Second World War (1939-1945): Causes and Consequences

 

World War Two changed the world and changed history like no other event in the modern era. From phoney beginnings to global devastation, the course of history was transformed.

 

 

World War Two created a new world:

• It has been estimated that 50 million people died in World War Two.
• The old empires of France and Britain were ruined. A 'wind of change' meant that by the end of the 1960s almost all the old colonies of the British Empire had gained their independence.
• America and Russia were the new 'superpowers', and immediately started on a Cold War.
• The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki created a world which was terrified by the threat of atomic war.
• Germany was divided, and remained so until 1990.
• The League of Nations was disbanded. Instead, a new United Nations was declared.
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  Consequences of Second World War

• End of colonialism and imperialism.
• End of dictatorship in Germany and Italy.
• Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany. West Germany was controlled by Britain, France and USA. East Germany by USSR. (Read more about the re-union of Germany in 1989 when you check our post about the fall of the Berlin wall).
• Strengthening of nationalist movements in Africa and Asia. (From Britain – India, Myanmar, Egypt, Sri Lanka; From America – Philippines; From France – Indo-China; From Dutch – Indonesia)
• 5 crore deaths (2.2 crore soldiers and 2.8 crore civilians)
• Economics problems – Unemployment, low growth etc.
• Emergence of two power blocks – USA and USSR. This resulted in cold war.
• Emergence of third world Countries.
• UNO was set up in 1945.
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