The war that changed the world began on the 3rd of September 1939 and lasted six long years.
During this time it took the lives of over forty million people including 20 million civilians, never has a single war before or since claimed so many lives. In the Battle of Britain forty thousand people were killed if operation sealion had been carried out many more would have perished. This war was truly a world war, battles raged not just in Europe but also in Africa, Asia and in North America.This war left many cities including most of Eastern Europe in ruins and created a rift between East and West that only officially ended at the fall of the USSR in 1989, but I believe it is still going on. Many people at the time put the blame squarely on the German leader Adolph Hitler who is now forever associated with evil and spoken of with hatred. His Nazi party had almost completely indoctrinated Germany with their ideas such as the Aryan race theory.
They had made Hitler into a God like figure who they would die for without a word.The Nazis had achieved this through a revolutionary form of politics master minded by Joseph Gobles, which was propaganda. The streets of Germany were overflowing with Nazi posters, every building waved the swastika and every radio simultaneously played Hitler's speech. This meant that the average German was bombarded with the Nazi message most of the people in Germany were united under common beliefs, which made them feel as if they were part of something that could change the world. The few that did not want to conform would have to eventually do so through fear, this was the affect of the Nazis.
The Nazis had many ideas they had enforced on the German people, they believed that the Aryan race was superior to all the races; this implied that they should rule the inferior races and some like the Jews should be exterminated. They believed that Hitler had been chosen to rule the German people and lead them to glory and the glory of Germany was more important than anything else. The idea that sparked the Second World War was Lebensraum, which means living space, the Nazis wanted to conquer parts of Eastern Europe and none of the super powers intervened until Poland was invaded.At the beginning of the war the major forces in the Allies were Great Britain and France against the major forces of the Axis powers of Germany, Russia and Italy lead by the Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini. By June 1940 France is defeated and attentions turn to Great Britain, most people suspect the war will be over within the next year. But then the already crazed Hitler invades Russia against his Generals advice; the Blitz screen war almost succeeds except that the Germans do not anticipate the ferocity of the Russian winter.
The Blitz screen war turns to an all out war in the East while Japan joins the Axis Powers and bombs America's Navy base pearl harbour, sinking many of their best ships. The under estimated America with it's endless resources ends it's isolation policy and aids the weary Allies. By the end of 1941 two of the great world powers turn against the Axis powers. The main turning point of the war came in the 2nd of February 1942 when Germany was defeated in Starlingrad, Russia after this Germany had loss after loss.Then three years of hard fighting later Germany finally surrendered in 6th of May 1945 with most of Germany in ruins.
Soon after America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, which led to their surrender and this marked the end of the Second World War. In this essay I will be looking at how the Second World War affected life in wartime Britain. Such as the changing role of women, the emergence of the welfare state, decline of power from the upper and middle class to the working class, the increasing role of the government and the hardships faced in the home front.
