UPSC syllabus topic (General Studies- Paper 1): World War-II, Course, End and Effects of the War

World War-II, Course, End and Effects of the WW-2

• Unlike the 1914-18 war, the Second World War was a war of rapid movement; it was a much more complex affair, with major campaigns taking place in the Pacific and the Far East, in North Africa and deep in the heart of Russia, as well as in central and western Europe and the Atlantic. selfstudyhistory.com
• The war falls into four phases:
  • Opening moves: September 1939 to December 1940:
    • By the end of September the Germans and Russians had occupied Poland.
    • After a five month pause (known as the ‘phoney war’), German forces occupied Denmark and Norway (April 1940).
    • In May, attacks were made on Holland, Belgium and France, who were soon defeated, leaving Britain alone to face the dictators (Mussolini had declared war in June, just before the fall of France).
    • Hitler’s attempt to bomb Britain into submission was thwarted in the Battle of Britain (July to September 1940), but Mussolini’s armies invaded Egypt and Greece.
  • The Axis offensive widens: 1941 to the summer of 1942:
    • The war now began to develop into a worldwide conflict.
    • First Hitler, confident of a quick victory over Britain, launched an invasion of Russia (June 1941), breaking the non-aggression pact signed less than two years earlier.
    • Then the Japanese forced the USA into the war by attacking the American naval base at Pearl Harbor (December 1941), and they followed this up by occupying territories such as the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore and Burma, scattered over a wide area.
    • At this stage of the war there seemed to be no way of stopping the Germans and Japanese, though the Italians were less successful.
  • The offensives held in check: summer 1942 to summer 1943
    • This phase of the war saw three important battles in which Axis forces were defeated.
    • In June 1942, the Americans drove off a Japanese attack on Midway Island, inflicting heavy losses.
    • In October, the Germans, advancing towards Egypt, were halted and later driven out of North Africa.
    • The third battle was in Russia, where by September 1942, the Germans had penetrated as far as Stalingrad on the river Volga. Here the Russians put up such fierce resistance that in the following February the German army was surrounded and forced to surrender.
    • Meanwhile the war in the air continued, with both sides bombing enemy cities, while at sea, as in the First World War, the British and Americans gradually got the better of the German submarine menace.
  • The Axis powers defeated: July 1943 to August 1945:
    • The enormous power and resources of the USA and the USSR, combined with an all-out effort from Britain and her Empire, slowly but surely wore the Axis powers down.
    • Italy was eliminated first, and this was followed by an Anglo-American invasion of Normandy (June 1944) which liberated France, Belgium and Holland.
    • Later, Allied troops crossed the Rhine and captured Cologne.
    • In the east, the Russians drove the Germans out and advanced on Berlin via Poland.
    • Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in August, after the Americans had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki.

1. Opening moves: September 1939 to December 1940

• Poland defeated
  • The Poles were defeated swiftly by the German Blitzkrieg (lightning war), which they were ill-equipped to deal with.
  • Polish resistance was heroic but hopeless: they tried to stop advancing German tanks by massed cavalry charges.
  • Britain and France did little to help their ally directly because French mobilization procedure was slow and out-of-date, and it was difficult to transport sufficient troops to Poland to be effective.
  • When the Russians invaded eastern Poland, resistance collapsed.
  • On 29 September Poland was divided up between Germany and the USSR (as agreed in the pact of August 1939).
• The ‘phoney war’
  • Very little happened in the west for the next five months.
  • In the east the Russians took over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and invaded Finland (November 1939), forcing her to hand over frontier territories which would enable the Russians to defend themselves better against any attack from the west.
  • Hitler seems to have hoped that the pause would weaken the resolve of Britain and France and encourage them to negotiate peace. This lack of action pleased Hitler’s generals, who were not convinced that the German army was strong enough to attack in the west.
  • It was the American press which described this period as the ‘phoney war’.
• Denmark and Norway invaded, April 1940
  • Hitler’s troops occupied Denmark and landed at the main Norwegian ports in April 1940, rudely shattering the apparent calm of the ‘phoney war’.
  • Control of Norway was important for the Germans because
    • Narvik was the main outlet for Swedish iron-ore, which was vital for the German armaments industry.
    • The British were interfering with this trade by laying mines in Norwegian coastal waters, and the Germans were afraid that they might try to take over some of Norway’s ports.
    • Germans realized that the fjords would be excellent naval bases from which to attack Britain’s transatlantic supply lines.
  • The Germans were successful because the Norwegians had been taken by surprise and their troops were not even mobilized; local Nazis gave the invaders every assistance.
  • This Norwegian campaign had important results:
    • Germany was assured of her bases and her iron-ore supplies, but had lost three cruisers and ten destroyers. This made the German navy less effective at Dunkirk than it might have been.
    • It showed the incompetence of Chamberlain’s government.
      • He was forced to resign and Winston Churchill became British prime minister.
      • Although there has been criticism of Churchill’s mistakes, there is no doubt that he supplied what was needed at the time – drive, a sense of urgency, and the ability to make his coalition cabinet work well together.
• Hitler attacks Holland, Belgium and France
  • The attacks on Holland, Belgium and France were launched simultaneously on 10 May, and again Blitzkrieg methods brought swift victories. The Dutch and Belgium surrendered.
  • Only Dunkirk remained in Allied hands.
  • The events at Dunkirk were important:
    • a third of a million Allied troops were rescued to fight again, and Churchill used it for propaganda purposes to boost British morale with the ‘Dunkirk spirit’.
    • In fact it was a serious blow for the Allies: the troops at Dunkirk had lost all their arms and equipment, so that it became impossible for Britain to help France.
  • The Germans now swept southwards:
    • Paris was captured on 14 June and France surrendered on 22 June.
    • At Hitler’s insistence the armistice (ceasefire) was signed at Compiegne in the same railway coach that had been used for the 1918 armistice.
    • The Germans occupied northern France and the Atlantic coast, giving them valuable submarine bases, and the French army was demobilized.
    • Unoccupied France was allowed its own government under Marshal Petain, but it had no real independence and collaborated with the Germans.
    • Britain’s position was now very precarious.
• Why was France defeated so quickly?
  • The French were psychologically unprepared for war, and were bitterly divided between right and left.
    • The right was fascist in sympathy, admired Hitler’s achievements in Germany and wanted an agreement with him.
    • The communists, following the non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR, were also against the war.
    • The long period of inaction during the ‘phoney war’ allowed time for a peace party to develop on the right, headed by Laval. He argued that there was no point in continuing the war now that the Poles, whom they were supposed to be helping, had been defeated.
  • There were serious military weaknesses.
    • France had to face the full weight of an undivided German offensive, whereas in 1914 half the German forces had been directed against Russia.
    • The French High Command was content to sit behind the Maginot Line, a line of defences stretching from the Swiss to the Belgian frontiers.
      • Unfortunately the Maginot Line did not continue along the frontier between France and Belgium, partly because that might have offended the Belgians, and because French believed that the Ardennes would be a strong enough barrier; but this was exactly where the Germans broke through.
    • France had as many tanks and armoured vehicles as Germany, but instead of being concentrated in completely mechanized armoured divisions (like the Germans), allowing greater speed, they were split up so that each infantry division had a few. This slowed them to the speed of marching soldiers (infantry).
    • The German divisions were supported by combat planes, another area neglected by the French.
  • The French generals made fatal mistakes.
    • No attempt was made to help Poland by attacking Germany in the west in September 1939, which might have had a good chance of success.
    • There was poor communication between the army and air force, so that air defence to drive German bombers off usually failed to arrive.
  • Military defeats gave the defeatist right the chance to come out into the open and put pressure on the government to accept a ceasefire.
• The Battle of Britain (12 August to 30 September 1940)
  • This was fought in the air, when Goering’s Luftwaffe tried to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a preliminary to the invasion of Britain.
  • The Germans bombed harbours, radar stations, aerodromes and munitions factories; in September they began to bomb London, in retaliation, they claimed, for a British raid on Berlin.
  • The RAF inflicted heavy losses on the Luftwaffe; when it became clear that British air power was far from being destroyed, Hitler called off the invasion.
  • Reasons for the British success were:
    • Their chain of new radar stations gave plenty of warning of approaching German attackers.
    • The German bombers were poorly armed. The Germans were hampered by limited range – they could only carry enough fuel to enable them to stay in the air about 90 minutes.
    • The switch to bombing London was a mistake because it relieved pressure on the airfields at the critical moment.
  • The Battle of Britain was probably the first major turning point of the war:
    • for the first time the Germans had been checked, demonstrating that they were not invincible.
    • Britain was able to remain in the struggle, thus facing Hitler (who was about to attack Russia) with the fatal situation of war on two fronts.
• Mussolini invades Egypt, September 1940
  • Not wanting to be outdone by Hitler, Mussolini sent an army from the Italian colony of Libya which penetrated into Egypt (September 1940), while another Italian army invaded Greece from Albania (October).
  • However, the British soon drove the Italians out of Egypt, pushed them back far into Libya and defeated them.
  • The Greeks forced the Italians back and invaded Albania. Mussolini was beginning to be an embarrassment to Hitler.

