, he joined the Axis with Germany, signing the Pact of Steel. When France was in the last stages of collapse Mussolini entered the war and gained some spoils. He brought along a powerful navy that could challenge the British for control of the Mediterranean. Roosevelt denounced the move: "On this 10th day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor." [126]

Italy was poorly prepared for war and increasingly fell under Nazi dictation.[127] Italian military efforts failed against Egypt, Greece, Ethiopia and Yugoslavia,[128] and Germany had to intervene to rescue its neighbor. After the Allies invaded and took Sicily and southern Italy in 1943, the regime collapsed. Mussolini was arrested and the King appointed General Pietro Badoglio
Pietro Badoglio as new Prime Minister. They switched sides, joined the Allies and banned the Fascist Party. However Germany moved in, occupying Italy north of Naples. German paratroopers rescued Mussolini and Hitler
Hitler set him up as head of a puppet government the Italian Social Republic, often called the Salò Republic; a civil war resulted. The Germans gave way slowly, for mountainous Italy offered many defensive opportunities.[129] Britain by 1944 feared that Italy would become a Communist state under Soviet influence. It abandoned its original concept of British hegemony in Italy and substituted for it a policy of support for an independent Italy with a high degree of American influence.[130] Balkans[edit] Main articles: Balkans Campaign (World War II), Yugoslavia § World War II, and Hungary §  World War II
World War II 1941–1945

Hitler, preparing to invade the Soviet Union, diverted attention to make sure the southern or Balkan flank was secure. Romania was under heavy pressure, and was forced to cede 40,000 square miles of territory with 4 million people to the USSR, Hungary and Bulgaria; German troops came in to protect the vital oil fields (Germany's only source of oil besides the USSR). Romania signed the Axis Pact and became a German ally (November 1940).[131] So too did Hungary (November 1940) and Bulgaria (March, 1941).[132][133] Greece[edit]

Greek counteroffensive against Italian-controlled Albania, late 1940.

Main articles: History of Greece § World War II, Military history of Greece during World War II, Greek Resistance, and Battle of Greece In spring 1939, Italy occupied and annexed Albania. Britain tried to deter an invasion by guaranteeing Greece's frontiers. Greece, under the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas, to support the Allies' interests rejected Italian demands. Italy invaded Greece on 28 October 1940, but Greeks repelled the invaders after a bitter struggle (see Greco-Italian War). By mid-December, 1940, the Greeks occupied nearly a quarter of Albania, tying down 530,000 Italian troops. Metaxas tended to favor Germany but after he died in January 1941 Greece accepted British troops and supplies. In March 1941, a major Italian counterattack failed, humiliating Italian military pretensions.[134] Germany needed to secure its strategic southern flank in preparation for an invasion of the USSR, Hitler
Hitler reluctantly launched the Battle of Greece in April 1941. Axis troops successfully invaded through Yugoslavia, quickly overcoming Greek and, British defenders. Greece was partitioned under German, Italian, and Bulgarian occupation. A Greek government-in-exile was formed in Cairo (it moved to London), and Germany set up a puppet government in Athens. The latter attracted numerous anti-Communist elements. Wartime conditions were severe for civilians; famine was rampant as grain production plunged and Germany seized food supplies for its own needs. Malaria became epidemic. The Germans retaliated brutally for sabotage by the Greek Resistance. Multiple resistance groups organized, but they often opposed each other. They included the National Republican Greek League
National Republican Greek League (EDES), the National and Social Liberation (EKKA). Strongest of all was the Communist National Liberation Front (EAM); its military arm, the National Popular Liberation Army (ELAS) had 50,000 soldiers. The rivalries set the stage for a civil war after the Germans left in September 1944.[135] Yugoslavia and Croatia[edit] Yugoslavia signed on as a German ally in March 1941, but within days an anti-Nazi coup, led by Serbians with British help, overthrew the prince regent, repudiated the Nazis, and installed the 17-year-old heir as King Peter II.[136]

Croatia's dictator Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelić (left) with Mussolini in 1941; Croatia was a new Axis state

Germany immediately bombarded the capital Belgrade and invaded in force on April 6. Within days the Germans were in full control; the new king fled as did many party leaders. However some prominent politicians supported the Germans, and others were passive. The German invasion set off an extremely bloody, long civil war that killed over a million people. Germany dismembered Yugoslavia, with slices going to Germany and Italy. Kosovo was given to Albania (then under Italian control). Macedonia went to Bulgaria and Vojvodina was given over to Hungary. Serbia became a German puppet state and was the cockpit of the resistance. In Slovenia, Germans deported Slovenes to Serbia, enrolled them in the German army, or deported them to Germany to work in war factories and labor camps. In Serbia the Germans set up General Milan Nedić in charge of a "government of national salvation" but did not permit it to maintain a regular army or foreign affairs ministry.[137] What was left of Yugoslavia became the new Independent State of Croatia (NDH) under the rule of Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelić and his fascist Ustashe party. Croatia was heavily Catholic and conservative. It became an Axis ally and controlled Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and ethnic cleansing was its policy. The Ustaše murdered around 500,000 people (mostly Serbs, along with 37,000 Jews), expelled 250,000, and forced another 200,000 to convert to Catholicism.[138][139][140] Two major anti-German anti-Croatia guerrilla movements emerged, the Communists led by Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito had support from the Kremlin. The Chetniks
Chetniks led by Colonel Draža Mihailović
Draža Mihailović was loyal to the government in exile based in London. Tito's movement won out in 1945, executed its enemies, and reunited Yugoslavia.[141] Japan[edit] Further information: History of Japanese foreign relations Japan had conquered all of Manchuria and most of China by 1939 in the Second Sino-Japanese War, but the Allies refused to recognize the conquests.[142] Japan joined the Axis with Germany, but shared little information. Japan depended on imports from the Allies for 90% of its oil, and the cutoff of oil shipments in mid-1941 left Japan with supplies for only a year or two of serious combat by its warships and warplanes unless it came to terms regarding China, or seized oil fields controlled by Britain and the Netherlands. The latter course meant war, and was urged by army officials who had been bloodied in border conflicts and were reluctant to engage the Soviets. Some admirals and many civilians, including Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, believed that a war with the U.S. would end in defeat. The alternative was loss of honor and power. Diplomats proposed political compromises in the form of the "Amau Doctrine", dubbed the "Japanese Monroe Doctrine" which would have given the Japanese free rein with regard to China. These proposals were rejected by the U.S.; the Japanese Army now demanded a military solution.[143][144] Imperial conquests[edit]

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in 1942.

Japan launched its own blitzkriegs in East Asia. In 1937, the Japanese Army invaded and captured most of the coastal Chinese cities such as Shanghai. Japan took over French Indochina
French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), British Malaya
British Malaya (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore) as well as the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). Thailand
Thailand managed to stay independent by becoming a satellite state of Japan. In December 1941 to May 1942, Japan sank major elements of the American, British and Dutch fleets, captured Hong Kong,[145] Singapore, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, and reached the borders of India
India and began bombing Australia. Japan suddenly had achieved its goal of ruling the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Imperial rule[edit]

1935 poster of the puppet state of Manchukuo
Manchukuo promoting harmony among peoples. The caption reads: "With the help of Japan, China, and Manchukuo, the world can be in peace."

