2 World War

World War II summary: The carnage of World War II was unprecedented and brought the world closest to the term
“total warfare.” On average 27,000 people were killed each day between September 1, 1939, until the formal
surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. Western technological advances had turned upon itself, bringing about
the most destructive war in human history. The primary combatants were the Axis nations of Nazi Germany,
Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, and the Allied nations, Great Britain (and its Commonwealth nations), the Soviet
Union, and the United States. Seven days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, Germany unconditionally surrendered
on May 7, 1945. The Japanese would go on to fight for nearly four more months until their surrender on
September 2, which was brought on by the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese towns of Nagasaki and
Hiroshima. Despite winning the war, Britain largely lost much of its empire, which was outlined in the basis of the
Atlantic Charter. The war precipitated the revival of the U.S. economy, and by the war’s end, the nation would
have a gross national product that was nearly greater than all the Allied and Axis powers combined. The USA and
USSR emerged from World War II as global superpowers. The fundamentally disparate, one-time allies became
engaged in what was to be called the Cold War, which dominated world politics for the latter half of the 20th
century.
Casualties in World War II
The most destructive war in all of history, its exact cost in human lives is unknown, but casualties in World War II
may have totalled over 60 million service personnel and civilians killed. Nations suffering the highest losses,
military and civilian, in descending order, are:
USSR: 42,000,000
Germany: 9,000,000
China: 4,000,000
Japan: 3,000,000
When did World War II begin? Some say it was simply a continuation of the First World War that had theoretically
ended in 1918. Others point to 1931, when Japan seized Manchuria from China. Others to Italy’s invasion and
defeat of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, Adolf Hitler’s re-militarization of Germany’s Rhineland in 1936, the Spanish
Civil War (1936–1939), and Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 are sometimes cited. The two dates
most often mentioned as “the beginning of World War II” are July 7, 1937, when the “Marco Polo Bridge Incident”
led to a prolonged war between Japan and China, and September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, which
led Britain and France to declare war on Hitler’s Nazi state in retaliation. From the invasion of Poland until the war
ended with Japan’s surrender in September 1945, most nations around the world were engaged in armed combat.
Origins of World War II
No one historic event can be said to have been the origin of World War II. Japan’s unexpected victory over czarist
Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) left open the door for Japanese expansion in Asia and the Pacific.
The United States U.S. Navy first developed plans in preparation for a naval war with Japan in 1890. War Plan
Orange, as it was called, would be updated continually as technology advanced and greatly aided the U.S. during
World War II.
The years between the first and second world wars were a time of instability. The Great Depression that began on
Black Tuesday, 1929 plunged the worldwide recession. Coming to power in 1933, Hitler capitalized on this
economic decline and the deep German resentment due to the emasculating Treaty of Versailles, signed following
the armistice of 1918. Declaring that Germany needed Lebensraum or “living space,” Hitler began to test the
Western powers and their willingness to monitor the treaty’s provision. By 1935 Hitler had established the
Luftwaffe, a direct violation of the 1919 treaty. Remilitarizing the Rhineland in 1936 violated Versailles and the
Locarno Treaties (which defined the borders of Europe) once again. The Anschluss of Austria and the annexation
of the rump of Czechoslovakia was a further extension of Hitler’s desire for Lebensraum. Italy’s desire to create
the Third Rome pushed the nation to closer ties with Nazi Germany. Likewise, Japan, angered by their exclusion
in Paris in 1919, sought to create a Pan-Asian sphere with Japan in order to create a self-sufficient state.
Competing ideologies further fanned the flames of international tension. The Bolshevik Revolution in czarist
Russia during the First World War, followed by the Russian Civil War, had established the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR), a sprawling communist state. Western republics and capitalists feared the spread of
Bolshevism. In some nations, such as Italy, Germany and Romania, ultra-conservative groups rose to power, in
part in reaction to communism. Germany, Italy and Japan signed agreements of mutual support but, unlike the
Allied nations they would face, they never developed a comprehensive or coordinated plan of action.

