Faisal Alshammeri

When one takes a look at the world today it’s a complicated place to say the least, but how did we get here? How did The United States become the world’s first superpower? What series of events caused the world to arrive at the geopolitical order we see today, or should we instead perhaps focus on identifying a single event to try to make sense of the geopolitical community of nations we see today? There was no more of a defining moment in The 20^th Century than World War II. It was the inflection point in the curve of history and the results of it following the conclusion of the most destructive conflict mankind has ever known are the building blocks of the world we see today. The bloodiest war in history left some 80,000,000 people dead across the globe. Staggering number to say the least, and when we look at that we should all be grateful that there has not been a repeat of anything even remotely resembling it since. Fire and sword was carried across The European Continent, to The Arctic Circle, across the vast steppes of Ukraine and Russia, and even further beyond to The Caucasus Mountains. North Africa too saw contestants race up and down from Tunisia, across Libya and into Egypt itself. The area around El Alamnein today is littered with small arms ammunition, mines, more mines and the littered bones of those who fought And died there. Iraq and Syria were brief theaters of this conflict that often times goes forgotten, but men died there too. The war raged in The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans where many men lost their lives to find a grave in the darkest of realms where no light ever penetrates. The Korean Peninsula, China, The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Burma, are further additions to this roll call of blood-soaked soil with even Bangladesh and Australia temporarily felling the savage wrath of this cruel war. Only North & South America remained untouched by World War II. Well what were some of the things that emerged from World War II? New countries like Poland, Morocco, Algeria, Israel, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, South & North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Taiwan, along with South Korea and North Korea emerged. The era of Colonial Empires along with their overseas possessions collapsed coming to a permanent end. The European Empires had existed for several centuries in some cases. After 1945 they were no more. What was once called British India and a dominion of The British Empire became the independent countries of India and Pakistan. The Dutch East Indies became Indonesia. French Indochina became the independent countries of South & North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Morocco and Algeria were no longer subjects of French Empire but free peoples.

Countless other countries in Africa became free and independent as well as a result of the collapse of the European Colonial System and their Empires. The division of The Korean Peninsula between South & North Korea was where The Russian Armies who invaded Japanese-occupied Chinese Manchuria were at when Japan unconditionally surrendered at war’s end. The 38^th parallel that divides South & North Korea still exists to this very day. Today’s presence of Russian-occupied Shaklin Island of sovereign Japanese territory is also a result of where The Russians found themselves at the end of hostilities against Japan. These lines also exist to this very day. The United Nations began in the closing months of World War II, which by the way The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was one of the first signatory members to the UN Original Charter under a delegation lead by His Majesty King Abdulaziz Al Saud, may he rest in peace.

How about weapon systems? Every variant of cruise and ballistic missiles that we see today come from National Socialist Germany. The German V1 Rocket would be the grandfather for all classes of modern cruise missiles we see today fielded by armies across the globe. The scud missiles which landed inside The Kingdom in The First Gulf War were literally the modern version of The German V2 Rocket which was developed in World War II. Today’s RPG was based too on German technology, The Panzerfaust. Japan showed the world the importance of the aircraft carrier and naval aviation for the first time. Today the most powerful countries in the world deploy aircraft carriers and naval aviation to deploy themselves and project power to protect their interests when they feel the prerogative to do so. The tank as a main battlefield weapon emerged in World War II, where Germany showed the world just how decisive an instrument of war it could be. Today all modern Nation-States deploy some sort of operational capability with the tank. The most famous assault rifle of The 20^th Century, the AK-47, was based on a design of the world’s first assault rifle, which was made by Germany. The Russians took the design, simplified it to four parts, made it durable to a point never seen before in the history of firearms, and the AK-47 was born. The concept of mechanized armies as the blueprint for a Nation-State’s Armed Forces is also borne our of this era. The United States as a global power began at the end of World War II along with the US Dollar as the world’s global currency reserve. The Cold War between The United States and Soviet Russia that lasted until 1989 was a direct consequence of World War II. The age of space travel began on the technology developed to produce The German V2 Rocket as well. Ironically enough Germany’s Adolph Hitler’s ballistic missile program which was designed to bring death and destruction to The Allies would be the very basis for the eventual technology needed to begin the era of space exploration  If one takes a close look around you will see a great deal of the world that Germany’s Adolph Hitler and Soviet Russia leader Joseph Stalin left us as well. We still wrestle with many of the problems they left us, to this very day. Perhaps the biggest legacy of World War II is the ushering in of The Nuclear Age. So, just how did we get here?

