World War Two Marked the End of Modern Age Essay

As the most destructive war in the history of mankind, Second World War, culminated in the year 1945, countries all over the world were in a sorry state. Over fifty five million people were killed, a lot of property destroyed, lots of people incapacitated by the war, huge sums of money spent on the war and, generally speaking, economies crippled by the war. There was need for emergency revival of all kind of infrastructure in almost every country in the world. The main participants in the war included Asia, Europe and North Africa with the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea offering additional battlegrounds (“World War II” 1). The war brought about insurmountable problems that took the world decades to solve; the major ones being economic depression and dilution of socio-cultural values.

The war started in September 1, 1939 when Germany attacked Poland and exercised its authority over other nations. These were: the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg and Belgium. It also conquered Greece and Yugoslavia thereafter. Elsewhere, Japan invited the United States to the war by their 1941 Pearl-Harbor invasion. This was due to the belief by Germany, Japan and Italy that they were unjustly prevented from getting their fair share of the world’s economic cake. They believed that the United States, the Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and France dominated the world economically and therefore they were looking forward to controlling certain strategic territories in order to regain their economic power. All major countries in the whole world were eventually involved in the war that remarkably led to the transfer of the title of the ‘world’s superpower’ from Western Europe to USSR (“World War II” 1).

Before the war begun, nations had been struggling to recover from the effects of the First World War and thus most of them had adopted a dictatorial form of government. Dictators like Adolf Hitler used the condition left by the First World War to win support from their nationals who were desperate to break free from these oppressive conditions, for instance, the treaty of Versailles. After Germany formed a republican government in 1919, people were not supportive of the government’s acceptance of the treaty of Versailles. They were therefore ready to support any ideas that came along with the rejection of the oppressive treaty. When Hitler formed his socialist Nazi party, it became the consolation of the people since he was ready to save them from the embarrassment of the First World War. Thus, even though the ideas of socialism are definitely bad, Hitler and his Nazi party later formed the government in Germany. After violating the non-aggression treaty he signed with Stalin, Hitler started a war between Russia and Germany. He was trying to conquer Russia in disagreement of the treaty he signed with his fellow dictator. This war saw the death of millions of Russians and Germans. These behaviors led to a lot of genocides and wars whose effects were felt in the whole world for decades. The unwavering stands of these people on dictatorship had tremendous contribution to the forces of communism and fascism. It can be argued that, if such kind of people did not explicitly express their ideas in the society, then the world would not have experienced the extensive destruction that occurred (Reams 1).

With the occurrence of the war, frequent genocides and the existence of dictatorial forms of government, societies were deprived of their values and the socio-cultural advancements that they had made after the First World War. Modern age, especially cultural relics, got lost due to infrastructural destruction and loss of human lives. The foundations that had been laid on cultural advancements, like music, were broken and people in most countries started afresh after the war. The revolution that brought about the war got people busy politicking that they did not have much time for social, cultural and economic activities. After the war, economic depression followed that had an adverse effect on almost every part of human life. There was an urgent need for the world to recover from the destruction that had occurred but the war, revolution and economic depression had deprived it of all recovery mechanisms. Up to today, people living in areas that were hit by atomic bombs experience health problems and Western Europe lost its ‘superpower’ title, seemingly, for good.

In as much as the war was destructive, it gave the world a bitter lesson. Obviously, no individual or country could possibly take pride in it or in associating any goodness with it; but the war gave the world a new shape in terms of governance, technology, morals, human action, the law, etc. For instance, it led to development of high technology as countries tried to counter economic depression that followed after the war. It also provoked governments to develop sound economic strategies and also led to a general overhaul of governance.

With this kind of scrutiny, one wonders what would happen if the world experienced such international animosity today. What would happen if the current infrastructure is destroyed and diplomatic ties loosened by across-the-border greed? The results would be, undoubtedly, undesirable and thus we should be happy that such events happened in history and taught us how to live safeguarding humanity and wealth.

Works Cited

Reams Karen, Stalin and World War II, 2008. Web.

“World War II”, Oregon Coast Magazine Online. 2010.