CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR

When World War II ended many countries throughout the world had to rebuild their war-damaged cities and lands. Some of the nations who won the war suffered almost as much as those who lost it. The western Soviet Union and Poland had undergone as much war damage as Germany. England, France, and The Netherlands were as battered as Italy. In China and the Philippine Islands the losses were as great as in Japan. The losses in life, money, resources, and production were so great they can only be estimated. In addition throughout Europe and eastern Asia death by famine and disease threatened the lives of people who had survived the war.

The Costs of the War

No one will ever know what the war cost in the number of people killed, crippled, and wounded. Many nations could not accurately count their losses. The military forces of the Allies and the Axis reported a total of about 14 1/2 million killed. The civilian population suffered even more than the military through air bombings, starvation, epidemics, and deliberate massacre (see Holocaust). Estimated civilian deaths amounted to almost 13 million, which did not include those in China and other parts of eastern Asia. The countries with the greatest number of losses were U.S.S.R., 6,000,000; Poland, 5,000,000; Germany, 500,000; France, 450,000; Greece, 380,000; Japan, 250,000. Total military costs were more than 1 trillion dollars (a million million). Property damage was estimated at almost as much (800 billion dollars). The war at sea cost 4,770 merchant vessels, with a gross tonnage of more than 21 million. This amounted to 27 percent of all the ships in existence at the start of the war. In addition war spending did not stop when the fighting ended. Care of the crippled, pensions, and other expenses continued. In the United States money spent for United Nations relief, occupation of foreign countries, and veterans benefits raised the total cost by another 30 billion dollars.

Losses in Normal Production

The number of people under arms was estimated at about 92 million. Figures for some of the nations are the Soviet Union, 22 million; Germany, 17 million; the United States, 14 million; Great Britain, 12 million. In 1943, the war year of peak employment in the United States, an additional 12,601,000 people worked in the basic war industries. In many other countries most of the workers had war jobs. The world lost years of peacetime production from all these people. This expense to industry did not stop with the end of the war. Millions of people were not only taken from normal production, but they could not return to their usual work. Factories, railroads, and other business property had been destroyed. Millions of others had lost the money they needed or their business had been destroyed by the war.

Gains in Rebuilding, Science, Technology

There were, however, certain gains from the war. Much bomb damage had been done to slum areas of some cities. After the war these areas were rebuilt, giving people better places to live (see London). In many industries manufacturing methods had been improved. Automatic methods and machinery replaced costly handwork in countless operations (see Automation). Machines were developed to squeeze and mold metal like putty. New alloys and plastics were developed. Medicine and surgery made great advances. Penicillin might not have been produced for a generation in normal times. War insecticides such as DDT began a new age in controlling dangerous pests and disease carriers. The dangers posed by the use of pesticides would not be recognized for several years. The development of jet and rocket propulsion offered prospects of air transportation at the speed of sound (see Jet Propulsion). The greatest advance of all was the releasing of atomic power, but peacetime benefits soon followed in the form of nuclear energy for power in industry. Nuclear power was adapted to new military uses in the construction of submarines and aircraft carriers (see Nuclear Energy). The V-1 and V-2 guided missiles developed by the Germans during the war were an important step toward the modern space age. After the war V-2 equipment and German engineers were brought to the United States. The work of these German engineers along with that of American scientists resulted in the successful launching of American artificial Earth satellites. (See also Guided Missile; Rocket; Space Travel.)

THE HARD ROAD TO PEACE

Throughout World War II there were important meetings among the heads of the Allied governments. At these conferences plans were made for winning the war and for the postwar world. President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met at sea off the North American coast in August 1941. They produced the Atlantic Charter. It restated Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points in more simple terms (see Wilson, Woodrow). In 1943 President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill conferred in Casablanca in January, in Washington, D.C., in August, and in Quebec in August. In 1943 in Moscow the foreign ministers of Britain, the Soviet Union, and China and Secretary of State Hull of the United States signed a pact to plan an international organization for peace.

