Explain, in what says was the year 1945 a turning point of modern European history.
Immediately after the close of the WWI, Europe plunged itself into WWII, a major world conflict that ended in 1945 and brought forth significant changes that set the footnote for Europe’s future development. In many ways, the 1945 was seen as a turning point of modern European history.
First, 1945 ushered in the introduction of Cold War, whose major belligerents were the rising powers of the US and the Soviet Union. Before 1945, Europe was bathed in regional conflicts of its own. Nations of different Alliances, for example, the France and Britain of the Triple Entente rivaled Germany and Austrian Hungry of the Triple Alliance in the fields of increased militarization
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Before 1945, the Industrial Revolution, Commerce Revolution and Social Darwinist prejudice facilitate imperialist agendas that allowed European nations to immensely colonize, exploit, and inhabit parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. Take Britain as an example, it had spheres of influences over Palestine, with long colonized sub-Saharan Africa parts such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya and Ghana. On the other hand, whereas France had been holding on to Algeria and Indochina, the Netherlands held mighty sways in the East Indies. Notwithstanding such imperialist success, the WWII greatly shattered European nations with formidable economic exhaustion, with domestic confidence shrunken and political agendas changed to assist in faster European recovery over social and economic problems such as unemployment, reconstruction and inflation. This set off the trend of decolonization which European nations were reluctant to allow and yet futile to prevent so. In the aftermath of 1945, the British withdrew from Palestine, leaving the UN to determine its fate. It also saw colonial loss from now independent states of Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana and so forth. For nations like France and the Netherlands, both nations maintained a costly and unwinnable struggle to retain their colonial gains, reluctantly agreeing to recognize Indonesian independence, the division of …show more content…
Before 1945, Fascism and Nazism gathered opportunistic speed in replacing faltering democratic faith, since citizens of Italy and Germany spoke highly of totalitarianism. In Italy, Fascist ideas permeated. In Weimar Republic, Nazism took roots. These ideologies are fanatically trusted to be best means to rebuild citizens’ shattered lives amidst the hardest of time in economy and national glory. Another radicalism, called Anti-Semitism, also took shape to underscore arch0nationalistic identity. However, during the WWII, brutal and racist slaughters like Holocaust, which pilloried 13 million individuals that were Jews and “undesirables”. The infamous Auschwitz was amongst the concentration camps that Jew were shipped to and largely exterminated unlawfully. Anti-Semitic feelings obviously ran deep throughout European society in early twentieth century. Moreover, the staggering 50 to 60 million people whose lives were taken as victims to misguided totalitarianism outraged human conscience. In the wake of 1945, international opinions denounced extremism’s radical and dehumanizing wrongs. Total confusion and massive destruction were evidence of such totalitarian agendas. Post-war Europe reaffirmed people’s faith in democracy and freedom as the main guidelines for future development. Besides, the new legal concept of “crimes against humanity” was
“Was German ‘Eliminationist Anti-Semitism” Responsible for the Holocaust?” is a fascinating and somewhat discouraging debate that explores the question of whether German anti-Semitism, instilled within citizens outside of the Nazi Party, played a vast role in the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust . Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of “The Paradigm Challenged,” believes that it did; and argues quite convincingly that ordinary German citizens were duplicitous either by their actions or inactions due to the deep-seeded nature of anti-Semitic sentiment in the country. On the other hand, Christopher R. Browning, who has extensively researched the Holocaust, argues that the arguments of Goldhagen leaves out significant dynamics which were prevalent throughout most of Western and Eastern Europe during this period of history.
This essay analyses the origins of the Second World War by briefly summarizing the events from 1919-1939. However, most emphasis is put on the amount of responsibility the Treaty of Versailles deserves for the outbreak of war. Other than analysing the Treaty of Versailles on its own, it also analyses the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash on the world, the rise of Fascism and Nazism, as well as the rise of Adolf Hitler, the failure of the League of Nations and the appeasement of the Fascist and Nazi regimes by Britain and France throughout the 1930s. Hence the Treaty of Versailles plays a
Explain why one event during World War Two in Europe was a turning point in the conflict
The Holocaust was the systematic killing and extermination of millions of Jews and other Europeans by the German Nazi state between 1939 and 1945. Innocent Europeans were forced from their homes into concentration camps, executed violently, and used for medical experiments. The Nazis believed their acts against this innocent society were justified when hate was the motivating factor. The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping on a society. It forces societies to examine the responsibility and role of citizenship, in addition to approaching the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction. (Holden Congressional Record). Despite the adverse treatment of the Jews, there are lessons that can be learned from the Holocaust: The Nazi’s rise to power could have been prevented, the act of genocide was influenced by hate, and the remembrance of the Holocaust is of the utmost importance for humanity.