2. The Axis offensive widens: 1941 to the summer of 1942

• North Africa and Greece
  • Hitler’s first moves in 1941 were to help out his faltering ally. Together with the Italians, Germans drove the British out of Libya.
  • By June 1942 the Germans were in Egypt.
  • In April 1941 Hitler’s forces invaded Greece, the day after 60000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops had arrived to help the Greeks. The Germans soon captured Athens, forcing the British to withdraw.
  • The campaigns in Greece had important effects:
    • It was depressing for the Allies, who lost about 36000 men.
    • Many of the troops had been removed from North Africa, thus weakening British forces there just when they needed to be at their most effective.
    • More important in the long run was that Hitler’s involvement in Greece and Yugoslavia (which the Germans invaded at the same time as Greece) may well have delayed his attack on Russia. If the invasion had taken place in May, the Germans might well have captured Moscow before the winter set in.
• The German invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa) began on 22 June 1941
  • Hitler’s motives seem to have been mixed:
    • He feared that the Russians might attack Germany while his forces were still occupied in the west.
    • He hoped that the Japanese would attack Russia in the Far East.
    • The more powerful Japan became, the less chance there was of the USA entering the war.
    • But above all there was his hatred of communism and his desire for Lebensraum (living space).
    • He had always meant to establish the foundations of his thousand-year Reich by the annexation of the territory lying between the Vistula and the Urals.’
  • It has sometimes been suggested that the attack on Russia was Hitler’s greatest mistake, but in fact, ‘to Hitler the Russian campaign was not a luxury: it was the be-all and end-all of Nazism; it could not be delayed. It was now or never.’
  • Hitler did not expect a long war; he told one of his generals: ‘We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.‘
  • The German attack was three-pronged:
    • in the north towards Leningrad,
    • in the centre towards Moscow,
    • in the south through the Ukraine.
  • It was Blitzkrieg on an awesome scale, involving close on 5.5 million men, and 3550 tanks supported by 5000 aircraft and 47000 pieces of artillery.
  • The Russians had been caught off their guard, in spite of British and American warnings that a German attack was imminent.
  • Stalin apparently believed that Hitler could be trusted to honour the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, and was extremely suspicious of any information which came from Britain or the USA.
  • The Russians were still re-equipping their army and air force, and many of their generals, thanks to Stalin’s purges, were inexperienced.
  • However, the German forces failed to capture Leningrad and Moscow. They were severely hampered by the heavy rains of October, which turned the Russian roads into mud, and by the severe frosts of November and December.
  • The Germans had inadequate winter clothing because Hitler had expected the campaigns to be over by the autumn.
• The USA enters the war, December 1941
  • The USA was brought into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (their naval base in the Hawaiian Islands) on 7 December 1941.
  • Until then, the Americans, still intent on isolation, had remained neutral, though after the Lend-Lease Act (April 1941), they had provided Britain with massive financial aid.
  • Japanese motives for the attack were tied up with her economic problems.
    • The government believed they would soon run short of raw materials and cast longing eyes towards territories such as Britain’s Malaya and Burma, which had rubber, oil and tin, and towards the Dutch East Indies, also rich in oil.
    • Since both Britain and Holland were in no fit state to defend their possessions, the Japanese prepared to attack, though they would probably have preferred to avoid war with the USA.
    • However, relations between the two states deteriorated steadily. The Americans assisted the Chinese, who were still at war with Japan; when the Japanese persuaded Vichy France to allow them to occupy French Indo-China (where they set up military bases), President Roosevelt demanded their withdrawal and placed an embargo on oil supplies to Japan (26 July 1941).
    • Long negotiations followed in which the Japanese tried to persuade the Americans to lift the embargo. But stalemate was reached when the Americans insisted on a Japanese withdrawal both from Indo-China and from China itself.
    • When the aggressive General Tojo became prime minister (16 October), war seemed inevitable.
  • There was no declaration of war: 353 Japanese planes arrived undetected at Pearl Harbor, and in two hours, destroyed 350 aircraft and five battleships; 3700 men were killed or seriously injured.
  • Pearl Harbor had important results:
    • It gave the Japanese control of the Pacific, and by May 1942 they had captured Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and Burma (all part of the British Empire), the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and two American possessions, Guam and Wake Island.
    • It caused Hitler to declare war on the USA.
  • Declaring war on the USA was perhaps Hitler’s most serious mistake.
    • He need not at this stage have committed himself to war with the USA, in which case the Americans might well have concentrated on the Pacific war.
    • However, the Germans had already assured the Japanese that they would come to Japan’s aid if she was ever at war with the USA.
    • Hitler assumed that President Roosevelt of the USA would declare war on Germany sooner or later, so he wanted to get Germany’s declaration of war in first, to show the German people that he, and not the Americans, controlled events.
    • In fact the US Congress was naturally determined to have their revenge on Japan, but was still reluctant to get involved in Europe.
    • Roosevelt would have had a difficult job to persuade Congress to declare war on Germany; Hitler’s action saved him the trouble.
    • Germany was now faced with the immense potential of the USA. This meant that with the vast resources of the USSR and the British Commonwealth as well, the longer the war lasted, the less chance there was of an Axis victory. It was essential for them to deliver swift knock-out blows before the American contribution became effective.
• Brutal behaviour by Germans and Japanese
  • The behaviour of both Germans and Japanese in their conquered territories was ruthless and brutal.
  • The Nazis treated the peoples of eastern Europe as sub-humans, fit only to be slaves of the German master-race.
    • As for the Jews – they were to be exterminated.
    • Millions were driven into forced labour, millions were tortured in the concentration camps, and millions more still (including nearly six million Jews) were massacred.
    • This was both amoral and foolish: in the Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) and in the Ukraine, the Soviet government was so unpopular that decent treatment would have turned the people into allies of the Germans.
  • The Japanese treated their prisoners of war and the Asian peoples badly.
    • Again this was ill-advised: many of the Asians, like those in Indo-China, at first welcomed the Japanese, who were thought to be freeing them from European control.
    • The Japanese hoped to organize their new territories into a great economic empire known as a Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere, which would be defended by sea and air power.
    • However, harsh treatment by the Japanese soon turned the Asians against rule from Tokyo, and determined resistance movements began, usually with communist involvement.

