The Second World War: causes and consequences The so-called war to end all wars, the First World War, did not solve any of the problems which had caused it. So, some years later started another world war. The Second World War was the largest and the most violent armed conflict that opposed, between 1939 and 1945, the Allied countries with a democratic ideology countenance to the Axis coalition with a totalitarian character. World War II thus far, has been the deadliest and bloodiest war to date. More than 38 million people died by the end of the war, many of them innocent civilians. It was also the most destructive war in our current history.  Causes: Weakness of the league of Nations Economic downturn Rise of fascism Imperialism Appeasement policy Spanish civil war and the axis alliances Immediate cause (Invasion of Poland) Consequences: Immediate effects Fall of fascism Dismantling of European Colonialism Establishment of the UNO The innovation and progression of technology New World Order and the cold war Third world counties emerge Positive-long term effects CAUSES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR: There were many events throughout the world that led to the beginning of World War 2. In many ways, World War 2 was a direct result of the turmoil left behind by World War 1. Below are some of the main causes of World War 2. Weakness of the League of Nations: In the years following the Great War, international relations were tense and the world began to feel increasingly different. To ensure that nothing as terrible as World War I ever happened again the League of Nations was established in order to maintain peace. However, the league failed to do so due to its weak structure. The organization lacked many of the core ingredients to make it a successful attempt. Above all, the creators of the organization failed to provide an army which made it all too weak to oppose an aggressive attempt by any nation. Observing this weakness of the League of Nations several countries invaded other minor countries in the 1930s creating a welcoming situation for the most disastrous war of all time. Thus, the failure of the league of nation is considered one of the main reasons of the outbreak of the war. Economic downturn: While World War II was certainly a geopolitical event, some of its underlying causes have been revealed to be economic. After the First World War the economies of the European countries have said to be crippled, each of them was struggling with their domestic affairs to sustain the financial stability of their country and for a time being the world was at piece. However, the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 would serve to undermine any attempts at creating a more open, cooperative and peaceful post-war world. Economic downturn is always relied upon to create conditions of civil, political and international unrest. The worsened economic instability caused many nations to turn to other wrong ways to control the situation. Many of the invasions and intervention by the countries were guided by economic condition in the later years. It also facilitated the rise of the totalitarian government in many countries which ultimately became the most significant cause of the occurrence of another major war. Rise of Fascism: The turmoil left behind by the World War 1 triggered political changes in many countries. Many nations overthrew centuries of autocracy and some countries were taken over by dictators. The weary nations of its social and economic conditions cherished these dictators who put a hope of glorious days again. These dictators formed powerful nationalistic, militaristic totalitarianism known by its Italian name, fascism. In 1922, Benito Mussolini established the first fascist, European dictatorship during the inter-war period. Specially, in Germany the discontent population with the humiliations which was put on them favored the rise of Adolf Hitler, the leader of the German National Social (Nazi) Party, preached a racist form of fascism popular as Nazism became the chancellor in 1933.While Francisco Franco in Spain and Hideki Tojo in Japan created the radical government in their respective countries. Unfortunately, each of them brought about a deterioration of international relations that would culminate in a war even more calamitous than the one that preceded it. Imperialism:  Imperialism is a state's extension of power over lands or peoples beyond its borders, including through conquest, acquisition, or the extension of political or economic control. World War II began because Germany and other countries started conquering neighboring lands. With the aggressive expansion into China, Japan started the quest for war a decade before it expanded into a worldwide conflict. Such imperialist conquests like Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in the early 1930s, Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and Germany’s annexation of most of Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938 were all manifestations of the need to expand territories. It was Hitler's desire to expand his country and establish an extensive empire of “living space” (lebensraum) in Eastern Europe whereas; Japan’s invasion was rooted from the search for cheap raw material to build their economy strong. However, these conquests would soon commence into a fully fledged worldwide war. Thus, imperialism