UNIT FOUR
SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN THE AGE OF WORLD WARS 1914-1945
4.1.The first World war: Causes, Course and the Consequence
The First World War (1914-18), often known as the Great War, was an international con- flict that involved most of the nations of Europe along with
~ Russia
~ United States
~ Middle East, and other regions.
Mutual Causes of WWI
▪︎ Growing rivalries and mutual mistrust had led to the creation of several military alliances among the Great Powers as early as the 1870s.
▪︎ This alliance system had been designed to keep peace in Europe but it would instead help push the continent into war.
The major military alliances during WW I were
1. Triple Alliance : also known as Central Powers 1882..
• Germany,
• Austria-Hungary
• Italy.
▪︎ Italy, left it and joined the Triple Entente in 1915.
2. Triple Entente
▪︎ It developed from the Franco-Prussian Alliance of 1894 followed by Br and France entente Cordiale of 1904.
▪︎ a triple Entente following the Anglo-Russia agreement of 1907..
~ 20 country including
> USA ,JAPAN, Union of South Africa
> Portugal and Romania joined the Triple Entente also named the Allied Powers
◇ Imperialism
▪︎ The stage for war in Europe was imperialism.
▪︎ The nations of Europe competed fiercely for colonies in Africa and Asia.
▪︎ The colonies pushed European nations to the brink of war.
▪︎ As European countries continued to compete for overseas empires, their rivalry and mistrust ] of one another deepened.
Militarism
▪︎ development of the 20th C,was the rise of a dangerous European arms race.
▪︎ 1914, Germany had nearly 100 warships and two million trained soldiers.
▪︎ Great Britain and Germany both greatly increased their navies in this period.
▪︎ Germany and Russia the military establishment began to have a greater influence on public policy.
▪︎ This increase in militarism helped push the countries involved into war.
Nationalism
▪︎ Nationalism also created tension between France and Germany.
▪︎ France wanted to avenge its defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to 1871 and regain its lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.
▪︎ Balkan nationalism was another source of tension.
▪︎ The independent of the Ottoman Turks domination.
<> Immediate Cause: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
▪︎ The immediate cause of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, on June 28, 1914, by a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip at Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia which was part of Austria-Hungary.
<> Course of WW I
> The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand suddenly became a source of conflict in the region.
> Austria-Hungary used the assassination as an excuse to settle its dispute with Serbia.
> Austria-Hungary sent a warlike ultimatum to Serbia.
> Serbia accepted most of Austria-Hungary’s demands but sought international arbitration on some issues.
> Austria- Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.
> Within a week most of Europe was at war.
▪︎ In 1914 the Germans followed a plan devised by Count Alfred von Schlieffen, their Chief of the General Staff.
▪︎ Schlieffen proposed to attack France through Belgium and occupy Paris within six weeks before turning on Russia to avoid a drawn-out, two-front war.
▪︎ Then turn east against the Russia, a large and backward country which would be slow to mobilize.
▪︎ Schlieffen also proposed that the Germans should attack the French from the north through Belgium, where the French defence was weak.
▪︎ in 1914, Germany invaded France through Belgium.
▪︎ The Germans' attack was forced back at the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, which halted their advance.
▪︎ dug defensive trenches, and a deadly stalemate started on the Western Front, which lasted for the next four years.
▪︎ contrary to the Germans' expectations, the Russians made rapid mobilization.
▪︎the Germans transferred part of their army to the Eastern front and were forced to fighta two front war.
▪︎The war in the east was more mobile than that of the west, which was static.
▪︎ In the U.S. Public opinion had gradually changed against Germany after 1914.
▪︎ In 1917, Germany launched an unrestricted submarine campaign.
▪︎ it was discovered that the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, had secretly sent a telegram to the Mexican government that promised to reward Mexico with vast areas of the south western United States in return for Mexican support against the Americans.
▪︎ President Woodrow Wilson’s great desire was for peace, he felt the United States was forced to go to war.
▪︎ The US declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
◇ .The consequences of World War I
◇ World War I, in many ways, was a new kind of war.
~use of new technologies
~ machine guns, airplanes,
~ poisonous gasses, and U-Boats (Submarines).
