Download 22_The Consequences of World War II

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22. Reading – The Consequences of World War II
Mark Callagher
Introduction
World War II remains the largest ever conflict the earth has ever seen. Most countries of the earth
were drawn into the conflagration which resulted in an estimated 50 million dead, and countless more
wounded, many carrying both physical and emotional battle scars for years to come. The war also
revealed the worst kind of atrocities ever known to man in the form of genocide.
The war would also leave its lasting mark on the world. Old nations became swallowed up by the
Soviet System while new nations would grow out of the old colonial system which had started to
disintegrate.
A new unified and effective world body would replace the old League of Nations, growing is
membership from approximately 40 countries to nearly 200 in 50 years.
Finally, the world would become divided into two ideological camps, each side boasting massively
destructive atomic weapons. This new age of Cold War would last for nearly 50 years.
Timeline Review
Theatres of War
There were five principle theatres where World War II was fought:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Western Front
Eastern Front
Mediterranean (includes North Africa and Italy)
Far East (includes Pacific and Asia)
Atlantic
1939
Western Front
Eastern Front
Mediterranean
Far East
Atlantic
Mar
Chamberlain
guarantees British
support of Poland
1 Sep
Germany invades
Poland
3 Sep
Britain & France
declare war on
Germany
Mar
Germany invades
Czechoslovakia
1 Sep
Germany invades
Poland
17 Sep
Russia invades
Poland
Nov
Russia invades
Finland
Fascists, under
Franco, win
Spanish Civil War
Sino-Japanese
war continues
May
Japan attacks
Russians from
Manchuria - fails
Start of German
U-boat attacks –
to cut off British
supplies
Autumn
Germans sink
Courageous and
Royal Oak
Dec
British sink Graf
Spee
1940
Western Front
Eastern Front
Mediterranean
Far East
9 Apr
Germany invades
Denmark &
Norway
10 May
Germany invades
Belgium &
Netherlands
14 May
Germany invades
France
27 May–4 Jun
Dunkirk
10 Jun
Italy enters war
22 Jun
France surrenders
Jul – Sep
Battle of Britain
Sep
Blitz begins
Mar
Finland & Russia
make peace
Oct
Italy invades
Greece & Egypt
Nov
British aircraft
destroy Italian
battleships at
Taranto, Italian
fleet withdraws
Sep
Tripartite Pact:
Germany, Italy
Japan
Hitler begins to
plan campaign
against Russia
Atlantic
Battle of Narvik –
British sink 13
German warships
Jul
First heavy air
Japan plans
raids on Channel
further conquest in shipping
the Far
East/Pacific
Germany gains
control of French
Atlantic ports
1941
Western Front
Eastern Front
Mediterranean
Far East
Atlantic
Mar
Lend-Lease
introduced,
Americans provide
supplies for Britain
11 Dec
Germany declares
war on America
22 Jun
Germany invades
Russia
July
Britain & Russia
sign an alliance
Sep
900 day Siege of
Leningrad begins
Oct
Germans advance
on Moscow
Dec
Russian counter-
Jan
British force
Italians out of
Abyssinia
Apr
Rommel attacks in
North Africa
6 Apr
Germany invades
Yugoslavia &
Greece
May
Germany invades
Crete
Jul
Japan conquers
French Indo-China
7 Dec
Japan attacks
Pearl Harbour
8 Dec
America declares
war on Japan
Dec
Japan invades
Hong Kong,
Malaya,
Philippines,
Apr
700,000 tons of
Allied shipping
sunk
May
British sink
Bismarck
Aug
Churchill &
Roosevelt draw up
Atlantic Charter
Dec
Japan sinks
Repulse & Prince
attack
Nov
Rommel forced to
retreat
Burma
of Wales
Western Front
Eastern Front
Mediterranean
Far East
Atlantic
Mar
First RAF raids on
Germany Cologne
Jul
RAF bombs
Hamburg
Aug
Attempted landing
at Dieppe - fails
Jun
Germans advance
towards Caucasus
Sep
Germans enter
Stalingrad
Jan
Rommel starts
new offensive
Jun
Rommel captures
Tobruk
Jul
Allies win first
battle of El
Alamein
Oct
Allies win second
battle of El
Alamein
Nov
Allies invade
French North
Africa
Feb
Allied troops
surrender in
Singapore
Apr
Japan invades
New Guinea
May
US troops
surrender in
Philippines
Jun
Americans win
Battle of Midway
Aug
Americans land at
Guadalcanal
German U-boat
campaign
intensifies.
