WWII: Axis territorial gains by country 1938-1942| ��ƽ��

Estimated territorial gains of the Axis Powers in selected countries or regions during the Second World War from 1938 to 1942 (in 1,000 square kilometers)

Characteristic	German	Italian	Japanese	Other/puppet state
Dutch colonies	-	-	1,904	-
Occupied Soviet Union	978	-	-	-
UK colonies	-	-	933	-
French colonies	-	-	740	-
France	551	-	-	-
Thailand	-	-	-	518
Poland	389	-	-	-
Norway	323	-	-	-
U.S. colonies	-	-	296	-
Yugoslavia	-	-	-	248
Baltic states	167	-	-	-
Czechoslovakia	140	-	-	-
Greece	-	130	-	-
Austria	84	-	-	-
Denmark	43	-	-	-
Netherlands	33	-	-	-
Belgium	30	-	-	-

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Release date

1998

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Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

1938

Supplementary notes

Not including countries that aligned themselves with Axis Powers without invasion (Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, and Romania).

All figures based on 1938 boundaries. Individual notes as follows:
Czechoslovakia: most of present-day Czechia was annexed, while a puppet government was installed in Slovakia.
France: most of the north and west was annexed or occupied by Germany, while the remainder became a puppet state known as Vichy France until it was also occupied in November 1942.
French colonies: mostly refers to French Indochina. The remaining territories were under the control of Vichy France.
Soviet Union: does not refer to the territories in Poland, Romania, the Baltics, and Finland that were taken by the USSR and subsequently lost to the Axis between 1938-1941.
No figures given for Albania, which was under Italian administration.

Citation formats

Before the Second World War, the Soviet Union was the largest individual world power in terms of territory, at over 21 million square kilometers. When the territories of the United Kingdom it's colonies and dominions are combined, then the expanse of the British Empire totaled at almost 35 million square kilometers, making it larger than the USSR.

The Axis Powers, led by Germany, Italy, and Japan, controlled a much smaller share of the globe than the Allied Powers in 1938 - however, by 1941, the majority of Europe was under (German-led) Axis control, while Japan had taken much of the Western territories in Asia and had pushed further into China. Italy had also sought to consolidate its power in North and East Africa at this time, but was largely contained by British Commonwealth Forces. Although 1941 and 1942 marked the largest territorial gains for the Axis Powers in Europe and Asia, Italy had lost virtually all of its African colonies by the end of 1942, which totaled at just under 3.5 million square kilometers of land. Late 1942 also marked the turning point in the war in the other theaters, where the Soviet counteroffensive started pushing the German lines back in Europe, while American and Commonwealth Forces began pushing the Japanese north through the Asia-Pacific at the end of the year. The war in Europe ended in May, 1945, and in the Pacific in September, 1945.