Editing 1940s (section)

==Politics and wars==
{{See also|List of sovereign states in the 1940s}}
[[File:Flag-map of the world (1942).png|thumb|750px|center|Flag map of the world from 1942, during World War II]]

=== Wars ===
{{Main|List of wars 1900–1944#1930–1944|List of wars 1945–1989#1945–1949}}
[[File:EasternFrontWWIIcolage.png|right|thumb|250px|[[World War II]]]]
[[File:German Reich 1942.svg|220px|thumb|In Green: {{flag|Nazi Germany|name=German Reich}} at its peak (1942):
{{legend|#336733|[[:en:Nazi Germany|Germany]]}}
{{legend|#55c255|Civilian-administered occupied territories ''([[:en:Reichskommissariat|Reichskommissariat]]'' and [[:en:General Government|General Government]])}}
{{legend|#a5dfa5|Military-administered occupied territories ''([[:en:Military Administration (Nazi Germany)|Militärverwaltung]])''}}]]
* [[World War II]] (1939–1945)
** [[Nazi Germany]] invades [[Poland]], [[Denmark]], [[Norway]], [[Benelux]], and the [[French Third Republic]] from 1939 to 1941.
** [[Soviet Union]] invades [[Poland]], [[Finland]], occupies [[Latvia]], [[Estonia]], [[Lithuania]] and Romanian region of [[Bessarabia]] from 1939 to 1941.
** Germany faces the [[United Kingdom]] in the [[Battle of Britain]] (1940). It was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign up until that date.
** Germany [[Operation Barbarossa|attacks]] the [[Soviet Union]] (June 22, 1941).
** [[Continuation War]] (Second Soviet-Finnish War), was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 25 June 1941 – 19 September 1944.
** The [[United States]] enters [[World War II]] after the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941. It would face the [[Empire of Japan]] in the [[Pacific War]].
** Germany, Italy, and Japan suffer defeats at [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]], [[Second Battle of El Alamein|El Alamein]], and [[Battle of Midway|Midway]] in 1942 and 1943.
** [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] in 1943 was the largest Jewish uprising in Nazi-occupied Poland.
** [[Warsaw Uprising]] against Nazis in 1944 in Poland was the single largest military effort taken by any European resistance movement during World War II. The United States Army Air Forces send support for Poles on September 18, 1944, when flight of 110 [[B-17]]s of the 3 division Eighth Air Force airdropped supply for soldiers.
** [[Normandy landings]]. The forces of the [[Allies of World War II|Western Allies]] land on the beaches of [[Normandy]] in Northern France (June 6, 1944).
** [[Yalta Conference]], wartime meeting from February 4, 1945, to February 11, 1945, among the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—[[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Winston Churchill]], and [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Premier]] [[Joseph Stalin]], respectively—for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization, intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe.
** [[The Holocaust]], also known as The Shoah ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: ''{{lang|he|השואה}}'', Latinized ''ha'shoah''; [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]]: ''{{lang|yi|חורבן}}'', Latinized ''{{transliteration|yi|churben}}'' or ''{{transliteration|yi|hurban}}''<ref name=Britannica>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/269548/Holocaust "Holocaust," ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2009]: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question ..."</ref>) is the term generally used to describe the [[genocide]] of approximately six million European [[Jews]] during [[World War II]], a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by [[Nazi Germany]], under [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Axis powers|its allies]], and [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborators]].<ref name=Niewyk1>Niewyk, Donald L. ''The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust,'' [[Columbia University Press]], 2000, p. 45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than {{formatnum:5000000}} Jews by the Germans in World War II." Also see "The Holocaust", ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women and children, and millions of others, by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question".</ref> Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including [[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles|ethnic Poles]], the [[Porajmos|Romani]], [[Generalplan Ost|Soviet civilians]], [[Extermination of Soviet prisoners of war by Nazi Germany|Soviet prisoners of war]], [[Action T4|people with disabilities]], [[History of homosexual people in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust|gay men]], and [[Holocaust victims|political and religious opponents]].<ref>Niewyk, Donald L. and Nicosia, Francis R. ''The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press'', 2000, pp. 45–52.</ref> By this definition, the total number of [[Holocaust victims]] is between 11 million and 17 million people.<ref>Donald Niewyk suggests that the broadest definition, including Soviet civilian deaths, would produce a death toll of 17 million. [https://books.google.com/books?id=lpDTIUklB2MC&pg=PP1#PPA45,M1] Estimates of the death toll of non-Jewish victims vary by millions, partly because the boundary between death by persecution and death by starvation and other means in a context of [[total war]] is unclear. Overall, about 5.7 million (78 percent) of the 7.3 million Jews in occupied Europe perished ([[Martin Gilbert|Gilbert, Martin]]. ''Atlas of the Holocaust'' 1988, pp. 242–244). Compared to five to 11 million (1.4 percent to 3.0 percent) of the 360 million non-Jews in German-dominated Europe. Small, Melvin and J. David Singer. ''Resort to Arms: International and civil Wars 1816–1980'' and [[Michael Berenbaum|Berenbaum, Michael.]] ''A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York: New York University Press, 1990''</ref>
**[[Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)]]
** The [[German Instrument of Surrender]] signed (May 7–8, 1945). [[Victory in Europe Day]].
** [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] (August 6 and August 9, 1945); [[Surrender of Japan]] on August 15.
** [[World War II]] officially ends on September 2, 1945.
*[[Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts]]
**[[Indo-Pakistani War of 1947]]
* [[Arab–Israeli conflict]] (Early 20th century–present)
** [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] (1948–1949) – The war was fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours. The war commenced upon the termination of the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate of Palestine]] in mid-May 1948. After the Arab rejection of the 1947 [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]] (UN General Assembly Resolution 181) that would have created an Arab state and a Jewish state side by side, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria attacked the state of Israel. In its conclusion, Israel managed to defeat the Arab armies.
*[[Indonesian National Revolution|Indonesian War of Independence]] (1945–1949)
*[[First Indochina War]] (1946–1954)

