India (IAST: Bhārat), also called the Republic of India (IAST: Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country (with over 1.2 billion people), and the most populous democracy in the world. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Myanmar and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE—one of the world’s earliest civilisations. In the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Large-scale urbanisation occurred on the Ganges in the first millennium BCE leading to the Mahajanapadas, and Buddhism and Jainism arose. Early political consolidations took place under the Maurya, Satavahana and Gupta empires; the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as Southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, and Sikhism emerged, all adding to the region’s diverse culture. Much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate; the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The country was unified in the 17th century by the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century, the subcontinent came under the Maratha Empire and in the 19th under the British East India Company, later shifting to British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India’s independence in 1947.

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In 2017, the Indian economy was the world’s sixth largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the second largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories. India is widely recognised for its wide cinema, rich cuisine and lush wildlife and vegetation. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.

Etymology of India

The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu. The latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ἰνδοί), which translates as “The people of the Indus”.

The geographical term Bharat (Bhārat, pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət̪: (About this sound listen)), which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. It is a modernisation of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which traditionally referred to the Indian subcontinent and gained increasing currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bhāratas in the second millennium BCE. It is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. The Hindu text Skanda Purana states that the region was named “Bharat” after Bharata Chakravartin. Gaṇarājya (literally, people’s State) is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for “republic” dating back to ancient times.

Hindustan ( (About this sound listen)) is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century BCE. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then. Its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety. Currently, the name may refer to either the northern part of India or the entire country.

History Of India

Ancient India

The earliest authenticated human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago. Nearly contemporaneous Mesolithic rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. Around 7000 BCE, one of the first known Neolithic settlements appeared on the subcontinent in Mehrgarh and other sites in the subcontinent. These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia; it flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.

During the period 2000–500 BCE, in terms of culture, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age. The Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period, and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain. Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.

In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas. The emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira. Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle class; chronicling the life of the Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India. In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal, and both established long-lasting monastic traditions. Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire. The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent excepting the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas. The Mauryan kings are known as much for their empire-building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka’s renunciation of militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.

The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was being ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and South-East Asia. In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to increased subordination of women. By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created in the greater Ganges Plain a complex system of administration and taxation that became a model for later Indian kingdoms. Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion rather than the management of ritual began to assert itself. The renewal was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite. Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.

Medieval India

The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity. When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan. When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal. When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south. No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region. During this time, pastoral peoples whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes. The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language. They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent. Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well. Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation. By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Java. Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.

After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South Asia’s north-western plains, leading eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206. The sultanate was to control much of North India and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs. By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century, the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north. The sultanate’s raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire. Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India, and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.

Early modern India

Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
In the early 16th century, northern India, being then under mainly Muslim rulers, fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors. The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices and diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule. Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine status. The Mughal state’s economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency, caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets. The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India’s economic expansion, resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture. Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience. Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India. As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.

By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies, including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts. The East India Company’s control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its military muscle and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors were crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies. Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by the 1820s. India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials, and many historians consider this to be the onset of India’s colonial period. By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and effectively having been made an arm of British administration, the company began to more consciously enter non-economic arenas such as education, social reform, and culture.

Modern India

The British Indian Empire, from the 1909 edition of The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Areas directly governed by the British are shaded pink; the princely states under British suzerainty are in yellow.
Historians consider India’s modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and 1885. The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes—among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their introduction in Europe. However, disaffection with the company also grew during this time, and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule. Although the rebellion was suppressed by 1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and to the direct administration of India by the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system, the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest. In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.

The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks—many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets. There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines, and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians. There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption. The railway network provided critical famine relief, notably reduced the cost of moving goods, and helped the nascent Indian-owned industry.
About 14.5 million people lost their homes as a result of the partition of India in 1947.
After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served, a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislations, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol. During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections. The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress’s final push for non-co-operation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the partition of India into two states: India and Pakistan.

Vital to India’s self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic. It has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an active Supreme Court, and a largely independent press. Economic liberalisation, which was begun in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. Yet, India is also shaped by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban; by religious and caste-related violence; by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies; and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and in Northeast India. It has unresolved territorial disputes with China and with Pakistan. The India–Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998. India’s sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world’s newer nations; however, in spite of its recent economic successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to be achieved.

Geography of India

India comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, and part of the Indo-Australian Plate. India’s defining geological processes began 75 million years ago when the Indian plate, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift caused by seafloor spreading to its south-west and, later, south and south-east. Simultaneously, the vast Tethyn oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the Eurasian plate. These dual processes, driven by convection in the Earth’s mantle, both created the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to uplift the Himalayas. Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Cut off from the plain by the ancient Aravalli Range lies the Thar Desert.

The original Indian plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India. It extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east. To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats; the plateau contains the country’s oldest rock formations, some over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44′ and 35° 30′ north latitude and 68° 7′ and 97° 25′ east longitude.

A shining white snow-clad range, framed against a turquoise sky. In the middle ground, a ridge descends from the right to form a saddle in the centre of the photograph, partly in shadow. In the near foreground, a loop of a road is seen.

India’s coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains. According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy shores.

Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal. Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter’s extremely low gradient often leads to severe floods and course changes. Major peninsular rivers, whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal; and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea. Coastal features include the marshy Rann of Kutch of western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta of eastern India; the latter is shared with Bangladesh. India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India’s south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.

The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons. The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes. The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India’s rainfall. Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.

Biodiversity of India

The Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is the Indian national bird. It roosts in moist and dry-deciduous forests, cultivated areas, and village precincts.
India lies within the Indomalaya ecozone and contains three biodiversity hotspots. One of 17 megadiverse countries, it hosts 8.6% of all mammalian, 13.7% of all avian, 7.9% of all reptilian, 6% of all amphibian, 12.2% of all piscine, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species. About 21.2% of the country’s landmass is covered by forests (tree canopy density >10%), of which 12.2% comprises moderately or very dense forests (tree canopy density >40%). Endemism is high among plants, 33%, and among ecoregions such as the shola forests. Habitat ranges from the tropical rainforest of the Andaman Islands, Western Ghats, and North-East India to the coniferous forest of the Himalaya. Between these extremes lie the moist deciduous sal forest of eastern India; the dry deciduous teak forest of central and southern India; and the babul-dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan and western Gangetic plain. The medicinal neem, widely used in rural Indian herbal remedies, is a key Indian tree. The luxuriant pipal fig tree, shown on the seals of Mohenjo-daro, shaded Gautama Buddha as he sought enlightenment.

Many Indian species descend from taxa originating in Gondwana, from which the Indian plate separated more than 105 million years before present. Peninsular India’s subsequent movement towards and collision with the Laurasian landmass set off a mass exchange of species. Epochal volcanism and climatic changes 20 million years ago forced a mass extinction. Mammals then entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes flanking the rising Himalaya. Thus, while 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians are endemic, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are. Among them are the Nilgiri leaf monkey and Beddome’s toad of the Western Ghats. India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened animal species, or 2.9% of endangered forms. These include the Asiatic lion, the Bengal tiger, the snow leopard and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which, by ingesting the carrion of diclofenac-laced cattle, nearly became extinct.

The pervasive and ecologically devastating human encroachment of recent decades has critically endangered Indian wildlife. In response, the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was substantially expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988. India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and thirteen biosphere reserves, four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; twenty-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.

Politics and government of India

India is the world’s most populous democracy. A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system, it has seven recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and more than 40 regional parties. The Congress is considered centre-left in Indian political culture, and the BJP right-wing. For most of the period between 1950—when India first became a republic—and the late 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the parliament. Since then, however, it has increasingly shared the political stage with the BJP, as well as with powerful regional parties which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalitions at the centre.

In the Republic of India’s first three general elections, in 1951, 1957, and 1962, the Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress won easy victories. On Nehru’s death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri briefly became prime minister; he was succeeded, after his own unexpected death in 1966, by Indira Gandhi, who went on to lead the Congress to election victories in 1967 and 1971. Following public discontent with the state of emergency she declared in 1975, the Congress was voted out of power in 1977; the then-new Janata Party, which had opposed the emergency, was voted in. Its government lasted just over three years. Voted back into power in 1980, the Congress saw a change in leadership in 1984, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated; she was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi, who won an easy victory in the general elections later that year. The Congress was voted out again in 1989 when a National Front coalition, led by the newly formed Janata Dal in alliance with the Left Front, won the elections; that government too proved relatively short-lived, lasting just under two years. Elections were held again in 1991; no party won an absolute majority. The Congress, as the largest single party, was able to form a minority government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao.

A two-year period of political turmoil followed the general election of 1996. Several short-lived alliances shared power at the centre. The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996; it was followed by two comparatively long-lasting United Front coalitions, which depended on external support. In 1998, the BJP was able to form a successful coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the NDA became the first non-Congress, coalition government to complete a five-year term. In the 2004 Indian general elections, again no party won an absolute majority, but the Congress emerged as the largest single party, forming another successful coalition: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). It had the support of left-leaning parties and MPs who opposed the BJP. The UPA returned to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, and it no longer required external support from India’s communist parties. That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a consecutive five-year term. In the 2014 general election, the BJP became the first political party since 1984 to win a majority and govern without the support of other parties. The Prime Minister of India is Narendra Modi, who was formerly Chief Minister of Gujarat. On 20 July 2017, Ram Nath Kovind was elected India’s 14th President and took the oath of office on 25 July 2017.

Government in India

India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under the Constitution of India, which serves as the country’s supreme legal document. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, in which “majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law”. Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the Union, or Central, government and the states. The government abides by constitutional checks and balances. The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, states in its preamble that India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India’s form of government, traditionally described as “quasi-federal” with a strong centre and weak states, has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.

National symbols of India

Flag Tiranga (Tricolour)
Emblem Sarnath Lion Capital
Language None
Anthem Jana Gana Mana
Song Vande Mataram
Currency ₹ (Indian rupee)
Calendar Saka
Animal Tiger (land), River dolphin (aquatic)
Bird Indian peafowl
Flower Lotus
Fruit Mango
Tree Banyan
River Ganga
Game Not declared

The Union government comprises three branches

Executive: The President of India is the head of state and is elected indirectly by a national electoral college for a five-year term. The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power. Appointed by the president, the prime minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of parliament. The executive branch of the Indian government consists of the president, the vice-president, and the Council of Ministers—the cabinet being its executive committee—headed by the prime minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one of the houses of parliament. In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and his council are directly responsible to the lower house of the parliament. The civil servants are permanent executives and all executive decisions are implemented by them.
Legislature: The legislature of India is the bicameral parliament. It operates under a Westminster-style parliamentary system and comprises the upper house called the Rajya Sabha (“Council of States”) and the lower called the Lok Sabha (“House of the People”). The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body that has 245 members who serve in staggered six-year terms. Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in numbers proportional to their state’s share of the national population. All but two of the Lok Sabha’s 545 members are directly elected by popular vote; they represent individual constituencies via five-year terms. The remaining two members are nominated by the president from among the Anglo-Indian community, in case the president decides that they are not adequately represented.
Judiciary: India has a unitary three-tier independent judiciary that comprises the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 24 High Courts, and a large number of trial courts. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the centre; it has appellate jurisdiction over the High Courts. It has the power both to declare the law and to strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution, as well as to invalidate any government action it deems unconstitutional.

Subdivisions

States (1–29) & Union territories (A-G)
1. Andhra Pradesh 19. Nagaland
2. Arunachal Pradesh 20. Odisha
3. Assam 21. Punjab
4. Bihar 22. Rajasthan
5. Chhattisgarh 23. Sikkim
6. Goa 24. Tamil Nadu
7. Gujarat 25. Telangana
8. Haryana 26. Tripura
9. Himachal Pradesh 27. Uttar Pradesh
10. Jammu and Kashmir 28. Uttarakhand
11. Jharkhand 29. West Bengal
12. Karnataka A. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
13. Kerala B. Chandigarh
14. Madhya Pradesh C. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
15. Maharashtra D. Daman and Diu
16. Manipur E. Lakshadweep
17. Meghalaya F. National Capital Territory of Delhi
18. Mizoram G. Puducherry

India is a federation composed of 29 states and 7 union territories. All states, as well as the union territories of Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments, both patterned on the Westminster model. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the centre through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis. Since then, their structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts. The districts, in turn, are further divided into tehsils and ultimately into villages.

Foreign relations and military

Modi and British Prime Minister Theresa May at the India-UK Tech Summit in New Delhi
Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained cordial relations with most nations. In the 1950s, it strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia and played a lead role in the Non-Aligned Movement. In the late 1980s, the Indian military twice intervened abroad at the invitation of neighbouring countries: a peace-keeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990; and an armed intervention to prevent a 1988 coup d’état attempt in the Maldives. India has tense relations with neighbouring Pakistan; the two nations have gone to war four times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir, while the fourth, the 1971 war, followed from India’s support for the independence of Bangladesh. After waging the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 war with Pakistan, India pursued close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier.

Aside from ongoing strategic relations with Russia, India has wide-ranging defence relations with Israel and France. In recent years, it has played key roles in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organisation. The nation has provided 100,000 military and police personnel to serve in 35 UN peacekeeping operations across four continents. It participates in the East Asia Summit, the G8+5, and other multilateral forums. India has close economic ties with South America, Asia, and Africa; it pursues a “Look East” policy that seeks to strengthen partnerships with the ASEAN nations, Japan, and South Korea that revolve around many issues, but especially those involving economic investment and regional security.

China’s nuclear test of 1964, as well as its repeated threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war, convinced India to develop nuclear weapons. India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out further underground testing in 1998. Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory. India maintains a “no first use” nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its “minimum credible deterrence” doctrine. It is developing a ballistic missile defence shield and, in collaboration with Russia, a fifth-generation fighter jet. Other indigenous military projects involve the design and implementation of Vikrant-class aircraft carriers and Arihant-class nuclear submarines.

Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military co-operation with the United States and the European Union. In 2008, a civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States. Although India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India’s nuclear technology and commerce. As a consequence, India became the sixth de facto nuclear weapons state. India subsequently signed co-operation agreements involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation’s armed forces; with 1.395 million active troops, they compose the world’s second-largest military. It comprises the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Coast Guard. The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion, or 1.83% of GDP. For the fiscal year spanning 2012–2013, US$40.44 billion was budgeted. According to a 2008 SIPRI report, India’s annual military expenditure in terms of purchasing power stood at US$72.7 billion. In 2011, the annual defence budget increased by 11.6%, although this does not include funds that reach the military through other branches of government. As of 2012, India is the world’s largest arms importer; between 2007 and 2011, it accounted for 10% of funds spent on international arms purchases. Much of the military expenditure was focused on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.

