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The Aftermath of World War II covers a period of history from roughly 1945-1950.
Europe in ruins
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 Warsaw destroyed by German forces. 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. Note: This section was copied from the article World War II and removed from that article in order to reduce the size of the article. ...
Map of Cold-War era Europe and the Near East showing countries that received Marshall Plan aid. ...
Survivor of German aerial bombardment of Warsaw This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...
Survivor of German aerial bombardment of Warsaw This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...
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. Frampol is a town in Poland, in Lublin Voivodship, in BiÅ‚goraj County. ...
Wieluń is a town in central Poland with 25,500 inhabitants (1995). ...
Motto: Contemnit procellas (It defies the storms) Semper invicta (Always invincible) Coordinates: Country Poland Voivodeship Masovia Powiat city county Gmina Warszawa Districts 18 boroughs City Rights turn of the 13th century Government - Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (PO) Area - City 516. ...
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, FRS, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1945 to 1951. ...
In 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall devised the "European Recovery Program", better known as the Marshall Plan, effective in the years 1948 - 1952 it allocated 13 billion dollars for the reconstruction of Western Europe. For other persons named George Marshall, see George Marshall (disambiguation). ...
Map of Cold-War era Europe and the Near East showing countries that received Marshall Plan aid. ...
Communist control of Central and Eastern Europe -
 German occupation zones in 1946 after territorial annexations in the East. The Saarland (in the French zone) is shown with stripes because it was removed from Germany by France in 1947 as a protectorate, and was not incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany until 1957. Historical Eastern Germany, not contained in this map was annexed by Poland, and the Soviet Union. 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. A map of the Eastern Bloc. ...
Warsaw Pact countries to the east of the Iron Curtain are shaded red; NATO members to the west of it — blue. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (500x646, 26 KB) Beschreibung, Quelle und Lizenz Manche Bundesländer sind erst 1946 gebildet worden. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (500x646, 26 KB) Beschreibung, Quelle und Lizenz Manche Bundesländer sind erst 1946 gebildet worden. ...
Saarland is one of the 16 states of Germany. ...
The Saar, corresponding to the current German state of Saarland, was a protectorate under French control between 1947 and 1959. ...
Historical Eastern Germany or Former German Eastern Territories are terms which can be used to describe collectively those provinces or regions east of the Oder–Neisse line which were parts of Germany after its unification in 1871 and were internationally recognised as such at the time. ...
Central Europe The Alpine Countries and the Visegrád Group (Political map, 2004) Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ...
Regions of Europe as delineated by the United Nations[1] (UN definition of Eastern Europe marked salmon): Northern Europe Western Europe Eastern Europe Southern Europe Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current national boundaries: Russia (dark orange), other countries of the former USSR...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
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 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. Germans expelled from the Sudetenland // The expulsion of Germans after World War II refers to the escape and mass deportation of people considered Germans (Reichsdeutsche and some Volksdeutsche) from various European states and territories during 1945 and in the first three years after World War II 1946-48. ...
The C-Pennant Occupation zones in Germany (1945) Capital Berlin (de jure) Political structure Military occupation Governors (1945) - UK zone F.M. Montgomery - French zone Gen. ...
The Oder-Neisse line (German: , Polish: ) marked the border between German Democratic Republic and Poland between 1950 and 1990. ...
Kammergericht, Headquarters of the Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority, known in German as the Alliierter Kontrollrat, also referred to as the Four Powers, was a military occupation governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany after the end of World War II in...
GDR redirects here. ...
Denazification (German: Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary and politics of any remnants of the Nazi regime. ...
The Big Three at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. ...
Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin meeting at the Potsdam Conference on July 18, 1945. ...
Imperial Province of Elsaß-Lothringen Alsace-Lorraine (German: , generally Elsass-Lothringen) was a territorial entity created by the German Empire in 1871 after the annexation of most of Alsace and parts of Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War. ...
Saarland is one of the 16 states of Germany. ...
Austria was separated from Germany and divided into four zones of occupation, which reunited in 1955 to become the Republic of Austria.
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] Capital Tokyo Language(s) Japanese Political structure Military occupation Military Governor of Japan - 1945-1951 Douglas MacArthur - 1951-1952 Matthew Ridgway Emperor - 1926-1989 Hirohito Historical era Post-WWII - Surrender of Japan August 10, 1945 - San Francisco Peace Treaty September 8, 1951 At the end of the Second World War...
The Korean peninsula, first divided along the 38th parallel, later along the demarcation line The division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea stems from the 1945 Allied victory in World War II, ending Japans 35-year occupation of Korea. ...
Image File history File links Korean_war_1950-1953. ...
Image File history File links Korean_war_1950-1953. ...
The Big Three at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. ...
Sakhalin (Russian: , IPA: ; Japanese: 樺太 ) or サãƒãƒªãƒ³ )); Chinese: 庫é ; also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50 and 54°24 N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. ...
