European theater of World War II

The European theater of World War II was one of the two main theaters of combat during World War II, taking place from September 1939 to May 1945. The Allied powers (including the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and France) fought the Axis powers (including Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) on both sides of the continent in the Western and Eastern fronts. There was also conflict in the Scandinavian, Mediterranean and Balkan regions. It was an intense conflict that led to at least 39 million deaths and a dramatic change in the balance of power in the continent.

During the 1930s, Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, expanded German territory by annexing all of Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in 1938. This was motivated in part by Germany's racial policy that believed the country needed to expand for the pseudoscientific "Aryan race" to survive. They were aided by Italy, another fascist state which was led by Benito Mussolini. World War II started with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, and the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, joined the invasion later that month. The two nations then partitioned Poland between them.

Poland's allies, France and the United Kingdom, declared war on Germany days after the invasion of Poland but did not want to actually engage in conflict. This changed after Germany invaded Norway, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The six countries were taken over, and Germany began two successive aerial bombardments of the United Kingdom, in the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. British prime minister Winston Churchill led his country's war effort. Germany also began a widespread genocide of Jews in the Holocaust. In 1940, Italy invaded Greece, and in 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. In June 1941, Germany began an invasion of the Soviet Union, breaking the countries' non-aggression pact, and in December 1941 Germany declared war on the United States, shortly after Imperial Japan did so. The United States was led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1942, the Soviets stopped further invasion of their country at the Battle of Stalingrad. Meanwhile, the Allies engaged in a mass bombing campaign of German industrial targets. In 1943, the Allied powers began an invasion of Italy, causing the end of Mussolini's regime, but Germans and Italians loyal to the Axis continued fighting. In April 1945, Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry S. Truman. The Allies liberated Rome in June 1944. Also in June, the Allied powers began an invasion of German-occupied western Europe, while the Soviets launched a massive counterattack in eastern Europe. Both campaigns were successful for the Allies. The Soviet Union conquered most of Eastern Europe including the German capital Berlin, as Mussolini was hanged and Hitler committed suicide. Concentration camps that were used in the Holocaust were liberated. Germany unconditionally surrendered on 8 May 1945, although fighting continued elsewhere in Europe until 25 May. On 5 June 1945, the Berlin Declaration, proclaiming the unconditional surrender of Germany to the four victorious powers, was signed. The Allied powers then moved to finish the Pacific War against Japan.

Once World War II ended, the Allies occupied the European continent, giving some countries back to their pre-war leaders or creating new governments, before funding their nations' economic recovery. German military leaders were subject to the Nuremberg criminal trials. Western Europe became a series of capitalist governments and eastern Europe became communist, beginning the Cold War among the former Allied nations. Germany was split into the capitalist West Germany and the communist East Germany.

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