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IMPACT OF WORLD WAR TWO ON GLOBAL POLITICS

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IMPACT OF WORLD WAR TWO ON
GLOBAL POLITICS

By WILL Y. ACHINA

COURSE: CONTEMPORAY EUROPEAN POLITICS

UNIVERSITY OF SIENA

2018
 INTRODUCTION

This paper discusses, seeks to unravel, decipher and explain the impacts both positive and

negative of the Second World War on Global Politics. It elaborated on the political development

since the end of 1945 and how it has sharpened modern philosophical thoughts. It further shows

the development strategies that the Now Developed Countries adopted when they were

developing after the debilitating effect of the World War Two. World War II was mainly caused

by certain ideologies that made countries and dictators act violently to get what they want. Some

of the main-long term causes include the rise of fascism in Italy, the militarism of Japan, which

invaded China in the 1930s and the Nazi takeover of Germany. Hitler’s actions led other

countries to realize he had to be stopped, while others were simply defending their territories

against invasion. Hitler’s Invasion of Poland was the trigger that caused Britain and France to get

involved in the war and is seen by historians as the start of WWII. The main focus of this paper

is to analyze the Political Effect of the WWII. The analysis would be centered and limited to the

rise of Bipolar Powers, the demise of European Great Powers(Decolonization and European

Integration) and the rise of new Political Ideologies(Communism and Capitalism). In order to

explain its contribution I will observe the different events and aspects of the European Integration

process which can be explained by the Cold War dynamics. The first section of this paper will

examine the period after the Second World War which deals with the rise of bipolar powers,

while the second section will focus on the early stages of European Integration and of the Cold

War.

The Rise of Bipolar Powers

The Aftermath of World War II was the beginning of an era defined by the decline of all great

powers except for the Soviet Union and the United States, and the simultaneous rise of two great
powers: the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States of America (USA). Allies during World

War II, the USA and the USSR became competitors on the world stage and engaged in the Cold

War, so called because it never resulted in overt, declared hot war between the two powers but

was instead characterized by espionage, political subversion and proxy wars. Western

Europe and Japan were rebuilt through the American Marshall Plan whereas Central and Eastern

Europe fell under the Soviet sphere of influence and eventually an "Iron Curtain". Europe was

divided into a US-led Western Bloc and a Soviet-led Eastern Bloc. Internationally, alliances with

the two blocs gradually shifted, with some nations trying to stay out of the Cold War through

the Non-Aligned Movement. The Cold War also saw a nuclear arms race between the two great

powers; part of the reason that the Cold War never became a "hot" war was that the Soviet Union

and the United States had nuclear deterrents against each other, leading to a mutually assured

destruction standoff.

International relations and political structure after 1945 were different from the political structure

before World War II started in 1939. Before World War II, the international structure was a

‘multi-polarity system where there were seven great powers; the United States, Great Britain,

Germany, Soviet Union, Japan, France, and Italy. Multi-polarity is referred to the condition in

international system with more than two poles. Some scholars use multi-polarity to the condition

with more than three poles. The author prefers to use the terms ‘multi-polarity’ to the condition

where there are more than three poles. If there are only three poles in international system, we

called it ‘tripolarity’ structure. After World War II ended in 1945, the power configuration in

international relations was dominated by the only two great powers, i.e. the United States and

Soviet Union. Only these two great powers remained strong in military and economic terms after
the end of World War II 1945. The other powers were relatively very weak compared to their

position before of the breaking of World War II in 1939.

There are three approaches in explaining the cause of the conflict; traditionalists, revisionists,

and post-revisionists.

From the traditionalist approach, the factors that contributed to the conflict between the two great

powers were the roles played by the President Stalin and the Soviet Union external policy after

the end of the World War II. At the end of the World War II, according to traditionalist

approach, the United States diplomacy was defensive but the Soviet Union was aggressive and

expansive. The United States only awoke gradually to the nature of the Soviet Union threat.

