Essay Example on WW2: Major Global Event That Defined Our World

Introduction

The current state of the world has defined by a lot of issues. Most of the issues that define the current situation the world happened several years ago. One major event that took place several years ago and has affected the current state of the world is the world war two. The world war two or the second world war one of the major global that took place from 1939 to 1945. Majority of the countries in the world came together and formed two sides that were opposing each other. These two opposing sides were known as the Axis and Allies. A situation whereby there was total war occurred and more than 100 million people from 30 different countries were involved. Most of the countries that took place in the Second World War threw in their economic, scientific as well as industrial capabilities to support their participation in the war. Therefore, there no major difference between the civilian as well as military resources that were being used in the war. This war went on for the longest period compared to world war one, and it became one of the deadliest ever experienced. The fatalities from the war were 70 to 85 million, and most of them were civilians from china and the Soviet Union. The Second World War did not occur just as a surprise. There are various factors which can be termed as the origin of the Second World War.

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Economic and Imperial Rivalry

One factor that led to the occurrence of the Second World War is economic and imperial rivalry (Overy, p. 45). In 1929, there was a fall in the business cycle, which led to a great recession, which led to increased rates of unemployment. Other effects that were experienced as a result of the recession was that the prices of raw materials, as well as foodstuffs, collapsed. Therefore, the poor primary producing countries, European as well as American farmers, experienced a great fall in income.

The shortcoming of the fall in income led to reduced demand for various types of goods, increase unemployment as well as bankruptcy. As a response to this situation, the different government came up with ways to protect their producers as well as preserving trade at the expense of other countries. This factor led to the economic rivalry between various countries since most of them did not want to carry trade with each other.

Other countries such as Britain felt that they were superior to other countries, and as a result, it led to removing itself from the free trade. The economic, as well as imperial rivalry, led to the Second World War because various countries did not want to take part in trade with their counterparts.

Armament and Domestic Politics

Moreover, the second reason that led to the occurrence of the Second World War two is the armament as well as domestic politics (Overy p.46). Before the Second World War, many countries began to arm their civilian. For instance, Japan, as well as Italy, began to arm in 1929 as the depression years continued. A few years later, other countries such as Poland, China, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, and Spain followed suit and began to arm it, civilians (Overy p.47).

Domestic politics played a greater role in the emergence of world war two. The politics of many countries led to government allocation a lot of resources towards the war. Many party leaders in countries such as Germany had a fall out on the direction that the economy was supposed to take. These individuals feared that the economy of the country would collapse. Also, the industries in various country ensured that there was adequate labor. Therefore, by the time the war was occurring, the countries that took place had fully equipped the resources that were required, such as arms and finance.

Invasion of Poland

Similarly, another factor that is the origin of the Second World War is the invasion of Poland. German invasion into Poland began on 1st September 1939 (Overy 48). The German forces entered Poland from the north, west as well as South. Later on, the Slovak military forces followed the German forces into Poland. As these forces were advancing, the Polish forces were removed from their bases of operation near the German-Polish border to develop the defense lines towards the east. In the mid-September, the Polish were defeated by the German forces in the battle of Bzura. This defeat helps the German forces to gain more advantage in the invasion.

After that defeat, the polish forces withdrew and moved towards the southeast in preparation to defend the Romanian Bridgehead whereby it waited for support as well as relief from the United Kingdom and France (Overy 49). Since the United Kingdom and France has developed a relationship with Poland, the war was declared on Germany. However, the help these two countries provided to Poland was very little. A few days later, the Soviet Union entered Eastern Poland (Overy 49). This territory then fell into what was called the soviet sphere of influence.

The presence of the Soviet Union forces made the defense of the Polish forces to look useless. Due to this attack, the polish government claimed that the defense of the Roman Bridgehead was no longer possible. Therefore, the government ordered an emergency evacuation of all the forces to neutralize Romania (Overy 49). The invasion of Poland led to the loss of civilian lives whereby hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens were killed. Immediately after the invasion of Poland had occurred, the second war began as the countries that had invaded began fighting with other countries that were allies of Poland and those were protecting it (Overy 49).

Conclusion

Concluding, it is clear that several factors led to the occurrence of the Second World War. The Second World War is one of the major events that took place in history and has some impact on the current state of the world, and this took place from 1939 to 1945, and it had a massive impact on the world. One of the major issues that led to the occurrence of the second world was armament as well as domestic politics. Most countries had armed their civilians before the war occurred so that they could be well equipped. Also, domestic politics played a role in some of the party members of various countries supported while others rejected the idea of going to war with the economic situation in mind. Another issue that contributes to the Second World War was the invasion of Poland. The invasion of Poland led to the war in the sense that the countries that had invaded Poland began fighting with the nations which had developed a pact with Poland. Another issue was economic and imperial rivalry whereby different countries were trying to compete against each other in terms of trade. Most countries did not want to take part in any form of trade, claiming that they were protecting their producers.

Works Cited

Overy, Richard. The Illustrated History of World War Two. OUP Oxford, 2015.