What are some lasting effects of World War 2?

Answer 1

The destruction of Germany. It took two world wars, two gigantic coalitions, and millions of dead but the goal of Russia, France and Britain to destroy German power was at last accomplished. This had been the goal for centuries, possibly even back to Roman times. This goal had been accomplished via two methods. First - Militarily. The French with Napoleon sought to keep Germany divided and fought many a campaign to accomplish that. The Thirty Years war, on the surface a religious war, was fought almost entirely on German territory and resulted in the deaths of about 30% of the German peoples. There were many others. Second - Political. France in particular meddled in German internal affairs for centuries trying to keep Germany disunited and weak. When Bismark/Prussia finally gathered enough strength to fight the French in 1871 the French immediately began forming coalitions with other states to limit German power, said policy leading directly to a confrontation in WWI. Otherwise the western nations refused to allow Germany more than a few scraps of colonial territory, less even that Portugal. The German navy was regarded as a threat even though it was only half the size of the British. German militarism was talked up constantly as a huge threat to world peace although between 1871 and 1914 hardly any German troops were involved in foreign battles. Meanwhile the British and Russian armies ran roughshod over numerous third world nations, adding them to their already immense empires. WWII ended all this. German power was crushed. Its territory shrunked. Its men killed or enslaved. Its economy wrecked. Its women raped. It cities plundered or burned. This took a huge effort and pretty well set the stage for the collapse of the French and English imperial empires, which were bankrupted by the expense of it all. The Russian empire stood for a few decades longer. The American supremacy over global events became acknowledged by all, like it or not.

There were many effects of ww2. Two major effects were that over 40 million people died and that Germany had to sign the Molotov-Ribbontrop Pact that said that Germany could not have a major national guard.