The World After 1945 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mass migration into the British Isles particularly England

Global Summary:
Between 60 and 85 million people died in WWII. The catastrophe left a further ten million refugees and displaced people, mainly in Europe but also in Asia. After the war, global power shifted from Europe to the US and the Soviet Union, which emerged as superpowers. However, massive ideological differences led to a division called the Iron Curtain and the Cold War that was to last over forty years.

The United Nations was established in 1945 to prevent a repeat of WWII and to foster cooperation among nations. The weakening of European colonial powers led to the dismantling of global empires and the emergence of many independent nations, particularly in Africa and Asia. Europe and Japan were on the brink of total infrastructure and financial ruin. The US-launched Marshall Plan aided economic recovery in Europe, which in turn assisted the US in inadvertently securing global economic dominance.

United Kingdom.
After the war, Britain was destitute. Until the US introduced the Lend-Lease Act (a policy under which the United States supplied the UK, the Soviet Union, France, the Republic of China, and other WWII Allies with food, oil, and other essentials), Britain was spending its assets to purchase war materiel. After Lend-Lease stopped in September 1945, it was only due to a massive loan from the US that made some degree of economic recovery possible.

The wartime coalition was dissolved by the Labour Party, which won the 1946 general election in its own right, installing Clement Attlee as the Prime Minister and ousting Winston Churchill. Austerity measures were still needed as the financial recovery was slow. Food rationing continued in some form until February 1954. Bread, which was not rationed in WWII, was rationed between 1946 and 1948 due mainly to severe wheat shortages from European production. The government's encouragement of UK citizens to emigrate (particularly to other countries in the Commonwealth, such as Australia and Canada) helped ease food shortages, housing crises, and the financial burden on the soon-to-be welfare state.

The Social Insurance and Allied Services Command Paper, published in November 1942 by William Beveridge, a Liberal, set the platform for the founding of the welfare state in the UK, and was introduced by the Atlee government between 1946 and 1948. The basis of these reforms was to turn the UK into a welfare state, principally through the implementation of national insurance and the creation of the National Health Service, which was implemented in 1948.

Answer: Almost a quarter

Austria was annexed to Germany in March 1938, under Anschluss (meaning 'connection' or 'unification'). In 1943, two years before the end of the war, the Allies made the Moscow Declaration, which stated, "The governments of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States of America are agreed that Austria, the first free country to fall a victim to Hitlerite aggression, shall be liberated from German domination." Immediately after the war, Austria was separated from Germany and was occupied by the Allies until it became a sovereign free nation in 1955. This was not counted in the almost 25% of pre-war Germany ceded to other countries post-war.

Poland, a country that established itself again after WWI and the Treaty of Versailles was lost again in WWII, as it sat between Germany and the Soviet Union, and both fought over it in WWII. The post-WWII boundaries of Poland were pushed eastward as Germany ceded a great deal of its eastern lands, but equally so, the Soviet Union pushed its borders westward into pre-war Polish territory.
Sudetenland reverted to Czechoslovakia as it was declared part of Germany in 1938.

The rest of Germany was partitioned into four occupied zones. The French were allocated the Saar region near the French-German border, which was separated from Germany and made into a French protectorate. The eastern part of Germany was occupied by the Russians, the north by the UK and the South by the US. Because of tensions post-war between the Soviets and the rest of the Allies, by 1947, Germany had been divided into two distinct economic and political entities. In 1949, this division was formalised with the implementation of two independent states, namely the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

Germany had to pay reparations to the UK, France, and the Soviet Union. These payments were mainly in the form of deconstructed factories, forced labour, and coal. The Allies' policy was that no assistance should be given to the Germans in rebuilding their nation, and an immediate post-war "industrial disarmament" plan for Germany was to destroy Germany's war capability by complete de-industrialisation. However, this was partially rescinded when the Truman administration accepted that economic recovery in Europe could not progress without the reconstruction of the German industrial base.

Answer: True

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in WWII, the most of any nation (though Poland and Lithuania lost proportionally more of their population). It also lost a quarter of its capital resources, and its industrial and agricultural output immediately post-war was a mere fraction of what it produced in the 1930s.

The country accepted financial credits from the UK and Sweden, but it refused assistance offered by the US under the Marshall Plan. Instead, the Soviets coerced Soviet-occupied Central/Eastern Europe to provide industrial products and raw materials. Soviet republics were established in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Albania. East Germany was the last to be created from the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. Heavy industry was prioritised over foodstuffs and consumer goods, both of which were in short supply for the next thirty years.

