WORLD WAR 1
also called First World War , or Great War
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated. His murder led to World War I, which lasted from August 1914 to November 1918. For many years it was known as the Great War and the War to End All Wars because it was the most extensive conflict the world had ever seen up to that time. The amount of money spent was enormous. More than 65 million men were mobilized for the armies and navies. More than 8 million lost their lives, and more than 21 million were wounded. Civilians worked as never before to produce enormous quantities of guns, ammunition, and other supplies. Civilians also suffered more than in any previous war. Because they played such an important part, this was called “total war.”
Assassination
Archduke Francis Ferdinand was murdered at Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia. The assassin was Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian terrorist. Austria claimed that Serbian government officials also belonged to Princip's terrorist group. For many years Serbia and Austria-Hungary had been unfriendly because Serbian patriots wanted to unite all Serbs into a single state. Serbs living in Austria-Hungary would be included, too. Austria-Hungary was strongly opposed to this.
War Declared
Austria-Hungary decided to use the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand as an excuse to settle its quarrel with Serbia. On July 28 Austria declared war on Serbia.
The nations in Europe had been expecting war for many years. Rival groups of nations had been making treaties and alliances, and Europe had been divided into two camps. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were members of the Triple Alliance, or Central Powers. Russia, France, and the United Kingdom formed the rival Triple Entente Powers. Later they were called the Allies. The Balkan States sided with Serbia and the Allies.
On July 29 Russia moved its troops near the Austrian border. This move was made, Russia said, to keep Serbia from being crushed. Russia had plans in Turkey, however, that had been blocked by Austria and Germany. Germany demanded that Russia stop all its war measures. Russia refused. On August 1 fighting began on the German-Russian border. Within a week all of Europe was drawn into the war. Most of the countries became involved in the conflict because of their obligations to each other under the alliances.
Japan entered the war on the side of the Allies on August 23. Italy decided to remain neutral for the time being despite its membership in the Triple Alliance. Many Italians favored joining the Allies. Joining the Allies would help Italy get territories in Austria-Hungary where people of Italian nationality lived.
The Western Front
The two main areas where the land fighting took place were west and east of Germany. They were called the Western Front and the Eastern Front. Sea power later allowed the Allies to spread the war to other fronts, especially in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean. The Allies also conquered German colonies in Africa. Italy opened another front against Austria-Hungary in 1915.
Trenches
The Germans had hoped to win the war quickly, and they had a plan to do so. But they were forced to retreat at the battle of the Marne in September 1914. The armies on the Western Front then settled down to trench warfare for the next four years. Lines of trenches dug into the ground stretched from the coast of Belgium to the Swiss border. The enemies were separated by a “no-man's land” usually less than 200 yards (180 meters) wide and covered with barbed wire. Forward movement across this no-man's land was very difficult. Often heavy bombardments with cannons were tried. Although this smashed the barbed wire, it also blew huge holes in the muddy ground so that any movement was difficult.
Both sides tried to find an answer to this standoff. The Germans nearly found it by using poison gas that blew over the Allied trenches and injured or killed the defenders. These chemical weapons were first used on the Western Front in April 1915. After that the soldiers wore gas masks to protect them.
The best answer to the standoff was the British invention of the tank. It was an armored motor-driven vehicle able to crawl across trenches, craters, and other obstacles. The first tank attack occurred near the Somme River on September 15, 1916.
Battles
The battle of the Somme was typical of many of the great battles on the Western Front. It was directed by Sir Douglas Haig, who from 1916 onward commanded the British armies in the west. Before the attack, the German trenches were bombed for a week. The battle itself—repeated attacks and counterattacks—lasted until November. The British had 60,000 casualties (those killed, wounded, or taken prisoner) on the first day. Altogether in this battle they and the French had about 615,000 casualties against about 650,000 on the German side.
Another famous battle in the west began in February 1916. It followed the German attack on the French fortress area of Verdun. The French at first were driven back. Led by General Henri Philippe Pétain, the French regained most of the lost ground by the end of the year.
These clashes were followed in 1917 by further costly Allied attacks. The battles weakened both sides on the Western Front. In 1917 French soldiers revolted. To relieve the situation General Haig made an attack near Ypres (which the British soldiers usually called “Wipers”). After three months of bitter fighting, this attack came to a standstill in the swamps of Passchendaele.
The Eastern Front
On the Eastern Front the lines were much less firmly fixed. They swayed back and forth as first one side and then the other attacked. The Russians tried to advance into East Prussia in August 1914 but were defeated at the battle of Tannenberg. The Germans were led by General Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff.
Gallipoli
At the end of 1914 Turkey joined the Central Powers and attacked the Russians in the Caucasus Mountains. Great Britain and France decided to help Russia by landing troops on the Gallipoli peninsula for a move on Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). British ships tried unsuccessfully to force their way through the Dardanelles (the strait leading from the Mediterranean Sea toward Istanbul). British, Australian, and New Zealand troops were forced to land on the peninsula on April 25, 1915. By that time, however, the Turks were there to block them. At the beginning of 1916 the Allied force was withdrawn. The Gallipoli operation was a failure.
