World War II - Research Paper Example

s 18 April World War II .1939-1945 Wars in general and ive term, could be understood as those aggressive acts involving either two or a number of nations for the settlement, of any conflicting issues of territorial/geographical, political, economic or social nature. History has recorded and proved time and over again that such aggressive act of violence against any nation has resulted in changing the face of the earth and has produced profound effects on any involved country’s global and political standing. It is not the matter of who wins or loses the war because despite the fact, every nation gets affected by its negativity in one way or the other. Our world history has detailed accounts of many important wars which has changed the world map accordingly but two wars have always considered as of having greater affect globally and much violent that any other war. This essay compiles the details about World War II. It is an attempt to provide authentic research material for understanding what caused this war, how it was started and how it ended. If we look at it in a statistical manner then World War II started in 1939 and ended in 1945 but this essay is not about when it started. To have an in depth and comprehensive analysis of second world war, we will have to look back a decade or more to understand the reasons for which a war of such a magnitude became unavoidable and inevitable. Covering a span of over 26 years of pre-war state, during and post-war from 1919 to 1945 it will incorporate all the major events that defined and shaped the future. Its foundation was laid soon after the World War I which raged in Europe from 1914 to 1918. It was fought between the central powers including Germany, Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian and the allied forces which included United States, Italy, Britain and France. It can be termed as the aftermath of the World War I. The great first war saw the allied forces as victors while the central powers were on the losing side. Naturally the winners wanted the losers to pay and so a peace agreement namely the Treaty of Versailles was formed which contained enough substance to punish and humiliate the nations who lost. (Goldstein) As the latter two sides ceased to exist, only Germany was left to bear the victor’s brunt. There were the territorial losses as the part of the agreement for peace with which new nations were formed taking parts from Germany and the Soviet Union. Also the Austro-Hungarian regime was divided into newer states namely Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Those Germans who were parted and divided due to the formation of new states were called Ausland Deutsch (German Outsiders). So a grudge started building against the central powers in Germans and European nations. Then another reason which proved decisive in paving way for a second world war was the great depression which started in 1929. This changed the economic stature of many nations and global economy literally crashed. This produced devastated effects on the economy of Germany and European nations because they were already shaken due to the war debt. The European nations were so weakened by the war that the newer global economic downfall caused their economy to utterly collapse. This brought an end to the perception that capitalist and democratic political environment prevailing so far has failed to secure the boundaries of European nations especially Germany. These aftereffects of World War I produced a negative yet indispensible urge in the Germans and they started developing a strategy for revenge. Soon after this after math of World War I and the great depression which followed, world saw the unexpected emergence and popularity of two dictators the Italian Benito Mussolini and the German Adolf Hitler. Germans who were helpless and starving to death needed a dictatorial regime that could provide an instant solution to their problems. They instantly accepted Hitler as their leader and soon the national socialist Nazi party was formed in Germany. The Nazi party continued to gain popularity and on January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler became the prime minister or chancellor of Germany under the presidency of General Paul Von Hindenburg. Later in March 1933 after a re-election Hitler was granted unlimited powers for four years (Brune). He then became a real dictator by controlling police department, outlawed all other political parties, abandoned catholic organizations, seized the funds of trade unions. After the death of Hindenburg in 1934, he became the president. His acts were never challenged because he also worked to re-establish the country’s economy and industry. He denounced the Treaty of Versailles in 1935 and started preparing for war. He established the fact in German’s minds that the second war was justified for correcting the wrongs of the First World War and to bring back the Ausland Deutsch. Under the leadership of Hitler, Germany occupied Austria and Sudetenland in 1938, thus, forming a base for war. Similarly the world was on the brink of another war and it brewed in other parts of the world alongside Germany. In Italy where Mussolini came to power in 1922, wanted to make Italy a global super power so soon he started to expand Italy’s territories. He invaded Ethiopia in 1935. While in the Far East, Japan invaded China in 1937. Then seeking a common goal, Adolf Hitler signed pacts with both Italy and Japan and all three became a group of invading nations known as the Axis Powers. It was called the Non-Aggression pact. The war officially broke out in Europe on September 1, 1939 beginning with the attack on Poland by the Germans and Slovakians. In response to this invasion Poland appealed to the world so France and Britain in collaboration with commonwealth countries declared war against Germany. As in World War I, in the second war those who fought against Germany were called the allied forces. Aiming to damage Germany’s economy and war effort, they started a naval blockade of Germany on September 3. On September 17, soviets also invaded Poland as its territories were divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. Polish instead of surrendering, formed an underground polish state and home army. They scattered their army to regions outside Poland like Romania and Baltic countries and fought with the Germans (Latourette). But eventually polish had to surrender as their air force was destroyed and army surrounded by Stalin’s army which occupied almost all of Poland. After Stalin’s successful venture and capturing of Poland, Hitler agreed to let him take over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. This was a deal made under the German-Soviet treaty. Finland also was to be a part of this agreement and soviets wanted to take it over but the Finnish people retaliated so soviets attacked Finland. This ended with the Finnish concessions in 1940 (Kulkov and Rzheshevskii). Soviet’s attack on Finland was not received well by France and Britain and Britain launched a Phony War across Western Europe. Meanwhile Japan also was gearing up for war to gain global