3. The offensives held in check: summer 1942 to summer 1943

• In three separate areas of fighting, Axis forces were defeated and began to lose ground:
  • Midway Island
  • El Alamein
  • Stalingrad
• Midway Island, June 1942
  • At Midway Island in the Pacific the Americans beat off a powerful Japanese attack against heavier odds. Americans had broken the Japanese radio code and knew exactly when and where the attack was to be launched.
  • Midway proved to be a crucial turning point in the battle for the Pacific: the loss of their carriers and strike planes seriously weakened the Japanese.
  • Gradually the Americans under General MacArthur began to recover the Pacific islands, beginning in August 1942 with landings in the Solomon Islands.
  • The struggle was long and bitter and continued through 1943 and 1944, a process which the Americans called ‘island hopping‘.
• El Alamein, October 1942
  • At El Alamein in Egypt, Germany’s Afrika Korps were driven back by the British Army.
  • El Alamein victory was another turning point in the war:
    • It prevented Egypt and the Suez Canal from falling into German hands.
    • It ended the possibility of a link-up between the Axis forces in the Middle East and those in the Ukraine.
    • It led on to the complete expulsion of Axis forces from North Africa.
      • It encouraged landings of British troops in the French territories of Morocco and Algeria to threaten the Germans and Italians from the west and from Libya.
      • Trapped in Tunisia, 275000 Germans and Italians were forced to surrender (May 1943), and the Allies were well-placed for an invasion of Italy.
    • The desert war had been a serious drain on German resources that could have been used in Russia, where they were badly needed.
• Stalingrad
  • At Stalingrad the southern prong of the German invasion of Russia, which had penetrated deeply through the Crimea was finally checked.
  • The Germans had reached Stalingrad at the end of August 1942, but though they more or less destroyed the city, the Russians refused to surrender. In November they counter-attacked ferociously, trapping the Germans, whose supply lines were dangerously extended.
  • With his retreat cut off, the German commander had no reasonable alternative but to surrender with 94 000 men (2 February 1943).
  • If Stalingrad had fallen, the supply route for Russia’s oil from the Caucasus would have been cut off.
  • The defeat was a catastrophe for the Germans: it shattered the myth that they were invincible, and boosted Russian morale. They followed up with more counter-attacks forcing the Germans to keep on retreating.
  • It was now only a matter of time before the Germans, heavily outnumbered and short of tanks and guns, were driven out of Russia.