The ideology of Japan's colonial empire, as it expanded dramatically during the war, contained two contradictory impulses. On the one hand, it preached the unity of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a coalition of Asian races, directed by Japan, against the imperialism of Britain, France, the Netherlands, United States, and Europe in general. This approach celebrated the spiritual values of the East in opposition to the crass materialism of the West.[146] In practice, it was a euphemistic title for grabbing land and acquiring essential natural resources.[147] The Japanese installed organizationally-minded bureaucrats and engineers to run their new empire, and they believed in ideals of efficiency, modernization, and engineering solutions to social problems. It was fascism based on technology, and rejected Western norms of democracy. After 1945, the engineers and bureaucrats took over, and turned the wartime techno-fascism into entrepreneurial management skills.[148] Japan set up puppet regimes in Manchuria ("Manchukuo") and China; proper; they vanished at the end of the war. The Japanese Army operated ruthless governments in most of the conquered areas, but paid more favorable attention to the Dutch East Indies. The main goal was to obtain oil, but Japan sponsored an Indonesian nationalist movement under Sukarno.[149] Sukarno
Sukarno finally came to power in the late 1940s after several years of battling the Dutch.[150] The Dutch destroyed their oil wells but the Japanese reopened them. However most of the tankers taking oil to Japan were sunk by American submarines, so Japan's oil shortage became increasing acute. Puppet states in China[edit] Main articles: Manchukuo
Manchukuo and Reorganized National Government of China Japan set up puppet regimes in Manchuria ("Manchukuo") and China; proper; they vanished at the end of the war.[151]

Shōwa Steel Works was a mainstay of the Economy of Manchukuo

Manchuria, the historic homeland of the Manchu dynasty, had an ambiguous character after 1912. It was run by local warlords. The Japanese Army seized control in 1931, and set up a puppet state of Manchukuo
Manchukuo in 1932 for the 34,000,000 inhabitants. Other areas were added, and over 800,000 Japanese moved in as administrators. The nominal ruler was Puyi, who as a small child had been the last Emperor of China. He was deposed during the revolution of 1911, and now the Japanese brought him back in a powerless role. Only Axis countries recognized Manchukuo. The United States
United States in 1932 announced the Stimson Doctrine stating that it would never recognize Japanese sovereignty. Japan modernized the economy and operated it as a satellite to the Japanese economy. It was out of range of American bombers, so its factories continued their output to the end. Manchukuo
Manchukuo was returned to China in 1945.[152] When Japan seized control of China proper in 1937–38, the Japanese Central China Expeditionary Army set up the Reorganized National Government of China, a puppet state, under the nominal leadership of Wang Ching-wei (1883–1944). It was based in Nanjing. The Japanese were in full control; the puppet state declared war on the Allies in 1943. Wang was allowed to administer the International Settlement in Shanghai. The puppet state had an army of 900,000 soldiers, and was positioned against the Nationalist army under Chiang Kai-shek. It did little fighting.[153][154] Military defeats[edit] The attack on Pearl Harbor initially appeared to be a major success that knocked out the American battle fleet—but it missed the aircraft carriers that were at sea and ignored vital shore facilities whose destruction could have crippled US Pacific operations. Ultimately, the attack proved a long-term strategic disaster that actually inflicted relatively little significant long-term damage while provoking the United States
United States to seek revenge in an all-out total war in which no terms short of unconditional surrender would be entertained.

Atomic cloud over Hiroshima, 1945

However, as Admiral Yamamoto warned, Japan's six-month window of military advantage following Pearl Harbor ended with the Japanese Navy's offensive ability being crippled at the hands of the American Navy in the Battle of Midway. As the war became one of mass production and logistics, the U.S. built a far stronger navy with more numerous warplanes, and a superior communications and logistics system. The Japanese had stretched too far and were unable to supply their forward bases—many soldiers died of starvation. Japan built warplanes in large quantity but the quality plunged, and the performance of poorly trained pilots spiraled downward.[155] The Imperial Navy lost a series of major battles, from Midway (1942) to the Philippine Sea (1944) and Leyte Gulf (1945), which put American long-range B-29 bombers in range. A series of massive raids burned out much of Tokyo and 64 major industrial cities beginning in March 1945 while Operation Starvation seriously disrupted the nation's vital internal shipping lanes. Regardless of how the war was becoming hopeless, the circle around the Emperor held fast and refused to open negotiations. Finally in August, two atomic bombs and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria
Soviet invasion of Manchuria demonstrated the cause was futile, and Hirohito
Hirohito authorized a surrender whereby he kept his throne.[156] Deaths[edit] Total Japanese military fatalities between 1937 and 1945 were 2.1 million; most came in the last year of the war. Starvation or malnutrition-related illness accounted for roughly 80 percent of Japanese military deaths in the Philippines, and 50 percent of military fatalities in China. The aerial bombing of a total of 65 Japanese cities appears to have taken a minimum of 400,000 and possibly closer to 600,000 civilian lives (over 100,000 in Tokyo alone, over 200,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, and 80,000–150,000 civilian deaths in the battle of Okinawa). Civilian death among settlers who died attempting to return to Japan from Manchuria in the winter of 1945 were probably around 100,000.[157] Finland[edit] Main articles: Winter War
Winter War and Continuation War

Hitler
Hitler and Finnish commander-in-chief Field Marshal Mannerheim (right)

Finland fought two major wars against the USSR: the Winter War
Winter War after the USSR invaded, of 1940-41 and the Continuation War
Continuation War of 1941-44, in which Finland teamed with Germany in seeking revenge. It lost both. It fought one small one, the Lapland War
Lapland War to successfully drive German forces out of Lapland in 1944-45.[158][159] The August 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union contained a secret protocol dividing much of eastern Europe and assigning Finland to the Soviet sphere of influence. Finland before 1918 had been a province of Russia, and many Finnish speakers lived in neighboring parts of Russia. After unsuccessfully attempting to force territorial and other concessions on the Finns, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939 starting the Winter War. Finland won very wide popular support in Britain and the United States.[160]

Soviet success in Finland would threaten Germany's iron-ore supplies and offered the prospect of Allied interference in the region. The Soviets overwhelmed the Finnish resistance in the Winter War, and a peace treaty was signed in March 1940. It ceded some Finnish territory to the Soviet Union, including the Karelian Isthmus, containing Finland's second-largest city, Viipuri, and the critical defensive structure of the Mannerheim Line.[161] After the Winter War, Finland sought protection and support from the Britain and Sweden without success. Finland drew closer to Germany, first with the intent of enlisting German support as a counterweight to thwart continuing Soviet pressure, and later to help regain lost territories. Finland declared war against the Soviet Union on 25 June 1941 in what is called the Continuation War.[162] To meet Stalin's demands, Britain reluctantly declared war on Finland on 6 December 1941, although no other military operations followed. War was never declared between Finland and the United States, though relations were severed between the two countries in 1944 as a result of the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement. The arms-length collaboration with Germany stemmed from a precarious balance struck by the Finns in order to avoid antagonizing Britain and the United States. In the end Britain declared war to satisfy the needs of its Soviet policy, but did not engage in combat against Finland. Finland concluded armistice negotiations with the USSR under strong German pressure to continue the war, while British and American acted in accord with their own alliances with the Soviets.[163]

Finland maintained command of its armed forces and pursued war objectives independently of Germany. Germans and Finns did work closely together during Operation Silverfox, a joint offensive against Murmansk.[164] Finland refused German requests to participate actively in the Siege of Leningrad, and also granted asylum to Jews, while Jewish soldiers continued to serve in its army. After Soviet offensives were fought to a standstill, in 1944 Ryti's successor as president, Marshall Mannerheim, opened negotiations with the Soviets, which resulted in the Moscow Armistice
Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. Under its terms Finland was obliged to expel German troops from Finnish territory, which resulted in the Lapland War. Finland signed a peace treaty with the Allied powers in 1947. Governments in Exile[edit] Britain welcomed governments in exile to set up their headquarters in London[165] whilst others were set up in neutral or other allied territory. Recognition for these bodies would vary and change over time. Poland: in exile and underground[edit] Main article: Polish government-in-exile When the Polish forces were demolished by Germany in the first three weeks of September 1939, the government vanished and most Polish leaders fled to Romania, where they were interred. Other leaders escaped to France, and later to London, where the Polish government-in-exile was set up by General Sikorski. It was recognized by the Allies until 1944.[166][167] The underground resistance movement formed inside Poland; it nominally reported to the government in exile. During the war about 400,000 Poles joined the underground Polish Home Army, about 200,000 went into combat on western fronts in units loyal to the Polish government in exile, and about 300,000 fought under Soviet command in the last stages of the war.[168]