Economy Of India

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Indian economy in 2017 was nominally worth US$2.611 trillion; it is the sixth-largest economy by market exchange rates, and is, at US$9.459 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power parity, or PPP. With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and reaching 6.1% during 2011–12, India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. However, the country ranks 140th in the world in nominal GDP per capita and 129th in GDP per capita at PPP. Until 1991, all Indian governments followed protectionist policies that were influenced by socialist economics. Widespread state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from the outside world. An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalise its economy; since then it has slowly moved towards a free-market system by emphasising both foreign trade and direct investment inflows. India has been a member of WTO since 1 January 1995.

The 513.7-million-worker Indian labour force is the world’s second-largest, as of 2016. The service sector makes up 55.6% of GDP, the industrial sector 26.3% and the agricultural sector 18.1%. India’s foreign exchange remittances of US$70 billion in 2014, the largest in the world, contributed to its economy by 25 million Indians working in foreign countries. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes. Major industries include textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, and software. In 2006, the share of external trade in India’s GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985. In 2008, India’s share of world trade was 1.68%; In 2011, India was the world’s tenth-largest importer and the nineteenth-largest exporter. Major exports include petroleum products, textile goods, jewellery, software, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather manufactures. Major imports include crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, and chemicals. Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%. India was the second largest textile exporter after China in the world in the calendar year 2013.

Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% for several years prior to 2007, India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the first decade of the 21st century. Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India’s middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030. Though ranking 51st in global competitiveness, India ranks 17th in financial market sophistication, 24th in the banking sector, 44th in business sophistication, and 39th in innovation, ahead of several advanced economies, as of 2010. With 7 of the world’s top 15 information technology outsourcing companies based in India, the country is viewed as the second-most favourable outsourcing destination after the United States, as of 2009. India’s consumer market, the world’s eleventh-largest, is expected to become fifth-largest by 2030. However, hardly 2% of Indians pay income taxes.

Driven by growth, India’s nominal GDP per capita has steadily increased from US$329 in 1991, when economic liberalisation began, to US$1,265 in 2010, to an estimated US$1,723 in 2016, and is expected to grow to US$2,358 by 2020; however, it has remained lower than those of other Asian developing countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is expected to remain so in the near future. However, it is higher than Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and others.

According to a 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers report, India’s GDP at purchasing power parity could overtake that of the United States by 2045. During the next four decades, Indian GDP is expected to grow at an annualised average of 8%, making it potentially the world’s fastest-growing major economy until 2050. The report highlights key growth factors: a young and rapidly growing working-age population; growth in the manufacturing sector because of rising education and engineering skill levels; and sustained growth of the consumer market driven by a rapidly growing middle-class. The World Bank cautions that, for India to achieve its economic potential, it must continue to focus on public sector reform, transport infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, removal of labour regulations, education, energy security, and public health and nutrition.

According to the Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2017 released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which was created by comparing more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services, four of the cheapest cities were in India: Bangalore (3rd), Mumbai (5th), Chennai (5th) and New Delhi (8th).

Industries

The Delhi Metro rapid transit system and the low-floor CNG buses. Infrastructure in India in the next five years is estimated to bring in $1 trillion in investment, half of it by India’s private sector.
India’s telecommunication industry, the world’s fastest-growing, added 227 million subscribers during the period 2010–11, and after the third quarter of 2017, India surpassed the US to become the second largest smartphone market in the world after China.

The Indian automotive industry, the world’s second-fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009–10, and exports by 36% during 2008–09. India’s capacity to generate electrical power is 300 gigawatts, of which 42 gigawatts is renewable. At the end of 2011, the Indian IT industry employed 2.8 million professionals, generated revenues close to US$100 billion equalling 7.5% of Indian GDP and contributed 26% of India’s merchandise exports.

The pharmaceutical industry in India is among the significant emerging markets for the global pharmaceutical industry. The Indian pharmaceutical market is expected to reach $48.5 billion by 2020. India’s R & D spending constitutes 60% of the biopharmaceutical industry. India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world. The Indian biotech industry grew by 15.1% in 2012–13, increasing its revenues from 204.4 billion INR (Indian rupees) to 235.24 billion INR (3.94 B US$ – exchange rate June 2013: 1 US$ approx. 60 INR).

Socio-economic challenges

Despite economic growth during recent decades, India continues to face socio-economic challenges. In 2006, India contained the largest number of people living below the World Bank’s international poverty line of US$1.25 per day, the proportion having decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005; under its later revised poverty line, it was 21% in 2011. 30.7% of India’s children under the age of five are underweight. According to a Food and Agriculture Organization report in 2015, 15% of the population is undernourished. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates.

According to a Walk Free Foundation report in 2016, there were an estimated 18.3 million people in India, or 1.4% of the population, living in the forms of modern slavery, such as bonded labour, child labour, human trafficking, and forced begging, among others. According to the 2011 census, there were 10.1 million child labourers in the country, a decline of 2.6 million from 12.6 million child labourers in 2001.

Since 1991, economic inequality between India’s states has consistently grown: the per-capita net state domestic product of the richest states in 2007 was 3.2 times that of the poorest. Corruption in India is perceived to have decreased. According to Corruption Perceptions Index, India ranked 76th out of 176 countries in 2016, from 85th in 2014.

Demographics

With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census report, India is the world’s second-most populous country. Its population grew by 17.64% during 2001–2011, compared to 21.54% growth in the previous decade (1991–2001). The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males. The median age was 27.6 as of 2016. The first post-colonial census, conducted in 1951, counted 361.1 million people. Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as increased agricultural productivity brought about by the “Green Revolution” have caused India’s population to grow rapidly. India continues to face several public health-related challenges.

Life expectancy in India is at 68 years, with life expectancy for women being 69.6 years and for men being 67.3. There are around 50 physicians per 100,000 Indians. The number of Indians living in urban areas has grown by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001. Yet, in 2001, over 70% lived in rural areas. The level of urbanisation increased from 27.81% in 2001 Census to 31.16% in 2011 Census. The slowing down of the overall growth rate of population was due to the sharp decline in the growth rate in rural areas since 1991. According to the 2011 census, there are 53 million-plus urban agglomerations in India; among them Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, in decreasing order by population. The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males. The rural-urban literacy gap which was 21.2 percentage points in 2001, dropped to 16.1 percentage points in 2011. The improvement in literacy rate in rural area is two times that in urban areas. Kerala is the most literate state with 93.91% literacy; while Bihar the least with 63.82%.

India is home to two major language families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by 24% of the population). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan language families. India has no national language. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government. English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a “subsidiary official language”; it is important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. Each state and union territory has one or more official languages, and the constitution recognises in particular 22 “scheduled languages”. The Constitution of India recognises 212 scheduled tribal groups which together constitute about 7.5% of the country’s population. The 2011 census reported that the religion in India with the largest number of followers was Hinduism (79.80% of the population), followed by Islam (14.23%); the remaining were Christianity (2.30%), Sikhism (1.72%), Buddhism (0.70%), Jainism (0.36%) and others (0.9%). India has the world’s largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Zoroastrian, and Bahá’í populations, and has the third-largest Muslim population—the largest for a non-Muslim majority country.

Culture of India

Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years. During the Vedic period (c. 1700 – 500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, theology and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices which still exist today, such as dhárma, kárma, yóga, and mokṣa, were established. India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation’s major religions. The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including those of the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutras, the Bhakti movement, and by Buddhist philosophy.

Art and architecture

Much of Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal, other works of Mughal architecture, and South Indian architecture, blends ancient local traditions with imported styles. Vernacular architecture is also highly regional in it flavours. Vastu shastra, literally “science of construction” or “architecture” and ascribed to Mamuni Mayan, explores how the laws of nature affect human dwellings; it employs precise geometry and directional alignments to reflect perceived cosmic constructs. As applied in Hindu temple architecture, it is influenced by the Shilpa Shastras, a series of foundational texts whose basic mythological form is the Vastu-Purusha mandala, a square that embodied the “absolute”. The Taj Mahal, built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by orders of Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, has been described in the UNESCO World Heritage List as “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”. Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, developed by the British in the late 19th century, drew on Indo-Islamic architecture.

Literature

The earliest literary writings in India, composed between 1700 BCE and 1200 CE, were in the Sanskrit language. Prominent works of this Sanskrit literature include epics such as the Mahābhārata and the Ramayana, the dramas of Kālidāsa such as the Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Śakuntalā), and poetry such as the Mahākāvya. Kamasutra, the famous book about sexual intercourse also originated in India. Developed between 600 BCE and 300 CE in South India, the Sangam literature, consisting of 2,381 poems, is regarded as a predecessor of Tamil literature. From the 14th to the 18th centuries, India’s literary traditions went through a period of drastic change because of the emergence of devotional poets such as Kabīr, Tulsīdās, and Guru Nānak. This period was characterised by a varied and wide spectrum of thought and expression; as a consequence, medieval Indian literary works differed significantly from classical traditions. In the 19th century, Indian writers took a new interest in social questions and psychological descriptions. In the 20th century, Indian literature was influenced by the works of Bengali poet and novelist Rabindranath Tagore, who was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Performing arts

Indian music ranges over various traditions and regional styles. Classical music encompasses two genres and their various folk offshoots: the northern Hindustani and southern Carnatic schools. Regionalised popular forms include filmi and folk music; the syncretic tradition of the bauls is a well-known form of the latter. Indian dance also features diverse folk and classical forms. Among the better-known folk dances are the bhangra of Punjab, the bihu of Assam, the chhau of Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand, garba and dandiya of Gujarat, ghoomar of Rajasthan, and the lavani of Maharashtra. Eight dance forms, many with narrative forms and mythological elements, have been accorded classical dance status by India’s National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of the state of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohiniyattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, manipuri of Manipur, odissi of Odisha, and the sattriya of Assam. Theatre in India melds music, dance, and improvised or written dialogue. Often based on Hindu mythology, but also borrowing from medieval romances or social and political events, Indian theatre includes the bhavai of Gujarat, the jatra of West Bengal, the nautanki and ramlila of North India, tamasha of Maharashtra, burrakatha of Andhra Pradesh, terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu, and the yakshagana of Karnataka. India has a theatre training institute N.S.D that is situated at New Delhi It is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Motion pictures, television

The Indian film industry produces the world’s most-watched cinema. Established regional cinematic traditions exist in the Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu languages. South Indian cinema attracts more than 75% of national film revenue.

Television broadcasting began in India in 1959 as a state-run medium of communication and had slow expansion for more than two decades. The state monopoly on television broadcast ended in the 1990s and, since then, satellite channels have increasingly shaped the popular culture of Indian society. Today, television is the most penetrative media in India; industry estimates indicate that as of 2012 there are over 554 million TV consumers, 462 million with satellite and/or cable connections, compared to other forms of mass media such as press (350 million), radio (156 million) or internet (37 million).

Cuisine

Indian cuisine encompasses a wide variety of regional and traditional cuisines, often depending on a particular state (such as Maharashtrian cuisine). Staple foods of Indian cuisine include pearl millet (bājra), rice, whole-wheat flour (aṭṭa), and a variety of lentils, such as masoor (most often red lentils), toor (pigeon peas), urad (black gram), and mong (mung beans). Lentils may be used whole, dehusked—for example, dhuli moong or dhuli urad—or split. Split lentils, or dal, are used extensively. The spice trade between India and Europe is often cited by historians as the primary catalyst for Europe’s Age of Discovery.

Society

Traditional Indian society is sometimes defined by social hierarchy. The Indian caste system embodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found in the Indian subcontinent. Social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as jātis, or “castes”. India declared untouchability to be illegal in 1947 and has since enacted other anti-discriminatory laws and social welfare initiatives. At the workplace in urban India and in international or leading Indian companies, the caste related identification has pretty much lost its importance.

Family values are important in the Indian tradition, and multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas. An overwhelming majority of Indians, with their consent, have their marriages arranged by their parents or other elders in the family. Marriage is thought to be for life, and the divorce rate is extremely low. As of 2001, just 1.6 percent of Indian women were divorced but this figure was rising due to their education and economic independence. Child marriages are common, especially in rural areas; many women wed before reaching 18, which is their legal marriageable age. Female infanticide and female foeticide in the country have caused a discrepancy in the sex ratio, as of 2005 it was estimated that there were 50 million more males than females in the nation. However a report from 2011 has shown improvement in the gender ratio. The payment of dowry, although illegal, remains widespread across class lines. Deaths resulting from dowry, mostly from bride burning, are on the rise, despite stringent anti-dowry laws.

Many Indian festivals are religious in origin. The best known include Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Thai Pongal, Holi, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Bakr-Id, Christmas, and Vaisakhi. India has three national holidays which are observed in all states and union territories – Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti. Other sets of holidays, varying between nine and twelve, are officially observed in individual states.

Clothing

Cotton was domesticated in India by 4000 BCE. Traditional Indian dress varies in colour and style across regions and depends on various factors, including climate and faith. Popular styles of dress include draped garments such as the sari for women and the dhoti or lungi for men. Stitched clothes, such as the shalwar kameez for women and kurta–pyjama combinations or European-style trousers and shirts for men, are also popular. Use of delicate jewellery, modelled on real flowers worn in ancient India, is part of a tradition dating back some 5,000 years; gemstones are also worn in India as talismans.

Sports

In India, several traditional indigenous sports remain fairly popular, such as kabaddi, kho kho, pehlwani and gilli-danda. Some of the earliest forms of Asian martial arts, such as kalarippayattu, musti yuddha, silambam, and marma adi, originated in India. Chess, commonly held to have originated in India as chaturaṅga, is regaining widespread popularity with the rise in the number of Indian grandmasters. Pachisi, from which parcheesi derives, was played on a giant marble court by Akbar.

The improved results garnered by the Indian Davis Cup team and other Indian tennis players in the early 2010s have made tennis increasingly popular in the country. India has a comparatively strong presence in shooting sports, and has won several medals at the Olympics, the World Shooting Championships, and the Commonwealth Games. Other sports in which Indians have succeeded internationally include badminton (Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are two of the top-ranked female badminton players in the world), boxing, and wrestling. Football is popular in West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the north-eastern states. India is scheduled to host the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Field hockey in India is administered by Hockey India. The Indian national hockey team won the 1975 Hockey World Cup and have, as of 2016, taken eight gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, making it the sport’s most successful team in the Olympics.

India has also played a major role in popularising cricket. Thus, cricket is, by far, the most popular sport in India. The Indian national cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cup events, the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka, and won 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Cricket in India is administered by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI); the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy, and the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy are domestic competitions. The BCCI also conducts an annual Twenty20 competition known as the Indian Premier League.

India has hosted or co-hosted several international sporting events: the 1951 and 1982 Asian Games; the 1987, 1996, and 2011 Cricket World Cup tournaments; the 2003 Afro-Asian Games; the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy; the 2010 Hockey World Cup; and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Major international sporting events held annually in India include the Chennai Open, the Mumbai Marathon, the Delhi Half Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The first Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix featured in late 2011 but has been discontinued from the F1 season calendar since 2014.