4. The axis powers defeated: July 1943 to August 1945

• The fall of Italy
  • This was the first stage in the Axis collapse. British and American troops landed in Sicily from the sea and air (10 July 1943) and quickly captured the whole island. This caused the downfall of Mussolini, who was dismissed by the king.
  • Marshal Badoglio, Mussolini’s successor, signed an armistice and brought Italy into the war on the Allied side.
  • However, the Germans, determined to hold on to Italy, rushed troops to occupy Rome and the north. The Allies landed a force and Rome were captured.
  • The elimination of Italy did contribute towards the final Allied victory:
    • Italy provided air bases for bombing the Germans in Central Europe and the Balkans;
    • German troops were kept occupied when they were needed to resist the Russians.
• Operation Overlord, 6 June 1944
  • Operation Overlord – the invasion of France (also known as the Second Front) – began on ‘D-Day’, 6 June 1944. It was felt that the time was ripe now that Italy had been eliminated, the U-boats brought under control and Allied air superiority achieved.
  • The Russians had been urging the Allies to start this Second Front ever since 1941, to relieve pressure on them.
  • The landings took place from sea and air on Normandy beaches. There was strong German resistance, but at the end of the first week 326 000 men with tanks and heavy lorries bad landed safely.
  • Within a few weeks most of northern France was liberated (Paris on 25 August).
  • In Belgium, Brussels and Antwerp were liberated in September.
• ‘Unconditional surrender’
  • With the Germans forced to retreat in France and in Russia, there were people on both sides who hoped that there might be an armistice followed by a negotiated peace; this was the way in which the First World War had been brought to an end.
  • However, Hitler himself always talked of a fight to the death, and there were serious differences between the Allies themselves over the question of peace negotiations.
    • As far back as January 1943, President Roosevelt announced that the Allies were fighting for ‘the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy and Japan’.
    • Churchill and most of his staff were dismayed by this because they felt that it ruined all chances of a negotiated peace.
    • The Nazi leaders were delighted with Roosevelt’s announcement; Goebbels remarked: ‘I should never have been able to think up so rousing a slogan. If our western enemies tell us, we won’t deal with you, our only aim is to destroy you, how can any German, whether he likes it or not, do anything but fight on with all his strength?‘
    • Many leading Americans, including General Eisenhower, were against ‘unconditional surrender’ because they realized that it would prolong the war and cause further unnecessary loss of life.
    • Roosevelt refused to change his mind, in case this was taken by the Axis powers as a sign of weakness.
    • The policy was continued by Roosevelt until his death in April 1945, and by his successor, Haffy S. Truman. No attempts were made to negotiate peace with either Germany or Japan until they had both surrendered.
  • Thomas Fleming, writing in History Today, says that many lives could perhaps have been saved if there had been the prospect of a negotiated peace to encourage the German resistance to overthrow Hitler. According to him, the policy of unconditional surrender was ‘an ultimatum written in blood‘.
• The assault on Germany
  • With the success of the Second Front, the Allies began to gather themselves together for the invasion of Germany itself.
  • If they had expected the German armies to fall apart rapidly, they must have been bitterly disappointed.
  • The war was prolonged by desperate German resistance and by further disagreements between the British and Americans.
  • Some wanted a rapid thrust to reach Berlin before the Russians, but Eisenhower favoured a cautious advance along a broad front.
  • Early in 1945, Germany was being invaded on both fronts, from east and west. The British still wanted to push ahead and take Berlin before the Russians, but supreme commander Eisenhower refused to be hurried, and Berlin fell to Stalin’s forces in April. Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered.
  • Why did the Germans keep on fighting to the bitter end in 1945 long after it must have been obvious that the war was lost? Why was there not some sort of popular uprising to force the government to start peace negotiations?
    • Adam Tooze believes that one of the reasons was that a large section of German society was completely committed to the war effort, and actually took or suggested many of the initiatives which made it possible for Germany to fight to the death.
    • In Ian Kershaw’s view, the main reason is obvious: it lies in the nature of the Nazi regime and in Hitler’s belief that relations between states were a life and death struggle for survival and supremacy.
      • Hitler’s attitude was completely irrational: either Germany would be totally victorious – the most powerful state in the world – or Germany would be destroyed. There could be no compromise.
      • When it was all over, many Germans tried to blame the Allied policy of ‘unconditional surrender’ for their determination to fight on.
    • Many Germans kept going because they were afraid of the enemy, especially the Russians, but also because they were afraid of Nazi officials. Kershaw is not convinced by historians who claim that the Nazi regime was based overwhelmingly on popular consent.
• The defeat of Japan
  • On 6 August 1945 the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing perhaps as many as 84000 people and leaving thousands more slowly dying of radiation poisoning.
  • Three days later they dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, which killed perhaps another 40000; after this the Japanese government surrendered.
  • The dropping of these bombs was one of the most controversial actions of the entire war.
    • President Truman’s justification was that he was saving American lives, since the war might otherwise drag on for another year.
    • Many historians believe that the bombings were not necessary, since the Japanese had already put out peace feelers in July via Russia.
    • One suggestion is that the real reason for the bombings was to end the fighting swiftly before the Russians (who had promised to enter the war against Japan) gained too much Japanese territory, which would entitle them to share the occupation of Japan.
    • The use of the bombs was also a deliberate demonstration to the USSR of the USA’s enormous power.

Allied bombing of German and Japanese cities

• The most controversial action was the Allied bombing of German and Japanese cities. The Germans had bombed London and other important British cities and ports during 1940 and 1941, but these raids dwindled during the German attack on Russia, which required all the Luftwaffe’s strength.
• The British and Americans retaliated with what they called a ‘strategic air offensive’ – this involved massive attacks on military and industrial targets in order to hamper the German war effort.
• Sometimes raids seem to have been carried out to undermine civilian morale, as when about 50000 people were killed during a single night raid on Dresden (February 1945).
• Early in 1945 the Americans launched a series of devastating raids on Japan from bases in the Mariana Islands. In a single raid on Tokyo, in March, 80000 people were killed and a quarter of the city was destroyed.
• There has been debate about how effective the bombing was in hastening the Axis defeat. It certainly caused enormous civilian casualties and helped to destroy morale.
• Others argue that this type of bombing, which caused the deaths of so many innocent civilians was morally wrong.
• However, some defended the bombing, pointing out that this is what could be expected to happen during a total war – in the context of what the Germans had done in eastern Europe and the Japanese in their occupied territories, this was the necessary ‘price of peace’.
• The effects of the bombings reached disaster proportions; synthetic oil production fell rapidly, causing acute fuel shortages. By June 1945 the Japanese had been reduced to the same state.
• Allied strategic air offensive was one of the decisive reasons for the Axis defeat: besides strangling fuel and armaments production and destroying railway communications, it caused the diversion of many aircraft from the eastern front, thus helping the Russian advance into Germany.

Ideological fronts in the war

• Ideology was not only factor in tensions between nations, but ideological conflict as well as national conflict caused tension.
  • In the formation of rival groups, a common ideology was no doubt an important factor, but the most powerful factor was national interest.
• Conflict between democracy and dictatorship:
  • After WWI, there was an apparacnt triumph of liberal democracy all over Europe.
  • With the fall of three old Royal dynasties in Europe (Hohenzollern, Hapsburg and Romanoff), democratic constitutions were adopted by almost all the countries of Europe.
  • Europe was confronted with the most complete denial of democratic ideals and institutions.
  • Two types of dictatorship sprang up:
    • Communist as in Russia
    • Fascism and Nazism as in Italy and Germany
  • All these were at one in their denunciation of the fundamental ideas of democracy such as individual freedom, freedom of speech and press and right of the people to participate in government.
  • The rapid spread of these ideas and concept constituted a serious challenge to the Western Europe.
• Struggle between Fascism and Communism:
  • Triangular contest began to rage between the ideological forces of Communism, Fascism and Democracy.
• War aims of the Allies-
  • When WWII broke out, Mussolini, who was Hitler’s co-adjudant in war formulated ideological challenge in these words: “The struggle between two worlds can permit no compromise. Either We or They.”
  • Roosevelt and Churchill, declaring objective of the war to be the “unconditional surrender” of Axis powers, said, “unconditional surrender means not the destruction of the German populace, nor of Italian or Japanese populace, but does mean the destruction of philosophy in Germany, Italy and Japan.”
  • Thus the ideology of Allies stood in marked contrast to that of the Axis power.
  • In famous Atlantic Charter in 1941, President Roosevelt summed up the war aims of allies as consisting of “Four Freedoms”-
    • Freedom from fear
    • Freedom from want
    • Freedom of worship
    • Political freedom
  • Chamberlain said, “We are fighting against brute force. I am certain that right will prevail.”
  • Hitler refused to surrender and declared, “No means is left to me than to meet force with force.”

