The Spread of Communism: Cuba, China, and the Building of the Eastern Bloc

In our current section, we are turning our focus outside of Europe to examine the spread of communism. When we say communism, there are certain countries that naturally come to mind: Russia, China, Cuba, and North Korea, of course. We have already covered the situation of the Russians, meaning the Soviet Union, in our earlier blocks. Now, we will shift our attention to Cuba. Together, we will see how the impact of the Cuban Revolution continues to be felt in the times we live in and even today.

The Spread of Communism Beyond Europe

When we look at the most significant points where communism took root outside of Europe, the Cuban Revolution is the first to emerge. This grueling process, which began with the Moncada Barracks attack on July 26, 1953, culminated on January 1, 1959, when the dictator Batista was overthrown and the rebels led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara seized power. With this revolution, Cuba became the greatest bastion of communism right under America's nose. Today, despite the end of the Cold War and the passing of its historic leaders, Cuba remains one of the few single-party socialist states in the world. Although the island nation, which has survived over half a century of suffocating US embargos, has slowly begun to open its doors to private enterprise in recent years, the anti-imperialist spirit and symbols of the revolution continue to shape its identity even today.

The biggest fracture on the Asian continent occurred with the Chinese Revolution. Following a bloody civil war that stretched from 1927 and included the famous “Long March” of 1934, communism achieved a decisive victory in this massive geography when Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. However, fast forward to the present day, China has transformed Mao's strictly closed economic doctrines into a brand-new model it calls “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” While unshakeably maintaining the absolute political authority of the Communist Party, China has integrated into the global capitalist market to become the world's second-largest economy. Today, China stands as the US’s greatest geopolitical and technological rival of the 21st century, acting as the primary force bringing the world to the brink of a “New Cold War.”

A similar communist wind blew across the Korean Peninsula. Communists led by Kim Il-sung founded the Workers' Party of Korea in 1946, and on August 25, 1948, the Democratic People's Republic was declared in North Korea. However, following the Korean War that broke out in 1950, the country was permanently divided in two along the 38th parallel; North Korea embraced communism, while South Korea adopted democracy.  

This border remains the most concrete and tragic, still-bleeding scar of the Cold War today. While South Korea has transformed into a global technology, automotive, and pop culture (K-Pop) giant, North Korea remains the world's most isolated totalitarian state under the absolute dictatorship of the Kim dynasty. North Korea's nuclear weapons program is the greatest indicator that the Cold War tension of that era is still actively continuing today at the 38th parallel.

The Construction of the Eastern Bloc

Actually, at this point, let's steer our course back to the mainstream and continue with how the Eastern Bloc was institutionalized.

The Marshall Plan, aimed by the US at economically rebuilding Europe, was defined by the Soviet Union as a “tool of American imperialism.” To counter this plan and strengthen political ties among communist countries, the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) was established on October 5, 1947, with the participation of the communist parties of the USSR, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, France, and Italy. Although presented ostensibly as a step against the Marshall Plan, the true purpose of the Cominform was to coordinate the European communist movement and to take over the functions of the Third International (Comintern), which had been dissolved during World War II.

Another major step taken by the Eastern Bloc against the economic manoeuvres of the West was Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance). Founded on January 25, 1949, to support the political framework of the Cominform with economic power, the primary objectives of this organization were to prepare plans based on specialization and cooperation for the economic development of socialist countries, to direct the production and distribution of raw materials, and to collaborate on scientific and technical research.

The Military Shield of the Eastern Bloc: The Warsaw Pact (May 14, 1955)

The most crucial move that completed the military and political umbrella of the Eastern Bloc was the Warsaw Pact. It was established on May 14, 1955, by the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, and Albania (Albania would later withdraw from the pact in 1968). Its purpose was to counter the establishment of NATO by the Western Bloc and to realize mutual defence and cooperation among the Eastern Bloc countries. In short, it took shape against the growing threat of war in Europe following West Germany's admission into NATO and the establishment of the Western European Union, serving as the Eastern Bloc's equivalent to the role the US played in NATO.

