Research Paper on History of SPAM: A Key to Winning the World War II

Introduction

The first chapter of this study has been dedicated to the introduction. The section provides the fundamental aspects of the entire study. One of the subsection covered in this chapter is the background of the research. The background provides the foundational knowledge and introduces the topic under investigation. The subsection highlights the major event of the Second World War to set the picture of how SPAM fitted into the entire history between the 1930s and the 1940s. The chapter also includes the statement of the problem as well as the justification of the study. The subsection draws from different scholarly perspective to ascertain why this study is needed as part of the approaches to enhancing knowledge development. The justification has been established on the link that exists between the outcomes of the Second World War and how SPAM became a product that sustained the troops during the entire period. Moreover, the first chapter also covers the objectives of the study and how each aligns with the scope of the topic under investigation. The study was founded on five objectives and this first chapter highlights why each objective was central to the topic under investigation. Furthermore, this chapter also covers the significance of the study. The researcher has presented the reasons why this study is important in the present. In this last subsection, the researcher has drawn from the historical themes associated with the Second World War and the centricity of SPAM during the period to highlight the essence of this research and the role that the findings will play in history.

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Background of the Study

Historians acknowledge that the Second World War was central to the changes witnessed in Europe and beyond. The experiences of this period were crucial to the essential transformations across the globe ranging from politics, agriculture, economy, education, culture, and social integration. One cannot entirely evaluate the outcomes of the Second World War without paying attention to the multi-dimensional changes that occurred during that time. Mark Mazower pointed out that the years of Nazi occupation and the related chaos that characterized the post-war period as well as the disintegrated human interaction and communities were part of the key aspect of the war, but, the uprooted social foundations marked the beginning of a new era of change and development. The war seemed to be limited to South-East Europe; however, it was a world affair when the shift changed. This explains why Minnesota rejoined to the quest for victory over the dictatorial promulgations that dominated the Second World War. The existing accounts have therefore focused on the Second World War as a central point in the global history and a remarkable focus when evaluating social, political, and economic progress in major global zones. Major scholarly publications have been centered around the experience of the nations, the soldiers, and the civilians.

Several reasons have been presented regarding the causes and factors that propelled the occurrence of the Second World War. The war did not just ensue from unjustifiable fallacy because it involved major players and reshaped both the social, economic, and political dimensions of the affected states and geographic regions. Most proponents have alluded to the fact that the aftermath of the First World War left the loser unsatisfied with their encounter. Such a perspective is believed to have propelled onset of the second global strife across major European regions. The issue of democracy has been documented as part of the causes, where proponents have outlined how the European democracy was fragile and let to major challenges including the economic crises of the 1930s. Other issues that have been tabled and hold significant justification as to why the Second World War started immediately after the economic crises of the 1930s involves the Nazis, the Fascists, and the Japanese. The imperialistic policies from the political movements from Italy, Germany, and Japan is believed to the major causative element that fueled the onset of the Second World War. Volumes of literature narrate the events that occurred between 1939 and 1945 but in between the lines lie a peculiar pattern of invasions and victory that have remained remarkable historical hallmarks.

The history of the events that surround the Second World War has been considered in terms of the geographical parameters and how the war impacted the major regions within the European framework. Although it is not the objective of this paper to assess the experience of each region during the Second World War, a highlight of the major occurrences and key turning points is essential as a historical background. The onset of the war started with the Nazi aspirations for geographical expansion. However, each move was to be anchored on political grounds, which proved to be critical during the Second World War. The Nazi plan for territorial expansion was focused towards South-East Europe because of the purported risk of resource skewness and unnecessary expenditure. The objective of expansion was on regions that could increase the influence of the Nazi. In fact, worth revisiting is that in 1939 the Italian army invaded Albania and by 1940, the army was exerting their influence on Greece. On the other hand, the political intimidations were at the top of the German's strategic approach. The Germans used the weak points of their targets to manipulate them into their won traps that could lead to Germans' victory. On the other hand, political influence through skewed policies also played a key role. Diplomatic pressure was enough to foster for political collaboration with the Germans. By the look of things, the approach of German Blitzkrieg yielded results based on the outcomes of 1941. German took control of the Hungarian and Romanian economic resources and factors of production when they bowed down to the diplomatic pressure. It was not easy to maintain neutrality amid the intimidation from German. Therefore, it was not safe for a communistic or retaliatory shift and the only option was to take a pro-Nazi stance. However, based on their high numbers, the German troops required more resources such as food supplies.