Why did the axis powers lose the war?

• The reasons can be summarized briefly:
  • shortage of raw materials;
  • the Allies learning from their mistakes and failures;
  • the Axis powers taking on too much;
  • the overwhelming impact of the combined resources of the USA, the USSR and the
    British Empire;
  • tactical mistakes by the Axis powers.

• Shortage of raw materials
  • Both Italy and Japan had to import supplies, and even Germany was short of rubber, cotton, nickel and, after mid-1944, oil.
  • These shortages need not have been fatal, but success depended on a swift end to the war, which certainly seemed likely at first, thanks to the speed and efficiency of the German Blitzkrieg.
  • However, the survival of Britain in 1940 was important because it kept the western front alive until the USA entered the war.
• The Allies soon learned from their early failures
  • By 1942 they knew how to check Blitzkrieg attacks and appreciated the importance of air support and aircraft carriers.
  • Consequently they built up an air and naval superiority which won the battles of the Atlantic and the Pacific and slowly starved their enemies of supplies.
• The Axis powers simply took on too much
  • Hitler did not seem to understand that war against Britain would involve her empire as well, and that his troops were bound to be spread too thinly – on the Russian front, on both sides of the Mediterranean, and on the western coastline of France.
  • Japan made the same mistake. They became stretched out far beyond their basic capacity for holding their gains. For Japan was a small island state with limited industrial power.
  • In Germany’s case, Mussolini was partly to blame: his incompetence was a constant drain on Hitler’s resources.
• The combined resources of the USA, the USSR and the British Empire
  • These resources were so great that the longer the war lasted, the less chance the Axis had of victory.
  • The Russians rapidly moved their industry east of the Ural Mountains and so were able to continue production even though the Germans had occupied vast areas in the west.
  • When the American war machine reached peak production it could turn out over 70000 tanks and 120000 aircraft a year, which the Germans and Japanese could not match.
• Serious tactical mistakes
  • The Japanese failed to learn the lesson about the importance of aircraft carriers, and concentrated too much on producing battleships.
  • Hitler should have defeated Britain before invading the USSR, which committed Germany to a war on two fronts.
    • German plans for the invasion of Britain were vague and improvised, and they underestimated the strength of the enemy.
    • Britain was saved for the Allies and was able to be used later as the base from which to launch the D-Day landings.
  • Hitler failed to provide for a winter campaign in Russia and completely underestimated Russian resourcefulness and determination.
    • The deeper the German army advanced into Soviet territory, the more its supply and communication lines became exposed to enemy counter-attacks.
    • Hitler also became obsessed with the idea that the German armies must not retreat; this led to many disasters in Russia, especially Stalingrad, and left his troops badly exposed in Normandy (1944).
    • This all helped to hasten defeat because it meant that scarce resources were being wasted.
  • Hitler made a fatal mistake by declaring war on the USA after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
  • Another serious mistake was Hitler’s decision to concentrate on producing V-rockets when he could have been developing jet aircraft; these might well have restored German air superiority and prevented the devastating bomb attacks of 1944 and 1945.
• Nazi racial policy
  • Nazi treatment of Jews, gypsies and homosexuals in occupied territories of the USSR alienated many of the conquered peoples who, with decent treatment, could have been brought on board to fight the Stalinist regime.
  • Soviet rule was especially unpopular in the Ukraine.

