Analyze the consequences of WWII. What did the world look like at the end of the war in 1945?
The Impact of the War on Europe
The End of the European Age
Political Consequences
Compared with the peace settlement at Versailles, boundary changes after WWII were relatively slight
Exception of Poland, which saw its border being shifted westwards
No treaty was signed concerning the future of Germany itself, but it was agreed that it will be temporarily divided into four occupation zones
In all the countries that the Red Army had liberated (Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and later Czechoslovakia) one-party regimes under Stalin’s control had emerged by 1948
Economic Cost
Aerial bombing was particularly destructive: very few cities of any size were left unscathed and the result was millions of dead and homeless people
Transport and communication had been seriously disrupted, industry destroyed, and farmland ruined
The "victors" (apart from USA) emerging from the conflict almost as devastated as the losers
Food production had fallen to half pre-war production levels
Britain was bankrupted by the war, and the Soviet economy suffered badly
Human Cost
No other has recorded such a loss of life in so short a time: some estimates put the number of dead at more than 50 million, with 40 million of these in Europe
The impact on civilians in this war was huge: as many as ⅔ of the war dead were civilians
More than 20 million people had been displaced during the course of the war
Many people were forced to move from their homes once the war was over: in all, between 1945 and 1947, approximately 16 million Germans were expelled from the countries of Central an Eastern Europe
The Impact of the Superpowers on Western Europe
With Western Europe’s economic weakness translating into political weakness, the USA was forced to step in to provide economic aid: Marshall Plan in 1948
The USA was spurred into action to do this in order to prevent the weakened governments of France and Italy falling to Communism
On the other hand, the devastation of war and the Communist threat led to a greater measure of economic cooperation in Western Europe than ever before: formation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1950s
The Impact of the War in Asia
The Independence of Colonies
The weakness of Britain and France meant that they found it increasingly difficult to hold onto their empires in Asia (and Africa)
Nationalist movements, such as that led by Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, also grew in strength during their fight against the Japanese
Condemnation of imperialism by the USA and the UN also weakened the moral arguments for having an empire
Although the Europeans tried to return, they found their old colonies unwilling to submit
The Defeat of Japan
Treaty of San Francisco (1951): Japan was to become allied to the Western powers, and was to become economically strong and politically stable
It also became an important military and strategic base for the USA in its fight against Communism in Asia
On the same day that the San Francisco Treaty was signed, Japan and the USA also concluded a separate Security Treaty: this meant that the USA kept military bases in Japan
Japan was eliminated as a major power in Asia
MacArthur turned Japan into a democratic state: the military and secret police forces were dissolved, Anyone who had played a part in ‘Japanese aggression or militarism’ was purged from political office and industry, and a new constitution was introduced
Rise of Communism in China
In China, fighting continued between the nationalist forces of Jiang Jieshi and the Communist forces of Mao Zedong
The conflict led to the victory of Mao in 1949 and the establishment of a Communist China
For the USA, this turn of events served to widen the fight against Communism from Europe to Asia.
Effects on International Relations
The USA and USSR emerge as superpowers
Change in the balance of power: the USSR and the USA emerged from World War Two significantly more powerful than they had been before the war, while the ‘old powers’ of Britain and France emerged significantly weaker
The USA’s economy was strengthened by the war + had the economic strength to prevent a return to instability in Europe
The small Eastern European countries that had been created by the Treaty of Versailles were not economically viable on their own: the USSR could replace Germany in this role
Fort the West, liberal democracy was seen as the right path for the future.
For the USSR, it was Communism that had triumphed over Fascism, and the Communist Party was given a new lease of life
The two superpowers came into direct conflict over how the post-war settlement should be carried out: this tension developed into what became known as the ‘Cold War’
For the USA, this situation meant an end to isolationism and the beginning of a dominant role in world air
Establishment of International Organizations
The United Nations
The UN was intended to be more effective in peacekeeping than the League of Nations had been
With the onset of the Cold War and the possession of the veto in the Security Council by the USA and the USSR, the UN found itself marginalized in the superpower conflicts that dominated international politics after 1945