"The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland", note of Polish government-in-exile
Polish government-in-exile addressed to the wartime allies of the then-United Nations, 1942

Since the start of the war the body protested on the international stage against the German occupation of their territory and the treatment of their civilian population. In 1940 the Polish Ministry of Information produced a list of those it believed had been murdered by the Nazis. Later in 1942 Poland addressed the governments of the Allies (the "United Nations") with a publication entitled "The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland". Norway[edit] After Germany swept to control in April 1940, the government in exile, including the royal family, was based in London. Politics were suspended and the government coordinated action with the Allies, retained control of a worldwide diplomatic and consular service, and operated the huge Norwegian merchant marine. It organized and supervised the resistance within Norway. One long-term impact was the abandonment of a traditional Scandinavian policy of neutrality; Norway became a founding member of NATO in 1949.[169] Norway at the start of the war had the world's fourth largest merchant fleet, at 4.8 million tons, including a fifth of the world's oil tankers. The Germans captured about 20% of the fleet but the remainder, about 1000 ships, were taken over by the government. Although half the ships were sunk, the earnings paid the expenses of the government.[170][171] Netherlands[edit] The government in 1940 fled to London, where it had command of some colonies as well as the Dutch navy and merchant marine.[172] When they arrived in London
London the Government in exile considered itself still neutral but found its desire for the liberation of the Netherlands coinciding with the war aims of the Allies.[173] After the fall of France
France the Dutch Prime Minister Dirk Jan de Geer
Dirk Jan de Geer advocated negotiating a separate peace between the Netherlands and the Third Reich. Queen Wilhelmina fearing that the loss of the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies to Japan would be a term of any treaty vetoed any agreement. On 3 September 1940 the Queen dismissed her prime minister and replaced him with Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, who worked with Churchill and Roosevelt on ways to smooth the path for an American entry. Aruba
Aruba together with Curaçao
Curaçao the then world-class exporting oil refineries were the main suppliers of refined products to the Allies. Aruba
Aruba became a British protectorate from 1940 to 1942 and a US protectorate from 1942 to 1945. On November 23, 1941, under an agreement with the Netherlands government-in-exile, the United States
United States occupied Dutch Guiana to protect the bauxite mines.[174] Czechoslovakia[edit] The Czechoslovak government-in-exile was an informal title given to the Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee originally created by the former Czechoslovak President, Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš in Paris in October 1939.[175] Unsuccessful negotiations with France
France for diplomatic status, as well as the impending Nazi occupation of France, forced the Committee to withdraw to London
London in 1940. The body was eventually considered, by those countries that recognized it, as the legal continuation of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia. Belgium[edit] Main article: Belgium in World War II The German invasion lasted only 18 days in 1939 before the Belgian army surrendered. The king remained behind, but the government escaped to France
France and then to England in 1940. Belgium was liberated in late 1944.[176] Belgium had two holdings in Africa, the very large colony of the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo and the mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. The Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo was not occupied and remained loyal to the Allies as a useful economic asset. The government in exile sold 3.4 million pounds of uranium ore from the Congo to the U.S. for the atomic bomb.[177] Troops from the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo participated in the East African Campaign against the Italians. The colonial Force Publique
Force Publique also served in other theatres alongside British forces. Yugoslavia in exile[edit] Main article: World War II
World War II in Yugoslavia Yugoslavia had a weak government in exile based in London
London that included King Peter. However, power inside the country was divided three ways between the Germans and their allies, and two Serbian resistance groups. The royalist anti-Communist Chetniks
Chetniks under Draža Mihailović, was nominally under the control of the government in exile. Chetniks
Chetniks were Serbians opposed to the Nazis but sometimes did collaborate with the Germans and Ustaša in their fierce guerrilla battles with the National Liberation Army, a Communist-controlled resistance headed by Josip Broz Tito. Tito's strength grew in 1943, and Mihailović and the monarchists fell far behind. Churchill reversed course in December 1943, ended his support for the forces of Mihailović, and backed instead Tito. The government in exile followed suite and supported Tito.[178] Tito drove out the Germans in 1945, repudiated the government in exile, liquidated the Mihailovic forces. This allowed the formation of a Communist state of Yugoslavia that was independent of Moscow, with Tito in full control. [179] Korea[edit] Based in the Chinese city of Shanghai
Shanghai and later Chongqing
Chongqing the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
Republic of Korea acted as the Korean government-in-exile from 13 April 1919 until the Republic of Korea
Republic of Korea was established in 1948. List of all War Declarations and other outbreaks of hostilities[edit] Main article: Declarations of War during World War II Regarding type of war outbreak (fourth column): A = Attack without a declaration of war, U = State of war emerged through ultimatum, WD = State of war emerged after formal declaration of war, D = Diplomatic breakdown leading to a state of war. In some cases a diplomatic breakdown later led to a state of war. Such cases are mentioned in the comments.

Date Attacking Nation(s) Attacked Nation(s) Type Comments

1939-09-01 Germany Poland A

1939-09-03 United Kingdom, France Germany U

1939-09-03 Australia, New Zealand Germany WD

1939-09-06 South Africa Germany WD

1939-09-10 Canada Germany WD

1939-09-17 Soviet Union Poland A

1939-11-30 Soviet Union Finland A Diplomatic breakdown day before

1940-04-09 Germany Denmark, Norway A

1940-05-15 Germany Belgium, Netherlands WD The German offensive in western Europe

1940-06-10 Italy France, United Kingdom WD At a time when France
France already was about to fall

1940-06-10 Canada Italy WD

1940-06-11 South Africa, Australia, New Zealand Italy WD

1940-06-12 Egypt Italy D

1940-07-04 United Kingdom France* A Vichy France
Vichy France Navy and colonies were attacked by UK, but no war was declared

1940-10-28 Italy Greece U

1941-04-06 Germany Greece WD

1941-04-06 Germany,Bulgaria Yugoslavia A

1941-04-06 Italy Yugoslavia WD

1941-04-10 Hungary Yugoslavia A

1941-04-23 Greece Bulgaria D

1941-06-22 Germany*, Italy, Romania Soviet Union WD *The German declaration of war was given at the time of the attack[180]

1941-06-24 Denmark Soviet Union D Denmark was occupied by Germany

1941-06-25 Finland Soviet Union A Second war between these nations.

1941-06-27 Hungary Soviet Union WD Diplomatic breakdown 1941-06-24

1941-06-30 France Soviet Union D

1941-12-07 United Kingdom Romania, Hungary, Finland U Diplomatic breakdowns 1941-02-11,1941-04-07 and 1941-08-01

1941-12-07 Japan United States A WD came the day after.

