The Watershed War

The Watershed War
World War 2 is the deadliest war in human history, with over 60 million killed, including the systematic genocide of over 6 million Jews. The war in Europe began in on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. Following this, Great Britian and its colonies as well as France declared war on Germany. The United States would join the war following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour. This formed The Allies consisting of Great Britain and its colonies, the U.S.S.R. and the United States of America. Germany, Italy and Japan made up the Axis powers. The war ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. What the world saw prior to the war was the rise of Germany under the Nazi
Adolf Hitler came to power following the death of President Paul Von Hindenburg, the roles of President and Chancellor merged to form the position of Fuhrer. Hitler promised to return Germany to its former glory. When he was in power the Germans began re-militarization, by expanding their army and forming relationship with countries like Italy and japan. They also began the mass production of tanks and aircraft weaponry. In September of 1939, the Germans put their plan into motion by invading Poland. Following this Great Britian and France declared war on Germany. The Nazi’s are responsible for introducing a new form of warfare, blitzkrieg. This was the German word for “lightning warfare”, this emphasized the quick movement of troops, tanks and the mass use of air power. This was effective of the Germans as they were able to roll over Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and eventually France. With this new form of warfare to also brought in expansion of technology. World War 2 saw the refinements of aircrafts and tanks. While also introducing the world to new technologies such as radar and radio navigation. To show how fast technology advanced in World War 2 an excerpt from an article said “The entire technology of radar, which is the ability to use radio waves to detect objects at a distance, was barely invented at the start of the war but became highly developed in just a few years”. This showed how
into staying neutral, and cripple their naval power. Instead this made the U.S. join the war and declare war on Japan. The United States join the allies and eventually won the war. However a moment that remains in infamy was when they dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This marks the only time that nuclear weapons have been used in war. There are many reasons people think the bombs were dropped. This was the first time people saw the devastating effects it had on the cities as well as its citizens. Some believe the bomb was dropped to bring an immediate end to the war. Some people believe that the bombs could have been dropped to show the world that the United States was the largest global superpower. What people did not realize was that this would spark the cold war and nuclear arms race between the United States and the U.S.S.R. The tension was also heightened by the two nations different political views, with the United States being Capitalist and the U.S.S.R. being communist. A direct division between the two countries beliefs could be seen in the division of Berlin. With the East being communist and the West being capitalist. Because the West was far more prosperous and the East German government called for the construction of the Berlin Wall to insure people would stop leaving from the