Elsewhere on the Eastern Front
In the summer of 1915, the Germans on the Eastern Front drove back the Russians. This success persuaded Bulgaria to join the Central Powers. German, Austrian, and Bulgarian troops were then able to occupy Serbia. An Allied force landed at Thessaloníki (Salonika) in Greece to help the Serbians. They made little progress until the end of the war. By 1916 the Russians needed guns and ammunition. Despite this they made a surprise attack against the Austrians in Bukovina, which is the mountain region that now divides Romania from Ukraine. This attack succeeded and encouraged Romania to join the Allies. The Germans then removed troops from the Western Front. In a brilliant campaign they invaded Romania and crushed its armies. Italy joined the Allies in 1915. In bitter fighting along the Austrian border the Italians made little progress against the Austrians. They suffered heavy losses.
The Middle East
When the war began, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia (now Iraq), and much of Arabia were part of the Ottoman Empire (the Turkish empire). In 1915 troops from India under British command advanced up the Tigris River but were surrounded at Al Kut by the Turks. They were forced to surrender after a 147-day siege. Al Kut was retaken in a second Mesopotamian campaign. Baghdad then was captured on March 11, 1917, and the whole province was cleared of the Turks.
Farther west, British and Commonwealth troops moved from Egypt across the Sinai to invade Palestine. They were held up at Gaza for more than a year. General Edmund Allenby then took command. He attacked in Autumn 1917. The forces split the Turkish armies into two parts and captured Jerusalem on December 9.
Meanwhile the British soldier T.E. Lawrence, who was known as Lawrence of Arabia, was stirring up an Arab revolt against the Turks. General Allenby tricked the Turks into thinking he was going to attack in the Jordan River valley. Actually, on September 19, 1918, he attacked and destroyed the main Turkish army at the battle of Megiddo. The Allies occupied Syria, which brought Turkish resistance to an end.
Events of 1917
The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution in 1917 caused a complete collapse by the Allies on the Eastern Front. The Germans were able to withdraw troops to fight elsewhere. In October they and the Austrians made a surprise attack on the Italians at Caporetto. They drove the Italians back to the Piave River with tremendous losses.
The United States Enters the War
Meanwhile, the United States had joined the Allies. The United States had been brought to the edge of war by German submarine attacks on its merchant ships. Then, early in 1917, the Germans tried to persuade Mexico to join the Central Powers. Germany promised to give Mexico the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. This plot was discovered by the British. When the United States found out about it they declared war on Germany on April 6.
The United States immediately helped the Allies with supplies and money. But it needed some time before its armies were ready to fight in Europe. In May 1917 the Selective Service Act allowed the United States government to call all men between ages 21 and 30 for military service.
The Tide Turns
The winter of 1917–18 was gloomy for the Allies. They could only hold their positions and wait for the United States forces to arrive. The German armies by this time outnumbered those of the Allies on the Western Front. The German generals decided to make a last push in the spring of 1918. Their attacks created deep bulges in the Allied lines and were difficult to stop. French Marshal Ferdinand Foch then was given command of all Allied troops in the west. The tide turned as 300,000 U.S. troops landed each month in France.
In July 1918 it was Foch's turn to attack. After a successful drive by the French farther south, British, Canadian, and Australian troops made a surprise attack. On August 8 the Allies, led by 450 tanks, attacked near Amiens. Ludendorff afterward called it “the black day of the German army.” Foch ordered a general advance. By November the Germans were driven back to the battle lines of 1914.
Meanwhile the Allied armies at Salonika attacked and crushed the Bulgarians, who gave up on September 29, 1918. In northern Italy the Allies advanced across the Piave River. At the battle of Vittorio Veneto they completely defeated the Austrians. On October 30 the Austrians asked for a cease-fire. Turkey gave up on the same day.
The War at Sea
Admiral John Jellicoe and his British Grand Fleet was eager to meet the weaker and inexperienced German High Seas Fleet. On August 28, 1914, British ships sailed into the waters off the German coast. They sank three German cruisers in the battle of the Heligoland Bight.
The British Navy also escorted troop ships and helped in the conquest of the German colonies. German ships gave the Allies some trouble, especially the Emden. After sinking 15 merchant ships, the Emden was caught and destroyed by the Sydney off Cocos Island in the Indian Ocean. It was the first sea fight by the Australian navy.
Blockade
The German High Seas Fleet could stop any attempt to land troops on the German coast. The Allied navies, however, kept the oceans free for the movements of their armies and supplies. At the same time, they were able to prevent most supplies from reaching the Central Powers by sea. This blockade, as it was called, was announced in February 1915. But it was two years before it caused serious shortages in Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Submarine Warfare
In reply to the British blockade, the Germans announced that every merchant ship in the waters around the British Isles would be sunk by submarines. The use of submarines in this way was against international law, and the United States protested. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the British liner Lusitania. Nearly 1,200 people died, including a number of Americans. Following protests, the Germans for a time promised not to sink large liners without warning. The sinking of the Lusitania influenced the United States and its support for the Allies.
