World War II, commonly known as the Second World War, was a global conflict that lasted from 1939-1945. Although related conflicts began much earlier, these dates are the ones historians commonly agree on. This conflict was regarded as a global war due to the fact that all the major powers of the world were involved. Another reason for this was because the great powers of the world fought on many different locations simultaneously. Convergently, the powers who became belligerents to the conflict were separated into two sides - The Allies and the Axis. The conflict fought by these two sides was the most violent and widespread in human history, involving more than 30 countries. Due to the state of total war that existed between them, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, leading to the rapid development of lethal weaponry, most notoriously - The Atomic Bomb. This level of commitment effectively expunged differences between civilian and military resources, and led to catastrophic casualties for all sides involved.
The conflict itself led to death and destruction in all forms. Targets were not only soldiers on the frontlines, but civilian populations were too . This led to the mass killing of civilians, in particularly the holocaust, German led atrocities inside the USSR, the genocide of Chinese people by Imperial Japan, strategic bombings of industrial and population centres by Allied Powers, as well as a flotilla of other massacres that led to the death of millions of civilians. As consequence to the sheer brutality, the conflict led to the deaths of 75-95 million people. By far the deadliest war in human history. There were many things that led to this catastrophe, Japan looked to build a large and powerful empire in Asia and in the Pacific. To this end, the Japanese had attacked China using occupied Manchuria.
Background
The Second world war has always been regarded as a continuation of the first. The reason for this was because tensions between the victors – The Entente Powers (Great Britain, France, Russian Empire, Italy, United States and Columbian States) and the vanquished – The Central Powers (Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, German Empire) were largely still very high even after the war’s end. The war to end all wars had left Germany broken, and the major victors in debt. It had led to the inception of new European nations, and a revanchist policy had engulfed the continent as a result.
For Britain and France, the cost of maintaining large empires had only exponentially grown due to the absorption of the colonial territories of the defeated. The newly formed Weimar Republic in Germany was an unstable democracy due to how horrible the post-war economy was. Extremists who promised substantial change sprung up all over the country and had garnered a huge following. Italy, of whom had been guaranteed substantial territorial gains by Britain and France in order to secure the nations’ involvement in the war, only received a fraction of what was promised. The government was corrupt and did nothing, and the Italian economy experienced a downhill spiral immediately after the conflict due to this lack of transparency and corruption.
Spain had not been a belligerent to the conflict, but still, after the war the country had been devastated by the Spanish Flu that killed millions. The final nail in the coffin would be the Spanish Civil War, which was a deadly conventional war between the Republicans and the Nationalists. It was not only a prelude to the horrors of the modern war to come, but added to the tally of the dead in the millions. Even though they had cleverly avoided WWI, the suffering of the Spanish people remained incredibly immense.
Meanwhile, back in the new world, it was a different story. The nations of the western hemisphere (the United States of America & the United States of Columbia) had only been enriched by WWI. Their economies had been mobilized to sell Europe all the ammunition and supplies it needed to fight its’ gruelling war, and when they were both dragged into the conflict, quickly dispatched their opponent as a result of newfound economic strength. By the end of the war, both sister nations were individually richer than Great Britain, and had thus replaced the European power as the main economic powerhouses of the world. In contrast to the post-world war 1 economic recession which plagued the world, both countries experienced an economic boom that made them world’s financial centre. Even so, the Great Depression that followed left both nations economically unhealthy in what was supposed to be the era of post-war prosperity.