Immediately after the Second World War, the United States put up a proposal for a universal

world order and collective security through the United Nations Organization. The Soviet Union

did not take the United Nations Organization seriously. The Soviet Union wanted to expand her

influence and dominate the countries in the Eastern Europe. After the war, while the Americans

demobilized her troops, the Soviet Union left large armies in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union

did not allow free elections in Poland that was under its care.

Soviet Union expansionism was further confirmed when the Soviet Union refused to removed

her troops from northern Iran after the war. The Soviet removed her troops only later after

pressure from Great Britain and the United States. The Soviet Union foreign policy and her

interference in domestic politics of Eastern Europe in late 1940s and early 1950s awoke the

Americans to the Soviet Union threat. In 1949, the Soviet Union gave strong support to Mao

Tse-tung in the Chinese Civil War. In 1950 with Soviet Union support, communist North

Korea’s armies crossed the 38 degrees border into South Korea. Soviet Union also gave support
to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Chairman Aidit and President Sukarno in Indonesia in 1950s in

strengthening her communists influence in the Southeast Asian region. According to the

traditionalists approach, the events in North Iran, Eastern Europe countries, China, Korean

Peninsula and Vietnam gradually awakened the United States to the threat of Soviet Union

expansionism, and then launched her counter-attack on a global scale.

The revisionists approach has a different answer to the outbreak of the struggle between the two

great powers. To the revisionists approach, the Cold War was caused by the United States factor,

rather than Soviet Union expansionism. They argued that at the end of World War II, the

structure of international relations was not really in the bipolarity structure. The Soviet Union

capabilities were much weaker than the United States. The United States was strengthened by the

war and already possessed nuclear weapons by the end of the World War II. The Soviet Union

did not possess nuclear weapons and needed time to repair and restructure her economy that was

severely damaged by the war. Revisionists argued that Stalin’s external behavior in the early

years after World War II was quite moderate. In the Chinese Civil War, Stalin tried to restrain

Mao Tse-Tung’s communists from taking power in mainland China. In the Greek Civil War,

Stalin tried to restrain the Greek Communists. Stalin also allowed the non-Communist

governments to exist in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Finland.

The revisionists’ arguments that the Americans are more responsible for the outbreak of the great

powers conflict can be seen in the role played by President Harry Truman and the nature of

United States capitalism. Roosevelt’s death in April 1945 was a critical event in American

foreign policy. President Harry Truman who replaced Roosevelt, was a staunch anti-communist.

In May 1945, the United States cut off the lend-lease programme of wartime aid to Soviet Union.

At the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, President Truman tried to intimidate Stalin by
mentioning potential use of the atomic bomb that was possessed only by America then. In 1948

President Truman fired his secretary of Agriculture (Henry Wellace) who urged for better

relations with the Soviet Union. President Truman’s new secretary of defence (James Forrestal)

also took a very anti-communist stance.

Revisionists also argued that the nature of the United States capitalism had also contributed to

the outbreak of the Cold War. The United States capitalism economy and open international

trade required political expansionism. The American economic hegemony could not tolerate any

competition that might challenge the American economic expansion. Soviet Union tried to

expand her influence in the entire European continent, East and Southeast Asian region. The

United States leaders feared repetition of the international economic situation in 1930s, because

without a secured international trade, there would be another great depression.

The United States as a great power should play an effective role in international politics and

economy. Without effective roles played by the American hegemonic power, it would pave the

way to international instability in economics and politics. The Marshall Plan of aid to Europe,

Japan post-war Economic recovery Plan (e.g. Yoshida Doctrine), and the United States economic

policies towards the Middle East and Southeast Asian regions were the means to expand the

American economy and a process of creating stability in the international structure.

