224 i PERIOD 6 Accelerating Global Change and Realignments (c. 1900 to the present)
The Cost of the War
World War II took a devastating toll in human life, killing about 35 million people, includ-
ing about 20 million in the Soviet Union. The Holocaust, Hitler’s elimination of Euro-
pean Jews in gas chambers, took the lives of 6 million. Other groups such as Gypsies, Slavs,
political prisoners, and Jehovah’s Witnesses were also sent to extermination camps during
the Holocaust. More than 300,000 were killed by the Japanese offensive in China, most
of them in the city of Nanking. The fi re bombings of Japanese cities and of the German
city of Dresden added tens of thousands to the death toll. Nearly 80,000 were killed in
Hiroshima, and tens of thousands were killed in Nagasaki.Designing the Peace
World War II peace settlements began before the war had ended:- In 1943, at the Tehran Conference, the Allied powers decided to focus on the liberation
of France, allowing the Soviet Union to move through the nations of Eastern Europe as
it advanced toward France. The Soviet Union, therefore, gained ground and infl uence
in Eastern Europe. - In 1945, at the Yalta Conference, the Soviet Union agreed to join the war against Japan
in exchange for territory in Manchuria and the northern island of Japan. The Yalta Con-
ference also provided for the division of Germany into four zones of occupation after the
war. - In 1945, the Potsdam Conference gave the Soviets control of eastern Poland, with
Poland receiving part of eastern Germany. It made the fi nal arrangements for the divi-
sion of Germany and also divided Austria.
After the war had ended:- The United States occupied Japan.
- Korea was divided into U.S. and Soviet occupation zones.
- China regained most of its territory, but fi ghting between Nationalist and Communist
forces resumed. - Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia became Soviet provinces.
- Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania were occupied by the Soviet Union.
- Colonies renewed their independence efforts.
- European world dominance ended.
- A new international peace organization, the United Nations, was created in 1945, with
the United States among its key members. - International dominance remained in the hands of two super powers––the United States
and the Soviet Union.
❯ Rapid Review
The forces of nationalism, imperialism, and militarism combined with entangling defense
alliances produced the fi rst global war of the twentieth century. Postwar peace settlements
created new nations without consideration of ethnic differences within those nations. The
Treaty of Versailles left Germany economically and militarily devastated and humiliated by
the war guilt clause. The costs of war ruined regional economies and world trade, creating a
depression that reached most regions of the world. Out of the despair of the Great Depres-
sion arose new political institutions, including fascism in Germany and Italy and military