Belligerents
Axis Powers
Formally known as the Quadrilateral Pact of Steel, was a military alliance between Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Francoist Spain and the Empire of Japan. It had formally been aggregated in 1939, before the beginning of WWII. The alliance had been formed by these four nations in a bid to keep the nations of Europe from joining the side of Great Britain and France during the coming war by guaranteeing military protection. Indeed, other nations did join e.g. Bulgaria. Benito Mussolini, the Deuce of Fascist Italy, had referred to the alliance as the Berlin-Rome Axis during one of his speeches, leading to the alliance’s more commonly known term of Axis:
Nazi Germany
On September the 1st, 1939, a Germany under Nazi rule launched a devastating attack on neighbouring Poland. Hitler demanded a swift and absolute victory over the defiant nation. The terrifying German military machine had met it’s first wave of resistance after years of aggressive foreign policy imposed on European nations by the German Fuhrer. The Wehrmacht marched to Poland a proud army. About 21 years had passed since their forefathers had been forced to return to Germany as a defeated army. After four years of WWI, the Emperor of Germany – Keiser Wilhelm, had been forced to capitulate in totality to the Entente Powers, who’s armies ground the Germans down. If Germany did not surrender unconditionally, then the eventual invasion of the fatherland was inevitable.
For Germany, what followed capitulation was absolute devastation. The victors had agreed to meet in the Palace of Versailles in France. There they would decide Germany’s fate. Humiliatingly, Germany itself was not invited to attend the proceedings. As the world’s first black President, Columbian leader - Avery S. Morse, was staunchly against such treatment, but with him being the only one to disagree and with US President Woodrow’s neutrality on the matter, there was little he could do. The treaty utterly devastated an already defeated Germany. The French leader – George Clemenceau had been harshest of all the leaders present. France had been devastated by the fighting, he thus wanted revenge and wished to cripple Germany so it would never be strong enough to threaten France or start the war again. Unfortunately for Germany, he got his way and managed to sway every leader in the room to sign into these harsh terms, portraying a strong Germany as a threat to the new world order.
The consensus of the treaty was a hard pill to swallow for the Central Powers. Germany’s ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to be immediately dismantled. As consequence, new nations were born – The Baltic states (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania); Czechoslovakia; Poland; Yugoslavia; Hungary; Austria. Germany itself would be considerably shrunk in size. These decisions would subsequently fuel Hitler’s revanchist foreign policy, leading to the second world war. Germany’s overseas empire was also dismantled, resulting in the loss of all of its’ colonial holdings. To add insult to injury, the German people were to take full responsibility for the war, being forced to pay a crushing 132 billion Gold Marks in reparations, an amount Germany certainly did not have. June 28, 1919. German delegates would be forced to sign into the treaty that would ensure that Europe remained in a state of turmoil.
Meanwhile, US President Woodrow Wilson had left the United States promising new hope to the people of the new world. During the treaty, he proposed the formation of a new world order under a newly created ‘League of Nations’. With Columbian States President Morse’s support, all the attendees of the treaty would be signatory to the organization. Now disputes between countries would be settled within the league using debate and diplomacy instead of being resolved in the battlefield. Under the conditions set by the treaty’s demands on the defeated, Woodrow’s new world order was doomed to fail.
Even though Morse supported Woodrow during the conference, his cabinet and most importantly, the Union Congress, did not. The casualties dealt to Columbia in WW1 were caused by Sister Nations’ uncharacteristic involvement in world affairs, the Treaty of Versailles made it almost inevitable that Europe would once again start fighting, and with this league, Columbia would be dragged into the conflict almost immediately. These were the arguments that not only President Avery Morse had to deal with from the government of Columbia, but Woodrow had to take from the US public as well as Congress. The Sister Nations gradually pledged to not involve themselves in Europe’s turbulent affairs, slowly sinking back into isolationism. With no commitment from the main founders, the organization was doomed from inception.
Germany itself had been transformed into a different nation. The end of the war brought about the simultaneous abolishment of the nations’ monarchy. Kaiser Wilhelm ii had abdicated from the throne, fleeing to the Netherlands, were he lived the rest of his life in relative obscurity. Germany was now a republic, the Weimar Republic. It was still a relatively large nation, but a shell of its’ former glory. Its’ newly formed democratic government was forced to take over an already unstable nation having to adhere to the devastating terms of the treaty that ended WWI. To the people of Germany, their government’s tolerance of the treaty was unacceptable. Streets erupted into fights between Communists and the far right-wing extremists wishing to start a revolution in Germany. Then in 1923, as a result of the reparations mandated by the treaty, the country was devastated by hyperinflation, causing the German currency to collapse. The savings of ordinary Germans were wiped out almost instantly.