===Major political changes===
* Establishment of the [[United Nations Charter]] (June 26, 1945) effective (October 24, 1945).
* Establishment of the defence alliance [[NATO]] April 4, 1949.

===Internal conflicts===
* [[1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine]].
* [[Chinese Communist Revolution|Victory]] of [[Chinese Communist Party]] led by [[Mao Zedong]] in the [[Chinese Civil War]].
* Beginning of [[Greek Civil War]], which extends from 1946 to 1949.

===Decolonization and independence===
[[File:Bundesarchiv N 1576 Bild-003, Warschau, Bettelnde Kinder.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Warsaw Ghetto]] (1940–1943), photographed using [[Agfacolor]] process.]]
[[File:Declaration of State of Israel 1948.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[David Ben-Gurion]] proclaiming Israeli independence from the United Kingdom on May 14, 1948.]]
* [[1944]] – [[Iceland]] declares independence from [[Denmark]].
* [[1945]] – [[Indonesia]] declares independence from the Netherlands (effective in 1949 after a [[Indonesian National Revolution|bitter armed and diplomatic struggle]]).
* [[1945]] - [[Korea]] is liberated after [[Japan]] surrenders.
* [[1946]] – The [[French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon]] dissolves to the independent states of [[Syria]] and [[Lebanon]]. The French settlers are forced to evacuate the French colony in Syria. The [[Philippines]] declares independence from the US.
* [[1947]] – The [[Partition of India|Partition]] of the [[Presidencies and provinces of British India]] into a secular [[Dominion of India|Union of India]] and a predominantly Muslim [[Dominion of Pakistan]] leads to the deaths of millions.
* [[1948]] – [[British rule in Burma]] ends. The [[Israel|State of Israel]] is [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|established]].
* [[1949]] – The [[People's Republic of China]] is officially proclaimed.
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=== Prominent political events ===
[[File:17deoctubre-enlafuente.jpg|thumb|[[Juan Perón|Perón]]'s supporters in the [[Plaza de Mayo]] in [[Loyalty Day (Argentina)|Loyalty Day]].]]
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* The [[1943 Argentine Revolution|Revolution of 43']] takes place in [[Argentina]], ending the period known as the [[Infamous Decade]].
* Postwar occupations of [[Allied-occupied Germany|Germany]] and [[Occupation of Japan|Japan]] from 1945.
* Workers gather in [[Plaza de Mayo]] to demand the liberation of [[Juan Perón]] in 1945. This is event is known as the [[Loyalty Day (Argentina)|Loyalty Day]] and is considered the foundational date of [[Peronism]]. 
* The [[1946 Italian institutional referendum]] replaces the [[Kingdom of Italy|monarchy]] with a republic.
* Dissolution of the [[League of Nations]] on 20 April 1946. Much of its assets were transferred to the [[United Nations]].
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