1941-12-08 Japan United Kingdom WD

1941-12-08 Canada, South Africa Japan WD

1941-12-08 China Germany*, Italy*, Japan WD *Diplomatic breakdown 1941-07-02

1941-12-09 Australia, New Zealand Japan WD

1941-12-11 Germany, Italy United States WD

1941-12-12 Romania United States WD

1941-12-13 Bulgaria United Kingdom,United States WD

1941-12-13 Hungary United States WD

1942-01-24 United States Denmark D

1942-05-28 Mexico Germany,Italy,Japan WD Diplomatic breakdowns in all three cases 1941

1942-08-22 Brazil Germany,Italy WD Diplomatic breakdowns 1942-01-20 and 1942-01-28

1942-11-09 France United States D

1943-01-20 Chile Germany,Japan,Italy D

1943-09-09 Iran Germany WD Diplomatic breakdown in 1941

1943-10-13 Italy Germany WD After the fall of Mussolini, Italy changed side

1944-01-10 Argentina Germany,Japan D

1944-06-30 United States Finland D

1944-08-04 Turkey Germany D Turkey declared war on Germany on 23 Feb. 1945; a state of war against Germany existed from this date.

1944-08-23 Romania Germany WD Like Italy, Romania also changed side.

1944-09-05 Soviet Union Bulgaria WD

1944-09-07 Bulgaria Germany D

1945-02-24 Egypt Germany*,Japan WD *Diplomatic breakdown already 1939

1945 Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay, Syria, and Saudi Arabia Germany WD Needed a declaration to be eligible to join United Nations

1945-04-03 Finland Germany WD Diplomatic breakdown in 1944, last outbreak in Europe.

1945-07-06 Brazil Japan WD

1945-07-17 Italy Japan WD

1945-08-08 Soviet Union Japan WD Last outbreak of war during the Second World War.

Main source: Swedish encyklopedia "Bonniers Lexikon" 15 volumes from the 1960s, article "Andra Världskriget" ("The Second World War"), volume 1 of 15, table in columns 461-462. (Each page are in two columns, numbering of columns only) See also[edit]

Causes of World War II Cold War Diplomatic history of World War I European foreign policy of the Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain government Germany–Soviet Union relations before 1941 International relations (1919–1939) Military production during World War II

Notes[edit]