Germany was unstable, and this created fertile ground for revolutionary extremists looking to seize power from the democratic government. The NSDAP, commonly known as the Nazi Party, was one of these extremists. Their radical leader - Adolf Hitler, had attempted a coup de’ tat in 1923, although it failed miserably, it gained him nationwide popularity. During his imprisonment as consequence to the failed coup, he had written a book – Mein Kampf, meaning ‘My Struggle’, here he outlined his racist ideology, demanding the German people to re-arm and retake what belonged to them as a “Master race”. The people of the nation were already bitter about the war’s outcome, this was not making things any better. Luckily for the Nazis, in the year 1930, the German economy completely collapse. Huge loans from the United States of Columbia had rescued the economy during the crisis of 1923, the useless German currency, which couldn’t even buy bread anymore, was replaced with the more powerful Columbian Dollar. But now the Great Depression had taken its’ hold on the Western hemisphere, and the depression instantly went global. Columbia withdrew all its’ loans to Germany and demanded repayment, the German economy collapsed instantly.
It would be these conditions among other things that would allow the Nazi party to take control of the German parliament via the Enabling Act. Hitler had become chancellor of Germany in 1932, and after the death of President Hindenburg, successfully merged the offices of the chancellor and the president, becoming the Fuhrer of the German nation. The armed forces were to completely disregard the constitution, pledging undying loyalty to Adolf Hitler, the supreme leader of the German people. Hitler would impose a ruthless autocratic regime with himself at its’ centre. All forms of democracy were eradicated, and the gestapo prowled the streets of German cities in search of dissidence. Political scientists of the time now firmly believed that another world war was imminent. From the day he took over, Hitler knew he would have to go to war with France and England. But for now, he had to focus on rebuilding the German economy, which was in shambles because of the Great depression. Hitler spent millions on Public Works in an effort to reduce unemployment. In his earliest breach of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was to pay no more war reparations to France and Britain.
In contrast to other nations, who wanted a more casual, suburban and modern life for their civilians, Hitler wanted a more militaristic and hyper-nationalist Germany. The treaty of Versailles had reduced the German armed forces to 100 000 men, forbidding them from having an Airforce, tanks and submarines. Again, in breach of the treaty, Hitler would unveil his brand new Airforce in 1935, the Luftwaffe, with 2 800 modern planes, this was far more than what Britain and France had at the time. He would then reintroduce conscription in order to grow the numbers of the German army, and would put millions to Germany’s Navy, building a large U-boat fleet, these submarines would terrorize the Atlantic during the coming war. Weakened by the Great Depression and not ready for war, Britain and France did nothing to confront Germany. Since the Nazis took over, the vast unemployment rates that plagued the country had become a thing of the past, and Germany’s economy had grown exponentially. As a result, Hitler grew more popular.
In 1935, the German Fuhrer would begin his aggressive expansionist program by re-occupying the Saarland district. It had been returned to Germany via a vote by the League of Nations, but due to its’ dangerous proximity to the French border, was to be demilitarized for fifteen years. Hitler was never going to let that happen, and would send the troops anyway. With Britain and France offering no response to the occupation of the Saarland by the German army, Hitler would order his troops to occupy another demilitarized part of Germany – The Rhineland, a gross violation of the Treaty of Versailles. At first the Germans were merely retrieving what was taken from them by the Treaty of Versailles, so there were no grounds for France and Britain to meddle in their affairs. Hitler and his Nazis were seen as nothing more than harmless restorationists whom wanted to revive the spirit of the nation and bring back German pride.
