The Consequences of World War II Political, economic and social factors affected the lives of millions of people in the years following their completion and shaped the world today.
1 of September of 1939, Germany with Adolf Hitler to the front invaded to Poland. This fact served as starting point to World War II, after the declaration of war of Great Britain and France to the German country.
The war lasted for six years and one day and two blocks were formed. One of them was the Axis powers, made up of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy by Benito Mussolini and the Empire of Japan, led by Hirohito, in addition to all the puppet states created after the occupations.
By the Allied side, the main powers, besides Great Britain and France, were United States, Soviet Union and China in the Asian area.
The war ended with a balance of between 50 and 70 million victims. It was the first war that took place simultaneously with the participation of countries from all continents.
In the first part, Germany managed to occupy practically the whole of continental Europe, and its withdrawal began after its invasion to the Soviet Union.
The war in Europe culminated with the Soviet takeover of Berlin in 1945 and Asia with the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan by the United States, which came to fruition with the surrender of the island in September. This has been the only nuclear bomb attack on the civilian population in human history.
In addition to the political-military side, the war was starred by the Nazi holocaust that persecuted Jews, as well as homosexuals, gypsies and Jehovah's Witnesses.
With the end of World War II, the Cold War , Which would confront the two victorious superpowers: the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Political Consequences of World War II
1- Creation of the United Nations Organization (UN)
After World War I and following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles In 1919, the League of Nations was created, which sought to bring together all the states of the world. Although this organization obtained some victories, finally it failed in its attempt to maintain an international relations of peace and was propitiated World War II.
That is why, on October 24, 1945, after a little more than a month after the war ended, fifty countries gathered at the San Francisco Conference and formed the United Nations (Yépez, 2011).
This institution has since governed the international relations of its member states, which now amount to 193.
2- Creation of the State of Israel
On May 14, 1948 in the city of Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion fulfilled the Zionist aspiration to have a Jewish state in the Holy Land. This region was a British mandate from the League of Nations.
After World War II and because of the Nazi Holocaust that killed millions of Hebrews, there was a massive emigration to the area.
This ended up forcing the abandonment of the British and the creation of the Jewish state. The UN determined that two states, one Jewish and one Arab, should be created.
Palestinians, who initially opposed the creation of a Jewish state, are still unable to have sovereignty over their state.
3- Territorial divisions
With the defeat of Germany and Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union became the two great superpowers of the world. As a result, the territory was dominated and divided in many countries.
The Soviet Union maintained control of all of Eastern Europe, Socialist republics In Hungary, Albania, Yugoslavia or Poland, among others.
The most important was the division of Germany, constituting the Federal Republic German, western and the German Democratic Republic, oriental of court Marxist.
Something similar occurred in Korea, occupied by Japan since 1910. In this Asian peninsula a division was applied by means of the parallel 38, in which the north, previously occupied by the Soviet troops was constituted like Democratic People's Republic of Korea, whereas In the south, zone occupied by the Allies, the Republic of Korea was formed. This territorial division continues until today (Yépez, 2011).
4- Nuclear weapons
World War II was completed with the two nuclear attacks by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These bombs have been the only ones that have been launched against the civilian population.
However, from then on the use of nuclear weapons was controlled by the United Nations, with only the five great winners of the war being allowed: United States, France, United Kingdom, China (then nationalist, now replaced by Communist ) And the Soviet Union (now Russia).
Since then there have been no nuclear attacks but Throughout the Cold War the tension remained In this sense and the risk of nuclear war.
5- Trials of Nuremberg and Tokyo
The hierarchs of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan did not go unpunished. Although Adolf Hitler committed suicide the day the Soviets arrived in Berlin and Benito Mussolini was assassinated along with his lover Clara Petacci, many others did not have that end.
Between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946, a series of trials were carried out in the German city of Nuremberg, which eventually sentenced more than a dozen German soldiers and sentenced them to life in prison.
These trials were divided into several processes. Among them were the doctors' trial, against 24 doctors who experimented with humans, practiced forced sterilization and other crimes.
There was also a trial of the judges, who accused 16 judges and lawyers who protected all actions perpetrated by the Nazi government. Referring to the part of the extermination, the Pöhl Trial took place in this process, which was responsible for condemning those in charge of concentration and extermination camps, in addition to the Trial to the Einsatzgruppen, which condemned SS officials responsible for Persecution.
In the Japanese case a process very similar to the Nuremberg Trials took place. The International Military Criminal Tribunal for the Far East exercised justice against the Japanese military who had played a significant role in the war.
In the Tokyo Trials he was tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity, war plot and genocide.