Another remarkable element during the war period was the extent to which Italy was advancing their strength; however, the Nazi seemed powerful and therefore the latter controlled a larger geographic region than Italy. While Italy was in charge of Albania, Greece was entirely under the control of the Nazi. At this time, Hitler's invasion was becoming a dangerous influence. His military operations could not be subdued and when Mussolini failed to subjugate both the British and Greece decision of sending the troops, Hitler's military incursion became inevitable. He ordered the invasion of Belgrade and Greece under Wehrmacht leadership. Before the coup, a section of the public protested against the Yugoslavian decision to enter the Tripartite Pact. However, these protests had a significant influence on the military decisions and therefore, they defined the nature of the subsequent events that occurred in the region. It is believed that the decision that Hitler made to attack South-East Europe was meant to be a nervous reaction that was partly fueled by these public protests. Some historical accounts have elaborated how this action was a turning point for the Second World War. The justification has been anchored on the possibility of a different set of events if the German troops had arrived in Moscow two months before November 1941. While this assumption is subject to historical debate, it is clear that Hitler's attack on South-East Europe changed the entire direction of the war.

The events of 1941 also included the subdivision of the Balkan states into different territorial leadership. The divisions came into existence because of the different categories of leadership advancing the agenda of the Second World War. The first key feature of this period is that in the middle of 1941, all the Balkan states had bowed down to the political pressure and the intimidation from the Nazi with the exception of Turkey. The case of Yugoslavia was different because the state was subdivided into smaller regions. Croatia comprised of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was under the Axis power. The rest of the Yugoslavian territory were small entities under the power of Italians, Bulgarians, Germans, and Hungarians. A similar trend was also witnessed in Greece because three major zones could be seen and German, Italian, and Bulgarian invasions had subdivided the region. The immunity of Turkey emanated from the famous Turkish-German Amity Treaty of 1941 that allowed Turkey to thrive under their umbrella of neutrality. However, the region had a skewed preference for the Axis powers, which became the source of the advantages they accrued during this period. The fragmentation of the rulership indicated the role that partisan dominance played in the Second World War. Such a postulate could be justified by the segregation of Yugoslavia and Greece in line with the existing powers that took over the vulnerable states.

Hitler peddled racial beliefs and fostered for mass murder. The two elements that he included in his approach to invasion led to the killing of over 6 million Jews in Europe. The end of Second World War came with the massive loss of lives and the shading of blood. Hitler included other racial groups such as the Slavs and Roma. History scholars have examined the Nazi approach as they were addressing the Jewish problem to be a different case from the mistreatment of the minority groups. However, the literature converges to the conclusion that the Nazi only took advantage of the tension that existed or was created between different ethnic groups to advance their political influence. Nazis created an opportunity that took advantage of the quest for vengeance among the minorities and allowed them to advance their desires through their umbrella. That is, the Nazi offered the oppressed minorities the avenue to take revenge against their oppressors upon their acknowledgment of their rule. Therefore, between 1930 and 1950, the population of the Jews in the Balkan regions had dropped from 850,000 to about 50,000 because of the Nazi's ethnic transformations. In fact, after the Second World War, Germans were deported from Yugoslavia and Romania. On the other hand, the Albanians and the Slavs found themselves taking a refuge away from northern Greece.

Democratic governments had vanished by the end of the 1930s because dictatorship had taken the rule in the entire Balkan. The popular communism parties had been wiped out and the right-wing influence was dominating the region. However, amid this warship success, the Balkan dictatorial leadership was far much different from the fascists because it did not thrive in the region. However, one exceptional party was the Codreanu in Romania. A significant number of pre-war leaders fled the wrath of the Second World War and found refuge in exile. The vulnerability of the states paved the way for other challenges that accompanied the war to spread across the region. Violence, deprivation, malnutrition, and diseases engulfed the civilians. The intensifying suffering and devastating circumstances increased the plight of the civilians, which extended for about six years. The most affected region was South-Eastern Europe because the region was operating under the Nazi policies that exploited the people. The rising of resistant groups was therefore encouraged by the increasing terror and hunger. Later, the political ideologies started to take the center stag...