The Tehran Conference and UNRRA

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek of China at Cairo, Egypt, in November 1943. From Cairo Roosevelt and Churchill went to Tehran in Iran to confer with Premier Stalin. They promised him a second front in France. Representatives of 44 Allied nations met in Washington, D.C., and Atlantic City in November 1943. They set up the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). The UNRRA fund for rehabilitating the postwar world was estimated at about $2,000,000,000. The United States was to provide $1,350,000,000 of the total.

Planning Finance and World Peace

A group of monetary experts of the United Nations held a conference at Bretton Woods, N.H., during July 1944. They agreed on a system for setting up an international lending agency. Countries in need of funds to finance international trade could borrow an amount equal to their contribution. This was called a "stabilization fund." The plan also called for an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to lend money for rehabilitation projects in member nations. The United States was expected to contribute the largest amount of money to both the stabilization fund and the world bank. In August 1944, representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and China met at Dumbarton Oaks estate, Washington, D.C. Preliminary plans were drawn up for assuring peace. These plans formed the basis for the organization of the United Nations the following year.

The Yalta Conference

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met with Premier Stalin at Yalta in the Crimea Feb. 4-12, 1945. The conference gave the Soviet Union almost half of prewar Poland. It also arranged for separate zones of occupation in Germany. Stalin was promised the Kuril Islands and control of Manchuria. In February and March 1945, 20 American nations met in Mexico City. They signed the Act of Chapultepec, which bound them to mutual action. In order that it might join the United Nations Argentina declared war against the Axis on March 27. (See also Latin America.) President Roosevelt died on April 12. Vice-president Harry S. Truman succeeded to the presidency on the same day. He announced he would follow Roosevelt's wartime and postwar policies (see Truman). On April 25, 1945, delegates from 50 United Nations assembled in San Francisco to endorse a charter. The United Nations charter was approved by the United States Senate three months later, on July 28, 1945. (See also United Nations.)

Potsdam Meeting; Postwar Disagreement

In July and August President Truman, Premier Stalin, and Prime Minister Churchill met in Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin. They drew up plans for reconstructing Europe and for dealing with Germany. In the midst of these discussions an election in England put the Labour party in power. That party's leader, Clement R. Attlee, succeeded Churchill as Britain's prime minister and replaced him at the Potsdam meeting. After Japan's surrender the foreign secretaries of Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and France and American Secretary of State James F. Byrnes met in London in September 1945. After three weeks of disputes the meeting broke up without results. During this time the Soviets demanded a share in the occupation of Japan. General MacArthur, however, was kept in sole command of Japan. the Soviet Union shared occupation of Korea with the United States. Meanwhile, weaknesses in the prewar colonial empires began to surface a trend that continued for many years. Revolts soon broke out in some of the regions released from Japanese control. In the Netherlands Indies Indonesian Nationalists revolted and set up a republic in 1945. The Dutch failed to put down the revolt. By 1950 the Republic of Indonesia was formed (see East Indies; Indonesia). France had trouble reestablishing its authority in French Indochina against resistance of the Vietnamese nationalists (see France, "History"; Indochina). Britain was disturbed by rebellion in Burma, pressure for independence from India, and demands from Zionist Jews for entry into Palestine.

Postwar Relief; War Criminal Trials

By 1946 UNRRA had helped to return about 6 million people to their homes in western Europe. It had also distributed about 6 million tons of food. In 1947 UNRRA was discontinued. The problem of food relief was then handled by the individual nations. In August 1945 the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and France wrote a charter for an Allied War Crimes Commission. The court established by the commission met at Nuremberg, Germany. It called before it 22 leading Nazis. In October 1946 the court sentenced most of the defendants. Ten of them were hanged. Seven were imprisoned, and three were acquitted. Others were sentenced later. The British, Norwegians, and French also held separate war criminal trials. In Japan after V-J Day General MacArthur set up an Army commission to try more than 2,000 war criminals. A number were executed, and others were put in prison.

British Power Declines; United States Problems

An outstanding postwar development was the decline of British power. Soon after the war Britain began to give up its empire. In 1947 it granted freedom to India, which split up into a Hindu state and a new Moslem nation named Pakistan (see India; Pakistan). Britain also in 1947 turned over the Palestine problem to the United Nations. In 1948 the State of Israel was created under a United Nations mandate. For more than a year after the war the United States had problems which many foreign nations took for signs of weakness. Men in the armed forces demanded their release. By 1947 the Army was down from its war peak of more than 8 million men to a peacetime strength of about one million. Congress passed the nation's second peacetime draft law in 1948. There were also many shortages of consumer goods. Widespread labor troubles resulted in damaging strikes. Dissatisfaction with conditions brought a sweeping Republican victory in the 1946 Congressional elections.

