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.