The Impact of WWI and WWII for Europe Today
The First and the Second World Wars in their consequences had a tremendous impact on the development of Europe and the world in whole. Events 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 left an indelible mark in the hearts and minds of the contemporaries, and also turned the idea of war and peace, life and death, enemies and allies. The collapse of four empires (Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman), the formation of nine new states in Europe, a huge number of dead and wounded soldiers, officers, civilians and many more maimed and shell-shocked by the continuous shelling is an incomplete list of heritage which was left for future generations two biggest wars of the twentieth century.
The First World War took the lives of more than 10 million soldiers and about 12 million of civilians, while about 55 million people were wounded. Four empires, the Russian, the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, have shattered and the political map of Europe has been drastically redrawn. The war has brought the world new weapons (tanks, gas), the new character of the war (trench), new battles which shocked by their cruelty (Verdun, Ypres, Galicia). The First World War took away a huge number of European young people, and returned crippled and embittered "lost generation".
The most painful impact the war had on the people directly involved in the battles. For a long time sitting in the trenches under incessant enemy fire and for those moments spent in deadly attacks and counter-attacks Europe has lost an entire generation of its young people. People who returned from the war could not adapt to the new peaceful life. The matter of that was not only the trauma caused by what they have seen and experienced at the front, but also the socio-economic and political turmoil that took place in European countries by the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919. German soldiers, for example, went to war, being the subjects of the German Empire, and returned to the countries covered by the revolutionary mood, mired in mass unemployment and inflation.
The Second World War, as well as World War First, seriously redrew the map of the world and radically changed the system of relations between the states and the people. After its end the two superpower states left in the world: the United States and the Soviet Union. Three European states, Britain, France and Germany, which dominated until September 1939, to a large extent lost their status and influence. John Keegan, author of "The Second World War", considers that at the beginning of the 21st century the humanity lives in a world experiencing the impact of the war, as many of modern crises appear as a result of decisions made in the 1939-1945ss.
On the world stage a new force emerged. The Soviet Union had the largest army the world, but its economy was devastated by the Nazi occupation. The US had a total military superiority in the air …
