Meaning of second world war (what is it, concept and definition)

What is World War II:

The Second World War was an armed conflict that developed between the years 1939 and 1945, whose main setting was Europe. The contest spread to different regions of Asia and Africa.

This war was articulated between two blocks: the so-called Axis Powers and the so-called Allied Countries.

By then, Germany was under the government of Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi party, appointed chancellor in 1933.

After ensuring the neutrality of the USSR with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Non-Aggression Pact signed on August 23, 1939, Germany invaded Poland on September 1, triggering the declaration of war by the great powers against the Third Reich on 03 of September.

Two years later, Hitler opened the eastern front by ordering " Operation Barbarossa " against the USSR on June 22, 1941. The cruelest battles of the war were fought on the eastern front.

The decisive battle to end the war became known as "Operation Overlord" after the troops landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944.

After Adolf Hitler's death on April 30, 1945, Germany signed the surrender on May 8 of the same year, ending the war.

Sides in conflict

Axis Powers

Axis powers included Germany, Italy, and the Japanese empire. Throughout the process, the Axis Powers had unstable alliances and took advantage of collaborationism in some occupied countries through puppet governments.

Allied Countries

Among the so-called Allies were first France and Great Britain. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States joins the allies, and later the USSR.

Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa and Yugoslavia will also join. Other countries will provide support through their diplomatic delegations.

Characteristics of the Second World War

Ideological component

The Axis Powers justified their claims ideologically. For Germany and Italy, the ideological basis was national socialism and fascism respectively.

For German national socialism, this was openly coupled with the belief in the supremacy of the Aryan race. Alongside these ideologies were communism and capitalist liberalism.

Creation of concentration camps (Jewish holocaust)

The most emblematic feature of the Second World War was the creation of Nazi concentration camps that functioned as centers of forced labor and, mainly, as extermination centers.

In them, the German government specially gathered the Jews to eliminate them, but also Gypsies, Christian clerics, Communists, Social Democrats, homosexuals and any type of person who was considered an enemy of the regime, immoral, inferior or useless.

Scientific experimentation on humans

During the war process, Germany and Japan carried out extremely cruel scientific experiments on humans. For them they chose people among their prisoners. The German leader of this process was the doctor Josef Mengele. His Japanese partner would be Shiro Ishii.

Strategy of the "lightning war"

Germany advanced the conflict by applying the principle of "blitzkrieg," which was to rapidly weaken the enemy by articulating artillery, aviation, and communications.

Control of communications

As for communications, the Germans used a special machine to encrypt their messages called "Enigma", which meant a real intelligence effort for the allies to decipher their messages and defeat them.

The Second World War put into force the espionage system, development of communication for intelligence services and a great ideological propaganda policy on both sides, taking advantage of the mass media such as radio and cinema, in addition to the press and the poster.

Emergence and use of nuclear weapons

In the Second World War nuclear weapons of mass destruction made their entrance. They were applied in Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945) as an extreme measure to force the surrender of Japan, the last country of the Axis Powers to resist.

Causes of the Second World War

• The ideological confrontation between capitalist liberalism, the communist system and the Nazi-fascist, which competed to dominate the international territory. The Great Depression started with the crisis of 1929, whose impact on the European economy sparked the growth of fascism. The Japanese invasion Manchuria in 1931 that lasted until 1945. The invasion of Italy to Abyssinia-Ethiopia in 1935. The effects of the First World War. The oppressive and humiliating conditions of the Treaty of Versailles for Germany, which prevented the economic reconstruction of the country. Ethnic tensions derived from the territorial distribution promoted in the Treaty of Versailles. Perception of Jewish economic power as an obstacle to German development. The expansionist policy of Germany in Europe and the failure of the League of Nations to avoid it.

See also:

• Great Depression. 29 crash.

Consequences of the Second World War

• It is estimated that approximately:
  • 20 million soldiers. 47 million civilians. Of this number, 7 million were Jews exterminated in concentration camps.
  Economic breakdown of Europe, which forced financial aid through the Marshall Plan. Strengthening of the United States and the USSR, ideologically opposed, as superpowers. Division of German territory between the allies in four autonomous zones of occupation after the Yalta Conference. The decision was ratified in Potsdam. Beginning of the Cold War between the capitalist bloc and the communist bloc. The western occupation zones joined together and formed the German Federal Republic (RFA) in 1949, to which the USSR responded by forming the Democratic Republic German (GDR) in the areas under its control. Creation of the United Nations (UN) in 1945. Start of decolonization processes. Union of Japan to the western bloc, becoming an ally of the United States.

See also:

• Cold War. United Nations Organization Decolonization.