Allied Powers, also called Allies, those nations allied in opposition to the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey) in World War I or to the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) in World War II.
The major Allied Powers in World War I were the British Empire, France, and the Russian Empire, formally linked by the Treaty of London of Sept. 5, 1914; other nations that had been, or came to be, allied by treaty to one or more of these powers were also called Allies: Portugal and Japan by treaty with Britain; Italy by the Treaty of London of April 26, 1915, with all three powers. Other nations—including the United States after its entry on April 6, 1917—that were arrayed against the Central Powers were called “Associated Powers,” not Allied Powers; U.S. President Woodrow Wilson emphasized this distinction to preserve America’s free hand. The Treaty of Versailles concluding the war listed 27 “Allied and Associated Powers” (Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, the British Empire, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, the Hejaz, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serb-Croat-Slovene State, Siam, the United States, and Uruguay).
In World War II the chief Allied Powers were Great Britain, France (except during the German occupation, 1940–44), the Soviet Union (after its entry in June 1941), the United States (after its entry on Dec. 8–11, 1941), and China. More generally the Allies included all the wartime members of the United Nations, the signatories to the Declaration of the United Nations. The original signers, of Jan. 1, 1942, were Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, Salvador, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Yugoslavia; subsequent wartime signers were the Philippines, Mexico, Ethiopia, Iraq, Free French, and Free Danes.