In essence there was a European Civil War, World War I, in which in essence there was no real winner despite The Allied Powers (Great Britain and France) declaring themselves victors. Four Empires collapsed, Tsarist Russia under The Romanov’s, The Sultans of Ottoman Turkey, Austria-Hungary under The Hapsburg’s, and The German Empire under The Hohenzollern’s. Russia would go into a bitter, vicious Civil War and emerge as the world’s first socialist nation initially under Vladimir Lenin, and then Joseph Stalin. Germany, Austria and Turkey were the vanquished as the defeated Central Powers. All saw their dominions severely reduced, but of the three only Germany would not accept defeat or the new status quo. In The Pacific, Japan fought alongside Great Britain and The United States but would bitterly resent the treatment it received in Naval Treaties following World War I where it was dictated to Tokyo that they could not have the same amount of battleships as the Western Powers, even in The Western Pacific, the very home waters where Japan resided. Japan, smoldering in this resentment would turn its focus to the aircraft carrier and naval aviation instead where it was not restricted in the development of these weapons. The Japanese leadership figured that they would never be treated as a first-rate or equal power by The Western Powers and calculated that they would have to attain this recognition by driving The Americans, The British and The Dutch out of Asia. Wanting to achieve the status as a recognized first-rate global power it began in 1931 (8 years before war would break out in Europe) to seek absolute hegemony in Asia and The Western Pacific with its invasion of Chinese Manchuria. The Japanese Empire would now, as policy, implement its rise through supremacy of arms, classical imperial conquest and ruthless economic exploitation of the defeated nations it occupied. Japan’s ultimate aim was to drive the Western and European Powers permanently out of Asia and The Western Pacific, have its neighbors recognize it as the dominant power in the region, with complete hegemony solely for Tokyo.

In Europe, Germany eventually would rise, rearm, and start World War II in essence to undo the post-World War I order. The war would begin on 1 September, 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland. On 3 September, Great Britain and France would declare war on Germany beginning a European Conflict. By June 1941 Germany had fought 7 campaigns: Poland, Norway, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Africa, and Russia conquering more land than any Army in history. By the beginning of the second week in December 1941 the European War became World War, with The United States at war with The Empire of Japan, and Germany declaring war on The United States. Four more years would pass before the conflict ended but unlike World War I, however this time there would be clear winners this time. Two outside powers, The United States and Soviet Russia would rule over Continental Europe until 1989. The United States would emerge from the conflict as the richest country the world had ever known, with more food than it could eat, more clothes than it could wear, in possession of 2/3 of the world’s gold, 90% of the world’s manufacturing capacity, the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, over 15,000 overseas military bases, and for a brief moment at war’s end, the sole possessor of the atomic bomb. This would cost The United States a little over 400,000 lives lost. Soviet Russia, for the price of some 30,000,000 people lost, would have complete mastery of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Moscow would control more territory than at any point in the history of Russia. Eventually its reach would expand to North Korea and China as well in the years following World War II. The era of the trial of The Superpowers, The Cold War, would now begin. Great Britain, France and China would sit with the two superpowers on The UN Security Council and through The United Nations enforce the new global order. And The American Dollar would help keep The United States as the primary power because all global commodities, including oil, would have to be bought and sold in dollars, which Washington would then use to recycle and use to issue Treasury Bonds or as we call it today “The Petrodollar.” If you take a look around in today’s world, you will see a great deal of the legacy of World War II. And as mentioned before, one of the more regrettable ironies that we see in the world today are the problems Hitler and Stalin left us. Just goes to show, that the arc of history is long, and actions have long reaching consequences, many times unforeseen at the time that they are unhatched.

  Writer and Political analyst *

@Mr_Alshammeri