Balance of Power' in International Term Paper

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"In addition, Russia received the major part of the former duchy of Warsaw as the kingdom of Poland, with Alexander I as king; Prussia received West Prussia" ("Congress of Vienna," Encarta, 2008). The most significant development of the Congress was not simply the re-balancing of power but the new influence of larger nation-states or empires

Question

To some extent, Paul Kennedy's contention that the stronger economy in a war will invariably emerge the victor in the Rise and Fall of the Great Powers seems like a self-fulfilling prophesy if one only reviews the economic outcome of major wars. After all, by the end of a war, a likely victor will seem less economically depleted than the likely loser. But it is true that if a nation cannot feed its troops, mutiny or desertion is possible, and if it cannot feed the populace, the people will no longer support the government after a certain point, and merely focus on struggling to survive. A war effort reveals economic weaknesses in the nation's infrastructure, and an economy is not defined simply monetary wealth but also its wealth of national resources, technology, and the intelligence of its populace so that the nation can develop new technology and engage in effective military strategy.

Ultimately, that a stronger economy leads to strength in victory seems to be confirmed by America's dominance in World War I and World War II. America, partially because it entered World War I fairly late, had military might and fresh manpower to influence the final outcome, as well as substantial territory and popular will, bolstered by a relatively strong economy.

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Germany in particular had depleted its financial capital to wage war, and Russia, after the ascent of the communists had to pull out. Indeed, the latter action was perhaps inevitable given that Russia was unable to feed its populace and wage war. Superior technology also enabled the winners to dominate -- as World War I was the first war to deploy artillery fire, aircraft, and submarine warfare on a mass scale, thus economic solvency to develop new technology became more important.

In World War II, America effectively rebuilt Europe at the end of the conflict, a testimony to its economic strength at the end of the war. Although the Great Depression had weakened the American economy, relatively speaking it was more prosperous than Germany and Japan, and had more natural resources. Most importantly of all in ending the war, it had superior technology in the form of the atomic bomb -- America's strength as a technological power enabled it to emerge victorious, with fewer causalities. Ironically, Hitler's anti-Semitic policies drove some of Germany's most capable sciences from the nation, some of whom transferred their intellectual capital to the United States. America had the economic capital to develop such new technology, and support technological development as well as to sustain its people, while by the end of the war, the people of Germany and particularly Japan were starving, and beset by America's superior technological military force.

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