> According to some sources, as many as 8.5 million soldiers and some 13 million civilians died during World War I.
> As a result of the war four imperial dynasties collapsed:
1. ~ Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary
2. ~ Hohenzollerns of Germany
3. ~ sultanate of the Ottoman Empire
4. ~ Romanovs of Russia.
▪︎ The map of Europe changed forever as territories were divided among the victorious Allied powers.
▪︎ The mass movement of soldiers and refugees helped spread one of the world’s deadliest influenza pandemics, the Spanish flu of 1918–19, also called the Spanish influenza pandemic.
◇ Discontent with World War I also helped bring about the Russian Revolution of 1917.
◇ the Russian Empire was toppled and replaced by a socialist government led by Vladimir Lenin.
◇ In northeastern Europe, new states emerged that had formerly been a part of the Russian Empire.
~ Estonia, Finland,
~ Latvia, and Lithuania.
◇ In the USA, the war brought women more into the US economy and also helped increase their involvement in politics.
◇ The Nineteenth Amendment (Women’s Right to Vote) was passed in 1920.
◇ It also encouraged African Americans to move to northern cities for factory work.
◇ The Treaty of Versailles between Germany and the Allied powers was signed on June 28, 1919, adopting Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the treaty created a League of Nations.
◇ The League was to be an international association whose goal would be to keep peace among nations.
◇ the conference included representatives from many countries, it was dictated by a group known as the “Big Four”: Woodrow
1• Wilson of the United States
2• Georges Clemenceau of France,
3• David Lloyd George of Great Britain,
4• Vittorio Orlando of Italy.
◇ Russia, in the grip of civil war, was not represented.
◇ Neither were Germany and its allies.
◇ The treaty also punished Germany and had severe restrictions placed on its military operations.
◇ It placed sole responsibility for the war on Germany’s shoulders.
◇ As a result, Germany had to pay reparations to the Allies.
◇ The defeated nations also lost substantial territory.
◇ All of Germany’s territories in Africa and the Pacific were declared mandates or territories to be administered by the League of Nations.
◇ Under the peace agreement, the Allies would govern the mandates until they were judged ready for independence.
4.2. The October 1917 Russian Revolution Causes, Course and results
◇ Various other sectors of Russian society were discontented throughout the nineteenth century by the autocratic rule of the Czars.
▪︎ This gave rise to different political groups who worked in secret.
▪︎ liberal groups demanded the replacement of Czarist absolutism with a democratic parliamentary government.
▪︎ The group called Social Revolutionaries thought that the peasants should rise, and seize the land of all landlords.
▪︎ groups encouraged the peasants to rebel. Of all these, the most radical group was that of the Marxists.
▪︎ This group followed the teachings of Karl Marx (1818-1883).
▪︎ These revolutionaries formed the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1898.
◇ This party was later divided into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.
▪︎The Bolsheviks (majority) were led by Lenin, whose real name was Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov.
▪︎ Russia was one of the poorest countries in Europe in the early 1900s.
▪︎ Much of Western Europe saw Russia as a backward and underdeveloped society.
▪︎ The Russian Empire maintained serfdom, a kind of feudalism, in which landless peasants were forced to serve the land-owning nobility.
▪︎ Serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861.
▪︎ A population increase at the end of the nineteenth century, combined with a difficult growing season due to Russia's northern climate and a succession of costly conflicts, beginning with the Crimean War (1854-1856), resulted in recurrent food shortages across the vast empire.
▪︎ For instance, defeat by Japan during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) became the immediate cause of the Russian Revolution of 1905.
▪︎ The defeat sparked a surge of domestic upheaval.
▪︎ The Bloody Sunday massacre of peace demonstrators in St. Petersburg marked the beginning of the violent phase of the Russian Revolution of 1905.
◇ The czar's army killed or injured hundreds of defenceless protestors.
◇ As a result, Nicholas II was forced to issue the October Manifesto, which purportedly turned Russia from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.
◇ Tsar Nicholas II and his subjects entered World War I with enthusiasm and patriotism, with the defense of Russia’s fellow Orthodox Slavs, the Serbs, as the main battle cry.
