HIST103: World History (1600–Present)

Europe in Ruins

German occupation zones in 1946 after territorial annexations in the East. The Saarland (in the French zone) is shown with stripes, as it was not removed from Germany until 1947

At the end of the war, millions of refugees were homeless, the European economy collapsed, and 70 percent of the European industrial infrastructure was destroyed.

Partitioning of Germany and Austria

Germany was partitioned into four zones of occupation. An Allied Control Council was created to coordinate the zones. The original divide of Germany was between America, the Soviet Union, and Britain. Stalin agreed to give France a zone, but it had to come from the American or British zones and not the Soviet zone. The American, British, and French zones joined in 1949 as the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic.

Austria was once again separated from Germany, and it, too, was divided into four zones of occupation, which eventually reunited and became the Republic of Austria.

Reparations

Germany paid reparations to France, Britain, and Russia in the form of dismantled factories, forced labor, and shipments of coal. The United States settled for confiscating German patents and German-owned property in the United States, mainly subsidiaries of German companies.

In accordance with the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, payment of war reparations was assessed from the countries of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland.

Morgenthau Plan

The initial occupation plans proposed by the United States were harsh. The Morgenthau Plan of 1944 called for dividing Germany into two independent nations and stripping her of the industrial resources required for war. All heavy industry was to be dismantled or destroyed, and the main industrial areas (Upper Silesia, Saar, Ruhr, and the German-speaking parts of Alsace-Lorraine) were to be annexed.

While the Morgenthau Plan itself was never implemented per se, its general economic philosophy did end up greatly influencing events. Most notable were the toned-down offshoots, including the Potsdam Conference, Joint Chiefs of Staff Directive 1067 (April 1945-July 1947), and the industrial plans for Germany.

Marshall Plan

Germany had long been the industrial giant of Europe, and its poverty held back the general European recovery. The continued scarcity in Germany also led to considerable expenses for the occupying powers, which were obligated to try and make up the most important shortfalls. Learning a lesson from the aftermath of World War I, when no effort was made to systematically rebuild Europe and when Germany was treated as a pariah, the United States made a bold decision to help reconstruct Europe.

Secretary of State George Marshall proposed the "European Recovery Program," better known as the Marshall Plan, which called for the U.S. Congress to allocate billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Europe. Also, as part of the effort to rebuild global capitalism and spur post-war reconstruction, the Bretton Woods system for international money management was put into effect after the war.

Border Revisions and Population Shifts

As a result of the new borders drawn by the victorious nations, large populations suddenly found themselves in hostile territory. The main benefactor of these border revisions was the Soviet Union, which expanded its borders at the expense of Germany, Finland, Poland, and Japan. Poland was compensated for its losses to the Soviet Union by receiving most of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line, including the industrial regions of Silesia. The German state of the Saar temporarily became a protectorate of France, but it later returned to German administration.

The number of Germans expelled totaled roughly 15 million, including 11 million from Germany proper and 3,500,000 from the Sudetenland.

Germany officially states that 2,100,000 of these expelled lost their lives due to violence on the part of the Russians, Polish, and Czech, though Polish and Czech historians dispute this figure.

The United Nations

The headquarters of the United Nations is located in New York City. The United Nations was founded as a direct result of World War II.

Because the League of Nations had failed to actively prevent the war, in 1945, a new international body was considered and then created: The United Nations.

The UN operates within the parameters of the United Nations Charter, and the reason for the UN's formation is outlined in the Preamble to the United Nations Charter. Unlike its predecessor, the United Nations has taken a more active role in the world, such as fighting diseases and providing humanitarian aid to nations in distress. The UN also served as the diplomatic front line during the Cold War.

The UN also was responsible for the initial creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, in part as a response to the Holocaust.