World War II by country
World War II by country
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World War II by country

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World War II by country

Almost every country in the world participated in World War II. Most were neutral at the beginning, but relatively few nations remained neutral to the end. World War II pitted two alliances against each other, the Allies and the Axis powers. It is estimated that 74 million people died, with estimates ranging from 40 million to 90 million dead (including all genocide casualties). The main Axis powers were Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan, and the Kingdom of Italy; while the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were the "Big Four" Allied powers.

The countries involved in or affected by World War II are listed alphabetically, with a description of their role in the conflict.

Under Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Khan, Afghanistan stayed neutral.

Despite British pressure, Afghanistan maintained friendly relations with the Axis during the war, in the hopes that the Axis would help stop British influence in the region, which came from the British Raj and Mesopotamia. In 1940, the Afghanistan legation in Berlin asked whether Germany would cede land in British Raj to Afghanistan if it should win the war; specifically, the king and minister wanted to acquire all the ethnic Pashtun land between the Durand Line and the Indus River. Despite this stated goal, Afghanistan stayed out of the war, neither suffering an attack nor attacking any other country.

In 1941, Western press reported that Amanullah Khan, a former king who lost his throne in a civil war in the 1920s, was working as an agent for Nazi Germany in Berlin. It is believed he was involved in plans to regain his throne with Axis help. Following the Axis loss in Stalingrad in 1943, the plans cooled off and were never executed.

After the Italian invasion of Albania in April 1939, 100,000 Italian soldiers and 11,000 Italian colonists who wanted to integrate Albania into the Italian Empire settled in the country. Initially the Albanian Fascist Party received support from the population, mainly because of the unification of Kosovo and other Albanian-populated territories with Albania proper after the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece by the Axis in Spring 1941. Benito Mussolini boasted in May 1941 to a group of Albanian fascists that he had achieved the Greater Albania long wanted by the Tirana nationalists. On June 22, 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and on June 28 Albania also declared war on the USSR.

In October 1941, small Albanian Communist groups established an Albanian Communist Party in Tirana of 130 members under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. In mid-1942, however, party leaders increased their popularity by calling young people to fight for the liberation of their country from Italy. In September 1942, the party organized the Albanian National Anti-Fascist Front, from a number of resistance groups, including several that were strongly anti-communist. They assembled a National Liberation Army.

Germany occupied Albania in September 1943, dropping paratroopers into Tirana before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital, and soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government, police, and military. Many Balli Kombëtar units and leaders collaborated. The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on November 29, 1944. The Albanian partisans also helped in the liberation of Kosovo and parts of Yugoslavia.

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