The Second World War

The Second World War began in 1939 and lasted until 1945. On the one
hand, the so-called Axis forces fought: Germany, Italy and Japan, which
represented the totalitarian states, and on the other, the Allied forces ,
formed by the Western democracies and the Soviet Union. .

The main causes of the War will be Germany 's refusal to accept the
borders established in the Treaty of Versailles and its desire for dominance
in Europe, and Japan 's expansionism in the Far East.

The German population was very dissatisfied with the situation in which the
country had been left after the First World War. This caused Adolf Hitler
to win the elections in 1933, which would form the Third Reich, based on
Nazism, also called National Socialism, representing the end of democracy
and the establishment of a dictatorship based on the supposed supremacy
of the Aryan race. , that is, of people with Nordic features above others.

Nazism led by Hitler, called le Führer, which means "the guide", caused the
Second World War.

The Nazi regime was going to implement a

policy of systematic extermination of people
who were not of the Aryan race, especially
the Jews, it was going to be known as the
Holocaust. More than six million people will
die in the extermination camps.
The conflict will begin on September 1, when the Nazis will occupy Poland,
and the United Kingdom and France will declare war on Germany. In the Far
East, Japan occupied some territories in China at the end of 1939.

During 1939, the Germans took over much of Europe. He occupied Denmark,
Norway, Holland, Yugoslavia, Greece and part of France.
Meanwhile, Italy had entered the war on his side.

In June 1941, the Nazis are going to attack the Soviet Union. In December
1941, the Japanese attacked and sank the North American fleet anchored
in the Pacific at the Pearl Harbor base, prompting the entry of the United
States of America into the war.

In the summer of 1943, the Allied forces achieved the surrender of Italy,
and in 1944 they landed in France and liberated Paris.

On May 7, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the siege of the

Allied armies. The winning countries occupied Germany, which was divided
into two states.

In the Pacific, the North American offensive against Japan culminated with
the dropping, in August 1945, of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki , which led to Japan's unconditional surrender.

The Second World War caused about fifty million deaths. Some members of
the Nazi party were tried for genocide in the so-called Nuremberg trials .

On June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, the

Normandy landings took place, which
was the beginning of the final
offensive of the Allied forces against
Germany, in which there would be
many casualties.
It is produced on the Rock of Gibraltar
since it was a strategic point.
The leaders of the allied countries, from left to right: Winston Churchill , of the United
Kingdom; Franklin Roosevelt of the United States of America and Josif Stalin , of the
Soviet Union.

During World War II, the United States of

America will drop the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which will initially
cause about 112,000 deaths. The effect of
nuclear radiation will cause hundreds of
thousands more deaths in the following
years.
The United Nations : is an

instrument created to serve international peace. The different points of view

between nations or countries did not prevent the search for a compromise
formula that would analyze the relationships between countries. The purpose
was:
-Maintain international peace and security .
-Foster friendly relations between nations and international solidarity .
-Promote international cooperation to resolve economic, social and cultural problems .
The Cold War: tension between the powers
The defeat of Nazi-fascist totalitarianism did not guarantee good relations
between the winning powers. The ideological clashes, kept latent among the
"greats" during the war, surfaced as soon as it ended. The year 1947 is marked as
the beginning of the "Cold War", which lasted from 1945 to 1989, the date on
which the Berlin Wall fell. Cold War is the expression used to define the tension
between the opposition blocs ( bloc Western-capitalist, led by the United States ,
and Eastern-communist, led by the Soviet Union ). Both blocs began an arms race
that reached the brink of the "hot war", through organized international
espionage, permanent diplomatic claims, and efficient propaganda .