Effects of the War

• Enormous destruction
  • There was enormous destruction of lives, homes, industries and communications in Europe and Asia.
  • Almost 40 million people were killed: well over half of them were Russians, 6 million were Poles, 4 million Germans, 2 million Chinese and 2 million Japanese. Britain and the USA got off comparatively lightly.
  • A further 21 million people had been uprooted from their homes: some had been taken to Germany to work as slave labourers, and around seven million of these were still in Germany; some had been put into concentration camps, and some had been forced to flee from invading armies. The victorious powers were left with the problem of how to repatriate them.
  • Large parts of Germany, especially her industrial areas and many major cities, lay in ruins.
  • Much of western Russia had been completely devastated, and some 25 million people were homeless.
  • France had suffered badly too: taking into account the destruction of housing, factories, railways, mines and livestock, almost 50 per cent of total French wealth had been lost. In Italy, where damage was very serious in the south, the figure was over 30 per cent.
  • Japan suffered heavy damage and a high death toll from bombings.
  • The most notorious was the Holocaust – the deliberate murder in extermination camps of over five million Jews and hundreds of thousands of non-Jews, mainly in Poland and Russia.
• There was no all-inclusive peace settlement
  • This was different from the end of the First World War, when an all-inclusive settlement was negotiated at Versailles. This was mainly because the distrust which had re-emerged between the USSR and the west in the final months of the war made agreement on many points impossible.
  • However, a number of separate treaties were signed:
    • Italy lost her African colonies and gave up her claims to Albania and Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
    • The USSR took the eastern section of Czechoslovakia, and the area round Lake Ladoga from Finland, and held on to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which they had occupied in 1939.
    • Romania recovered northern Transylvania, which the Hungarians had occupied during the war.
    • Trieste, claimed by both Italy and Yugoslavia, was declared a free territory protected by the United Nations Organization.
    • Later, at San Francisco (1951), Japan agreed to surrender all territory acquired during the previous 90 years, which included a complete withdrawal from China.
  • However, the Russians refused to agree to any settlement over Germany and Austria, except that they should be occupied by Allied troops and that East Prussia should be divided between Russia and Poland.
• The war stimulated important social changes
  • In addition to the population movements during the war, once hostilities were over, many millions of people were forced to move from their homes.
    • The worst cases were probably in the areas taken from Germany by Russia and Poland, and in the German-speaking areas in Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia.
    • About ten million Germans were forced to leave and make their way to West Germany so that no future German government would be able to claim those territories.
    • In some countries, especially the USSR and Germany, extensive urban redevelopment took place as ruined cities had to be rebuilt.
    • In Britain the war stimulated, among other things, the Beveridge Report (1942), a plan for introducing a Welfare State.
  • Changing Roles for Women
    • The wartime economy presented women and minorities like African-Americans, Hispanics with new job opportunities.
    • The domestic war effort in countries like United States swept millions of women into the workforce.
    • Women worked in the war industries, in factories, and on farms. They drove trucks, provided logistic support for soldiers, and entered professional areas of work that were previously the domain of men. They enlisted as nurses serving on the front lines, and there was a great increase in the number of women serving for the military.
    • After the War, women started demanding equal rights with men which led to several women movements.
  • African Americans in WWII
    • The availability of new job opportunities in American factories also attracted African Americans. African Americans migrated to major manufacturing areas in the North as well as in the West.
    • Despite racism and segregation in the U.S. military, more than two and a half million African American men registered in the military draft, with more than 1 million serving in the armed forces during World War II.
    • While segregation persisted in the armed forces, some change came on the home front. A. Philip Randolph, an African-American labor leader, presented President Roosevelt with a list of grievances regarding the civil rights of African-American workers in the nation’s defense industry. Randolph planned a huge protest. Fearing such a protest would undermine wartime unity, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order banning discriminatory employment practices in war-related work.
• The war caused the production of nuclear weapons
  • The first ever use of these weapons, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demonstrated their horrifying powers of destruction.
  • The world was left under the threat of a nuclear war that might well have destroyed the entire planet.
  • Some people argue that this acted as a deterrent, making both sides in the Cold War so frightened of the consequences that they were deterred or discouraged from fighting each other.
• Europe’s domination of the rest of the world ended
  • The four western European states which had played a leading role in world affairs for most of the first half of the twentieth century were now much weaker than before.
  • Germany was devastated and divided, France and Italy were on the verge of bankruptcy; although Britain seemed strong and victorious, with her empire intact, the cost of the war had been ruinous.
  • The USA had helped to keep Britain going during the war by sending supplies, but these had to be paid for later.
    • As soon as the war was over, the new US president, Truman, abruptly stopped all further help, leaving Britain in a sorry state: she had overseas debts of over £3000 million, many of her foreign investments had been sold off, and her ability to export goods had been much reduced.
    • She was forced to ask for another loan from the USA, which was given at a high rate of interest; the country was therefore closely and uncomfortably dependent on the USA.
• Emergence of the superpowers and Cold War
  • The USA and the USSR emerged as the two most powerful nations in the world, and they were no longer as isolated as they had been before the war.
  • The USA had suffered relatively little from the war and had enjoyed great prosperity from supplying the other Allies with war materials and food.
  • The Americans had the world’s largest navy and air force and they controlled the atomic bomb.
  • The USSR, though severely weakened, still had the largest army in the world.
  • Both countries were highly suspicious of each other’s intentions now that the common enemies, Germany and Japan, had been defeated.
  • The rivalry of these two superpowers in the Cold War was the most important feature of international relations for almost half a century after 1945, and was a constant threat to world peace.
• Decolonization
  • The war encouraged the movement towards decolonization.
  • The defeats inflicted on Britain, Holland and France by Japan, and the Japanese occupation of their territories – Malaya, Singapore and Burma (British), French lndo-China and the Dutch East Indies – destroyed the tradition of European superiority and invincibility.
  • It could hardly be expected that, having fought to get rid of the Japanese, the Asian peoples would willingly return to European rule. Gradually they achieved full independence, though not without a struggle in many cases.
  • This in turn intensified demands for independence among the peoples of Africa and the Middle East, and in the 1960s the result was a large array of new states.
  • The leaders of many of these newly emerging nations met in conference at Algiers in 1973 and made it clear that they regarded themselves as a Third World. By this they meant that they wished to remain neutral or non-aligned in the struggle between the other two worlds – communism and capitalism.
  • Usually poor and under-developed industrially, the new nations were often intensely suspicious of the motives of both communism and capitalism, and they resented their own economic dependence on the world’s wealthy powers.
• The United Nations Organization (UNO)
  • This emerged as the successor to the League of Nations. Its main aim was to try to maintain world peace, and on the whole it has been more successful than its unfortunate predecessor.
• Other effects:
  • Fall of axis power representing radical nationalist and militarist power (Germany, Italy and Japan)
  • Division of Europe (Eastern and Western)
  • Division of Germany
  • Europe became main platform of the cold war
  • World became bipolar (USA and USSR)
  • Division of Korea
  • Rise of Third World and NAM
  • Rise of Bretton-Woods institutions
  • Rise of GATT
  • Beginning of new age of Human Rights- as a result of Human Rights Declaration by UN in 1948
  • Progress in science

How did the Japanese occupation of South-East Asian countries during the Second World War give a boost to nationalism in the regions?

