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(CNN Spanish) -
From Europe to Asia, passing through North Africa, the Atlantic and the Pacific, World War II shook practically every corner of the world between 1939 and 1945, leaving tens of millions of deaths and generating profound changes in the countries that intervened.
But the effects were also being felt in Latin America, a region that seemed to be separated by tens of thousands of kilometers.
First, the facts: this was the Second World War
The war pitted the coalition of the Axis powers, made up of Germany, Italy and Japan - and later joined by Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia and, temporarily, Finland - and the allies led by the United States. , the Soviet Union, Great Britain (including Canada and Australia) and China and, which eventually prevailed.
Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, and Japan surrendered on September 2 of the same year aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending the conflict.
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The final death toll has been very difficult to calculate since the end of the war.
According to the Robert Schuman Center, which is part of the European Union, between 62 and 78 million people have died in the conflict, including military and civilians.
The National Museum of World War II, in the US, estimates about 60 million dead, while the Federal Agency for Civic Education of Germany (BPB) estimates between 60 and 70 million.
September 2, 1945: General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, accepts the unconditional surrender document signed by Yoshijiro Umezu, Commander of the Japanese Army, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
(Credit: Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)
Institutions such as the US Holocaust Museum also estimate that some six million Jews died in concentration camps set up by the Nazis during the war, where hundreds of thousands of gypsies and people with mental or physical disabilities also died.
What happened in Latin America?
Latin American countries declared themselves neutral at the beginning of the war, which slowly began to reach these shores and impact societies divided in support of both sides.
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"Official neutrality during most of the war coexisted with the active mobilization of society, which took sides early and intensively discussed the position that the country should adopt in those circumstances," María Inés Tato, a history doctor, told CNN. and coordinator of the Group of Historical Studies on the War at the University of Buenos Aires, on the situation in Argentina.
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"The war thus revealed the close ties of all kinds (cultural, economic, demographic) that linked Argentina with Europe at war," he said.
Many countries in the region benefited economically during the conflict by expanding their trade with the allied powers, especially by selling raw materials and food, although there were also large drops in imports from countries at war, as observed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
German submarine attacks against Latin American flag ships were common during the war.
In addition, the trade even made neutral merchant navies a target for German submarines, which sank numerous Brazilian, Colombian, Mexican, Venezuelan and Argentine ships, among others.
"As of 1939, foreign policy began to acquire a central place in the Argentine public agenda, to the extent that this global conflict was interpreted in the key of internal politics," said Tato.
"Public opinion became polarized between those who favored breaking relations with the Axis (the so-called rupturists) and those who continued to support neutrality."
"The war provided references, arguments and languages that, reappropriated and reinterpreted locally, legitimized political alignments and provided a new dynamic to the internal party struggles," he said.
The entry of the United States into the conflict, which took place in 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, began a string of declarations of war against the Axis in the region.
Costa Rica and Panama, whose canal was of strategic importance to the allies, were the first to do so, along with the United States.
Latin American countries declare war
Mexico and Brazil declared war on the Axis countries in 1942, and Colombia declared a state of belligerence in 1943, in all these cases after the sinking of their freighters by German submarines.
Bolivia also declared war in 1942.
Soldiers from the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) en route to Italy on a US military ship during World War II, in 1944. (Credit: FPG / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)
In many of these cases, the statements were accompanied by the freezing of German assets in these countries and measures against German citizens, as in the case of Colombia, and by mobilizations of troops, as occurred in Brazil and Mexico.
"Being so close to the US necessarily marked and has marked the history of Mexico. It is a geopolitical issue that will always play a factor," Veka Duncan, historian and author of the book "Cara o Cruz, told CNN.
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"In the case of Mexico, the Potrero del Llano ship was torpedoed by the Germans, this fact will lead Mexico to participate and have a military intervention in World War II," said Duncan, recalling the actions of Squad 201, which "It did not change the face of the Mexican army, it was anecdotal," in his opinion.
"What is significant is that Mexico has this clear diplomatic line of neutrality - the Estrada Doctrine -. Since the 1917 constitution, Mexico respects the sovereignty and self-determination of the peoples, but this is a moment in which it cannot continue with this doctrine. and decides to get involved, "he adds.
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Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Argentina and Chile began to break relations with the Axis from 1942, but those who declared war did so for the most part from 1945, when it was already in its final phase and after that the countries of the region sign the Act of Chapultepec, the foundation stone of what would become the Organization of American States.
Argentina was among the countries that belatedly set aside its position of neutrality, which it maintained for four of the six years that the conflict lasted.
Buenos Aires only broke relations with Germany and Japan on January 26, 1944 and declared war on them on March 27, 1945.
The Battle of the Río de la Plata: the first of the Second World War
The first naval battle of World War II did not take place off the white cliffs of Dover in England, nor in the icy North Sea.
It happened in South America and off the coast of Uruguay, on December 13, 1939.