^ Sainsbury, Keith (1986). The Turning Point: Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-Shek, 1943: The Moscow, Cairo, and Teheran Conferences. Oxford: Oxford
Oxford University Press.  ^ J. L. Granatstein, Canada's war: the politics of the Mackenzie King government, 1939–1945 (1975); C. P. Stacey, Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939–1945 (1970) ^ Heiferman, Ronald Ian (2011). The Cairo Conference
Cairo Conference of 1943: Roosevelt, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.  ^ Herbert Feis, Churchill Roosevelt Stalin: The War They Waged and the Peace They Sought: A Diplomatic History of World War II
World War II (1957) ^ William Hardy McNeill, America, Britain and Russia: their co-operation and conflict, 1941–1946 (1953) ^ Vojtech Mastny, "Soviet War Aims at the Moscow and Tehran Conferences of 1943," Journal of Modern History (1975) 47#3 pp. 481–504 in JSTOR ^ Fraser J. Harbutt, Yalta 1945: Europe and America at the Crossroads (2010). ^ Herbert Feis, Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference (1960). ^ The United States
United States and the Founding of the United Nations, August 1941 – October 1945 ^ "1945: The San Francisco
San Francisco Conference". United Nations. Retrieved 24 April 2015.  ^ W.K. Hancock and M. M. Gowing, British War Economy (1949) p. 227 online ^ Leo T. Crowley, "Lend Lease" in Walter Yust, ed. 10 Eventful Years (1947)1:520, 2, pp. 858–60. There had been loans before Lend lease was enacted; these were repaid. ^ John Reynolds, Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942–45 (Random House, 1995) ^ Alan F. Wilt, "The Significance of the Casablanca
Casablanca Decisions, January 1943," Journal of Military History (1991) 55#4 pp 517–529 in JSTOR ^ Andrew Stewart, "The British Government and the South African Neutrality Crisis, 1938–39," English Historical Review (2008) 23# 503, pp 947–972 ^ Alan Warren (2006). Britain's Greatest Defeat: Singapore
Singapore 1942. Continuum. p. 295.  ^ Eric S. Rubin, "America, Britain, and Swaraj: Anglo-American Relations and Indian Independence, 1939–1945," India
India Review" (2011) 10#1 pp 40–80 ^ Arthur Herman (2008). Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age. Random House Digital, Inc. pp. 472–539.  ^ Gordon F. Sander, The Hundred Day Winter War
Winter War (2013) pp 4-5. ^ Ralph B. Levering (2017). American Opinion and the Russian Alliance, 1939-1945. p. 210.  ^ Bernard Kelly, "Drifting Towards War: The British Chiefs of Staff, the USSR and the Winter War, November 1939–March 1940." Contemporary British History 23.3 (2009): 267-291. ^ J. R. M. Butler, History of Second World War: Grand strategy, volume 2: September 1939-June 1941 (1957) pp 91-150. online free ^ Butler, p 97 ^ Erin Redihan, " Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain and Norway: The Trouble with 'A Man of Peace' in a Time of War." New England Journal of History (2013) 69#1/2 pp 1-18. ^ Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (1994) pp 130–31, 142–161 ^ a b Milton Viorst, Hostile allies: FDR and Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle (1967) ^ a b David G. Haglund, "Roosevelt as 'Friend of France'—But Which One?." Diplomatic history (2007) 31#5 pp: 883-908. ^ Albert Resis, "The Churchill-Stalin Secret "Percentages" Agreement on the Balkans, Moscow, October 1944," American Historical Review (1978) 83#2 pp. 368–387 in JSTOR ^ Klaus Larres, A companion to Europe since 1945 (2009) p. 9 ^ Robert Lyman (2006). Iraq 1941: The Battles For Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad. Osprey Publishing. pp. 12–17.  ^ A. H. Hamzavi, "Iran and the Tehran Conference," International Affairs (1944) 20#2 pp. 192–203 in JSTOR ^ Phillip Alfred Buckner (2008). Canada and the British Empire. Oxford U.P. pp. 105–6.  ^ Kenneth Morgan (2012). Australia: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford U.P. p. 90.  ^ Peter Dean (2013). Australia 1943: The Liberation of New Guinea. Cambridge UP. pp. 26–43.  ^ Robert A. Pastor (1999). A Century's Journey: How the Great Powers Shape the World. Basic Books. p. 218ff.  ^ William E. Leuchtenburg (2015). In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to Barack Obama. Cornell UP. p. 314.  ^ Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American foreign policy, 1932-1945 (1995) pp 232, 319, 373 ^ Torbjørn L. Knutsen (1999). The Rise and Fall of World Orders. Manchester UP. p. 184ff.  ^ Woolner, David B.; et al., eds. (2008), FDR's world: war, peace, and legacies, p. 77  ^ James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1970) pp 180-85 ^ David M. Gordon, "The China–Japan War, 1931–1945" Journal of Military History (2006) v 70#1, pp 137–82. online ^ Michael Schaller, U.S. Crusade in China, 1938–1945 (1979) ^ Martha Byrd, Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger (2003) ^ Romanus and Sunderland. Stilwell's Mission to China p. 20 online ^ The official Army history notes that 23 July 1941 FDR "approved a Joint Board paper which recommended that the United States
United States equip, man, and maintain the 500-plane Chinese Air Force proposed by Currie. The paper suggested that this force embark on a vigorous program to be climaxed by the bombing of Japan in November 1941." Lauchlin Currie was the White House official dealing with China. Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland, U.S. Army in World War II: China-Burma-India Theater: Stillwell's Mission to China (1953) p. 23 online ^ Michael Schaller, "American Air Strategy in China, 1939–1941: The Origins of Clandestine Air Warfare," American Quarterly (1976) 28#1 pp. 3–19 in JSTOR ^ Alan Armstrong, Preemptive Strike: The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor (2006) is a popular version ^ Romanus and Sunderland. Stilwell's Mission to China (1953), chapter 1 online edition ^ See Laura Tyson Li, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Eternal First Lady (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006). ^ Odd Arne Westad, Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946–1950 (2003) ^ Robert Service, Stalin: A Biography (2004) ^ Geoffrey Roberts, Molotov: Stalin's Cold Warrior (2012) ^ John Erickson (2013). The Soviet High Command: a Military-political History, 1918-1941: A Military Political History, 1918-1941. Routledge. pp. 525–30.  ^ Anna M. Cienciala et al. eds. Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment (Yale University Press, 2008). ^ B. Farnborough, "Marxists in the Second World War," Labour Review, Vol. 4 No. 1, April–May 1959, pp. 25–28 ^ Roger Munting, " Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease and the Soviet War Effort," Journal of Contemporary History (1984) 19#3 pp. 495–510 in JSTOR ^ William Hardy McNeill, America, Britain, and Russia: their co-operation and conflict, 1941–1946 (1953) ^ Richard J. Overy, The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia (2004) ^ Joel Blatt (ed), The French Defeat of 1940 (Oxford, 1998) ^ Marc Olivier Baruch, "Charisma and Hybrid Legitimacy in Pétain’s État français (1940‐44)." Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 7.2 (2006): 215-224. ^ William L. Langer, Our Vichy Gamble (1947) pp 89-98. ^ Raffael Scheck, "The Prisoner of War Question and the Beginnings of Collaboration: The Franco-German Agreement of 16 November 1940." Journal of Contemporary History 45#2 (2010): 364-388. online ^ Peter Jackson and Simon Kitson, "The paradoxes of foreign policy in Vichy France," in Jonathan Adelman, ed., Hitler
Hitler and His Allies in World War Two. (Routledge, 2007) pp 79–115 excerpt and text search ^ William Langer, Our Vichy gamble (1947) ^ David Mayers (2012). FDR's Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis: From the Rise of Hitler
Hitler to the End of World War II. Cambridge U.P. p. 160.  ^ Arthur L. Funk, "Negotiating the 'Deal with Darlan,'" Journal of Contemporary History (1973) 8#1 pp 81–117 in JSTOR. ^ Martin Thomas, "The Discarded Leader: General Henri Giraud
Henri Giraud and the Foundation of the French Committee of National Liberation," French History (1996) 10#12 pp 86–111 ^ Berthon, Simon (2001). Allies at War: Allies at War: The Bitter Rivalry among Churchill, Roosevelt, and de Gaulle. London: Collins. p. 21. ISBN 0-00-711622-5.  ^ Martin Thomas, "Deferring to Vichy in the Western Hemisphere: The St. Pierre and Miquelon Affair of 1941," International History Review (1997) 19#4 pp 809–835.online ^ Jean Lacouture, DeGaulle: The Rebel, 1890–1944 (1990) pp 515–27 ^ Neville Wylie, European Neutrals and Non-Belligerents During the Second World War (2002). ^ Media Sound & Culture in Latin America. Editors: Bronfman, Alejanda & Wood, Andrew Grant. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburg, PA, USA, 2012, Pgs. 41-54 ISBN 978-0-8229-6187-1 books.google.com See Pgs. 41-54 ^ Anthony, Edwin D. Records of the Office of Inter-American Affairs. National Archives and Record Services - General Services Administration, Washington D.C., 1973, P. 1-8 Library of Congress Catalog No. 73-600146 Records of the Office of Inter-American Affairs at the U.S. National Archive at www.archives.gov ^ Errol D. Jones, World War II
World War II and Latin America, in Loyd Lee, ed. World War II
World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with General Sources: A Handbook of Literature and Research (1997) pp 415–37 ^ Thomas M. Leonard, and John F. Bratzel, eds. Latin America During World War II
World War II (2007) ^ Frank D. McCann, "Brazil, the United States, and World War II," Diplomatic History (1979) 3#1 pp 59–76. ^ Jürgen Müller, Nationalsozialismus in Lateinamerika: Die Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP in Argentinien, Brasilien, Chile und Mexiko, 1931–1945 (1997) 567pp. ^ Randall B. Woods. Hull and Argentina: Wilsonian Diplomacy in the Age of Roosevelt, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs (1974) 16#3 pp. 350–371 in JSTOR ^ Ronald C. Newton, The "Nazi Menace" in Argentina, 1931–1947 (Stanford U.P., 1992) ^ Daniel Stahl, "Odessa und das 'Nazigold' in Südamerika: Mythen und ihre Bedeutungen' ["Odessa and "Nazi Gold" in South America: Myths and Their Meanings"] Jahrbuch fuer Geschichte Lateinamerikas (2011), Vol. 48, pp 333–360. ^ Robert Fisk, In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality 1939–1945 (1996) ^ William Gervase Clarence-Smith, "The Portuguese Empire and the 'Battle for Rubber' in the Second World War," Portuguese Studies Review (2011), 19#1 pp 177–196 ^ Douglas L. Wheeler, "The Price of Neutrality: Portugal, the Wolfram Question, and World War II," Luso-Brazilian Review (1986) 23#1 pp 107–127 and 23#2 pp 97–111 ^ Donald G. Stevens, " World War II
