History glossary
Allied Powers
the major wartime coalitions that fought the Central Powers in the First World War and the Axis powers in the Second World War.
- Category
- Military alliance
- Region
- Global
- Date range
- 1914-1918 and 1939-1945
What it means
Allied Powers is a term used for different wartime coalitions. In the First World War, it meant the coalition opposing Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. In the Second World War, it meant the coalition opposing the Axis powers, including Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and many other states.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Vietnam War
From decolonisation to Cold War conflict, the Vietnam War reshaped Southeast Asia and global politics.
The First World War
World War I reshaped empires, borders, and societies, setting the stage for World War II.
The Causes of the Second World War
From the flawed peace of 1919 to the invasion of Poland in 1939, this story traces the interlocking causes of the Second World War across two decades of crisis, ideology, and failed deterrence.
The Pacific War
From imperial expansion in Manchuria to surrender in 1945, the Pacific War remade Asia through conquest, occupation, naval warfare, and devastating defeat.
The Treaty of Versailles and Its Consequences
From the armistice of November 1918 to Hitler's rise in 1933, this story traces how the Treaty of Versailles — its punishment, its borders, its reparations, and its resentments — helped shape the conditions for a second world war.
The Ottoman Empire
From a small frontier principality in Anatolia, the Ottomans built a multiethnic empire across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa before reform, nationalism, and world war ended imperial rule.
