# data[].attributes.body
Characteristics:

Germany uses Blitzkrieg tactics for rapid conquests.

Key Events:

Invasion of Poland (September 1939) → war begins.

Occupation of Denmark and Norway (1940).

Fall of France (June 1940).

Battle of Britain (1940) → Germany's first major aerial defeat.

Invasion of the USSR: Operation Barbarossa (June 1941).

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) → The US enters the war.

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Treaty of Versailles (1919): Imposed humiliating conditions and harsh reparations on Germany.

Rise of Fascism and Nazism: Authoritarian dictatorships such as Hitler's in Germany and Mussolini's in Italy.

Failure of the League of Nations: Failed to prevent aggression or impose effective sanctions.

Appeasement Policy: European powers failed to stop Hitler's previous invasions.

German, Japanese, and Italian Expansionism: Border violations and annexations (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Manchuria, Ethiopia).

Battle of Dunkirk (May–June 1940):

Allied forces were encircled by the German army in northern France. Then a massive evacuation of over 300,000 British and French soldiers across the English Channel (Operation Dynamo) and marked the fall of France soon after, .

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2. Expansion of the conflict (1941-1943)

Characteristics:

The war becomes global: Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Europe.

Key events:

Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943): breaking point in the East, Soviet victory.

North African Campaign: defeat of the Afrika Korps (Rommel) at El Alamein.

Battle of Midway (1942): Japan loses naval advantage.

Operation Torch: Allied landings in Africa (1942).

# data[].attributes.body
3. Allied Counteroffensive (1943-1945)

Characteristics:

Initiative passes to the Allies, territorial recovery begins.

Key events:

Invasion of Italy (1943). Operation Overlord

Landings in Normandy (June 6, 1944). }

Liberation of Paris (August 1944).

Battle of the Bulge (1944-45): final German offensive. Soviet advance from the East.

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4. Final Phase (1945)

Key Events:

Capture of Berlin (April-May 1945) → Hitler's suicide.

Surrender of Germany (May 8, 1945).

Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945).

Surrender of Japan (September 2, 1945).

Diplomatic Conferences:

Tehran (1943): Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin agree to open a second front in Europe.

Yalta (February 1945): Reorganization of Europe, creation of the UN.

Potsdam (July-August 1945): Demand for Japan's surrender, tensions between Allies.

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More than 60 million dead.

Devastation of Europe and Asia.

Creation of the UN (1945).

Start of the Cold War.

Nuremberg Trials.

Accelerated decolonization.

Division of Germany and Europe into ideological blocs.

# data[].attributes.body
Tehran (1943): First meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. They agreed to open a Western front (leading to D-Day) and began discussing post-war plans, including the division of Germany.

Yalta (Feb 1945): Allies planned post-war Europe. Germany would be divided into zones, the USSR promised to join the war against Japan, and they agreed to create the United Nations. Tensions over Eastern Europe began to surface.

Potsdam (Jul-Aug 1945): Held after Germany’s surrender. Stalin, Truman, and Attlee confirmed earlier agreements and issued a final warning to Japan. Growing mistrust between the US and USSR marked the beginning of Cold War dynamics.

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Center for Human Sciences. (n.d.). * Stages of World War II. UNAM Academic Portal. [https://e1.portalacademico.cch.unam.mx/alumno/historiauniversal2/unidad2/segundaGuerraMundial/etapas](https://e1.portalacademico.cch.unam.mx/alumno/historiauniversal2/unidad2/segundaGuerraMundial/etapas)

OpenStax. (2022). World History: Volume 2 from 1800. Rice University. [https://d3bxy9euw4e147.cloudfront.net/oscms-prodcms/media/documents/WorldHistoryV2-OP\_4rlS3IN.pdf](https://d3bxy9euw4e147.cloudfront.net/oscms-prodcms/media/documents/WorldHistoryV2-OP_4rlS3IN.pdf)

McDougal Littell. (2006). Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction*. Houghton Mifflin Company.

The end of WWII and the division of Europe | CES at UNC. (n.d.). https://europe.unc.edu/the-end-of-wwii-and-the-division-of-europe/