Allied losses
exceed production
– 8 million tons of
shipping
destroyed, 7
million tons built
Western Front
Eastern Front
Mediterranean
Far East
Atlantic
Allied bombing
raids on the Ruhr,
Hamburg & Berlin
Jan
German General
Paulus surrenders
at Stalingrad
Jul
Russians win
Battle of Kursk
Sep
Teheran
Conference
Nov
Russians
recapture Kiev
May
Germany
surrenders in
North Africa
Jul
Allied invasion of
Sicily
Jul
Mussolini sacked
Sep
Allies invade
mainland Italy
Sep
Hitler rescues
Mussolini
Americans adopt
“island hopping”
tactics in the
Pacific – gradual
advance
Successful use of
radar and convoy
support groups to
attack U-boats
May
Admiral Doenitz
calls off U-boat
campaign
1942
1943
Build-up of Allied
troops in Britain
1944
US troops
recapture New
Guinea
Western Front
Eastern Front
Mediterranean
Far East
Atlantic
6 Jun
D-Day
1 Jul
US troops take
Cherbourg
Jul
Assassination
attempt on Hitler fails
24 Aug
Liberation of Paris
Sep
Brussels and
Antwerp
recaptured
Sep
Battle of Arnhem
May
Russians
continue to drive
back German
forces
Jun
Germans
surrender in
Belorussia
Aug – Oct
Warsaw uprising.
Russians
advance in Baltic
& Balkans
Jan
Allies land at Anzio
Jan
Allies break through
Gustav Line
Jan – Jun
Battle of Monte
Cassino – Allied
victory
4 Jun
Allies enter Rome
Jun
US troops invade
Marianas – “Great
Mariana turkey
shoot”
Oct
US troops invade
Philippines
Oct
US wins Battle of
Leyte Gulf
Increase in
American
shipbuilding to
provide more
supplies for Allied
troops in Europe
Nov
German
BattleshipTirpitz
sunk
1945
Western Front
Eastern Front
Mediterranean
Far East
Mar
US troops cross Rhine
Apr
Hitler commits suicide –
Doenitz takes over
8 May
Germany surrenders –
VE Day
Jul
Churchill defeated by
Atlee in British election
Jul – Aug
Potsdam conference
Jan
Russians capture
Warsaw
Feb
Yalta Conference
Mar
Russians enter Danzig
Apr
Russians enter Vienna
May
Russians capture Berlin
Jul – Aug
Potsdam conference
Apr
Allies complete
conquest of Italy
28 Apr
Mussolini killed
May
Germans surrender in
Italy
Jan
British re-open Burma
Road
Feb
Americans capture Iwo
Jima
May
Americans capture
Okinawa
6 Aug
Atom bomb dropped on
Hiroshima
9 Aug
Atom bomb dropped on
Nagasaki
14 Aug
Japan surrenders
2 Sep
VJ Day
The Generals
Can you identify these five Victorious Allied Generals below:
Churchill Defeated
Churchill and his Conservative Party had been defeated by the British Labour Party in the post-war
election of July 1945.
“The Two Churchills” by Low, July 1945
The Holocaust
In his 1920s book “Mein Kampf”
Hitler had said that he would rid
Europe of its Jewish population. He
tried doing this once he had
defeated Western Europe in 1940.
Concentration Camps
Initially the Nazis had begun by
throwing political prisoners and
Jews into Concentration Camps in
conquered territories
<caption>Prisoners of the Nazis in a Concentration Camp</caption>
The Final Solution
Once Germany had dominance over Eastern Europe (1941-44) Hitler embarked on the “Final Solution”
– the extermination of all of Europe’s Jews.
Initially mobile killing squads (EinsatzGruppen) would round up Jews in the newly conquered towns of
the east. They would transport them to trenches and execute them. It is estimated that about one
million east European Jews died this way.
<caption>Jews executed on the edge of a mass
grave</caption>
<caption>Jews forced to dig their own grave</caption>
Mass Grave
Over 1000 Ukrainian Jews were transported to this mass grave where they were executed and buried.
Death Camps
The Nazis looked for a “cleaner” and more systematic way to kill the European Jews. They devised the
Death Camp system where gassing and burning of Jews would occur on a mass scale from 1942
onwards.