◇ In August 1914, the Russian army invaded Germany’s province of East Prussia and occupied a significant portion of Austrian-controlled Galicia in support of the Serbs.
◇ German control of the Baltic Sea and German-Ottoman control of the Black Sea severed Russia from most of its foreign supplies and potential markets.
◇ By the middle of 1915, Russia was affected by the impact of the war at most.
◇ Food and fuel were in short supply, casualties were increasing, and inflation was mounting.
◇ Strikes rose among low-paid factory workers, and there were reports that peasants, who wanted reforms of land ownership, were restless.
◇ Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule.
The February Revolution
▪︎ The Russian army lost battle after battle in the ongoing First World War.
▪︎The military losses precipitated the outbreak of the Revolution.
▪ Living conditions in the towns worsened due to food shortages and inflation.
▪︎ In Petrograd, workers went on strikes, and riots became common. Soldiers in Petrograd, finally, joined the people of the city.
▪︎ Czar Nicholas II was deposed and this brought the rule of the Romanov Dynasty to an end.
▪︎ the monarchy was deposed in February 1917, the powerful members of the Duma (parliament) formed a Provisional Government led by George Lvov, who was succeeded byAlexander Kerensky
▪︎ However, the new government failed to meet the people's demands.
▪ It was unable to mitigate the food shortage and bring the war to an end.
▪︎As a result, it lost support among the general public.
▪︎ in Petrograd, peasants, workers, and soldiers united together to form Soviets (councils or co-coordinating bodies.
▪︎ The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, who had recently returned from exile, sought the dissolution of the incompetent Provisional Government.
▪ As a result, it lost popular support, peasants, workers and soldiers in Petrograd came together and formed Soviets (councils or co-coordinating bodies).
▪ The Bolsheviks under Lenin, who had just returned from exile, demanded that the ineffective Provisional Government be dissolved.
▪︎ The Bolsheviks held the following popular slogans:“All Power to the Soviets!” and “Peace, Land and Bread!” with these slogans and their organizing skills, the Bolsheviks won popular support.
▪ In September 1917, a military take-over was attempted by General Kornilov, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army.
▪ Following the failure of this attempt, the Bolsheviks strengthened their hold in Petrograd and Moscow where the Soviets were strong.
The October 1917 Revolution
▪︎The Bolsheviks of the Petrograd Soviets led a popular insurrection beginning on 25 October 1917.
▪︎The headquarters of the Provisional Government fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks within ten days.
▪︎The Provisional Government came to an end.
▪︎The Bolsheviks seized political power.
▪︎ They established a regime led by Premier Lenin and war Minister Leo Trotsky.
▪︎Soon after they secured state power, the Bolsheviks took the following measures:
▪︎Organised the workers to take over factories and nationalized industry.
▪︎ An eight hour working day was introduced by law.
▪︎Directed the peasant to seize the noble’s estates by the decree passed in October 1917.
▪︎It confiscated the land of landlords and gave it to the peasants.
▪︎This was an important measure meant to solve the age-old agrarian problem.
▪︎Passed the decree on peace (October 1917) which relieved the soldiers from the war that they were not willing to fight.
▪︎ Russia formally withdrew from World War I, after signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in 1918.
▪︎By introducing these and other measures, the Bolsheviks tried to meet the demands of the People for “Peace, Land and Bread’’.
▪︎These Bolshevik measures were disliked by those who lost their lands, and high offices in government.
▪︎West European powers feared that such an upheaval would set a bad example for their people.
▪︎The internal enemies of the Revolution, led by the ex-czarist officers’, organised military operations and attacked the revolutionary government.
▪︎Their forces were known as the “White Armies”. A civil war broke out and lasted until 1922.
▪︎The Red army of the revolutionary government succeeded in crushing the rebel forces and saved the revolution.
▪︎To solve the mounting economic problems, the Bolsheviks introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921.
▪︎This policy restored smaller enterprises to their owners, allowed peasants to sell their grains for profit and revived commerce.
▪︎A new state called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) was established in July 1922.
▪︎Secret police called Cheka was also organised in the same year to suppress counter-revolutionaries.
▪︎ Lenin died in 1924 and was succeeded by Joseph Stalin.
