The crisis Deepens:World War II - Essay Example

Chapter 25 The characteristics of totalitarian s are greater functions and power of the through a single leader and a single party, expectation of active loyalty of citizens to the state’s goals, rejection of liberal ideas (i.e. limited government power and constitutional guarantees of individual freedoms) and significant, if not complete, control of economic, political, social, intellectual, and cultural aspects of life. These characteristics are present in Fascist Italy in the degree that the government curtailed liberal freedoms (e.g. freedom of the press and freedom of speech), outlawed anti-Fascist parties, and aimed to mold Italians to have a single Fascist mindset, especially through the indoctrination of the youth.

These totalitarian characteristics are also present in Nazi Germany through its creation of a single-party, single-leader government (i.e. dissolved other political parties and trade unions), cultural conditioning through mass demonstrations, control over schools and professional organizations, and use of terror to control the masses (e.g. use of SS or guard squadrons who control all regular and secret police forces). Furthermore, these totalitarian characteristics are visible from Stalinist Russia through its forced collectivization policy of agricultural lands, control of cultural values and policies, and murdering of dissidents.

Japan was also a totalitarian state because of its execution of left-wing and minority elements and increasing need to control political, economic, social, and cultural affairs. The underlying causes of World War II are dissatisfaction of Germany with the Treaty of Versailles and the demand for greater power and lands from the side of Germany and Japan due to the rise of nationalist and imperialist sentiments. The specific steps that Nazi Germany and Japan took that led to war are when Germany invaded Poland and when Japan attacked American and European colonies in Southeast Asia.

The main events of World War II in Europe are when Germany and the Soviet Union jointly attacked Poland (which they divided afterwards), the French surrender to Germany in June 22, 1940, and the attack of Germany on Soviet Russia on June 22, 1941 (a failed attack due to the early winter and unanticipated Soviet resistance). The main events of World War II in Asia are Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and assaults on the Philippines on December 7, 1941. The nature of the new orders that Germany and Japan tried to establish in the territories they occupied is a new social order with economic integration and with them as the main leaders (i.e. a new European order with economic development for all nations; for Japan, Asia for the Asians, where Asian countries are freed from European colonial rule).

The conditions on the home front for the major belligerents in World War II are hunger and strife and major role of women in war effort in the Soviet Union, dramatic expansion of the U.S. economy, Germany’s reversal of original program that placed women in traditional roles, and maintenance of traditional female roles in Japan. The costs of World War II are 21 million dead soldiers and 40 million dead civilians, increase in refugees, and widespread devastation. World War II affected the European nations’ colonial empires through the rise in self-determination ideologies.

The Allies’ visions of the postwar world vary through differences in how much they wanted to give their colonies’ freedom and self-determination. These differences contributed to the emergence of the Cold War through the military, political, and ideological differences between the Soviet Union and the United States.