THE PEACE TREATIES

Delegates from 21 of the United Nations met in Paris on July 29, 1946, to draft treaties with Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Finland. Representatives of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and France signed the treaties in Paris Feb. 10, 1947. Each treaty provided that border fortifications were to be limited to those needed to keep internal security. Guarantees were given against racial discrimination and the rebirth of fascist governments. The Balkan treaties provided for free navigation of the Danube.

The Treaty with Italy

Territorial. Loss of colonies in Africa (Eritrea, Somaliland, and Libya); final disposition to be decided by the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and France within a year, with the possibility of United Nations control. The port of Trieste to be internationalized under United Nations control. The city of Fiume, most of the peninsula of Venezia Giulia, the commune of Zara, and the islands of Lagosta and Pelagosa ceded to Yugoslavia; the Dodecanese Islands to Greece, the Tenda and Briga valleys, and other small frontier areas, to France. Italy recognized the independence of Albania and Ethiopia. Reparations. 360 million dollars: 100 million to the Soviet Union, 125 million to Yugoslavia, 105 million to Greece, 25 million to Ethiopia, 5 million to Albania. Armaments. Combined strength of army, navy, air force, and police, 300,000 men. Allowed 200 tanks, 67,500 tons of warships, 200 fighter planes, and 150 noncombat planes; long-range artillery and aircraft carriers prohibited. Warships in excess of the 67,500-ton limitation to be distributed among the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and France.

The Treaty with Bulgaria

Territorial. Parts of Macedonia and Thrace returned to Yugoslavia and Greece. Reparations. 45 million dollars to Greece, 25 million to Yugoslavia. Armaments. Army, navy, and air force limited to 65,500 men. Allowed 7,250 tons of warships, 70 combat planes, 20 non-combat planes.

The Treaty with Hungary

Territorial. 1938 frontiers re-established; restoration of part of Slovakia to Czechoslovakia, Ruthenia to the Soviet Union, Transylvania to Romania, and territory taken from Yugoslavia in 1941. Reparations. 200 million dollars to the Soviet Union, 50 million to Yugoslavia, 50 million to Czechoslovakia. Armaments. Army and air force limited to 70,000 men. Allowed 70 combat planes, 20 non-combat planes.

The Treaty with Romania

Territorial. Southern Dobruja given to Bulgaria, northern Bucovina and Bessarabia given to the Soviet Union. Reparations. 300 million dollars to the Soviet Union. Armaments. Army, navy, and air force limited to 138,000 men. Allowed 15,000 tons of warships, 100 combat planes, and 50 non-combat planes.

The Treaty with Finland

Territorial. Petsamo, Salla, and Karelia ceded to the Soviet Union; Porkkala Peninsula leased to the Soviet Union for 50 years; Aland Islands demilitarized. Reparations. 300 million dollars to the Soviet Union. Armaments. Army, navy, and air force limited to 41,900 men. Allowed 10,000 tons of warships and 60 planes.

The Problem of Germany

At Potsdam in 1945 Allied leaders set up a temporary administration for Germany. The country was divided into American, British, French, and Soviet occupation zones. Control of Berlin, in the Soviet zone, was divided between the Soviet Union and the Western powers. In 1961 the city was physically partitioned by a concrete and barbed-wire wall. (See also Berlin, Germany; Germany, "History.") The victors were determined that Germany should not regain industrial strength which could be used for war. Wiping out all German industry, however, would have been disastrous. Western Europe depended upon Germany for coal and heavy metal products. In return Germany normally bought huge quantities of foodstuffs from its neighbors. The Allied powers also had to settle on a form of German government. The United States and Britain favored a federal type, with most matters entrusted to German states (Lander) and a federal government to deal with national matters such as currency. The Soviet Union preferred a strong central government, with political parties directly represented so that Communists could dominate. France wanted a very loose federation, with international control of the Ruhr. Representatives of the four powers convened in Moscow in 1947 to discuss treaties for Germany and Austria. Because of the postwar weakness of Britain and France, the conference was chiefly a contest between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union demanded 10 billion dollars in reparations from Germany in 20 years. The United States rejected this proposal on the grounds that the money could be made available only if the United States supplied an equivalent sum to support the Germans. If the reparations were to be paid without such support, it would greatly hamper Germany's economic recovery. The conference ended with no agreement. Later meetings also failed. The Soviet Union then blockaded the roads to Berlin for 11 months and tried to force the democracies out of Berlin. In reply the democracies in 1949 organized their zones in West Germany into a new nation called the Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviet Union then established East Germany as the German Democratic Republic. When the Soviet Union continued to block a German peace treaty the United States in 1952 ratified a "peace contract" with West Germany. (See also Germany, "History.")

