THE Second World War it was a conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945 and was responsible for the deaths of around 60 million people (although there are statistics that suggest the possibility of the death toll being higher). The Second World War is, to this day, the biggest conflict in human history and was marked by events such as the Holocaust and the atomic bombs about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Causes
The direct and immediate cause that led to the outbreak of World War II was the expansionism of the Nazi germany. German expansionism manifested the Nazi ideology, who, after coming to power in 1933, sought to form an empire (called the Third Reich) in what was called the Lebensraum, or "vital space”, an area of Europe that, of course, historically belonged to the Germans.
Nazism was born in Germany as a direct result of the outcome of First World War. The defeat and humiliation in that war contributed to the radicalization of German society. The consolidated idea in that society was that the
defeat in the war had been unfair. To make matters worse, the terms of Treaty of Versailles were weighed and considered outrageous by the Germans, and this contributed to increasing a feeling of revenge.Germany, after World War I, experienced its first democratic experience through the Weimar Republic, based on the concepts of social democracy. This period, as a reflection of the war and the 1929 crisis, was marked by a strong economic crisis that led the country to bankruptcy.
This whole situation caused liberal democracy to enter into crisis, but not only there, and this allowed the rise of politicians with authoritarian discourse. One of those was adolf hitler, young Austrian who fought for the German army in World War I and became bitter over the German defeat.
German expansionism was put into practice by Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany.*
When Hitler assumed power in Germany in 1933, he initiated a economic recovery project it is a population indoctrination program. Nazism promoted a real campaign of defamation and persecution, especially against Jews, Social Democrats and communists. In the mid-1930s, the country began to rearm itself.
O german rearmament it was an open challenge by the Nazi government to the Treaty of Versailles, which laid down strict conditions for the existence of the German army. The Nazis' challenges to the treaty did not suffer any kind of response from English and French, and then the Germans left for the territorial expansion of their country.
THE expansionterritorial of Germany was part of the aforementioned idea of the “living space”, the territorial space that the Nazis claimed was an inherent right of the Aryans (ideal of race according to the Nazi ideology). This territorial expansion influenced them to aspire to Austria, neighboring country with a German population.
The annexation of Austria took place in 1938 and became known as Anschluss. Then the Nazis turned to the Sudetenland, region of Czechoslovakia occupied by the Germanic population. The Sudetenland issue led to a diplomatic crisis that resulted in the Munich Conference, in which English and French agreed to the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany.
The condition for this was the end of the territorial demands of the Germans, which was accepted by Hitler. However, this acceptance was a bluff, and soon Germany turned to the Poland, a nation that emerged from territory lost by the Germans in World War I. Increased tensions between Germany and Poland led the French and British to threaten the first war if the second was invaded.
Hitler believed that the French and British would not have the courage to sustain their threats and so ordered the invasion of Poland. German troops entered Polish territory in September 1, 1939, and two days later the French and British declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.
combatants
World War II was a conflict that lasted six years, a period in which two sides faced each other in attacks of gigantic dimensions. Those involved in this war were known as Allies and Axis, being:
allies: its main members were the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and the United States;
Axle: its main members were Germany, Italy and Japan.
The events of World War II reached a global scale and had the participation of nations from all inhabited continents. O Brazil participated in this conflict, and, starting in 1942, he declared war on the Axis, thus joining the Allies.
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phases
To facilitate the assimilation of its content, the events of World War II can be organized into phases, which are:
Axis Supremacy (1939-1941): Phase marked by the supremacy of the Germans over their opponents in Europe through the use of blitzkrieg ("Lightning War Tactic"). In Asia, the Japanese were expanding their territories rapidly across Southeast Asia;
balance of forces (1942-1943): Phase of the balance of forces started with the defeat of the Germans in the Battle of Stalingrad. In Asia, the Japanese had also lost considerable strength, and the situation on both continents was undefined;
Axis defeat (1944-1945): Last phase of the conflict characterized by the downfall of the Axis. Italy was reconquered by the Allies, and Germany and Japan resisted until the almost complete invasion and destruction of their countries.
One of the very important points to understand about the first phase of World War II is the use of blitzkrieg. This tactic was used by the Germans in places like Poland and France. Lightning warfare consisted of a strategy that coordinated artillery and infantry attacks against opposing defenses, seeking to break through the opponent's line. When this happened, German infantry and armor penetrated this breach.
Until 1941, the blitzkrieg was practically unbeatable and allowed the Germans to conquer the Poland, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia and Greece. Thus, the Germans came to dominate much of the European continent and set out to conquer their great adversary: the Soviet Union.
German troops on the move during the first hours of Operation Barbarossa.*
The invasion of the Soviet Union took place on June 22, 1941, through the Operation Barbarossa. The domination of this nation was a central objective of the Nazis, who sought to destroy Bolshevism, conquering the territory to form German colonies and, above all, appropriating the natural wealth of the Soviets — the iron reserves, coal and Petroleum.
The conquest of the Soviet Union was supposed to happen in eight weeks, according to the Nazis' original plan, because they knew they didn't have enough resources to sustain a long-term war against the Russians. When German troops invaded the country, they set out to conquer important targets.
These targets were Leningrad, In the north; Moscow, in the center; and Kiev, Stalingrad and Caucasus, in the south. Leningrad was even surrounded by the Nazis for almost 900 days (the aim was to leave the city starve to death), and German troops were left a few kilometers from Moscow, but were forced to back off.
The south was where the Nazis had big problems. After conquering Kiev, the Nazi troops were divided to take Stalingrad and the Caucasus at the same time. The resistance inStalingrad, however, was gigantic, and this was the biggest battle of the entire Second World War, accounting for over a million dead.
The defeat of the Nazis at Stalingrad was consolidated with the OperationUranus and sealed the country's fate in war. With their economy in ruins, armies tired, and dwindling in numbers, the Nazis were gradually pushed back to Germany over the next few years. The last great defeat of the Nazis in the Soviet Union happened in Kursk, which was the biggest tank battle of history.
The crumbling of the Axis strength also occurred due to the following events:
Defeat in North Africa;
Landing of Allied troops in Italy;
Day D.
In 1945, Germany was a country cornered by allied forces: Soviets from the east and americans and british from south and west. The last great efforts of the Germans in this war were in the Battle of the Ardennes and the final resistance performed in Berlin.
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Second War in Asia
American troops in action during combat in the Pacific War.
The conflict in Asia, also known as WarofPacific, became known for fight between americans and japanese. The war in Asia, however, had been going on since 1937 with the conflict between the Chinese and the Japanese. Japan was a country dominated by a militaristic extreme right that sought to expand their country's influence across Asia.
China was invaded in 1931, which resulted in the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Fights against the Chinese merged with those of World War II. The Japanese even fought the Soviets in the Mongolia region in 1939 and were defeated. After that, they started to prioritize the conquest of Southeast Asia.
Between 1940 and 1941, the Japanese invaded a number of locations in this region and were victorious. The entry of the United States into this war scenario took place when the Japanese attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, resulting in some material destruction for the US Navy and the death of nearly two thousand people.
The attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor took place on December 7, 1941 and brought the US into World War II.
The next day, the Americans declared war on Japan, and the fight between the Americans and the Japanese resulted in battles like:
Battle of Midway;
Battle of Guadalcanal;
Battle of the Gulf of Leyte;
Battle of Tarawa;
Battle of Iwo Jima;
Battle of Okinawa.
Japanese resistance prolonged the conflict until 1945, but its situation gradually deteriorated, and by 1945 the country was trapped and the economy in shambles. In July 1945, the Allies demanded the Japanese surrender, but with the Japanese denial, the Americans chose to plan the atomic bomb drop in two Japanese cities.
how did it end
Europe
Allied bombing of the German city of Dresden in 1945.
World War II ended in Europe after the Battle of Berlin, which happened in April 1945. In this battle, the Soviets mobilized 2.5 million soldiers to attack the German capital. The Germans, in turn, organized a final resistance in a precarious manner and which included the presence of children and elderly people in the rows of their armies.
A few weeks later, Soviet troops managed to enter the Reichstag (German parliament), and shortly thereafter, Hitler and Eva Braun, his wife, committed suicide. Other members of the Nazi top did the same, and the command of the country was transmitted to KarlDonitz, who performed the official surrender of Germany, on May 8, 1945.
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Asia
Image of the explosion caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
The war in Asia continued until September 1945 and only ended when the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese territory. The Japanese refused to surrender when the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, and so the United States prepares atomic bombs to drop on Japan.
The first was released about Hiroshima, on August 6th, and the second, about Nagasaki, on August 9, 1945. The impact of the destruction caused by the bombs forced the Japanese emperor, Hirohito, to surrender unconditionally to the Americans on September 2, 1945.
Consequences
The Second World War, as a landmark event in the history of mankind, carried out profound changes in the world. Starting with the overthrow of the authoritarian extremism of conservative ideologies, the Second World War consolidated the influence of social democracy It's from welfare state in Europe.
After the war, ideological differences between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the beginning of the War Cold — political-ideological conflict between these two countries. The Cold War divided the world into two big blocks, and the tensions caused by it resulted in a series of conflicts throughout the second half of the 20th century.
War crimes committed during this period were partially tried in war tribunals set up by the Allies. The crimes committed by the Nazis, mainly related to the Holocaust, resulted in the creation of the International Court at Nuremberg; and in Asia, war crimes committed by Japan were tried in the International Tribunal for the Far East.
Other consequences brought by World War II were:
Rise of the communist bloc in Eastern Europe;
Creation of UN to prevent genocides like the Holocaust from happening again;
Creation of the Marshall Plan to promote economic recovery in Western European countries.
Summary
The immediate cause of this conflict was German territorial expansionism, and the trigger for the conflict was the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.
THE blitzkrieg it was fundamental to the successes of the German armies in the first phase of the war.
In the war, the Axis fought the Allies, and the end result of the conflict determined the Allied defeat.
One of the most defining moments of the conflict was the invasion of the Soviet Union planned in Operation Barbarossa.
The turning point in World War II was the Soviets' victory at the Battle of Stalingrad, the biggest battle in history.
The defeat of the Germans was consolidated when the Soviets conquered Berlin in April 1945.
The defeat of the Japanese was effected with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After World War II, the world was divided into two large ideological blocs that characterized the Cold War.
*Image credit: Everett Historical and Shutterstock
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