world war 2

Posted: August 6th, 2013

World War 2

The World War II was a war on a global scale that took place in the year 1939 and ended in the year 1945. The war was instigated by two opposing sides, which were commonly referred to as the Axis and the Allies. The two groups were made up of alliances between various countries to fight against each other. The Second World War is considered as the climax of military confrontations in the world given the devastating effects and death of numerous fighters and civilians in the war. This was fueled by the dedication of the alliances in terms of their resources to the war, making it the bloodiest in the history of humankind (Chickering, 33).

The Second World War began when Germany invaded Poland. Germany sought to develop a large stronghold in the whole of Europe under Adolph Hitler. This was against the Treaty of Versailles which sought to relinquish part of German territory to France. The Germans sough to reclaim their lost land which was in the hands of the Soviets, Polish and French. This was followed by nations declaring war on Germany and British empire and its colonies on fear that Germany would succeed in its bid to establish the largest empire in Europe. German sought to take large tracts of land amid the presence of Nazi-Soviet agreements or treaties. In the year 1941 the Axis launched an invasion into the Soviet Union (Chickering, 47). This offensive against the Soviets was a great disservice to the German forces given that much of resources and labor were dedicated to invade Germany and the Soviet Union.

Germany was defeated in the war after the capture of the city of Berlin by the Soviet and Polish forces resulting in the unconditional German surrender in the year 1945. The bombing of the Japanese towns by the United States was an indication of the Americans intention to destroying Japan given that the country had ignored calls for surrender in the Potsdam meeting in Germany. The Russians also invaded Japan and defeated the largest Japanese force. This was the beginning of the confrontations between the Americans and the soviets as they both claimed victory over the Japanese forces. This instigated the Cold War which took place in the preceding forty-six years. Considering the poor diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union at the time, and the events at Pearl Harbor, the United States proceeded with caution in formulation of foreign policies. In addition despite the end of the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union or current Russia proceed towards mutual agreements with caution and suspicion of each other for cases of sabotage (Chickering, 77).