In 1916 the attacks by German submarines increased. Allied ships were sunk faster than new ones could be built. In February 1917 the Germans announced that all ships on the way to or from Allied ports would be sunk without warning. Allied losses increased quickly. In April 1917 one of every four merchant ships that left the British Isles never returned. By the end of the month, there was only a six weeks supply of grain left in Great Britain.
At that time there were no good ways to detect submarines beneath the surface or of destroying them even if they were detected. What the Allies could do was arm the merchant ships. This made it more dangerous for submarines to attack them. Also, merchant ships began to make their voyages in convoys, or groups, escorted by warships. These measures greatly reduced the sinkings.
Altogether, the Germans lost nearly 200 submarines in the war, most of them in the years 1917–18. The U-boats, as the German submarines were called (from the name Unterseeboote), caused the loss of about 6,000 Allied ships, however. Britain alone lost 13,000 lives in these attacks.
The War in the Air
When World War I began, airplanes were in their infancy. Airplanes did play a part in the war, though. It was largely as support for land and sea operations.
Zeppelins and Air Raids
The most efficient long-range aircraft at the time were the cigar-shaped zeppelin airships developed by the Germans. At the beginning of 1915, zeppelins began bombing towns in Great Britain by night. Soon, however, fighter airplanes and antiaircraft guns on the ground were able to shoot them down. There were few zeppelin raids after 1916.
In 1917 large German airplanes began bombing London and other cities. Usually they flew on moonlit nights but sometimes they flew by day. The last big raid was made on the night of May 19–20, 1917, by 43 bombers. Thirteen of the bombers reached London. The system for warning people of approaching bombers worked fairly well, but there were few good shelters. Air raids on Britain killed about 1,300 people and injured about 3,000.
The Air Aces
Army aircraft were used over the fighting fronts to observe and photograph enemy positions and troop movements. To protect them, fighter aircraft usually escorted these flights. This led to frequent air fights. A number of gallant pilots won fame as ace fighters. Among them were the British pilots Albert Ball, Edward Mannock, and James McCudden. Canadian aces were William Bishop and Raymond Collishaw. American aces were Edward Rickenbacker and Raoul Lufbery. The French had Georges Guynemer, René Fonck, and Charles Nungesser. The German aces were Manfred von Richthofen (known as the Red Baron), Oswald Boelcke, Max Immelman, and Werner Voss.
Other Uses for Aircraft
Army airplanes also were used for bombing railroad junctions, airfields, and supply depots. Navy aircraft were used only in limited ways. They included seaplanes, which were airplanes with floats in place of wheels so that they could land on and take off from the water, and small airplanes that could be flown off platforms mounted on the larger warships. HMS Argus was the first aircraft carrier. It was a ship with a flat top deck that could be used by airplanes for taking off and landing. It was not completed until September 1918, however. The British and United States navies used small airships called blimps for hunting submarines.
The End of the War
In the fall of 1918 the German people were starving from the effects of the naval blockade. On October 3, 1918, the Germans sent an appeal for a cease-fire to Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States. He demanded an unconditional, or complete and total, German surrender. General Ludendorff resigned, and on November 4 a revolution broke out in Germany. On November 11 the German government leaders signed the armistice. They admitted their defeat. It was signed in Marshal Foch's private railroad car in the Forest of Compiègne in France. The armistice went into effect six hours later, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
All together, the war killed some 8.5 million soldiers, sailors, and airmen. About 5 million of them died fighting for the Allies. Altogether, about 21 million were wounded. In addition, about 20 million people throughout the world died from famine or diseases caused or spread by the war.
The Settlement
The peace conference that was to end World War I met in Paris in January 1919. Representatives came from all the countries that had been at war with the Central Powers. The peace treaty was drawn up chiefly by President Wilson of the United States; by David Lloyd George, prime minister of the United Kingdom; and by Georges Clemenceau, prime minister of France. The treaty aimed to “make the world safe for democracy,” as Wilson said. It also established the League of Nations, an organization that was supposed to keep the peace of the world and settle disputes.
Treaty of Versailles
The treaty was given to the German delegation to sign at Versailles, France, on May 7, 1919. The German delegates strongly objected to its severe terms. The Allies made only small changes, however. Germany was allowed to keep only a small volunteer army and navy. It was forbidden to have submarines, tanks, or an air force. It was also forced to pay a great deal of money for its share in starting the war. These payments were called reparations.
The representatives of the Allies and of Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The Allies later signed separate treaties with Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey. The United States Senate refused to ratify, or agree to, the Treaty of Versailles because of objections to joining the League of Nations. Separate peace treaties with Germany and Austria were ratified by the United States Senate in October 1921.
