What’s so important about this is what happened after the war. The colonial troops were mustered mostly by Britain & France promising to leave their colonies and allow self-determination once the war was won. India in particular, though Britain didn’t exactly give up the Sub-continent in record time after the war was over. France too didn’t give up Indochina (aka Vietnam) for even longer.
Colonialism in general was pretty much dead after WWII. Given the principles that the Allies said they were fighting for (democracy, freedom etc.) it was kind of self-evident. In Asia especially, Japan’s colonizations of China, Korea, Manchuria, The Philippines etc. was long, savage, brutal, and outright murderous. It’s worth noting that as bad as the Nazis were, Japan killed upwards of 30 million civilians in their decades long holocaust.
Of course having Britain & France no longer be world powers, replaced by the US & USSR as superpowers, you could say that colonialism simply took on a new ‘look’ in the Cold War…
This. And in addition, the fact that the Allied colonial powers in Europe, though ultimately victorious in WWII, were quite exhausted militarily and economically (Britain and France, mainly, to be specific). They simply didn’t have quite the might any more to hang on to their world-wide colonies, which began a mass migration towards independence in the 1950’s and 1960’s in large part, because they could.
According to Lord Haw-Haw, New Zealand’s South Island was captured by a lone gunman, Stanley Graham, announcing that Hitler had sent him a telegram: “Hold the South Island. Sending another man to take the North Island”
Well, deep in Africa’s Belgian Congo (as it was named then) there was a Uranium mine. Which was important only to a few University research labs. Until something called the Manhattan Project came along. Then the US wanted to buy to buy all of the uranium, and wanted a greatly increased production. But they couldn’t let the Axis know that it the US suddenly considered this a vitally important material, and wanted much more of it. And didn’t want any going to Axis countries. But couldn’t alert them that this was now considered a vital raw material by suddenly cutting off shipments to the Axis.
So there was suddenly a lot of people concerned with this one rather obscure mine in central Africa.
Note: it’s still unclear if the uranium used in the 3 WWII nuclear bombs came from Africa, or the Eldorado min in Canada, or maybe both.
Um, gotta disagree there. Having to fight Hitler (for their very survival as a people) is what made the USSR into a superpower. They were definitely not when the war began and the desperate times it caused gave Stalin a free hand to use desperate measures to become one. In spades…
Well, let’s see. The major theaters of the war, ones where there were large forces mustering, transiting, or engaged in battle:
Europe
Asia
East Asia
Southeast Asia
Africa
Middle East
Atlantic
Pacific
Mediterranean
Caribbean
Baltic
Black Sea
Arctic Ocean
Indian Ocean
North America
Australia
So I guess we’re talking about, what, South America?
German nationals throughout South America were quietly rounded up by US intelligence at the outset of American involvement. This had a small but pervasive effect on the continent.
Speaking of that neighborhood, the Allied occupation of Iran to secure a Lend-Lease route into the USSR led to a cascade of consequences which still haunt us today – it’s probably as much a cause of Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons as any other single thing (the fear that it could happen again if they don’t have a deterrent).
That’s pretty much what I was thinking when I wrote the OP, although I didn’t end up including it… seems like the one region of the world where the average inhabitant maybe wasn’t all that affected by the war while it was in progress. But I figure there might be other such places, perhaps in Africa, or West and Central Asia (Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet?).
Mongolia was involved in fighting the Japanese, and was used as a jumping off point for the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. Nepal fought alongside the British and Indians in Burma, and there were Ghurka units involved in other theatres. Tibet was neutral during WWII.
I was giving it some thought yesterday, and I think the only place where you can say the War had the mininum effect is probably Central and South America- ignoring Brazil which fought in Italy and who’s navy was active through the whole thing, and Mexico who sent troops to the Philippines iirc. The vast majority of countries there sat out the war until the very end, and only declared war to receive US aid. Even then countries on the Gulf Coast would have been subject to U-Boat interdiction.
In the Irish Free State it was called the Emergency. Irish neutrality hampered Britain’s ability to deal with the U-Boat threat and Ireland was urged to enter the war but DeValera was adamant the country would remain neutral.
Dublin’s North Strand was bombed by the Germans and quite a number of other German bombs fell on the country. This was nothing compared to what Britain and Northern Ireland received and seems to have been down to pilot error.
Dublin and the rest of the Free State didn’t observe full blackouts and it seems the lights of our cities and towns were used as a guide to find Belfast (in the UK so not neutral) which sustained heavy bombing and a huge amount of casualties. Emergency services from the South were sent north to help in the aftermath of the blitz.
British and German airmen and seamen found in the Free State were interned for the duration in the Curragh. Ireland had a repatriation agreement with the US so American military personnel found here were sent home. Here’s the peculiar story of one American pilot who got caught up in the diplomacy of the time.
Because Ireland had a small merchant marine, largely relying on foreign ships to carry imports and exports there were quite a few shortages and international trade here as most other places was disrupted. Especially of products like tea from Asia. We also had the Glimmermen who made sure natural gas wasn’t wasted. They’re still a source of folklore.
There was some support for Germany among Irish people. My enemy’s enemy is my friend. I have a recording of a folk song from 1940 that describes how Hitler will be king of Europe.
Irish people always migrated to Britain but during the war a huge amount went and worked in construction and essential services in Britain partly to replace men who had been conscripted.
Further to my post. It seems the British government offered a possible end to partition as a sweetener to throw in the Free State’s lot with the Allies. However, it would have required agreement from Stormont which DeValera knew wouldn’t be on the cards.
There was, so I have heard, a great deal of apprehension in New Zealand over the prospect of a Japanese invasion. NZ, of course had declared war along with Britain in 1939 and the NZ fighting forces were mostly far away in Europe leaving the islands vulnerable. The population was not large, and the home guard would probably have been incapable of withstanding a full-on invasion.
There were some New Zealand forces (mostly airmen, I believe) fighting alongside the Americans in the South Pacific. It is said that these men fought with an almost fanatical ferocity, knowing as they did that if the Japanese advances were not halted their homeland would soon be overrun. And the Japanese atrocities upon Pacific Islanders were well known. North Americans, who were never in much danger of a large-scale invasion may not fully appreciate the cloud that many others lived under for a time.
SS
