World War II: Causes, Participants, and Global Impact
Was war inevitable? The panoramic view of international relations seems to indicate it. We have studied previously the shifts toward war, or, put another way, the steps towards the abyss, led to a situation without a hurricane return. This unleashed a war doctrine that surpassed anything hitherto known. New weapons and armies of millions of soldiers sowed desolation in the European continent and later in Asia and Oceania.
Causes of World War II
- After the First World War (1914-1918), the signed peace treaties between nations were weak and unfair to some countries, resulting in discontent among the population and a desire for revenge.
- The Treaty of Versailles significantly reduced the territories of Germany and Austria, including German-populated areas.
- Great ambition and rivalry existed between some countries, especially those who had lost territory in the Great War.
- The need to demonstrate military power to achieve military and political superiority over other countries.
- The desire to control and dominate certain areas to exploit their natural wealth. Hitler wanted to be a terrestrial version of what England was at sea.
- Ethnic problems, according to Hitler’s philosophy regarding the purity of the “Aryan race”, as expressed in Mein Kampf.
- Conflicting ideologies: liberalism, capitalism, socialism, and Nazi-fascism, the latter being a totalitarian system born in Italy and Germany after the War.
Source: portalplanetasedna.com.ar
The Second World War: A Global Conflict
The Second World War was the largest armed conflict and the bloodiest in world history, which faced the Allied and Axis Powers, from 1939 to 1945. Armed forces from over seventy countries participated in aerial, naval, and ground combat. World War II began on September 1, 1939, and officially ended on September 2, 1945.
Latin America’s Role in World War II
Several South American countries entered the war later. Brazil was the first. Between July and August 1942, German submarines sank 18 ships from Brazil. Although the Brazilian government did not wish to enter the conflict, public outrage pushed Brazil to declare war on Germany in November 1942, sending nearly 30 thousand troops ahead of Italy. Colombia joined in 1943 because a German submarine sank one of their ships which had transported British troops to the island of San Andres. The remaining South American countries like Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Venezuela entered the war between 1944 and 1945. Chile declared war on Japan in April 1945 but remained neutral against Germany. The union should not get rid of America in 1941, and although South America is given in the Ecuadorian-Peruvian war, all countries tried to find a quick solution, thus obviating the discord between the American countries.
The Central American countries did so well next to Mexico, or next to Brazil, except Costa Rica, which declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, while the United States did.