Effects of the War
As a result of the treaties, Germany, Austria, and Turkey were all forced to give up territory, and the boundaries in Europe were altered so that people of one nationality were not under the rule of another. The Allied nations' dreams of peace did not last long after the end of World War I, however. Fighting broke out between various peoples, and the League of Nations was not effective in stopping the battles. The major nations signed several peace treaties, including the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact in 1928, but these treaties soon broke down. The German people, in particular, were not happy with the Versailles Treaty. When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 he started building up the German military. His actions eventually led to World War II.
"World War I." Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 24 Dec. 2007
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WORLD WAR 2
also called Second World War
The countries of Europe spent most of the 1930s building toward war. On September 1, 1939, the German army invaded neighboring Poland. This was the event that finally led to the start of World War II. The war soon spread beyond Europe, however, to Asia and Africa. The United States entered the war in December 1941 after the Japanese attacked a U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The war ended shortly after the United States dropped two atom bombs on Japan in August 1945.
By the time it was over, World War II had involved nearly every part of the world. Although the estimates are inexact, it is believed that between 35 and 60 million lives were lost. Some 6 million of those were Jewish victims of what became known as the Holocaust. This was an attempt by the German leader, Adolf Hitler, to destroy the Jewish people.
Events leading to war
The Axis and Allied powers
During the 1930s, Germany, Italy, and Japan formed a loose alliance based on shared interests. The leaders of these countries were military dictators. They wanted to increase the size and power of their own nations at the expense of other countries. In the years before World War II started, all three nations had strengthened and modernized their armed forces. During the war, Germany, Italy, and Japan (along with some other countries) were called the Axis powers.
The most powerful countries opposing the Axis powers during World War II were the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, China, and France. These countries, and the countries that joined them, were known as the Allied powers.
Warlike acts
Japan, Italy, and Germany committed a series of warlike acts in the 1930s. These acts were condemned by the League of Nations, a peacekeeping organization established after World War I. In each case, however, the league's protests were ignored.
In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, a part of China. Italy conquered the African country of Ethiopia in 1935. Germany and Italy sent military forces to fight on the side of another dictator, General Francisco Franco, in the Spanish Civil War. Japan began a full-scale war against China in 1937.
The German leader Adolf Hitler and his political group—the National Socialist (or Nazi) party—wanted to retake German land lost after World War I. Led by Hitler, Germany began to seize areas along its borders. Hitler forced neighboring Austria to sign a pact of friendship. In March 1938 German troops marched into Austria and occupied that country.
Hitler next claimed the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia that was home to many people of German origin. On September 30, 1938, Great Britain and France signed the Munich Agreement with Germany. The agreement allowed Hitler to take over the Sudetenland.
Great Britain and France had hoped the agreement would keep Europe out of war and end Hitler's demands for more land. This willingness to grant Hitler's demands became known as the policy of appeasement. The policy did not work. Within six months Germany had taken control of all of Czechoslovakia.
It was clear that Poland, on Germany's eastern border, would be the next target. In an attempt to save the Poles, Great Britain and France promised to help Poland if it were attacked. In August 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed a “nonaggression pact,” promising not to attack each other. Germany did this so that it would not have to fight on two fronts. That is, it did not want to have to fight against both the Soviet Union and the combined forces of France and Great Britain. Germany and the Soviet Union also agreed to divide Poland's land between them.
War begins in Europe
The invasion of Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. As World War II began, Poland became the first country to experience the German military's blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” The blitzkrieg was a new type of military attack. It relied on fast-moving tanks and troops supported by warplanes.
In response to the attack on Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, and South Africa soon joined the Allies. On September 17 the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east. Poland was overrun and divided between Germany and the Soviet Union before its allies were able to help.
After Germany's conquest of Poland, other countries in Europe also expected to be invaded. During the winter of 1939–40, however, there were no further German attacks. This period of time—the uneasy calm before the next German invasion—became known as the “phony war.”
Invasions in Western Europe
Germany's blitzkrieg continues
In April 1940 the Germans invaded Norway and Denmark. Denmark accepted Germany's peace terms, but Norway declared war on the invader. Unable to defeat the Germans, Norway surrendered on June 9. It was then occupied by the German military.
On May 10, German forces invaded the Low Countries of Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Luxembourg was occupied immediately. The Belgians and Dutch resisted but were soon overwhelmed. The Dutch surrendered on May 14, the Belgians on May 27. Troops from the British and French armies that had assisted them were driven back into France.
Dunkirk
With the speed of their advance, the Germans had trapped the British and French troops in the port town of Dunkirk, France. The only hope for the Allied troops was to be rescued by sea.
The British Navy, aided by volunteers in their own boats, crossed the English Channel to rescue the troops. To save as many men as possible, all of the heavy military supplies were left behind. More than 300,000 Allied troops were rescued from the beaches. The rescue at Dunkirk took place from May 26 to June 4.
The fall of France
Although German troops had crossed into France in mid-May, the major battle for France began on June 5, 1940. By June 14 the Germans had entered Paris.
On June 22 France signed a peace agreement with Germany. German military forces occupied northern France and its Atlantic coast. Marshal Henri Pétain formed a new French government that was friendly with Germany. The town of Vichy served as the new government's headquarters. In opposition to Pétain's “Vichy government,” General Charles de Gaulle formed a “Free French” movement. The Free French continued the war against Germany from their base in Great Britain.
