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With up to 85 million people killed, battles all around the globe, and a need for power coming from everywhere, we often know the second world war as the most destructive war in history. Brave men, women, and children took part in the struggle, making a direct impact on the time ahead. Despite the public’s negative views on this event and its consequences, we can find that this war had a positive influence on the future, making us more understanding and advanced. The biggest impact that presented itself from this event was the formation of the United Nations, an intergovernmental organization focusing on keeping peace and security for all beings on the planet. This organization has led to decolonization, which let colonies gain their independence and make their own decisions. Its formation has also helped bring peace between all continents, and it has maintained this peace for many years. Additionally, the establishment of the United Nations has proven the existence of human rights and has offered freedom of expression for all. And although some may say that advances in technology are the best - and main - impact of the second world war, we can prove that this is wrong due to how obvious it is that humans subsequently grow, no matter what, and even if the war had not occurred, technology would still have advanced.
The United Nations brought a very important impact on the world, and that was decolonization. This is the process in which colonies become independent of their settlers which can be done with violence, or, as it was in the case of the United Nations, with peace and agreements. These decolonizations brought to positive agreements that are economic freedom and use of resources, as well as cultural liberty. Despite this, there were (and still are) some negative effects of decolonization, such as political and economic instability. One of the greatest effects of decolonization in multiple countries is economic freedom for all. This means that a country’s choices concerning money and all of their resourceful materials are made by them, and they are not pushed or assisted by someone from the outside who could potentially be ignoring the population’s needs and only be looking at their necessities. And although they may be advancing and growing a little slower than other communities, decolonized countries are still extending their resources and economy. A Tennessee article shares that “Growth has been present throughout Africa, with over ⅓ of the population posting 6% and higher growth rates, and another 40% growing between 4% to 6% per year” (Tennessee, n.d). Decolonization was beneficial as it led to the allowance for countries to use their natural resources for their benefit. In the past, colonies had to let their colonizers do what they wished for with natural resources. Most of the time, it would be exporting and local populations would barely get to taste their home products. But later, they could get involved with other countries while keeping their resources, and no one stopped them because ‘it was a bad idea’ or ‘money was more important to focus on’. It is disappointing to know that many African countries are still exploited, being paid less than they should, and deprived of getting their independence. Research from StudyData proves that “The history of colonization reveals that rich resources in colonies were the principal attractions for the foreign invaders. It was primarily the higher level of technological development of the imperial powers that helped them exploit the resources of the colonies” (StudyData, 2018). This proves that resources were one of the principal reasons for which colonies existed and caring about the original population didn’t even matter to colonizers. Another impact of decolonization is the growth of cultural beliefs for freed colonies. This means that after colonizers left, they were able to have their own celebrations, flags, anthems, and communication methods without having to think of how colonizers would see what they were doing. An article states how “One of the main disadvantages of colonization is the loss of culture” (Study Lecture Notes, n.d). This proves that when a country becomes colonized, they have to adapt to their colonizer’s cultures and religions while leaving their own. And, despite the many good effects of decolonization, there are definitely some problems because of it. Today, many countries continue to struggle with their economy. As an example, Nigeria - an old colony of Britain - still has debts to pay back. For this reason, they export their oil, trying to make money off of it without realizing that they actually end up buying new oil that in the end, is more expensive. Overall, after the second world war, it can be argued that the biggest impact that occurred was the foundation of the United Nations. It cannot be proven that the decolonization it led to was only good but it did create cultural, economic, and psychological freedom for many.
