How World War Ii Changed the World

World War II greatly changed how the world interacted and operated. Prior to the Second World War, the world was mainly based in Europe with the Europeans at the leading edge of world politics as well as leading the way in technological advancement. Although the United States emerged as a world power after World War I, their interactions with the rest of the world was held to a minimum with focus on domestic affairs. During this time between the two wars, the U.S. had an economic boom in the 1920’s but suffered a devastating depression in the 1930’s. The depression was felt throughout the world but England and France were not hit as hard and they retained the top spots in world politics. After the war, those two countries were devastated by the fighting, suffering widespread destruction and huge financial losses, so they fell into the backdrop of world affairs. With the defeat of Germany, the Soviet Union acquired much of Eastern and Central Europe, greatly expanding their territory and boosting their economy, which helped to push them to the forefront as a superpower. This also divided the continent of Europe in half: the oppressed Communist bloc of the U.S.S.R. and the free non-Communist western half, with a focus on capitalism. The U.S.S.R. further emphasized this difference as they began to close their borders to outsiders and severe relations with Western European countries, erecting what Churchill dubbed the “iron curtain.” On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, without the destruction wrought in Europe, the United States’ economy was booming after World War II because of the production of war related products from the factories, helping to make them a super power with the U.S.S.R. Additionally, World War II led to the end of colonization that was practiced by European powers up to that time. Before the war, many European countries had established colonies in other parts of the world, such as Africa and Asia, in order to obtain a wider range of natural resources and increase their markets. This can be seen in Spain's colony of Morocco and Britain's colony of Singapore. After WWII, the European powers began to give up their colonies to take care of more pressing matters at the home front such as rebuilding from the devastation that resulted from the war and economic recovery due to the huge financial losses incurred as a result of the years of fighting. Further, World War II helped people to realize what could happen if a radical, totalitarian leader took power and had absolute control. From Adolf Hitler, people realized how easy it was to gain absolute power and commit heinous war crimes if not checked and regulated. Finally, the war created new technologies of warfare that could kill millions of people with the touch of a button. This devastation was seen in the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans. After the bombs were dropped, the Soviet Union and the United States began to experiment with nuclear missiles which had the capability of killing millions of people halfway around the world. This began to change how wars could be fought and put the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. at odds with one another leading to the Cold War. For the next forty six years, these two countries would be in competition for supremacy. Although no war, in the traditional sense, was actually fought between these two super powers, two wars resulted from it, Vietnam and Korea. Additionally, both countries were on edge that the other would nuke them so they built fallout shelters in all of the major cities. Finally, in 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev broke up the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War. World War II greatly changed the world in everything from politics to the way wars were fought and help to set the stage for the new world order.