From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan (along with other countries later on). Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had partitioned Poland and marked out their "spheres of influence" across Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. The United Kingdom and France subsequently declared war on Germany on 3 September. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. The exact causes of World War II are debated, but contributing factors included the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts, the rise of fascism in Europe, and rising European tensions since World War I. In the wake of the Axis defeat, Germany and Japan were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders. Tens of millions of people died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and disease. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, a majority being civilians. In a total war directly involving more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centers and the only two uses of nuclear weapons in war. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries-including all of the great powers-forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945.
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