India has traditionally been the dominant country at the South Asian Games. An example of this dominance is the basketball competition where Team India won three out of four tournaments to date.

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award are the highest forms of government recognition for athletic achievement; the Dronacharya Award is awarded for excellence in coaching.

Referance: wikipedia.org/wiki/India

Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2012’s The Avengers and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the nineteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt. In Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy attempt to stop Thanos from amassing the all-powerful Infinity Stones.

The film was announced in October 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1. The Russo brothers came on board to direct in April 2015 and by May, Markus and McFeely had signed on to write the script for the film, which drew inspiration from Jim Starlin’s 1991 The Infinity Gauntlet comic and Jonathan Hickman’s 2013 Infinity comic. In 2016, Marvel shortened the title to Avengers: Infinity War. Filming began in January 2017 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, and lasted until July 2017, shooting back-to-back with a direct sequel. Additional filming took place in Scotland, England, the Downtown Atlanta area, and New York City. With an estimated budget between $316-400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.

Avengers: Infinity War held its world premiere on April 23, 2018 in Los Angeles and was released in the United States on April 27, 2018, in IMAX and 3D. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the cast, visual effects, emotional weight of the story, and action scenes, although the runtime received some criticism. It has grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, as well as the highest-grossing film of 2018, highest-ever grossing superhero film, and the eighth highest-grossing film ever in the United States. In its opening weekend, it grossed $641 million worldwide and $258 million in the United States and Canada, setting the records for the highest-grossing openings for both. The untitled sequel is set to be released on May 3, 2019.

Plot of Avengers: Infinity War

Having acquired the Power Stone from the planet Xandar, Thanos and his lieutenants—Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive—intercept the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard’s destruction.: As they extract the Space Stone from the Tesseract, Thanos subdues Thor, overpowers Hulk, and kills Loki. Heimdall sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst before being killed. Thanos departs with his lieutenants and obliterates the spaceship.

Hulk crash-lands at the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to Bruce Banner. He warns Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos’ plan to kill half of all life in the universe; in response, Strange recruits Tony Stark. Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange, drawing the attention of Peter Parker. Maw captures Strange, but fails to take the Time Stone due to an enchantment. Stark and Parker pursue Maw’s spaceship, Banner contacts Steve Rogers, and Wong stays behind to guard the Sanctum.

In Scotland, Midnight and Glaive ambush Wanda Maximoff and Vision in order to retrieve the Mind Stone in Vision’s forehead. Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson rescue them and take shelter with James Rhodes and Banner at the Avengers Compound. Vision offers to sacrifice himself by having Maximoff destroy the Mind Stone to keep Thanos from retrieving it. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the stone without destroying Vision.

The Guardians of the Galaxy respond to a distress call from the Asgardian ship and rescue Thor, who surmises Thanos seeks the Reality Stone, which is in the possession of the Collector on Knowhere. Rocket and Groot accompany Thor to Nidavellir, where they and Eitri create an enchanted battle-axe capable of killing Thanos. On Knowhere, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis find Thanos with the Reality Stone already in his possession. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, his adoptive daughter, who reveals the location of the Soul Stone to save her captive adoptive sister Nebula from torture. Thanos and Gamora travel to Vormir, where Red Skull, keeper of the Soul Stone, informs him the stone can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone he loves. Thanos reluctantly kills Gamora, earning the Stone.

Nebula escapes captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos’ destroyed homeworld, Titan. Stark and Parker kill Maw and rescue Strange. Landing on Titan, they meet Quill, Drax, and Mantis. The group forms a plan to remove Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet after Strange uses the Time Stone to view millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which Thanos loses. Thanos arrives, justifying his plans as necessary to ensure the survival of a universe threatened by overpopulation. The group subdues him until Nebula deduces that Thanos has killed Gamora. Enraged, Quill retaliates, allowing Thanos to break the group’s hold and overpower them. After Stark is seriously wounded by Thanos, Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing Stark. Thanos departs for Earth.

In Wakanda, Rogers reunites with Bucky Barnes before Thanos’ army invades. The Avengers, alongside T’Challa and the Wakandan forces, mount a defense while Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Banner, unable to transform into the Hulk, fights in Stark’s Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive to reinforce the Avengers; Midnight, Obsidian, and Glaive are killed and their army is routed. Thanos arrives and despite Maximoff’s attempt to destroy the Mind Stone, retrieves it from Vision, killing him.

Thor severely wounds Thanos, but Thanos activates the complete Infinity Gauntlet and teleports away. Half of all life across the universe disintegrates, including Barnes, T’Challa, Groot, Maximoff, Wilson, Mantis, Drax, Quill, Strange, and Parker. Stark and Nebula remain on Titan while Banner, M’Baku, Okoye, Rhodes, Rocket, Rogers, Romanoff, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield. Meanwhile, Thanos recovers on another planet.

In a post-credits scene, Nick Fury transmits a signal as he, Maria Hill, and others disintegrate. The transmitter displays a star insignia on a red-and-blue background.

Cast of Avengers: Infinity War

• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man:
  The leader and benefactor of the Avengers, who is a self-described genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist with electromechanical suits of armor of his own making. Co-director Joe Russo explained that Stark “senses this greater threat approaching, so he is doing everything in his power to keep the Earth safe.” Downey added that Stark would have smaller goals than in previous films, with the idea of him as a tinkerer continued from Iron Man 3, although this was not reflected in the final film.
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor:
  An Avenger and the king of Asgard, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name. Joe Russo stated that Thor’s storyline picks up after the events of Thor: Ragnarok, which finds him in a “very profound… very interesting place” with “real emotional motivation”. At the recommendation of Hemsworth, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely consulted Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi and screenwriter Eric Pearson to help carry over the comedic and tragic elements of the re-toned Thor from that film. Thor now wields a mystical axe known as Stormbreaker, after the destruction of his hammer Mjolnir in Ragnarok.
• Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk:
  An Avenger and a genius scientist who, because of exposure to gamma radiation, transforms into a monster when enraged or agitated. Banner spends the film trying to reintegrate with the Avengers, and also tries to “impress upon everybody how dangerous Thanos is.” This continues a story arc for the character that was established in Thor: Ragnarok and concludes in the Infinity War sequel, with the difference between Hulk and Banner “starting to blur a little bit”. Ruffalo described Hulk in Infinity War as having the mental capacity of a five-year-old.
• Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America:
  A fugitive superhero and leader of a faction of Avengers. A World War II veteran, he was enhanced to the peak of human physicality by an experimental serum and frozen in suspended animation before waking up in the modern world. Joe Russo said after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Rogers struggles with the conflict between his responsibility to himself and his responsibility to others. The character embodies the “spirit” of his comic alternate identity Nomad in the film, and receives new vibranium gauntlets from Shuri to replace his traditional shield.
• Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow:
  A highly trained spy, a member of Rogers’ faction of Avengers, and a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Johansson said that Romanoff’s situation in the aftermath of the events of Captain America: Civil War has been “a dark time. I wouldn’t say that my character has been particularly hopeful, but I think she’s hardened even more than she probably was before.”
• Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange:
  A former neurosurgeon who, after a car accident that led to a journey of healing, discovered the hidden world of magic and alternate dimensions and became a Master of the Mystic Arts. Markus and McFeely described Strange as ” up being the reasonable adult in the room” with the “widest perspective available” due to the film’s stakes. Aaron Lazar served as Cumberbatch’s stand-in until the latter completed filming on The Current War. At that point, Cumberbatch re-shot scenes where his face needed to be seen. Julian “JayFunk” Daniels once again assisted Cumberbatch with his finger-tutting movements.
• Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes / War Machine:
  A former officer in the U.S. Air Force who operates the War Machine armor and is an Avenger. Following his paralysis during the events of Civil War, Rhodes is given an apparatus by Stark to walk again, although he is reluctant to don his War Machine armor and rejoin the Avengers due to his injury. Cheadle believed that Rhodes is “negotiating this reunion and his rejoining this team.” He also explained that Rhodes’ relationship with Stark “deepened” from his accident, saying, “I think Tony feels somewhat responsible and culpable in a way. But again, he’s always had my back in a way that only he could really have.”
• Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A teenager and Stark’s protegé who received spider-like abilities after being bitten by a genetically-modified spider.
  Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther: The king of the African nation of Wakanda, who gained his enhanced strength by ingesting the Heart-Shaped Herb.
• Paul Bettany as Vision:
  An android and Avenger created using the artificial intelligence J.A.R.V.I.S., Ultron, and the Mind Stone. Anthony Russo called Vision “a living MacGuffin. Obviously, that raises the stakes because Vision’s life is in danger, and his life is in conflict with Thanos’ goals, so something’s got to give.”
• Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch: A member of Rogers’ faction of Avengers, who can harness magic and engage in hypnosis and telekinesis.
• Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon:
  A member of Rogers’ faction of Avengers and former pararescueman trained by the military in aerial combat, using a specially designed wing pack. Mackie noted that Wilson has a grudge with other heroes like Iron Man and Black Panther after the events of Civil War.
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier:
  An enhanced assassin and Rogers’ ally and best friend, who reemerged brainwashed after being thought killed in action during World War II. Barnes, who formerly went by Winter Soldier, is given the name White Wolf by the people of Wakanda, who helped remove his Hydra programming.
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki: Thor’s adoptive brother, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name.
• Idris Elba as Heimdall: The all-seeing, all-hearing Asgardian former sentry of the Bifröst Bridge, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name.
• Peter Dinklage as Eitri: King of the Dwarves of Nidavellir, and weaponsmith, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name.
• Benedict Wong as Wong: One of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, tasked with protecting some of Kamar-Taj’s most valuable relics and books.
• Pom Klementieff as Mantis: A member of the Guardians of the Galaxy with empathic powers.
• Karen Gillan as Nebula: An adopted daughter of Thanos who was raised with Gamora as siblings.
• Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer: A member of the Guardians and warrior in search of vengeance against Thanos for killing his family. At the end of each day of filming, Bautista would have to sit in a sauna to remove his makeup.
• Zoe Saldana as Gamora: A member of the Guardians, who is an orphan from an alien world and raised by Thanos, seeking redemption for her past crimes. Ariana Greenblatt portrays a young Gamora.
• Vin Diesel as Groot:
  A member of the Guardians who is a tree-like humanoid. Executive producer James Gunn explained that Groot is still an adolescent in the film, in the same state of growth seen in one of the post-credit scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Terry Notary provided motion capture for Groot, and said the character is “coming of age, so you’ll see the teenager find a mentor to look up to and to model himself after.”
• Bradley Cooper as Rocket:
  A member of the Guardians who is a genetically-engineered raccoon-based bounty hunter and mercenary, and is a master of weapons and battle tactics. Sean Gunn was again the stand-in for Rocket during filming, with his acting and expressions serving as motion reference for the character.
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts:
  Stark’s fiancée and the CEO of Stark Industries. Downey felt that “Pepper remains the heart of the story”, which was not a focal point in some of the preceding films with Stark. Downey continued that “we wanted to get back to that reality. Not just for them, but let’s really see how that can add to the something-worth-fighting-for of it all.”
  Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan / The Collector: One of the Elders of the Universe, who is an obsessive keeper of the largest collection of interstellar fauna, relics, and species of all manner in the galaxy.
• Josh Brolin as Thanos:
  An intergalactic despot from Titan who longs to collect all six of the Infinity Stones in order to impose his will on all of reality, wanting to “re-balance the universe”. Producer Kevin Feige added that Thanos believes the universe is becoming over-populated, which led to the destruction of his home moon Titan and is something he vowed not to let happen again, and also said “you could almost go so far as to say he is the main character of” the film. McFeely shared this sentiment, describing the film as his “hero journey” in addition to being the film’s protagonist, stating, “Part of that is the things that the most to him. We wanted to show that. It wasn’t just power; it wasn’t just an ideal; it was people.” Brolin likened Thanos to “the Quasimodo of this time” and the novel Perfume, since Thanos was born deformed and considered a “freak” on Titan, while Joe Russo would reference The Godfather for Brolin at times, which Brolin felt helped “to emotionalize the whole thing.” Brolin further added that he preferred playing Thanos over Cable in Deadpool 2 because of the amount of work that went into creating the character. Thanos does not wear armor for most of the film, which is symbolic of his growing power as he collects the Infinity Stones. In addition to voicing for the character, Brolin performed motion capture on set.
• Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord:
  The half-human, half-Celestial leader of the Guardians who was abducted from Earth as a child, and raised by a group of alien thieves and smugglers called the Ravagers. Pratt described his role in the film as “a cameo… you get to be a little more vibrant; a little more irreverent; a little bit more colorful if you want it to be.”
• Additionally, several other actors reprise their MCU roles: Danai Gurira as Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje; Letitia Wright as T’Challa’s sister Shuri; William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, the U.S. Secretary of State; Kerry Condon as the voice of Stark’s A.I. F.R.I.D.A.Y.; Winston Duke as M’Baku, the leader of Wakanda’s mountain tribe the Jabari; Florence Kasumba as Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje; Jacob Batalon as Parker’s friend Ned; Isabella Amara as Parker’s classmate Sally; Tiffany Espensen as Parker’s classmate Cindy; and Ethan Dizon as Parker’s classmate Tiny. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders make uncredited cameos as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, the former director and deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D, respectively, in the film’s post-credits scene.

Thanos’ henchmen, known collectively in the comics as the Black Order and in the film as the “Children of Thanos”, include Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw, Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight, and Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive. The foursome provided voices and motion-capture performances on set for their characters. As Coon was pregnant during filming, she mainly did facial capture for Proxima Midnight with some motion-capture, with stuntwoman Monique Ganderton standing-in and providing the rest on set. Ross Marquand portrays Johann Schmidt / Red Skull, the “Stonekeeper” and former Nazi commander of Hydra during World War II. Marquand replaces Hugo Weaving, who had expressed reluctance to reprise the character from Captain America: The First Avenger. Avengers co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the film as Parker’s school bus driver, while screenwriter Stephen McFeely cameos as Secretary Ross’s aide. David Cross was invited to make a cameo appearance as Tobias Fünke, his character from the sitcom Arrested Development, which the Russo brothers had previously worked on; this was prevented by a scheduling conflict, but Fünke still appears in the film as a specimen in the Collector’s collection, played by an uncredited extra.

Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZfuNTqbHE8

Production Avengers: Infinity War

Main article: Production of Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled Avengers sequel
In October 2014, Marvel announced a two-part sequel to Avengers: Age of Ultron, titled Avengers: Infinity War. Part 1 was scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018, with Part 2 scheduled for May 3, 2019. In April 2015, Marvel announced that Anthony and Joe Russo would direct both parts of Avengers: Infinity War, with back-to-back filming expected to begin in 2016. The same month, Kevin Feige said that the Infinity War films would be two distinct films “because they such shared elements, it felt appropriate… to like that. But I wouldn’t call it one story that’s cut in half. I would say it’s going to be two distinct movies.” By May 2015, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had signed on to write the screenplays for both parts of the film, which draws inspiration from Jim Starlin’s 1991 “The Infinity Gauntlet” comic and Jonathan Hickman’s 2013 “Infinity” comic. Anthony Russo added the film was inspired by 1990s heist films, with Thanos “on a smash-and-grab :to acquire the Infinity Stones:, and everybody’s trying to catch up the whole movie.” In May 2016, the Russos revealed that they would retitle the two films, to further remove the misconception that they were one large film split in two, with Joe stating, “The intention is we will change , we just haven’t come up with yet.” That July, Marvel revealed the film’s title would be shortened to simply Avengers: Infinity War.

Principal photography began on January 23, 2017, under the working title Mary Lou, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, with Trent Opaloch as director of photography. In early February, Marvel confirmed the involvement of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord, and Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the film. Additional filming took place in Scotland beginning in February 2017. The filming occurred in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands, with studio work taking place at Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld. Filming also began at Durham Cathedral in Durham, England in early May 2017. In late June 2017, filming occurred in Downtown Atlanta, as well as Atlanta’s Central Park in early July, before moving to Queens, New York in the middle of the month. Filming concluded on July 14, 2017. For the film’s final scene, where Thanos emerges healed in a nipa hut, the filmmakers partnered with Indochina Productions, a studio based in Thailand, to acquire footage of the Banaue Rice Terraces at Ifugao, Philippines.

Later in July 2017, Joe Russo stated there were a couple of unfinished scenes for Infinity War that would be shot “in the next few months”. In early March 2018, Disney moved the release of Infinity War in the United States to April 27, 2018, to have it be released the same weekend as some of its international markets. Visual effects for the film were created by Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore, Method Studios, Weta Digital, Double Negative, Cinesite, Digital Domain, Rise, Lola VFX, and Perception. With an estimated budget between $300–400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.

Avengers: Infinity War Music

In June 2016, Alan Silvestri, who composed the score for The Avengers, was revealed to be returning to score both Infinity War and its sequel. Silvestri started to record his score in January 2018, and concluded in late March. Silvestri felt working on the film “was a really different experience than anything I’d done before, especially in regard to the approach and balancing quick shifts in tone.” Ludwig Göransson’s theme from Black Panther is also used in the film. Hollywood Records and Marvel Music released the soundtrack album digitally on April 27, 2018, with a release on physical formats following on May 18. Two versions were released, a regular and deluxe edition, with the deluxe edition featuring some extended and additional tracks.

Release Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War held its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on April 23, 2018, screening also at the adjacent El Capitan Theatre and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. It was released in most countries worldwide, including the United States, on April 27, 2018, with a few debuts beginning as early as April 25, and was shown in IMAX and 3D on select screens. In the United States, the film opened in 4,474 theaters, 408 of which were IMAX; this was the widest release for a Disney title ever and the second-widest ever after Despicable Me 3’s 4,529 theaters. Three of AMC Theatres’ locations screened the film for 24 hours straight, with 53 of their locations having showtimes at either 2 AM or 3 AM to accommodate demand. In India, the film had the biggest release ever for a Hollywood film, opening on nearly 2,000 screens in four languages. The film also screened in 515 4DX theaters in 59 countries. It was originally scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018 in the United States.

Select footage from the film was screened around various cities during the film’s press tour in early April, ahead of the film’s Los Angeles premiere. The Russos noted that only a limited amount of the film would be shown at these screenings to reduce the chance of spoilers being leaked. Adam Chitwood of Collider commented that this was “highly unusual as most Marvel movies are screened in their entirety for press about a month before they hit theaters.” Ahead of the United States release, AMC Theatres in New York City and Orlando, Florida aired an eleven-MCU film marathon beginning on April 25, leading to a screening of Infinity War. The El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles also had a similar marathon ahead of the film’s release.

Marketing

From left to right: Kevin Feige, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Chadwick Boseman and Mark Ruffalo at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con
In May 2017, Robert Downey Jr. and his philanthropic organization Random Act Funding partnered with Omaze to initiate a contest to benefit the organization. A randomly chosen winner from those that donated would receive an Infinity War set visit. A life-sized statue of Thanos, created by Legacy Effects, was on display at D23 Expo 2017, alongside statues of the Black Order / “Children of Thanos”: Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, and Cull Obsidian. Additionally, Feige, Joe Russo, Downey, Brolin, Bettany, Olsen, Klementieff, Gillan, Bautista, Cheadle, Mackie, Cumberbatch, Stan, Holland, Boseman, Ruffalo and Hemsworth appeared at D23 Expo to present a clip highlighting the 10 years of MCU films, along with footage from Infinity War. The footage, which was screened exclusively for the panel, received strong audience reaction, with fans “literally on their feet and jumping as the footage played”. Julia Alexander of Polygon commented, “to say that there was quite a bit happening in the trailer would be one hell of an understatement, but that’s not what got me excited about the promises Infinity War may deliver upon. Seeing Spider-Man in the same movie as Iron Man, Thor, Star-Lord and the Scarlet Witch finally feels like Marvel has made the movie it always wanted to—and the one we’ve always wanted to see. For nearly ten years we dreamt of this reality and to see it play across a massive screen… it was impossible to not feel emotional.” CinemaBlend’s Eric Eisenberg said the footage left him “literally shaking”, with the film looking “like it could be one of the most epic blockbusters ever created,” concluding “the hype most definitely feels very, very real.” Haleigh Foutch for Collider said, “It looks dark and dramatic, and utterly epic. It’s clear Marvel is trying to do something different here… to pay off a decade’s worth of narrative and world-building. While it’s impossible to tell from two minutes work of footage, it certainly looks like that gamble paid off.” The D23 footage was also shown at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International. Due to the two convention presentations, Avengers: Infinity War generated over 90,000 new conversations on social media from July 17 to 23, the third-most during that time period behind Thor: Ragnarok and Justice League, according to comScore and its PreAct service. Infinity War stayed in third the following week, with over 41,000 new social media conversations, behind Ragnarok and It. By the week of October 16, Infinity War had generated over 679,000 total social media conversations.

To promote the release of the film’s first trailer, Marvel released “a retrospective video looking back at some of its best trailers” since Iron Man, “paired with fan reaction videos to those trailers.” The first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War debuted on Good Morning America on November 29, 2017. Josh Spiegel of The Hollywood Reporter said, “The trailer promises, in many ways, exactly what anyone with a passing familiarity with superhero movies would expect…” but “the most important part of the trailer is how it carefully, deliberately introduces the notion that the Infinity War films are going to function as a passing of the torch, from one set of Avengers to a newer group.” Scott Mendelson writing, for Forbes, noted that even though the trailer was not much different from the convention footage screened earlier in the year, it was “damn impressive. Moreover, it uses Nick Fury’s big “Avengers Initiative” speech, along with Alan Silvestri’s Avengers theme, to excellent effect.” Conversely to Mendelson, Alexander commented on the different marketing strategy for the film between the convention footage scenes and the trailer scenes, feeling the “two couldn’t be more different”. She noted how the convention footage (“meant to please a crowd running on little sleep and jittery with anticipation”) was released between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok, and “:i:t made sense to use Thor and the Guardians to hype up :Infinity War:…” because “Marvel relied on the anticipation of Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s success to excite fans, and footage of older movies set to classic Marvel scores as a way to drive home how this movie is an event in itself.” Conversely, the trailer (“designed to explain what’s about to happen, teasing it out with additional background”) heavily featured Black Panther and Wakanda, which Alexander said could not have been done earlier, without the additional marketing for Black Panther that happened after the conventions to provide additional context. Gael Cooper of CNET observed that the trailer was viewed nearly 500,000 times in its first 15 minutes after it was posted on YouTube, but questioned if the trailer broke the site after the view counter appeared to be stuck at 467,331. The trailer was viewed 230 million times in its first 24 hours, becoming the most viewed trailer in that time period, surpassing the record of It.

In January 2018, Marvel Comics published a two-issue prequel comic titled Avengers: Infinity War Prelude, which serves as a bridge between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. A commercial for Infinity War aired during Super Bowl LII. The ad generated the most social media buzz out of all the films advertised during the Super Bowl, according to comScore and United Talent Agency; it was viewed 17.6 million times across YouTube and Facebook. On February 27, 2018, Disney and Marvel announced the Marvel: The Universe Unites charity campaign leading to the release of merchandise for the film on March 3. The week-long event saw stars from the film create social media challenges to provide funds and raise awareness for charities that support children and families impacted by serious illness. If their collective posts reached 1 million likes, Marvel said they would make a $250,000 donation to Starlight Children’s Foundation. Additionally, Disney planned to donate 10% of sales of all Marvel products purchased at Disney Stores in the United States and online on the weekend of March 3 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $50,000. Hasbro donated $1 million worth of cash and products to Give Kids the World Village and Funko made a $1 million toy donation to Starlight.

A second trailer was released on March 16, 2018, which earned over 1 million views on YouTube in less than three hours after it was released. Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post was not overly enthused about another superhero film having “special-effects-heavy villains, or the sight of yet another mysterious object hanging over the Manhattan skyline,” but felt the trailer made her realize “that I’m actually looking forward to seeing :the characters of the MCU: get to know each other.” Josh Spiegel of The Hollywood Reporter agreed with Rosenberg about the potential for character interactions, noting the trailer “suggests that some of these meetings are going to keep up the playful tone of recent MCU movies”. He continued, “It is arguably gimmicky to pile up all of the crossover-style introductions or combinations of heroes in a movie like this, like a superpowered version of two well liked TV shows crossing over primarily in the hopes of getting more viewers to pay attention. But the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is built on a foundation of these heroes existing within the same space, so their eventual meetings have a level of anticipation that exceeds that of watching them face off against Thanos.” The second trailer was viewed 179 million times in the first 24 hours, the third-most viewed trailer in that time period, behind the first trailer for the film and It, while also becoming the biggest release for a second trailer, surpassing Beauty and the Beast (128 million views).

A week before the film’s release, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was lit up each night for the film, counting down to its release. In early May 2018, Marvel and Epic Games announced the “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” mode for Fortnite Battle Royale, where players can find the Infinity Gauntlet hidden on the game map and become Thanos with added abilities. The Russo brothers were fans of Fortnite and approached Donald Mustard, the worldwide creative director of Epic Games, about the potential for a crossover between the properties. On November 20, 2018, Little, Brown and Company will publish Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War: Thanos – Titan Consumed, written by Barry Lyga. Despite not existing within Marvel Studios’ MCU canon, the novel explores the origins of Thanos before the events of the film. Lyga noted he spoke with Marvel Studios to get an “outline of who Thanos is and what he means to the movies,” and “was given great latitude and a free hand :in some areas of the story:, while in others I had to tip-toe very carefully through the MCU.”

Additional marketing partners for the film included Coca-Cola, Quicken Loans and their Rocket Mortgage service, the Infiniti QX50 (which is also featured in the film), Ziploc, Go-Gurt, Yoplait, Synchrony Bank, American Airlines, and Stand Up to Cancer. The partners created television commercials “inspired by or featuring the film’s characters and themes”, interactive digital initiatives, and robust in-store presences at numerous retailers. Duracell, Unilever, Quaker Oats Company, Chevron, and Samsung ran promotions in smaller markets. Coca-Cola, Ziploc, Go-Gurt, and Yoplait created special packaging in support of the film, with Synchrony implementing a “Save Like a Hero” campaign, and Stand Up to Cancer and American Airlines launching a national campaign with a PSA starring Johansson and Hemsworth. In the United Kingdom, OnePlus released an Infinity War edition for one of their smartphones. Deadline Hollywood estimated the media value was $150 million, the largest for any Marvel film, with Coca-Cola contributing an estimated $40 million.

Reception

Box office Collection of Avengers: Infinity War

As of May 13, 2018, Avengers: Infinity War has grossed $548.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.059 billion in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.607 billion. It is currently the fifth highest-grossing film of all-time, as well as the highest-grossing film of 2018, the highest-grossing superhero film, and the highest-grossing MCU film.

Its worldwide opening weekend of $640.5 million, is the biggest of all time, beating The Fate of the Furious’ $541.9 million. It crossed the $1 billion threshold at the worldwide box office in 11 days, becoming the fastest film to reach the milestone, eclipsing Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ record of 12 days. Also in its second weekend, Infinity War passed $13.5 million from 4DX screens, which was the all-time record for the format. With $118.3 million worldwide from IMAX, the film was the largest gross for a Marvel film and fifth-largest worldwide in the format. In May 2018, two weeks after its release, Deadline Hollywood deduced the film had already broken even, and estimated its net profit would be around $600 million, accounting for production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs, with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from home media.

Pre-sale ticket records of Avengers: Infinity War

In December 2017, a survey from Fandango indicated that Infinity War was the most anticipated film of 2018. Fandango reported that Infinity War achieved the largest initial 24-hour ticket pre-sales for a superhero film in just six hours, surpassing the record from Black Panther. Atom Tickets also reported that Infinity War sold more tickets in its first pre-sales day than Black Panther sold in its first month. Within 72 hours, the film generated the biggest amount of pre-sales for any superhero film at AMC Theatres. AMC noted that Infinity War’s advance ticket sales were 257.6% ahead of Black Panther’s, 751.5% ahead of Captain America: Civil War, and 1,106.5% ahead of Avengers: Age of Ultron during the same time frame. Two weeks before its release, Fandango revealed that advance ticket sales for Infinity War were outpacing the last seven MCU films combined in the same timeframe, and had become the company’s top April release. It was also on pace to become the top superhero film, with Fandango’s Erik Davis noting, “Infinity War has built up such unprecedented anticipation that it’s pacing to break records, the likes of which we have never seen before for a superhero movie.” A week before the film released, The Wall Street Journal noted the film had sold more than $50 million worth of advance tickets, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), with Fandango reporting that more than 2,500 showtimes had sold out. On Atom Tickets, Infinity War had the most pre-sale volume, selling 7% higher than The Last Jedi and 250% higher than Black Panther at the same point in their sales. Atom also reported that ticket sales for Infinity War were doubling daily the week of its release, the fastest rate of increase the service has seen for any MCU title.

