World War II example essay topic

World War II: Causes, and Affects In the history of the world there are many occurrences that have changed life and the world, as we know it. The history of conflicts in the world is just as long as the histories of man have bee recorded. From the beginning the human species survived off of conflict (between various predators and the environment) and has been nourished by the fruits of war since before the rise of the Roman Empire. World conquest has been the goal of many great generals and a great many Kings. Through the years there were many conflicts that were thought to be the worst that ever was and the worst that would ever be (World War I in particular). World war two is said to be the war to end all wars, because of the leaders, the technology, and the effects the war had on the world.

World War II began in 1939. The devastation and destruction caused in this conflict will have a total global effect. The war itself will require many countries to commit all of their military and financial assets in the production of war equipment and in fighting. This was the first war that had civilian death rates that exceeded all previously set records, and from any war since. The battlefield in world war two included all of the territory in the country. The days of strictly trench and open field battles were a thing of the past.

The location of battles and bombings included strictly military sites and also various other locations that were essential to the life and economy of the country involved. The reason this war was different from al of the other wars of the past was that the weaponry has changed from the conventional to the extraordinary. The causes of World War II are linked closely to the end of World War I. The trouble began when the Treaty of Versailles was written. The Treaty of Versailles was written by the powers that won World War I (Britain, France, and US).

They divided Europe up as they saw fit and reduced the territory held by Germany to less than before its series of conquests. The Germans lost all of their colonies and one eighth of its land in Europe (Encarta 98). Italy profited from the war, Italy gained land and power (but still wanted more). The French wanted to make Germany pay the maximum penalty for its four-year occupation of France that began in 1914 (Strauss 14). The German Government was given orders to pay restitution to the countries involved in the war. Germany also underwent disarmament where the air force and navy were taken completely and the army cut down to 100,000 men (Johnson 22).

These enforced changes began to cause a flow of resentment and hatred in the German people who felt they were getting the shaft. The major powers in Europe (Britain, France and the US) decided the treaties for all of the other countries in similar ways. The various empires, and larger countries began to break up, or were to put it more shattered by the treaties. Many new countries were recognized and Poland was reformed from the land taken from Russia, Germany, and Austria (Johnson 24). Needless to say the different countries that were broken up were not all happy with the way things had turned out. In the post World War I world the democracy that was fought so valiantly for failed in some countries.

These countries were soon became dictatorships. A dictatorship is a nationalistic, militaristic, totalitarian government. In Italy Fascism promised to meet the needs of the many and through ministering the wants of the people without falling prey to the ever-present evil of communism (Encarta 98). The other claim of fascism was that it would be more efficient in meeting the people's needs than democracy. Benito Mussolini who then became the dictator of Italy ran the fascist party and the country when the Fascist party took over the government. Meanwhile in Germany a similar occurrence was taking place.

Adolph Hitler the son of a customs official in Austria was causing a similar movement. He and his National Socialist Workers Party, or Nazis as they were more commonly known were gaining power. The rise of the Nazi party can be linked to the growing bitterness of the German people, and the economic struggles the country was going through at the time. The Nazi party promised to protect Germany from Communism while promising employment for all. These ideals soon attracted armies of people to the Nazi party. They continued to grow in power organizing a private army of dissatisfied, ambitious, and angry people.

The League of Nations that was created in 1920 recognized them as a threat. The idea behind the League was to settle disputes before they could come to blows. It was however ineffective in the extreme because it was only political forum and didn't have any military power to back up it's policy. The Axis collation was formed after Hitler came to power in Germany. He came to power when the Reichstag (capital building) of Germany burned down he suspended the constitution and crushed all opposition. Both Italy and Germany were secretly rearming, but at this time they were still too weak to challenge Britain, and France.

During this time the US had been practicing Isolationism and was withdrawn from European problems. The Axis came about when the Fascists Nazis and the Japanese totalitarians came together to form an alliance. This was known as the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis in October of 1936. Japan and Italy formally quit the League of Nations at this time. The purpose of the Axis was to unite the three countries against the Versailles treaty and the major powers in Europe (once again France and Britain). Japan was involved because they wanted to control China, and because they followed similar governmental styles and beliefs.