played a major role in the origin of the Second World War. APPEASEMENT POLICY After World War 1, the nations of Europe were weary and did not want another war. When countries such as Italy and Germany became aggressive and began to take over their neighbors and build up their armies, countries such as Britain and France hoped to keep peace through "appeasement." This meant that they tried to make Germany and Hitler happy rather than try to stop him. They hoped that by meeting his demands he would be satisfied and there wouldn't be any war. The British and French, overawed by German rearmament, accepted Hitler’s claim that the status of Austria was an internal German affair. As part of their appeasement policy, Britain and France agreed to let Hitler have part of Czechoslovakia in the Munich Agreement. Unfortunately, the policy of appeasement backfired. It only made Hitler bolder. It also gave him time to build up his army. Historians suggest that if they would have resisted aggressive activities in the earlier years German army would have not been so strong to overturn their attack later. Hence, broader cause of the war was French and British appeasement over the German aggression. SPANISH CIVIL WAR AND AXIS ALLIANCES: In 1936, Spain witnessed a major devastating conflict known as the Spanish Civil War which further amplified the power of the fascist leaders in the Europe and created the surface for the future war. Francisco Franco was a Spanish general who wanted to set up a fascist government instead of a Democratic one in Spain. Since this war was a power struggle between two ideologies soon many of the countries came forward for the support of their respective wings. The republicans had the favors of Soviet Union while in order to bolster the right-wing presence in the Europe other fascist leaders including Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo joined Franco in his war. Despite signing the Non-Intervention Agreement these countries openly aided Spain with war materials and soldiers. Some 35,000 to 40,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries rushed to join the International Brigade to defend the republic. While, on the other hand Hitler tried out his new weapons on the side of right-wing military rebels in the Spanish civil war. This venture brought him into collaboration with Mussolini who was also supporting the Spanish revolt. Japan and Germany had already signed the Anti-Comintern pact in 1936 which then Italy joined in the next year. This pact denounced communism and showed their unity in the matter. Further treaties including the Rome-Berlin Axis 1937 and The Tripartite Pact also strengthened the alliance which later becomes the main proponent in provoking war. Thus, The Spanish Civil War proved to be a breeding ground for mass atrocities, carried out by belligerents eager to eradicate their ideological opponent. IMMEDIATE CAUSE (Declaration of War) The immediate trigger for the spread of World War II came with Britain and France declaring war on Germany. In September 1939 Nazi Germany initiated their attempt to invade Poland. In the fulfillment of their military alliance with Poland France and Britain had to come forward to protect polish territories. In response to Hitler’s invasion Britain ended their appeasement policy and announced war against Germany on September 3, 1939. This event came to be known as the ultimate break out of the most disastrous war in history, the World War 2. CONCLUSION: Despite noble aspirations for peace, the outcome of the Paris Peace Conference did more to reinforce hostility by singling out Germany as the sole instigator of the First World War. The Great Depression and the economic protectionism it engendered would then serve as the catalyst for the hostility to manifest itself in the rise of the Nazi Party and increasing imperialist ambitions among world nations. It was then only a matter of time before small imperialist conquests would lead to the breakout of World War II. In the 1930s, the United States found itself largely concerned with the domestic economic troubles of the Great Depression, even as international crises loomed in Europe and Asia. Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Italy, had begun waging a war in Ethiopia using chemical weapons, such as mustard gas, and slaughtering thousands of innocent people. A violent and brutal civil war raged in Spain, staging General Francisco Franco’s fascists against a variegated alliance of Communists and Democrats. Josef Stalin had risen to absolute power in Russia after imprisoning and executing several of his political enemies. Downtrodden Germans had rallied around Adolf Hitler, their new hero and leader, who called for Aryan deliverance after Germany’s humiliation in World War I and launched an aggressive campaign to “unify” the German race throughout Europe. Meanwhile, in the East, Japan had invaded Manchuria and was threatening to conquer China because they were, at the time, virtually unchecked by Western powers, who were preoccupied with problems closer to home. Consequences of the World War 2 The horror of this war is still vivid in the minds of its victims and their families today, and appears to have been, in Western societies at least, a lesson of history which has been remembered and not repeated. World War II was one of the transformative events of the 20th century Change in the world politics Firstly, the decades following the end of the Second World War involved the gradual fall of the traditional great empires and the rise and spread of nation states that replaced the colonial territories throughout the world.  