Features and Rules of the Warsaw Pact

The main features of this military and political alliance are as follows:

• Members will consult each other on all international issues concerning their common interests.
• The highest political organ of the pact is the “Political Consultative Committee.”
• Members will not enter into any international engagements or undertake any initiatives that contradict the objectives of this alliance.
• The parties will act in a spirit of friendship toward one another, taking their economic and cultural relations to further dimensions.
• This treaty is open to the participation of all other states, regardless of their social and political systems.
• The treaty will be valid for 20 years. If no desire to terminate the agreement is expressed one year before the end of the term, it will be extended for another 10 years.
• If a general European pact planning common security among European countries comes into effect, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact may be considered.

Up to this point, we have covered the spread of communism beyond Europe and how communism was institutionally solidified among the Eastern Bloc countries. We have thus clarified the Eastern front of that famous bipolar world. We will continue to examine the other critical developments of the Cold War and the responses on the Western front in our third block.

The Beginning of the Cold War: Superpowers, Nuclear Fear, and a Divided Europe

While the wreckage of World War II had not yet been cleared, two new giants were rising on the world stage: the United States and the Soviet Union. The emergence of these two nations as superpowers marked the beginning of that long and tense era known as the “Cold War.” (This historic term was first used in 1947 by the American economist and statesman Bernard Baruch).

The primary critical developments that shaped international politics and the fate of the world during this new era were:

The Collapse of Europe: The fact that Europe and its established states, which had been the centre of the traditional balance of power and politics for centuries, emerged from the war with massive devastation, practically in ruins.

The New Superpowers: The filling of this massive political vacuum by the USA and the Soviet Union, who emerged from the war victorious and much stronger, claiming the status of “superpowers.”

The Shadow of Nuclear Weapons: Undoubtedly, the most defining element of this era was the development of nuclear weapons. This terrifying invention continues to directly shape both era and modern international crises. Just as we see today in the ongoing tensions between the US and Iran or in modern warfare strategies, nuclear deterrence is the greatest diplomatic weapon inherited from the Cold War.

With Europe withdrawing from the stage of world politics after World War II, the international order took on a sharply bipolar nature centred around the USA and the Soviet Union. One of the first concrete steps of this polarization was the secret bargain that went down in history as the Percentages Agreement, which took place in Moscow in October 1944. Aimed at definitively establishing spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, this agreement saw British Prime Minister Churchill and Soviet Leader Stalin determine their dominance over Eastern European countries by dividing them into percentages on a simple scrap of paper.

According to this, the fate of entire nations was divided by these ruthless ratios:

·         Romania: 90% USSR, 10% UK

·         Greece: 90% UK (with the US), 10% USSR

·         Yugoslavia: 50% USSR, 50% UK

·         Hungary: 50% USSR, 50% UK (Soviet ratio was later increased)

·         Bulgaria: 75% USSR, 25% UK (Soviet ratio was later increased)

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin
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The Berlin Crisis and the Baruch Plan

The first major and volatile crisis of the Cold War erupted in the heart of Germany, the country that suffered the heaviest wounds of the war. Following World War II, just like the rest of Germany, the capital city of Berlin was divided into four occupation zones by the victorious powers (the US, UK, France, and the USSR). However, the Soviet Union’s aggressive attempt to push Western powers completely out of its occupation zone and its deliberate prevention of German reunification severed all ties. When a compromise proved impossible, the US, UK, and France made a swift move to merge their respective occupation zones, laying the foundations for West Germany (and West Berlin). This situation triggered the historic “Berlin Crisis,” bringing the world to the brink of a new war.

In response to the Soviet Union’s ruthless 1948 Berlin Blockade, which cut off all land and rail routes to force Western powers out of the city, the US and UK launched the Berlin Airlift, one of the most legendary maneuvers of the Cold War. Wanting to save the city without triggering a hot conflict, Allied planes performed an unprecedented logistical miracle by flying day and night for nearly a year to airdrop thousands of tons of food, coal, and medical supplies into West Berlin. Faced with the West's unwavering resolve, the Soviets were forced to lift the blockade in May 1949, and this humanitarian operation went down in memory as one of the greatest psychological victories of the free world against communism.