Location of Concentration Camps and Death Camps – note that all of the Death Camps were in occupied Poland
Extent of Holocaust
The true extent of Hitler’s Final Solution was revealed in the Holocaust. 6 million Jews had been
murdered
<caption>Map showing total number of murdered Jews by
location</caption>
Timeline - Persecution and Genocide Under the Nazis 1933-45
Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany persecuted and killed vast numbers of people who did not
conform to its ideas of racial and biological 'purity'. This timeline takes you through all 12 years of Nazi
rule. But it deliberately deprives you of the benefit of hindsight or a view of the future, ensuring you
experience events in the sequence they happened to those who lived through them.
Hitler did not take power with a clear plan for Jews, 'Gypsies', the disabled and other groups. Instead,
his regime gradually adopted ever more radical 'solutions', culminating in genocide and mass murder.
This timeline will allow you to decide if you too would have accepted the drip-drip of events
that led to killing on an unimaginable scale:
<include>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/nazi_genocide_timeline/index.shtml
<width>715</width>
<height>520</height>
</include>
Interactive Map of Auschwitz
This interactive map explores the complex and surprising evolution of Auschwitz, the scene of one of
the worst crimes in human history. This was where more than a million men, women and children,
most of them Jews, were murdered by the Nazis during the course of World War Two.
But Auschwitz was never conceived as a place to kill Jews. It developed in step with fundamental Nazi
values, constantly changing in response to new 'needs' as the German war effort ebbed and flowed.
As the map demonstrates, the Auschwitz complex served as a concentration camp and an industrial
centre for the exploitation of brutal slave labour - but it was the perpetration of genocide that became
its pre-eminent purpose.
<include>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/auschwitz_map/index.shtml
<width>715</width>
<height>520</height>
</include>
Refugees
There were millions of people of all races on the
move all over Europe.
The Jewish survivors had no-where to go. Some
countries wouldn’t have them back. In many
cases they didn’t want to go back. Many wanted
their own country – This issue is covered in the
Palestine/Israel topic.
<caption>“No Promised Land” by Vicky in pamphlet called
“Aftermath”</caption>
De-Nazification
At the Yalta Conference, Feb 1945, Stalin had wanted to execute 50,000 top Nazis and Military
leaders. Roosevelt thought he was joking and said “not 50,000, maybe 49,000”. But Stalin was not
joking.
The Big Three at Yalta, February 1945
Nuremberg trials
Leading Nazis were put on trial and
charged with war crimes.
Nuremberg was a very symbolic
place to try the Nazis – this had
been the site of the larges Nazi
Rallies in the past.
As a result of the trials 10 were
hanged. Goering killed himself.
Others were put in prison.
<caption>Nazi Leaders on trial at Nuremberg – Goering is on the far
left</caption>
Dividing Germany
After the European War ended, Germany and Austria were divided into four zones: British, French,
American and Russian. This was to be a temporary measure until de-nazification had been achieved.
In the long term it was intended to establish democratic institutions in all European countries freed
from Nazi occupation.
Berlin Divided
Berlin which was located well inside the Russian Sector of Germany was also divided into four zones.
These zones were later to become East Berlin and West Berlin.
Japanese Occupation
The United States had contributed
most to the defeat of Japan. Russia
had been a latecomer invading
Manchuria and the North of the
Korean Peninsula.
The USA wanted to rebuild Japan
into a strong and democratic trading
partner. But some countries feared
the re-emergence of Japanese
military power. Japan was occupied
for six years after World War II. The
United States played the leading
role in the occupation. By the end of
1945, more than 350,000 US
personnel were stationed
throughout Japan. They were led by
General Douglas MacArthur.
Peace Treaty
<caption>American General Douglas MacArthur with Japanese Emperor
Hirohito</caption>
The San Francisco Peace Treaty,
signed 8th September 1951, marked
the end of the Allied occupation of
Japan. It was officially signed by 49
nations. Japan was once again an
independent state from 1952.
Cold War
Mutual suspicions
Now that Germany had been defeated the old
suspicions of Capitalism vs Communism arose
again. Though more to the fore was the issue
of Democracy vs Autocratic rule.
While Stalin had been a wartime ally his reign
of terror at home was overlooked.
Calls for Democracy
In accordance with the Yalta Agreement of
February 1945, the Western Allies called for
free elections in the occupied countries.
Russian Refusal
But the Russians wouldn’t move out of Eastern
Europe and started to install Communist
Governments. They wouldn’t let the Western
Allies have influence in these countries. They
argued that the West wouldn’t let Russia have
influence in Western Europe and Japan so why
should the West have influence in their
spheres of influence.
