World War II Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Home fronts and production=== {{Main|Military production during World War II|Home front during World War II}} {{Image frame | caption=Allies to Axis GDP ratio between 1938 and 1945 | content = {{Graph:Chart | width = 275 | height = 200 | type = line | xAxisTitle = Year | yAxisTitle = Allies GDP / Axis GDP | yAxisFormat = % | yAxisMin = 0.00 | x = 1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945 | y = 2.38,2.15,1.58,1.75,2.06,2.31,2.86,5.02 }} }} In the 1930s Britain and the United States of America together controlled almost 75% of world mineral output - essential for projecting military power.<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Leith |first1 = C. K. |author-link1 = Charles Kenneth Leith |title = The Struggle for Mineral Resources |url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/1021443 |journal = The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |publication-date = July 1939 |volume = 204, Democracy and the Americas |pages = 42β48 |jstor = 1021443 |quote = [...] mineral raw materials [...] are the basis of industrial power, and this in turn is the basis of military power. [...] England and the United States of America alone control economic proportions of nearly three-fourths of the world's production of minerals. Not less important, they control the seas over which the products must pass. |access-date = 26 January 2024 |archive-date = 26 January 2024 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240126024338/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1021443 |url-status = live }}</ref> In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); including colonies, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP.<ref name="6Econ3">{{Harvnb|Harrison|1998|p= 3}}.</ref> In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this reduces to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.<ref name="6Econ3" /> The United States produced about two-thirds of all munitions used by the Allies in World War II, including warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition.<ref>Compare: {{cite book |last1 = Wilson |first1 = Mark R. |title = Destructive Creation: American Business and the Winning of World War II |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AcqADAAAQBAJ |series = American Business, Politics, and Society |edition = reprint |location = Philadelphia |publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press |date = 2016 |page = 2 |isbn = 978-0-8122-9354-8 |access-date = 19 December 2019 |quote = By producing nearly two thirds of the munitions used by Allied forces β including huge numbers of aircraft, ships, tanks, trucks, rifles, artillery shells, and bombs β American industry became what President Franklin D. Roosevelt once called 'the arsenal of democracy' [...].|archive-date = 7 March 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230307201318/https://books.google.com/books?id=AcqADAAAQBAJ|url-status = live}}</ref> Though the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies and the war evolved into one of [[Attrition warfare|attrition]].<ref name="6Econ2">{{Harvnb|Harrison|1998|p=2}}.</ref> While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis was partly due to more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the [[Workforce |labour force]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Bernstein|1991|p= 267}}.</ref> Allied [[Strategic bombing during World War II|strategic bombing]],<ref>{{Cite book |last= Griffith |first= Charles |title= The Quest: Haywood Hansell and American Strategic Bombing in World War II|isbn= 978-1-58566-069-8|publisher= Diane Publishing|year= 1999 |page= 203}}</ref> and Germany's late shift to a [[war economy]]<ref>{{Harvnb|Overy|1994|p= 26}}.</ref> contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so.<ref>{{Harvnb|BBSU|1998|p= 84}}; {{Harvnb|Lindberg|Todd|2001|p= 126}}.</ref> To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of [[Slavery |slave labourers]];<ref>{{Cite book |last= Unidas |first= Naciones |title= World Economic And Social Survey 2004: International Migration |page= 23 |publisher= United Nations Pubns |year= 2005 |isbn= 978-92-1-109147-2}}</ref> [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|Germany enslaved]] about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe,<ref name="compensation" /> while [[Slavery in Japan|Japan used]] more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.<ref name="zhifen2002" /><ref name="indonesiaww2" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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