World War II Economic Warfare: The United States, Britain, and Portuguese Wolfram." Historian 61.3 (1999): 539-556. ^ Sonny B. Davis, "Salazar, Timor, and Portuguese Neutrality in World War II," Portuguese Studies Review (2005) 13#1 pp 449–476. ^ William Howard Wriggins, Picking up the Pieces from Portugal to Palestine: Quaker Refugee Relief in World War II
World War II (2004). ^ Michael Mazower, Hitler's Empire, Nazi rule in Occupied Europe (2009) pp. 114–5, 320 ^ Stanley G. Payne, Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany, and World War II (2009) excerpt and text search ^ John Gilmour, Sweden, the Swastika, and Stalin: The Swedish Experience in the Second World War (2011) pp 270–71 online ^ Klaus Urner, Let's Swallow Switzerland: Hitler's Plans against the Swiss Confederation (2001) ^ Neville Wylie, "British Smuggling Operations from Switzerland, 1940–1944," Historical Journal (2005) 48#5 pp. 1077–1102 in JSTOR ^ Stephen Halbrook, Swiss and the Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich (2010) ch 12 ^ William Z. Slany (1997). US and Allied Efforts to Recover and Restore Gold and Other Assets Stolen Or Hidden by Germany During World War II. DIANE Publishing. p. 100.  ^ Georg Kreis (2013). Switzerland and the Second World War. Routledge. pp. 132–33.  ^ Halbrook, Swiss and the Nazis ch 9 ^ Angelo M. Codevilla, Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II
World War II and the Rewriting of History, (2013) excerpt and text search ^ Neville Wylie (2003). Britain, Switzerland, and the Second World War. Oxford
Oxford U.P. p. 2.  ^ A recent example of the expose literature is Adam LeBor, Tower of Basel: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World (2013) ^ Christian Leitz (2000). Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany and neutral Europe: during the Second World War. Manchester U.P,. p. 175.  ^ Erik J. Zurcher, Turkey: A Modern History (3rd ed. 2004) pp 203–5 ^ A. C. Edwards, "The Impact of the War on Turkey," International Affairs (1946) 22#3 pp. 389–400 in JSTOR ^ Carl Boyd, Hitler's Japanese Confidant: General Oshima Hiroshi and Magic Intelligence, 1941–1945 (2002) ^ Mark Mazower, Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe (2009) ch 9 ^ Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (2005) p 414 ^ Bernd Martin (2005). Japan and Germany in the Modern World. Berghahn Books. pp. 279–80.  ^ Richard L. DiNardo, "The dysfunctional coalition: The axis powers and the eastern front in World War II," Journal of Military History (1996) 60#4 pp 711–730 ^ Richard L. DiNardo, Germany and the Axis Powers: From Coalition to Collapse (2005) ^ Facts on File
File World News Digest (August 31, 1943) ^ Mark Mazower, Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe (2008) ch 9 ^ Ulrich Herbert, Hitler's Foreign Workers: Enforced Foreign Labour in Germany Under the Third Reich (1997) ^ Panikos Panayi, "Exploitation, Criminality, Resistance. The Everyday Life of Foreign Workers and Prisoners of War in the German Town of Osnabrück, 1939–49," Journal of Contemporary History (2005) 40#3 pp. 483–502 in JSTOR ^ Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction (2007) pp. 476–85, 538–49. ^ Michael Curtis (2002). Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France
Vichy France Regime. Skyhorse. p. 141.  ^ T. Snyder, Bloodlands, Europe between Hitler
Hitler and Stalin, Vintage, (2011). p. 65 ^ Anna M. Cienciala, "The Foreign Policy of Józef Pi£sudski and Józef Beck, 1926–1939: Misconceptions and Interpretations," The Polish Review (2011) 56#1 pp 111–151 in JSTOR ^ John Lukacs, The Last European War: September 1939 - December 1941 p. 31 ^ Zara Steiner (2011). The Triumph of the Dark:European International History 1933–1939. Oxford
Oxford University Press. pp. 690–92.  ^ Halik Kochanski, The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War (2012) pp. 34–93 ^ Gerhard L. Weinberg (2005). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. p. 32.  ^ Ian Kershaw (2001). Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. W W Norton. p. 190.  ^ Zara Steiner, The Triumph of the Dark: European International History, 1933–1939 (2011) pp 690–92, 738-41 ^ Donald Cameron Watt (1989). How war came: the immediate origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939.  ^ Richard Overy, The Road to War: the Origins of World War II
World War II (1989) pp 1–20 ^ Kochanski, The Eagle Unbowed (2012) p 52 ^ Philip Morgan, The Fall of Mussolini: Italy, the Italians, and the Second World War (2007) ^ Langer and Gleason, Challenge to Isolation, 1:460-66, 502-8 ^ MacGregor Knox, Common Destiny: Dictatorship, Foreign Policy, and War in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (2000) ^ H. James Burgwyn, Empire on the Adriatic: Mussolini's Conquest of Yugoslavia, 1941–1943 (2005) ^ D. Mack Smith, Modern Italy: A Political History (1997) online ^ Moshe Gat, "The Soviet Factor in British Policy towards Italy, 1943–1945," Historian (1988) 50#4 pp 535–557 ^ Dennis Deletant, Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu and his Regime, Romania, 1940–1944 (2006) ^ Joseph Held, ed. The Columbia History of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century (1992) ^ Ernst L. Presseisen, "Prelude to 'Barbarossa': Germany and the Balkans, 1940–1941," Journal of Modern History (1960) 32#4 pp. 359–370 in JSTOR ^ James J. Sadkovich, "The Italo-Greek War in Context: Italian Priorities and Axis Diplomacy," Journal of Contemporary History (1993) 28#3 pp. 439–464 in JSTOR ^ Mark Mazower, Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-44 (2001). ^ John R. Lampe, Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country (2nd ed. 2000) pp 201-232. ^ Steven Pavlowitch, Hitler's New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia (2008) excerpt and text search ^ Tomislav Dulić, "Mass killing in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941–1945: a case for comparative research." Journal of Genocide Research 8.3 (2006): 255-281. ^ "Croatia" (PDF). Shoah Resource Center – Yad Vashem. Retrieved 23 June 2013.  ^ Paul Bookbinder, "A Bloody Tradition: Ethnic Cleansing in World War II Yugoslavia." New England Journal of Public Policy 19#2 (2005): 8+ online. ^ Walter R. Roberts, Tito, Mihailović, and the allies, 1941-1945 (1987). ^ Herbert Feis, China Tangle: The American Effort in China from Pearl Harbor to the Marshall Mission (1953) contents ^ Dorothy Borg, The United States
United States and the Far Eastern crisis of 1933–1938 (1964) ch 2 ^ Haruo Tohmatsu and H. P. Willmott, A Gathering Darkness: The Coming of War to the Far East and the Pacific (2004) ^ Oliver Lindsay, The Battle for Hong Kong, 1941–1945: Hostage to Fortune (2009) ^ Jon Davidann, "Citadels of Civilization: U.S. and Japanese Visions of World Order in the Interwar Period," in Richard Jensen, et al. eds., Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century (2003) pp 21–43 ^ Ronald Spector, Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan (1985) pp 42, 62-64 ^ Aaron Moore, Constructing East Asia: Technology, Ideology, and Empire in Japan's Wartime Era, 1931–1945 (2013) pp 226–27 ^ Laszlo Sluimers, "The Japanese military and Indonesian independence," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (1996) 27#1 pp 19–36 ^ Bob Hering, Soekarno: Founding Father of Indonesia, 1901–1945 (2003) ^ Frederick W. Mote, Japanese-Sponsored Governments in China, 1937–1945 (1954) ^ Prasenjit Duara, Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo
Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern (2004) ^ Gerald E. Bunker, Peace Conspiracy: Wang Ching-wei and the China War, 1937–41 (1972) ^ David P. Barrett and Larry N. Shyu, eds. Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932–1945: The Limits of Accommodation (2001) ^ Eric M Bergerud, Fire In The Sky: The Air War In The South Pacific (2001) ^ Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito
Hirohito and the making of modern Japan (2001) pp. 487–32 ^ John Dower "Lessons from Iwo Jima". Perspectives (2007). 45 (6): 54–56. online ^ Vehviläinen, Olli (2002). Finland in the Second World War. Palgrave-Macmillan.  ^ Henrik O. Lunde, Finland's War of Choice: The Troubled German-Finnish Alliance in World War II
World War II (2011) ^ Kent Forster, "Finland's Foreign Policy 1940–1941: An Ongoing Historiographic Controversy," Scandinavian Studies (1979) 51#2 pp 109–123 ^ Max Jakobson, The Diplomacy of the Winter War: An Account of the Russo-Finnish War, 1939–1940 (1961) ^ Mauno Jokipii, . "Finland's Entrance into the Continuation War," Revue Internationale d'Histoire Militaire (1982), Issue 53, pp 85–103. ^ Tuomo Polvinen, "The Great Powers and Finland 1941–1944," Revue Internationale d'Histoire Militaire (1985), Issue 62, pp 133–152. ^ Chris Mann and Christer Jörgensen (2003). Hitler's Arctic War: The German Campaigns in Norway, Finland, and the USSR 1940–1945. St. Martin's Press. p. 69.  ^ Martin Conway and José Gotovitch, eds. (2001). Europe in Exile: European Exile Communities in Britain, 1940–1945. Berghahn Books. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link) ^ Bernadeta Tendyra, The Polish Government in Exile, 1939–45 (2013) ^ Halik Kochanski, The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War (2014) ch 11-14 ^ Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki, A Concise History of Poland (2006) pp. 264–265. ^ Erik J. Friis, "The Norwegian Government-In-Exile, 1940-45" in Scandinavian Studies. Essays Presented to Dr. Henry Goddard Leach on the Occasion of his Eighty-fifth Birthday (1965), p422-444. ^ Dear and Foot, Oxford
Oxford Companion (1995) pp 818–21 ^ Johs Andenaes, Norway and the Second World War (1966) ^ John H. Woodruff, Relations between the Netherlands Government-in-Exile and occupied Holland during World War II
World War II (1964) ^ van Panhuys, HF (1978) International Law in the Netherlands, Volume 1, T.M.C. Asser Instituut P99 ^ World War II
World War II Timeline ^ Crampton, R. J. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century — and after. Routledge. 1997. ^ Eliezer Yapou, Governments in Exile, 1939–1945: Leadership from London
London and Resistance at Home (1998) ch 4 online ^ Jonathan E. Helmreich (1998). United States
United States Relations with Belgium and the Congo, 1940–1960. U. of Delaware Press. pp. 43–55.  ^ Winston Churchill, Closing the Ring (vol. 5 of The Second World War) (1952) ch 26 ^ Walter R. Roberts, Tito, Mihailović, and the Allies, 1941-1945 (1987). ^ Willian L Shirer, "Rise and Fall of the third Reich"

