Economic Aspect of World War II - Essay Example

Economic Aspect of World War 2 al Affiliation) The major cause of a world war is the international disputes of which are usually inseparable from the international feuds that exist between capitalists’ nations and communist nations. This is situation is not different in any way when it comes to World War II. This destructive war was majorly caused by economic reasons in different countries. These economic reasons led to a conflict which could not be resolved in any way but just through going for war. Weapons of mass destruction were largely used in this war, which brought many consequences all around the world. The war mainly caused many economic consequences that resulted in some affected countries lagging behind in development to the extent of not regaining their economic power even many years after the war. The main origin of this war was the creation of the German-Japanese-Italian alliance in the early 1930s. The formation of this alliance was with sole intention of expanding their boundaries by conquering their weaker neighbors. The older colonial powers such as Britain, Holland, and France were not impressed by this move from their rivals. Italy and German had entered into the colonial scramble like their rivals but because they developed late, they lacked the best territories that were strategically placed. The little territories they managed to acquire did not satisfy their increasing demands to expand their boundaries due to the little economic significance that the territories possessed. Tension arouse as the Triple Alliance, Germany, Italy, Japan and Hungary wanted to expand their territories by any means possible even if it was by conquering the Triple Entente’s, Britain, France and Russia, territories. The Triple Alliance wanted to conquer these territories due economic reasons. Most of these territories were rich in minerals such as gold, diamond, and silver. These territories also had rich and fertile lands that the Triple Alliance realized would be useful to cultivate crops that would provide raw materials for their factories (McDonough, 1997). After the First World War, there was a critical breakdown in the international payments system. The production levels in many countries fell, thus affecting the international trade. Rich minerals such as gold was only concentrated in the hands of the capitalists nations such as Britain, USA, France and their allies. Despite the fact that they possessed plenty of gold, these specific nations were also in control of major resources and raw materials all over the world. This economic factor led to a major division of the countries in the world into two major groups. The countries that had access to these resources and those that lacked. The countries that lacked these resources included Germany, Italy, Japan, and their allies. In a move to solve their problem of not having adequate economic resources, they formed a strong alliance and came up with policies that challenged their rivals. These policies included the countries practicing lowballing by selling their products and services at a low cost to get the gold and other currencies needed to acquire the raw materials required by their factories. In some instances these countries resolute to ways of trade that would require gold or other currencies such as the barter trade. These were well-designed policies crafted with the sole aim of tying their trading partners to hold on them and therefore keeping them away from their rivals market. The substitution of the use of gold threatened the trade in the major cities of their rivals such as New York and London. The group that lacked access to gold performed very well in trade despite their drawback of lacking adequate resources. Germany denominated the trade in Southern Europe and Latin America while Japan denominated the market in Southern Asia. Japan forcefully took control over the Manchuria market using armed weapons. In the past, this had never happened in Asia since Japan was not stronger but equally as stronger as the other nations in the region such as China. They started forceful penetration in foreign markets due to the power they got from their alliance. The fact did not impress the Americans and British but brought massive conflicts between them. Similarly, Italy had used such a technique to acquire an overseas market in the eastern side of Abyssinian (Crozier, 1997). The dominant powers initiated a campaign to reclaim the markets they had lost to these totalitarian countries. A major strategy in this campaign involved the boycotting of goods and services from Italy, Germany and Japan. Incentives such as trade credits and trade discounts were given to the countries in Latin America and Southern Europe to win their loyalty back. These campaigns destabilized the economies of the totalitarian countries and caused serious effects. The totalitarian lacked resources and funds to entice the territories that were receiving incentives from the dominant states. They were left with no option but to use forceful to retain the market control in these disputed territories. This led to the breaking up of Czechoslovakia and annexation of Austria. It reached a point when the economic interests between the two groups were highly conflicting. While USA, France and Britain were trying their level best in using incentives to counter German influence in the Southern part of Europe, German was using every means it could apply in order to retain this market. These mainly used force to retain their market control. Tensions arouse to greater heights between the two states and at this point a war was to occur any time. The war was to be initiated by the dominant countries when they become fed up with Germany using excess force to acquire markets in the southern part of Europe. If a war was to erupt those times, it needed the dominant countries to resist the force used by Germany in acquiring territories. The dominant countries were supposed to initiate a similar or greater force to the one produced by the Germans. The British and French did not have the feelings to go for war. This fact delayed the Second World War but immediately the Germans invaded Poland, the war began. After a few years USA and Russia also joined the dominant countries to fight the totalitarian states. This made the war to spread all over Europe and some parts of Asia and Africa. The fight was mainly due to economic factors such as the rivalry in capitalist’s states over control of markets, sources of raw materials and trade routes. Nothing about fascism, democracy, or human rights featured as a reason to cause the fight. After fighting for long the dominant states, become victorious due to their technological advancement, massive wealth possession, and the quantities of their allies (Beevor, 2012). The Second World War had many short-term and long-term economic effects. The short-term economic effects were those effects that were experienced immediately after the war while the long-term effects are those whose effects were passed from one generation to another after the war. The war required a large number of military soldiers from both sides. As a result of these, a majority of men were recruited to join their respective armies. This created a gap in the labour market since these men left their jobs to go and fight. These economies were left with no option but to allow women to fill this gap. Despite this fact having a long-term impact on women’s liberation they went back to their initial schedules when the men returned from the war. These did not help women empowerment as all the experienced they had gained evaporated. The war resulted to the advancement and growth of industries that closely related to the war. Examples of such industries include the ammunition industry, airline industry, and the medical sector. Other industries such as the housing industries lagged behind since the countries that took part in the war channeled their resources towards the war (Góralski, 2006). During the war, the respective governments were forced to take control over the economy. They determined which particular people worked in certain areas. They also practiced control over banking, shipping, and railways. The governments of the countries that participated heavily in the war suffered from huge debts. They had to borrow large amounts of debt since the war was expensive and it took long before it ended. During the war, these countries also did not participate in trade or other economic activities that would bring income. They therefore had to rely on debt to run their normal operations. The war was characterized by massive destruction of wealth. In Britain and Europe, many factories were destroyed resulting to lower production. The production levels fell by approximately 50%. This destruction also led to the reconstruction of houses and other major buildings after the war. The resources used to repair these buildings and other infrastructure would be used to revive these economies from the recession they were facing as a consequence of the war. The training and recruitment of workers was highly interrupted due to the sudden demand of service men that would work in the war. References Beevor, A. (2012). The Second World War. London, UK: Orion Publishing Group. Crozier, A. (1997). The causes of the Second World War. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. GoÌralski, W. (2006). Polish-German relations and the effects of the Second World War. Warsaw: Polish Institute of International Affairs. McDonough, F. (1997). The origins of the First and Second World Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More