Nuclear Crisis

The US submitted a proposal to the UN known as the “Baruch Plan” for the control of the atomic bomb, a weapon it had used at the end of WWII to prove its ultimate power to the world. This plan envisioned the creation of an international authority with unlimited inspection powers over nations to monitor the development and use of atomic energy. The US even demanded an alteration of the famous “veto” system in the UN Security Council to ensure that violators of the agreement could not block their own punishment.

However, the Soviet Union categorically rejected this plan. The Stalin administration harboured a highly justified fear: if this plan were implemented, the US would remain the sole “monopoly” capable of manufacturing nuclear weapons, and America, which already heavily dominated the UN, would completely manipulate this newly established atomic commission for its own interests. This mistrust between the US, which was unwilling to share its nuclear secrets, and the Soviets, who rejected this inspection plan, pushed the tension between the two superpowers to its peak, officially igniting the terrifying global nuclear arms race.

The Construction of the Eastern Bloc and the First Cracks

As Europe was divided in two, the fate of the countries behind the “Iron Curtain” had already been sealed. Thanks to the power vacuum created by the war and the military presence of the Red Army, Marxist-Leninist parties rapidly seized political power in countries like Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The greatest share in the establishment of communist regimes in these countries undoubtedly belonged to Soviet tanks.

However, not all of the Eastern Bloc was under the absolute control of the Soviets. Two countries stepped outside this rule and drew their own destinies: Yugoslavia and Albania.

·        Yugoslavia: Not owing its power to Soviet armies and having driven out the Nazis with its own strong partisan resistance, Yugoslavia (under the leadership of Tito) exhibited an independent communist movement from the very beginning and refused to fall into the Soviet orbit.

·       Albania: Similarly, the National Liberation Front led by Enver Hoxha seized power by its own strength on November 29, 1944. Initially allied with the Soviets, Albania eventually opposed this hegemony and completely broke away from the Soviet Union in 1961.

The other Eastern European countries, apart from these two exceptions, faced direct Soviet intervention (such as tanks rolling into the streets) at the slightest attempt at independence.

Up to this point, we have talked about what the concept of the Cold War means, the general characteristics of the era, the post-war devastation, and how that famous bipolar world (US-USSR) was separated by sharp lines. In other words, we have made quite a “hot” and solid entry into that tense and long Cold War era!

Now, we are moving on to the First Phase of this massive period (1947-1950s). But don't worry; without getting bogged down in details and endless diplomatic crises, we will continue on our way by briefly touching only upon those most critical turning points that changed the fate of the world.

Stephen Grosz's Love's Labour: What was love?

After a long break, this is actually the first book I have read outside my own academic field. I discovered it through an Instagram account I really enjoy following, @artindetaill, and decided to give it a try. In the past, I had read and written about psychoanalytic literary theory, but to be honest, this is the first time I have read a book written by a psychoanalyst.

When I write about a book, I usually care more about its content than its language. So when I picked up a non-fiction book written by a psychoanalyst, I naturally expected a heavy, academic style of writing. Grosz surprised me completely. His language is simple, smooth, and easy for anyone to understand. Maybe this is actually the real strength of the book: Grosz takes complex psychological ideas out of the heavy atmosphere of the therapy room and turns them into familiar stories, stories that feel close to our own everyday lives.

The book is built on real human stories taken from the author’s own clinical experience and life. As you read each case, you feel that Grosz has probably changed only the names, following the rules of patient confidentiality, while the psychological journeys themselves remain completely real.

The book is made up of independent chapters, and in each one, we witness a different, striking story. Yet behind all these different lives, the author always returns to the same central theme: Love.

Three stories in Grosz’s book affect us the most. The first is about Sophie, who can not bring herself to send out her wedding invitations just before her marriage. In therapy, we learn that Sophie is actually afraid building a new life will destroy the tightly bonded family she grew up in. In other words, she cannot let go of her past.