Further reading[edit]

Dear, Ian C. B. and Michael Foot, eds. The Oxford
Oxford Companion to World War II (2005), comprehensive encyclopedia for all countries Overy, Richard J. The Origins of the Second World War (3rd ed. 2008) Polmar, Norman and Thomas B. Allen. World War II: The Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941-1945 (1996; reprints have slightly different titles.) Rothwell, Victor. War Aims in the Second World War: The War Aims of the Key Belligerents 1939–1945 (2006) Steiner, Zara. The Triumph of the Dark: European International History 1933–1939 ( Oxford
Oxford History of Modern Europe) (2011) 1248pp; comprehensive coverage of Europe heading to war excerpt and text search Watt, Donald Cameron. How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War 1938–1939 (1990) highly detailed coverage Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (1994) comprehensive coverage of the war with emphasis on diplomacy excerpt and text search also complete text online free Wheeler-Bennett, John. The Semblance Of Peace: The Political Settlement After The Second World War (1972) thorough diplomatic coverage 1939-1952 Woodward, Llewelyn. "The Diplomatic History of the Second World War" in C. L. Mowat, ed. The New Cambridge Modern History: Vol. XII: The Shifting Balance of World Forces 1898-1945 (2nd ed. 1968) online free pp 798–818.

Allies[edit]

Barker, Elisabeth. Churchill & Eden at War (1979) 346p Beschloss, Michael. The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941–1945 (2002). Burns, James. Roosevelt: the Soldier of Freedom (1970). Churchill, Winston. The Second World War (6 vol 1948) Charmley, John. Churchill's Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940–57 (1996) Dallek, Robert. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945 (1995). Dutton, David. Anthony Eden: a life and reputation (1997) Online free Feis, Herbert. Churchill Roosevelt Stalin: The War They Waged and the Peace They Sought: A Diplomatic History of World War II
World War II (1957), by a senior official of the U.S. State Department Feis, Herbert. China Tangle: American Effort in China from Pearl Harbor to the Marshall Mission (1953) Fenby, Jonathan. Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost (2005). Gibson, Robert. Best of Enemies (2nd ed. 2011). Britain and France Glantz, Mary E. FDR and the Soviet Union: The President's Battles over Foreign Policy (2005) Langer, William and S. Everett Gleason. The Challenge to Isolation, 1937–1940 (1952); The Undeclared War, 1940–1941 (1953) highly influential, wide-ranging semi-official American diplomatic history Louis, William Roger; Imperialism at Bay: The United States
United States and the Decolonization
Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941–1945 (1978) McNeill, William Hardy. America, Britain, & Russia: their co-operation and conflict, 1941–1946 (1953), 820pp; comprehensive overview Nasaw, David. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy (2012), US ambassador to Britain, 1937–40; pp 281–486 Reynolds, David. "The diplomacy of the Grand Alliance" in The Cambridge History of the Second World War: vol. 2 (2015) pp 276–300, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139524377.015 Reynolds, David, ed. Allies at War: the Soviet, American and British Experience 1939-1945 (1994) Reynolds, David. From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s (2007) excerpt and text search Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953 (2006). Sainsbury, Keith. Turning Point: Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill & Chiang-Kai-Shek, 1943: The Moscow, Cairo & Teheran Conferences (1985) 373pp Taylor, Jay. The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China (2009). de Ven, Hans van, Diana Lary, Stephen MacKinnon, eds. Negotiating China's Destiny in World War II
World War II (Stanford University Press, 2014) 336 pp. online review Woods, Randall Bennett. Changing of the Guard: Anglo-American Relations, 1941–1946 (1990) Woodward, Llewellyn. British Foreign Policy in the Second World War (1962); summary of his 5-volume highly detailed history

Primary sources[edit]

Maisky, Ivan. The Maisky Diaries: The Wartime Revelations of Stalin's Ambassador in London
London edited by Gabriel Gorodetsky, (Yale UP, 2016); highly revealing commentary 1934-43; excerpts; abridged from 3 volume Yale edition; online review

Governments in exile[edit]

Auty, Phyllis and Richard Clogg, eds. British Policy towards Wartime Resistance in Yugoslavia and Greece (1975). Glees, Anthony. Exile Politics During the Second World War (1982) Lanicek, Jan, et al. Governments-in-Exile and the Jews during the Second World War (2013) excerpt and text search McGilvray, Evan. A Military Government in Exile: The Polish Government in Exile 1939–1945, A Study of Discontent (2012) Pabico, Rufino C. The Exiled Government: The Philippine Commonwealth in the United States
United States During the Second World War (2006) Tendyra, Bernadeta. The Polish Government in Exile, 1939–45 (2013) Toynbee, Arnold, ed. Survey Of International Affairs: Hitler's Europe 1939-1946 (1954) online Yapou, Eliezer. Governments in Exile, 1939–1945: Leadership from London
London and Resistance at Home (2004) online, comprehensive coverage

Axis[edit]

Bix, Herbert P. Hirohito
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (2001) excerpt and text search DiNardo, Richard L. "The dysfunctional coalition: The Axis Powers and the Eastern Front in World War II," Journal of Military History (1996) 60#4 pp 711–730 DiNardo, Richard L. Germany and the Axis Powers: From Coalition to Collapse (2005) excerpt and text search Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich at War (2010), a comprehensive history excerpt and text search Feis, Herbert. The Road to Pearl Harbor: The coming of the war between the United States
United States and Japan (1950). classic history by senior American official. Goda, Norman J. W. "The diplomacy of the Axis, 1940–1945" in The Cambridge History of The Second World War: vol. 2 (2015) pp 253–275 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139524377.014 Kershaw, Ian. Hitler: 1936–1945 Nemesis (2001), 1168pp; excerpt and text search Knox, MacGregor. Hitler's Italian Allies: Royal Armed Forces, Fascist Regime, and the War of 1940–1943 (2000) Leitz, Christian. Nazi Foreign Policy, 1933–1941: The Road to Global War (2004) 201pp online Mallett, Robert. Mussolini and the Origins of the Second World War, 1933–1940 (2003) excerpt and text search Martin, Bernd. Japan and Germany in the Modern World (1995) Mazower, Mark. Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe (2009) excerpt and text search Mazower, Mark. Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-44 (2001). Noakes, Jeremy and Geoffrey Pridham, eds. Nazism 1919–1945, vol. 3: Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination (1991), primary sources Thorne, Christopher G. The Issue of War: States, Societies, and the Coming of the Far Eastern Conflict of 1941–1945 (1985) sophisticated analysis of each major power facing Japan Tooze, Adam. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (2008), 848pp excerpt and text search Toynbee, Arnold, ed. Survey Of International Affairs: Hitler's Europe 1939-1946 (1954) online; 760pp; Highly detailed coverage of Germany, Italy and conquered territories. Weinberg, Gerhard L. Hitler's Foreign Policy 1933–1939: The Road to World War II
World War II (2005) Wright, Jonathan. Germany and the Origins of the Second World War (2007) 223pp