Among those sentenced to death were found the prime minister of Japan during part of the war, Hideki Tōjō.
However, what stands out most from this process was that the emperor Hirohito was totally exonerated of the guilt and responsibilities that had and continued to reign Japan until his death in 1989.
American generals such as MacArthur were the architects in which Hirohito maintained the throne to guarantee the cohesion of the Japanese town and its reentry in the world of the international relations.
From 1946, Japan became a constitutional monarchy, leaving its reign in mere symbolism.
Economic consequences
6- Implementation of the Marshall Plan
Officially called the European Recovery Program, but commonly known as the Marshall Plan, it was an American program that provided $ 12 billion in Western European aid, which had largely been destroyed because of the bombing of World War II.
The Americans were fearful of the threat of communist advancement and the establishment of socialist republics on the continent, so they decided to invest money in the physical reconstruction of the area and also in industrial development.
His common name is due to the then Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, who later was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 (Office of the Historian, s.f.).
7- Bipolarization of the global economy
The superpowers were not only political. As far as industry was concerned, the United States and the Soviet Union monopolized industrial and economic power throughout the Cold War, influencing the products and services offered in the countries that were in their respective orbits.
For example, LADA cars were widely marketed in Soviet axis countries, even though they were far away as in the case of Cuba.
Social consequences
8- The Holocaust
In what is known as the Holocaust, the German government murdered over six million Jews captured in different countries invading and sending to different concentration camps established for that purpose (Sneyder, 2010).
This fact has been one of the main characteristics of World War II. Within the nationalist socialist ideology of Adolf Hitler, the Jews did not enter into the Aryan race, chosen to dominate the humanity.
Exterminating the Jewish population was the final solution posed by Nazism for those who professed that religion. The Holocaust has been categorized as a genocide. In the concentration camps, the Hebrews died of starvation, torture, medical experiments or gas chambers.
In addition to the Jews, homosexual men and gypsies were also exterminated in concentration camps.
It is estimated that more than 1% of the victims killed during the Holocaust were homosexuals, and more than 3% belonged to the Roma. None of these people were considered belonging to the Aryan race and for that reason they were exterminated in the concentration camps.
Anyone who did not comply with Aryan purity should be exterminated. It was also the case of disabled people, who failed to meet the parameters established by Nazism and were therefore exterminated in concentration camps.
On the other hand, since Nazism and fascism were often at the far right, German communists and social democrats who had been previously illegalized were persecuted and killed. Many of them suffered extermination in the concentration camps.
9- Displacement and adaptation of the population
World War II produced many territorial changes. In the course of the conflict, the Axis powers occupied much of the European and Asian continent.
Once this was completed, the map changed and the defeated powers suffered geographical changes in their territories, which caused displacement of the population of those nationalities to other areas. One of the great territorial gains was received by Poland at the expense of Germany.
The Soviet Union also took territories from Romania. Between France and the United Kingdom they seized of all the Italian colonial empire in Africa. The United States took possessions in Oceania. Some of today still remain, such as Guam, American Samoa or the Northern Mariana Islands.
Much of all these territorial changes were sponsored by protectorates or missions assigned by the nascent United Nations.
This implied that the population of territories that changed their sovereignty had in many cases to emigrate to others or to adapt to a new colonizing power, with all the burden that implies such as language, customs, symbols, traditions, laws and different cultural practices.
10- Destruction of infrastructure
Much of the European continent was destroyed. World War II was a predominantly aerial war, where bombing was part of daily life. Countries such as the United Kingdom were affected throughout the conflict by German bombings.
But Germany itself, especially in the last years of the war, was devastated. The bombing had as main victims the civilian population.
The Marshall Plan helped rebuild affected cities and towns. In Japan, the destructive impact was even greater after the nuclear bombardments that made the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki virtually cease to exist.
References
- Aracil, R., Aracil M., R., Oliver, J. and Segura A. (1998). The present world: from World War II to our days. Barcelona: Edicions Universitat Barcelona.
- Berenbaum, M. (s.f.) The World Must Know. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- Hunt, N. and Robbins, I. (2001). The long-term consequences of war: the experience of World War II. Aging & Mental Health, 5 (2), 183-190. Doi: 10.1080 / 13607860120038393
- Office of the Historian (s.f.). Marshall Plan, 1948. Office of the Historian. Retrieved from history.state.gov.
- Snyder, T. (2010). Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Basic Books.
- Yépez, A. (2011). Universal history. Cambridge: Oxford University Press.
- Suárez, C. (2014). Simultaneous Interpretation and the Nuremberg Trials. Alcalá: University of Alcalá.
- Yépez, A. (2011). Universal history. Cambridge: Oxford University Press.