World War I and World War II Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

World War I and World War II - Essay Example The World War I and the World War II led to massive causalities, bloodshed and destruction in almost all the theatres in which they were fought. The number of people killed and wounded in these two wars amounted to millions. It also needs to be mentioned that in the two Wars the people who suffered were not merely soldiers but also included civilians, old people, women and children. The intensity of these two wars was so immense and grave that they did not try to differentiate between the soldiers and the civilians. The outcomes wrought by these two wars had global geo-political and economic ramifications. A great numbers of the European empires were dismantled, either owing to defeat or owing to the immense human and economic costs inherent in these two wars. New centers of power were established and the two wars led to the constitution of multiple international military and economic alliances and institutions. In that context it will be really interesting to go into the dynamics of the two World Wars. The World War I owes its origins to the long standing conflicts and hostilities rampant in the Central Europe in the period around 1914 (Higham & Showaltr 6). Most of these conflicts were intricately intertwined, spanning across many European nations. The political factors that played a pivotal role in the genesis of World War I were rampant militarism, burgeoning nationalism, alliances of convenience and vested imperialistic interests. The primary stimulant that initiated the World War I was the July Crisis of 1914, preceding a series of diplomatic clashes between multiple European nations like France, Russia, Germany, the Austria-Hungarian Empire and the UK (Higham & Showaltr 6). One other important factor was the augmenting tensions over the territorial claims in the Balkans (Higham & Showaltr 9). There existed a great rift between Russia, Serbia and Austria-Hungary, over territorial influence that eventually roped in the other major European powers as a resu lt of the ensuing alliances and treaties. The reasons behind the World War II were inherent in the outcomes of the World War I and the following interwar period worsened by the impact of the Great Depression in 1930. The two major factors which led to the onset of the II World War were the invasion of Poland by the Soviet Union and Germany and the invasion of China by the imperialist Japan in 1937 (Eubank 20). Primarily it was the belligerent actions of the Nazi Germany and the top leadership of the Japanese Kwantung army that led to the formal declaration of War by the allied forces. The World War I brought in massive changes in the European geo-political mindset. It goes without saying that the World War I led to immense loses in terms of life and property. It pulled within its ambit almost all of the European nations, the United States of America and many of the African and Asian states. Shattering famine and pestilence took over the world in the aftermath of the World War one. T he entire Europe got divided between varied powers as a consequence of the treaties that followed. Germany had to surrender large territories to the European power like France, Belgium, Denmark and Poland as per the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles (Von Strandman & Evans 95). The Treaty of St. Germain in 1919 led to the separation of Austria and Hungary and saw the creation of two new states that are Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (Von Strandman & Evans 95). The World War I not only saw the annihilation of German, Russian, Turkish, Hungarian and Austrian empires, but also led to the creation of many new nationalistic states. In the same vein, the World War II not only