Every crisis presents an opportunity. It has been 75 years since world war 2 ended, and many things happened after that.
Instead of being political about the school of thoughts on capitalism and communism that dictated the governments after 1945, let’s talk about the opportunities that resulted before and after the deadly war.
Innovation
Necessity is the mother of invention. If there was no war happening, there wouldn’t be many technological advancements which we are happy to indulge in today. The fear of loss of lives, slavery of children, and rapes of their women faced by every leader made his country to concentrate on technological advancements to win the war at any possible cost.
The modernization of warfare became deadlier, with advanced weapons and nuclear technologies. There was only twenty years gap between the first and second world wars, but several things ranging from the design of tanks to infantry movements changed drastically within this short period.
A peculiar observation which many scientists and historians put forward is that only during the events of a war or a pandemic, the urgency would be created for many innovations.
BMW and Mercedes supplied tanks and lorries to Hitler’s forces. The German automobile technology’s prowess can be sometimes attributed to the urgency and necessity created by Hitler.
Algorithms, artificial intelligence and general computing were developed by Alan Turing and his team to decode the German messages during the war. This specific necessity to save thousands of British lives resulted in a machine and a concept called a computer that would go on to revolutionize the technology of the modern world.
Fighter jets, helicopters, missiles, nuclear submarines and many more.
Decades later, came the cold war,9/11 and the war on terror. The invention of satellites, video calls, smartphones, messaging, GPS, wireless communications are the result of the hard work done by the defense labs of many countries to be ahead of their enemies and to protect from any invasion. Even if the intention was to protect the country from enemies, all these inventions were refined and developed later to become the part and parcel of our life. We can’t imagine a day without them today.
Resurrection
It is a bit emotional for every country to stand again after getting thrashed. Germany and Japan should be lauded for their sudden and calculated rise from the ashes of second world war. Both countries committed several atrocities during the war and were responsible for millions of deaths. They have paid the price for it after losing the war in the form of heavy reparations, loss of their soldiers, void in leadership, poverty and bifurcation. But none of these atoning phenomena stopped them from innovation and development.
Germans still had the expertise and technology, but no capital. In one way or the other, the policies of their leaders and other European dependencies throttled its economy. Today Germany is the most powerful country in the European Union dictating the EU policies.
The horrors of war and loss of lives made every European country to choose between becoming a powerful state or becoming a safe and happy state. Their choices have resulted in a welfare economy with huge taxes, almost free education and health care.
It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. – Rocky Balboa.
China and India although didn’t have any desire to participate in the war, the British colonial masters forced them to involve in the war. Once being rich and plundered for two centuries by European colonialism, India after independence never looked back in development. Our demographic and economic indicators show a promising picture. Though India’s progress cannot be put on par with Germany or China, India at least gained a foothold in few sectors to be in a position not to be taken for granted.
During the times of distress and to save ourselves, innovation becomes inevitable, but resurrection always remains a hard choice. Only the brave choose it.
Corona Virus
It has been only three months since the name Corona was heard by us, but the destruction it did to us is too large to calculate. The economic disaster today can be compared with the aftermath of the second world war. Governments have started saying that we have to learn to live with the virus.
The race for vaccine started and several innovative products came before us within weeks to combat the virus. The significance for health care, hygiene, immunity started ringing bells to us.
Ecommerce, cloud technologies, and work from home have become the talk of the industry. Rapid changes are bound to occur after the situation comes under control.
Like every crisis presents an opportunity, we are rethinking our business methods. Every country is striving to innovate now, and equally trying to resurrect, but time would eventually tell how far have we strengthened ourselves to stand firm for another blow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirtschaftswunder#West_Germany
https://www.ndia.org/policy/recent-posts/2019/10/17/defense-industry-at-the-heart-of-innovation
https://www.histclo.com/country/ger/chron/20/pw/dec/1950/gem.html
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