Answer: Thailand

At the start of the 20th century, Japan had ambitious imperial ambitions, wanting to colonise large parts of the Pacific landmass to provide resources for its booming industrial sector. In 1894-5, Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War, gaining Taiwan and the important Liaotung Peninsula in mainland China. In 1904-5, Japan defeated Russia, taking the Sakhalin Islands off Ruusia and wresting control of Korea, which it annexed formally in 1910, forcing it into a strict colonial regime. It gained all of Germany's Pacific possessions during or after World War I and invaded Manchuria on the Chinese mainland in 1931.

During WWII, Japan quickly took over European and American colonies:
French Indochina: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos; Dutch East Indies, and on the Asian mainland, Burma, Malaya & Singapore, but not Thailand. It also forcibly occupied many Pacific Islands that effectively provided a defensive perimeter around Japan. These included Guam, Wake Island, the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Gilbert Islands, and most of the Solomon Islands and most of New Guinea.

Thailand was officially neutral during WWII. After a five-hour bombing raid on 8 December 1941, an armistice was reached between the two countries. Japan wanted Thailand to agree to allow the transfer of Japanese troops through Thailand to invade British-held Malaya and Burma. Thailand viewed Japan as a partner who promised assistance to gain some of the Indochinese territories ( Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam). Thailand declared war on the US and the UK and was successful in annexing territories to the south, east and north. However, the country was split: The government saw Japan as an ally, while there was a 90 000 strong Free Thai Movement, a pro-Allied resistance movement that eventually numbered around 90,000, that were loyal to Thailand's King. After the atomic bomb droppings in Japan, Thailand declared its 1942 declaration of war was unconstitutional and legally void. This meant Thailand did not have to surrender. Because of contributions made to the Allied war efforts by the Free Thai Movement, Thailand was not treated as an enemy country in post-war peace negotiations. An Anglo-Thai Peace Treaty was signed on 1 January 1946 after the Indochinese territories annexed during the war were returned. France then relented and allowed Thailand to join the United Nations.

After the war, Japan lost all of its "possessions", not just the WWII acquisitions: Taiwan, Manchuria and other occupied Chinese territories were returned to the Republic of China; Korea was granted independence (but subsequently was partitioned into North and South Korea); the former German island territories administered by Japan were placed under United Nations trusteeship and then administered by the US, the Phillippines were returned to the US (and granted independence in 1946); and Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were ceded to the Soviet Union (and still in dispute between Russia and Japan today).

Answer: Over 40

France, the Netherlands and Belgium struggled after the war, expelling German nationals, punishing Nazi collaborators and trying to rebuild their economies.

African and Asian colonies witnessed Europeans killing each other in the millions, and this dispelled the myth of European superiority and control. All three European countries (as well as the UK) were destitute and owed massive debts. Maintaining the administration of overseas territories was now not economically feasible. Additionally, over 1.5 million Africans fought in WWII, which meant highly trained, world-aware former soldiers returned home and were not prepared to accept economic subjugation and racial discrimination any longer. Armed with the knowledge that the Atlantic Charter, a document that promoted the right of all peoples to choose their own government (signed by the Allies), sparked a groundswell of pressure on colonial masters to grant independence.

France had the most colonies and had the most to 'lose'. Some of these separations were violent (Indochina and, in particular, Algeria (in 1962). In 1954, Vietnam (now partitioned after the First Indo-China War), Laos and Cambodia all became independent, Tunisia and Morocco in the North in 1956, Guinea in 1958 and then, in 1960, 13 former colonies became independent. Comoros (1975), Djibouti / French Somaliland (1977), and Vanuatu (1980) became independent later. Some colonies: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, and French Polynesia chose not to become independent but remained incorporated as overseas French possessions.

The jewel in the crown of Dutch overseas possessions, the Netherlands East Indies, was invaded by the Japanese in 1942, causing the Dutch to surrender within two months. For the next three years, the Japanese dismantled the Dutch colony's economic, political and social platforms, replacing it with a Japanese infrastructure. When Japan surrendered in August 1945, Indonesians Sukarno and Hatta declared Indonesian independence, which commenced a four-year struggle before independence was granted.