The Axis powers began to rearm at an increasing rate they improved their existing military with new airforce planes, naval ships, and conscription of new soldiers (Grolier's Encyclopedia). The European powers began to get nervous and the League of Nations couldn't really do anything to stop the axis build up. The proverbial seeds of war were planted when the Axis assisted in the Spanish Civil War, the axis sent troops and new war machines to Spain to assist the rebellion. The Axis continued to build up it's military and threaten its neighbors until finally the war began with the invasion of Poland by the Nazi army. The polish army was large in numbers but very disorganized, so they were crushed in a short amount of time 17 days (Johnson 37).

During the next few months the Axis spread across the face of Europe like a plague of locusts in a cornfield. Destruction was the mainstay of the war, soldiers and citizens alike had to fear for their lives and cities were no longer just centers of population and industry. They were now battlegrounds. The problem was the new weaponry, and the Luftwaffe (German airforce), and German military superiority.

During the times of peace the countries involved in the League of Nations were not like the Axis busy building new arms and buffing up their military might. So once the conflicts began the countries were caught with their pants down. The main military problems for the besieged countries were the panzer tank and the German airforce. The panzer tank gave the German ground forces great destructive capability and mobility. That was because there really wasn't a match for the panzer in the military stable of France, Britain or any other country at the time the war broke out. In June of 1940 France fell, Hitler had only one active enemy remaining and that was England.

Winston Churchill the prime Minster of England said that they would never surrender. In response to this the Germans let fly over 400 buzz bombs, long range missiles that blew up most of the English cities. Also at that time the Luftwaffe dominated the sky, no one was their match except maybe the US and we were not getting involved at this point. As the conflict spread out it no longer just encompassed Europe but also northern Africa.

The United States under the Roosevelt administration stayed neutral through the beginning of the war. That was until December 7th 1941 when the Japanese bombed the US navy at Pearl Harbor. In the attack over 2,086 naval personnel, 237 army men, and 19 ships were lost (Encarta 98). On Dec. 8 1941 the US declared war on Japan. On December 10 the Japanese invaded the Philippines and the US stepped up the defense and attacks on the Japanese. In April of 1942 the American Airforce began to turn the tide of the war.

They attacked from the aircraft carrier Hornet and bombed Tokyo and other cites in Japan. The US continued the offensive in the pacific while also assisting the other allied countries in Europe and in North Africa. On June 6th the invasion at Normandy occurred it was called D-day and marked one of the most bloody and furious campaigns in the inter war. The US troops landed on the Beaches and stormed forward toward what would seem to be a shaky victory. The European conflict was dragging toward an end and the Allied forces were beginning to take the war back to the Germans, and Italians, and the Japanese were running scared from most of their conquered lands. The pacific front was less rapid in it's decline and the fighting there was still fierce so the US continued strategic bombing on the various cities and ports in Japan.

Finally after there seemed to be no end in sight and the American lives yet to be lost seemed too expensive a price to pay the president decided to use his most effective and destructive weapons. Atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 6, 1943 and on Hiroshima on Aug. 8, 1943 Japan surrendered on Aug. 10, 1943. Over 320,000 people were killed when the bombs were dropped and thousands of homes were destroyed. The President said that he regretted the use of the atomic bombs but also that he had no other choice. The wisdom of this decision is still being debated today and will probably be debated until the Next time an atomic weapon is detonated in a city. World War II cost the world more lives, and property than any other war before.

It was the testing ground for weapons of such horrible destructive power that if they were ever to be used again it would probably be the end of the world. The war involved sixty-one countries, 1.7 billion people, 110 million military personnel, left over 60 million dead, 35 million of the dead were civilian casualties, and the war cost over 1 trillion dollars. If a war ever occurs that could possible top all of those statistics and numbers it would most likely be the end of civilization, as we know it and of life on this earth as we know it.

Bibliography

Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. New York: 1994 Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.
CD-ROM. New York: Microsoft, 1998 "World War II".
World Book Encyclopedia. 1996 ed.
Strauss, Martin L. Gestapo: Stories of Terror. New York: Free, 1992.
Johnson, Michelle F. The Cost of Liberty. Philadelphia: Associated Press, 1935.