• Japan began the expanding to South-East Asia in early 1941, concurred with the weakening of Western power in Southeast Asia due to the war in Europe, which devastated the colonists.
• Japanese occupation, which ended in 1945 following the bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, played a major role in giving a boost to nationalism in the regions.
• Consequently, Japanese occupation created circumstances that hindered Europeans’ attempt to re-conquest the region.
• Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia was a part of Japan’s plan to create a self-sufficient, Asiatic empire, which has united cultural and economic sphere consisting of countries in East and Southeast Asian region.
• The expansion to Southeast Asia, was first discussed in 1930s during the then Prime Minister Konoye Fumimaro’s administration, focusing primarily on trade and economic matters.
• However, the outbreak of war in Europe, which devastated European powers and disrupted the trading activity with the colonies encouraged Japan to secure a foothold in Southeast Asia and practically colonise the region.
• Thus, the term ‘Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere’ (GEACPS) was introduced in 1940 to address Japanese Asiatic empire; consisting of ‘inner ring’ and ‘outer ring’ sphere of influence, in which the former was intended to be the area to develop heavy industries and the latter, was meant to be raw materials provider.
• The element of hakkoichiu, an ultra-nationalistic doctrine which views Japanese as the ‘Chosen people’ to rule East Asian empire, was added in the scheme to justify the conquest and the doctrine was repeatedly used in Japanese imperialist propaganda.
• The period of occupation began in 1940; marked by the fall of Paris to German which granted Japanese access to French Indochina.
• Afterwards, Thailand, British Malaya (Malaysia and Singapore), Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), British Burma (Myanmar), and the Philippines followed suit after Japanese army successfully defeated Western armies.
• Before the Second World War, colonial peoples believed it would be impossible to defeat the militarily superior Europeans by force of arms. Japanese successes in the early Part of the war showed that it was possible for non-Europeans to defeat European armies.
• At that time, Japanese occupation process can be divided into 3 periods,
  • the first was Japan’s arrival and colonial campaign,
  • the second was exploitation and transformation of political system, and
  • the third was their retreat.
• The first phase was the beginning of the conquest, when the Japanese tried to gain a foothold in the former Western colonies.
• After they were sure that they had ensured a foothold in a colony, they started the real process of colonialism, including exploitation and demolition of Western colonial system. While the procedure was in fact varied in different regions, in general, Japanese method had similar elements:
  • Anti-white or anti-western campaign,
  • the doctrine of hakkoichiu, and
  • emphasis the abolishment of racial inferiority; that Western people are not essentially superior to Asians.
• The Japanese occupation in Southeast Asia changed the course of events in Southeast Asian colonial history, as it was intended to abolish Western colonists’ administration and installed Japanese model imperialism.
• However, the initial plans of GEACPS were hard to apply, because the nature of Southeast Asian societies was complex and this was significantly influenced by their Western colonies.
• Nor did Japan can apply policy of assimilation as they did in Korea and Manchukuo because Southeast Asian people were very diverse.
• Thus, Japan applied practical tactic which was intended to gain support from nationalists movements; often by giving permission to display nationalistic symbols and limited political activities, and promise of independence. This tactic gained relative success as Japan was welcomed by nationalist movement in most Southeast Asian colonies, excluding Philippines, who were given promise of independence from the US already.
  • In Burma, for example, Japanese collaborated with Burma Independence Army (BIA) led by Aung San (Pro-democracy Activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s father) to repel the British.
    • Aung San, who received military training and indoctrination and got appointed as ‘war minister’ when Japan granted Burma an ‘independent’ status within GEACPS in 1943.
    • Under British rule, Burma experienced both direct rule via annexation to India and autonomy starting from 1935.
    • The annexation had created social inequality since Indians already dominated strategic sectors in Burma.
    • British, who claimed to uphold the tradition of self-government was hesitant to grant Burma independence and Burmese did not get to run internal affairs at least until Japan came.
  • The Japanese was also supported by young Malayan radicals called Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) in British Malaya and cooperated with Muslims, who were given special protection.
  • Supportive response also came from East Indies, where Japan was also greeted warmly by various native groups and Muslims who were hostile to social classification resulted from the Dutch rule.
    • At that time, Dutch applied the ‘divide-and-rule’ to conquer East Indies and its colonial rule did not in fact give benefits to the majority of Indonesian people.
    • Under Japanese rule, a degree of political freedom was given and administration was handed to Indonesians with the supervision of the Japanese.
    • Japan also provided Indonesians military training as it also provided to Malaya.
    • Peta (Pembela Tanah Air; Defenders of the Homeland), a voluntary youth garrison, was formed in 1943.
    • Apart from that, political movement in East Indies was limited except Japanese-made mass organisation called AAA movement who promoted the ‘Asia for the Asiatics’ and Japan as the ‘guardian’, ‘light’, and ‘leader’.
  • In Indochina, French colonial administration persisted because Japan was satisfied with indirect rule by maintaining military presence there, but Admiral Decoux, the governor general, was forced to hire more Vietnamese to press anti-French sentiment.
    • French colonial system resulted in the limitation of political freedom because the initial aim of the colonialism was to assimilate the colonies’ cultural, political, and social spheres with the motherland, therefore terminating Indochina’s rights of self-determination.
  • In Philippines, Japan wooed the Filipinos by declaring independence and establishing Filipino-led government with Jose Laurel as the chief.
• Japanese rule did not last long; nor did the Japanese fulfill their promises to Southeast Asian colonies.
  • Japanese colonial rule in fact was highly exploitative and independence was not granted until they realized that their defeat was coming close.
  • However, the occupation actually allowed Southeast Asian countries to run their own administration, used their national language; cementing their national identity, and the false-hope of independence only made them more determined to be free.
• Japanese had to retreat from Burma when Aung San aligned with British to repel the Japanese and later, negotiated independence from Britain, which was granted in 1948.
• Malaya also followed in 1957.
• In East Indies, shortly after the bombing Japanese surrendered and was ordered to keep control of the region until Allied forces’ arrival. However, nationalist leader Sukarno took advantage of the power vacuum to declare independence in August 1945, as did Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnam by the end of the year. Later on these two countries had to fight attempted re-conquest.
• Although the Japanese were eventually defeated, the nationalists, many of whom had fought against the Japanese, had no intention of tamely accepting European rule again.
  • After all, Britain, France and Holland had failed miserably to protect their subjects, thus destroying any claim to legitimacy they might have had.
  • If necessary, nationalists would continue to fight against the Europeans, using the guerrilla tactics they had learned fighting the Japanese. This is exactly what happened in Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies, Malaya and Burma.
• In conclusion, Japanese occupation in Southeast Asia caused such significant shift of political constellation in the region.
  • Japan had taught Southeast Asian colonies to run modern countries and established basis of their own government although they was still yet to gain independence.
  • This also, in consequently cured racial inferiority issues and cemented Southeast Asian colonies’ nationalism.
  • In addition, Japan’s false-hope of liberation also strengthened Southeast Asian people’s determination to gain independence or self-determination.
  • These circumstances thus made it extremely hard for the European colonists to resume their colonial practice because their system was replaced and they had to face determined and trained nationalists movement.
  • This then led to decolonisation; at that time British was forced to grant Malaya and Burma the right to self-determination.
  • Some colonists such as French and Dutch, attempted re-conquest but eventually had to give up their colonies after exhausting battles.

Q. Examine the causes and results of the Second World War. 

Ans: 

The Second World War was fought between axis(Germany, Italy and Japan) and allied powers (Britain, France and U.S). It started in September 1939 and ended in August 1945 with defeat of axis powers.

• Short comings of Paris peace conference.
  • It was unilaterally imposed upon Germany and was very harsh in nature. The disillusionment caused by it led to rise of Nazi Germany.
  • It caused disillusionment in Italy because it’s concerns were not addressed. This led to rise of Fascist Italy.
• Failure of the League of Nation -> end of collective security.
• Militarism and radical nationalism.
  • e.g. Nazism in Germany, Fascism in Italy and Militarism in Japan.
• Imperialism
  • e.g. Japanese imperialism in Manchuria, Korea.
  • German aggression in Czechoslovakia etc.
  • Italy aggression to Ethiopia.
• Great depression of 1929:  Created situation of economic crisis in countries and countries tried to get more land and power.
• Creation of Rome-Berlin-Tokya axis:
  • The Japan, Germany and Italy signed Anti-Comintern Pact in 1937.
•  Policy of Appeasement:
  • Followed by Britain and France to appease Germany, Italy and Japan by accepting the their demands or ignoring their action.
  • This policy was accepted to avoid the war but it made things easier for Hitler and encouraged him.
  • e.g. Locarno treaty, Anglo-German Naval pact,, Munich Pact etc.
• Ideological front:  (1 was against 2&3, 2 was against 1&3 and 3 was against 1&2 )
  1. Germany, Italy and Japan -> Radical Nationalism, and Militarism.
  2. Britain, France and USA-> Liberal democracy and Capitalism.
  3. USSR -> Communism.
• France’s quest for security:
  • Led to amending of was guilt clause by formulating Young plan and  signing of Locarno treaty which secured only western borders. This undermined the system created by Treaty of Versailles and ignored the League of Nation.
• Faults of nations:
  • Germany:, Italy and Japan: Aggressive foreign policy. And self-believe of being superiority race.
  • Britain and France: followed Policy of appeasement.
  • USA: didn’t participated in the League, being isolationist and was ambivalent about Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.
  • Soviet Union: responsible for propagating idea of and inevitable conflict between communism and capitalism/fascism. Also it signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi-Germany in August, 1939 and so giving in green light for attacking Poland while simultaneously annexing several territories itself.
• Immediate cause was the attack on Poland by Germany.