Then the USA became world’s only superpower. Continuing after cold war, the U.S. then

continued to intervene in international affairs as the sole remaining super hegemonic power of

world. That took the whole global politics from Bipolarity to a unipolar world system what the

world had never seen before. Apart from the balance of power thought, all the global

power, politics, business, ideology, technology was centralized to the U.S. and the concept of
Capitalism rose on the edge of its limit in global economic influence. No other conflict of

interest dominated the post-World II world like the cold war did

The Demise of European Great Powers; Decolonization and European Integration

The end of World War II in September 1945 marked the end of an international system centered

on the European Great Powers. At the end of World War II Germany, Italy and most of France

lay in ruins while Great Britain was bankrupt. Now there were only two great powers left: the

United States which at the end of the war had an intact economy, an intact army and a virtual

monopoly on the manufacture and employment of nuclear weapons; the other great power left

standing, but nevertheless scarred by the Nazi onslaught was the Soviet Union, which had a large

and intact army and was in control of almost half the European continent.

The final demise of the European Great Power system led to the development of a bipolar world

dominated by the flank powers: the United States and the USSR. The bipolar configuration of the

international system was marked for the next 50 years by the Cold War – a political and

ideological rivalry on a global scale between the US and the Soviet Union.

With the end of the war and the demise of the European Great Power System, the process

of decolonization occurred. The defeated powers which had overseas colonies or conquered

overseas territories were forced by the allies to surrender them – this was the case of Italy and

Japan. France and Great Britain, the great European colonizing nations were gradually forced to

give up their empires due to the cost of maintaining colonies, the relative weakness of the

metropolises in the international system, the development of violent and/or peaceful national
liberation movements and foreign pressure coming from the US and USSR or from former

colonies which supported the process of de-colonization.

The demise of the European Great Power System and the destruction caused by the war led the

Western European nation to explore and then embark on the process of European integration.

Behind the protection provided by the armed forces of the United States deployed in Europe to

curtail a possible Soviet invasion, the foundations of the European Union could be laid.

A further consequence of the World War II was the redrawing and stabilization of the borders of

Europe. Indeed most of today’s European borders are the result of World War II, the best

example being the Polish-German border. The basic configuration of the Europe’s borders after

World War II was confirmed by the signing of the Accords in 1975. Despite post-Cold War

evolutions in Europe, which saw the break-up of the Soviet Union, the disintegration of

Yugoslavia and the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia the vast majority of Europe’s current

borders originated as a consequence of World War II.

Politically, the impact of the war was also great. The once great powers of Japan and

Germany looked as though they would never rise again. In retrospect, of course, it is easy to

see that their people, highly educated and skilled, possessed the capacity to rebuild their

shattered societies. (And it may have been easier to build strong economies from scratch

than the partially damaged ones of the victors.) Two powers, so great that the new term

"superpower" had to be coined for them, dominated the world in 1945. The United States

was both a military power and an economic one; the Soviet Union had only brute force and
the intangible attraction of Marxist ideology to keep its own people down and manage its

newly acquired empire in the heart of Europe.

The great European empires, which had controlled so much of the world, from Africa to

Asia, were on their last legs and soon to disappear in the face of their own weakness and

rising nationalist movements. We should not view the war as being responsible for all of

this, however; the rise of the US and the Soviet Union and the weakening of the European

empires had been happening long before 1939. The war acted as an accelerator.

Empires crumble (Decolonization)

The end of the war also increased the rate of decolonization from the great powers with

independence being granted to India (from the United Kingdom), Indonesia (from

the Netherlands), the Philippines (from the US) and a number of Arab nations, primarily from

specific rights which had been granted to great powers from League of Nations Mandates in

the post World War I-era but often having existed de facto well before this time. Also related to

this was the US helping Israel gain controversial independence from its previous status as part of

Palestine in the years immediately following the war. Independence for the nations of Sub-

Saharan Africa came more slowly

The former imperial powers no longer had the financial and military capacity to hang on to their

vast territories. Nor did their people want to pay the price of empire, whether in money or blood.

Furthermore, where the empires had once dealt with a divided or acquiescent people, they now

increasingly faced assertive and in some cases, well-armed nationalist movements. The defeat of

European forces all over Asia also contributed to destroy the myth of European power.
The British pulled out of India in 1947, leaving behind two new countries of India and Pakistan.