A very important impact of the making of the United Nations was the fact of giving everyone a voice and a chance to express themselves. As many countries are part of the organization, the United Nations has decreased global deaths while preventing future conflicts, and it has stopped inter-state wars that could bring economic decreases. And although it is true that you can never be sure of this peace staying, the United Nations have helped a lot in these situations. One of the most significant impacts of the peacekeeping alliances is that global deaths have decreased ever since its creation. In the past 60 years, the world population has highly increased with lower loss rates due to the United Nations but also because of the creation of medicine, sanitation, and other resources. Mortality rates went down as the United Nations permitted more people to have access to safe medicine. When people start getting better healthcare and access to it, they don’t pass away as much. Additionally, as some parts of the United Nations such as UNICEF distribute vaccines around the world, this offers for people to live a longer life, the opposite of how it was during the second world war when these technologies had not advanced yet, causing people to often die because of young age diseases that didn’t have specific treatments (This was the case with Malaria, for example). Furthermore, as the UN has been offering access to safe water and food to many more people, fewer infants have been dying of low weight. The decrease of poverty in recently decolonized countries also benefits them often. “Egypt decreased under-five mortality by 75 percent and maternal mortality by 69 percent… Ethiopia has achieved a 47 percent drop in under-five mortality since 2000, associated with interventions to treat the most important causes of child mortality, such as immunizations and quality care at birth and improved socioeconomic conditions” (PMNCH, 2021). A second positive impact of the foundation of this organization is the end of wars. This means that fights between countries stopped which highly benefited both sides. The end of wars between them also meant the direct end of economic decreases which is good as less money would have led to public debt, inflation, and the need to spend more for the military. The end of interwars stops long-term economic problems such as education, infrastructure, and government productivity which would all slowly be less rich in resources. Studies show that “Effects of wars include reduced GDP growth, a less predictable economy, higher levels of unemployment, lower levels of foreign direct investment and higher interest and inflation” (Vision of Humanity, n.d). The majority of the time, it is known that conflicts occur in less developed countries and poorer environments. In these situations, the United Nations can come and help with the goal of stopping economical crises that could potentially lead to wars. Despite this, there are occasions when the UN was unsuccessful in trying to stop a war. They could’ve been too late, or their peacekeeping methods were simply overused. As an example, “In 1994, they were unsuccessful in stopping the Rwanda battle, and multiple times, they have been accused of purposefully having stayed out of wars” (Gainesville). “The failure of the UN peacekeeping mission also caused about 500,000 civilian deaths in Somali” (TRT World, 2020). These errors occur but this does not mean the UN was always unsuccessful and the organization has still impacted the world. It is important to remember that those mistakes are events from which we can learn and improve. Summarizing, although there have been some failures, the United Nations is an intergovernmental organization that has led to peacekeeping all around the world, in order to prevent future conflicts, decrease global deaths and interwars, which has benefited us economically.
The growth of human rights - practiced by the United Nations - has permitted us to have access to a just and equal world. To contribute to equality and human rights, this organization created multiple movements based on helping beings around the planet. The foundation of a children’s rights team, UNICEF, as well as a development for gender equality group, UNIFEM, has been started to reach the goal of equality. Furthermore, the creation of UNESCO, an organization based on embracing education, culture, and science for all, the establishment of WHO, an institution looking at Public Health, and the start of WFP, a team that has been helping resolve hunger issues. The United Nations founding UNICEF is one of the most important improvements our world has seen in terms of children’s development. This organization has offered safe education for children, helped to meet basic needs in households, and offered children chances to reach their full potential. They have also helped with vaccination against diseases and safe and sanitary conditions for people to live in which helps lead to a better world for us, as humans to exploit our full potential. An article states “Since 1990, UNICEF's work has helped reduce the number of children under age 5 who die from preventable causes by 57 percent. Today, UNICEF vaccinates nearly half the world's children, saving 3 million lives every year.” (UNICEF USA, n.d). Another one of the United Nations’ objectives came with creating a feminist organization - named UNIFEM - to offer the same opportunities to all genders. When living in a male-dominated world, this aspect is important for many as they finally have access to resources that they might have been deprived of before. This aspect of the UN is simple as equality is only fair. Furthermore, among the benefits of women being allowed into the workforce, you can find many economic and social benefits such as open-mindedness and higher world economy rates. Thrive Global explains how “As women are more financially stronger and independent they will be able to fulfill their and their family member’s needs and desires which will impact the economic growth of the world” (Thrive Global, 2021). The creation of UNESCO brought more open-mindedness concerning education, culture, and science. This is important as a more educated society would mean an equal world with more discoveries and findings. Culturally open beings would benefit us as everyone would be happy with their identities and open to know more about others without judging them too early. It has also been proven that socially open people have better health and are less likely to harm themselves or others. University of The People demonstrates that “Those who get an education have higher incomes, have more opportunities in their lives, and tend to be healthier. Societies benefit as well. Societies with high rates of education completion have lower crime, better overall health, and civic involvement” (University of The People, n.d). WHO, the World Health Organization, also founded by the United Nations helps people stay safe, and analyzes data for scientists to create more effective medicine and vaccines. It helps countries focus more on human rights as when your health and social condition is better, the concern you have regarding other issues increases. When a country’s general health is better, their ability to focus and participate in helping human rights issues is better as well. And so good health means a good economy, and this means more donations coming from the population. WFP, also known as the World Food Programme was made by the United Nations to provide food for many countries devastated by wars and recent issues. BBC News explains that in Yemen, the WFP feeds 13 million people - almost half of Yemen's population - as the country grapples with civil war and endemic poverty. In South Sudan, The WFP says “Almost seven million people - 60% of the population - are struggling to find enough food to eat every day” (BBC News, 2020). Helping with famine is very important as “Hunger has a negative impact on health, productivity, overall well-being and sense of hope. Among other things, a lack of food can also stunt growth and contribute to developmental disabilities”. It is proved here that the most significant outcome of the second world war was the creation of the United Nations which has allowed women to be in more advanced and open-minded positions, children to have great resources and longer lives, and people overall to get access to education, science, food and sanitary conditions through organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNESCO, and WFP.
