Second World War
Second World War was a worldwide war that began on 1st September 1939 and lasted up to 1945. The war largely involved many countries, especially the superpowers that formed two large opposing military alliances, the Axis and the Allies. During the war, a total of about 10 million people were involved from over 30 nations, with the countries investing their total scientific, economic, and industrial capabilities to outdo the other (Stone, 2013). This process thus blurred the military and the civilian resources and ending up being the deadliest conflict ever recorded in the history of mankind with a recorded 70 to 85 million deaths. Many died as a result of genocides that included the Holocaust, diseases, massacres, and premeditated deaths (Stone, 2013). Many reasons caused the onset of the war, majorly due to a lack of understanding and appeasement between nations. This paper seeks to discuss the various causes of the Second World War, the major battles and their outcomes, the rise of Hitler and Nazism as well as the use of the atomic bombs in this war.
The League of Nations was formed in the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, a move that was aimed at stopping any future world wars. This organization aimed at preventing armed conflicts through peaceful arbitration and negotiations (Stone, 2013). The first lack of appeasement that caused the Second World War was witnessed in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, when Ethiopia was invaded by Italy under the leadership of Benito Mussolini, being launched from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. This move greatly exposed the weakness of the League of Nations when thy failed to counter Italy’s move to violate Article X that was in the League’s Covenant. France and the United Kingdom both had their support for the imposed sanctions on the invasion by Italy, but unfortunately, there was a lack of enforcement to end the invasion process as discussed by Stone, (2013).
Although there was also a Treaty of Versailles that had sought to stifle expansionism through militarist policies, it was also not able to control Germany from going against the agreement. Under the Nazi administration, there was an expansion program by Germany that was aiming at the restoration of their rightful borders of its historical times as pointed out by Lee, (2013). In line with this aim, the nation reorganized its military under the command of Adolf Hitler, invading territories and building a more powerful fighting army for a major war, despite going against the treaty. On the other hand, France and Britain turned a blind eye, afraid that if they countered Germany from their move, an example being when Hitler moved his troops back to Rhineland, he would start a major war, therefore gave him room to have what he wanted. In the end, instead of ending the war, the process postponed it, which occurred later (Neville, 2006).
Adolf Hitler and his Nazis had risen into power when they took over the control of Germany in 1933 and 1934. They turned the nation into a dictatorship country, ruling in a very harsh mode and being very hostile towards the Jews and the Treaty of Versailles (Lee, 2013). They were, somehow, able to solve the crisis of unemployment through their heavy spending of funds on militarizing the nation. Hitler was also able to deploy diplomatic tactics at times that were making reasonable demands. In the instances where their demands were not honored, they used war threats, and in the case where there were concessions, he accepted the terms and heading out to make new demands. In cases where his opponents were appeasing him, he would accept the gains being offered and heading out to the next. He was very aggressive in his ruling tactics, and finally, his strategy worked according to him when Germany ceased being a member of the League of Nations, heading forth to reject the Treaty of Versailles. After the rejection of the Treaty, he started to re-arm the nation with the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, as well as re-militarizing Rhineland, as well as forming an alliance, the Axis with Italy under Benito Mussolini. Additionally, he further seized Austria and Czechoslovakia before forming a peace agreement with Russia under Statin (Lee, 2013).
The war took many directions all over Europe and the Pacific. Germany had started with attacks on Poland on 1st September 1939. The United Kingdom gave an ultimatum to Germany to cease the move, which ended in Britain and France declaring war on Germany, followed by New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and Australia after the ultimatum was ignored. The western Allies also started the war on Germany, which ultimately led to the onset of the Battle of Atlantic (Stone, 2013). On 10th June 1940, France was invaded by Italy, which had also declared war on France and the United Kingdom. Germany turned against France resulting in the fall of Paris on 14th June. Towards the end of September in 1940, there was the formation of a Tripartite Pact, consisting of Japan, Germany, and Italy forming the Axis powers, strengthening themselves for war as discussed by Stone, (2013).
In the Pacific, Japan launched attacks on China but was repulsed, but the war stalemated by 1940. Japan got the support and encouragement from Germany due to their success in Europe, therefore pressurizing the European administrators that were present in Southeast Asia. Japan had plans to make a seizure of Asian colonies under Europeans, as a defensive geographic area up to the Central Pacific as Havens points out (1986). On 7th December 1941, Japan attacked American and British Holdings, including the fleets belonging to America at Pearl Harbor, the landings in Malaya, and the Philippines, Thailand as well as the Battle of Hong Kong. The result was the fatal atomic bomb attack at Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the US, causing Japan to surrender thus bringing the war to an end (Havens, 1986).
In the war, the atomic bombs were used by the US when the Japanese government refused to surrender, as it sought to make more favorable terms of surrender. In the 6th and 9th August, the US dropped two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities in Japan, under the consent of the UK, as it was a requirement by the Quebec Agreement. The aftermath of the bombing was a death of about 129,000 and 226,000 people, many of these being civilians. It remains to be the only case where a nuclear weapon was used in an armed conflict