Causes and Consequences of World War II: A Comprehensive Overview

CAUSES: The Great Depression

The Great Depression. European nations sought their own solutions such as applying protectionist measures and competition for markets. Totalitarian regimes. When the Nazis implemented an aggressive policy to compensate for the 'humiliation', the neighboring countries opted for a policy of appeasement, which was unsuccessful and two opposing blocs were formed. Militarism and rearmament. Since Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles by rearming, aggressive speech, military parades, and uniforms once again became commonplace in Europe. Territorial conflicts and expansionism. The old conflicts reignited in the territories that had passed into the hands of other nations after the First World War and Germany reasserted its claim on Austria and the Sudetenland and claimed Alsace-Lorraine and the USSR continued its efforts to expand westward, losing some territories in Eastern Europe. Large scale: 60 countries were involved and 90% of the world was affected. Duration of 6 years. Extreme cruelty: genocide, refugees, extreme suffering of the population. Powerful use of sophisticated weapons: tanks, planes, nuclear bombs.

CONSEQUENCES: HUMAN AND MATERIAL LOSSES:

60 million people died among them civilians, Jews, many injured and also, millions of houses were destroyed like factories, infrastructure and farmland. POLITICAL, SOCIOECONOMIC AND TERRITORIAL CHANGES: One of the most significant effects of the political and economic decline of Europe and the United States became the superpower of the capitalist world. THE NUREMBERG TRIALS: Many Nazi leaders committed suicide after World War II and many others fled and obtained false identities. Those who were captured were put on trial at Nuremberg and many were sentenced to life imprisonment or death.

MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP PACT:

Non-aggression pact, signed by Germany and the USSR.

BLITZKRIEG OR LIGHTNING WAR:

German attack against France thus invading Belgium and the Netherlands and defeating France.

D-DAY, NORMANDY LANDING:

Landing operations where the allies advanced towards Paris, liberating Belgium and the Netherlands.

MANHATTAN PROJECT:

UU.EE research project, in which they developed the first atomic bomb as they thought Germany was creating weapons.

YALTA AND POTSDAM CONFERENCES:

Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met to discuss peace and a new world order such as: trials of Nazi war leaders, creation of the ONU and democratic elections in European countries. In the end, they decided to divide Germany into four zones controlled by the winning countries.

SPACE RACE:

Rivalry between the UU.EE and the USSR to see who would reach the Moon first or to build artificial satellites.

IRON CURTAIN:

Border that separated the capitalist countries from the communists.

VIETNAM WAR:

Minh's pro-communist movement defeated the French in northern Indochina, this being the beginning of the French withdrawal from the peninsula, thus leaving the country divided into North Vietnam under a communist regime and South Vietnam. This produced the intervention of the UU.EE under the Truman Doctrine and a bloody war began and the U.S. was defeated and the two nations were unified leaving only Vietnam.

TRUMAN DOCTRINE:

UU.EE foreign policy that sought to contain the spread of communism worldwide, thus claiming the right to intervene anywhere in the world where there could be a danger of a strategic imbalance favorable to the Communist Bloc.

GREAT LEAP FORWARD:

Politics, to mobilize peasant communes to build large infrastructure projects.

CULTURAL REVOLUTION:

Support program of the Red Guards who attacked, destroyed things and tried to remove traditional culture.

OPEC:

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

WITCH HUNT:

Period in which MrCarthy, a senator, persecuted Americans suspected of being communists or leftists.

I HAVE A DREAM:

Speech given by Luther King at the march on the demand for the abolition of racial segregation.

``ECONOMIC MIRACLE'' of Europe:

Period of great stability in which Europe became one of the world's economic powers.