Burma, Sri Lanka and Malaysia followed the road of independence not long after. The Dutch

fought a losing war but finally conceded independence to Indonesia, the former Dutch East

Indies, in 1949. France tried to regain its colonies in Indochina but was forced out in 1954 after a

humiliating defeat at the hands of Vietnamese forces. The Europeans' African empires crumbled

in the 1950s and early 1960s. The United Nations grew from 51 nations in 1945 to 189 by the

end of the century.

Because of the cold war, there was no comprehensive peace settlement after the Second World

War as there had been in 1919. Instead there were a number of separate agreements or ad hoc

decisions. In Europe most of the borders that had been established at the end of the First World

War were restored.

The Soviet Union seized back some bits of territory such as Bessarabia, which it had lost to

Romania in 1919. The one major exception was Poland, as the joke had it "a country on wheels",

which moved some 200 miles to the west, losing some 69,000 sq meters to the Soviet Union and

gaining slightly less from Germany in the west. In the east, Japan of course lost the conquests it

had made since 1931, but was also obliged to disgorge Korea and Formosa (now Taiwan) and

the Pacific islands that it had gained decades earlier. Eventually the United States and Japan

concluded a formal peace in 1951. Because of an outstanding dispute over some islands, the

Soviet Union and its successor Russia have not yet signed a peace treaty ending the war with

Japan.
The Rise of New Political Ideologies (Communism and Capitalism)

1. Communism

Eastern Europe region was the main battlefield during the Second World War. The process of

spreading communism in this region started at the end of world war-I and was expedited after the

end of world war-II. In 1918, Russia under the leadership of Lenin, a powerful communist

leader, started annexing the neighbouring countries. Hungary was the first to fall prey in this list.

Next was the Ukraine which came under the control of Communist government. After the world

war-II, the Soviets in order to spread Communism in Eastern Europe annexed the Baltic States

and East Germany became their operational zone. Soviet supported communist parties took over

in Poland in 1945, Albania and Bulgaria in 1946, Romania in 1947, Czechoslovakia in 1948,

East Germany and Hungary in 1949. By the end of 1949, all the governments of Eastern Europe,

except Yugoslavia were dominated by the USSR. This created a buffer zone in the Europe.

While Western Europe was dominated by the western democracies and capitalist United States,

communist based USSR dominated the Eastern Europe.

Continental Europe emerged from German domination in 1945, shattered and transformed. After

the German surrender, Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union divided

Germany and Austria into four occupation zones, each to be administered by one of the

victorious powers. The cities of Berlin and Vienna were similarly divided and occupied

Soviet authorities were determined to establish regimes in Eastern Europe that were friendly or

subservient to the Soviet Union. Even before the Germans surrendered, Soviet occupation troops

assisted local Communists in installing Communist dictatorships in Romania and Bulgaria.

Indigenous Communist movements established dictatorships in Yugoslavia and Albania in 1945.

In 1949, the Soviet Union established the Communist German Democratic Republic in its

occupation zone of Germany, as the western allies promoted a German Federal Republic in the

western zones.

United States as well as Western European democracies adopted several policies at home and for

abroad to contain communist ideas and spread of communism. These countries started providing

financial aid and military support to countries feared of communism. They also supported the

anti-communist parties in communist countries. United States adopted drastic policies such as

Brinkmanship and McCarthyism. It also started testing loyalty of government employees, those

associated with education and entertainment industry and of labour union activists.

The struggle and rivalries between the American and Soviet powers that was started in Europe

spread to East and Southeast Asian region and dominated the politics and economic relations

since in the late 1940s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the December 1991. The Chinese

Civil War of 1946-1949 led Mainland China to become a communist state in October 1949 under

President Mao Tse-tung. The United States decided in 1949 to try and stop communism

spreading down into French Indo-China and other parts of Asia. The Korean War in 1950 then

had the effect of extending the ‘containment policy’ throughout the East Asian region. In Indo-

China, Chinese aid had by 1954 enabled communist insurgents to defeat the French in a war of

national liberation. The Geneva Conference 1954 then partitioned Vietnam between Communist

North and non-communist South. The Vietnam crisis did not end in 1954 with Geneva

Conference and divided Vietnam into two parts, North Vietnam communist and South Vietnam

democratic. The conflict between North and South Vietnam erupted in the 1960s and remained

unsettled until mid 1970s. The Americans faced difficulties in defeating communist attacks on

South Vietnam.
In the late 1960s, there were clear signs that the communist North Vietnam would win the war.

