Second World War

Introduction
 Second World War was a conflict that involved virtually every part of the world
during the years 1939–45.
 The principal belligerents were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—and
the Allies—France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser
extent, China.
 It was the biggest conflict in history that had lasted almost six years.
 Nearly some 100 million people had been militarised, and 50 million had been killed
(around 3% of the world's population).

Causes of War
- Treaty of Versailles
 Following World War I, the victorious Allied Powers met to decide Germany’s future.
Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
 Under this treaty, Germany had to accept guilt for the war and to pay reparations.
Germany lost territory and was prohibited from having a large military.
 The humiliation faced by Germany under this treaty, paved the way for the spread of
Ultra-Nationalism in Germany.
- Failure of the League of Nations
 The League of Nations was an international organization set up in 1919 to keep world
peace.
 It was intended that all countries would be members and that if there were disputes
between countries; they could be settled by negotiation rather than by force.
 The League of Nations was a good idea, but ultimately a failure, as not all countries
joined the league.
 Also, the League had no army to prevent military aggression such as Italy’s invasion of
Ethiopia in Africa or Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in China.
- Great Depression of 1929
 The worldwide economic depression of the 1930s took its toll in different ways in
Europe and Asia.
 In Europe, political power shifted to totalitarian and imperialist governments in several
countries, including Germany, Italy, and Spain.
 In Asia, a resource-starved Japan began to expand aggressively, invading China and
manoeuvring to control a sphere of influence in the Pacific.
- Rise of Fascism
 Victors’ stated aims in World War I had been ―to make the world safe for democracy,‖
and post-war Germany was made to adopt a democratic constitution, as did most of the
other states restored or created after the war.
 In the 1920s, however, the wave of nationalistic, militaristic totalitarianism known by
its Italian name, fascism.
 It promised to minister to peoples’ wants more effectively than democracy and
presented itself as the one sure defence against communism.
 Benito Mussolini established the first Fascist, European dictatorship during the interwar
period in Italy in 1922.
- Rise of Nazism
 Adolf Hitler, the Leader of the German National Socialist (Nazi) party, preached a racist
brand of fascism.
 Hitler promised to overturn the Versailles Treaty, restore German wealth & glory and
secure additional Lebensraum (―living space‖) for the German people, who he
contended deserve more as members of a superior race.
 In 1933 Hitler became the German Chancellor, and in a series of subsequent moves
established himself as dictator.
 Moreover, in 1941 the Nazi regime unleashed a war of extermination against Slavs,
Jews, and other elements deemed inferior by Hitler’s ideology.
- Policy of Appeasement
 Hitler openly denounced the Treaty of Versailles and began secretly building up
Germany’s army and weapons.
 Although Britain and France knew of Hitler’s actions, they thought a stronger Germany
would stop the spread of Communism from Russia.
 An example of appeasement was the Munich Agreement of September 1938. In the
Agreement, Britain and France allowed Germany to annex areas in Czechoslovakia
where German-speakers lived.
 Germany agreed not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia or any other country.
However, in March 1939, Germany broke its promise and invaded the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
 Even then, neither Britain nor France was prepared to take military action.
Key Turning Points of the World War II
- The Start
 Three years of mounting international tension - encompassing the Spanish Civil War,
the union of Germany and Austria, Hitler's occupation of the Sudetenland and the
invasion of Czechoslovakia led to deterioration of ties between Axis Power and Allied
Powers.
 However, the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and subsequently two
days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
 This marked the beginning of World War II.
- Phoney War
 The Western Europe was very quiet during the first few months of the war.
 This period of war is known as 'phoney war'.
 Preparations for war continued in earnest, but there were few signs of conflict, and
civilians of the western European countries (allied powers) evacuated to safe places.
- Ribbentrop Pact
 By the early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to
invade and occupy Poland.
 Poland, for its part, had guarantees of French and British military support should it be
attacked by Germany. Hitler intended to invade Poland anyway, but first he had to
 neutralize the possibility that the Soviet Union would resist the invasion of its western
neighbour.
 Secret negotiations in August 1939, led to the signing of the German-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact in Moscow.
 Further, Russia followed Germany into Poland in September and Poland was carved up
between the two invaders before the end of the year.
- Winter War 1940
 The 'winter war' between Russia and Finland concluded in March, and in the following
month Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.
 Denmark surrendered immediately, but the Norwegians fought on - with British and
French assistance - surrendering in June 1940.
- Fall of France 1940
 After war with Scandinavian countries got over, Germany invaded France, Belgium and
Holland.
 During this phase, the Western Europe encountered the Blitzkrieg - or 'lightning war'.
 Blitzkrieg: Germany's combination of fast armoured tanks on land, and superiority in
the air, made a unified attacking force that was both innovative and effective.
 Despite greater numbers of air and army personnel in Allied powers, they proved no
match for German Forces.
 In France an armistice was signed with Germany, with the puppet French Vichy
government.
 Having conquered France, Hitler turned his attention to Britain, and began preparations
for an invasion.
- Battle of Britain 1940
 Lasting from July to September 1940, it was the first war to be fought solely in the air.
 German took decisions to attack from airfields and factories to the major cities, but
somehow the Royal Air Force managed to squeak a narrow victory.
 This ensured the - ultimately indefinite - postponement of the German invasion plans.
- War Getting Global
 With continental Europe under Nazi control and Britain safe - for the time being - the
war took on a more global dimension in 1941.
 Following the defeat of Mussolini's armies in Greece and Tobruk, German forces
arrived in North Africa and invaded Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941.
- Operation Barbarossa
 After facing defeat in Britain, Hitler broke the Ribbentrop Pact and invaded Russia in
1941.
 The initial advance was swift, with the fall of Sebastopol at the end of October, and
Moscow coming under attack at the end of the year.
 The bitter Russian winter, however, like the one that Napoleon had experienced a
century and a half earlier, crippled the Germans.
 The Soviets counterattacked in December and the Eastern Front stagnated until the
spring.
- Pearl Harbour
 The Japanese, tired of American trade embargoes, mounted a surprise attack on the US
Navy base of Pearl Harbour, in Hawaii, on 7 December 1941.
 This ensured that global conflict commenced, with Germany declaring war on the US, a
few days later.
 Also, within a week of Pearl Harbour, Japan had invaded the Philippines, Burma and
Hong Kong.
- American Entry into the War
 Through the Battle of Midway 1942, the US entered World War II. In this battle, US
sea-based aircraft destroyed four Japanese carriers and a cruiser, marking the turning
point in World War II.
 Also, the news of mass murders of Jewish people by the Nazis reached the Allies, and
the US pledged to avenge these crimes.
- Reversal of German Fortunes
 By the second half of 1942, British forces gained the initiative in North Africa and
Russian forces counterattacked at Stalingrad.
 In February 1943, Germany surrendered at Stalingrad to Soviet Union. This was the
first major defeat of Hitler’s armies.
 Further, German and Italian forces in North Africa surrendered to the Allies.
 As the Russian advance on the Eastern Front gathered pace, recapturing Kharkiv and
Kiev from Germany. Moreover, Allied bombers began to attack German cities in
enormous daylight air raids.
 The Russians reached Berlin (capital of Germany) on 21 April 1945.