The Problems of Austria and Trieste

The postwar split between the Soviet Union and the West was also illustrated in Austria. After the war Austria was divided into four areas of occupation American, British, French, and Soviet with Vienna under the control of all four powers. In 1955, after repeated disagreements about terms, a peace treaty was signed in Vienna. Soviet and Allied occupation forces were withdrawn. (See also Austria.) Another postwar trouble spot in Europe was Trieste. In 1945 the city and surrounding territory were divided into two zones Zone A (including Trieste) was occupied by British and United States forces, Zone B by the Yugoslavs. The Italian peace treaty of 1947 established the Free Territory of Trieste under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. Conflicts between Yugoslavia and Italy over their claims to the territory continued, however. In an agreement signed by the two countries in 1954, Trieste and most of Zone A were given to Italy while Yugoslavia received Zone B and some added area. (See also Trieste.) Meanwhile the increased threat of Communism in Europe led to the formation of new pacts among the free nations. In 1949 ten nations of Western Europe joined with the United States and Canada in establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Three years later the European Defense Community was founded. This group received NATO support. (See also Europe; United States, "History.")

Postwar Problems in Asia

In the Far East Communist military aggression created a new balance of power before the World War II peace treaty with Japan could be signed. On the Asia mainland Chinese Communist forces routed the armies of Nationalist China (1946-49). Mao Zedong, the Communist Chinese leader, proclaimed the People's Republic of China and allied it with the Soviet Union. This made China the strongest military power in the Far East. The defeated Nationalist forces, headed by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Formosa. (See also Chiang Kai-shek; Mao Zedong; China; Taiwan.) The successful Communist revolution in China set the pattern for Communist revolts in other Pacific countries. In Malaya and the Philippines rebels waged campaigns of terrorism that lasted for a number of years (see Malaysia; Philippines, section on history). In Indochina Communist forces attacked French-supported Vietnam. They forced the French to partition Vietnam. (See also Indochina; Vietnam.) After World War II Korea was occupied in the north by the Soviet Union and in the south by the United States. When the Republic of Korea was established in the south, most of the United States forces withdrew. In 1950 Communist forces from North Korea and China invaded the new republic. Thus the increasing tensions in the Pacific had finally exploded into warfare. (See also Korean War; MacArthur; Truman.)

Peace Treaty with Japan

Japan struggled to rebuild itself after its crushing defeat. During this time all efforts by the Allies to frame a peace treaty were blocked by the Soviet Union's disagreements with the United States. Finally, in 1951, the United States sponsored a treaty that was endorsed by Japan and 48 other nations. The Soviet Union refused to sign. The Chinese signatory the Nationalist government signed in 1952. The chief provisions of the peace treaty were as follows: Territorial. The independence of Korea was to be recognized; all claims to Formosa, the Pescadores, the southern part of Sakhalin, and the Pacific islands that were formerly under Japanese mandate were to be surrendered. Reparations. Because of limited economic capacity Japan was made to pay victimized nations only in goods manufactured in Japan from raw materials supplied by those nations. Armaments. No limitations. Japan, however, agreed to abide by the anti-aggression provisions contained in the charter of the United Nations. Negotiations between Japan and the Soviet Union continued until 1956 when a peace treaty was finally signed.

Excerpted from Compton's New Century Encyclopedia and Reference
Collection II Copyright (c) 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc.

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