Its defined by when one country first declared war on the agressor and when one party officialy surrendered.



A.

THere's an argument to be said that "WW2" was just Phase 2 of "The Great War"

On the other hand, if you want to be picky, "WW1 was just in the 20th Century.  An argument could be made that the American Revolution was basically another theatre of War in a world wide conflict being carried out between the major powers of the time - France and England.

Maintaining the original poster's premise, however, while the Mussolini government capitulated in 1943, an Italian government kept fighting on the side of the Axis until 1945.  Thus, you can safely posit that the Second World War lasted from 1939 to 1945.

Note that, by another reckoning, with the same premise, WW2 lasted only two years - 1939 (From the time Russia invaded Poland in concert with Germany) to 1941 (when Germany invaded Russia and magically, Russia became an ally).

Or, can we look at it this way?

The Axis is commonly defined as Germany, Italy, and Japan.  Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, however, Japan invaded Manchuria in 1932, and we all know Germany and Japan surrendered in 1945.

So, can we say the war actually lasted from 1932 to 1945?  But, when Japan invaded Manchuria, there was no axis.  This probably invalidates the 1932 date.  I think in order to come to an answer, we have to establish parameters by which we make measurements.

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I wasn't criticizing anyone, I'm just exploring the whole concept.

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You're correct, I had a brain-fart.  I had in mind Halle Selassie's plea for help at the League of Nations.

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Hehehe - the "he" I meant was Hitler, of course, being the generous unselfish person he was.

by definition "from the event that led to the declaration of war to the date aggreed on in the peace treaty"

the begin of WW II (european theatre) is therefore september 1, 1939, when germany invaded polland.

now there is a small problem with that, what if no war is declared, or no peace treaty signed?


the dates you find in history books are usually those declared by the victors. well, the history is written by the victors, it always was.

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Nope.  Edmund Burke  influential MP, latter half of 18th Cent.  Although I will admit that I need to study his writings more.

If you asked most people I think they would agree with the 1939-45 timeline. However, as a matter of curiosity I typed the subject line of this topic in Google & this is what it came up with. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2Timeline/1917-45.html
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I'm quite certain of that.

Sometimes we just have to accept "generally accepted" principles.

The generally accepted principle for the start of WW2 is September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.

The generally accepted principle for the end of WW2 is August 15, 1945, when Japan surrendered to the United States.

Historical events do not neatly fit our conceptions of "start date" and "end date".  Wars do not start overnight but are the results (in hindsight) of numerous factors.

That's a great question and, I think, worthy of a new topic.

WWI was called "The World War" before WW2.

WW2 is called World War Two (duh, what follows WWI).

WW3 was previously envisioned as a nuclear confrontation between the US/NATO and the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact because their extensive alliances would have engulfed the entire world.

My preliminary speculation is that a "World War" must involve every continent (except Antarctica if you are going to be picky) and every major government.  It would help if the major governments' very existence depends upon the outcome of the war.

By this definition you could exclude every belligerent action since 1945.