Superpowers and the Second World War

During the Second World War, the Soviet Union, United States and Great Britain formed a ‘Grand Alliance’. The Alliance was a key response to the Nazi aggression in Europe during the early 1940s, with the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi forces. However, the alliance was one of convenience and the underlying suspicion of all countries by the others was still present.

The Alliance had combined military strength and economic power which was able to defeat both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in the War, however the suspicion which underpinned all of this made the victory an uncomfortable one. During the war the leaders of the alliance met three times to shape the direction of the war, but also start to plan for a Europe and world without Nazism.