WWII was fought as two separate conflicts that come together: one in Europe and one in Asia. The story of Asia is Japanese imperialism abroad and militarism at home from the 1910s onward. The story of Europe is the crisis of democracy and the rise of first Fascism and then Nazism.
Both conflicts are related to a crisis of the Interwar powers: challenges to European colonialism in Asia and challenges to capitalist democracy in Europe. The political systems that become Fascism, Nazism, Japanese militarism, and, to some extent, Stalinism, are formed from the crisis conditions in economy and society after 1918. In Europe, this is directly linked to the legacy and false promises made by governments during the First World War and, in the case of Germany, the impact of the Versailles Treaty.
Millions are dead as a result of the Second World War; mostly civilians. It remains the deadliest conflict in human history. The violence of that period impacts us today, through the Holocaust and Japanese atrocities in Asia, particularly their use of chemical and biological weapons.
The background to WWII in Europe is the legacy of the First World War. WWI consumes almost all of Europe between 1914 and 1918, and the USA also becomes involved in 1917. In 1917, the Russian monarchy is overthrown in a revolution that turns into a civil war. This civil war is waged across the territories of the former Russian Empire until the mid-1920s, when borders stabilize between the Soviet Union and the newly independent states of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. WWI finally ends in 1918, when soldiers and sailors in Germany and Austria-Hungary mutiny and overthrow their governments. Different soldiers do so for different reasons, leading to a period of general chaos across central and eastern Europe, as nationalists, conservatives, and socialists all fight it out.
The background to WWII in Asia is Japan's rapid ascendance and its relationship with China. Politics in the Pacific, since the late 1800s, has been defined by the decline of China and the rise of Japan. The threat of European imperialism recedes following WWI, but the threat posed by Japan only increases. China used to be the dominant power in Asia, but failed to reform its administration to cope with population growth or to adapt to industrialization. By the end of the 19th Century, China is dependent on the ‘Treaty Powers’. Japan, on the other hand, emerges from a period of self-imposed isolation following the 1868 Meiji Restoration of direct imperial rule and rapidly industrializes. It begins to expand militarily into East Asia, defeating China and Russia in the process. By 1914, Japan and the USA are the premier Pacific powers. The Qing Empire is overthrown in 1911, with the subsequent Republic of China transforms into a military dictatorship by 1913. In 1916, dictator Yuan Shikai dies, leading to a period of civil war in China that lasts until the reunification of the country under Jiang Jieshi and the Guomindang in 1927. The European powers are much less involved in China after WWI and the Treaty system is mostly nullified in 1928. Japan, however, remains an aggressive imperial power seeking to dominate China.
The global economy collapses during and after WWI. The prewar global economy had been built on extensive international trade and financial markets based around the Gold Standard. The system is suspended and never restored after WWI. The interconnected global economy falls apart after the outbreak of the First World War, but it is temporarily supported by massive deficit spending to feed the war effort. In 1918, this deficit spending ends and the global economy faces a major recession. New strategies, like high tariffs and expansionist monetary policies, are needed to cope with this crisis. Most free market capitalist states, especially in Europe, fail to do so.
— Eunice Noh, June 2020
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