We have all heard about this gigantic event that on a global scale altered the course of history. The Second World War (WW II for its acronym in English) has undoubtedly been the greatest war in the history of humanity, beginning in 1939, after the Germany of Adolf Hitler decided to invade Poland in order to continue annexing European territories to its forces.
It was not until 1945 that after the first and only atomic bombings in history, these events that cost the lives of almost 3% of the world's population, where Germany, Italy, Japan and six other countries faced the armed forces of the United Kingdom, France, the United States, China and present-day Russia and a part of Italy that opposed the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.
All relevant countries at that time were participating in the war, The Allied vs The Axis Powers, and It was not until the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that The nuclear power that the United States had obtained was demonstrated thanks to the contributions (among others) of Albert Einstein.
This was the first tangible step to end theto Second World War, but the question I want to address today in this entry is the following:
Post content:
What stopped World War II?
Although it is true that there are two clear events that exposed the defeat of the Axis Powers, Above all, I want to talk about a third event not so mentioned in the course of this Second World War., although it is undoubtedly also quite well known.
The first two events I mention are:
- – The launching of nuclear bombs Little Boy and Fat Man about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.
- – The capture of Berlin, organized and executed by the Red Army: One and a half million Soviet soldiers and combat vehicles.
However, What is the third historical event that gave an overwhelming advantage to The Allies?
Or better yet, Who was responsible for The Allies acquiring this advantage?
Answer: ALAN TURING, popularly known as the father of modern computing and computer science.
Information War
While soldiers, generals, scientists and presidents of the most important countries in the world focused on war as a weapons and strategic issue, Alan Turing decided to approach this conflict from a different point of view, and set out to help his country (United Kingdom) in the smartest way he could: Through what could be called Information War.
"Information is power."
Thomas Hobbes - "Liviatan«
Alan Turing, who began specializing in theoretical mathematics, it did not take him long to expand his field of knowledge, and he studied and carried out work in an endless number of disciplines such as philosophy, theoretical computer science, cryptography, logic, biology, teaching, statistics, and artificial intelligence. .
With this resume, it is not surprising that he was one of the most intelligent people of the time, and being a contemporary of Hitler but living in the United Kingdom, he soon dedicated his efforts to creating a machine capable of deciphering Nazi messages.
The idea was simple: At that time all countries intercepted messages from other countries, but there was a big problem, and that was that any communication was encrypted, so If any country managed to decipher the messages of their enemies, they could anticipate all their movements. and win battles almost without having to fight.
What was not so simple was deciphering these messages. Germany had the Enigma machine, which at that time encrypted messages in such a way that no human being was able to decipher them if they did not know how they were generated.
Turing, an incredibly relevant figure in the history of humanity, managed, based on revolutionary mathematical algorithms, to create another machine that did something almost unthinkable: it translated any encrypted message from the Germans without any problem, regardless of the encryption they used.
Conclusion
Creating and demonstrating the power of the first nuclear bombs or finishing the invasion of Berlin were important events, but none (from my point of view) It doesn't even come close to being as relevant as this fact.
From 1940 to 1942 the Germans had a very capable army, and they did not have too many problems emerging victorious from battles, but obviously everything began to go downhill when their English enemies were able to know all their plans before they were even taken. just.
It is estimated that Alan Turing's participation in the creation of this machine may have been the main cause of the Germans and their Axis Allies being defeated four years earlier than expected, and in this way the lives of the 14 million could have been saved. of people who are estimated to have died from the 1942 attacks until the expected end of the War around 1949.
During the First World War it was not surprising that the most powerful person in the world was the one who controlled the largest army in the world, but already in the Second World War a new "fashion" began to be seen, and by the time this war was over, This new way of dominating the world was established almost imperceptibly: Information Warfare.
Therefore, it is not surprising that today 7 of the 10 richest and most influential people in the world own technology companies, where in addition to providing service to billions of users, they also collect and store data that they later use to continue improving and adapting your business model.
In the 2020 list we find new Elon Musk (Technology), Mukesh Ambani (Variant) and Steve Ballmer (Technology), so those who have fallen from the top 10 have been Carlos Slim, Amancio Ortega and Michael Bloomberg. Thus leaving, as I mentioned previously, 7 investors in the technology field in the top 10 of the Forbes list.
EN 
ES 