American History

The Second World War took place between the years 1939 to 1945 (Martel 1999). It is considered the second greatest war in history after the World War I, which took place between the years 1914 to the year 1918. World War II featured the allied powers on one side and the axis on the other side. Some of the countries on the Allies side were Australia, Canada, Soviet Union, and United States both of which joined the war in the year 1941.The Axis had the likes of Germany, Hungary, Japan, and Italy among others (Martel, 1999). However, some countries in Europe remained neutral until the war was ended. These neutral countries included Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland (Martel, 1999).

Causes
The major causes of the Second World War can be blamed on the events that followed the First World War. There was tension among the opposing countries over resources. The First World War led to the Germany losing land and territories to countries allied to the Central powers. For example, the loss of the Polish Corridor to Lithuania and the loss of the economically valuable Upper Silesia to France caused bitterness, which aggravated into the Second World War (Parker, 1989). After the First World War, bitterness among the Germans mounted against the French who used their ships during the war to support the central powers.

The treaty of Versailles, which settled the First World War, was not obeyed. As a result, the lack of strict following of the requirements of the treaty caused bitterness within the aggrieved parties. For example, under the treaty, Germany was promised a large amount of Australian land, which they did not receive (Parker, 1989). The Soviet Union had also lost huge amount of land to Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Romania during the war. This made the Soviet Union to be so bitter resulting into World War II. Other countries that had lost land during the First World War included Bulgaria, Hungary and Thailand. All of who were bitter and relished a chance to regain what they had lost (Parker, 1989).

The need for expansion and economic growth can also be seen as one of the factors that led to the Second World War (Martel, 1999). While some countries like Germany wanted to expand their territories, others like Japan wanted to expand their economy. Prior to the Second World War, Japan had limited resources.  The coal and iron was not stable in Japan so they wanted a steady and reliable source of raw materials to develop the economy. In order to fulfill their ambitions, Japan attacked the Soviet Union in the year 1931 (Martel, 199). Other countries such as Germany had sufficient resources but wanted to expand wider and take over other territories. As a result, Germany also got ready for war in order for them to get the highly needed resources.

The League of Nations, an international organization that was formed after the First World War failed to achieve its mandates (Richard, 2010). The organization was formed to prevent other related wars from happening. Some of the duties that the organization was mandated to perform related to war prevention included the disarmament, providing security and resolving disputes. It was also the duty of the organization to improve the welfare among countries (Martel, 1999). The reason for its failure can be attributed to lack of an army and failure to take actions when it was necessary.

The Great Depression was also another cause of the Second World War. The Great Depression marked the rise of Hitler, which caused the relationships between the United States and the European countries to grow sour (Parker, 1989). Before the Great Depression, the United States businessmen had so much investment in Germany although this trend declined after economic downturn. Other factors that led to the Second World War included the Fascism rise in Italy, invasion of Ethiopia by Italy, the Soviet Union versus Japan boundary disputes and so forth.

Effects
Like any major war, the effects were far negative than positive, which caused enormous regret to most of the countries who entered the war. First, so many people lost their lives and the war left most of the people without homes. The war led to the destruction of infrastructure which worsened the economical status of the countries who participated in the Second World War (Richard, 2010).

Most economies collapsed due to the war and had to take time to rebuild. As the war marked the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union as the super powers, other states suffered foul due to the war. Land was grabbed, property was destroyed and al these factors led to the deterioration of economy in the affected states (Richard, 2010). In the world the United States were the more Beneficiary after the war since they did not suffer much destruction while The USSR was the much stronger side in the European front

Although the war caused negative impacts on most of the countries who participated, some positive effects were felt in someplace. For instance, the Second World War witnessed the rise and exponential growth of Union of soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). As a result of boundary divisions in Europe, the Soviet Union benefited from Germany, Finland, Romania, Estonia, and Lithuania among others to expand its territories (Parker, 1989).

Generally, the Second World War was caused by several factors although the main causes are said to be due to the Great Depression, the failure of the League of Nations, the disobeying of the treaty of Versailles and the scramble for territorial expansion and resources. The aftermath of the war caused more losses than gains where people lost lives and property. A few countries who gained were the United States and the USSR.