As France was falling to the Germans, Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, declared war against France and Great Britain on June 10. Italy now entered the war on the side of Hitler's Germany.
The battle of Britain
Hitler next wanted to invade the island of Great Britain. He first attacked the British Air Force in order to control the skies over Great Britain. The air war for that control became known as the battle of Britain. It was history's first major battle fought in the air.
Starting in June 1940, the German Luftwaffe (air force) began bombing airfields and other targets in southern England. The German warplanes crossed the English Channel from airfields in France. With land-based radar stations guiding them to their targets, British fighter pilots attacked the German bombers and fighters. The British defeated the German Luftwaffe by shooting down many of its warplanes. By the battle's end, Germany had lost about 1,700 planes to Britain's 900.
Unable to gain control of the sky, Germany cancelled its invasion of Britain. Later, the Luftwaffe switched to bombing cities and towns at night. These raids were especially damaging in London.
The battle of the Atlantic
The British also fought Germany on the high seas. During much of the war, Germany threatened the supply ships providing Britain with food and war materials. German surface raiders and U-boats, as the German submarines were called (from the name Unterseeboote), were sinking ships at rates that endangered Britain's survival. As the war progressed, U-boats increased their success by attacking in groups known as wolf packs.
To survive the attacks, supply ships traveled in groups known as convoys. The convoys were protected by naval destroyers and land-based airplanes. Early in the war, however, the protective escorts could not stay with the convoys for the entire trip. It was during this period that the U-boats attacked.
In 1943 the Allies began to escort the convoys with small aircraft carriers. Warplanes from the carriers and long-range bombers from shore began to destroy large numbers of U-boats. In addition, shipboard radar became more successful in detecting the U-boats. With these improvements, the number of supply ships reaching Britain dramatically increased after April 1943.
The North African campaign
In 1940 the war spread to North Africa, where the British wanted to keep control of the Suez Canal in Egypt. In the autumn of 1940 the Italians invaded Egypt from what is now Libya, but the British drove them back. The Axis forces were soon strengthened, however, by German tanks and troops. These troops, known as the Afrika Korps, were commanded by Erwin Rommel, one of Germany's greatest military leaders.
Rommel led the Afrika Korps in a series of victories in 1941 and 1942. In July 1942, at the first battle of El Alamein, the British stopped the German advance into Egypt. At the end of August, Rommel attacked again. The British Army, commanded by General Bernard Montgomery, defeated Rommel's troops. In October the British launched an attack that ended in a second British victory at El Alamein. By November 6 the British had driven the Germans from Egypt.
Germany invades the Soviet Union
Early success
After conquering the countries on Germany's borders, Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union. The attack began on June 22, 1941. Italy, Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania also declared war on the Soviet Union. Great Britain and the United States promised to aid the Soviet Union.
German and other Axis armies advanced into the Soviet Union along a 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) line of battle. The heaviest attacks were aimed in the directions of three Soviet cities: Leningrad (now called Saint Petersburg), Moscow, and Kiev. The northern group of the German army reached the edge of Leningrad by autumn. By December the central group of the German army was in the suburbs of Moscow. The Germans were stopped from further advances by the bitterly cold winter.
Stalingrad
In 1942 Hitler decided to attack the city of Stalingrad and some vital oil fields south of it. The oil fields were located in the Caucasus region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. One German army reached the oil center of Maikop in August. The attack against Stalingrad, however, failed.
Stalingrad (now known as Volgograd) was the single greatest battle in World War II. The Soviets defended the city stubbornly. When winter began they counterattacked, surrounding the Germans and their Romanian allies. The surrounded troops surrendered at the end of January 1943. Germany's defeat at Stalingrad was the turning point in its war with the Soviet Union. From this point on, the Soviet army was the stronger military force.
After Stalingrad, the Germans were forced to withdraw from the Caucasus. The Soviets gradually drove the Germans out of the Soviet Union. The Soviet army entered Poland at the beginning of 1944 and Romania soon afterward.
Beginning of the war in the Pacific
When war broke out in Europe in 1939 Japan saw an opportunity to gain more territory in the Pacific region. Since 1937 the Japanese had occupied part of China, and they wished to expand further. At the time, Great Britain, France, and The Netherlands controlled many of the islands in the Pacific. Japan hoped to take advantage of the fact that those countries were fighting Germany and therefore would not be able to defend their territories in the Pacific. When Japan began to occupy some of these territories, the United States protested.
The United States enters the war
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked U.S. warships at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. Their bombs and torpedoes sank or crippled six U.S. ships and killed more than 2,000 Americans. On the following day the United States Congress declared war on Japan. Three days later it declared war on Germany and Italy as well.
The attack on the Philippines
On the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft attacked the Philippine Islands. Japanese troops then invaded the Philippines. U.S. and Filipino forces fought from Bataan and later Corregidor Island until they were overwhelmed by the Japanese. The Philippines surrendered in May 1942. The Japanese also launched air strikes on Australia. Other Japanese attacks left Japan in control of most of the Pacific islands guarding the sea routes to Southeast Asia.