Finally the North defeated the Americans on 30th April 1975. South and North Vietnam were

united and became a communist state after April 1975.

The communist victory in China in 1949, the fall of North Vietnam in 1954 and the Korean War

1950-1953 were important events in shaping American policy in East and Southeast Asian

region and especially in terms of her military and security architecture in that region.

The Japan-U.S. Alliance was signed in 1951 soon after the outbreak of the Korean War in June

1950.The main objective was to contain the spread of communism to Japan and prevent Japan

from becoming a communist state. The position of Japan was critical after the Second World

War. The Japan Communist Party was quite strong and had close relations with the Soviet

Union. Further, the Soviet Union also urged the United States to divide Japan into two parts, as

had been done to the Korean Peninsula i.e. the North part of Japan to be under Soviet Union

control and the South under the Americans. But the Americans rejected the Soviet suggestion.

To the Americans, only America had the right over Japan because America was solely

responsible for the Japan’s surrender in August 1945. Thus the signing of the Japan-U.S.

Alliance Treaty in 1951 not only buttressed the American position in Japan but also contained

the expansion of communist influence.

The victory of communist North Vietnam in 1954 over the French had a direct impact upon the

American political and security planning in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian Treaty Organisation

(SEATO) was created in September 1954. SEATO was membered by the United States, Great

Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan. The motive was

to protect the democratic Southeast Asian countries from becoming communist states.
 2. Capitalism

The years immediately following the Second World War were marked by an unprecedented

speed of economic recovery from the most devastating conflict in the history of mankind,

combined with an equally impressive strength and scale of international cooperation never before

witnessed. Capitalism is often thought of as an economic system in which private actors own and

control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in

markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society.

In the immediate wake of the Second World War, living conditions in areas that had been

theatres of war were horrendous. Several Governments ran budget deficits in an effort to rebuild

both housing and industry and faced severe balance-of-payments complications in the process. In

Western Europe and Japan, wartime price controls and rationing were maintained owing to high

inflationary pressures and, in the case of Japan, until as late as 1948. The problem was similar in

the centrally planned economies, which had to deal with, in addition to reconstruction, the

impact of institutional changes as a result of the nationalization or partial collectivization of land.

While rationing had been abolished in the Soviet Union by 1947, other countries maintained

wartime controls—as late as 1953 in Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia). China

immersed in a civil war which had begun before the end of the Second World War and ended in

1949, suffered hyperinflation until early 1950.

Nonetheless, the recovery in those post-war years was, to quote the introduction to World

Economic Survey 1955, “truly impressive”, in terms of both its speed and spread, as compared

with the period following the First World War. The dire starting conditions in 1945 were

compounded by the global economic “lethargy” of the 1930s which had included the collapse of
the gold standard and large private capital flows across countries. Indeed, from that point up to

the early 1970s, the world witnessed the fastest period of economic growth ever. Contributing to

the commencement of this Golden Age was a better handling of the emergency situation in

countries ravaged by the Second World War, supported by large aid flows from the United

Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the United States (through the

Marshall Plan) and, albeit in lesser amounts, Canada.

