Global War and its consequences
Total War
The Second World War engulfed directly or indirectly most nations, most of the world’s manufacturing capacity and most of the globes population. The conflict began with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ended with the Japanese surrender in August 1945. The Second World War is usually regarded as the second great military and political cataclysm of the twentieth century. It brought together a fragile Allied coalition of socialists, liberals and conservatives in the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, to oppose the Axis powers of Germany, Japan and Italy and their minor allies. It was a total war in that not only was it between empires and nation-states, but also races and ideologies.
Course of the War
Stalingrad (September 1942 – January 1943) was the decisive battle of the war on the eastern front, if not the whole war. It was the first indication to the rest of the allies that the third reich could in fact be defeated. Another large battle was Kursk (July 1943), the largest tank battle in history. The second World War was the first global war, involving every single continent in the world.
Countries that remained neutral:
Countries that changed alliegances:
· Italy (surrendered 1943)
· Soviet Union (who were invaded in 1941)
What perhaps sets the Second World War apart as a total war were the numbers of non-combatant casualties. For the first time in the history of war, more civilians had been killed than soldiers. In this total war, civilian dead exceeded military dead in the grand total of the over fifty million people killed. Both sides had to defeat the opposing political, social and economic systems and there was no compromise. In a total war, any means were legitimate to secure the over-riding goal of defeating the enemy. The conflict was also a total war in terms of mobilisation of national resources for the war effort.
Conequences of Total War
There were massive human costs: over 50 million deaths, more than half of them in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Added to this were the horrors of the Holocaust; the millions of homeless and sometimes stateless refugees; and the extent of physical destruction and economic dislocation.
1945 marked a symbolic ending of European domination of the world.
The Soviet people paid a far heavier price than their western allies or even the Germans. At least 9 million died in battle or in prisoner of war camps, and 18 million were wounded. Another 19 million died among the civilian population. Deaths during the siege of Leningrad alone were greater than all the civilian and military deaths of the British Empire, the Dominions and the USA.
Two powers emerged from the war: the US and the USSR. America had been nearly untouched by the war (apart from Pearl Harbour) and had a thriving economy and a great deal of national self-confidence. They offered liberal capitalism and social democracy. The USSR had suffered huge human losses and physical destruction during the war, more than any other nation. The Soviets offered Marxist-Leninist socialism or communism.
In the post-1945 world, the power of self-determination and nationalism would be felt on an unprecedented scale. The development of the atomic bomb and its use against Japan, ushered in the nuclear age in which the destructiveness, uncertainty and terror of warfare were heightened.
The second significant consequence of the war was the formation of the United Nations Organisation to help maintain peace, sponsor economic development and protect human rights on an global scale.
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September 1931 |
Japanese invasion of Manchuria following the Mukden incident |
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28 January 1932 |
Japanese bomb Shanghai where the British and American have territorial concessions and trading rights. |
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1 March 1932 |
Japanese announce establishment of a new state, Manchukuo, conquered from the Chinese provinces of Manchuria and Mongolia |
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30 January 1933 |
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany |
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February 1933 |
Japan withdraws from League of Nations, and launches an attack on Jehol, part of China proper |
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October 1933 |
Germany withdraws from League of Nations Disarmament Conference, and from League itself in December |
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1934 |
Germany begins to re-arm |
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9 March 1935 |
Hitler denounces disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles, and admits the existence of a German military airforce (Luftwaffe) banned by the same Treaty |
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16 March 1935 |
Hitler announces the re-introduction of military service, and the expansion of the German peacetime army to 550,000 men or 36 divisions |
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June 1935 |
Anglo-German Naval Agreement |
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October 1935 |
Italy invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia) |
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March 1936 |
German military presence re-established in the de-militarised Rhineland |
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July 1936 |
Spanish Civil War begins |
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November 1936 |
Japan signs anti-Comintern Pact with Germany |
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May 1937 |
Neville Chamberlain becomes British P.M. (Conservative Party) |
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July 1937 |
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident (a bridge near Beijing, China) sparks full-scale war between Japan and China, and the Japanese invasion of China |
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1938 |
Japan installs puppet government at Nanjing, China; Japanese forces take Guangzhou (Canton) and Hankou. Thereafter, Japanese forces become bogged down in China. |
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February 1938 |
Anschluss (union of Germany and Austria) |
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29 -30 Sept. 1938 |
Munich conference grants part of Czechoslovakia to Germany |
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21 Oct. 1938 |
Hitler gives secret orders for German army to make plans for the seizure of Bohemia and Moravia |
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March 1939 |
German forces 'invited' to protect western Czechoslovakia |
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31 March 1939 |
British guarantee to Poland |
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August 1939 |
Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact signed. |
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1 Sept. 1939 |
Germany invades Poland |
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3 Sept. 1939 |
Separate British and French ultimatums for the withdrawal of German forces from Poland expire; both nations declare war on Germany. |
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17 Sept. 1939 |
The Soviet Union invades Poland |
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llate 1940 |
Japan invades French Indo-China; US retaliates by prohibiting export of steel, scrap iron and aviation fuel to Japan |
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April 1941 |
Japan signs neutrality treaty with USSR |
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22 June 1941 |
Operation Barbarossa begins, the German invasion of the Soviet Union |
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23 July 1941 |
Japan invades southern Indo-China |
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25 July 1941 |
U.S.A. demands Japanese withdrawal; U.S.A., Britain and Netherlands freeze Japanese assets to prevent purchase of oil |
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29 Nov. 1941 |
Japanese Prime Minister General Tojo Hideki threatens war unless this action rescinded |
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7 Dec. 1941 |
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor |
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8 Dec. 1941 |
US and Britain declare war on Japan; Germany and Italy declare war on US. |