World War II was the largest war ever fought by mankind, with countries involved all over the world, except Antarctica, and other regions, including South America, which has always been rare.
The two sides of the war were the Fascist Axis group and the anti-fascist alliance.
The Fascist Axis group consisted of 7 countries, Nazi Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland. At the head of these were germany, Italy, and Japan, especially Nazi Germany, which was the most powerful.
The anti-fascist camp has a total of 50 countries or regions.
On the European side, there are 12 countries involved in the Soviet Union, Britain, France (Free France), Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia.
On the Asian side, there are China, British India, Turkey, the Republic of Korea (provisional), the Philippines (provisional), Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, 10 countries or regions involved. The number is even smaller than in Europe because a large number of countries are not yet independent and are in a colonial state, so they are not counted.
In the Americas, this should be unexpected. The United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Dominica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Bolivia 22 countries participated. Almost all of these countries were pulled into the allied camp by the United States, which shows the great influence of the United States in the Americas. Of course, with the exception of the United States and Canada, the actual role of other countries in World War II was minimal.
In Africa, the Federation of South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia 4 countries or regions participated. On the one hand, because Africa is not the main battlefield, it has not been affected by war except for North Africa and East Africa, on the other hand, Africa at this time was still colonized by Western colonizers, until the collapse of the colonial system after World War II, and a large number of emerging countries mushroomed.
Oceania, Australia and New Zealand are involved. Oceania is also called Australia, because Australia accounts for more than 90% of Oceania!) Oceania is the smallest of all continents and the least numerous, so only two countries are at war. In fact, apart from the islands in the Pacific, the scramble for Papua New Guinea, and the Japanese Air Force's bombing of Darwin Harbour in Australia, and the first showdown between aircraft carriers in human history, the Battle of the Coral Sea, there was basically no other war.
In summary, the two sides of the war, the fascist Axis bloc and the anti-fascist alliance camp, added up to a total of 57 countries or regions participating in the war. Don't look at this number, at that time, all the countries in the world combined were only sixty or seventy.
However, during the war, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, and Hungary withdrew from the fascist Axis camp and joined the anti-fascist Allied camp when the war situation was clearly unfavorable to the Axis powers. Among them, Italy is the most slippery, the thickest face, obviously one of the leading initiators, after the war, it actually "fell into the well" of Germany and demanded compensation. Only Germany and Japan stubbornly resisted to the end, so the corresponding "punishment" was also the most severe, especially Germany, which was divided into two countries after the war.
In addition, in the war, Thailand in Asia did not declare war on both sides, and bet on both ends to save. Because there was no declaration of war on both sides, Xiaobian did not list it in either camp, but listed it separately.
In addition, In addition, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal in Europe did not participate in the war, but they actually all vigorously aided the Axis side. Sweden, for example, provided a large amount of much-needed iron sand resources for Germany and allowed German troops to enter Finland through Swedish soil and then fight in the Soviet Union. Switzerland offers financial services (to put it bluntly, money laundering). Spain even organized a volunteer army, the "Blue Division", to help Germany fight against the Soviet Union.
Turkey helped the Germans during the war and blockaded the Black Sea Strait until the end of the war, because of the fear of Soviet liquidation, under the influence of the United States, it fell into the Allied camp, and the army actually did not participate in the war against Germany at all.
Finally, the baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, were annexed by the Soviet Union before the Soviet-German war began, and did not gain independence until the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, so they were not counted.
Other puppet states, such as the Independent State of Croatia, are also excluded.