The second is Ravi, a man who develops impossible delusions that his wife is cheating on him. His unhealthy jealousy is not really about his wife at all. It is a shield, one that hides fear of abandonment from his childhood and protects him from real emotional closeness.

The third story is Kate, who crosses boundaries with both her uncle and her boss, and who eventually steals. From the outside, Kate looks simply guilty. But what she is truly searching for is not sexual pleasure. It is something much deeper: an “impossible mother’s love” that could finally fill the huge emptiness left by her mother’s rejection in childhood.

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To be honest, the part of the book that affected me the most, and the part I want to focus on here, is Sophie's story. It really shows that we do not have to live through someone else’s experience to understand it. What Grosz tells us through Sophie feels like a mirror of something almost all of us go through at some point in life: those unnamed hesitations, those quiet fears we can not fully explain, even to ourselves. 

Of course, I am not a psychoanalyst, so I cannot speak with the authority to explore the deep psychological layers of this story. As a reader, I simply want to focus on the impression it left on me and the lesson I personally took from it. Sophie’s story made me ask myself some powerful questions about marriage and love: Is love alone enough to get married? Is love something we need to work on, something that requires effort or is it supposed to grow naturally, on its own, between two people? And if love does require effort, is it still pure love, or does it slowly turn into something else? These are questions that, once you start thinking about them, are hard to let go of.

I want to end this blog with one of Stephen Grosz’s words: “When we cannot find a way to tell our own story, our story finds a way to tell itself to us by entering our dreams, turning into symptoms, or making us act in ways we cannot explain.”

The Pearl by Steinbeck: When Hope Becomes Destruction

John Steinbeck is often known for his short, simple, and powerful writing style. But for me, he is much more than a “quiet” author. Steinbeck does not hide behind fiction. Instead, he shows us the raw and uncomfortable truths of life, and while reading his words, we almost always find a piece of our own story somewhere between the lines. This is exactly what happens in The Pearl, just as it does in Of Mice and Men. After a long break from writing book reviews, it was this very quality, life itself, living inside literature, that brought me back to the keyboard.

We all have certain goals in life that we hold on to very tightly. We chase them because we believe they will save us that they will end all our problems and finally bring us the happiness we deserve. But life has a cruel irony: the shining things we sacrifice everything for, the goals we blindly trust to be “the best” for us, can sometimes become the very source of our destruction. They can be a quiet poison, slowly preparing our end. This is exactly what The Pearl forces us to face. As we turn its pages, we are actually tracing the false pearls and tragic mistakes in our own lives.

At the very beginning of the story, we witness the simple but peaceful life of Kino and his family. They wake up to the sound of the waves. They have very little, but they have love, trust, and a deep connection with nature. There is a quiet happiness in their world.

Then the pearl arrives…

At first, the pearl shines like pure hope in Kino’s hands. It feels like the answer to everything, an escape from poverty, a bright future for his baby Coyotito, a chance for a better life. But this does not last long. Very quickly, that shining surface begins to change. The pearl slowly turns into something darker: an obsession, a growing paranoia, a blind ambition that destroys the very things Kino is trying to protect.

This is one of Steinbeck’s most powerful lessons. The things we hold on to the most, the “pearls” we believe will save us, can quietly corrupt the purest and most human parts of who we are. We do not always notice it happening. And that is exactly what makes it so dangerous.

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While reading these pages, I am sure that your own “pearls” came to mind too. Those goals we chase desperately, believing they will rescue us from the life we have, the life we think is not enough, or even bad. We tell ourselves: when I get that pearl, everything will be different. All my problems will end. My life will finally become what it is supposed to be.