Belgium had a monarchial crisis to deal with before it could address its colonial assets: Leopold III was banned from returning to Belgium after the war because, despite Belgium's neutrality, he surrendered to the Germans in 1940. He lived in exile in Switzerland until 1950 while his brother, Prince Charles, served as regent. After a referendum, Leopold abdicated in 1951, and his son Baudouin became King. Shortly after, Ruanda-Urundi, a former part of German East Africa before WWI, before being administered by Belgium, sought independence in 1962. The Republic of Rwanda and the Kingdom of Burundi became independent in 1962.

The Belgian Congo was invaluable to the Allies in WWII, remaining loyal to the Belgian government in exile. It supplied large quantities of copper and rubber, as well as uranium for the Manhattan Project, and 13,000 troops and a medical unit to the war effort. It became the Republic of the Congo, later Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zaire in 1971, and finally a return to Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1977.

Answer: False

After WWII, Poland's borders underwent major location changes as arranged by the Allies at the Tehran Conference of 1943 and were ratified at the Potsdam Conference of August 1945. The second Polish Republic in 1919-39 covered 386,418 square kilometres (149,197 square miles). However, from 1947, Poland's territory was calculated at 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 square miles). Poland had lost 73,739 square kilometres (28,471 square miles) of land. The pre-WWII territories of Kresy were permanently ceded to the USSR, and 4.3 million Poles (from a total of 12 million within this region) were expelled. (This region became parts of sovereign Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania). On its western border, Poland was ceded the prewar Free City of Danzig and the former parts of Germany west to the Oder-Neisse line, consisting of southern East Prussia and nearly all of Pomerania, Neumark, and German Silesia. The Germans in these regions were expelled into what became East Germany and re-populated by Poles expelled from its former eastern regions.

Historically, Poland had massive minorities, including large numbers of Jews, Ukrainians, Germans, and Belarusians. This was due to the multi-ethnic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that existed between the 16th and 18th centuries, which was situated on a flat, fertile plain in central Europe. This state, unlike nearly all of the surrounding countries, tolerated diverse religions and cultures. It acted as a refuge for persecuted groups, especially Jews who migrated to the commonwealth in millions. Between 1795 and 1918, the commonwealth was systematically wiped off the map as the Commonwealth was subsumed by the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. This allowed Germans and Russians to settle on the fertile Polish plain as the borders had become porous. When Poland regained independence (Second Polish Republic) after World War I, over 30% of its population were minorities (1931 Census:14 per cent were Ukrainians, about 10 per cent Jewish, three per cent Belarusians, 2.5 per cent Germans and 2.8 per cent Lithuanians, Czechs and Armenians, with small numbers of Russians and Romani people).

Nearly all of pre-WWII Poland's three million Jewish citizens perished in the Holocaust. In the 21st century, an estimated 5000 Jews remain in Poland. With the post-war border shifts causing mass expulsions of Germans eastward and ethnic Russians migrating eastward into Soviet-claimed land that was once eastern Poland, modern Poland is overwhelmingly ethnically Polish and Catholic, with only two minority groups, the Silesians and Kashubians, existing in small, localised communities.

Answer: The monarchy was abolished

After WWII, Italians were angry with their monarchy for its endorsement of the Mussolini fascist regime since 1932 and the deprivations of the war. This resulted in a revival of the Italian republican movement. After a referendum on June 2 1946, the monarchy was abolished, and Italy became a republic. No war crime tribunals against political and military leaders were held in Italy, but many, including Mussolini, had been killed by the Italian Resistance during the war. All war crimes were pardoned by the incoming Republican government in 1946.

The Italian Empire was dissolved by the 1947 Treaty of Peace with Italy. This included: the transfer of 165 Italian Islands of the Aegean, to Greece; parts of Dalmatia to Yugoslavia, and Trieste to the United Nations as a trust territory.

Answer: False

After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, the three Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declared independence. Still, each had to fight a war of independence before this was individually achieved in 1920. Their collective independence was brief. According to the secret (at the time) Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, Europe was divided into German and Soviet spheres of influence, resulting in the Soviet army invading eastern Poland in September 1939, and the Stalinist 17days later res ulting in the Soviet government's coercion of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with "mutual assistance treaties", which gave the USSR the green light to establish military bases in all three. Pro-Soviet puppet governments were installed in July 1940, the newly assembled parliaments in each of the three countries then "applied" to join the Soviet Union, which resulted in their incorporation into the USSR as the Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, and Lithuanian SSR.

