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Allied powers
Allied powers, those countries allied in opposition to theCentral Powers (Germany,Austria-Hungary, andTurkey) inWorld War I or to theAxis powers (Germany,Italy, andJapan) inWorld War II.
The majorAllied powers in World War I wereGreat Britain (and theBritish Empire),France, and theRussian Empire, formally linked by theTreaty of London of September 5, 1914. Other countries that had been, or came to be, allied by treaty to one or more of those powers were also called Allies: Portugal and Japan by treaty with Britain; Italy by theTreaty of London of April 26, 1915, with all three powers. Other countries—including theUnited States after its entry on April 6, 1917—that werearrayed against the Central Powers were called “Associated Powers,” not Allied powers; U.S. Pres.Woodrow Wilson emphasized that distinction to preserve America’s free hand. TheTreaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919) concluding the war listed 27 “Allied and Associated Powers”:Belgium,Bolivia,Brazil, the British Empire,China,Cuba,Czechoslovakia,Ecuador, France,Greece,Guatemala,Haiti, theHejaz,Honduras, Italy, Japan,Liberia,Nicaragua,Panama,Peru,Poland,Portugal,Romania,Serb-Croat-Slovene State,Siam, the United States, andUruguay.
In World War II the chiefAllied powers were Great Britain, France (except during the German occupation, 1940–44), theSoviet Union (after its entry in June 1941), the United States (after its entry on December 8, 1941), and China. More generally, the Allies included all the wartime members of theUnited Nations, the signatories to the Declaration of the United Nations. The original signers of January 1, 1942, wereAustralia, Belgium,Canada, China,Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, theDominican Republic,El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras,India,Luxembourg,the Netherlands,New Zealand, Nicaragua,Norway, Panama, Poland,South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, andYugoslavia.Subsequent wartime signers were (in chronological order)Mexico, thePhilippines,Ethiopia,Iraq, Brazil, Bolivia, Iran, Colombia, Liberia, France, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, Uruguay, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.
