Factors that weakened the West in the face of Italian fascism and German Nazism.
The failed attempts at appeasing the revisionist powers and their ambitions.
The early successes of the Axis powers, which included the fall of France.
The global scale of destruction that the war entailed both in terms of loss of life and economic damage.
How the German invasion of Russia and the involvement of the United States shifted the course of the war.
The unified Allied strategy that turned the tide against the Axis, first in North Africa, Sicily, and at Stalingrad, then in Europe and the Pacific.
The systematic genocide of Jews and others by the Nazis, now referred to as the Holocaust.
The decision made by the United States to use the atomic bomb against Japan.
The agreements at Yalta and Potsdam, where the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union disputed the boundaries and government of Poland, and the division and government of Germany.
