World War II
Global war (1939-1945) that killed tens of millions and reshaped today's international order.
The 1939-45 global war that killed an estimated 70-85 million people and whose settlement built the United Nations and the Bretton Woods system: still the scale against which today's conflicts, and today's political rhetoric, get measured.
Last refreshed: 3 August 2026
Timeline for World War II
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Iran Conflict 2026Background
World War II (1939-1945) was the largest armed conflict in history, fought between the Allied Powers, led by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, and the Axis Powers, led by Germany, Italy and Japan. It killed an estimated 70-85 million people, including around 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and ended with unconditional Axis surrenders in Europe in May 1945 and the Pacific in September 1945, the latter following the use of nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The post-war settlement created the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, establishing the framework of international law and multilateral finance that has governed state Conduct since. That legacy is why the war remains the default reference point for scale: Coalition-building, occupation, reconstruction and the laws of war are all still argued from precedents it set.
It also functions as rhetorical shorthand. Political leaders invoke it to signal maximum resolve or maximum force, a usage detached from the war's own history but dependent on the public still recognising its magnitude eight decades on.