World War II and the Post-War Era: A Concise Overview
World War II
Introduction
Causes:
– German Expansionism
– Weakness of the League of Nations and democratic governments
Contenders:
– The Axis: Germany, Italy, Japan
– Allies: England, France, USSR, United States
Scope:
– Europe, North Africa, Far East
– Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans
A highly destructive war due to its scale, the use of powerful new weapons (aviation, aircraft, tanks, nuclear weapons), and inhumane methods of repression (extermination camps, brutal reprisals against civilians, and massive bombardment of cities).
Begins with the invasion of Poland (September 1, 1939) and the subsequent entry of France and Britain into the war.
Development
1. The Blitzkrieg (1939-40)
Western Front:
German conquest in the spring of 1940
§ Denmark – Norway (to secure iron from Sweden and passage to the Atlantic)
§ Netherlands – Belgium – Luxembourg
§ France: division of territory and collaborationist Petain government; emergence of the Resistance
Italy entered the war (June 10th)
§ Battle of Britain (summer 1940) to break British morale.
British defeat in North Africa.
Eastern Front:
§ Poland occupied by Germany and the USSR
§ Russia: war against Finland, occupation of areas of Romania, and influence over the Baltic Republics.
2. Global War (1940-41)
Mediterranean Front: Italy initiated conflict with Greece, Yugoslavia, and Egypt. Italian and German intervention ultimately failed.
Russian Front: Anti-Soviet campaign aimed at the southeast of the USSR and India, launched from Soviet territory.
The Soviet Union entered the war before the German attack (June 1941).
German advance halted at Moscow with the onset of winter and the implementation of scorched earth tactics.
Pacific Front: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941).
U.S. entry into the war.
3. Shifting Tides (1942-1945)
Pacific Front: Major American victories (Midway, Coral Sea) lead to Japanese retreat.
Eastern Front: Soviet counteroffensives at Moscow and Stalingrad (February 1943).
Decisive Soviet victory at the Battle of Kursk (July 1943).
Mediterranean Front: Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria (1942).
Conquest of Italy (Rome liberated in June 1944).
1944: Balkans (Soviet Union/England); Normandy landings and counteroffensive towards Germany.
1945: German Armistice (May); Atomic bombing of Japan (August); Japanese surrender (September 2, 1945) and the end of the war.
The Victorious Powers and Consequences of War
§ United States, Britain, and the USSR held conferences to plan the end of the war and its aftermath.
1. Tehran Conference (November 1943): Strengthening the Allies through joint military actions.
2. Yalta Conference (February 1945): Division of Germany into four Allied zones of influence. This division would lead to the creation of West and East Germany in 1949.
3. Potsdam Conference (July 1945): Exploitation of occupied zones by the victors:
– Division of Berlin into four sectors.
– Prosecution of war criminals (Nuremberg Trials).
§ Consequences:
1. Division of the world into zones of influence (communist satellite countries). Onset of the Cold War. Decolonization.
2. Territorial losses for the vanquished, with Poland being the biggest beneficiary.
3. Human losses (approximately 50 million dead and 70 million injured). Mass migration (about 40 million displaced).
4. Economic collapse. Only the United States remained an industrial and financial power. Widespread destruction of infrastructure.
The United Nations (UN)
Creation:
• Established at the San Francisco Conference (June 26, 1945) by 50 countries.
· Admitted all democratic (non-fascist) countries.
· Based on the principle of sovereign equality of all its members.
· Current Headquarters: New York
Objectives:
· To maintain international peace and security through peaceful means or the use of force.
· To promote human rights.
• To foster the development of the poorest countries.
Organs:
1. General Assembly:
· Composed of all Member States.
· Primarily a deliberative body.
2. Security Council:
· Composed of 15 members, 5 of which have veto power.
· Exercises executive power (with a 9/15 majority) and its principal objective is conflict resolution.
3. Secretariat:
· Directs the operation of the Organization.
· The Secretary-General participates in Security Council meetings and represents the UN to all countries.
4. Other Organs:
· Created to work on specific aims of the Organization.
· Notable examples: International Court of Justice (The Hague), IMF (International Monetary Fund), WHO (World Health Organization), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), UNICEF, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
Achievements:
• Promotion of human rights.
• Facilitation of the decolonization process.
· Disarmament agreements.
Criticisms:
The UN’s most negative aspect is the partiality of some of its decisions, mainly due to the veto system, which is anachronistic in an organization that aims to advocate for equal rights and democratic functioning.