But sometimes we miss the most important truth: how do we know that the “wrong side” of our life is not actually better than the "right side"? As Rumi's companion Shams of Tabriz once suggested, what we call upside down may in fact be the truer way up. Kino falls into exactly this painful illusion. The moment the pearl lands in his hands, he sees the collapse of his poor but loving, peaceful life as a great liberation. The blind ambition that was supposed to save him takes over his soul so completely that he becomes an entirely different person. He destroys the very family he was dreaming of saving. The pearl is no longer a door to hope. It becomes a dark outline, one that quietly writes his own end.

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In the shocking final pages of the story, Kino and Juana return to the village. But they are no longer the same quiet, peaceful people they once were. They have paid the heaviest price for their ambition, for the destructive battle they fought trying to turn that pearl into something real. And so, they throw it back. The cursed pearl returns to the dark waters of the sea, to the same place where it all began.

The real tragedy, I believe, does not begin when we finally get the opportunity we have always dreamed of. It begins when we start trying to use it, when we try to turn that dream into something concrete, something profitable.

When Kino pulled the pearl from the sea, he had found only a possibility. But the moment he went to the town to sell it, to build a future from it, he crashed into the walls of a system built on greed, and into the walls of his own blind ambition.

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Is our own life really so different?

Getting into university, landing the job we always wanted, launching a project we believed in, these are simply the pearls we pull up from the bottom of the sea. But as we try to “cash in” on those pearls, we rarely notice how the competition, the stress, the changing faces around us, and our own hunger for success are slowly wearing us down. We run toward the goal. We grow tired. We change. And sometimes, like Kino, we lose the people and things we valued most along the way.

When we finally arrive, when the goal is reached, what remains in our hands? The wounds left by that exhausting journey, and one quiet question:

Was it really worth it?

A World Reborn: The New Order After World War II and the Dawn of the Cold War (part v)

When the six-year-long World War II, which literally turned the world into ruins, finally came to an end, it left behind destroyed cities as well as a brand-new world where borders, ideologies, and balances of power were completely altered.

When the six-year-long World War II finally came to an end, it left behind destroyed cities as well as a brand-new world with completely altered borders, ideologies, and power balances. As oppressive totalitarian regimes like Nazism and Fascism were swept into the dustbin of history, democracy gained massive momentum worldwide. Germany, having lost the war, was split into “East” and “West” by the Allies, becoming the greatest symbol of the approaching new era. Taking advantage of the weakening of war-torn European states, many colonial countries ignited their independence struggles, while the old multipolar world order was replaced by a bipolar world centred around the USA and the Soviet Union (USSR).

With the establishment of NATO in 1949 against Soviet expansionism and the USSR’s response with the Warsaw Pact in 1955, the world plunged into the long Cold War Era, a time devoid of hot conflicts but under constant nuclear threat. As humanity irreversibly stepped into the nuclear age with the first use of the atomic bomb, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established by 45 countries to rebuild the global economy. The horrific crimes against humanity committed during the war were legally recognized as “genocide” for the first time, and with the convention adopted in 1948, these crimes formed the foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

After the League of Nations failed to protect the world from a new war, a much stronger organization, the United Nations (UN), was established in 1945. Tasked with maintaining post-war peace and order, the UN consists of main organs with distinct functions. The General Assembly, where all member states are represented with an equal vote, serves as the core decision-making unit, while the Security Council, where the USA, Britain, China, France, and Russia are permanent members with veto power, acts as the executive branch. The organization's other fundamental pillars include the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice comprising 15 judges, the Trusteeship Council overseeing non-self-governing territories, and the Secretariat providing the administrative infrastructure. 

The UN has resolved political crises as well as established a massive global network reaching from education and health to agriculture and refugee issues through dozens of specialized agencies like FAO, WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, and the ILO, as well as peacekeeping forces deployed across various regions of the world.

We have reached the end of that great catastrophe, World War II, which we have been tracing step by step on series for weeks; as we leave behind the dictatorships born from the despair of the Great Depression, the betrayals at diplomatic tables, the tank treads crushing Europe, and the terrifying nuclear mushroom clouds, we witness a world emerging from the rubble to enter a brand-new phase controlled by two colossal superpowers. The silencing of the guns did not mean the war was completely over; it had changed form, shifting from a world where armies clashed on front lines to a sinister era where spies fought in the shadows, the space race tore through the skies.