o Hitler killed himself on the 30th; two days after Mussolini had been captured and
hanged by Italian partisans.
 Germany surrendered unconditionally on 7 May, and the following day was celebrated
as VE (Victory in Europe) day. The war in Europe was over.
Nuclear Bombing and the End
 Plans were being prepared for an Allied invasion of Japan, but fears of fierce resistance
and massive casualties prompted Harry Truman – the new American president to
sanction the use of an atomic bomb against Japan.
 Such bombs had been in development since 1942, and on 6 August 1945 one of them
was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
 Three days later another was dropped on Nagasaki.
 No country could have withstood such attacks, and the Japanese surrendered on 14
August.
 With the surrender of Japan, World War II was finally over.

Aftermath of World War II

- New Superpowers
 World War II brought about changes in the status of countries and continents. Britain
and France lost their positions of pre-eminence as superpowers and yielded place to the
USA and the USSR.
- Start of Decolonisation
 After the war, Britain and France were confronted with various domestic and external
problems. Both of them could no longer hold onto their respective colonies Thus, the
post-war world witnessed the end of colonialism in Africa and Asia.
- Birth of UN
 One of the momentous results of the war was the birth of the United Nations
Organisation.
 Although the League failed to deliver, mankind did not altogether lose its hopes of
making the world a safer and happier place to live in.
 The UN Charter enshrines the hopes and ideals of mankind on the basis of which
countries can work together to maintain lasting peace.
 However, the establishment of the UN was agreed, much before the end of World War II
under the Atlantic Charter.
- Start of Cold War
 After the end of the war, a conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, to set up peace
treaties. The countries that fought with Hitler lost territory and had to pay reparations to
the Allies. Germany and its capital Berlin were divided into four parts.
 The zones were to be controlled by Great Britain, the United States, France and the
Soviet Union.
 The three western Allies and the Soviet Union disagreed on many things and as time
went on Germany was divided into two separate countries: East Germany, which had a
Communist government and West Germany, which was a democratic state.
 This laid the foundation of the Cold War.
- New Economic World Order
 Bretton Woods Conference, formally United Nations Monetary and Financial
Conference, meeting at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire (July 1–22, 1944), during
World War II to make financial arrangements for the post-war world after the expected
defeat of Germany and Japan.
 It drew up a project for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(IBRD-now known as World Bank) to make long-term capital available to states
urgently needing such foreign aid, and a project for the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) to finance short-term imbalances in international payments in order to stabilize
exchange rates.
 Also, the US dollar was established as a reserve currency for the world trade.

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