Doolittle's raid on Tokyo
The Japanese were very successful during the early stages of the Pacific war. However, the United States struck back on April 18, 1942. The aircraft carrier Hornet launched bombers in an attack on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Colonel James Doolittle trained and led the bombing mission over Japan. The raid did little damage, but it greatly boosted U.S. morale early in the war.
Midway Island
The war in the Pacific reached a turning point in June 1942. A strong invasion fleet of Japanese ships moved to capture Midway Island. Carrier-based warplanes from the U.S. Navy attacked the Japanese naval force and won a decisive battle, destroying much of Japan's fleet.
North Africa and the defeat of Italy
Allied victory in North Africa
In November 1942, Allied troops commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed on the coasts of Morocco and Algeria. The invasion's planners hoped to defeat Rommel's Afrika Korps. After fierce fighting the Allied armies defeated the German and Italian forces in May 1943.
Sicily and the Italian campaign
The Allies followed up the North African invasion by capturing the Italian island of Sicily. Soon afterward, the Italian dictator Mussolini was overthrown. Italy surrendered to the Allies in September 1943.
Germany was now the only Axis force fighting in Italy. Allied troops landed in the south of Italy on September 3 and reached Naples by October. In January 1944 the Allies began another attack on the Germans by landing at Anzio. The Italian capital of Rome was taken by the Allies on June 4.
Air attacks on Germany
German bombing attacks on Great Britain lessened after May 1941. At about the same time, British bombing attacks on Germany began, usually at night. Air raids were carried out on Berlin, Cologne, Essen, and other German cities. The chief targets included steel mills and factories making war supplies. German ports, oil refineries, and railroad freight yards were also bombed.
Toward the end of 1942 U.S. bombers based in Great Britain joined in the attack. The heavy bombers flew in large formations and made long-range daylight raids. Later in the war, the bombers were escorted by long-range fighters.
War in the Pacific
Island warfare
In the Pacific, Allied ground forces began the difficult task of driving the Japanese back. To do so, U.S. troops advanced from island to island. Once an island was captured, an airfield was built on it. U.S. warplanes then attacked enemy-held islands nearer Japan. This military tactic became known as island-hopping.
In February 1943, after six months of jungle warfare, the Japanese were driven from Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands. The United States then captured Saipan in the Mariana Islands in July 1944. From Saipan, U.S. heavy bombers began bombing Japan.
The Philippines
In October 1944 General Douglas MacArthur's forces landed on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. In late October U.S. naval forces engaged the Japanese in the battle of Leyte Gulf. In this important battle, the United States Navy destroyed much of the Japanese navy. MacArthur's troops then landed on Luzon in January 1945. They captured the Philippine capital of Manila in March.
Iwo Jima and Okinawa
In February 1945 U.S. forces landed on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. There followed a similar attack on Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands in April 1945. The Iwo Jima and Okinawa assaults were among the bloodiest in the Pacific. The Japanese resisted fiercely. During the Okinawa campaign the U.S. Navy was attacked by kamikaze (suicide) bomber pilots. The Japanese fliers deliberately flew their planes into U.S. ships. Eventually, however, U.S. forces captured both islands.
Allied invasion of Europe
D-Day
The Germans had long been expecting an Allied invasion of northern France. However, it was not clear where it would come. Early on June 6, 1944, the Allied invasion began on the beaches of Normandy. Paratroops were dropped behind the beaches. Waves of Allied aircraft attacked the German shore defenses. In the morning, the troops and tanks began landing on Normandy's beaches. During the invasion 156,000 troops were landed in Normandy.
After fierce fighting, the Allied armies were able to move inland. Paris was taken on August 25. By mid-September the advancing Allies were joined by other Allied troops. British and Canadian armies advanced into northern Belgium. The U.S. troops kept farther south.
Final attacks by the Germans
In mid-1944 the Germans began using a new weapon against the British. They launched flying bombs called the V-1 and V-2. The V-bombs injured and killed thousands of English civilians and caused great damage.
The U.S. march toward Germany was halted in December 1944. German troops counterattacked in the Ardennes area of southern Belgium. Caught by surprise, the U.S. forces were pushed backwards about 65 miles (105 kilometers). This created a “bulge” in the line of U.S. troops. The Americans regrouped and the Germans were finally driven back. Known as the battle of the bulge, this counterattack was the German army's last major offensive in the war. After crossing the Rhine River in March 1945, the Allies drove rapidly into Germany.
The end of the war in Europe
By early 1945 it was clear that Germany could not fight for much longer. The Allied leaders—U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin—met in Russia for the Yalta Conference. While at Yalta, they planned for the final defeat and occupation of Germany.
Meanwhile, Soviet troops pushed on through Germany. By April 25 the Soviets had surrounded Berlin. Adolf Hitler realized that the war was lost and committed suicide on April 30. Germany surrendered at midnight on May 8, 1945.