ITEM 8 – The Second World War
1. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE WARS PERIOD
Two periods are clearly distinguished:
1.1.De Voltage (1919 to 1924)
oPredomina: – the fear of possible revolutions
– The desire for revenge, derived from Versailles
OESA is reflected in:
• The exclusion of the losers that take the Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and Russia in 1922.
· Tensions about economic reconstruction of Germany occupied by France in the industrial Ruhr basin (1923) leading to U.S. intervention to try to solve the situation (Dawes Plan)
• The problem of ethnic minorities, exacerbated by the territorial division after the war> Germans in the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, the Polish Corridor …
1.2.Distensión (1924 to 1931)
oel Dawes Plan (1924)
oel Locarno Treaty (1925), negotiated between Germany and France
– Accepted the borders of Versailles and the revision of the debt.
– Remember the resolution of problems in the Hague Tribunal.
As a result> Germany is admitted to the League of Nations (1926)
oel Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928), signed by sixty nations, which stipulated the renunciation of war.
OPLAN Young (1929) for renewal of the agreements of the Dawes Plan, which prevented the economic crisis.
oConferencia on Disarmament (Geneva, 1932), although the attacks had already begun nationalists.
The end of this period began with nationalist aggression (1931 – 1939):
SBI initiated in 1931 with the Japanese intervention in Manchuria (China), of great natural resources and energy.
oY reinforced in 1933 with the arrival of Hitler (rearmament and abandonment of the League of Nations)
oDestacan: the invasion of Abyssinia, the anti-pact (Japan, Germany and Italy) and foreign intervention in the Spanish civil war.
oCulminan in 1938 and 1939: Annexation of Austria and the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland (after Germano-Soviet pact by which the USSR sought to regain its dominance in the Baltic countries).
ITEM 9 – a bipolar world(Scheme summary)
1. THE COLD WAR
· At the end of World War the world is divided around the U.S. and the USSR:
– 2 different models: – political (democracy / dictatorship)
– Economic (capitalism / Marxism)
– Tensions inevitably by the desire to extend its sphere of influence
· Can be defined as a time of international tensions following World War II, armed even though no direct clashes between the two superpowers that make it through allies.
· First developments:
1. Greek Civil War (1946), caused by the Communists in order to change the country’s political system.
Establishing the Truman Doctrine call: direct U.S. intervention in areas where communism not respect its own catchment areas.
2. Marshall Plan (1947): economic aid to European democratic countries.
3. Berlin Blockade (1948)
– Soviet reaction to the creation of West German (1948)
– Consequences:
1. Creation of 2 German states: R. Federal and R. Democratic
2 blocks 2.Creación military: NATO (1949)
The Warsaw Pact (1955)
4. Asian Conflicts:
* Indochina (1946 – 54)
* Korea (1950 – 53)
In this context that the important process of decolonization on the former colonies become independent countries.
2. PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE
· Causes:
* Crisis in the Soviet bloc (China, Eastern European countries)
* New political leaders (Kennedy – Khrushchev)
* Nuclear threat
* Non-Aligned Countries
· Can be defined as the peaceful coexistence of the Cold War period in which decrease tensions between the blocks to the need for new international relations and the fear of a possible nuclear confrontation.
· Conflicts: Suez Canal (56), the Berlin Wall (’59), Cuban Missile (’62), Vietnam (’56-75), Afghanistan (’79-96), Arab-Israeli Wars (since 1948)
3. REVOLUTION OF 1989. DISAPPEARANCE OF THE SOVIET BLOC
· Causes:
1. Economic Reforms (New NEP) and policies in the USSR led by Gorbachev.
2. U.S. armaments policy > Star Wars
3. Solidarity Movement (Poland)> confrontation with the communist structure
• Acts:
1. Fall of Berlin Wall (1989)
2. Disintegration of the USSR (1991)
3. Yugoslavia (1991). Czechoslovakia (1992)
· Implications:
1. End Blocks
2. Greater possibility of nuclear disarmament
3. The new situation:
* U.S. hegemony > Enemy to beat by any mentality does not conform to their ideological or economic
* Rehabilitation of the East to a new lifestyle
* The importance of Europe> The European Union
Major current conflicts:
* Gulf War (1991)
* Civil war in the former Yugoslavia (since 1991)
* Arab Fundamentalism (11.9.2001: Attacks in New York)
* Iraq.
* Israel: Israelis and Palestinians
Causes of them:
* Weak development
* Strong nationalism
* Difficulty in taking other realities (eg, major cultural differences in the Islamic world about the western world situations of economic exploitation by the developed world in relation to globalization.)
