American History

World War I was very different from the World War II along numerous lines. To best understand these differences we can divide the discussion along the lines of ideological differences, geographical locations, technological advancements and social factors.

Ideological Difference
The First World War was initiated after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the continuous build-up of social and ideological grievances against many European nations over the cause militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism (Duffy, 2009). The assassination of the Austrian figurehead by a Serbian assassin gave the European nations to enforce their alliances and what was an act of terrorism, escalated into a World War.

The ideological difference comes into play when we look at the outcome of the First World War. The peace treaties were directed particularly towards removing all power from the German forces and to make them the scapegoat for the entire war. Germany was offended by this nature of the world and began consolidating themselves as a highly sovereign state with little or no reliance on the rest of the world. They began rebuilding their forces and made highly advanced technological breakthroughs. But what drove them on were the injustices and the new doctrine of the supremacy of their Aryan race as proclaimed by Hitler. The reason why the Second World War was so furious and more devastating was due to the racial aspect. The countries which had strong histories and cultural independence sided together such as Turkey, Germany and Japan. This was different from the First World War as it was mainly politically motivated.

Geographical Locations
The major brunt of the World War I was fought in Europe. The major countries which were on the frontline of the battles were Northern France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the borders of Greece, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Germany, and in the Balkans. Later on the war moved towards the Middle East as well as battles were fought in Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Syria. But the overall general region was limited during the First World War. It was close to the European region and some battles were fought outside here and there but not too far from the main instigating countries (Wilde, 2003).

The Second World War however had a very large geographical coverage. Instead of identifying simple countries, whole continents were battlegrounds for this war and were not just contained to land. There were battles being fought in the seas and even in the air. There were 3 central locations of battles though (similar to the one location in World War I). There were battles fought out in the European Continent. Germany invaded France, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Belgium, Netherlands and other countries. The second front was North Africa. In the African region battles were fiercely fought between the Italians and the British. However the Italians lacked the equipment to fight with the British on an equal footing hence the Germans had to send reinforcements to hold the line. The third front was in Asia. The Japanese actively took part in this war and were a threat to countries in their vicinity. They even attacked Australia during this war (Encyclopedia Britannica).

The Second World War was more globally fought then the First War and there were hardly any countries which were able to pass through this era without feeling the scars of the war as colonies were sources of troops and storage while other dominating countries were targets for each other.

Technological Advancements
The improvement in warfare machinery in the World War II is perhaps the major reason why the concept of a Third World War is so frightening. During the First World War conventional warfare was fought and the major strengths a country had were in its number of troops and the areas that they were located in. However in the Second World War, the strength was not in numbers but in the type of equipment in use by the nations. Countries such as Germany and Japan were able to beat much larger and populous forces thanks to their innovative machinery which allowed them to dominate the land, sea and air. Radars were invented to monitor the movements of forces and airplanes first came into the field as defense measures. The improvements in battles in and over the sea also were seen as submarines were able to cause a lot of damage to trade and other economic activities.

The most revolutionary invention of the Second World War was however the Nuclear Bomb. It not only ended the war within 3 days but it proved also to be a limitless source of energy. It helped revamp our entire political arena as we see it today as the possessors of the Atomic energy are the true superpowers.

Social Factors involved in the nature of fighting
The basic core of the Second World War was based on racial differences and highlighting injustices done onto the races. This social awareness is prevalent even today but it was not mentioned during the First World War. The shift in this philosophy was dominant during the time between the First and Second World War as people became more aware of the attitude of others towards them. In my opinion the major social change was in this manner.

However one other social phenomenon noted was the entrance of women as the equal to men both in the workforce and the policy makers. The females played a much stronger role in the Second World War even going to the warfront as nurses and other support staff for the men soldiers. But this set the stones for women in the army as is a norm today.