Many might say that the biggest impact of the second world war was not the foundation of the United Nations but instead new advances in technology. Although this is true, the creation of the UN was a more important consequence as technology would’ve happened anyway as humans always advance. Additionally, among the biggest technological advances that have occurred in the past decades, most of them didn’t happen after the second world war. Lastly, technology isn’t always a good resource - and so its creation could be considered as negative - as it can affect people’s mental health (using social media, for example) and physical health (for instance, nuclear bombs). Technological advances were not the biggest impacts following the second world war as even without the war, these changes would’ve occurred. This means that they would’ve happened more slowly but as it is part of humans’ natures to always grow, technology would’ve grown anyhow. How Stuff Works explains that “In general, wars tend to accelerate technological development to adapt tools for the purpose of solving specific - often military - needs” (HowStuffWorks, n.d). Which does show that wars tend to accelerate the process of technological development, but they are not the main reason why those happen. Furthermore, the second world war was not the one that changed technology the most as research proves that many of the technologies we use today occurred around the late seventies rather than during the late fifties - when the second world war happened. Lifewire talks about the most important technologies used today and says that “Personal computers didn't take off in the personal sense until Apple introduced the Apple II line of computers in 1977, and when launched in 1973, the Global Positioning System became fully operational in 1995. Similarly, The Internet started to exist in 1973, and Web browsers, as well as social media, weren’t fully developed before 1994” (Lifewire, 2017). Thirdly, although some might still argue that technology was the best and most beneficial impact on the second world war, it is known that they are not beneficial to humans in terms of smartphones and social media and that often, people have mental diseases related to them. Medical News Today shows that “In young adults aged 19–32 years, it is found that people with higher social media use were more than three times as likely to feel socially isolated than those who did not use social media as often” (Medical News Today, 2017). This shows that if social media is overused, it can cause poor posture (which is a physical issue!), sleep problems (as we sometimes use technology too much for our own good), low academic performance (especially in children), lack of creativity (for everyone in general), addiction to online activities (with overdoses), as well as depression and anxiety (which are often overlooked mental disabilities). Even more than technology affecting mental health, they can affect physical health too. Nuclear weapons - a technology developed during the war - can cause harm in people’s lives. These are non-renewable resources, they cause ethical concerns and health problems for many. They require testing, maintenance costs, and detonation which are all three very hard to access. “While being expensive, they produce ionizing radiation, which kills or sickens those exposed, contaminates the environment, and has long-term health consequences, including cancer and genetic damage”. (ICAN, n.d). Thus, advances in technology were not the main cause of the second world war as they didn’t occur directly after it, and even though they are very important, they can often be harmful and destructive. And, in general, it can be found that they would have happened even without the war, which once again, proves that the main consequence of the second world war was not advances in technology.
In conclusion, the second world war has brought many impacts upon our planet. One of the most important consequences was the foundation of the United Nations, a multi-governmental organization based on keeping peace and safety for all beings on the planet. While offering decolonization to many nations, this organization has also helped keep the peace between countries and has advocated for human rights. These effects of the organizations are, indeed, very beneficial although many times, the UN has proved they were unsuccessful in their missions and while their expenses are very high, they have failed lots of peacekeeping missions and have undemocratic methods. These aren’t only negative and can be considered as events that let us learn from the past. Additionally, although some may say that technological advances were the biggest impact after the second world war, this can be proven as wrong due to the nature of humans that is to always grow - and so, even if the war had not occurred, world technology would’ve increased nonetheless. Altogether, the second world war affected our planet economically and politically, positively and negatively, and its impacts will remain upon us for a very, very, long time.
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