▪︎ From1928-38, Stalin carried out purges within the Soviet communist party to strengthen his totalitarian rule and eliminate opposition.
▪︎ He introduced series of economic plans, called ‘Five Year Economic Plans’.
1.The first five-year economic plan lasted from 1928 to 1932.
▪︎All foreign influence in Russian industry was abolished.
Industrialization showed rapid progress resulting in a high rate of production.
▪︎ But the process of forceful collectivization of farms faced serious opposition, particularly from the rich farmers (kulaks), and as a result, Russia faced a severe food shortage in 1934.
2▪︎In the Second Five Year Plan, however, the situation was somewhat alleviated.
3▪︎The third five-year plan had just begun when Nazi Germany attacked Russia in 1941.
▪︎By that time, Stalin had already transformed Russia from a backward agricultural nation into a modern industrial state.
▪︎This economic strength enabled Russia to score a victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
▪︎The Russian Revolution became an inspiration for colonized peoples of Africa and Asia in their anti-colonial struggle.
▪︎The strengthening of the U.S.S.R. after the Second World War changed the international balance of power.
▪︎The U.S.S.R. became strong supporter of the national liberation struggle in
~ Africa, Asia
~ Latin American countries.
4.3. League of Nations
▪The League of Nations, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, was an intergovernmental organization founded on January 10, 1920, as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War.
▪the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.
▪︎Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.
▪︎The idea of the formation of the League of Nations was proposed by President Woodrow Wilson of the USA.
▪︎ the U.S. Congress was resistant to joining the League, as doing so would legally bind the U.S. to intervene in European conflicts. In the end, the U.S. did not join the League.
▪︎The League was composed of a General Assembly, which included
~ delegates from all member states
~ a permanent secretariat that oversaw administrative functions,
~ Executive Council,
~ the membership of which was restricted to the great powers.
▪︎The Council consisted of four permanent members
~ (Great Britain,
~ France,
~ Japan, and Italy) and four non-permanent members.
▪︎Members of the League of Nations were required to respect the territorial integrity and
• sovereignty of all other nation-states
• renounce the use or threat of military force as a means of resolving international conflicts.
▪︎The League sought to peacefully resolve territorial disputes between members and, was in some cases, highly effective.
▪︎in 1926, the League negotiated a peaceful outcome to the conflict between
~ Iraq and Turkey over the province of Mosul.
▪︎Similarly, in the early 1930s, it successfully mediated a resolution to the border dispute between
~ Colombia and Peru.
▪︎the League ultimately failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War and has therefore been viewed as a largely weak, ineffective, and essentially powerless organization.
▪︎The League failed to intervene in many conflicts leading up to World War II, including
~ the Italian invasion of Ethiopia,
~ the Spanish Civil War,
~ the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Figure 4.7 The Big Four at the Paris Peace Conference, including
~ British Prime Minister David Lloyd George,
~ Italian Premier Vittorio Orlando,
~ French Premier Georges Clemenceau,
~ US President Woodrow Wilson (from left to right )
Though the League had failed to prevent the outbreak of another world war, it continued to operate until 1946.
4.4. The worldwide economic crisis
▪︎The worldwide economic crisis, also known as the Great Depression, was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world.
▪︎ It began in the United States with the New York Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929.
▪︎The Great Depression had devastating effects on countries, both rich and poor.
▪︎ Personal income, tax revenue, profits, and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%.
▪︎ Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25%, and in some countries, as high as 33%.
▪︎Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry.
▪︎ Construction was virtually halted in many countries.
▪︎Farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%.
▪︎Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid-off workers.
▪︎By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15 million Americans were unemployed, and nearly half the country’s banks had failed.
◇ Causes of the Great Depression
• -over production
• -high tariffs
•-stock creash and financial panic
•- unequal distribution of wealth in Germany in 1933.
4.5. The Rise of Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and militarism in Japan
▪︎ Fascism and Nazism, though ideologically similar, emerged in Italy and Germany respectively during the inter-war period and turned out to be the main causes of the Second World War.
▪︎ A fascist state was established in Italy in 1922.
Nazis came into power in Germany in 1933.
▪ Benito Mussolini had formed his Fascist party in 1919.
▪︎ Nazi was a term associated with the members of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party of Adolf Hitler.