• Social impact:
  • Almost 40 million people were killed.
    • way over half of them were Russians,
    • 6 million were Poles, 4 million Germans, 2 million Chinese and 2 million Japanese.
    • Britain and the USA got off comparatively lightly.
    • The Holocast in Germany caused death of over 5 million Jews.
  • In addition to the population movements during the war, once hostilities were over, many millions of people were forced to move from their homes.
    • The worst cases were probably in the areas taken from Germany by Russia and Poland, and in the German-speaking areas in Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia. About ten million Germans were forced to leave and make their way to West Germany so that no future German government would be able to claim those territories.
  • Demographic change: as large number of young population was dead. It led to social crisis. The Women and children had to suffer.
  • Beginning of new age of Human rights- as a result of adoption of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights by United Nations in 1948.
• Economic impact:
  • War caused large scale devastation of countries both physically and financially. Large parts of Germany lay in ruins. Much of western Russia had been completely devastated, and some 25 million people were homeless.
    • So, extensive urban redevelopment took place as ruined cities had to be rebuilt.
  • The United States benefitted the most from WWII as it had a large population, technological prowess, and the capital necessary to change WWII machinations into business and industry that benefited the civilian.
  • Economically, the period after the end of World War II was a time for moving from the industry of creation for the purpose of destruction and into the industry of creation for creation’s sake, resulting in an attitude of exploring new technologies and business models previously unheard of.
  • Following the policy of communist containment, USA formulated Marshal Plan for economic aid for economic reconstruction of the Western Europe.
  • Rise of Bretton woods institutions: Establishment of IMF and World Bank.
  • Signing of The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
  • Rise of new international monetory system- known as Bretoon-wood’s system (It was based on Gold-Dollar standard). It was later abandoned in 1970s, so not present currently.
• Political Impact:
  • Fall of axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan).
  • There was no all-inclusive peace settlement:
    • This was different from the end of the First World War, when an all-inclusive settlement was negotiated at Versailles. This was mainly because the distrust which had re-emerged between the USSR and the west in the final months of the war made agreement on many points impossible.
    • However, a number of separate treaties were signed:
      • Italy lost her African colonies and gave up her claims to Albania and Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
      • The USSR took the eastern section of Czechoslovakia, the Petsamo district and the area round Lake Ladoga from Finland, and held on to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which they had occupied in 1939.
      • Romania recovered northern Transylvania, which the Hungarians had occupied during the war.
      • Trieste, claimed by both Italy and Yugoslavia, was declared a free territory protected by the United Nations Organization.
      • Later, at San Francisco (1951), Japan agreed to surrender all territory acquired during the previous 90 years, which included a complete withdrawal from China.
  • European domination of the world ended. Europe was completely exhausted militarily and economically.
    • The four western European states which had played a leading role in world affairs for most of the first half of the twentieth century were now much weaker than before. Germany was devastated and divided, France and Italy were on the verge of bankruptcy; although Britain seemed strong and victorious, with her empire intact, the cost of the war had been ruinous.
      • The USA had helped to keep Britain going during the war by sending supplies, but these had to be paid for later.
      • As soon as the war was over, the new US president, Truman, abruptly stopped all further help, leaving Britain in a sorry state: she had overseas debts of over £3000 million, many of her foreign investments had been sold off, and her ability to export goods had been much reduced.
      • She was forced to ask for another loan from the USA, which was given at a high rate of interest; the country was therefore closely and uncomfortably dependent on the USA.
  • Division of Europe-
    • Eastern Europe became Communist under influence of USSR.
    • Western Europe became Capitalist and aligned with USA.
  • Emergence of super-powers.
    • The USA and the USSR emerged as the two most powerful nations in the world, and they were no longer as isolated as they had been before the war.
    • The USA had suffered relatively little from the war and had enjoyed great prosperity from supplying the other Allies with war materials and food. The Americans had the world’s largest navy and air force and they controlled the atomic bomb.
    • The USSR, though severely weakened, still had the largest army in the world.
  • Beginning of cold war:
    • Both super-powers (US and USSR) were highly suspicious of each other’s intentions now that the common enemies, Germany and Japan, had been defeated.
    • The rivalry of these two superpowers in the Cold War was the most important feature of international relations for almost half a century after 1945, and was a constant threat to world peace
    • World became bipolar
    • Europe was the main victim of the cold war.
  • Division of Germany.
    • Western Germany-> Capitalist.
    • Eastern Germany-> Communist.
  • Division of Korea:
    • North Korea-> Communist.
    • South Korea-> Capitalist.
  • Process of decolonization started:
    • The war encouraged the movement towards decolonization. The defeats inflicted on Britain, Holland and France by Japan, and the Japanese occupation of their territories – Malaya, Singapore and Burma (British), French lndo-China and the Dutch East Indies – destroyed the tradition of European superiority and invincibility.
      • It could hardly be expected that, having fought to get rid of the Japanese, the Asian peoples would willingly return to European rule.
      • Gradually they achieved full independence, though not without a struggle in many cases.
    • This in turn intensified demands for independence among the peoples of Africa and the Middle East, and in the 1960s the result was a large array of new states.
  • Changes in the political map of the world due to redrawal of boundaries. It was mainly due to decolonization.
  • Rise of third world and Non-aligned Movement.
    • The leaders of many of newly emerging nations (due to declolonization) met in conference at Algiers in 1973 and made it clear that they regarded themselves as a Third World. By this they meant that they wished to remain neutral or non-aligned in the struggle between the other two worlds – communism and capitalism.
    • Usually poor and under-developed industrially, the new nations were often intensely suspicious of the motives of both communism and capitalism, and they resented their own economic dependence on the world’s wealthy powers.
  • The rise of United nations.
    • This emerged as the successor to the League of Nations. Its main aim was to try to maintain world peace, and on the whole it has been more successful than its unfortunate predecessor.
  • States came in the center and regulated economic activities even in the market economies. It happened due to need of reconstruction after devastation due to war.
• The war caused the production of nuclear weapons:
  • The first ever use of these weapons, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demonstrated their horrifying powers of destruction.
  • The world was left under the threat of a nuclear war that might well have destroyed the entire planet.
  • Some people argue that this acted as a deterrent, making both sides in the Cold War so frightened of the consequences that they were deterred or discouraged from fighting each other.