United States and Canada

Avengers: Infinity War earned $106.7 million on its opening day in the United States and Canada (including $39 million from Thursday night previews), for an opening weekend total of $258.2 million. The Thursday night preview earning was the best for an MCU film (beating Avengers: Age of Ultron’s $27.6 million) and the fourth-best of all time, behind The Force Awakens ($57 million), The Last Jedi ($45 million) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($43.5 million). Fandango reported that $14 million of the $39 million came from ticket pre-sales from the company. The opening day gross was the second-best ever, behind The Force Awakens’ $119.1 million, its Saturday gross of $83 million was the best-ever Saturday gross, beating Jurassic World’s $69.6 million, and its Sunday gross of $69.2 million was the best-ever, beating The Force Awakens’ $60.5 million. The total weekend gross became highest-grossing opening weekend of all time, beating The Force Awakens’ $248 million. IMAX contributed $22.5 million to the opening weekend gross, which was the best opening for a Marvel film in the format and the third-biggest opening, behind The Force Awakens ($30 million) and The Last Jedi ($24.7 million). AMC reported that the film had the highest Friday and Saturday box office gross for a single title in the company’s history, while Fandango reported that approximately $84 million worth of tickets were sold through the service, approximately 30%, which was the largest share of the weekend box office for any film in the company’s history. Avengers: Infinity War earned an additional $25 million the Monday after its opening weekend, which was the highest grossing Monday in April, beating Furious 7 ($14 million), and the second-best Monday gross for an MCU film, after Black Panther ($40.1 million). The next day, it earned $23.5 million, which was the highest grossing Tuesday for an MCU film, beating Black Panther ($20.8 million), and the highest grossing Tuesday in May, beating The Avengers ($17.6 million). It also tied The Force Awakens for the fastest to reach $300 million at five days.

The film remained number one in its second weekend, earning $115.5 million, which was the second-best second weekend ever after The Force Awakens ($149.2 million). Infinity War also surpassed $400 million in the weekend, doing so in nine days, becoming the second fastest film to reach that mark, again after The Force Awakens’s eight days. In its third weekend, Infinity War remained number one at the box office, and became the second-fastest film to surpass $500 million, doing so in 15 days (behind The Force Awakens’s 10 days). The weekend also saw its total domestic IMAX gross become $48.1 million, which was the highest for any MCU film. It is currently the eigth highest-grossing film of all time and highest-grossing superhero film. The film was projected to gross $490–590 million for its total final domestic gross, which was later revised to $600-650 million.

Other territories

Outside the United States and Canada, the film earned $382.7 million from 52 markets, opening number one in all, and became the number two opening internationally, behind The Fate of the Furious ($444.2 million). IMAX contributed $18.5 million, which was the best opening outside of the US, Canada, and China, surpassing The Force Awakens ($17.5 million). All-time opening weekend records were set in South Korea ($39.2 million), Mexico ($25.4 million), Brazil ($19.1 million), India (for a Western release, $18.6 million), the Philippines ($12.5 million), Thailand ($10 million), Indonesia ($9.6 million), Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Central America, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and West Africa. Many markets also set opening day records. Australia opened with $6.7 million, which was the second biggest opening day of all time, behind The Force Awakens; it went on to have the second-highest opening weekend ever, with $23.2 million. France’s opening day gross of $3.9 million was the highest ever for the month of April and the largest ever for an MCU film, while the same amount in Italy was the third-highest opening day and biggest superhero and Disney opening ever. France went on to earn $17.7 million, the biggest superhero opening in the market. Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden had the best opening for a superhero film. The United Kingdom earned $8.9 million, which was the biggest MCU opening day and third highest opening day for a Disney film; it would go on to earn $41.4 million for the weekend, which was the third-highest of all time and the second-highest Disney opening. The United Kingdom also had the highest grossing Saturday ever. Argentina had the second highest opening day of all time, while Germany had the best superhero film opening day of all time, ultimately earning $14.7 million, which was the best superhero opening ever. Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, the Middle East, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine also broke superhero film records. Japan had the second-biggest opening for an MCU film with $9 million.

Avengers: Infinity War remained number one in its 54 markets in its second weekend. The $4.9 million opening day in Russia was the biggest of all time. Infinity War was also the first film in Russia to sell more than 1 million tickets in a single day, and went on to gross $17.6 million in the market, a new opening weekend record. IMAX contributed $2.2 million in the market, which was also an opening weekend record. In its third weekend, the film remained number one in a majority of its markets. Infinity War opened in China to $200 million (RMB 1.266 billion), which was the second highest opening weekend in local currency behind The Fate of the Furious ($184 million and RMB 1.352 million). IMAX contributed $20.5 million, which was the third-largest opening in China. Infinity War also broke China’s pre-sale record of 400 million yuan ($63 million). In India, Infinity War became the first Hollywood film to earn over ₹200cr ($29.7 million), and became the highest grossing MCU film in the United Kingdom. The film became the highest grossing release ever in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Central America, Bolivia, Venezuela, the Latin America region, Malaysia, Singapore, India (for a Western release) and Vietnam, and the second-highest in Mexico, behind Coco. As of May 13, 2018, the film’s top markets are China ($200 million), South Korea ($84.6 million), and United Kingdom ($82.1 million). The film is currently in the top 20 for the highest-grossing films of all time in territories outside the United States and Canada.

Critical response

The performances of the cast, and that of Josh Brolin (pictured) in particular, were praised by many critics.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 84% approval rating based on 319 reviews, and an average rating of 7.4/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Avengers: Infinity War ably juggles a dizzying array of MCU heroes in the fight against their gravest threat yet, and the result is a thrilling, emotionally resonant blockbuster that (mostly) realizes its gargantuan ambitions.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 87% overall positive score and a 68% “definite recommend”.

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter praised the writers’ and directors’ ability to balance the large cast of characters, saying, “…writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors Anthony and Joe Russo, under the supervision of Marvel Films maestro Kevin Feige, acknowledge the traffic jam of egos and play it for laughs.” Owen Gleiberman of Variety concurred, stating, Infinity War is a brashly entertaining jamboree, structured to show off each hero or heroine and give them just enough to do, and to update their mythologies without making it all feel like homework.” Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers said the film is “too much of a good thing” and wrote, “The Russo brothers have clearly never learned the concept that less is more. They’ve used the premise of an Avengers reunion to put on a fireworks explosion of action and laughs that won’t quit.” Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called it Marvel’s “biggest and most ambitious movie yet”, but concluded “it’s certainly not the best. However, there’s plenty of action, humor and heart—and some genuinely effective dramatic moments.” Roeper went on to praise the film’s cast and Josh Brolin in particular, whom he called “the film’s most interesting performance”. Gleiberman called Brolin’s motion capture performance “supremely effective” and said, “Brolin infuses Thanos with his slit-eyed manipulative glower, so that the evil in this movie never feels less than personal.” McCarthy wrote, “Brolin’s calm, considered reading of the character bestows this conquering beast with an unexpectedly resonant emotional dimension, making him much more than a thick stick figure of a supervillain.” McCarthy also praised the film’s action sequences, saying “Infinity War brims with tensely spectacular combat sequences, even if the question of who’s going to win each one has that extravagantly arbitrary could-Mighty-Mouse-beat-up-Superman? quality.” Gleiberman called the scale of the action, “astonishing”, and Travers wrote,”Avengers182184:

Conversely, A. O. Scott of The New York Times criticized the film’s reliance on other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, saying, “Considered on its own, as a single, nearly 2-hour-40-minute movie, Avengers185186It187188185 Infinity War. It’s all sensation and no pulse. Everything is big, all of the time.”

Accolades

Avengers: Infinity War was nominated for three MTV Movie & TV Awards, including Best Movie, Best Villain (Josh Brolin), and Best Fight (Scarlett Johansson, Danai Gurira, Elizabeth Olsen vs. Carrie Coon).

Sequel

An untitled sequel is scheduled to be released on May 3, 2019, with the Russos returning to direct, and Markus and McFeely once again writing the screenplay.

Referance :

wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers:_Infinity_War

imdb.com/title/tt4154756/

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men’s national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights on 2 December 2010.

This will be the first World Cup held in Europe since the 2006 tournament in Germany, and the first ever to be held in Eastern Europe. All of the stadium venues are in European Russia, to keep travel time manageable.

The final tournament will involve 32 national teams, which include 31 teams determined through qualifying competitions and the automatically qualified host team. Of the 32 teams, 20 will be making back-to-back appearances following the last tournament in 2014, including defending champions Germany, while Iceland and Panama will both be making their first appearances at a FIFA World Cup. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities. The final will take place on 15 July at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

The winners of the World Cup will qualify for the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ2vr7VUytM

Host selection

The bidding procedure to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups began in January 2009, and national associations had until 2 February 2009 to register their interest. Initially, nine countries placed bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but Mexico later withdrew from proceedings, and Indonesia’s bid was rejected by FIFA in February 2010 after the Indonesian government failed to submit a letter to support the bid. During the bidding process, the three remaining non-UEFA nations (Australia, Japan, and the United States) gradually withdrew from the 2018 bids, and the UEFA nations were thus ruled out of the 2022 bid. As such, there were eventually four bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, two of which were joint bids: England, Russia, Netherlands/Belgium, and Portugal/Spain.

The twenty-two-member FIFA Executive Committee convened in Zürich on 2 December 2010 to vote to select the hosts of both tournaments. Russia won the right to be the 2018 host in the second round of voting. The Portugal/Spain bid came second, and that from Belgium/Netherlands third. England’s bid to host its second tournament fell at the first hurdle.

The voting results were as follows:

The process was not without criticism: allegations of bribery on the part of the Russian team and corruption from FIFA members were made particularly by the English Football Association. It was alleged that four members of the executive committee had requested bribes to vote for England, and Sepp Blatter said that it had already been arranged before the vote that Russia would win. Although the 2014 Garcia Report absolved Russia of any blame, the FA refused to accept this, with Greg Dyke calling for a re-examination of the affair and David Bernstein calling for a boycott of the World Cup.

2018 FIFA World Cup Teams

For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, all eligible nations – the 209 FIFA member associations minus automatically qualified hosts Russia – entered the qualifying process. Zimbabwe and Indonesia were later disqualified before playing their first matches, while Gibraltar and Kosovo, who joined FIFA on 13 May 2016 after the qualifying draw but before European qualifying had begun, also entered the competition. Places in the tournament were allocated to continental confederations, with the allocation unchanged from the 2014 World Cup. The first qualification game began in Dili, Timor Leste, on 12 March 2015 as part of the AFC’s qualification, and the main qualifying draw took place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg on 25 July 2015 at 18:00 local time (UTC+3).

Of the thirty-two nations qualified to play at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, twenty countries competed at the previous edition of the tournament in 2014. Both Iceland and Panama qualified for the first time, with the former becoming the smallest country in terms of population to reach the World Cup. Other teams returning after absences of at least three tournaments include: Egypt, returning to the finals after a 28-year absence from their last appearance in 1990; Morocco, who last competed in 1998; Peru, returning after a 36-year absence (since 1982); and Senegal, competing for the second time after reaching the quarter-finals in 2002. It is the first time three Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland and Sweden) and four Arab nations (Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia) have qualified for the World Cup.

Notable countries that failed to qualify include four-time champions Italy (for the first time since 1958) and three-time runner-up Netherlands. Four reigning continental champions failed to qualify: 2017 Africa Cup of Nations winner Cameroon, two-time Copa América champion and 2017 Confederations Cup runner-up Chile, 2016 OFC Nations Cup winner New Zealand, and 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup champion United States (for the first time since 1986). The other notable qualifying streaks broken were for Ghana and Ivory Coast, who had both made the previous three tournaments.

Draw

The draw was held on 1 December 2017, at 18:00 MSK, at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four.

For the draw, the teams were allocated to four pots based on the FIFA World Rankings of October 2017. Pot 1 contained the hosts Russia (who were automatically assigned to Position A1) and the best seven teams, Pot 2 contained the next best eight teams, and so on for Pots 3 and 4. This was different from previous draws, where only Pot 1 was based on FIFA Rankings while the remaining pots were based on geographical considerations. However, still retained was the fact that teams from the same confederation were not drawn against each other for the group stage, except for UEFA where each group contained up to two teams.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Russia (65) (hosts)  Germany (1)  Brazil (2)  Portugal (3)  Argentina (4)  Belgium (5)  Poland (6)  France (7)	Spain (8)  Peru (10)   Switzerland (11)  England (12)  Colombia (13)  Mexico (16)  Uruguay (17)  Croatia (18)	Denmark (19)  Iceland (21)  Costa Rica (22)  Sweden (25)  Tunisia (28)  Egypt (30)  Senegal (32)  Iran (34)	Serbia (38)  Nigeria (41)  Australia (43)  Japan (44)  Morocco (48)  Panama (49)  South Korea (62)  Saudi Arabia (63)

Squads

Each team must first name a preliminary squad of 30 players. From the preliminary squad, the team must name a final squad of 23 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad may be replaced due to serious injury up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team’s first match, where the replacement players do not need to be in the preliminary squad.

For players named in the 30-player preliminary squad, there is a mandatory rest period between 21 and 27 May 2018, except for those involved in the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final played on 26 May.

In February 2018, it was announced that the number of players to be named in the provisional squads would be increased from 30 to 35.

Referees

On 29 March 2018, FIFA released the list of 36 referees and 63 assistant referees selected to oversee matches. On 30 April 2018, FIFA released the list of 13 video assistant referees, who will solely act as VARs in the tournament.

Venues

Russia proposed the following host cities: Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, and Yekaterinburg. All the cities are in or just outside European Russia to reduce travel time for the teams in the huge country. The bid evaluation report stated: “The Russian bid proposes 13 host cities and 16 stadiums, thus exceeding FIFA’s minimum requirement. Three of the 16 stadiums would be renovated, and 13 would be newly constructed.”

In October 2011, Russia decreased the number of stadiums from 16 to 14. Construction of the proposed Podolsk stadium in the Moscow region was cancelled by the regional government, and also in the capital, Otkrytiye Arena was competing with Dynamo Stadium over which would be constructed first.

The final choice of host cities was announced on 29 September 2012. The number of cities was further reduced to 11 and number of stadiums to 12 as Krasnodar and Yaroslavl were dropped from the final list. Of the 12 stadiums used for the tournament, 3 (Luzhniki, Yekaterinburg and Sochi) have been extensively renovated and the other 9 stadiums to be used are brand new; $11.8 billion has been spent on hosting the tournament.

Sepp Blatter stated in July 2014 that due to concerns over the completion of venues in Russia, the number of venues for the tournament may be reduced from 12 to 10. He also said, “We are not going to be in a situation, as is the case of one, two or even three stadiums in South Africa, where it is a problem of what you do with these stadiums”.

In October 2014, on their first official visit to Russia, FIFA’s inspection committee and its head Chris Unger visited St Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan and both Moscow venues. They were satisfied with the progress.

On 8 October 2015, FIFA and the Local Organising Committee agreed on the official names of the stadiums used during the tournament.

Of the 12 venues used, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and the Saint Petersburg Stadium (the two largest stadiums in Russia) will be used most, with 7 matches being played at each of these stadiums. Sochi, Kazan, Nizhny Novogrod and Samara will host 6 matches including one quarter-final match apiece, and the Otkrytiye Stadium in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don will host 5 matches apiece including one round of 16 match each. Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg and Saransk will host 4 matches each and none of these cities will host any knockout stage games.