In the next stop of our series, we will step into the Cold War years, a silent, profound, and massive game of chess stretching from the Truman Doctrine to the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis, until then, stay in peace!

From Casablanca to Potsdam: The Conferences That Shaped the Post-War (part ıv)

As millions of soldiers fought on the front lines, the true fate of the world was being determined at those tense diplomatic tables stretching from Casablanca to Yalta and from Tehran to Potsdam. If you are ready, we are stepping behind the scenes of those historic conferences where the seeds of peace (and the ensuing silent Cold War) were sown.

Casablanca Conference, January 14-24, 1943.

Casablanca Conference (January 1943)

The leaders of the US and Britain announced to the world that the war would only end with the “unconditional surrender” of Germany, Italy, and Japan. This uncompromising decision would later be criticized for prolonging the war. It was also decided to attack Italy (Sicily) to relieve pressure on the Soviets and to make preparations to draw Turkey into the war.

Washington and Quebec Conferences (May - August 1943)

The location of the second front was a massive point of contention. Although British Prime Minister Churchill insisted on opening the front in the Balkans via Turkey, the US successfully pushed for the front to be opened on the Normandy coast of France.

Tehran Conference (November 1943)

The “Big Three” (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin) met for the first time. The date for the Normandy Landings (May 1944) was finalized, and the necessity of a global organization to maintain post-war peace was approved at the highest level for the first time.

Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill at the conference on 25 November 1943

Moscow and Cairo Conferences (October - November 1943)

In Moscow, the trial of war criminals (the foundation of the Nuremberg Trials) was decided, while in Cairo, the fate of the Far East, the expulsion of Japan from its colonies, and the independence of Korea were discussed.

Second Moscow Conference (October 1944)

One of the darkest bargains of the war took place here. Churchill and Stalin practically divided the Balkans into percentages on a piece of paper (e.g., Romania and Bulgaria were largely left to Soviet influence, while Greece was conceded to the British sphere).

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.

Yalta Conference (February 1945)

It was decided to divide Germany into four occupation zones and to jointly administer Berlin. A condition was set for the soon-to-be-established United Nations (UN): those who declared war on the Axis powers by March 1, 1945, would become founding members. Following this strategic decision, Turkey symbolically declared war on Germany and Japan just shortly before the war ended.

San Francisco Conference (June 1945)

The United Nations was officially founded with the participation of 51 nations, including Turkey. The most critical decision was granting permanent “veto power” in the UN Security Council to the US, Britain, the USSR, China, and France.

Potsdam Conference (July - August 1945)

This was the final major gathering of the Allies. The focus was not on how to end the war, but on how to manage the peace. The complete eradication of Nazi institutions, the trial of war criminals, and the demilitarization of Germany were finalized.

Paris Peace Treaties (February 1947)

Symbolizing the legal end of the war, this series of treaties redrew the borders of the defeated nations (Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland). Under this framework, Italy was forced to cede Kastellorizo (Meis) and the Dodecanese Islands to Greece.

Canadian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference

But what was the ultimate toll of this six-year nightmare that forced humanity to pay the heaviest price it had ever seen? In the next stage of our series, we will examine the political, economic, and social consequences World War II left behind; and take a closer look at the United Nations, founded to protect global peace, along with its specialized agencies that continue to shape today’s world.

From Normandy to Hiroshima: The Allied Victory and the End of World War II (part III)

From Pearl Harbour to Normandy, from the deserts of North Africa to the ruins of Berlin, the final act of the Second World War was a relentless Allied advance that left no corner of the Axis empire untouched. Without losing momentum, we continue where we left off, for while Europe lay in ruins, the war in the Pacific was far from over.

US Entry into the War: The Atlantic Charter

The day after the Pearl Harbour attack, on December 8, 1941, the US officially entered the war. America, which had initially remained neutral and only provided military supplies to Britain through the "Lend-Lease Act," was now on the battlefield with its entire industrial might.

