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Postwar
 The
Allied forces emerged victorious from the war by the end of the summer
of 1945, but at a horrible price. More than fifty million people lost
their lives. The world lost not just the soldiers, but it also lost the
contributions they would have made later in their lives.
Europe had been devastated by the war. Allied and Axis
bombs had laid waste to large portions of the continent. All that remained
in many cities were the burned out shells of what were once buildings.
Two military “superpower” nations emerged from
the rubble: the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviets used the
end of the war as an opportunity to expand their empire. Britain, France,
and America briefly occupied the conquered nations, and then gradually
allowed them to return to self-rule. The Soviets imposed totalitarian
governments throughout the land they occupied in Eastern Europe.
An uneasy “Cold War” followed as the United
States and the Soviet Union, competed for supremacy. Both nations stockpiled
enough arms to guarantee the destruction of the planet many times over.
This policy was known as “Mutually Assured Destruction,” and
while costly and terrifying, it worked. Neither nation used their deadly
arsenal, but both nations funded smaller wars to advance their interests.
The Cold War ended with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Immediately after the Second World War, the United States
feared that the Soviets would impose their totalitarian style of government
on the ruined European nations. The United States decided that rebuilding
Europe would prevent Soviet expansion. The Mars hall
Plan provided more than $35 billion in aid to Europe after the war.
Representative of 51 nations met in San Francisco in August
1945. They formed the United Nations, an international body that would
resolve disputes through diplomacy rather than armed conflict. Today more
than 180 nations belong to the United Nations. The United Nations has
made many contributions to world peace, but has not prevented war.
Almost all European Jews perished in the Holocaust. The
few remaining Holocaust survivors did not want to return to the countries
that participated in their destruction. Anti-Semitic sentiment still existed
in many European nations even after the terrible war had ended. Some found
it was still not safe to return to their homes.
Many Jews wished to return to their traditional homeland
on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The British controlled
the land, but it was occupied mainly by Arab Muslims. The Arabs were upset
with Jewish immigrants on what they felt was their land. The United Nations
declared Israel an independent Jewish homeland in 1948. After more than
two thousand years, the Jewish people finally had a nation of their own,
but they would remain in conflict with its neighbors to this day.
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