Economic Origins of World War II History Essay Example

It’s important to discuss the economic origins of World War II, where there was conflict stretching back to the early 1930s, particularly the attempt by Japan to colonize China in order to expand its economic opportunities. Therefore, its best to start with the Great Depression, which was the near complete breakdown of the capitalistic, so-called free trade system, where protectionist measures, such as high tariffs, led to a trade war for cheap labor, markets, and resources. I mention this section of the world because of the relative position of US interests in the Pacific region, and this is exemplified by the US essentially colonizing the Philippines at the beginning of the 20th century.

In this historical context, the late entrance of US troops into the endless slaughter of World War I, where their involvement was justified through appeals to humanitarian sentiments and the US President’s explanation of the country’s new role as an imperial power alongside the other European imperialists. With that in mind, the example of the declining power of the UK is that they had their own industries which were lagging behind the German ones, and the output of the latter was less than its potential due to the unfavorable outcome of the Treaty of Versailles on the former at the end of WWI. All this underscored that the world's economies had increasingly become integrated, as each sought to secure a hegemonic position against its rivals. But, as we have seen, one of the major lessons of the world wars is that no one country can rule the world, and that is still the case today, irregardless of the ambitions of the US ruling elites.

The UK sought help against the Nazi German war machine, which was supplied by the advanced manufacturing industries of the latter, which were outproducing the British, who, at the time, were the last European power left unconquered. The UK sought direct US involvement due to the latter's potential industrial output tipping the scales in their favor, and had an enormous sense of relief that stemmed from the Japanese attack on the US at Pearl Harbor that drew the US into the war.

The US had become an even larger industrial powerhouse in the period between the capitalist world wars and it sought to gain economic influence in the competition between national entities for sources of raw materials for their manufacturing concerns and markets to export the excess goods that were being produced as processes gained in productivity through insights gained from scientific analysis. An example would be the advances made in the auto industry. Moreover, each country wanted to develop its own auto industry and made efforts to foster that industry through subsidized research and development, sites for factories, protection from foreign competition, and securing access to natural resources such as rubber, steel, and oil.

The research essay I am currently writing deals directly with how the US government stripped Americans of their basic rights and freedom in order to suppress any dissent to their overall long-term strategic plans, which the Alien Registration Act, or Smith Act, of 1940, signed into law by the liberal Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was in preparation for the conflict to protect US ruling elite interests. This was also a response to working class anti-war sentiments and its potential organization to overthrow the economic system, which was in an existential crisis, as the example of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was suspended like the proverbial "sword of Damocles" over the wealthy ruling elites' heads.

Also, there is the example of the US ruling classes' eschewing of their principles enshrined in the foundational documents of the country, which was the interment of Americans of Japanese descent into concentration camps, with the bogus explanation that was a wartime exigency. However, as we have learned, one of the major problems of American history has been that the majority of the population has been essentially disenfranchised by the wealthy ruling elite, so attempts at reform of the capitalistic economic system, a system that inevitably leads to a totalitarian fascistic endpoint, as exemplified by the Axis of Italy, Germany, and Japan, reveal the ever present threat of fascism to the working class.