Production recovered more rapidly after the Second World War than after the First: In Western

Europe, it took only three years for production to return to pre-war levels and four years in the

case of exports, compared with six years for both production and exports after the First World

War. However, food consumption per capita in this region was restored to pre-war levels only in

1950. Globally, agriculture recovered more slowly than manufacturing and mining production,

especially in the centrally planned economies where economic growth was also slow during the

second half of the 1940s. While the process of reconstruction was fast overall, with world

industrial production returning to its pre-war levels in 1947 (or 1948, if the United States is

excluded), Germany and Japan recovered their pre-war levels of per capita gross domestic

product (GDP) only in the mid-1950s, despite remarkable post-war growth. Countries whose

production capacities were not affected by the war saw their production levels rise well above

pre-war levels within two years after the war. These included the United States, Canada, the

European countries that had remained neutral, Turkey, countries of the Middle East and Latin

America and India. Some (notably in Latin America) benefited from increased demand for their

products by belligerent nations, as trade restrictions were lifted in the post-war period.

Conversely, Western Europe saw some of its markets for manufactures shrink after the war,

owing to import substitution.

The growth of the global economy in the 1960s outpaced that of the 1950s, with more people

positively affected by high economic growth. At the same time, there was continuing concern

with regard to economic stability and internal and external imbalances within industrialized

countries. The underdeveloped countries and areas became the focus of more attention than

before within the United Nations development forums. The average annual growth rate of GDP

among developed market economies was 5.0 per cent for the period 1961-1970, while that of

developing countries was 5.5 per cent for the same period. The net material product of centrally

planned economies grew by 6.7 per cent per year on average.

The Golden Age of Capitalism has been characterized by unprecedented growth of international

trade, in tandem with the impressive growth of the global economy as described in the previous

section. The period also saw the creation of a multilateral international payments system, known

as the Bretton Woods monetary system, and a United States initiative to aid Europe, known as

the Marshall Plan (officially called the European Recovery Program). The negotiators shared

common views on the importance of full employment and a liberal multilateral payments system

which led to the creation of IMF. The flexible attitude of that institution towards member

countries resulted in the successful implementation of current account convertibility by the end

of the 1950s. The large-scale impact exerted by the Marshall Plan in Western Europe attests to

the importance of well targeted international assistance for the recovery of productive capacity

and stable economic growth. The implementation of the Marshall Plan remains significant in its

exemplification of a positive experience of development cooperation, which can serve as a guide

for the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. On the other hand, the

high volatility of commodity prices and the declining prices of primary products (relative to

manufactured goods) during that period remain unresolved issues today.

Political Reconstruction of Europe after the Second World War

Central to the entire discipline of global politics after the Second World War, is the concept of

European Integration. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Europe found itself in a state of

economic devastation and with various problems to solve. Besides, the continent was soon to be

divided into two major spheres of influence by the beginning of the Cold War. The Cold War was

a constant state of political and military tension amongst powers in the Western Bloc (the United

States) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies). Soon after the beginning

of the conflict, several treaties and institutions were established in order to create collaboration

between Western European states. The objective of this research is to examine at what extent the

Cold War played a role in European Integration between 1945 and 1957.

After the Second World War , one of the main aspects in the changing attitudes of powerful actors

after the Second World War was the devastation and loss provoked by the conflict. Nationalism

and the emergence of fascism were good examples of complications caused by an absence of

cooperation amongst European states and many debated the option of a new European system of

close cooperation. The several plans introduced contributed to the construction of what is now

called the European Union. Ideas of European unification flowed as the need of peace and

cooperation was fundamental in preventing a future war, but plans made by Coudenhove, Briand

or Monnet failed because states wanted to preserve their sovereignty. However, throughout time,

the desire to create a prosperous continent that could compete with the two economic powers: the

United States and the Soviet Union, and the desire to avoid confrontations between European

states made the union possible.

The end of the Second World War did not lead to a return to normal but instead announced the

rise of a new conflict, less bloody but secret and longer. The allied powers failed to agree on a

peace settlement with Germany and so, it was subjected to a quadripartite occupation. Conflicts

of interest between the new global powers are growing and an atmosphere of distrust and fear

sets. It then follows a long period of global tension, punctuated by acute attacks sometimes

leading to local military conflicts without yet triggering an open conflict between the United

States and the USSR.

The Cold War reached its first high point during the Berlin Blockade. Afterwards, the explosion

of the first Soviet atomic bomb in the summer of 1949 reinforces the USSR as a world power.

