After the ending most widespread war in the history of mankind - the Second World War, the world entered into the New World Order. With the last shot of this war the European colonial period ended, and began new era –era of the two rival superpowers. Almost immediately after the ending of the war “Iron Curtain” has crossed the continent but not only the continent across the entire world. So let’s analyze to what consequences WWII led and how it impact on positions of all major players in the world. The first major consequence of the Second World War is the End of the European Age. Two the most devastating wars on the European continent had a great impact for European countries such as United Kingdom, France and Germany. With the end of WWII, these three countries gave way to the geopolitical Olympus United States and Soviet Union. Even after the First World War France and United Kingdom remained the main players on the geopolitical map of Europe and the world. As for the Germany coming to power NSDAP (The Nazi Party) helped Germany to rebuild their country after ruins of WWI and regain former geopolitical position.
There were many reasons for catastrophic impact of the WWII and each of these three countries has its own reasons why they have lost their positions. During the Second World War constant aerial bombardment destroyed most major cities and industrial facilities were especially devastated. Many of the European largest cities, including Warsaw and Berlin, lay in ruins. The economic structure of the region has been destroyed, and millions of people were left homeless. Destruction of agriculture led to starvation in some parts of the continent during the harsh winter of 1946-1947 in the north-west Europe. Particularly strong was damaged transport infrastructure as railways, bridges and docks were a target for air strikes.
After two wars with an interval of 21 years Germany, who had begun these two wars and had lost both of it was devastated. After the Potsdam Conference Germany were divided by the Allies into four occupation military zones. After that on the Soviet occupation appeared German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and on the other occupied zones the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Lost more than 5 million people and being divided into two countries Germany couldn’t pretend on the role of the world leader anymore. Being influenced by the two superpowers both East and West Germany played the roles of ordinary members of the NATO and the Warsaw Treaty’s Organization. Moreover, German Democratic republic for many years had no own foreign policy as all other Soviet Union’s satellites. France also lost part of its influence on the world. First German armies occupied the France for four years. Then, exhausted by the war, France lost colonies in Africa, and Indochina. The reason of defeat in First Indochina war was the Viet Minh forces that rebelled against Japanese occupation during the Second World War and then rebelled against French authority government in Indochina. Then among the French colonies began the chain reaction with demands of independence. France couldn’t do anything in guerrilla wars in colonies and eventually recognized the independence of her colonies. Significant role played the devastation in the economy in first post-war years.
Though German troops didn’t occupy the Britain, but her territory, especially London was bombed by Luftwaffe air raids. During the WWII United States supplied United Kingdom. First UK had been paying for supplies in gold under “cash and carry” as it required US Neutrality Acts, but by 1941, gold reserve was almost empty. So United States began its Land- Lease policy. However, after the war UK’s debt for Lend-Lease to US was 1 billion pounds. Key role played Indian Independence movement and independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. Without India and its resources United Kingdom lost its former glory and part of influence. In short-term perspective war effected greatly on the economy of the European countries. In long-term perspective key role in the rebuilding of the infrastructure and recovery of the economy played The Marshal Plan. The Marshall Plan was the United States program in which US gave economic support to the West European countries.
As we can see the Second World War had a negative effect on the position in the world both on the defeated and the winning European countries. However, United States and Soviet Union participated in the war too and became hegemons. How has it happened? Let us try to find out. U.S.S.R. after the end of the Second World War was the most devastated country. Soviet Union lost more than 26 million people during the war. The territory of Ukraine and Belarus were fully occupied by German troops for almost three years. Industrial cities were in ruins. In 1946-47 on the territory of Soviet Union, mostly in Ukrainian Socialistic Soviet Republic was starvation. However, USSR became a superpower and the second country with a nuclear weapon. How is this possible? First of all we should consider the totalitarian system in USSR. Millions of people lived and worked like slaves in Gulag camps. Both criminals and political prisoners work on different hard labor, even first atomic bomb in USSR was made not without participation of prisoners. The second reason of USSR’s growth to superpower is its resources. USSR was the biggest country in the world, with large amounts of different resources: from titanium and aluminum to oil and gold. However, the most valuable resource in USSR was human resource. USSR had the bigger population than Germany, UK, or France. It had many outstanding scientists and engineers. But the main difference was that soviet people could live with the lack of consumer goods. USSR produced more weapon than consumer goods. Most of the people lived in poverty and thought it should be that. Meanwhile, USSR government every year increased military budget. However, in the end it played the cruel joke with them.
As for the United States-they became the superpower because of their economy. The US economy is the biggest national economy in the world for almost a century. The reason of its wealth and growth also in that the US territory wasn’t occupied or under attack during the First and the Second World Wars. The only exception was the attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor. Also, United States earned money on the supplies to Europe. US loses in comparison with other countries were less. United States not only saved its infrastructure and industrial power, but also improved it. After the Second World War, in the United States began a golden era of American capitalism.
There were all preconditions to become a superpower. Unites States ended the war with an atom bomb and victorious army. United States Had strong shipbuilding industry, even after losses in the war with Japan and action Nazi "wolf packs," the U.S. by the end of the war had a powerful fleet than before. In parallel, the U.S. produced thousands of tanks, vehicles and military aircrafts. The United States Armed Forces were well organized and had a combat experience from Europe to Pacific Islands. The significant role played American scientist –big part of them were immigrants from Europe. There was one more advantage- US unlike the USSR wasn’t the totalitarian country. All Soviet satellites have lived in fear of USSR. USSR could easily send their troops like they did it in 1956 in Hungary or 1968 in Czechoslovakia. Moscow determined both foreign and domestic policy of all countries of the Warsaw Pact. Meanwhile, members of NATO and other US allies had its own policy.