▪︎Italy had joined the First World War (1914-18) with hopes and ambitions of having plenty after the war for its poor peasants and workers.
▪︎the war rendered Italy great illusions, disappointment and unemployment.
▪︎The Peace Settlement of 1919, better known as the Treaty of Versailles, too turned out to be dissatisfactory to Italy.
▪︎The defeat of Germany in the First World War had witnessed important developments such as the Treaty of Versailles, the continuation of the age-old rivalry between France and Germany; the emergence of the first communist state in Russia, and the economic depression in the 1930s.
▪︎These developments were directly or indirectly responsible for the rise of Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany.
▪︎ Fascism and Nazism, in turn, were primarily responsible for the commencement of the Second World War in 1939.
Mussolini and Hitler
• Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were the two most prominent fascist dictators, rising to power in the decades after World War I.
• Fascism is a far-right authoritarian political ideology that emerged in the early 20th century.
• Fascists believe that liberal democracy is obsolete and regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state, led by a dictator, as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and respond effectively to economic difficulties.
• Fascist regimes are often preoccupied with racist ideologies and practices, such as the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
• The term Fascism is originated in Italy and is derived from fascio, meaning
~ a bundle of rods, and is used to symbolize strength through unity:
~a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to break.
Fascism (characters of Fascism
• strong military
• use of fear and violence
• state control of economy
• secret police
• blind loyalty to a leader
• government control of media
• rule by dictator
• extreme nationalism
• strong military
Causes for the Rise of Fascism in Italy
Treaty of Versailles:
▪︎Versailles Peace Treaty had disappointed the Italians since it could not obtain any share in the German overseas territories which the other allied powers had secured.
▪︎Italy had joined the Allies after the secret treaty of London of 1915.
▪︎The Allies had agreed to give Italy certain areas like Eritrea and Trieste and later backed out.
▪︎ This gave a justification to Italy’s grievance against the Allies.
◇ Socio-economic conditions of Italy:
~There was terrible confusion in the political, social and economic life of Italy in 1919.
~The economic structure had collapsed due to war and natural resources were scarce.
▪︎ It was argued by the supporters of Fascism that Italy, under such terrible conditions, will be saved by the Fascist revolution.
▪︎Mussolini claimed that the post-war labour unrest and discontent in Italy were leading the country towards communism, and his Fascist party alone could save the society from the danger of communism.
◇ False aspirations of Italians:
~ The feeling of disappointment after the Peace Settlement of 1919 was fully exploited by Mussolini, who succeeded not only in uniting the people under his leadership but also in increasing his hold over Italy.
▪︎The people had this feeling that their high ambitions, which could not be achieved under a democratic Italy, would be re
~ Mussolini changed the laws to suit his interests of dominating the Parliament.
▪︎ He dissolved all political parties except his own.
▪︎Fascists started terrorizing opponents making most of them flee Italy. He abolished the Chamber of Deputies in 1929.
▪︎ Fascist Grand Council was established as an apex body to make laws with Duce (leader) Strikes and lockouts were declared illegal to enh
ance agricultural and industrial productions.
▪︎Almost all walks of Italy’s life were being controlled by the State.
▪︎Territorial Expansion: An increase in population and the need for raw material make it imperative for Italy to have territorial expansion.
▪︎Mussolini succeeded in expanding Italian territories.
◇ Aggressive Foreign Policy:
~ Mussolini adopted an ambitious foreign policy and persuaded Yugoslavia to hand over the port of Fiume and acquired it in 1924.
▪︎He established a protectorate over Albania in 1926 and subsequently annexed it in 1939.
▪︎He also acquired some territory in East Africa and near Libya through negotiations with England and France.
▪︎He conquered Ethiopia in 1936, which sounded a death knell of the League of Nations.
▪︎Led to Second World War: Mussolini joined the Anti-Communist Pact of Germany and Japan in 1937.
▪︎Thus came into being the Berlin-Tokyo-Rome Axis.
▪︎ During the Spanish Civil War, Italy helped General Franco.
The victory of the General in the Civil War strengthened the position of Italy in the western Mediterranean.