Moscow		Saint Petersburg	Sochi
Luzhniki Stadium	Otkritie Arena (Spartak Stadium)	Krestovsky Stadium (Saint Petersburg Stadium)	Fisht Olympic Stadium (Fisht Stadium)
Capacity: 81,000	Capacity: 45,360	Capacity: 68,134	Capacity: 47,659
Samara	Moscow Saint Petersburg Kaliningrad Nizhny Novgorod Kazan Samara Volgograd Saransk Sochi Rostov-on-Don Yekaterinburg		Kazan
Cosmos Arena (Samara Arena)			Kazan Arena
Capacity: 44,918			Capacity: 45,379
Rostov-on-Don			Volgograd
Rostov Arena			Volgograd Arena
Capacity: 45,000			Capacity: 45,568
Nizhny Novgorod	Saransk	Yekaterinburg	Kaliningrad
Nizhny Novgorod Stadium	Mordovia Arena	Central Stadium (Ekaterinburg Arena)	Kaliningrad Stadium
Capacity: 44,899	Capacity: 44,442	Capacity: 35,696	Capacity: 35,212

Team base camps

Base camps will be used by the 32 national squads to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament. On 9 February 2018, FIFA announced the base camps for each participating team.

• Argentina: Bronnitsy, Moscow Oblast
• Australia: Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan
• Belgium: Krasnogorsky, Moscow Oblast
• Brazil: Sochi, Krasnodar Krai
• Colombia: Verkhneuslonsky, Republic of Tatarstan
• Costa Rica: Saint Petersburg
• Croatia: Vyborgsky, Leningrad Oblast
• Denmark: Anapa, Krasnodar Krai
• Egypt: Grozny, Chechen Republic
• England: Saint Petersburg
• France: Istra, Moscow Oblast
• Germany: Moscow
• Iceland: Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai
• Iran: Bakovka, Moscow Oblast
• Japan: Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan
• Mexico: Khimki, Moscow Oblast
• Morocco: Voronezh, Voronezh Oblast
• Nigeria: Yessentuki, Stavropol Krai
• Panama: Saransk, Republic of Mordovia
• Peru: Moscow
• Poland: Sochi, Krasnodar Krai
• Portugal: Ramenskoye, Moscow Oblast
• Russia: Khimki, Moscow Oblast
• Saudi Arabia: Saint Petersburg
• Senegal: Kaluga, Kaluga Oblast
• Serbia: Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad Oblast
• South Korea: Saint Petersburg
• Spain: Krasnodar, Krasnodar Krai
• Switzerland: Togliatti, Samara Oblast
• Sweden: Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai
• Tunisia: Pervomayskoye, Moscow Oblast
• Uruguay: Bor, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Schedule

The full schedule was announced by FIFA on 24 July 2015 (without kick-off times, which were confirmed later). On 1 December 2017, following the final draw, six kick-off times were adjusted by FIFA. Russia was placed in position A1 in the group stage and will play in the opening match at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on 14 June against Saudi Arabia, the two lowest ranked teams of the tournament at the time of the final draw. The Luzhniki Stadium will also host the second semi-final on 11 July and the final on 15 July. The Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg will host the first semi-final on 10 July and the third place play-off on 14 July.

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the round of 16. Matches are played on a round-robin basis.

All times listed are local time.

Tiebreakers

The rankings of teams in each group are determined as follows (regulations Article 32.5)://

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows:

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Russia (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Saudi Arabia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Egypt	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Uruguay	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Spain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Morocco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Iran	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Australia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Peru	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Denmark	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Argentina	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Iceland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Croatia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Nigeria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Switzerland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Costa Rica	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Serbia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Mexico	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Sweden	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	South Korea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Panama	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Tunisia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	England	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Poland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Senegal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Colombia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Knockout stage

In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time is played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.

If a match goes into extra time, each team will be allowed to make a fourth substitution, the first time this has been allowed in a FIFA World Cup tournament.

Bracket

Prize money of 2018 FIFA World Cup

Prize money amounts were announced in October 2017.

Marketing

Branding

The tournament logo was unveiled on 28 October 2014 by cosmonauts at the International Space Station and then projected onto Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre during an evening television programme. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that the logo was inspired by “Russia’s rich artistic tradition and its history of bold achievement and innovation”, and FIFA President Sepp Blatter stated that it reflected the “heart and soul” of the country. For the branding, a typeface called Dusha (from Душа, Russian for soul) was created by Portuguese design agency Brandia Central in 2014.

Mascot

The official FIFA World Cup mascot for the 2018 tournament, a wolf named Zabivaka (“the one who scores” in Russian), was unveiled on 21 October 2016. Representing an anthropomorphic wolf with brown and white wool T-shirt with the words “RUSSIA 2018” and orange sport glasses. The combination of white, blue and red T-shirt and shorts are the national colors of the Russian team. The student designer is Ekaterina Bocharova, and the mascot was selected by Internet voting.

The election results were announced on 22 October 2016, in the Evening Urgant on Channel One Russia. Wolf, named Zabivaka, scored 53% of the vote, ahead of Tiger (27%). Cat, with 20% of the vote, was third. More than 1 million people participated in the voting, which took place during September 2016 on the FIFA platforms, as well as during the live broadcast on Channel One, where the results of the creative competition were announced.

2018 FIFA World Cup Ticketing

The first phase of ticket sales started on 14 September 2017, 12:00 Moscow Time, and lasted until 12 October 2017. The general visa policy of Russia will not apply to the World Cup participants and fans, who will be able to visit Russia without a visa right before and during the competition regardless of their citizenship. Fans attending the matches will be required to avail of a FAN ID.

In April 6, 2018, the design of the ticket was unveiled. The ticket design contain security features such as a barcode, a hologram next to the stadium sector map, and the name of the ticketholder.

Match ball

The official match ball of the 2018 World Cup is called “Telstar 18” and is based on the name and design of the first Adidas World Cup ball from 1970. It was introduced on November 9, 2017.

Merchandise

On April 30, 2018, EA announced a free expansion for FIFA 18 based on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, featuring all 32 participating teams and all 12 stadiums used at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Preparations and costs

The Russian Government has earmarked a budget of around 20 billion dollars which was later slashed to 10 billion dollars for the preparations of the World Cup of which half is spent on transport infrastructure. A special emphasis was made on airports, with many of those in the host cities were renovated and modernised. In Samara, new tram lines were laid. The city of Saransk got two new hotels, Mercure Saransk Centre and Four Points by Sheraton Saransk as well as few other smaller accommodation facilities.

Controversies

Allegations of corruption in the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups caused threats from England’s FA to boycott the tournament. FIFA appointed Michael J. Garcia, a US attorney, to investigate and produce a report on the corruption allegations. Although the report was never published, FIFA released a 42-page summary of its findings as determined by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. Eckert’s summary cleared Russia and Qatar of any wrongdoing, but was denounced by critics as a whitewash. Garcia criticised the summary as being “materially incomplete” with “erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions”, and appealed to FIFA’s Appeal Committee. The committee declined to hear his appeal, so Garcia resigned in protest of FIFA’s conduct, citing a “lack of leadership” and lack of confidence in the independence of Eckert.

On 3 June 2015, the FBI confirmed that the federal authorities were investigating the bidding and awarding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. In an interview published on 7 June 2015, Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA’s Audit And Compliance Committee, stated that “should there be evidence that the awards to Qatar and Russia came only because of bought votes, then the awards could be cancelled”.

Due to the financial crisis in the Russian economy, in June 2015 a government decree cut the budget by $560 million, to a total of $11.8 billion. The budget for the preparations was cut a few times, but in 2017 were again risen by $600 million to $11.8 billion.

After Morocco qualified for the tournament with a 2–0 victory over Ivory Coast, the celebrations by the Moroccan community in Brussels turned into a riot with cars burnt, shops looted by some 300 rioters and 20 police officers injured. Firefighters sent to put out the fires were also attacked by the rioters.

Doping in Russia

Russia have the most (41) Olympic medals stripped for doping violations – the most of any country, four times the number of the runner-up and nearly a third of the global total. From 2011 to 2015, more than a thousand Russian competitors in various sports, including summer, winter and Paralympic sports, benefited from a cover-up. 33 footballers who are alleged to be part of the steroid program are listed in the McLaren Report.

On 5 December 2017, the IOC announced that Russia is not allowed to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Russian Football Union Vitaly Mutko was banned for life from future Olympic Games for his role in the doping conspiracy.

On 22 December 2017, it was reported that FIFA fired a doctor who had been investigating doping in Russian football.

Response to Skripal poisoning

In response to the March 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that no British ministers or members of the royal family would attend the World Cup, and issued a warning to any travelling England fans. Furthermore, Iceland has decided to diplomatically boycott the Russia-held 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Russia responded to the comments from the UK Parliament claiming that “the west are trying to deny Russia the World Cup”.

Terrorist threats

Late in March 2018, ISIS made a threat that they would bomb (primarily England) fans via drones. Information came to light after ISIS members posted video clips and photos on an encrypted app, Telegram. Though originally, threats started in October 2017, when a pro-ISIS page posted a picture of Argentina star, Lionel Messi, seemingly in a jail cell with blood on his face and a mock up of Nikes tagline “Just Do It” replaced with “Just Terrorism”.

Broadcasting rights

FIFA, through several companies, sold the broadcasting rights for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to various local broadcasters.

In the United States, the 2018 World Cup will be the first men’s World Cup whose rights will be held by Fox Sports. The elimination of the U.S. national team in qualifying led to concerns that U.S. interest and viewership of this World Cup would be reduced (particularly “casual” viewers interested in the U.S. team), especially noting how much Fox paid for the rights, and that U.S. games at the 2014 World Cup peaked at 16.5 million viewers. During a launch event prior to the elimination, Fox stated that it had planned to place a secondary focus on the Mexican team in its coverage to take advantage of their popularity in the U.S.; the network stated that it still committed to broadcasting a significant amount of coverage for the tournament.

In February 2018, Ukrainian rightsholder UA:PBC stated that it would not broadcast the World Cup. This came in the wake of growing boycotts of the tournament among the Ukraine Football Federation and sports minister Ihor Zhdanov.

Sponsorship

Referance : wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup

World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. The vast majority of the world’s countries—including all of the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global World War II in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of which were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, biological and chemical warfare, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, the day of the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the subsequent declarations of World War II on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. The war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the coalition of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with campaigns including the North Africa and East Africa campaigns, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz bombing campaign, and the Balkan Campaign, as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the Axis military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.

The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, and Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy which brought about Italian surrender, and Allied victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands.

The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, Japan formally surrendered on 2 September 1945. Thus ended the World War II in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.

World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—became the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Africa and Asia began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and to create a common identity.

Chronology

The start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland; the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of World War II in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931.

Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and the two wars merged in 1941. This article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939.

The exact date of the war’s end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the World War II ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan, which was on 2 September 1945. A peace treaty with Japan was signed in 1951. A treaty regarding Germany’s future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take place in 1990 and resolved other post-World War II issues.

World War II Background 

Europe

World War I had radically altered the political European map, with the defeat of the Central Powers—including Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which eventually led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman and Russian Empires.

To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was created during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The organisation’s primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military and naval disarmament, and settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.

Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I, its aftermath still caused irredentist and revanchist nationalism in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses incurred by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all of its overseas possessions, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country’s armed forces.

The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by Britain and France to secure Italian entrance into the World War II were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a “New Roman Empire”.

Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign. Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.

To contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front in April 1935; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany’s goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year.

Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year.

Asia

The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party allies and new regional warlords. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan, which had long sought influence in China as the first step of what its government saw as the country’s right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as a pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.

Too weak to resist Japan, China appealed to the League of Nations for help. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan. After the 1936 Xi’an Incident, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.

Pre-war events

Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)

The Second Italo–Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d’Italia), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. The World War II resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League’s Article X. Germany was the only major European nation to openly support the invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany’s goal of absorbing Austria.

Spanish Civil War (1936–39)

The bombing of Guernica in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, sparked Europe-wide fears that the next war would be based on bombing of cities with very high civilian casualties

When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic. Over 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the USSR used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally favoured the Axis. His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front.

Japanese invasion of China (1937)

In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China’s prior co-operation with Germany. From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan, as well as engaging the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou and Communist forces in Pingxingguan. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but, after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese.

In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the World War II.

Soviet–Japanese border conflicts

In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People’s Republic. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan’s expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. With the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove difficult to maintain. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward, eventually leading to its World War II with the United States and the Western Allies.

European occupations and agreements

In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population; and soon Britain and France followed the counsel of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary and Poland annexed Czechoslovakia’s Zaolzie region.

Although all of Germany’s stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish “war-mongers” and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic. Hitler also delivered the 20 March 1939 ultimatum to Lithuania, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region.

Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, Britain and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece. Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel. Hitler accused Britain and Poland of trying to “encircle” Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.

In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights to “spheres of influence” (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The agreement assured that after the attack of Poland Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I.

The situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. In a private meeting with the Italian foreign minister Count Ciano, Hitler asserted that Poland was a “doubtful neutral” that needed to either yield to his demands or be “liquidated” to prevent it from drawing off German troops in the future “unavoidable” war with the Western democracies. He did not believe Britain or France would intervene in the conflict. On 23 August Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that Britain had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.

In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which only served as a pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands and on the night of 30–31 August in a violent meeting with the British ambassador Neville Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.

Course of the war

War breaks out in Europe (1939–40)

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland under the false pretext that the Poles had carried out a series of sabotage operations against German targets near the border. Two days later, on 3 September, after a British ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations was ignored, Britain and France, followed by the fully independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth—Australia (3 September), Canada (10 September), New Zealand (3 September), and South Africa (6 September)—declared World War II on Germany. However, initially the alliance provided limited direct military support to Poland, consisting of a cautious, half-hearted French probe into the Saarland. The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country’s economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which was to later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.

On 17 September 1939, after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east. The Polish army was defeated and Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on 27 September with final pockets of resistance surrendering on 6 October. Poland’s territory was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, with Lithuania and Slovakia also receiving small shares. After the defeat of Poland’s armed forces, the Polish resistance established an Underground State and a partisan Home Army. About 100,000 Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans in other theatres of the war. Poland’s Enigma codebreakers were also evacuated to France.

On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to Britain and France, but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. Chamberlain rejected this on 12 October, saying “Past experience has shown that no reliance can be placed upon the promises of the present German Government.” After this rejection Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, but bad weather forced repeated postponements until the spring of 1940.

After signing the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation, the Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—to allow it to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of “mutual assistance”. Finland rejected territorial demands, prompting a Soviet invasion in November 1939. The resulting Winter War ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions. Britain and France, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to its entering the World War II on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR’s expulsion from the League of Nations.