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. Korea (Korean: í•œêµ or ì¡°ì„ , see below) is a geographic area, civilization, and former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. ...
Combatants United Nations: Republic of Korea, Australia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States Medical staff: Denmark, Australia, Italy, Norway, Sweden Communist states: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Peoples Republic of China, Soviet Union Commanders...
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. Japan had brought with them a sense of nationalism that grew power bases in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia. This nationalist nature who lead to revolutions against the USA and the French in Asia. This signalled the end of the imperial nature of many of the European powers. Colonialism in 1945 Decolonization refers to the achievement of independence by the various Western colonies and protectorates in Asia and Africa following World War II. This conforms with an intellectual movement known as Post-Colonialism. ...
Combatants France Việt Minh Strength 500,000 at least 63,000, but estimates 100,000-950,000 Casualties 94,581 dead 78,127 wounded 40,000 captured 300,000+ dead 500,000+ wounded 100,000 captured The First Indochina War (also known as the French Indochina War, the Franco...
The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, (Dutch: Nederlands-Indië) was the name of the colonies set up by the Dutch East India Company, which came under administration of the Netherlands during the 19th century (see Indonesia). ...
China -
The war was also a pivotal point in China's history. Before the war against Japan, China had suffered nearly a century of humiliation at the hands of various imperialist powers and was relegated to a semi-colonial status. However, the war greatly enhanced China's international status. Not only was the central government under Chiang Kai-shek able to abrogate most of the unequal treaties China had signed in the past century, the Republic of China also became a founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member in the Security Council. China also reclaimed Manchuria and Taiwan. Nevertheless, eight years of war greatly taxed the central government, and many of its nation-building measures adopted since it came to power in 1928 were disrupted by the war. Communist activities also expanded greatly in occupied areas, making post-war administration of these areas fraught with difficulties. Vast war damages and hyperinflation thereafter greatly demoralized the populace, along with the continuation of the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communists. Partly because of the severe blow his army and government had suffered during the war against Japan, the Kuomintang, along with state apparatus of the Republic of China, retreated to Taiwan in 1949 and in its place the Chinese communists established the People's Republic of China on the mainland. Combatants Nationalist Party of China Communist Party of China Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Mao Zedong Strength 4,300,000 (July 1946) 3,650,000 (June 1948) 1,490,000 (June 1949) 1,200,000 (July 1946) 2,800,000 (June 1948) 4,000,000 (June 1949) The Chinese Civil War...
Chiang Kai-shek (Chinese: 蔣介石 or 蔣ä¸æ£, October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the 1925 death of Sun Yat-sen. ...
Motto Three Principles of the People (三民主義 San-min Chu-i) Anthem National Anthem of the Republic of China Capital Taipei (de facto) Nanjing (de jure)1 Largest city Taipei Official languages Mandarin (Guóyǔ) Government Semi-presidential system - President Chen Shui-bian - Vice President Annette Lu - Premier Su Tseng-chang...
The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ...
A session of the Security Council in progress The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful organ of the United Nations. ...
Combatants Nationalist Party of China Communist Party of China Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Mao Zedong Strength 4,300,000 (July 1946) 3,650,000 (June 1948) 1,490,000 (June 1949) 1,200,000 (July 1946) 2,800,000 (June 1948) 4,000,000 (June 1949) The Chinese Civil War...
Motto Three Principles of the People (三民主義 San-min Chu-i) Anthem National Anthem of the Republic of China Capital Taipei (de facto) Nanjing (de jure)1 Largest city Taipei Official languages Mandarin (Guóyǔ) Government Semi-presidential system - President Chen Shui-bian - Vice President Annette Lu - Premier Su Tseng-chang...
Border revisions: Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union
 Changes to Germany's borders from 1919-1945
Changes to Poland's borders from 1919-1945. -
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. Image File history File links Germanborders. ...
Image File history File links Germanborders. ...
Image File history File links Map of Poland in 1945, drawn by User: Adam Carr. ...
Image File history File links Map of Poland in 1945, drawn by User: Adam Carr. ...
Image File history File links Vertreibung_1. ...
Image File history File links Vertreibung_1. ...
Sudetenland (German; Sudety in Czech and Polish) was the name used in the first half of the 20th century for the regions inhabited mostly by Germans in the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia associated with Bohemia. ...
Germans expelled from the Sudetenland // The expulsion of Germans after World War II refers to the escape and mass deportation of people considered Germans (Reichsdeutsche and some Volksdeutsche) from various European states and territories during 1945 and in the first three years after World War II 1946-48. ...
Historical Eastern Germany or Former German Eastern Territories are terms which can be used to describe collectively those provinces or regions east of the Oder–Neisse line which were parts of Germany after its unification in 1871 and were internationally recognised as such at the time. ...