The end of the war in the Pacific
With the fall of Germany, the United States prepared to invade Japan. Military planners expected that the invasion of Japan would cost many lives. On July 26, 1945, the Allies demanded Japan's surrender, but it refused. The Allies then decided to shorten the war and save Allied lives by using the atom bomb.
The atom bomb was a new weapon of immense power. It had been secretly developed in the United States. On August 6 a U.S. bomber named the Enola Gay dropped an atom bomb that exploded over Hiroshima, Japan. The blast killed 70,000 to 80,000 people and started fires that burned a huge area. On August 9 an even more powerful atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan officially surrendered on September 2, 1945. World War II was over.
Settlements and results
After the war's end, a conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, to prepare the way for the peace treaties. The chief Allied representatives were U.S. President Harry S. Truman (who became president after Roosevelt died in office), Stalin, and British prime ministers Churchill and Clement Attlee. (Attlee replaced Churchill as Britain's prime minister during the conference.)
They divided Germany and its capital city of Berlin into four zones. The zones were to be controlled by Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union. Because of disagreements between the Soviet Union and the other three powers, Germany was eventually divided into two separate countries: East Germany, which had a Communist government, and West Germany, which was a democratic state.
This marked the beginning of a new balance of world power between democratic and Communist countries. The United States became the most influential democratic nation in the world. The Soviet Union became the world's most powerful Communist country. Tensions between the two groups led to a situation known as the Cold War, which lasted until the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s.
The human cost
World War II was a “total war.” Both soldiers and civilians were attacked by enemy forces. Civilians were also asked or forced to do “essential work.” In many countries civilians worked in factories to produce military supplies. Nazi Germany forced about 10 million people from the occupied countries to work as slave laborers.
One of the best-known and most terrible aspects of the war was the Holocaust—a deliberate attempt by the Germans to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The 6 million Jewish people who were killed represented more than two thirds of those who lived in the areas occupied by Germany after 1939. The Germans killed an additional 6 million Roma (Gypsies), Slavs (such as Russian and Polish people), homosexuals, and disabled people as well. After the war many Nazi officials were arrested and punished for their participation in these acts of murder. The trials were held at Nuremberg, in Germany.
"World War II." Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 24 Dec. 2007 .
POLLUTION
The contamination of the environment—land, water, and air—by waste, smoke, chemicals, and other harmful substances is called pollution. The most serious pollution occurs in areas with large cities and many factories.
Pollution is not a new problem. Cities of ancient times were often fouled by human wastes and debris. In the Middle Ages unsanitary conditions encouraged the spread of diseases such as the plague. Much has been done to improve sanitation and public health over the centuries. But since the Industrial Revolution, the problems of waste disposal have become more complicated. The growth of industry, the introduction of new technologies such as motor vehicles, and rapid increases in human populations have combined to create pollution problems on a level never before seen.
Air pollution
Clean air is essential to a healthy environment. Air is considered to be polluted when it contains certain substances in amounts high enough and for periods long enough to cause harm. Air can be polluted through such natural causes as volcanic eruptions and forest fires, which send smoke, ash, and gases into the atmosphere. These types of pollution may have not only local and regional effects but also long-lasting global ones. Nevertheless, only pollution caused by human activities, such as industry and transportation, can be controlled.
Most air pollution comes from the burning of substances called fossil fuels, such as coal and gasoline. Factories and automobiles burn these fuels for power, but they do not burn them completely. The unburned particles from the fuels include solids such as soot and ash as well as gases such as carbon monoxide and ozone. In many places smoke from factories and cars combines with naturally occurring fog to form smog. London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Mexico City are among the cities that have faced serious smog problems over the years.
Air pollution may affect humans directly, causing diseases such as cancer, bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma. More indirectly, the effects of air pollution are experienced through gradual change to climates all over the world. For example, the growing use of fossil fuels has led to a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This gas traps heat from the sun at the Earth's surface, causing global temperatures to rise. If allowed to continue, this could eventually cause melting of the polar ice caps, raising of the sea level, and flooding of coastal areas around the world. (See also global warming.)
Another serious climatic effect of pollution is acid rain. This occurs when certain gases created by burning fossil fuels combine with particles of water in the atmosphere. When these particles fall to the ground as rain or snow, they damage forests, soils, bodies of water, and buildings. (See also acid rain.)
Scientists also have warned about the damage that pollution is doing to the ozone layer of the atmosphere. This layer protects the Earth from harmful radiation from the sun. If the ozone layer becomes too thin or disappears, this radiation could reach the Earth. It could cause crop failures, the spread of diseases such as skin cancer, and other disasters. (See also ozone.)
Water pollution
The world's oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams have long been used to get rid of waste. People dump tons of garbage of all kinds into bodies of water every year. Bacteria and other organisms in water are able to absorb or break down many materials, especially organic matter (the matter of living or dead bodies of plants and animals). Nevertheless, materials sometimes build up in quantities great enough to affect plant and animal life in the water. This is water pollution.
