User:Arnoutf/sandbox/WWIIaftmath



The global economy suffered heavily from the war. By the end of the war the largely undamaged US industry produced roughly half of the world's industrial output. Economic recovery following the war was varied in differing parts of the world, though in general it was quite positive. In Europe, West Germany recovered quickly and doubled production from its pre-war levels by the 1950s. In the 1950s, the Italian economy was rapidly growing France rebounded quickly, and enjoyed rapid economic growth and modernisation. The Soviet Union also experienced a rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. The United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin after the war, and continued to experience relative economic decline for decades to follow. Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. China had reached pre war production by 1953.

In an effort to maintain international peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard of achievement for all member nations. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over, and the powers each quickly established their own spheres of influence. , leading to two international military pacts, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact military alliances and the start of the Cold War between them.

In Europe, Germany and Austria were controlled by the allies; and a program of denazification was started. The Soviet Union, expanded its territory by directly annexing several countries it occupied as Soviet Socialist Republics such as Eastern Poland, the three Baltic countries, part of eastern Finland and northeastern Romania. The eastern and central European countries states that the Soviets occupied at the end of the war became Soviet Satellite states, such as the People's Republic of Poland, the People's Republic of Hungary, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the People's Republic of Romania, the People's Republic of Albania,. Later East Germany would be created from the Soviet zone of German occupation. The European powers started a rapid decolonization after the war leading to the end of British, French and Dutch colonial empires.

In Asia, the United States occupied Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands; the former Japanese-governed Korea was divided and occupied between the US and the Soviet Union, which was the precursor of theKorean War. In China, nationalist and communist forces quickly resumed the civil war. Communist forces were eventually victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces ended up retreating to Taiwan.