▪︎ Rise of Hitler and Nazi Party
Several parties and their factions emerged following the collapse of the Hohenzollern dynasty in Germany, each with a strong will to capture power.
▪︎The communists tried to achieve this end by revolutionary methods.
▪︎The reactionary elements took advantage of the failure of the Weimar Republic (the government established in Germany after WWI) and stirred up hostile propaganda against the Socialists.
▪︎In their bid to capture power they blamed the Socialists,
▪︎Some Germans believed that the Jews, had conspired against Germany during the War of 1914-18.
▪︎This propaganda became very effective for the millions of middle-class Germans, who were on the verge of becoming dissatisfied on account of the economic crisis.
▪︎They began to join the ranks of the National Socialists (The Nazis), who were backed by the landed aristocracy of Germany.
▪︎ Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialists, tried to capture power in 1923 by coup d’état but failed.
▪︎Hitler was arrested and jailed, and his party was dissolved.
It was during this imprisonment that he wrote the Mein Kampf, his autobiography which was published in 1926.
Causes of the Rise of Nazism
▪︎The following were the main causes of the rise of Nazism in Germany:
▪︎the war and the Peace Settlement left Germany disillusioned and crushed spiritually and materially.
▪︎The continuing hostile attitude of France, the quarrels over the Ruhr, the Rhineland occupation, the Saar, and the reparation it was made to pay.
▪︎the continuous debate on security and disarmament angered many Germans.
▪︎the Weimar Republic’s acceptance of unfair treaties and its inability to assert itself more strongly in international affairs.
◇ Militarism in Japan
▪︎Militarism in Japan started during the late Meiji dynasty and continued up to 1945.
▪︎The period from 1931 to 1945 was considered as a peak period of Japanese militarism.
▪︎The Japanese militarists believed that the military should dominate the political and social life of the Japanese society.
4.6 . The second world war:1939-45
▪︎The Second World War was fought between two major military blocs, known as the Allied and the Axis Powers, from 1939 to 1945.
▪︎ The Allied Powers consisted mainly of France, Britain, the U.S.A. (from December 1941) and the U.S.S.R.
▪︎The Axis powers were made up of Germany, Japan and Italy (after June 1940).
▪︎The Second World War broke out in 1939.
▪︎However, the roots of the international crisis went back to the preceding two decades (1918-38).
▪︎Generally, the causes of the war could be attributed to the following factors:-
◇ Causes of the War
• One major cause for the war was the developments that led to the ascendancy of fascists in Germany, Italy and Japan.
• German Nazis complained that the Versailles Treaty signed at the end of the First World War was a dictated peace against Germany.
• They felt that Germany was unfairly treated by the terms of the peace treaty.
• the desire for the restoration of Germany’s old position in Europe derived the Nazis to revenge and aggression.
• Italy too, under the Fascist Party, subscribed to national chauvinism.
• Led by Benito Mussolini, Fascists aspired to build a great Italian empire in Africa.
• Militaristic Japan also planned to expand the Japanese Empire using conquests.
• Following World War I the World entered an international economic crisis known as Great Depression.
• This crisis created economic troubles and political instabilities in many countries.
• In the wake of these problems, leaders like Adolf Hitler, Mussolini and Japan, military cliques promised a better future for their people and embarked on a policy of aggression.
• The Western powers failed to create a united front against Fascist aggression.
• Rather Britain, and France followed the policy of appeasement.
• To avoid another world war they were prepared to allow territorial seizures by the aggressive Fascist states.
• The USA adopted a policy of isolation (not to ally with any power). But this rather encouraged the Fascist states to intensify their war of conquest on a global scale.
• In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, a northern province of China. Japan continued to control Manchuria and, when the League condemned her aggression, she withdrew from the League of Nations in May 1933.
• In 1937, Japan started the Sino-Japanese war
(1937-1945) for the total subjugation of China.
• Against the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty, Germany began rapid rearmament endeavours.
• Germany withdrew from the League in October 1933. Germany reoccupied the Rhineland in March 1936.
• Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia in October 1935.
• The Spanish Civil War (1936-39), in which Germany and Italy intervened, was another indicator of the aggressive move of the two powers.
• In 1936, the democratically elected republican government of Spain was overthrown by Spanish fascist leader, General Franco.