This confirms the predictions of Winston Churchill who, in March 1946, is the first person to

speak in public of the Iron Curtain which was now cutting Europe in two. States as Romania and

Bulgaria were now under Moscow control. American help was provided since the beginning of

the conflict. President Truman gave a speech in 1947 in which he explains that the American

government will “support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed

minorities or by outside pressures.” One can argue that the United States wanted to suppress the

Eastern threat.

The expansion of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet presence in the affected

countries, sustains a sense of fear in Western Europe. France and Britain tried to find a way to

“collaborate in measures of mutual assistance in the event of a renewal of German aggression”

(Treaty of Dunkirk, 1947), and they were soon joined by the Benelux countries. In 1948, the

Brussels Treaty founding the Western European Union is concluded. This coalition marks the
start of European military cooperation. The Council of Europe, established in 1949, aims to attain

a greater unity between the 10 member states which sought to preserve democratic principles and

facilitate economic and social progress.

George C. Marshall suggested an economic and financial aid; in a speech he gave in 1947, with

the purpose to achieve a closer European cooperation. This is the Marshall Plan or European

Recovery Program. The plan was proposed for all European countries, even for the Soviet Union,

but the Russian prime-minister, rejected the final offer and discouraged its satellite countries to

accept American aid. This refusal deepens the division between Western and Eastern Europe. In

response to the Marshall program, the USSR establishes, in January 1949, an economic

cooperation with the countries of the Soviet bloc in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance .

Finally, sixteen countries are ready to accept the plan.

Further, as a response to the Marshall Plan, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation

was established in order to administer the funds given by the United States and the European Coal

and Steel Community. The most important issue facing Western European countries was to “tie

Germany to Europe and Europe to Germany”. France had hesitations about rebuilding Germany

and needed strong help in order to rebuild itself too. Jean Monnet proposed coal and steel as an

initial field for collaboration, which would let the French exercise control over German resources

and will be controlled by a supranational structure that will be the High Authority. Shared control

of these key manufacturing industries would make impossible for one state to attack the other,

given the effort of gaining the necessary resources and the substantial issue it would take to its

economy. Jean Monnet’s plan led to the Franco-German reconciliation, but the first European
organization that assembled European countries was the European Coal and Steel Community,

Schuman’s plan, established in 1951 with the Treaty of Paris and was the first European

organization based on supra-nationalism.

The USSR condemned the European Coal and Steel Community from the start and the whole idea

of European integration from its birth. This association of states is seen by the USSR as a

diffusion of the American capitalism that seeks to subjugate the Western European governments

to get maximum profit. The Schuman Plan is definitely innovative in the history of European

integration. It appears indeed as the birth of the European community. Basically, the Schuman

Plan aimed to end a Franco-German antagonistic period, to compensate for the lack of existing

European organizations and pave the way towards a federation.

In 1950, the Korean War and the communist peril determine the urgency of a European defense

organization which could automatically include the German armed forces. The need for

rearmament of Germany is also constantly repeated by the U.S. government that wishes to play

communism on the European continent. In Europe, the memory of the war and the German

military occupation remains intense. But since the late forties, the Communist threat is precise and

Western Europe is aware of the interest and the urgent need for German rearmament. However,

despite the Brussels Pact in 1948 which established a system of joint support in case of an armed

hostility, France, The United Kingdom and the Benelux countries could not cope alone. In 1950,

when the Korean War started, Europe became aware of the problems that the Cold War could

cause.
Jean Monnet came with another idea of supra-national institution: The European Defense

Community (EDC). Although the plan was rejected by France, it shows the impact that the Cold

War had on European integration. As the EDC failed, the problem of German rearmament

reappeared. In this context, Britain proposed that West Germany could join the Brussels Treaty

which will end the anti-German features of the treaty but in the same way, it will provide the

entrance of West Germany to NATO and by the Paris Accords (1955), full sovereignty. USSR,

which regarded German armament with an intense offensive, responded with the Treaty of

Warsaw (1955), in which communist Eastern European countries were to cooperate. With the

process of decolonization, great powers as France and Britain lost their empires which made

them, in consequence, weaker and made them fall economically, behind the United States and the

Soviet Union. In this case, it is explainable how the EEC developed from the ECSC.

