Outcomes of World War II

Essential Questions

• What were the outcomes of World War II?
• What were the war crimes trials?
• How did the Allies promote reconstruction of the defeated powers?
• What were the international cooperative organizations created after World War II?

Outcomes of World War II

• Loss of empires by European powers
• War crimes trials
• Establishment of the United Nations
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights

More Outcomes: Reconstruction and SuperPowers

• Establishment of two major powers: U.S. and U.S.S.R.
• Division of Europe: "Iron Curtain"
• The Marshall Plan & Reconstruction
• The Formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact

Nuremberg

Nazi officers, Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goering hearing their sentencing

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Tokyo

War Crimes Trials

• 1945- a series of trials conducted by the U.S, French, and Soviet military
• Europe: Nuremberg Trials -12 sentenced to death
• Japan: Tokyo Trials - 7 sentenced to death (including Hideki Tojo)

The United Nations

The United Nations

• Had real power
• Held an army
• The U.S. signed!
• It still exists today

Provides food to 90 million people in 75 countries

Assists 34 million refugees and people fleeing war, famine, or persecution

Keeps the peace with over 120,000 peacekeepers in 16 operations on 4 continents

Mobilizes $12.5 billion in humanitarian aid to help people effected by emergencies

Vaccinates 58% of the world's children, saving 2.5 million lives a year

Protects and promotes human rights on site and through 80 treaties and declarations

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Created in 1948 in the shadow of the atrocities committed during World War II
• Established and adopted by members of the United Nations
• Provided a code of conduct for the treatment of people under the protection of their government
• Human rights are rights for all people around the world

First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt reads the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Yalta Conference

At the Yalta Conference, the Allies agreed to divide up and occupy Germany. In return, U.S.S.R. agreed to join the fight against Japan.

Reconstruction of Germany

• Germany and Berlin, the capital, were divided among the four Allied Powers- U.S., France, G.B., and the U.S.S.R.
• Democratic government in West Germany and West Berlin
• West Germany emerged as an economic power in post-war Europe
• The U.S.S.R. refused to end their occupation of East Germany

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The Iron Curtain

The Marshall Plan (Economic Recovery Plan) gave $13 billion in U.S. aid to Western European countries

"It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world."

Reconstruction in Japan

Reconstruction of Japan

• United States occupies Japan under General Douglas MacArthur's administration
• Democracy and economic development begins
• Japanese military capabilities are eliminated- guaranteed security by the United States
• Emerged as a dominant economy in Asia

General Douglas MacArthur

Two World Super Powers

In addition to the United Nations, two other international cooperative organizations emerged in an effort to keep peace...and to rival Democracy versus Communism.

NATO

NATO

• An intergovernmental military alliance created in 1949
• The organization created a system of collective defense
• The coming "Cold War" with the Soviet Union created a rivalry with the Warsaw Pact
• NATO has expanded over the years to include more countries

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Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Pact

• A collective defense treaty among the Soviet Union and their seven satellite states
• Created in 1955 in reaction to West Germany's addition to NATO
• The Soviet Union hoped to maintain military control over Eastern European communist countries (The Soviet Bloc)

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The outcomes of World War
II included the war crimes
trials, the division of Europe,
plans to rebuild Germany and Japan, and the establishment
of international cooperative
organizations.