Second World War and Its Aftermath

Second World War and Its Aftermath

The war is really a continuation of the First World War. It gradually sucks almost all nations into it in a whirlwind of destruction. When it's over everything is a mess, except the Western Hemisphere and some of Russia. The nations of the world attempt to do a better job than the now-defunct League of Nations was able to do. They come up with the United Nations. The world at the end of World War Two is a very different one from anything that went before. Unfortunately it takes quite a while for society to realize this. All the colonies are clamoring for self-government, the Middle East is in ferment, and the much-abused Jews are getting a homeland in Palestine in the middle of Arabs who do not want them there. Much of the world is devastated by the fighting and this is complicated by the growing antagonism between the Communist USSR and Capitalist America. This unresolved antagonism between the western democracies and the Soviet version of communism poisons all aspects of American society, giving rise to a variety of ultra-right responses like "McCarthyism." This is, of course reflected in the theatre.

Antagonism breaks out in the first post-war "Police action" undertaken by the United Nations when the communist part of Korea (north) attacks the rest (the south) of the country. This fans the flames of anti-communist hysteria in the west (especially in the United States.) This particular fire storm is hardly over when the French are driven out of their Indo-China colonies by nationalist forces that are also communist [the Soviets have been helping aspiring nationalists ever since the Spanish Civil War.] Now the Chinese communists (who gradually won out over the nationalists) are also giving lots of aid (as they do in Korea and will in Africa and Latin America.)

The confusion and agony of involvement in the conflict in Vietnam occupies the western democracies, particularly the United States, for many years. The turmoil in the Middle East continues, as do the avalanche of colonies becoming new nations. The realization that the world has changed irrevocably seems to erupt in the "sixties" cultural rebellion. The time of communes, flower-children, "make love not war," Zen Buddhism, Woodstock and the whole range of counter-culture arrives and turns Western society on its ear. The American battles for civil rights are fought and some of them are even won, after a fashion.

All this social turmoil ushers in the decade of the 70s with its emphasis on minorities, on women, Afro-Americans, Latin Americans, Indians, etc. The inevitable back-lash to the liberal 60s and 70s comes with the attempt to reconcile how the Vietnam war affected America and other attempts to deal with the cultural changes rampant in American society. Asia is beginning to blossom economically and some sort of social stability grows. Slowly Latin America tries to give up alternating revolution with military dictatorships. Africa continues to try to develop some way for each new emerging nation to govern without degenerating into genocide and unending civil war. The Middle East continues to be a hot-bed of conflict.

It is not clear what the final decade will bring, but it starts with the dissolution of the monolithic communist Soviet Union and the Eastern European nations built by the Soviets start out on their own. The economic and environmental disasters of all these years of forced economy begin to be shared with the rest of Europe which is finally making itself into a united community. Some of the dissolving political units in the Balkans are still proving that this part of the world is a congenital trouble spot, as is the Middle East.