World War II: Causes, Key Events, and Aftermath
**Organization of the UN**
The first attempt was not the Atlantic Charter of 1941, when we tried to recover the League of Nations, proposing assistance for the Allied forces. The San Francisco Conference occurred, where 52 Allied and neutral countries attended. The Nuremberg trials began on November 20th and accused Nazis of crimes against humanity. It ended in September. In the meantime, Hitler had committed suicide, along with others. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel fled, as did others. During the same trial, Hermann Goering died. Of the 25 remaining, 3 were acquitted, 11 were sentenced to death, and 3 received life sentences.
**Fascism**
Fascism arose in Europe between the wars (1918-1939). Its political project was to establish a totalitarian state with a command economy, while its intellectual base posed a submission of reason to will and action. It had a strong nationalist identity with victimized components that led to violence against those defined as enemies. This was achieved by an efficient propaganda machine, a cross-class social component, and a refusal to settle on the political spectrum (left or right). Usually, historiography and political science place fascism on the extreme right and associate it with plutocracy, sometimes identifying it as state capitalism or a chauvinistic variant of state socialism. It is presented as a third way or third position that is radically opposed to both liberal democracy in crisis (the form of government that represented the values of the victors in the First World War, like England, France, or the United States, which it considered “decadent”) and the traditional workers’ movement on the rise (anarchist or Marxist, the latter in turn split between social democracy and communism, which since 1917 had as its project the socialist state that was developing in the Soviet Union). However, the number of ideologies against which it stood was broader. Fascism is a totalitarian, state-centered ideology.
**Nazism**
Nazism is an ideology that emerged in Germany in the 1920s but did not reach significance until the 1930s, when the harsh peace terms imposed by the Treaty of Versailles (1919) joined with the world crisis of Black Thursday in 1929. Globally, liberal democracies were considerably discredited. The world situation seemed to give reasons to workers’ demands traditionally associated with Marxism and socialism of the nineteenth century. The accumulation of production led to the bankruptcy of enterprises, massive layoffs of workers, and the situation worsened further. In Germany, the situation was even more pressing because the devastating economic effects were combined with the obligation to pay the tribute of defeat in the First World War. Popular discontent with the unfair situation filled the streets with demonstrations by extremists of all stripes, both the left and the right. The Nazis mainly believed in biological determination as a key factor in defining the work that an individual had to perform. The Aryan man was identified with the concept of a creative, virile, and warlike man. From there, they recognized all the triumphs of the human species. However, they also believed in the cyclical nature of history, as Oswald Spengler did, and argued that Aryan civilizations were created by decaying and dying once their representative elements mingled with members of other races. Nazism is a totalitarian ideology focused on race.
**First Phase of the War**
In 1940, a series of attacks began against Denmark and Norway to master the North Atlantic and then impose a sea blockade against England. By the beginning of June 1940, Hitler’s troops had managed to beat the French defenses on the Somme River and continued on to Paris; the Germans occupied it on the 14th of the month. In those dire circumstances, the French government was forced to sign an armistice under which France would be divided into two zones: the Atlantic, occupied by Germany, with Paris as its capital city, and the Mediterranean, which would be “Free France,” with its capital at Vichy and under Marshal Philippe Pétain. The French and British resistance aroused the sympathy and admiration of the American people, who were being prepared mentally for a possible intervention on behalf of the Western democracies.
**Second Phase of the War**
This phase is characterized by the involvement of two countries with recent economic growth that began to participate, especially the United States, in the imperialist aspirations of the world. Thanks to the Wehrmacht’s advancement in Western Europe, which led to the defeat of France and kept Britain busy, Japan was able to move on Indochina and Singapore, closer to the immediate purpose of isolating China, to achieve mastery over the Pacific. Then, without a declaration of war, the Japanese attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, a decisive action for the entry of the American Union into the international contest. On August 14th, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill signed a declaration of principles contained in the so-called Atlantic Charter, which ratified liberal and democratic ideals and emphasized the purpose of organizing an effective system of collective security through the establishment of an economic partnership between the people, restoring the principle of self-determination. Despite the magnitude of the collaboration of the United States, which turned this country into the great array of Western powers, it was not strong enough for them to win the war. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor gave the U.S. government the opportunity to participate in the conflict, and it took a new direction.
**Final Phase of the War**
With the arrival of the Allied armies in Italy, Benito Mussolini met with the Fascist Grand Council but failed to gain support. On the contrary, the vast majority of Council members criticized him for having led Italy to disaster and decided to restore a constitutional regime, for which the king called for the removal of Mussolini. After twenty years, the fascist regime came to an end. Power was held by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, who took over from military rule of the fascists, who were excluded, and began taking steps to capitulate to the Allies, while Hitler was preparing to attack Italy, anticipating a possible collaboration in this country with U.S. and UK forces. During September 1943, the Germans freed Mussolini, who settled in the city of Milan and proclaimed the Italian Social Republic. In April of the following year, Mussolini exhausted his resources to save himself and decided to flee to Switzerland but was caught and shot by the Italian anti-fascist resistance.
**Consequences of the War**
- Economic Changes: These have been countless and had important applications for further economic development, from nuclear fission, used in the atomic bomb, to the new communication and location devices (radar) or improvements in transportation (ship, plane), through the development of synthetic products. The United States turned to countries like Mexico, Argentina, and Canada as the major suppliers of the Allies through their mediation.
- Political Changes: Totalitarian regimes were eliminated in Germany, Italy, and Japan. In contrast, Communist regimes were imposed in Eastern Europe. Western Europe finally lost its world hegemony and sought an alliance with the United States to protect itself from the Soviet threat, as the USSR did not demobilize its armies located in Eastern Europe at the end of the war.
- Territorial Changes: The USSR increased its holdings to include the states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and northern East Prussia. Poland, as compensation for those losses, received the German territories east of the existing Oder-Neisse line. Bulgaria held the southern part of Dobruja, and Italy had to give Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia and the Dodecanese Islands and Rhodes to Greece. Moreover, Germany and Austria were occupied by the Allies, their territories being divided into four zones to be reunited later.