The German battleship Graf Spee, commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, had been attacking freighters in the Atlantic for months carrying raw materials to England until it found a British fleet made up of the cruisers Exeter, Ajax and Achilles.
December 17, 1939: The German battleship Graf Spee sinks in the port of Montevideo.
(Credit: Central Press / Getty Images)
After a short but savage fight in the Río de la Plata, the Graf Spee entered the port of Montevideo, damaged, but as it was unable to carry out the necessary repairs, it was sunk by its own crew, which was later interned in Uruguay. and Argentina.
"The Battle of the Río de la Plata showed the global reach of World War II and brought it closer to the Argentine public," Tato told CNN.
"The press closely followed the vicissitudes of the naval combat and expressed its concern over its possible implications for the neutrality of Argentina."
"The combat had a more direct impact on Uruguay, from whose shores some maneuvers had been observed, and the blasting and subsequent sinking of the Graf Spee," he said.
"In Argentina, interest in this episode increased with the arrival of the crew at the port of Buenos Aires and with the subsequent suicide of its captain, Hans Langsdorff. Temporarily housed in the Hotel de Inmigrantes, the German sailors were transferred to different points of our territory, where they remained interned until the end of the war, "said Tato.
Cultural changes in Mexico
For Duncan, a researcher and art historian, the political and military impact of the war in Mexico was minimal, especially compared to the effects it had on a cultural level.
Former members of Squad 201 of the Mexican Air Force who fought with the allies for the liberation of the Philippines during World War II, participate in a parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the events, throughout the center of Mexico City on May 2, 2005. (Credit: OMAR TORRES / AFP via Getty Images)
"In the artistic is where we are going to see the impact of the Second World War in Mexico, because this neutrality allows Mexico a very kind thing of receiving refugees and being able to participate in diplomatic dialogues," he said.
After the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), during which the Lázaro Cárdenas government had already adopted a policy of political asylum, the number of people arriving in the country increased, Duncan points out, this time escaping the new war in Europe .
"Since the fascism began in Europe, we are going to see that many refugees are arriving, especially Spaniards, but also German Jews, and by the time the war breaks out, the news has already spread throughout Europe that Mexico accepts the refugees, and one of the most important migrations is going to begin, "he explains.
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Among these, numerous artists and intellectuals arrive in the country, such as the painters Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, the poets Benjamin Péret and Alice Rahon, and the sculptor Mathias Goeritz, among others.
"That will generate a more tangible impact on Mexican culture and daily life. They arrive with all the ideas of the European avant-garde in their heads, they will influence artistic and architectural issues: the movements of the 60s do not make sense if they do not you understand the arrival of these vanguards. "
The funeral of the Graf Spee sailors killed in battle, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on December 23, 1939. The ship's commander Hans Langsdorff is in a white uniform.
(Credit: Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)
"The impact and experience of the war in Mexico is going to be cultural," he said.
Duncan also highlighted the economic impact generated by the entry of the United States into the war, which led to a greater demand for Mexican workers - due to the departure of Americans to the front - and for Mexican cultural products - due to the reconfiguration of the industries--, such as cinema, which lived through a golden age, hand in hand with actors such as Pedro Infante or María Felix.
"Mexico becomes a kind of product for the United States, and that is going to generate a modernizing development and boom in every sense. Life in Mexico is also going to be Americanized. Things that sound trivial but show an important cultural change: soft drinks, household appliances. Very important changes on a social level, "he says.
Latin American fighters
Constituted in 1943 under the command of Major General João Batista Mascarenhas de Morais, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) was sent in July 1944 to the Mediterranean theater of operations, according to the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
In total, 25,000 Brazilian soldiers traveled to Italy to take part in the fighting against German troops, which had occupied the country since the Italian armistice of 1943.
Soldiers of the First Division of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF or FEB) march in front of the Castel Nuovo in Naples, shortly after their arrival in Italy during World War II, around 1944. (Credit: FPG / Hulton Archive / Getty Images )
They fought alongside the 5th US Army in battles such as Monte Castello, Castelnuovo, and Montese, and by the end of the war 454 Brazilian soldiers had died.
Mexico, for its part, participated in the war by sending Squadron 201, a unit of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force made up of some 300 pilots and mechanics, according to information from the Mexican government.
The Mexican military traveled to the United States in July 1944, where they received training in the use of Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters, and in March 1945 they were sent to the Philippines and Formosa (Taiwan) to participate in the fighting against Japan.
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They went into action in June, carrying out 96 missions in support of ground forces.
At the end of the conflict, 10 Mexican soldiers had died: five in combat, four in training, and one due to illness.
In addition to these two official participations, there were also South Americans who volunteered to fight in the allied forces.
"An undetermined number of Argentines enlisted as volunteers in the service of one of the fighting armies. It is estimated that those who served the allied forces were around 5,000, the volunteers who joined the British aviation and navy being especially famous. whose life stories are recovering in recent years, "said Tato.
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