Historiography[edit]

Lee, Loyd, ed. World War II
World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with General Sources: A Handbook of Literature and Research (1997) excerpt and text search Lee, Loyd, ed. World War II
World War II in Asia and the Pacific and the War's Aftermath, with General Themes: A Handbook of Literature and Research (1998) excerpt and text search Pederson, William D. ed. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt (2011) online pp 480–689, Covers American diplomacy worldwide in WW2

External links[edit]

Conferences of the Allied Grand Strategy at the Wayback Machine (archived May 16, 2008) by Steven Schoenherr World War II
World War II Timeline at the Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine (archived March 12, 2010) by Steven Schoenherr

v t e

Diplomatic history of World War II

Conferences

U.S.-British Staff Conference (1941) Atlantic Conference
Atlantic Conference (1941) First Moscow Conference (1941) Arcadia Conference
Arcadia Conference (1941– 1942) Second Washington Conference
Second Washington Conference (1942) Second Moscow Conference (1942) Third Washington Conference (1943) First Quebec Conference (1943) Third Moscow Conference (1942) Cairo Conference
Cairo Conference (1943) Casablanca Conference
Casablanca Conference (1943) Tehran Conference
Tehran Conference (1943) Second Cairo Conference
Cairo Conference (1943) Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference
Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference (1944) Dumbarton Oaks Conference
Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944) Second Quebec Conference
Second Quebec Conference (1944) Fourth Moscow Conference (1944) Bretton Woods Conference
Bretton Woods Conference (1944) Malta Conference (1945) Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference (1945) United Nations
United Nations Conference on International Organization (1945) Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference (1945)

Declarations and treaties

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (1939) Pact of Steel
Pact of Steel (1939) Anglo-Thai Non-Aggression Pact (1940) Destroyers for Bases Agreement
Destroyers for Bases Agreement (1940) Franco-Italian Armistice
Franco-Italian Armistice (1940) Moscow Peace Treaty
Moscow Peace Treaty (1940) Tripartite Pact
Tripartite Pact (1940) Anglo-Soviet Agreement (1941) Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre (1941) German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship
German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship (1941) Paris Protocols (1941) Anglo-Soviet Treaty of 1942 (1942) Armistice of Cassibile
Armistice of Cassibile (1943) Cairo Declaration (1943) Declaration of the Four Nations (1943) Sino-American New Equal Treaty
Sino-American New Equal Treaty (1943) Sino-British New Equal Treaty
Sino-British New Equal Treaty (1943) Moscow Armistice
Moscow Armistice (1944) Nuremberg Charter (1945) Potsdam Agreement
Potsdam Agreement (1945) Potsdam Declaration
Potsdam Declaration (1945) United Nations Charter
United Nations Charter (1945) Paris Peace Treaties (1947) Treaty of San Francisco
San Francisco (1951)

Organizations

Anglo-French Supreme War Council Sino-American Cooperative Organization European Advisory Commission Council of Foreign Ministers

v t e

World War II

Asia and the Pacific

China South-East Asia North and Central Pacific South-West Pacific

Europe

Western Eastern

Mediterranean and Middle East

North Africa East Africa Italy

West Africa Atlantic North America South America

Casualties Military engagements Conferences Commanders

Participants

Allies (leaders)

Australia Belgium Brazil Canada China Cuba Czechoslovakia Denmark Ethiopia France Free France
Free France (from June 1940) Greece India Italy (from September 1943) Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Philippines (Commonwealth) Poland South Africa Southern Rhodesia Soviet Union United Kingdom United States

Puerto Rico

Yugoslavia

Axis and Axis-aligned (leaders)

Albania Bulgaria Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China Independent State of Croatia Finland Germany Hungary Free India Iraq Italy (until September 1943) Italian Social Republic Japan Manchukuo Philippines (Second Republic) Romania Slovakia Thailand Vichy France

Armed neutrality

Resistance

Albania Austria Belgium Bulgaria Czech lands Denmark Estonia Ethiopia France Germany Greece Hong Kong Italy Japan Jewish Korea Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malaya Netherlands Northeast China Norway Philippines Poland

Anti-communist

Romania Thailand Soviet Union Slovakia Western Ukraine Vietnam Yugoslavia

Monarchists

Timeline

Prelude

Africa Asia Europe

1939

Poland Phoney War Winter War Atlantic Changsha China

1940

Weserübung Netherlands Belgium France

Armistice of 22 June 1940

Britain North Africa West Africa British Somaliland North China Baltic States Moldova Indochina Greece Compass

1941

East Africa Yugoslavia Shanggao Greece Crete Iraq Soviet Union (Barbarossa) Finland Lithuania Syria and Lebanon Kiev Iran Leningrad Gorky Moscow Sevastopol Pearl Harbor

The outbreak of the Pacific War

Hong Kong Philippines Changsha Malaya Borneo (1941–42)

1942

Burma Changsha Java Sea Coral Sea Gazala Dutch Harbor Attu (occupation) Kiska Zhejiang-Jiangxi Midway Rzhev Blue Stalingrad Singapore Dieppe El Alamein Guadalcanal Torch

1943

Tunisia Kursk Smolensk Gorky Solomon Islands Attu Sicily Cottage Lower Dnieper Italy

Armistice of Cassibile

Gilbert and Marshall Islands Burma Northern Burma and Western Yunnan Changde

1944

Monte Cassino / Shingle Narva Korsun–Cherkassy Tempest Ichi-Go Overlord Neptune Normandy Mariana and Palau Bagration Western Ukraine Tannenberg Line Warsaw Eastern Romania Belgrade Paris Dragoon Gothic Line Market Garden Estonia Crossbow Pointblank Lapland Hungary Leyte Ardennes

Bodenplatte

Philippines (1944–1945) Burma (1944–45)

1945

Vistula–Oder Iwo Jima Western invasion of Germany Okinawa Italy (Spring 1945) Borneo Syrmian Front Berlin Czechoslovakia Budapest West Hunan Guangxi Surrender of Germany Project Hula Manchuria Manila Borneo Taipei Atomic bombings

Debate

Kuril Islands

Shumshu

Surrender of Japan

End of World War II
World War II in Asia

Aspects

General

Famines

Bengal famine of 1943 Chinese famine of 1942–43 Greek Famine of 1941-1944 Dutch famine of 1944–45 Vietnamese Famine of 1945

Air warfare of World War II Blitzkrieg Comparative military ranks Cryptography Diplomacy Home front

United States Australian United Kingdom

Lend-Lease Manhattan Project Military awards Military equipment Military production Nazi plunder Opposition Technology

Allied cooperation

Total war Strategic bombing Puppet states Women Art and World War II

Aftermath

Expulsion of Germans Operation Paperclip Operation Osoaviakhim Operation Keelhaul Occupation of Germany Territorial changes of Germany Soviet occupations

Romania Poland Hungary Baltic States

Occupation of Japan First Indochina War Indonesian National Revolution Cold War Decolonization Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany Popular culture

War crimes

Allied war crimes

Soviet war crimes British war crimes United States
United States war crimes

German (Forced labour) / Wehrmacht war crimes

Holocaust Aftermath Response Prosecution

Italian war crimes Japanese war crimes

Unit 731 Prosecution

Croatian war crimes

against the Serbs against the Jews

Romanian war crimes

Wartime sexual violence

German military brothels Camp brothels Rape during the occupation of Japan Sook Ching Comfort women Rape of Nanking Rape of Manila Rape during the occupation of Germany Rape during the liberation of France Rape during the liberation of Poland

Prisoners

Finnish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union German prisoners of war in the United States Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Japanese prisoners of war in World War II German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war Polish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Romanian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Soviet prisoners of war in Finland

Bibliograp