The Worlds Greatest War - Case Study Example

The world’s greatest war, World War II began in 1939 and lasted for almost six years. It was between two military alliances. On the axis powers were Japan, Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. While the allies were lead by United Kingdom, China, Soviet Union U.S.A. America was not directly involved in the war in the early stages. The necessity increased after the fall of France, the Pearl Harbor incident but mainly when Hitler declared war on U.S. This led to America’s direct involvement in the World War II and helped America to transition from a great power to a super power. World war II started by the deep seated anger in German due to the loss in World War I. Hitler a new leader in Germany transformed it from a defeated state to powerful one with a large army of up to 400,000 men which led to the breaking of the treaty of Versailles [ CITATION And \l 1033 ]. March 16th 1935 Hitler tore up the treaty of Versailles when he started to build up his army (Hills & Barber 10) .Although U.S.A had always been an ally in the Second World War its direct involvement did not came after much later. In 1939 its only involvement was to provide arms and ammunition in turn of cash from countries. America was indirectly helping the allies by starving Japan of oil. Winston Churchill repeatedly tried to convince Franklin D. Roosevelt to enter the war but it was after Hitler’s declaration of war, the attack by Japanese on USA naval base in Pearl Harbor, America got directly involved in the war. The attack on Pearl Harbor also known as the Hawaii Operation where the Japanese imperial army attacked the naval base in order to prevent the U.S Pacific Fleet to interfere in Japan’s military action on Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom. In 1941 Congress had approved America’s entry into war after which military operations began. Operation Torch on North Africa became US first military operation. German forces surrendered in Tunisia in 1943 and that led to the first US British victory and proved invaluable in changing US public opinion behind the war. The second front for American military action was when Winston Churchill proposed to attack Italy even though there was an urgent need to relieve pressure on Russia from the western front (Churchill 35-36). This attack led to allies invading Italian mainland leading to the capture of Rome. The United States along with other allies continued to attack the Axis powers which led to the retake of Paris in the D-Day Invasion (Hills & Barber 17, 25). In the Tokyo Bombing Raids American bombers destroyed up to 250,000 buildings and killed 83,000 in massive fire bombing. It continued to play an important part in the attacks on the Axis Powers, till the end of the war where it dropped two atomic bombs in Japan bringing the war to an end. These included the two nuclear bombing the world had ever seen one being in Hiroshima and the other in Nagasaki. Both bombings left the city with massive destruction with large number of causalities breaking the strength of Japan totally and only six days after the bombing of Nagasaki Japan surrendered. It is clearly seen by the events of the war that although America was not involved directly at first in the war it played a pivotal role once it became directly involved and it’s most important role was that of bringing the war to an end by destroying one of the main Axis powers, Japan, completely (Langley 56). It is often wondered how U.S.A reached its position of dominance in the world. And it would not be wrong to link its rise a super power to the results and events of World War II. The characteristics of super power are firstly having a strong stable economy, secondly overpowering military, thirdly immense international political power and lastly strong national ideology. Before the war America was seen as a great power along with many other powerful strong nations like Russia and Britain. It was only after the war that U.S.A emerged as a strong super power and still holds that position. Even in years before the war America was amongst the largest producers in the world. At that time there was no country that had that immense power over the international system. Britain and France were in imperial decline which caused them to lose their international standing. Although America from the start had a stable economy due to the presence of natural resources like oil and steel. Yet its rise to super power was when it surpassed Europe as a major power. Europe was a part of many large destructive wars that left it completely bankrupt and destroyed most of its infra structure which lead to the fall of Europe. Europe being directly involved in wars like the World War I and World War II left it far behind in the race of super powers. America which was although involved in the World War II faced much less damaged compared to the destruction faced by Europe. Soviet Union also a major power failed in the race of super power because of the damages it faced from the World War II but mainly it dropped out because of the fall of the So that left America as the only dominating power in the world which had a stable and large economy with a huge military advantage and immense power over international matters (Langley 60-66). America was one of the main Allies in the World War II yet it did not face much destruction like other allies it continued to grow and kept its economy stable. And when the other allies failed to rise up America stood as a strong nation. Even when The U.S.A was involved in World War II it was not dragged down like other allies including Britain and Soviet Union. This led to the creation of a super power. A country that before the war was just a great power became a super power. Works Cited Top of Form Ruggiero, Adriane. World War Ii. Tarrytown, N.Y: Benchmark Books, 2003. Print. Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Hills, Ken. Headlines of World War Ii. London: Evans Brothers Ltd, 2005. Print. Langley, Andrew. Living Through World War II. London: Raintree, 2012. Print. Bottom of Form Read More