Historical Eastern Germany or Former German Eastern Territories are terms which can be used to describe collectively those provinces or regions east of the Oder–Neisse line which were parts of Germany after its unification in 1871 and were internationally recognised as such at the time. ...
The Oder-Neisse line (German: , Polish: ) marked the border between German Democratic Republic and Poland between 1950 and 1990. ...
Silesia (Czech: ; German: ; Latin: ; Polish: ; Silesian: Ślónsk) is a historical region in central Europe. ...
Saarland is one of the 16 states of Germany. ...
The Saar, corresponding to the current German state of Saarland, was a protectorate under French control between 1947 and 1959. ...
Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin meeting at the Potsdam Conference on July 18, 1945. ...
Sudetenland (German; Sudety in Czech and Polish) was the name used in the first half of the 20th century for the regions inhabited mostly by Germans in the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia associated with Bohemia. ...
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. The Curzon Line was a demarcation line proposed in 1919 by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, as a possible armistice line between Poland, to the west, and Soviet Russia to the east, during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–20. ...
Combatants Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Republic of Poland Ukrainian Peoples Republic Commanders Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Józef Piłsudski Edward Rydz-Śmigły Strength 950,000 combatants 5,000,000 reserves 360,000 combatants 738,000 reserves Casualties Dead estimated at 100,000...
Motto: Semper fidelis Location Map of Ukraine with Lviv. ...
State motto: Ukrainian: Пролетарі вÑÑ–Ñ… країн, єднайтеÑÑ! Translation: Workers of the world, unite! Capital Kiev Official language Ukrainian and Russian Established In the USSR: - Since - Until December 25, 1917 December 30, 1922 August 24, 1991 Area - Total - Water (%) Ranked 3rd in the USSR 603,700 km² negligible Population - Total - Density Ranked 2nd in the...
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. Germany was to be reduced to the standard of living she had had at the height of the depression (1932). [1] Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years the U.S. pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion, in his book Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany, that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to $10 Billion dollars, equivalent to around $100 Billion dollars 2006.[2] The program of also acquiring German scientist and technicians for the U.S. (see Operation Alsos, Operation Paperclip) was however not only founded in profit interests, an equally strong motivator was the desire to deny the expertise of German scientists to the Soviet Union.[3] The case for finding and holding Nobel laurate Werner Heisenberg was summed up thus "…he was worth more to us than ten divisions of Germans. Had he fallen into Russian hands, he would have proven invaluable to them."[4] Not by Their Own Will. ...
The Morgenthau Plan showing the planned partitioning of Germany into a North State, a South State, and an International zone. ...
The Standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way these services and goods are distributed within a population. ...
The Great Depression was a time of economic down turn, which started after the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. ...
Project ALSOS, also called Operation Alsos, was an effort at the end of World War II by the Allies (principally Great Britain and the United States), branched off from the Manhattan Project, to investigate the German nuclear energy project, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research...
Operation Paperclip scientists pose together. ...
The Nobel Prizes (pronounced no-BELL or no-bell) are awarded annually to people who have done outstanding research, invented groundbreaking techniques or equipment, or made outstanding contributions to society. ...
Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, and acknowledged to be one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. ...
In accordance with the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, payment of war reparations was assessed from the countries of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland. The Paris Peace Conference (July 29 to October 15, 1946) resulted in the Paris peace treaties signed on February 10, 1947. ...
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. The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ...
The League of Nations was an international organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. ...
The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
The Preamble to the United Nations Charter is the opening of the United Nations Charter. ...
United States The United States was now the most powerful nation on Earth along with the USSR. The USA had benefitted financially, militarily and politically from the war as it now had closer ties to Europe and the UK in particular. The US now had a foothold in Europe in West Germany and a close eye on its enemy, the Eastern Bloc. World War II also played a huge factor in leading to the end of racial segregation and growth of suburbs too. A map of the Eastern Bloc. ...
The Rex Theatre for Colored People Racial segregation is characterized by separation of different races in daily life when both are doing equal tasks, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or...
The Cold War The war also saw the rise of two political superpowers and rivals, the USA and USSR. With the detonation of the atomic bomb the USA had a monopoly on nuclear weapons. This pushed the USSR to develop its own weapon in 1949, leading eventually to the infamous arms race that dominated much of the late 20th century and whose remnants are still present today in the form of NATO, North Korea and East-West division. The term arms race in its original usage describes a competition between two or more parties for military supremacy. ...
NATO 2002 Summit in Prague. ...
Notes - ^ Cost of Defeat Time Magazine Monday, Apr. 8, 1946]
- ^ Norman M. Naimark The Russians in Germany pg. 206
- ^ Norman M. Naimark The Russians in Germany pg. 206
- ^ Norman M. Naimark The Russians in Germany pg. 207
References - Norman M. Naimark The Russians in Germany; A History of the Soviet Zone of occupation, 1945-1949 Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-78406-5
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