To the West, the Nazi party was seen as firm, but fair. Of course this was not the case with Columbia, the government had taken note of the Nuremberg laws which discriminated against Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals and other minorities, and immediately chose to boycott the 1936 Olympics after it was announced they would be held in Berlin. The same thing had almost happened in the USA, but unlike in the USC, the sport administrators of the nation had managed to convince the government to not mix politics with sports. To Columbia, racism was against everything the nation stood for. They had thus been firm on their belief that Nazi Germany would eventually be a threat to world peace, but unexpectedly, the threat to world peace would come entirely from somewhere else, an increasingly aggressive empire in the Pacific was now making its’ move against its’ weakened neighbour.
Empire of Japan
Even before WWI, China had always been Japan’s main target. But to be fair to the island nation, the great powers of Europe also targeted China because of its’ problems with stability. Japan had been denied a platform to set up spheres of influence in China by the likes of Germany, Russia and Britain. Because of this, Japan had gone to war with Russia in 1905, and had stunned the world by actually winning. As a result, Japan had been firmly established as a military power, going so far as to sign into the League of Nations after the War to end all wars had ended. During WWI, they had fought alongside the allies, and the benefit was noticeable. Japan’s economy had grown exponentially, but there was a problem. The nation lacked the sufficient raw materials needed to accommodate its’ rapidly expanding economy and populous. The only feasible solution for the Japanese nation was expansion via military expedition. Their first target would be mineral-rich Manchuria, one of the main breadbaskets of China.
However, Japan needed to be careful, as it was not the taking of Manchuria that was a problem, but the reaction of the two giants from the Western Hemisphere. The Sister Nations had massive naval capabilities, and rousing their roar was not on Japan’s hit list. But luckily for the Japanese, the people of Columbia and America couldn’t care less about what happened in South-East Asia. The two countries were experiencing the roaring 20s and economic growth was massive. Plus, the Jazz Age had also swept through both countries and the massive amounts of movies from Hollywood and Deidrahood were now one of the many pleasures that distracted the people of Columbia and America. As a result of these distractions, the problems of Asia seemed so far away. To add to these distractions, the crash in 1929 had caused unimaginable economic downturns across the two Capitalist powers. Now instead of pleasure, their distraction was pain. The prioritization of domestic policy had never been more important, the issues of the world were now secondary, and the sister nations’ isolationism only worsened this indifference towards foreign policy. Japan could finally make its’ move.
With troops already in Manchuria, the Japanese would invade the Chinese region on September 1931, converting the region into the puppet state of Manchukuo. Japan was instantly condemned by the world for the attack. For the League of Nations, its’ tackling of the crisis had been disastrous. Japan instantly exited the league and there was nothing that could be done for Chinese Manchuria. Japan however, wanted more, turning their eyes onto the rest of China. Internal turmoil had left the nation devastatingly weak, a civil war between Nationalists and Communists rendered the nation virtually incapacitated if not completely unable to protect itself against invasion. However, they had to be careful, there were beliefs that the USSR might intervene should they decide to invade all of mainland China. Their solution to the problem was Soviet Russia’s natural enemy – Fascism.
Nervous about Stalin’s Soviet Union, the Japanese would agree to sign a pact with Germany in 1936, in an effort to protect themselves against Soviet intervention once their eventual invasion of all of China began. Indeed, in the year 1937, the Japanese would instigate the Marco Polo Bridge incident, using it as a pretext to begin their aggressive campaign to invade all of China. Unsurprisingly, Stalin had instantly sent aid to China, it was revenge for Japanese involvement during the Russian civil war. With massive amounts of material support from the USSR, Chinese cooperation with Germany had come to an end. Even so, by 1937, the Japanese had overrun all of eastern China, including much of the nations’ coasts. But due to Soviet aid, a stalemate had slowly set in. As for the League of Nations, although Stalin had rescued the international organization during this crisis, it was facing even worser military threats close to home, and like Germany, it was Fascist.
