Aftermath of World War II
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The Aftermath of World War II covers a period of history from roughly 1945-1950.
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[edit] Europe in ruins
At the end of the war, millions of refugees were homeless, the European economy had collapsed, and 70%[citation needed] of the European industrial infrastructure was destroyed. The Soviet Union had been heavily affected, with 30% of its economy destroyed.
Luftwaffe bombings of Frampol, Wieluń,Warsaw in 1939 instituted the practice of bombing purely civilian objectives. The United Kingdom ended the war economically exhausted by the war effort. The wartime coalition government was dissolved; new elections were held; Churchill was defeated in a landslide general election by the Labour Party under Clement Attlee.
In 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall devised the "European Recovery Program", better known as the Marshall Plan, effective in the year[s 1948 - 1952 it allocated 13 billion dollars for the reconstruction of Western Europe.
[edit] Communist control of Central and Eastern Europe
At the end of the war the Soviet Union occupied much of Central and Eastern Europe and of the Balkans. In all the USSR-occupied countries, with the exception of Austria, the Soviet Union helped Communist regimes to power. Furthermore, it annexed the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
[edit] Occupation of Germany and Austria
Germany was partitioned into four zones of occupation, coordinated by the Allied Control Council. The American, British, and French zones joined in 1949 as the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic. In Germany economic suppression and Denazification took place. Millions of Germans and Poles were expelled from their homelands as a result of the teritorial annexations in Eastern Europe agreed upon at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. In the West Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, which also separated the Saar area from Germany.
Austria was separated from Germany and divided into four zones of occupation, which reunited in 1955 to become the Republic of Austria.
[edit] Occupation of Japan and Korea
Japan was occupied by the U.S, aided by Commonwealth troops, until the peace treaty took effect in 1952. In accordance with the Yalta Conference agreements, the Soviet Union occupied and subsequently annexed Sakhalin. During the occupation, the Americans focused on demilitarizing the nation, demolishing the Japanese arms industry, and installing a democratic government with a new constitution. Commonly regarded by many historians as a resounding economic and social success, the Japanese occupation formally ended in 1952, soon to be followed by Japan's meteoric post-war economic boom. The Far Eastern Commission and Allied Council For Japan were also established to look over the occupation of Japan. These bodies served a similar function to the Allied Control Council in occupied Germany. For FEC and ACJ check [1]
Korea was divided between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, leading to the creation of two separate governements in 1948. Under Soviet auspices, the Northern part of the peninsula soon declared independence as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, while the U.S.-backed anticommunist regime in the southern half became the Republic of Korea. These two governments would eventually engage in the first "hot" conflict of the Cold War from 1950-1953 during the Korean War, the first test of the post-war American military and also of the new United Nations organization. The two Koreas are still divided today.
[edit] Decolonization
The areas previously occupied by the colonial powers gained their freedom, some peacefuly such as the Philippines in 1946, India and Pakistan in 1947. Others had to fight bloody wars of liberation before gaining freedom, such as against the French attempt to reoccupy Vietnam in the First Indochina War, and against the Netherlands attempt to reoccupy the Dutch East Indies.
[edit] China
After the Republic of China's victory against Japan in 1945, the truce between the U.S.-backed Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-Shek and the USSR-backed Communist Party of China led by Mao Zedong soon broke down. The victorious communists declared the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The KMT and up to two million civilian and military refugees fled to Taiwan. This division still exists today, as the People's Republic of China governs the mainland while the Republic of China continues to exist on Taiwan and a few outlying islands of Fujian Province
[edit] Border revisions: Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union
As a result of the new borders drawn by the victorious nations, large populations suddenly found themselves in hostile territory. The Soviet Union took over areas formerly controlled by Germany, Finland, Poland, and Japan. Poland received most of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line, including the industrial regions of Silesia. The German state of the Saar was temporarily a protectorate of France but it later returned to German administration. The number of Germans expelled, as set forth at Potsdam, totalled roughly 15 million, including 11 million from Germany proper and 3.5 million from the Sudetenland. Mainstream estimates of casualties from the expulsions range between 1 - 2 Million dead.
In Eastern Europe, four million Poles were expelled by the Soviet Union from east of the new border which approximated the Curzon Line. This border change reversed the results of the 1919-1920 [Polish-Soviet War]. Former Polish cities such as L'vov were now under the Soviet administration of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
[edit] Reparations and Allied occupation
Germany paid reparations to the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union mainly in the form of dismantled factories, forced labor, and coal. The US also confiscated German patents and German owned property in the United States. [citation needed] Germany was to be reduced to the standard of living she had had at the height of the depression (1932). <ref>Cost of Defeat Time Magazine Monday, Apr. 8, 1946</ref>
In accordance with the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, payment of war reparations was assessed from the countries of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland.
[edit] United Nations
Because the League of Nations had failed to actively prevent the war, the United Nations was created in 1945. The UN operates within the parameters of the United Nations Charter, and the reason for the UN’s formation is outlined in the Preamble to the United Nations Charter. One of the first actions of the United Nations was the creation of the State of Israel, partly in response to the Holocaust.