Some sources of water pollution are easy to see. Factories sometimes turn waterways into open sewers by dumping oils, poisonous chemicals, and other harmful industrial wastes into them. Some cities and towns foul streams by pouring sewage, or waste-carrying water, into them.
Other causes of water pollution are not so direct. The use of chemical fertilizers in farming is one example. A fertilizer is a substance added to soil to help crops grow. When chemical fertilizers seep into the ground, they can make the groundwater unfit to drink. And when they drain into a body of water, they create another kind of pollution by causing a buildup of nutrients that plants use to grow. These nutrients cause rapid growth of algae in the water. When the algae die, oxygen is needed to break them down. This creates a shortage of oxygen in the water, which causes the death of fish and other forms of life.
Sedimentation also pollutes water. Sediment is a material made up of particles of rock and soil. As it collects in the water, it fills water-supply reservoirs and reduces the amount of sunlight that can penetrate the water. Without sufficient sunlight, the plants that normally provide the water with oxygen fail to grow.
Land pollution
A person who tosses a can or a napkin on the ground is contributing to land pollution. This type of pollution mainly involves the depositing on land of solid wastes that cannot be broken down quickly or, in some cases, at all. Heaps of trash are not only unpleasant to look at—they can also interfere with the lives of plants and animals.
Land pollution also includes the buildup of poisonous chemicals on land. The use of pesticides in farming is a major source of this type of pollution. These chemicals are spread over fields to kill insects, weeds, fungi, or rodents that are a threat to crops. But pesticides harm or kill other living things too. When they drift with the wind or become absorbed into fruits and vegetables, they can become a source of health problems such as cancer and birth defects.
Radioactive pollution
Radioactivity is the process through which certain kinds of matter give off particles and energy. Some radioactive substances occur in nature, but others are made artificially. People have found a number of uses for radioactivity. Doctors, for example, use radioactive substances in treating cancers and other diseases. Radioactivity is also the force behind nuclear weapons and nuclear energy.
Since the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, people have been increasingly aware of the threat posed by nuclear weapons and the radioactive particles they release. Exposure to radioactivity can lead to serious injury, disease, or death. Because of these concerns, many countries have agreed not to test nuclear weapons above ground or underwater. If nuclear weapons are ever used on a large scale, all of humanity could be endangered.
Accidents at nuclear power plants are another concern. The worst nuclear disaster to date occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union. Explosions and a fire in the plant released large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere. The towns and farmlands around the power plant became unsafe for human occupancy. The wind carried the radioactive pollution over much of northern and eastern Europe.
Disposing of the waste created in the production of nuclear energy is a problem as well. Some radioactive wastes continue to give off harmful energy for many thousands of years before fully decaying. Scientists have not yet found a safe method to dispose of them permanently.
Noise pollution
Noise pollution is especially common in cities. The intensity of sound is measured in units called decibels. Steady exposure to noise louder than 90 decibels can cause permanent loss of hearing. This level is often exceeded by many common city sounds, including jackhammers and jet planes. Supersonic jet airplanes, which travel faster than the speed of sound, create sound waves that are equivalent to those of major explosions and capable of damaging buildings. In addition to causing hearing loss, there is some evidence that noise can produce other harmful effects on human health and on work performance.
Creating solutions
Cleaning up and controlling pollution is a huge and difficult task. The world's ever-growing population is creating more and more waste every year. Governments and big companies are often slow to act because measures to reduce pollution are often unpopular or expensive. Many people like the idea of reducing pollution, but not when it affects the way they live.
But it is not necessary to abandon such activities as manufacturing, farming, and driving altogether in order to control pollution. What is necessary is a new way of thinking about such activities to make sure that their side effects do not outweigh their advantages. An important part of this process is making an effort to reduce the release into the environment of substances that are harmful to life. One way to do this is through the use of fuels that produce less pollution. These include forms of oil that are low in the element sulfur. Another method is shifting to less polluting forms of power, such as solar energy in place of fossil fuels. Farmers can help reduce pollution by using pest-control techniques that do not require poisonous chemicals. And drivers can do their part by choosing to buy vehicles that use less gasoline.
Pollution control also requires the decision to recycle. Recycling is the process by which some waste materials are made usable again. Both industries and individuals can take part in recycling. Some towns have passed laws that encourage or require residents to separate paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum products from other garbage so that these substances can be processed and reused. (See also recycling.)
Growing concern over the effects of pollution led to action on the part of governments and other organizations in the last decades of the 20th century. In the United States a governmental body called the Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970 to oversee national pollution-control standards. It enforces laws designed to control ocean dumping, the release of harmful gases by industries and motor vehicles, and safe drinking water, among other things. At the international level, representatives from 160 nations reached a landmark environmental agreement called the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The treaty would require industrialized countries to decrease their production of the gases that lead to global warming. Some countries were slow to approve the agreement, however. Organizations such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club work to make sure that governments and industries live up to their responsibilities to protect the environment.
"pollution." Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 24 Dec. 2007 .