However, just before the US physically entered the war, on August 14, 1941, British Prime Minister Churchill and US President Roosevelt published the Atlantic Charter, which would change the course of history. This charter promised that no territories would be gained after the war, that nations would determine their own destinies (self-determination), freedom of trade on the high seas, and total disarmament. The Atlantic Charter was the first and strongest foundation of the United Nations (UN) organization that would be established after the war.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Atlantic Conference

The Fall of North Africa and Italy

As the tide of the war began to turn in favour of the Allies, the first major counter-offensive against the German war machine took place in North Africa. A massive force of 100,000 British and US troops, commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, made a successful landing on the coasts of Morocco and Algeria. Although strong German reinforcements brought in via the Mediterranean by air and sea put up a fierce resistance in Tunisia, the Axis forces were completely crushed in North Africa by May 1943 after gruelling battles.

Without losing momentum, the Allies attacked what they saw as the “soft underbelly of Europe”, Italy (via Sicily), in July 1943. This heavy blow and relentless bombing brought an end to the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. With Italy’s unconditional surrender in September and the capture of its fleet at Malta, the Germans were forced to enter the peninsula to protect their southern borders and defend their former ally's territory, bringing them face-to-face with the Allies.

The British army in North Africa, 1942

The Liberation of Europe: The Historic Normandy Landings

Following North Africa and Italy, preparations began for a “Second Front” of unprecedented scale to completely liberate Europe from Nazi occupation. In May 1944, a massive armada of 4,000 ships and landing craft was prepared for the US, British, and Canadian troops gathered in southern England. While the Germans, deceived by false intelligence, expected the attack to come from the Strait of Dover (Calais), the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces, General Eisenhower, gave the historic order: The target was the Normandy coast, located between Cherbourg and Le Havre.

On the morning of June 6, 1944 (D-Day), the largest amphibious operation in history began, involving paratroopers, heavy bombers, and thousands of soldiers. Shattering the German defence lines and driving relentlessly west across Northern France, the Allies liberated Paris on August 25, 1944, tearing the Nazi shadow away from France.

Into the Jaws of Death: men of the 16th Infantry Regiment wade ashore on Omaha Beach

The Fall of the Third Reich and the Surrender of Germany

Following the liberation of France and the Allied advance in Italy (the capture of Florence in August 1944 and the breaching of the Pisa-Rimini defence line), Germany was literally trapped.

By April 1945, as Allied armies crossed the Po River and advanced toward the Alps, Soviet armies simultaneously encircled Berlin from the east. Adolf Hitler, the man who set the whole world on fire, committed suicide in his bunker in his ruined capital, leaving his position to Admiral Karl Doenitz. Shortly after, with the official fall of Berlin on May 2, 1945, Germany hoisted the white flag, and the bloody war that had left Europe in ruins finally came to an end on the continent.

Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)

When the Sun Went Dark: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On the morning of August 6, 1945, at exactly 8:15 AM, an American bomber named “Enola Gay” dropped the first atomic bomb, dubbed “Little Boy,” over the skies of Hiroshima. Within seconds, 60% of the city was wiped off the map. While 140,000 people lost their lives initially, this number reached 230,000 in the following years due to the invisible and deadly effects of radiation.

While the world was still reeling from this shock, just three days later, on August 9, 1945, at 12:02 PM, Nagasaki was targeted. A plutonium bomb named “Fat Man,” possessing the power of a massive 21 kilotons of TNT, instantly turned 75,000 people to ashes. Over the next five years, just as many people died in agony from radiation poisoning or were left permanently disabled.

Japan had no strength left to resist. With Japan’s unconditional surrender on September 2, 1945, World War II, which had cost millions of lives, redrawn borders, and left the world in ruins, officially and definitively came to an end.

World War II had ended, but the world it left behind was unrecognisable. Now came the harder question: what next? In our next chapter, we look at the conferences that tried to answer it and the fragile peace they attempted to build.