The Nazi German invasion of the Baltic Soviet states began in 1941. Initially, the German army was seen by many Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians as liberators, and they hoped for the restoration of independence, but instead, Nazi Germany occupied the entire collective area, establishing military bases and creating a civil oversight. They created Jewish ghettos and performed mass killings of the Jewish populations in Lithuania and Latvia. Over 190,000 Lithuanian Jews and 66,000 Latvian Jews were murdered. German occupation ended in late 1944 when the Red Army reoccupied the Baltic States (with passive agreement from the US and Great Britain at the Yalta Conference), restoring their collective status as Soviet republics.

After the war, Soviet occupation forced agricultural collectivisation, with the mass deportation of dissenters. By March 1949, all private farms had been confiscated, and farmers were coerced into working on collective farms. Partisans known as the Forest Brothers fought an eventually unsuccessful resistance campaign against the Soviet occupation until 1953.

The push for independence once again took hold in the late 1980s through a huge campaign of civil resistance against Soviet rule. A unique concept - the Singing Revolution gained worldwide attention. In August 1989, a two-million-strong human chain stretched for 600 km from Tallinn to Vilnius. Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the central government in Moscow, had privately conceded that the independence of the Baltic republics had become "inevitable". All three Baltic states declared independence, and the Soviet Union recognised their independence on 6 September 1991, which set a precedent for the other Soviet republics to secede, which in turn, contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Answer: It plunged into a brutal civil war

In the 1920s, the Republic of China was in tatters, with the nation fragmented by the warlord era. In 1926, Chiang Kai-shek gained control of the Nationalist Party (KMT). With military force, he defeated the warlords in the south and central China by military force, and then was able to secure the allegiance of the warlords in Northern China and establish the Nationalist government in Nanjing. He then drove out the communist elements from his party. However, they regrouped, and in 1937, a bitter civil war broke out between the KMT and the Communists (CCP) led by Mao Zedong. This was put on the back burner (somewhat) during WWII, where the KMT and the CCP put on a united front to stop the Japanese on their imperial march.

At the Yalta Conference in 1943, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, which led to the invasion of Manchuria, which led to the collapse of the Japanese Manchukuo (taken from China in 1932). All Japanese settlers were expelled from the puppet state, and the industrial base built up by the Japanese was dismantled. This favoured the Communist Chinese forces due to the area being under Soviet occupation, and it quickly became a Communist Chinese stronghold.

Immediately after the Japanese surrender in 1945, the KMT and the CCP turned on each other, and the bitter civil war resumed. However, military mistakes, hyperinflation and government corruption caused the KMT to lose massive support. The CCP mobilised peasant unrest, causing the CCP to claim victory with the declaration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949. The beaten KMT evacuated approximately two million civilian and military personnel to Taiwan to maintain the Republic of China, whereas the PRC claimed sovereignty over mainland China. In 1971, the United Nations stated it could only support one China, so it supported the PRC instead of the ROC in Taiwan.

Answer: The division of Germany along political ideologies

Although 418,000 Americans who died in WWII, the U.S. mainland was not bombed, no battles were fought on the continental America, and so it was spared from the physical destruction of most of Europe and a large part of Asia. As such, it was the "last man standing". Its industrial base was not only intact, it also had, with a huge population underpinning it, producing over half the world's manufactured goods between 1945 and 1950. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (The GI Bill) provided millions of veterans with funds to attend college, housing, and to establish businesses. This created an educated and burgeoning middle class that spread into the suburbs, creating a subsequent housing boom. The Marshall Plan was initiated by the US. This was the European Recovery Program, where the USA injected billions of dollars into rebuilding a war-ravaged Western Europe, which in turn opened European markets for American exports. The USA was a major actor in the establishment of the United Nations (principally a worldwide organisation to prevent another world war), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (a defence pact) and the World Bank.

However, Europe became divided by what Winston Churchill called an Iron Curtain. While America and the Soviet Union were great allies during the war, political ideological differences caused the Western European countries in NATO to align with the US, while the Eastern European countries aligned with the Soviet Union, which was formalised in the Warsaw Pact in 1955. This separation, which resulted in the partition of Germany in 1949, into two separate countries and the Berlin Wall. This became the Cold War, an era of deceit and mistrust that lasted until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.