power and to advance its forces into the land of china, an attack was launched at an important Chinese city names Changsha but its forces met with repulsion. During this time that is in 1940 the axis powers met with maximum successes and by June Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg and France were attacked and conquered by Germany. The battle of Britain began after the fall of France and French ports and air space were used by Germany to invade Britain (Frazee). The German forces codenamed this invasion as Sea lion. It is of much historical importance because this is where the German military failed for the first time in World War II. During the autumn of 1940, Winston Churchill was Britain’s prime minister and the name battle of Britain is derived from his historic speech. It was also the first time during World War II where entire attacks were made through the air forces. German forces outnumbered British with a ratio of four to one. But the advantage which British RAF had was that they were closer to their bases while the Germans had to fly back and forth to their home bases after every attack. Although German pilots were much experienced and had impressive flying machines but they couldn’t achieve their task of making about 160,000 of their soldiers enter alongside a coastal stretch which was forty miles from south east London. Frustrated Germans targeted shipping centers like Portsmouth. Afterwards they launched a series of mass bombing attacks which destroyed Britain’s air forces infrastructure, airfields, air force factories, radar stations and around 22 RAF aircrafts. The raids were made on daily basis and this badly damaged British air force. The climax came when a strategically decision by Hitler to attack the civilians proved to be wrong and the German army lost this battle. This is known as the Blitz. During the time span of September 1940 and May 1941, 60,000 people were killed and 87,000 were injured. In March 1941, the U.S who had played a neutralist role so far during this war, implemented its lend-lease policy which enabled America to lend war and other supplied to the allied forces. This isolationism from America was an outcome of the negative effects of World War I on American economy. Later in June 194o, Hitler planned to invade the Soviet Union because he thought if USSR is not able to provide help to the British, then there is a good chance for Germany to conquer Britain. In June 1941, Hitler launched the operation Barbarossa in which three groups of German army attacked USSR from north, south and center (Manning). It is the largest of all invasions during any war consisting of 3.9 million troops from the Axis powers. But Hitler could not succeed in his plans and ultimately this attack made Stalin realize the need for joining forces with the allies and together they declared war on Germany. Hitler attacked again with Operation Nordlicht and Battle of Stalingrad but failed. This was followed by the United States entering the war and the event which caused this change of attitude was Japan’s bombing on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 (Pierce). This surprise attack from Japanese was in response to the decision of President Franklin Roosevelt to not to help japan in their war with china and trading of gasoline and iron was prohibited. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed eight battleships which badly damaged the pacific fleet and over 2000 people died. Now America had war on two fronts the pacific and Europe. This paved way for the battle of midway but before this the Japanese military captured various Pacific and Asian regions namely Singapore, Malaya, Philippines, Burma, Guadalcanal and New Guinea. The battle of midway is yet another turning point during the World War II, which was an important naval battle. It was fought during June 4-7, 1942. The Japanese attacked midway atoll considering it will be a success like the Pearl Harbor, but luckily for America, their code breakers warned about the details of this attack from japan in advance. This time around the US had planned to surprised japan and lured them to midway. During the fight, Japan’s naval strength was utterly destroyed because of which Japan had to take a defensive position in the upcoming World War II events. In 1942, war also was spread in North Africa and Germany was defeated at Stalingrad. This was the most important land battle in the war. German and Italian forces were defeated by the British forces at the decisive battle of El Alamein and the allies started advancing towards Germany. In 1943, the war was suddenly in the favor of the allies and Soviet troops drove Germany out of their territory. German troop also had to surrender in North Africa. Whereas the U.S progressed towards the Japanese troops present in the pacific islands. U.S captured most of the key islands and outflanked Japan’s defenses in New Guinea. The D-Day for World War II arrived on June 6, 1944 with the battle of Normandy (Arnold). It was fought between Germany and the Allied forces and was codenamed as Operation Overlord and Paris was successfully cleared of German forces by 25 August. The allies also lured Germans out of Italy, and Germany now was on defensive side. Germany’s last effort for pulling up a fight against the allies with the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 proved unsuccessful to prevent allied forces from entering Germany. By 1945 the US had occupied significant areas of the Pacific, and its forces very tactfully conquered Philippines. By April 1945 Germany had lost the war completely and Hitler committed suicide on April 30, followed by Germany’s unconditional surrendering on 7 may, 1945.this is termed as the V-E Day. The U.S made attacks on Japan and destroyed Japan’s navy completely, Captured Okinawa and Iwo Jima in the pacific and invaded Japan’s homeland by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 8 consecutively. This led to a complete surrender from Japan’s side on August 14, 1945. In this way the war which started in Europe was put to an end in the pacific. Afterwards the allied Forces occupied Austria and Germany, divided Germany into two parts west and east. West went to Soviet’s control and the East went under allied control. This laid the foundation of the United Nations to control conflicting nations and maintain peace throughout the world. Works Cited Goldstein, Margaret. World War II: Europe. Twenty-First Century Books, 2004. Print. Brune, Lester. Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations: 1607-1932. Routledge, 2003. Print. Latourette, Kenneth. The Twentieth Century in Europe. Taylor & Francis, 1962. Print. Kulkov, E.N, and Rzheshevskii, Oleg. Stalin and the Soviet-Finnish War, 1939-1940. Routledge, 2002. Print. Frazee, Charles. World History the Easy Way: A.D. 1500 to the Present. Barron's Educational Series, Barron's Educational Series. 1997. Print. Manning, Jeanne. A Time to Speak. Turner Publishing Company, 2000. Print. Pierce, Alam. The Bombing of Pearl Harbor. ABDO, 2004. Print. Arnold, Clinton. Powers of Darkness: Principalities & Powers in Paul's Letters. InterVarsity Press, 1992. Print. Read More