<caption>“The more we are together the happier we shall be?”
by Carlos, Argentina – Sarcastic takeoff of the Yalta Conference
implying that Churchill and Roosevelt were foolish to rely on
Stalin’s good will.</caption>
Spheres of influence
The result of the post war division of
Germany was quickly leading to the
dividing of the whole world into spheres of
influence. It was fast becoming the Soviet
Communist system versus the Western
Capitalist system
Iron Curtain
Former British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, while visiting the USA in March
1946, gave a very important speech. He
called the Soviet Union the new enemy
which was trying to subjugate the world.
This speech signaled the beginning of the
45 year long Cold War.
<caption>Spheres of Influence in Europe</caption>
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Reconstruction
After six years of war, much of
Europe was devastated with
millions killed and injured.
Fighting had occurred throughout
much of the continent,
encompassing an area far larger
than that in the First World War.
Sustained aerial bombardment
meant that most major cities had
been badly damaged, with
industrial production especially
hard-hit. Many of the continent's
greatest cities, including Warsaw
and Berlin, lay in ruins. Others,
such as London and Rotterdam,
had been severely damaged.
The region's economic structure
was ruined, and millions had been
made homeless.Most of Europe
was in ruins after 6 long years of
war.
To help with the recovery the US
gave assistance to affected
countries.
<caption>View of Rotterdam in the Netherlands after German bombing during
the western campaign in May 1940</caption>
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was named after US
Secretary of State George Marshall. It
was the primary plan for rebuilding the
allied countries but it also served the
purpose of repelling the roots of
communism in those countries.
The plan began in July 1947 and lasted
four years. During that period $13 billion
in economic and technical assistance
was given to help the recovery of
European countries.
It was also offered to the Soviet Union
and its allies, if they would make
political reforms and accept certain
outside controls. Their refusal confirmed
the growing suspicions and mistrust of
the emerging Cold War.
<caption>The red columns show the relative amount of total aid per
nation received through the Marshall Plan</caption>
United Nations
It was felt that there was a need for a new
united and stronger community of Nations.
With the onset of World War II, it was clear
that the League had failed in its purpose – to
avoid any future world war. During the war,
neither the League's Assembly nor Council
was able or willing to meet, and its secretariat
in Geneva was reduced to a skeleton staff,
with many offices moving to North America.
The United Nations came into being in 1945
replacing the impotent League of Nations.
The UN’s original centre was in San
Francisco but it was later moved to New
York.
<caption>Flag of the United Nations</caption>
All the major powers now joined. This time
the United States did not retreat into
Isolationism.
Who Won World War II
Britain
The British Empire was the envy of the world before World War II broke out.
Now Britain was bankrupt. Its Asian empire was pushing for independence and Britain had lost the
means to enforce control.
USSR
The Soviet Union had suffered the most losses in the war. However, It had gained control over Eastern
Europe and had started installing Communist Governments. It now had firm control over Poland to
ensure a future invasion from the west would not happen again. Russia had been invaded three times
from the west through Poland – Napoleon, World War I, and World War II.
Communist influence was also spreading into Southeast Asia and the Chinese Communists, led by
Mao, were fighting a Civil War against the Chinese Nationalists.
USA
The United States contributed the least to World War II and had gained the most. The American
mainland, apart from the attack on Pearl Harbour, had remained untouched. Democratic Capitalism
had taken hold in Western Europe, Asia, Japan, Italy and West Germany.
The USA emerged as an economic power during and after the war; it had gone from a depression to a
boom.
The USA had also developed the Atomic Bomb.
Super Powers
Both the USSR & the USA had become Super
Powers as a result of World War II. The former
European Great Powers would no longer control
the world as they once had.
Victory Parade Absence
Both the United States and the Soviet Union
were absent from the World War II victory parade
in London in 1946. The cartoon alongside points
to this fact plus the status of the new Super
Powers.
<caption>“Among those absent” by Illingworth for Punch
Magazine, 1946</caption>
Conclusion
So was it worth it?
The revelations of the treatment of conquered people, genocide and racism gave a moral purpose to
the Allies of the United Nations whose combined might was to force all three aggressors to
unconditional surrender. There was no doubt among the Allied soldiers about the righteousness of
their cause.
Quote from a historian:
“One can be very positive about World War II. The most important result is: the Nazis were
crushed, the militarists in Japan were crushed, the Fascists in Italy were crushed…and surely
justice has never been better served”