World War 2 was one of the deadliest armed conflicts in human history that lasted from 1939 to 1945. In this research paper, we will explore some key events, causes, and impacts of World War 2 through an in-depth analysis and discussion.
One of the primary causes of WWII was the rise of fascism in Europe following WWI and the economic and diplomatic policies that failed to contain fascist expansionism. The largest fascist state was Nazi Germany under the dictatorial rule of Adolf Hitler and the far-right nationalist Nazi party. Hitler aggressively sought to undo the constraints placed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles that had ended WWI. He remilitarized the Rhineland, annexed Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.
Hitler also forged an alliance with Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italy and signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to divide Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. Meanwhile, imperial Japan under military fascism was aggressively expanding its empire into Korea, Manchuria and China seeking natural resources and territory with scant regard for Western colonial sensibilities in Asia. Japan also rejected withdrawing its forces from China after seizing Manchuria in 1931.
A major flashpoint that propelled the world towards total war was Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. This triggered declarations of war against Germany by Britain and France who had security guarantees towards Poland. With most of Europe and Asia under the influence of fascist and militarist governments, the stage was set for a global conflict. While both Britain and France hoped war could be constrained, Hitler now had a free hand in Europe. Between September 1939 and April 1940, Germany rapidly occupied much of Western Europe and Scandinavia barely encountering military resistance except in Norway.
The spectacular defeat of France in June 1940 and the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk was a major turning point. With France occupied and much of Western Europe under Nazi domination, Britain now stood completely alone against Hitler. Winston Churchill replaced the discredited prime minister Neville Chamberlain and vowed Britain would fight on. The Battle of Britain during the summer and fall of 1940 saw the German Luftwaffe attempt to gain air superiority over southern England as a prelude to invading across the English Channel. Despite intense bombing of British cities, the RAF defending Britain managed to turn back the Luftwaffe. A planned seaborne invasion, Operation Sea Lion, was postponed indefinitely by Hitler as Germany lacked naval supremacy.
While Britain stood against Hitler, the situation in Asia deteriorated as Japanese militarism continued on its path of conquest. In September 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, ending its nominal alliance with Britain and further isolating the Western democracies. Between 1937-41, Japan invaded and occupied much of coastal China and was brutally suppressing the Chinese people. In July 1941, Japan seized French Indochina after the fall of France further straining tensions with the U.S, Britain and Netherlands who had colonies in the region. The isolation of both Britain and China increased their dependence on the U.S which remained officially neutral at this point. But president Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented an ” lend-lease” policy to supply Britain, China, and later the Soviet Union with war materiel to continue resistance.
As Hitler consolidated his control over Europe, he increasingly turned his attention towards the Soviet Union with the goal of acquiring its agricultural and mineral resources for Germany. On June 22, 1941, without a formal declaration of war, three million German troops suddenly invaded the western Soviet Union on the largest land invasion in history. This move surprised Stalin who was still recovering from purging his senior military leadership. The swift German advance managed to gain dramatic territorial gains initially, surrounding entire Soviet armies. By late 1941, Germany had advanced deep into western Russia almost reaching the gates of Moscow and Leningrad. The brutal German campaign, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, underestimated the resilience of the gigantic Soviet war machine and the will of the Russian people to defend their motherland.
At the same time, the United States was becoming increasingly drawn into the conflict despite officially maintaining neutrality. By mid-1941, Germany was blockading/attacking U.S ships and Roosevelt had effectively switched to an “All aid short of war” policy with Britain. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the major U.S naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii without a declaration of war. In a matter of hours, the Japanese had devastated the American battleship fleet anchored there and inflicted heavy casualties. The very next day, Hitler and Mussolini opportunistically declared war on the U.S, bringing America fully into the widening global conflict. Now with the industrial might of America fully committed to defeating Germany, Italy and Japan, the momentum began shifting decisively against the Axis powers.
In early 1942, Japanese forces had achieved rapid early successes, invading the Philippines, Malaya, Dutch East Indies, Burma, conquering Hong Kong and threatening India and Australia. By mid-1942, Japan had formed a vast empire from eastern Russia to the islands of the central Pacific and South-East Asia, but overextended its finite military resources. Meanwhile, in North Africa, the British had halted the German-Italian advance in Egypt at the Second Battle of El Alamein under General Bernard Montgomery in late 1942.
In 1943, tide started turning decisively as the Soviets halted the German assault before Moscow and launched a massive counter-offensive. Germany and Italy were also driven out of North Africa. That year Allied bombing campaign severely degraded German industrial production while on the eastern front Germany suffered massive casualties and defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk. In 1944, the massive Soviet summer offensive pushed Germany out of Russia and the Balkans while Allied troops invaded France on D-Day and advanced from Italy. The same year witnessed intensive Allied bombing reducing German cities to rubble. Japan too was gradually losing its grip in the Pacific and China as American naval and air power became preeminent.
By 1945, the massive Soviet offensive pushed the exhausted Wehrmacht out of Eastern Europe towards Berlin while the Western Allies swept across Germany and invaded from the west and south. In the Pacific, American naval and air power gradually choked off Japan from its conquered empire and brought the war to the Japanese home islands. Germany was closing in on total collapse with its cities destroyed as Hitler committed suicide when the Soviet army stormed Berlin. On May 7th and 8th, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Western Allies and Soviets. Then on August 6th and 9th, the U.S dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing over 200,000 civilians and inducing Japan to finally surrender on August 15th, bringing a formal end to WWII.
The scale of death and destruction wrought by WWII was unprecedented in human history. Over 60 million people perished, including about 27 million Soviet citizens and over 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. The conflict saw major technological advances in aircraft, tanks, submarines, artillery, rockets/missiles along with the development of radar, code breaking and the atomic bomb. The map of Europe, Asia and political/strategic alignments were completely redrawn in the aftermath. WWII ended the global empires of Germany, Italy and Japan and resulted in Soviet control over Eastern Europe with Cold War divisions hardening soon after. Above all, it reinforced the roles of the U.S and Soviet Union as global superpowers that shaped much of the postwar world and international relations for generations to come with ideological divisions intensifying, laying the seeds for future conflicts.
WWII was the result of failed peace settlements after WWI, widespread economic distress of the 1930s magnified by the Great Depression, and the rise of aggressive, militarized and expansionist fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and Japan that rejected the international status quo. It marked a decisive shift in the global balance of power and heralded a new postwar order dominated by the U.S and the Soviet Union with Europe laid to ruins and much of Asia under new masters. Truly, WWII was a pivotal watershed event in 20th century history with deep and long term geopolitical, economic and social consequences still being felt globally even today.
Andrew Stroud