With the beginning of Cold War or Era of the superpowers in the world began new rules of geopolitical play. World became a bipolar. The war between these two sides, in its standard meaning, was inconceivable. Both countries had amount of nuclear warheads that could destroy the Earth several times. It was the new era of interrelationship. There weren’t any region in the world where superpowers hadn’t its interests. Antagonism of the superpowers has never taken place on the territory of US or USSR. There were some moments in history of their antagonism, when cold war could become a hot war with a nuclear weapon, the example of Cuban missile crisis is the best known. But in my opinion, these incidents were nothing but test of the strength of another country, and how far they can go. During this bipolar period, both countries acted on the territories of third countries and which wasn’t members of NATO or Warsaw pact. There were wars, rebellions, assassinations, military coups all over the world. Superpowers were involved at one time, or another in many conflicts over the globe: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Grenada, Angola, the Six-day war and Yom Kippur War, Lebanon and the Korea, etc.
However, the satellites of the superpowers sometimes acted without permission of their big brothers. The conflict between Ethiopia and Somali, two poor neighbors in Africa for territory in Ogaden desert region buried the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between USSR and US. One more example of uncontrollability of the superpower’s allies was the Yom Kippur War. In October 1973, USSR allies- Arab countries: Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan attacked Israel. Israel was US ally and turned the tide of war and began counteroffensive. USSR relocated its airborne forces to the borders to be ready to help their Near East allies. In the US nuclear forces were alerted. But the war ended with the Resolution of UN.
The example with the Yom Kippur War is good for three reasons. First of all it shows us the importance of intelligence services in becoming a superpower. Before this war CIA and other intelligence services failed to predict the attack on Israel and the entire conflict. CIA should collect data from all foreign sources and react on all information that can be useful. The influence of intelligence services, both CIA and KGB was significant- several governments in Africa and Latin America were changed not without the help of these two services. No doubt, the effective work of intelligence services helped US to provide their foreign policy in the world and the end to win the Cold War. The second reason, why this example is so good-is the role of the United Nations. This organization is the successor organization of League of Nations. During the negotiations at the Yalta ant Potsdam conferences, Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill agreed that they must create the new organization, similar to League of Nations. This organization should prevent the beginning of a new world war. The main point in that the UN has Security Council with 5 countries permanent members with veto power, while the rest countries of the UN agreed to carry out the decisions of the Security Council. In practice this meant that superpowers could begin a war when they want, while other countries members of the UN must obey the Security Council’s decisions. It was useful in situations like during the Yom Kippur War-when both superpowers agreed to stop this war. However, the UN Security Council didn’t prevent the Vietnam War or the Soviet War in the Afghanistan.
The third reason is USSR’s allies during this conflict. It isn’t secret that USSR supplied the weapon to the Arab countries and that the officers of Red Army taught Arab soldier and officers. USSR taught Egyptian soldiers and supplied their army even though the repressions of communists in Egypt. As we can see, it is one more feature of Cold War. The main point is that the both United States and Soviet Union neglected the ideology to expand their influences. Both superpowers supported dictators in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and closed eyes on their crimes against humanity if their regimes were beneficial. The movement of Khmer Rouge was supported by the United States, who saw them as opposed to Vietnam. Khmer Rouge received weapons from the U.S. and delivered in exchange raw gems. The relationship between US, USSR ant the third countries can be formulated in the two phrases: “Enemy of my enemy is my friend” and “My enemy’s friend is my enemy”.
There are two reasons why Unites States have won competition with USSR. First is that all biggest conflicts occurred closer to USSR’s borders than to the US borders. Also, it should be mentioned that during the Cold War some of the Soviet Union’s allies choose another side. The example of the Yugoslavia and China represents it better than others. Especially China, who became the member of United Nations Security Council and a country with nuclear weapon thanks to USSR. It shows to us that United States foreign policy to allies was more efficient than their antagonist policy.
The second reason is the strong position of the United States and its reactions to the Soviet assertions: Soviet troops in Hungary in 1956, War in Angola in 1976, soviets invasion into Afghanistan in 1979. Particularly strong was United States reaction to the invasion of Soviet Armed Forces into Afghanistan – sanctions and sanctions and arms supplies. The United States acting like a hegemon didn’t allow Soviet advances that it perceived as undermining American supremacy. The United Sates were strong also in situations and regions where US didn’t have any interests for its influence. No doubt. It was the victories of US Department of State and entire American diplomacy.
As I have mentioned above the role of the international organizations and their effort to secure the peace increased significantly. For example, North Atlantic Treaty Organization helped Western European Countries to resist communist threat and to prevent the future wars between the European countries-members of this organization. The Soviet threat and leadership of the United States also became the reasons to create of the European Union. The United Nations serves as a global forum in which countries can raise and discuss difficult issues, including the problems of war and peace. Personal communication between heads of government established a dialogue. This allows countries to develop ways of peaceful settlement of disputes. If many countries act unanimously, it has a total pressure at all. Thanks to the UN many conflicts did not escalate into full-scale war.
In addition, through negotiations managed to achieve a peaceful settlement of various conflicts. UN provided a mechanism to neutralize potential conflicts, such as the Berlin crisis in 1948-1949, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and the Middle East crisis in 1973 after the Yom Kippur War. In addition, the UN had an important role in ending the war in the Congo in 1964, and the war between Iran and Iraq in1988. The ending of the "cold war" has led to a radical change in the policy of UN peacekeeping. The UN Security Council began to establish larger and more complex mission of UN peacekeeping, often destined to assist in the implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement between the participants of intrastate conflicts. In addition, peacekeeping operations began to include more non-military elements.
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