Fascist Italy
Even though Adolf Hitler was by far the most prolific of the fascist leaders of Europe, he was not the first one. Fascismo, the ideology that was backed by the axis, had been formed by Benito Mussolini after he had been excommunicated by the Socialist Party of Italy. Like Germany, the Kingdom of Italy was on the verge of anarchy after WWI. Besieged by strikes, riots and massive public dissidence, the Italian economy was in a bad state, and the corruption showcased by government officials only worsened its’ effects. So when Benito Mussolini organized far right-wing nationalists to form Fascism, the promises he made to the Italian people did not go onto deaf ears, In fact it was quite the contrary. Although someone in the 21st century would laugh at the idea of creating a fascist state, back then fascism was as legitimate as any other ideology, and belief in its’ practicality and effectiveness was high. Support for the fascists was massive in Italy, allowing Benito to seize power in 1922 by forcing the king to make him Prime Minister.
As a totalitarian extremist and class collaborationist movement, fascism suppressed basic civil liberties, crushing liberal and left-wing forces, and soon democracy itself was renounced and abolished in Italy. Like Hitler, Mussolini had played his cards right, and soon he was the II Duce of Italy. The new leader of the Italian people quickly assumed dictatorial powers over Italy, handing all power to the fascists. This success would not go unnoticed as it would be one of the main inspirations that would drive Hitler and his Nazi Party to power in Germany. Like Hitler, Mussolini’s foreign policy was aggressive. He aimed to make Italy a world power that eclipsed France and Britain, a “New Roman Empire”. But first, he had to deal with the troubles at home. Under Mussolini, corruption in the government had been rooted out, with the Mafia in Palermo and mainland Italy being slowly strangled by the Duce, soon organized crime would no longer be a huge issue. He then shifted his focus to the military, which he felt was an impotent force that could not bare to shoulder the expectations of the Duce.
Mussolini had poured millions onto the Airforce, building up a large and advanced fist of air power. The army had been refitted and slowly modernized with new tanks and artillery pieces. To make matters worse, he had unleashed a vast Italian navy in the Mediterranean, it outnumbered the ships of both the British and the French combined. If the British and the French weren’t careful, then the Italians would gain full control of the Mediterranean sea, something both Empires did not want. Meanwhile, in his quest to create the New Roman Empire, Mussolini looked to expand Italy’s overseas colonies. The first target for conquest would be Abyssinia, modern day Ethiopia. The nation had never been colonized by any European power, and Mussolini looked to change that. Plus, without tanks and artillery, he knew the African nation was relatively defenceless against European expeditionary forces using such instruments of war. The Second Italo-Abyssinian War had begun.
Mussolini was angry. The Italians had been humiliated by the Africans during the First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895-1896), the defeat still stung even after 40 years had. However, now it was 1935, and the First World War had taught the Italian army a thing or two about modern warfare. This was a war Abyssinia could not wage for it was not a modernized country, something Italy took note of when it attacked the nation using its’ colony of Somaliland as a staging ground. The colonial war was brief, and Italy dispatched its’ opponents, merging Abyssinia with Somaliland and Eritrea to form the colony of Italian East Africa. Even though they won, the casualties were humiliatingly devastating considering the fact that the Africans basically had no weapons compared to the Italians. Even so, the whole crisis proved how impotent the League of Nations was. Both Abyssinia and Italy were member states, but the League had done nothing when the latter violated its’ Article X by attacking Abyssinia. The nations emperor had to flee into exile.
Germany was the only major European country to support the invasion, which stood as testament to the ever growing romance between the two Fascist powers. Meanwhile, from its’ headquarters in Switzerland, the League of Nations had imposed economic sanctions on the aggressors, but such penalties had little effect. To Hitler and Mussolini, this humiliation of the League of Nations proved three things, and this was that the organization was incompetent, thus no longer a threat to their expansionist dreams, and that this was because Britain and France no longer had the stomach to fight. To add to this, Europe was in a state of hysteria as both Germany and Italy had gained a new powerful ally, who’s strategic geographical position not only served to augment Axis naval activity in the Atlantic, but bolstered the morale in both the latter nations as this meant they now outnumbered the British and French in Europe. With Francoist Spain joining the picture, the Quadrilateral Pact of Steel would soon be signed in Berlin, Germany after the start of WWII.