World War II, up to this date in World History was the most devastating war even ever on record.  Lasting from 1939 to the middle portion of the 40s it can be said almost every part of the world experienced the impact the fighting from the war produced.

Prior to the Second World War Western Europe was considered the hub ofworld authority and leadership.

However, this all changed after the Second World War.  The power then shifted to the Soviet Union and the United States.  Additionally, the evolution of nuclear warfare opened the door to the age of nuclear weaponry.

Therefore, we have already named two significant historic occurrences, that being:

1. The shift of world leadership and power; and,
2. The advent of nuclear weaponry.

The war was so catastrophic in proportions that the precise number of fatalities will never be truly known however we can approximate a total count of nearly 17 million as far as military personnel.  Civilian fatalities are estimated as even far greater in number.  Civilian deaths were the result of lack of food; air-raids, diseases affecting mass numbers of people and other causative factors associated with the war.

Unlike most wars, the battlefield was spread, as mentioned prior, across most of the earth.

When individuals, who are not familiar with World War II, start to study its impact, many individuals are quite surprised to discover how many areas of the world where the Second Great War took place.

Armies were found in Asia as well as the arid deserts of Africa and the Islands within the Pacific Ocean.  Additionally, the war was fought within the Soviet Union; in the Atlantic and at many of the ports of Europe.

The Second World War began on the first of September in the year 1939.  This is the date of Germany’s invasion of Poland.  Adolf Hitler, as many students of history and historians are aware, was the leader of Germany.  Germany was considered a dictatorship.  Hitler had been working rather aggressively in building up the country’s military strength.

Germany overtook:   Denmark, Poland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway Belgium and France.  The British were the only people who had not been over-powered by Germany’s terrific force.  All of the other countries mentioned had succumbed to the Germans by the month of June in the year 1940.  It was also in June of that year that Italy joined the war effort alongside of Germany.

Shortly after Italy’s alliance with Germany, the war continued to rear its ugly head in northern Africa as well as Greece.

Germany captured the Soviet Union in June of 1941.  The United States was attacked by the Japanese that same year on December 7th.  This was the historical date of Japan’s attack on Pear Harbor in Hawaii.

Japan had successfully invaded a good portion of Southeast Asia as well as many of the islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The military alliance known as the Axis Powers consisted of Germany, Italy and Japan.

Eventually, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria as well as the states of Croatia and Slovakia teamed up with the Axis powers.

The main powers fighting against the Axis (powers) consisted of the British, Americans, China and the Soviet Union.  This alliance was termed the Allies and by the end of World War II there were more than fifty countries within this group.

Although it can be said that Germany along with its other forces had become a most formidable foe, the military partnership of the Allies had been able to halt the Axis’s advance into Northern Africa in the year of 1942.  The Allied powers were also successful in halting the Axis’s progression into the Soviet Union and into the Pacific Islands within that same year.

In 1943, the Allied forces entered Italy, and in 1944 landed in France.

The Allies attacked Germany from the west as well as the east during the final stages of the war in 1945.  Consecutive fighting in the area of the Pacific eventually led to the Allies entering Japan within the summer of 1945.

Germany officially surrendered to the Allied forces on the Seventh of May, 1945; and Japan surrendered soon after on the Second of September of that same year.

The damage of the Second Great War was most catastrophic.  An enormous portion of the continent of Europe lay in a pile of ruins.  A great deal of Asia was also destroyed.

Millions of survivors were devastated as to the impact created by the War.

The two most powerful nations on the planet were now the Soviet Union and the United States.

The alliance, the two nations shared during the Second Great War now began to deteriorate.  This was due to the Soviet Union’s interest in “pushing Communism within the continents of Asia and Europe.

As you may have surmised by now from our overview, World War II is a very complex war and many aspects will need to be covered in order to fully understand its intensity and the significant change it brought to the world (as far as a shift in world power.)

Why this War?

Most historians seem to agree that the issues left unresolved from World War I perpetuated the event of the Second World War.  World War I occurred during the dates of 1914 to 1918.

Additionally, it can be said the treaties associated with World War I tended to cause economic as well as politically motivated social problems.

Many believe leaders prone to be opportunists took advantage as to the issues left hanging from the First World War.  As we move along in this text, you will find this presumption to be abundantly clear.

Dictatorial leaders, within the Axis Alliance found conditions “ripe” in the acquisition of new lands and regions.  This fact alone put such leaders in disaccord with the powers aligned with democratic thinking.

That said, this brings us to one of the underlying existing problems that may be easily surmised as leading into the Second Great War:  The (Peace) Treaty of Paris.  In the year 1919 members of different countries met in the city of Paris in order to put together treaties relative to the countries that suffered defeat.  The treaties are termed collectively as the “Peace of Paris”.

The treaties were put together rather quickly and by nations with opposite ideas in comparison to the defeated countries.  In the end, neither the winning or losing side was pleased (or completely satisfied) with the treaties.  In particular, Japan and Italy were very displeased after the Conference on Peace was adjourned.  One of Italy’s dissatisfactions was that it had received not nearly the amount of land the country desired and the nation left the conference vowing to one day rectify the situation.

The Japanese were able to maintain power over the German territories they had acquired.  This fact alone made them interested in the acquisition of more land.

However, Japan was not at all pleased that the drawers of the treaties of peace did not acknowledge equality between the aligned powers.

The losers of World War I including the nations of Austria, Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey were particularly unhappy (with the treaties).  Basically, the preceding nations had territories taken from them as well as weaponry.  In addition, making matters even worse, they were required to pay war reparations.

A particular treaty, The Treaty of Versailles, signed by Germany was uniquely unkind to the country.  The Germans only signed this particular treaty after the victors threatened to invade the country if they did not sign it.  Therefore, the country was forced to sign the document with one hand tied behind their back—so to speak.  Within the treaty there was wording to the effect that the Germans had caused World War I and, therefore were responsible for it.  Naturally, this statement found within the text of the treaty angered many Germans.

On top of the treaty issues of World War I there was also a host of economic maladies.  The economic conditions of the European nations were in disastrous shape.

Nevertheless, an established principle of peace was still the goal.  Suffice it to say that in the decade of the twenties, every effort was made to achieve a long-lasting peace initiative.

The first measure, in the year of 1920 was the formation of the League of Nations.

The League of Nations intent was to establish a place wherein various nations might settle their differences.  The League possessed limited authority as to motivating nations to adhere to various ethical and financial sanctions.

In example, at the Washington Conference that occurred during the years of 1921 and 1922, the primary Navies each agreed to limit their resources and weaponry in accordance to a fixed variable.

Next there is the Locarno Conference held in the year of 1925.  This meeting produced a peace assurance as to the German and French lines of boundary as well as an agreement of arbitration between the nations of Poland and Germany.

The Paris Peace Pact was executed in 1928 where sixty-three nations agreed to settle all of their disagreements in a pacifist manner.  Out of the sixty-three countries all of the primary powers signed the treaty with the exception of the Soviet Republic

One of the goals of a winning party from the First Great War was to make the world secure by means of democracy (or in precise terms “to make the world safe for democracy.”)  Germany, after World War I put together a democratic constitution as a result of this idealism.  This action was also true of other countries as they involved themselves in the process of rebuilding after the war.

In any event, it is my belief as well as a good many historians that the unresolved issues of the First Great War lay the groundwork for what was yet to come meaning World War II and its devastating impact.