Southern states were critical to the war effort during World War II (1941-45) and none more so than Georgia. Some 320,000 Georgians served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II, and countless others found employment in burgeoning wartime industries. Their experiences were pivotal in determining the state's future development, and the war itself marked a watershed in Georgia's history. Because it occurred when important shifts in the state's politics, race relations, and economy were already under way, the war accelerated Georgia's modernization, lifting it out of the Great Depression and ushering it into the mainstream of American life.
The war began when the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, tried to impose religious uniformity on his domains, forcing Roman Catholicism on its peoples, and the Protestant states banded together to revolt against him.