Cold War
Superpowers at War After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were the world’s strongest
nations. They were called superpowers. They had different ideas about economics and government. They fought a
war of ideas called the Cold War. The Soviet Union was a communist country. In communism, the government
controls production and resources. It decides where people live and work. The United States is a capitalist
country. In capitalism, people and businesses control the production of goods. People decide where they live and
work. The Cold War began in Europe after World War II. The Soviet Union won control of Eastern Europe. It
controlled half of Germany and half of Germany’s capital, Berlin. The United States, Britain, and France controlled
western Germany and West Berlin. In June 1948, the Soviet Union blocked roads and railroads that led to West
Berlin. The United States, Great Britain, and France flew in supplies. This was called the Berlin Airlift. Cold War
Conflicts After World War II, Korea was divided into North and South Korea. North Korea became communist.
South Korea was a capitalist country. North Korean army invaded South Korea. The United Nations sent soldiers
to help South Korea. China sent soldiers to help North Korea. The war ended in 1953. Neither side won. Korea is
still divided. The United States and the Soviet Union were in a nuclear arms race. In 1959, Cuba became a
communist country and the Soviets secretly put missiles there. President Kennedy was afraid the Soviet Union
would attack the United States. He sent warships to surround Cuba. He hoped a blockade would force the Soviet
Union to remove its missiles. This conflict was called the Cuban Missile Crisis. For six days, nuclear war seemed
possible. Then the Soviet Union removed the missiles.

Fall of socialist bloc

Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformist policies in the Soviet Union fuelled opposition movements to the Communist
regimes in the Soviet bloc countries. Demonstrations became more frequent. Governments were forced to accept
measures — recommended, moreover, by Gorbachev — towards liberalisation. However, these measures were
not deemed to be sufficient.

Hopes of freedom, long suppressed by the Communist regimes in the countries of the Soviet bloc and in the
USSR itself, were inevitably fuelled by Mikhail Gorbachev’s attempted reforms in the Soviet Union and his
conciliatory policy towards the West. It proved impossible to maintain reformed Communist regimes. They were
entirely swept away by the desire for political democracy and economic liberty. Within three years, the Communist
regimes collapsed and individual nations gained freedom, initially in the USSR’s satellite countries and then within
the Soviet Union itself. The structures of the Eastern bloc disintegrated with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact
and Comecon. The Soviet Union broke up into independent republics. In Poland, economic reforms led to strikes
in the spring and summer of 1988. The Solidarity movement (‘Solidarność’) called for trade union pluralism. During
the Round Table negotiations, which enabled the gradual creation of the Third Polish Republic, the Polish
Communist leaders recognised the social movement in April 1989. Solidarność was therefore able to take part in
the first semi-legal elections since the Second World War. The elections, held on 4 and 18 June, saw the collapse
of the Communist Party, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki became the first non-Communist head of government in
Eastern Europe. He was appointed on 19 August 1989 and endorsed by an overwhelming majority by the Polish
Sjem on 8 September 1989 as a result of a coalition between Solidarity, the agricultural party and the Democratic
party. In December 1989, Lech Wałęsa, symbolic leader of Solidarność, replaced General Jaruzelski of the Polish
United Workers’ Party as President. The victory of the trade union’s candidates in these elections triggered a wave
of peaceful anti-Communist revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.
In Hungary, demonstrations against the regime increased during 1987 and 1988. The Opposition became more
organised, and reformers entered the government in June 1988. On 18 October 1989, the Stalinist Constitution
was abandoned, and Hungary adopted political pluralism. Earlier that year, in May, the ‘Iron Curtain’ separating
Hungary from Austria had been dismantled, enabling many East Germans to flee to the West. In Czechoslovakia,
a programme of reforms inspired by those of the USSR was adopted in December 1987 but was not widely
implemented. The regime became more oppressive and suppressed demonstrations in 1988.
The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 further accelerated the demise of the Communist governments. In
Czechoslovakia, the Opposition leader, Václav Havel, was unanimously elected interim President of the Republic
by the parliament of the Socialist Republic on 29 December 1989. In the same vein, the anti-establishment Civic
Forum movement won the first free parliamentary elections on 8 June 1990 and reappointed Václav Havel as
President of the Republic in July of that year. In Hungary, the parliamentary elections held on 2 April 1990 resulted
in the formation of the Democratic Forum government. On 9 December 1990, Lech Wałęsa became President of
the Republic of Poland. In Bulgaria, a coalition government was formed on 7 December 1990, and a new
Constitution was adopted on 9 July 1991. In Romania, following violent demonstrations, the Communist dictator
Nicolae Ceauşescu was executed on 25 December 1989 and a new Constitution establishing pluralism was
adopted on 8 December 1991. This transformation proceeded, for the most part, in a peaceful manner.
Nevertheless, in Romania, the revolution against the dictator Ceauşescu resulted in heavy bloodshed, and the
fragmentation of Yugoslavia led to a long and bitter civil war. The collapse of Soviet Communism led to dislocation
of the Soviet Union, sapped by an ideological, political and economic crisis. This in turn precipitated the break-up
of the empire, both cause and effect of the end of Communism. The organisations specific to ‘Soviet federalism’
hastened the implosion of the Soviet Union despite being primarily intended to consolidate it. One after another
the Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) proclaimed their sovereignty in the summer of 1991. In December of the
same year, some of these republics, which had become independent in the meantime, redefined their respective
links by creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).