a victory for freedom and democracy. Korea remains divided. Vietnam was unified under Ho Chi Minh. But in World War II, good triumphed over evil. Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and imperial Japan were completely defeated and then transformed into unthreatening democracies that then took their places among the world’s peace-loving nations. And France and the rest of Western Europe were liberated from tyranny Inventions and technology Unlike the First World War which was mainly fought in Western Europe, the Second World War was a truly global conflict. Because of this the entire world was altered and consequences were felt in all countries across the world. The improved communications developed during the war and the replacement of empires with nation states led to the world becoming much more interconnected and “globalised”. It became difficult to avoid the eyes of the world or to act independently – the Information Technology revolution had begun. Two supreme powers and the world war The second consequence was that the events of World War II led directly to the Cold War developing over the next five years. During World War II the leaders of Liberal Democracy, the US, joined forces with the Communist Soviet Union, to break down the Fascist Regime. When this was completed in line with the end of World War II, it left these two differentiated societies virtually competing against each other for world power. The development of nuclear weapons during World War II also heightened the tensions leading up to and felt during the Cold War. The fear of nuclear war and/or terrorism persists today. Death toll Finally, the most horrific and probably the most consistently remembered consequence of World War II was the monolithic death toll. Although statistics vary, it is thought that approximately fifty six million people, including both military personnel and civilians, were killed during World War II (Hitler.org website, 1999). Included within this number are the deaths that resulted from Hitler’s Holocaust. The systematic method of killing associated with the Holocaust is one feature which differentiates it from other mass killings throughout history. Detailed lists of current and future potential victims were meticulously kept and considerable effort was put into finding more effective means of increasing the killings (World War II website, 2010). As a result, over six million Jews were killed along with an estimated 11.5 million Slavic civilians, Prisoners Of War, political dissidents, handicapped, homosexuals & Jehovah’s Witness in extermination camps (World War II website, 2010). represented a deep-seated trauma for the continent of Europe. The devastation caused by the war made Western Europe’s leaders understand that the future of their states depended upon greater European cooperation and integration. These were the most important consequences of the greatest armed conflict in history: Human cost: almost 60 million deaths, with 40 million of them in Europe. The majority of the victims were civilians. Material cost: important population nuclei and infrastructures were destroyed. Territorial changes: numerous European territories changed hands, while others were occupied and lost part of their sovereignty. This was particularly true of those that fell under the influence of the USSR. World War I involved 32 nations from 1914 to 1919. It redrew the world map and reshaped many borders in Europe. The collapse of the Russian Empire created Poland, the Baltics, and Finland. The Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, Turkey was established. The German Empire became Germany, and Germany lost substantial territory outside Europe. Mass migrations Consequently, upon liberation, many of these people were left without any family and nowhere to go. There was a mass migration of Jews leading to the creation of Israel, which has had a profound effect on world politics and today is one potentially one of the most likely causes of future conflict. Children, particularly the very young, suffered loss of identity with no parents to claim them and no family connections. Many were sent to England to live with foster/adoptive families (Williams, Sandra, 1993). Social changes The loss of a large proportion of the world’s young people, particularly men changed the way society operated with women more likely to perform tasks previously taken on by men. End of colonialism and imperialism. End of dictatorship in Germany and Italy. Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany. West Germany was controlled by Britain, France and USA. East Germany by USSR. (Read more about the re-union of Germany in 1989 when you check our post about the fall of the Berlin wall). Strengthening of nationalist movements in Africa and Asia. (From Britain – India, Myanmar, Egypt, Sri Lanka; From America – Philippines; From France – Indo-China; From Dutch – Indonesia) 5 crore deaths (2.2 crore soldiers and 2.8 crore civilians) Economics problems – Unemployment, low growth etc. Emergence of two power blocks – USA and USSR. This resulted in cold war. Emergence of third world Countries. UNO was set up in 1945.