Once World War II ended, most of the world needed rebuilding. After all, this was an event that impacted and essentially destroyed all of Europe, most of Africa, and Asia. Every country that had battles on its land needed to recover and rebuild, countries that had been occupied by Japan or Germany needed to have their borders reset, and plans and measurements needed to be taken to prevent wars like this from happening again.
Europe Recovery
During the war, Nazi Germany had managed to invade many European countries. Those countries were the least problematic to reset as they were simply reset to the previous government system and borders they had before World War II and the Nazi invasion.
The problem was, however, with Germany itself. It needed to be dealt with in a way that would prevent the Nazi Party from rising again, while also helping the German people get back on their feet.
Meanwhile, communism started to arise right after the war ended and the Soviet Union showed different interests in Germany than the rest of the Allies. The Allies decided to divide Germany into western and Eastern halves, where the Eastern part was ruled by the Soviet Union and the Western part went under the rest of the Allies’ plan to rebuild Germany.
Finally, the United States devised the Marshall Plan in order to provide the large amounts of money needed to rebuild all the European countries that were destroyed by the war.
South and East Asia
After the war ended, the United States forces had taken over Japan. The Allied Powers kept forces in Japan to ensure peace until it was able to recover from the war and became independent in 1952.
As for the rest of Asian countries that witnessed the conflicts of World War II, Korea was divided like Germany. The Soviet Union took over the northern part and the Allies started to prepare for elections in South Korea. That did not work out for long because soon after that the Soviet Union helped North Korea invade South Korea during the Cold War.
In China, the situation was even more unique! Before Japan invaded China in 1936, there was a civil war between the Chinese Nationalists and the Communists. Once Japan occupied China, the Chinese people put the civil war on hold to unite against Japan. After World War II ended and China was liberated, the civil unrest resumed! Eventually, the communist party in China won this war and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan.
War crimes trials and the United Nations
During the war, many crimes against humanity were committed by German and Japanese leaders, which violated the Geneva Convention. They were brought to trial for torturing prisoners, forcing them into slave labor, the Holocaust, and many other horrible crimes. Many of them were found guilty and were executed. Unfortunately, many other Nazi leaders managed to escape and change their identities to avoid paying for their crimes. Since World War II broke out as a direct result of World War I coming to an end, the Allied Powers decided to form the United Nations to prevent another World War from happening. In October 1945, 51 countries joined the United Nations to resolve any future conflicts peacefully without having to go to war. The United States, Great Britain, France, China, and Russia have permanent seats on the Security Council, since they are the Allied Powers countries that formed the UN.
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