At the Messina Conference (1955) Jean Monnet resigned from the presidency of the High

Authority of the ECSC. Statesmen of the Benelux countries, tried to revive a project that offers

solutions to specific economic integration problems. Even if the EDC failed, they refuse to

abandon the projects. Moreover, the success of the reconstruction of post-war national economies

increasingly makes necessary the development of foreign trade. In fact, two types of initiatives

will appear in the course of 1955: developing atomic energy and stimulating economic exchanges

with open borders.

The International events as the Suez crisis in 1956 and the Soviet intervention in Hungary also

influenced the revival of European unity as the key-actors in Western European policies realized

the small role that Europe played at that time and it also hurried the negotiations. After intense
diplomatic dialogues at Messina, intergovernmental conferences are organized to prepare the

adoption on 25 March 1957 in Rome, of the treaties creating the European Economic Community

(EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) marks an important step in

the history of European integration. The EEC aimed to establish a common market, advance in

economic activities, increased in stability, accelerated relations between the member states. It

shaped a common market characterized by custom unions which was grounded on the free

movement of persons, goods, capital and services and establishment of common policies,

specifically in sectors of transport and agriculture. EURATOM, achieved to create a common

nuclear market.

In conclusion, one can judge that European integration took place in a complicated historical

context. The Cold War had a role on shaping Europe as, since the end of Second World War, the

United States actively encouraged efforts that led Europeans to unite and accomplish a political

and economic union. Even if plans for a united Europe have been made as Monnet said: “Europe

will be forged in crises, and it will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.”

From a political point of view, the bipolarity of the international agenda expressed itself in

Europe. The division of Europe into communism and capitalism, the difference of the two

ideologies, provoked a strong feeling of cohesion within the blocks. Economically, the

devastating economy after the Second World War required international cooperation and

assistance from outside in order to improve restoration and economic growth.

The Marshall Plan facilitated development and gave birth to the Organization for European

Economic Cooperation which enabled collaboration amongst its member states. However, the

Treaty of Paris which established the European Coal and Steel Community was the most

significant feature that gave the impulse to the creation of a European community. The security

matters contributed, as well, at structuring Europe. The Second World War replaced by the Cold

War disturbed European security. The reactions that followed were not unanticipated. The

Truman Doctrine inaugurated NATO as a need to secure Western European states. With the

Korean War, the European Defense Community came as a proposal, but unfortunately was not

welcomed by France.

The evidence of this study suggests that in the period between 1945 and 1957, the Cold War had,

indirectly, a strong impact. American fear of the communist expansion in Europe shaped and

supported cooperation.

Conclusion

The aftermath of World War II is still affecting the global politics in today’s world. So we can

say that it is the effects of the aftermath of World War II which made the USA a hegemonic

power. Now the question is that, would it be a unipolar system or it would be another Bipolar or

Multipolar system? The aftermath of World War II not only diverted fields of human effort but

global political system. Global politics reflects both change and continuity. By change we mean t

he transformation of key structures and processes that has a major impact on the nature of

global politics and it is unanimously agreed that World War II changed the total dimension of glo
bal politics. Since the end of World War II the world has witnessed a massive continuation of

global changes. Every Great War, especially one involving great powers on both sides, brings

something new to Global system. But World War II was out of the ordinary in that respect. After

the World War II the changes in politics, strategic, diplomatic and military issues which drew

many new and very significant dimensions in global system. Even World War I had not brought

about such massive changes. One can go on endlessly describing the aftermath of World War II,

but we are concerned with different dimensions of world politics in different situations as the

aftermath World War II: The influence of World War II in global politics, tactical, operational,

strategic and technical changes brought in global politics by World War II which are still used

today and the results of changes

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