In June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the disputed Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertza. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for World War II.

Western Europe (1940–41)

In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off by unilaterally mining neutral Norwegian waters. Denmark capitulated after a few hours, and despite Allied support, during which the important harbour of Narvik temporarily was recaptured from the Germans, Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, with Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.

Germany launched an offensive against France and, adhering to the Manstein Plan also attacked the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940. That same day British forces landed in Iceland and the Faroes to preempt a possible German invasion of the islands. The US, in close co-operation with the Danish envoy to Washington D.C., agreed to protect Greenland, laying the political framework for the formal establishment of bases in April 1941. The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. The French-fortified Maginot Line and the main body of the Allied forces which had moved into Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by Allied planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were beaten. The majority were taken prisoner, whilst over 300,000, mostly British and French, were evacuated from the continent at Dunkirk by early June, although abandoning almost all of their equipment.

On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom. Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June and eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet but the British feared the Germans would seize it, so on 3 July, the British attacked it.

The Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours. On 19 July, Hitler again publicly offered to end the World War II , saying he had no desire to destroy the British Empire. The United Kingdom rejected this ultimatum. The main German air superiority campaign started in August but failed to defeat RAF Fighter Command, and a proposed invasion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified as night attacks on London and other cities in the Blitz, but largely failed to disrupt the British war effort.

Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. The British scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck. Perhaps most importantly, during the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe’s assault, and the German bombing campaign largely ended in May 1941.

Throughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow “cash and carry” purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941.

Although Roosevelt had promised to keep the United States out of the World War II , he nevertheless took concrete steps to prepare for war. In December 1940 he accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out negotiations as useless, calling for the US to become an “arsenal of democracy” and promoted the passage of Lend-Lease aid to support the British war effort. In January 1941 secret high level staff talks with the British began for the purposes of determining how to defeat Germany should the US enter the war. They decided on a number of offensive policies, including an air offensive, the “early elimination” of Italy, raids, support of resistance groups, and the capture of positions to launch an offensive against Germany.

At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan, Italy and Germany to formalise the Axis Powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, not in the World War II which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined the Tripartite Pact. Romania would make a major contribution (as did Hungary) to the Axis war against the USSR, partially to recapture territory ceded to the USSR, partially to pursue its leader Ion Antonescu’s desire to combat communism.

Mediterranean (1940–41)

Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in September 1940. In October 1940, Italy started the Greco-Italian War because of Mussolini’s jealousy of Hitler’s success but within days was repulsed with few territorial gains and a stalemate soon occurred. The United Kingdom responded to Greek requests for assistance by sending troops to Crete and providing air support to Greece. Hitler decided that when the weather improved he would take action against Greece to assist the Italians and prevent the British from gaining a foothold in the Balkans, to strike against the British naval dominance of the Mediterranean, and to secure his hold on Romanian oil.

In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa. The offensive in North Africa was highly successful and by early February 1941 Italy had lost control of eastern Libya and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by a carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.

The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February, and by the end of March the Axis had launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces which had been weakened to support Greece. In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk that fell later. The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.

By late March 1941, following Bulgaria’s signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Germans were in position to intervene in Greece. Plans were changed, however, because of developments in neighbouring Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government had signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March, only to be overthrown two days later by a British-encouraged coup. Hitler viewed the new regime as hostile and immediately decided to eliminate it. On 6 April Germany simultaneously invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece, making rapid progress and forcing both nations to surrender within the month. The British were driven from the Balkans after Germany conquered the Greek island of Crete by the end of May. Although the Axis victory was swift, bitter partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the World War II.

The Allies did have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria, then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.

Axis attack on the USSR (1941)

With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.

Hitler believed that Britain’s refusal to end the World War II was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. He therefore decided to try to strengthen Germany’s relations with the Soviets, or failing that, to attack and eliminate them as a factor. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed some interest, but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.

On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the Caspian to the White Seas. Hitler’s objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum (“living space”) by dispossessing the native population and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany’s remaining rivals. World War II, World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II .

Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the World War II , Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the middle of August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible further advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov).

The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany The British and Soviets invaded neutral Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran’s oil fields. In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.

By October Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing. A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forced to suspend their offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the World War II in Europe had ended.

By early December, freshly mobilised reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army, allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–155 mi) west.

World War II breaks out in the Pacific (1941)

In 1939, the United States had renounced its trade treaty with Japan; and, beginning with an aviation gasoline ban in July 1940, Japan became subject to increasing economic pressure. During this time, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September. Despite several offensives by both sides, the World War II between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and occupied northern Indochina. Afterwards, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan. Other sanctions soon followed.

Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in early 1940. In August, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shanggao. In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.

German successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan some oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, United Kingdom and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo. At the same time, Japan was planning an invasion of the Soviet Far East, intending to capitalise off the German invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions.

Since early 1941 the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the World War II in China. During these negotiations Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate. At the same time the US, Britain, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the US would react to Japanese attacks against any “neighboring countries”.

Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American-British-Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. On 20 November a new government under Hideki Tojo presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and for the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange Japan promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw its forces from southern Indochina. The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.

Japan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive World War II . To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These included an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, landings in Thailand and Malaya and the battle of Hong Kong.

These attacks led the United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared World War II on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.

Axis advance stalls (1942–43)

On 1 January 1942, the Allied Big Four—the Soviet Union, China, Britain and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter, and agreeing to not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers.

During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets were also demanding a second front. The British, on the other hand, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolster resistance forces. Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour without using large-scale armies. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.

At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration by the United Nations, and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the World War II, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to invade France in 1944.

Pacific (1942–43)

By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost fully conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite stubborn resistance by Filipino and US forces, the Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division. Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean, and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha. These easy victories over unprepared US and European opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.

In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force, centred on two American fleet carriers, fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Japan’s next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In mid-May, Japan started the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign in China, with the goal of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups. In early June, Japan put its operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.

With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua. The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.

Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna-Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.

Eastern Front (1942–43)

Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year. In May the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov, and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.

By mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender, and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Soviet city of Kursk.

Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–43)

Exploiting poor American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast. By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made. In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February, followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. Concerns the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies’ inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.

In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya. This attack was followed up shortly after by Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Hitler responded to the French colony’s defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France; although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces. The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.

In early 1943 the British and Americans began the Combined Bomber Offensive, a strategic bombing campaign against Germany. The goals were to disrupt the German World War II economy, reduce German morale, and “de-house” the civilian population.

Allies gain momentum (1943–44)

After the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and US forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians. Soon after, the US, with support from Australian and New Zealand forces, began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and had also neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea. In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 4 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets’ deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences and, for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies’ invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month. Also, in July 1943 the British firebombed Hamburg killing over 40,000 people.

On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther–Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives.

On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following Italy’s armistice with the Allies. Germany with the help of fascists responded by disarming Italian forces that were in many places without superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas, and creating a series of defensive lines. German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic, causing an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.

German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory and the military planning for the Burma Campaign, while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany’s defeat.

From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief. In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with landings at Anzio. By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled German forces from the Leningrad region, ending the longest and most lethal siege in history.

The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region. By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops. The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June, Rome was captured.

The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against British positions in Assam, India, and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma, and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China’s main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a new attack on Changsha in the Hunan province.

Allies close in (1944)

On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France. These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle, on 25 August and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Ruhr river in a large offensive. In Italy, Allied advance also slowed due to the last major German defensive line.

On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus (“Operation Bagration”) that destroyed the German Army Group Centre almost completely. Soon after that another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviet advance prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings against the German occupation. However, the largest of these in Warsaw, where German soldiers massacred 200,000 civilians, and a national uprising in Slovakia, did not receive Soviet support and were subsequently suppressed by the Germans. The Red Army’s strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d’état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries’ shift to the Allied side.

In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off. By this point, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, although Finland was forced to fight their former allies.

By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese force captured the Mount Song to reopen the Burma Road. In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.

In the Pacific, US forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.

Axis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)

On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes and along the French–German border to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp to prompt a political settlement. By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. On 4 February, Soviet, British and US leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.

In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B, while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany capturing Hamburg and Nuremberg, while Soviet and Polish forces stormed Berlin in late April. American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe river on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany.

Several changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry S. Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April. Two days later, Hitler committed suicide, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.

German forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April. Total and unconditional surrender was signed on 7 May, to be effective by the end of 8 May. German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May.

In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March following a battle which reduced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war. Meanwhile, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) were destroying strategic and populated cities and towns in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. On the night of 9–10 March, USAAF B-29 bombers struck Tokyo with thousands of incendiary bombs, which killed 100,000 civilians and destroyed 16 square miles (41 km2) within a few hours. Over the next five months, the USAAF firebombed a total of 67 Japanese cities, killing 393,000 civilians and destroying 65% of built-up areas.

In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, over-running the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May. Chinese forces started to counterattack in Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June. At the same time, American submarines cut off Japanese imports, drastically reducing Japan’s ability to supply its overseas forces.

On 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that “the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction”. During this conference, the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.

The Allies called for unconditional Japanese surrender in the Potsdam Declaration of 27 July, but the Japanese government rejected the call. In early August, the USAAF dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed at Tokyo Bay on the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.

Aftermath

Defendants at the Nuremberg trials, where the Allied forces prosecuted prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany for crimes against humanity

The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany. The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided into western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly. A denazification programme in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.

Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland, East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR, followed by the expulsion of the 9 million Germans from these provinces, as well as the expulsion of 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line, from which 2 million Poles were expelled; north-east Romania, parts of eastern Finland, and the three Baltic states were also incorporated into the USSR.

In an effort to maintain world peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations. The great powers that were the victors of the war—France, China, Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States—became the permanent members of the UN’s Security Council. The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.

Germany had been de facto divided, and two independent states, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Albania became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy, causing tension with the USSR.

Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact; the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the Cold War, would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and proxy wars.

In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administrated Japan’s former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Korea, formerly under Japanese rule, was divided and occupied by the Soviet Union in the North and the US in the South between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.

In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People’s Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949. In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab–Israeli conflict. While European powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation.

The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The US emerged much richer than any other nation; it had a baby boom and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers and it dominated the world economy. The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years 1945–1948. Because of international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years.

Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused. The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle. Italy also experienced an economic boom and the French economy rebounded. By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and although it received a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country, continued relative economic decline for decades.

The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.

Impact of World War II

Casualties and war crimes

Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. Many of the civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.

The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths.  A quarter of the people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed. Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cgRwDkP6vk

Of the total number of deaths in World War II, approximately 85 per cent—mostly Soviet and Chinese—were on the Allied side. Many of these deaths were caused by war crimes committed by German and Japanese forces in occupied territories. An estimated 11 to 17 million civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Nazi racist policies, including the Holocaust of around 6 million Jews, half of whom were Polish citizens, along with a further minimum 1.9 million ethnic Poles. Millions of other Slavs (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), Roma, homosexuals, and other ethnic and minority groups were also killed. Hundreds of thousands (varying estimates) of ethnic Serbs, along with gypsies and Jews, were murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia, and retribution-related killings were committed just after the World War II ended.

In Asia and the Pacific, between 3 million and more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese (estimated at 7.5 million), were killed by the Japanese occupation forces. The best-known Japanese atrocity was the Nanking Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Sankō Sakusen. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei and Shantung.

Axis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during its invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731) and in early conflicts against the Soviets. Both the Germans and Japanese tested such weapons against civilians and, sometimes on prisoners of World War II.

The Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers, and the imprisonment or execution of thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD, in the Baltic states, and eastern Poland annexed by the Red Army.

The mass-bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime. However, no positive or specific customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World War II.

Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour

The German government led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party was responsible for the Holocaust (killing of approximately 6 million Jews), as well as for killing of 2.7 million ethnic Poles, and 4 million others who were deemed “unworthy of life” (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Romani) as part of a programme of deliberate extermination. Soviet POWs were kept in especially unbearable condition, and, although their extermination was not an official goal, 3.6 million of Soviet POWs out of 5.7 died in Nazi camps during the World War II.  In addition to concentration camps, death camps were created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people at an industrial scale. Nazi Germany extensively used forced labourers. About 12 million Europeans from German occupied countries were used as slave work force in German agriculture and war economy. Soviet Gulag became de facto a system of deadly camps during 1942-43, when privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates, including foreign citizens of Poland and other countries occupied in 1939-40 by the USSR, as well as of the Axis POWs. By the end of the war, most Soviet POWs liberated from Nazi camps and many repatriated civilians were detained in special filtration camps where they were subjected to NKVD check, and significant part of them was sent to Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators.

Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 per cent (for American POWs, 37 per cent), seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56.

According to historian Zhifen Ju, at least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and World War II industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million. The US Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million rōmusha (Japanese: “manual labourers”), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.

On 19 February 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, interning about 100,000 Japanese living on the West Coast. Canada had a similar programme. In addition, 14,000 German and Italian citizens who had been assessed as being security risks were also interned.

In accordance with the Allied agreement made at the Yalta Conference, millions of POWs and civilians were used as forced labour by the Soviet Union.

Occupation

In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichmarks (27.8 billion US dollars) by the end of the war, this figure does not include the sizeable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 per cent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 per cent of total German income as the World War II went on.

In the East, the intended gains of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders. Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the “inferior people” of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass executions. Although resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East or the West until late 1943.

In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples. Although Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in some territories, their excessive brutality turned local public opinion against them within weeks. During Japan’s initial conquest it captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~5.5×105 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (~6.8×106 t), 76 per cent of its 1940 output rate.

Home fronts and production

In Europe, before the outbreak of the World War II, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and British Dominions) had a 30 per cent larger population and a 30 per cent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, it then gives the Allies more than a 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP. In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only an 89 per cent higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 per cent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.

The United States provided about two-thirds of all the ordnance used by the Allies in terms of warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition. Though the Allies’ economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies, as the World War II largely settled into one of attrition. While the Allies’ ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan’s reluctance to employ women in the labour force, Allied strategic bombing, and Germany’s late shift to a war economy contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted World War II, and were not equipped to do so. To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers; Germany used about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe, while Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.

Advances in technology and warfare

Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers, and ground-support, and each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel); and of strategic bombing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy’s ability to wage World War II ). Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, such as the German 88 mm gun. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and, though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.

Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the World War II, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.

In the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap. Carriers were also more economical than battleships because of the relatively low cost of aircraft and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured. Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War, were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and wolfpack tactics. Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious.

Land warfare changed from the static front lines of World War I to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon. In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I, and advances continued throughout the World War II with increases in speed, armour and firepower.

At the start of the World War II, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications. This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany’s use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France. Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were used. Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces, and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.

The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings. The assault rifle, a late World War II development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon for most armed forces.

Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to Britain by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the World War II. Another aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception, which the Allies used to great effect, such as in operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard. Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world’s first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project’s development of nuclear weapons, operations research and the development of artificial harbours and oil pipelines under the English Channel.

Referance: wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II

Elizabeth Olsen (born February 16, 1989) is an American actress. Her breakthrough came in 2011 when she starred in the independent thriller drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, for which she was nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, among other awards. She subsequently starred in the films Silent House (2011), Liberal Arts (2012), Oldboy (2013), Godzilla (2014), I Saw the Light (2015), Ingrid Goes West (2017), and Wind River (2017). Since 2014, Olsen has portrayed the superhero Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Early life of Elizabeth Olsen

Elizabeth Olsen was born in Sherman Oaks, California, to Jarnette “Jarnie”, a personal manager, and David “Dave” Olsen, a real estate developer and mortgage banker. She is the younger sister of twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who became noted at an early age as TV and film stars. Olsen also has an older brother, Trent, and two younger half-siblings. In 1996, Olsen’s parents divorced. The Olsens have Norwegian and English ancestry.

As a child, Elizabeth Olsen received ballet and singing lessons. She began acting at a young age, with appearances in her sisters’ films. Before the age of 11, Olsen had small roles in How the West Was Fun and the straight-to-video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley. Having appeared in her sisters’ videos, when she was in the fourth grade, Olsen began to go on auditions for other projects. She attended Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California, from kindergarten through grade 12.

After graduation, Elizabeth Olsen enrolled at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2009, Olsen spent a semester studying in Moscow at the Moscow Art Theatre School through the MATS program at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG4SuYLfebY

How much money is Elizabeth Olsen worth?

Elizabeth Olsen is an American actress who has a net worth of $5 million.

Elizabeth Olsen Sisters?

Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen

Career

Elizabeth Olsen began acting when she was four years old and co-starred in six of Mary-Kate and Ashley’s productions; she also auditioned for the film Spy Kids. She almost quit acting in 2004 due to the media frenzy surrounding Mary-Kate’s eating disorder. Olsen’s breakout role came in 2011, in the film Martha Marcy May Marlene. The film, along with Olsen’s performance, received critical acclaim. Olsen was nominated for and won numerous critics awards for her portrayal of the titular character Martha, a girl suffering from delusions and paranoia after fleeing her life in a cult and returning to her family. She next appeared in the horror film remake Silent House, in which she played the role of Sarah. The film received mixed reviews, but Olsen’s performance was praised. Olsen also appeared in the music video “The Queen” by Carlotta. Olsen filmed the movie Red Lights in mid-2011, and it was released in the U.S. on July 13, 2012. She starred in Josh Radnor’s film Liberal Arts, which was released on January 22, 2012. She and Dakota Fanning starred in Very Good Girls, a 2013 release.

In January 2013, Olsen was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. She co-starred in the 2013 American remake of the 2003 South Korean film Oldboy; she played Marie, a young social worker who developed a relationship with the protagonist, played by Josh Brolin. She played Edie Parker, Jack Kerouac’s first wife and the author of the Beat Generation memoir You’ll Be Okay, in Kill Your Darlings. Also in 2013, she portrayed the leading role in In Secret, an adaptation of Émile Zola’s 1867 classic novel Thérèse Raquin.

In 2014, Elizabeth Olsen starred in Legendary’s reboot Godzilla, opposite Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Olsen joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing the character of Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the 2015 sequel to The Avengers. She first appeared as the character in a mid-credits scene of the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, alongside her Godzilla co-star Taylor-Johnson, who portrayed her brother Quicksilver. She reprised the role in the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War and the 2018 sequel Avengers: Infinity War.

In September 2014, it was announced that Olsen would portray Audrey Williams, Hank Williams’s wife, manager, and duet partner in the upcoming 2015 biopic film I Saw the Light directed by Marc Abraham and starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams.

In January 2016, it was announced that Olsen would star alongside her Avengers: Age of Ultron co-star Jeremy Renner in Taylor Sheridan’s directorial feature film debut, Wind River. In August 2016, it was announced that she would star in Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West opposite Aubrey Plaza. Both films were released in August 2017.

Personal life of Elizabeth Olsen

Olsen attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Atlantic Theater Company and graduated in March 2013 after six years of intermittent study. Her sisters’ clothing line “Elizabeth and James” was named after her and her older brother.

Filmography

Elizabeth Olsen Movies

Year / Title / Role / Notes
2011 / Silent House / Sarah /
Martha Marcy May Marlene / Martha /
Peace, Love & Misunderstanding / Zoe /
2012 / Red Lights / Sally Owen /
Liberal Arts / Zibby /
2013 / Kill Your Darlings / Edie Parker /
Very Good Girls / Gerry /
In Secret / Thérèse Raquin /
Oldboy / Marie Sebastian /
2014 / Captain America: The Winter Soldier / Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch / Uncredited cameo
Godzilla / Elle Brody /
2015 / Avengers: Age of Ultron / Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch /
I Saw the Light / Audrey Williams /
2016 / Captain America: Civil War / Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch /
2017 / Ingrid Goes West / Taylor Sloane /
Wind River / Jane Banner /
Kodachrome / Zoe Kern /
2018 / Avengers: Infinity War / Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch /
2019 / Untitled Avengers film / Post-production

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z7bZOJV3v8

Television
Year / Title / Role / Notes
1994 / How the West Was Fun / Girl in car / Television film
2016 / Drunk History / Norma Kopp / Episode: “Siblings”
2017 / HarmonQuest / Stirrip / Episode: “The Keystone Obelisk”
2018 / Sorry for Your Loss / Leigh Gibbs / Main role, upcoming series

Video shorts
Year / Title / Role / Notes
1993 / Our First Video / Herself /
1993 / Olsen Twins Mother’s Day Special / Herself /
1994–1996 / The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley / Herself / 4 episodes

Awards and nominations
Year / Nominated work / Association / Category / Result / Refs
2011 / Martha Marcy May Marlene / Alliance of Women Film Journalists / Best Breakthrough Performance / Won
Chicago Film Critics Association / Most Promising Performer / Won
Florida Film Critics Circle / Pauline Kael Breakout Award / Won
Ghent International Film Festival / Special Mention / Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association / New Generation Award / Won
Vancouver Film Critics Circle / Best Actress / Won
Broadcast Film Critics Association / Best Actress / Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association / Best Actress / Nominated
Detroit Film Critics Society / Best Breakthrough Performance / Nominated
Gotham Independent Film Awards / Best Breakthrough Actress / Nominated
Gotham Independent Film Awards / Best Ensemble Performance / Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards / Best Female Lead / Nominated
Online Film Critics Society / Best Actress / Nominated
San Diego Film Critics / Best Actress / Nominated
Satellite Awards / Best Actress – Motion Picture / Nominated
Saturn Awards / Best Actress / Nominated
Toronto Film Critics Association / Best Actress / Nominated
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association / Best Actress / Nominated
2013 / Herself / British Academy Film Awards / BAFTA Rising Star Award / Nominated
Silent House / Fangoria Chainsaw Awards / Best Leading Actress / Won
2014 / Godzilla / Teen Choice Awards / Choice Movie: Breakout Star / Nominated
2015 / I Saw the Light / Deauville American Film Festival / Hollywood Rising Star Award / Won
Avengers: Age of Ultron / Teen Choice Awards / Choice Movie: Breakout Star / Nominated
2016 / Captain America: Civil War / Teen Choice Awards / Choice Movie: Chemistry
shared with Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner / Nominated

Cinco de Mayo is an annual celebration held on May 5. The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican Army’s unlikely victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza.

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico. More popularly celebrated in the United States than Mexico, the date has become associated with the celebration of Mexican-American culture. In Mexico, the commemoration of the battle continues to be mostly ceremonial, such as through military parades or battle reenactments.

Cinco de Mayo is sometimes mistaken for Mexico’s Independence Day—the most important national holiday in Mexico—which is celebrated on September 16, commemorating the Cry of Dolores that initiated the war of Mexican independence from Spain.

Background of Cinco de Mayo

Events leading to the Battle of Puebla

Cinco de Mayo has its roots in the Second French intervention in Mexico, which took place in the aftermath of the 1846–48 Mexican–American War and the 1858–61 Reform War. The Reform War was a civil war that pitted Liberals (who believed in separation of church and state, and freedom of religion) against Conservatives (who favored a tight bond between the Catholic Church and the Mexican state). These wars nearly bankrupted the Mexican Treasury. On July 17, 1861, Mexican President Benito Juárez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for two years. In response, Britain, France, and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, at the time ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to establish an empire in Mexico that would favor French interests, the Second Mexican Empire. The empire was part of an envisioned “Latin America” (term used to imply cultural kinship of the region with France) that would rebuild French influence in the American continent and exclude Anglophone American territories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAOG795Yrm8

French invasion and Mexican victory

Late in 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large French force and driving President Juárez and his government into retreat. Moving on from Veracruz towards Mexico City, the French army encountered heavy resistance from the Mexicans close to Puebla, at the Mexican forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. The French army of 8,000 attacked the poorly equipped Mexican army of 4,000. On May 5, 1862, the Mexicans decisively defeated the French army. The victory represented a significant morale boost to the Mexican army and the Mexican people at large and helped establish a sense of national unity and patriotism.

Events after the battle

The Mexican victory, however, was short-lived. A year later, with 30,000 troops, the French were able to defeat the Mexican army, capture Mexico City, and install Emperor Maximilian I as ruler of Mexico. The French victory was itself short-lived, lasting only three years, from 1864 to 1867. By 1865, “with the American Civil War now over, the U.S. began to provide more political and military assistance to Mexico to expel the French”. Upon the conclusion of the American Civil War, Napoleon III, facing a persistent Mexican guerilla resistance, the threat of war with Prussia, and “the prospect of a serious scrap with the United States”, retreated from Mexico starting in 1866. The Mexicans recaptured Mexico City, and Maximilian I was apprehended and executed, along with his Mexican generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía Camacho in Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro. “On June 5, 1867, Benito Juárez finally entered Mexico City where he installed a new government and reorganized his administration.”

Significance

The Battle of Puebla was significant, both nationally and internationally, for several reasons. First, although considerably outnumbered, the Mexicans defeated a much-better-equipped French army. “This battle was significant in that the 4,000 Mexican soldiers were greatly outnumbered by the well-equipped French army of 8,000 that had not been defeated for almost 50 years.” Second, since the Battle of Puebla, some have argued that no country in the Americas has subsequently been invaded by any other European military force. Historian Justo Sierra has written in his Political Evolution of the Mexican People that, had Mexico not defeated the French in Puebla on May 5, 1862, France would have gone to the aid of the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War and the United States’ destiny would have been different.

History of the holiday

United States

Cinco de Mayo performers at the White House
According to a paper published by the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture about the origin of the observance of Cinco de Mayo in the United States, the modern American focus on that day first started in California in 1863 in response to the resistance to French rule in Mexico. “Far up in the gold country town of Columbia (now Columbia State Park) Mexican miners were so overjoyed at the news that they spontaneously fired off rifle shots and fireworks, sang patriotic songs and made impromptu speeches.”

A 2007 UCLA Newsroom article notes that, “the holiday, which has been celebrated in California continuously since 1863, is virtually ignored in Mexico.” TIME magazine reports that “Cinco de Mayo started to come into vogue in 1940s America during the rise of the Chicano Movement.” The holiday crossed over from California into the rest of the United States in the 1950s and 1960s but did not gain popularity until the 1980s when marketers, especially beer companies, capitalized on the celebratory nature of the day and began to promote it. It grew in popularity and evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, first in areas with large Mexican-American populations, like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and San Jose.

In a 1998 study in the Journal of American Culture it was reported that there were more than 120 official US celebrations of Cinco de Mayo in 21 different states. An update in 2006 found that the number of official Cinco de Mayo events was 150 or more, according to José Alamillo, a professor of ethnic studies at Washington State University in Pullman, who has studied the cultural impact of Cinco de Mayo north of the border. Los Angeles’ Fiesta Broadway has been billed as the largest Cinco de Mayo celebration in the world, which it most certainly was at its peak in the 1990s when it attracted crowds of 500,000 or more. In recent years attendance has seen a dramatic decrease.

On June 7, 2005, the United States Congress issued a concurrent resolution calling on the President of the United States to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe Cinco de Mayo with appropriate ceremonies and activities. To celebrate, many display Cinco de Mayo banners while school districts hold special events to educate students about its historical significance. Special events and celebrations highlight Mexican culture, especially in its music and regional dancing. Examples include baile folklórico and mariachi demonstrations held annually at the Plaza del Pueblo de Los Ángeles, near Olvera Street. Commercial interests in the United States have capitalized on the celebration, advertising Mexican products and services, with an emphasis on alcoholic beverages, foods, and music. According to Nielsen, in 2013 more than $600 million worth of beer was purchased in the United States for Cinco de Mayo, more than for the Super Bowl or St. Patrick’s Day.

Mexico

The former Forts of Guadalupe and Loreto now house a museum.
On May 9, 1862, President Juárez declared that the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla would be a national holiday regarded as “Battle of Puebla Day” or “Battle of Cinco de Mayo”.

Today, the commemoration of the battle is not observed as a national holiday in Mexico (i.e. not a statutory holiday). However, all public schools are closed nationwide in Mexico on May 5. The day is an official holiday in the State of Puebla, where the Battle took place, and also a full holiday (no work) in the neighboring State of Veracruz.

In Puebla, historical reenactments, parades, and meals take place to commemorate the battle. Parade participants dress as French and Mexican soldiers to reenact the battle. Every year the city also hosts the Festival Internacional de Puebla, which gathers national and international artists, traditional musicians and dancers. As well as the Festival Internacional del Mole, with an emphasis on the city’s iconic mole poblano.

In Mexico City, military commemoration is occasionally held at the Campo Marte. A street, Avenida Cinco de Mayo, in the Historic Center of Mexico City was named after the battle in 1862 by Benito Juárez.

Elsewhere

Events tied to Cinco de Mayo also occur outside Mexico and the United States. As in the United States, celebrations elsewhere also emphasize Mexican cuisine, culture and music. For example, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, holds a “Cinco de Mayo Street Festival”, some Canadian pubs play Mexican music and serve Mexican food and drink, and a sky-diving club near Vancouver holds a Cinco de Mayo skydiving event. In the Cayman Islands, in the Caribbean, there is an annual Cinco de Mayo air guitar competition, and at Montego Bay, Jamaica, there is a Cinco de Mayo celebration. The city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, holds an annual Mexican Festival to honor the day, and celebrations are held in London and New Zealand. Other celebrations of the day can also be found in Cape Town, South Africa, Lagos, Nigeria, and in Paris. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in Japan in Osaka and in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park Event Space as a celebration of Latin American culture.

Refrance : wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo