The end of the World War II
During the war, there were some conferences where the leaders planned and organized the
future of the world once the war was finished:
In December 1943, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met in Teheran, Iran planed the final
strategy for the war against Nazi Germany and its allies, and set date for Operation
Overlord (invasion of Normandy)
In Bretton Woods, USA (July 1944) Representatives of 44 nations established
International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development
Yalta (USSR) February 1945, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin: final plans for defeat of
Germany and postwar Europe plans.
The United Nations Conference took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San
Francisco, California. At this convention, delegates from 50 countries signed the
foundational treaty of the United Nations.
On 11 July, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier
agreements about Germany, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender
of all Japanese forces. When Japan continued to reject the Potsdam terms, the United
States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
early August. On 15 August 1945 Japan surrendered, on the deck of the American
battleship Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.
Economic consequences:
The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although WWII participants were
affected differently. Recovery was sped up by the liberalization of European economic
policy that the Marshall plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused.
The post 1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle.
Also the Italian and French economies rebounded.
By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and continued relative
economic decline for decades.
The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid
increase in production in the immediate post-war era.
Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful
economies in the world by the 1980s.
China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.
Political consequences:
Austria became a neutral state, non-
aligned with any political bloc.
Germany was divided onto western
and eastern occupation zones
controlled by the Western Allies and
the USSR. The alliance between the
Western Allies and the Soviet Union
had begun to deteriorate even before
the war was over, Germany had been
de facto divided, and two independent
states, Federal Republic of Germany
and German Democratic Republic were
created within the borders of Allied
and Soviet occupation zones,
accordingly.
In an effort to maintain peace, the
Allies formed the United Nations,
which officially came into existence on
October 1945, and adopted The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
in 1948.
Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to
establishment of Communist led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet
occupation authorities. As a result, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania,
and East Germany became Soviet Satellite states.
Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy causing tension with the
USSR.
The long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the Cold
War, would be accompanied by unprecedented arms race and proxy wars. Post-war
division of the world was formalized by two international military alliances, the United
States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
In Asia, the United States occupied Japan and administrated Japan's former islands.
Korea was divided and occupied by the US in the South and the Soviet Union in the North
between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in
1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately
to the Korean War.
In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist
forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China, while nationalist
forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949.
In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and
the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
While the European colonial powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial
empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful,
leading to Decolonization.
Human consequences
About 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million soldiers and 40
million civilians. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, almost
half of all World War II deaths.
The Nazis were responsible for the Holocaust, the killing of approximately six million
Jews (overwhelmingly Ashkenazim), as well as two million ethnic Poles and four million
others who were deemed "unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally ill,
Soviet prisoners, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Romani) as part
of a programme of deliberate extermination.
Between 3 million to more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese, were killed by the
Japanese occupation forces.
While many of the Axis's acts were brought to trial in the world's first international
tribunals, incidents caused by the Allies were not: the mass-bombing of civilian areas
in enemy territory, including Tokyo and most notably the German cities of Dresden,
Hamburg, and Cologne by Western Allies, which resulted in the destruction of more
than 160 cities and killing a total of more than 600,000 German civilians might be
considered war crimes.
The Soviet gulags (labour camps) led to the death (about 4 million people) of citizens
of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German
prisoners of war (POWs) and even Soviet citizens who had been or were thought to be
supporters of the Nazis.
Technological consequences
Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers and ground-support, and
each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included airlift and air bombing. Anti-
aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defenses such as radar and surface-to-air
artillery. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered.
Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with
aircraft carriers and submarines.
The tank evolved into the primary weapon.
Other technological and engineering feats achieved during the war include the world's
first programmable computers, guided missiles, modern rockets and the development
of artificial harbors and oil pipelines under the English Channel.
The Manhattan Project led to the development of nuclear weapons.
