World War 2 - Explained in 8 Minutes .

World War II was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It was the deadliest conflict in human history, with an estimated 70 million casualties, including military and civilian deaths. The war began on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany in response, and the conflict quickly spread throughout Europe. The war eventually engulfed much of the world, with the Axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy battling against the Allied powers of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and others. The war had a profound impact on the world, reshaping the global political order and leading to the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers. It also resulted in the Holocaust, the systematic extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis, and the dropping of atomic bombs by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war officially ended on September 2, 1945, when Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender, bringing an end to six years of fighting. The aftermath of the war, including the formation of the United Nations and the beginning of the Cold War, would shape global politics for decades to come.