There had been an immense destruction of lives, homes, industries and communications both in Europe and Asia. At least 30 million people were killed with over half of them Russians. 21 million people were left homeless, as many had been taken to Germany as laborers placed in concentration camps or forced to flee before invading armies. This left the victorious government with the problem of sending these people to their country of birth or citizenship. However, it can be argued that the cost was worth it, since it rid the world of Nazism, which had committed much atrocities.

There was no all-inclusive peace settlement like the one reached at Versailles in World War 1. This was result of the emergence of suspicion between the West and USSR in the final months of the war. This also resulted in a number of treaties summarized briefly: Italy lost her African colonies and renounced her claims to Albania and Abyssinia; USSR took eastern tip of Czechoslovakia, area around Lake Ladoga and held on to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and eastern Poland. USSR also took Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from Rumania. Rumania recovered northern Transylvania, which the Hungarians occupied during the war. Trieste claimed by both Italy and Yugoslavia were declared free territory protected by the UN. In San Francisco 1951 (The treaty was signed six years after the end of WW2 because the allies carried out reconstruction (political, economic) in Japan before giving them independence.) Japan agreed to surrender all territory including China acquired during the last 90 years.

The war stimulated rapid social and scientific developments. Two examples being the Beveridge Report 1942 and the British plan of introducing a welfare state. The production of nuclear weapons, which have a potential so horrifying that they must have acted as a deterrent from another total war.

There were other long term effects which were to set the pattern of world events.

European domination of the world was now seen to be over. USA and Russia with China and Japan also playing an important role in world affairs.

The end of World War 2 was the outbreak of the Cold War. Instead of fostering a long period of friendship, the Soviet-American victory was followed by an intensification of their previous suspicious and distrust. Their rivalry had been the most important feature of international relations since 1945 and apparently a constant threat to world peace. As USSR feared for its security (it had been attacked 3 times from the West since 1910), they decided to build up an "Iron Curtain" in the form of countries in Eastern Europe. This is the reason why the satellization process was carried out. This was an important event, which stunned the world for USSR's domination of Eastern Europe ran from World War 2 through to the 1980s.

The Arms Race was sparked off as a result of the end of World War 2. This was significant in nuclear weapons and not conventional troops. An example of a crisis as a result of the Arms Race is the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. This tensed relations in the Cold War and made the Cold War colder.

European controlled territories (colonies) eventually achieve full independence. Examples of countries are Indo China, Malaya, Singapore, Africa and the Middle East. The leaders of these states met in Algiers (1973) and made it clear that they regarded themselves as a Third World. This meant they wished to remain neutral or non-aligned.

The UNO emerged as the successor to the League of Nations to try and maintain world peace; on the whole it has been more successful than its unfortunate predecessor has.