The investigation assesses the Nazi regime from 1933 – 1945 in regards to the totality of their actions. In order to evaluate the Nazi regime on whether or not they were more evil than other genocidal regimes, the investigation evaluates how the Nazis controlled their country. The investigation will start in the early years of the Nazi regime in how they set up their totalitarian government and how they expanded their control. Then the Holocaust will be looked at for how the Nazis treated those they were exterminating. Accounts from soldiers and Jewish people who lived through the Nazi control will be mostly used to evaluate if the Nazis were more evil than other genocidal regimes. Two of the sources used in this essay, “The Liberation of Dachau” by Chuck Ferree, and “Fate did not let me go” a letter by Valli Ollendorff are then evaluated for their origins, purposes, values and limitations.
Prior to the First World War, Europe was the world center of industry and capital. Massive death, destruction, and resentment after World War I left most countries unable to recover to a normal existence and damaged the world economy. The economic collapse and the political instability caused by World War I eventually led to the rise of fascism in Europe. Forceful dictators in Italy, Germany, and Japan took advantage of these problems to seize power by territorial expansion. These events caused a major repositioning of world power and influence. This paper traces a variety of significant factors and forces that contributed to the outbreak of World War II.
Changes were happening all over Europe between World War I and World War II, and the book Europe in the Era of Two World Wars highlights a lot of them. Volker Berghahn, the author, discusses how violence escalated all across Europe during this time frame. The book digs into the desires and upsets of countries like Germany, Britain, France, and Russia, during war times more than others I have read do. Economies of each country and the escalading violence are the main focuses of the book. In the following review of Berghahn’s work, Europe in the Era of Two World Wars, I will highlight why the author is qualified to write the book, and survey the strengths and weakness of the information he provided.
As tensions grew among communist and capitalists, countries in Europe were extraordinarily affected. Europe was divided into communist and non-communist nations after World War II.
During World War II, the Jews were the primary victims of Germany’s most atrocious act, the Holocaust, where thousands of Jews were senselessly slaughtered in the name of Nazism. Countless innocent Jews perished in concentration camps, while the majority of the Nazis watched and did nothing. To them, the Jews were not human beings, but rather mere animals, who deserved concentration camps. This reasoning baffled the Allied countries, as they understood that regardless of race and religion, no one should be subjected to concentration camps. Yet, the Nazis completely disregarded and violated the basic rights of humankind. The Nazis successfully propagated this anti-Semitic mentality because ordinary Germans were consumed by their ignorance
The Holocaust is widely considered to be one of the darkest times in history- an abominable genocide with casualties measured in millions. With infamy comes inquiry, leading many to question and examine the exact motives behind the Nazi regime that killed masses. There are various factors to be considered when pinpointing the root causes of the Holocaust, among these being the historical and cultural hatred of Jews, the growing German unrest following WWI, and the Nazi Party’s ability to effectively utilize propaganda as to spread their doctrine. Despite this, anti-semitic ideas and propaganda spread before and during WWII were decidedly some of the most influential causes of the Holocaust.
The war not only facilitated change, it played a powerful role in molding its quality and strength. This view of the war suggests its pivotal role in directing the destinies of the contemporary world – it is in this sense that the war was possibly a “turning point.”
For quite a number of reasons, World War II was largely inevitable. In this text, I will take into consideration some arguments that have been presented in the past in an attempt to demonstrate the inevitability of the Second World War. These arguments range from the creation of the Treaty of Versailles to the conditions imposed on Germany to nationalistic issues. Many historians consider German's invasion into Poland the official commencement date of the Second World War.
After the Second World War America and the Soviet Union gained power in Europe. Though these to countries never fought one another, they waged a cold war of economic, military and ideological rivalry which last through the second half of the twentieth century.
In the tumultuous period leading up to World War II, a series of laws were devised in Nazi Germany that subjected the Jewish people to prohibitory and discriminatory forms of treatment. Although the Jewish people only accounted for 503,000 of the 55 million occupants of the country, Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship preached the incorporation of anti-Semitism into law and practice in order to quell the people he considered to be the enemy of the country.
A short moment after the end of World War II, as Europe was slowly coming