• In March 1938 Adolf Hitler of Germany incorporated Austria under the pretext of uniting Austrian Germans with Germany.
• This simply was the realization of the age-long German dream of uniting Austria with Germany-Anschluss.
• Hitler annexed parts of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 under the pretext of uniting the Sudeten Germans with Germany.
• In September 1938, Britain, France and Germany signed the Munich Deal.
• The Munich agreement allowed Germany to occupy part of Czechoslovakia inhabited by German-speaking Sudeten.
• The Course of the War
In August 1939, Germany and the USSR signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact.
• Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939.
This event marked the beginning of World War II.
▪︎1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
• Poland was not able to withstand German air and ground attacks.
• The whole of Poland had been overrun by the German army within three weeks.
• The Germans called their Polish campaign Blitzkrieg (lightning war). Germany annexed western Poland.
• The eastern provinces of Poland were invaded by Russia that had territorial claims over this country.
• From 1939 to 1940 Russia also annexed the Baltic countries of
~Estonia, Latvia,
~ Lithuania as well as Finland, German expansion thus faced the competition of Russia.
• In the west, the German army invaded France in May 1940 through neutral Holland and Belgium.
• The Nazi forces thus bypassed the Franco-German border with its mountainous terrain and French defensive fortification, the Maginot line.
• They easily defeated the Allied force in France.
• The British retreated to Dunkirk.
• The French resistance collapsed.
• The Germans occupied over half of France.
In unoccupied France, the Nazis formed a puppet government headed by Marshal Petain, at Vichy, in southern France.
• General Charles de Gaulle formed a French Free government in England, and was determined to continue a war of liberation. Encouraged by the victory in France, Hitler launched devastating air attacks on Britain.
• the effective British resistance repulsed the Nazi invasion.
• Despite the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, the Nazis invaded Russia in June 1941.
• Hitler expected a quick victory but Russia proved to be a strong enemy.
• The Russian armies retreated slowly and the communist guerrilla bands harassed the invaders.
• The Nazis occupied much territory but were unable to crush the Soviets' resistance.
• Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on the Pacific Island of Hawaii in December 1941, the USA declared war on Japan.
• Japan secured the support of Italy and Germany.
The last two, in turn, declared war on the USA.
• The USA now joined the Second World War.
• To stop further expansion of Germany in the west, America began sending continuous supplies to Britain, the Soviet Union and other allies.
• The Allies also cooperated in the military operations of the Far East but America remained the major opponent of Japan in the Far Eastern war theatre.
• In 1942 Germany, Italy and Japan were at the height of their success.
• The Germans had conquered vast territories in Europe.
• The Japanese became masters of much of the Far East and Pacific Islands.
• In Europe, the Soviet Union's implacable resistance turned back the tide of Nazi's assault.
• The victories scored at the Battles of Stalingrad in 1942/3 and Kursk in 1943, were decisive.
These marked the beginning of the Allied counter-offensive in Europe.
• In May 1943 Britain, France and the USA finally drove German and Italian forces out of North Africa.
• This was the second Allied military victory in Africa.
• The balance of power was shifting in favor of the Allies in the years 1943 to 1945.
• The Allies launched successful air and sea attacks on Axis Powers in Asia and Europe.
• The Alliled Powers opened a Second Front in Europe in 1944.
• The 1943 Allied invasion of Italy hastened the overthrow of Mussolini from power.
France was liberated in 1944.
• June 1944, Allied forces had overrun much of Italy, though some heavy fighting continued till the end of the war.
• Russia liberated her last provinces in 1943 to 1944 and her troops continued their advance towards Germany.
• the Western Allies were advancing into Germany, Russia entered Berlin.
• Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945. Mussolini was murdered by the Italian communists in 1945.
• A few days later, Germany unconditionally surrendered.
Thus the war came to an end in Europe.
• Allied forces, mainly the USA, New Zealand and Australia had already begun reoccupying the Pacific Islands in 1943.
• The Allies enjoyed naval, air and land superiority over Japan in the next two years.
• August 1945, the USA dropped atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.
• US forces occupied Tokyo, the capital of Japan, on 2 September 1945. Japan unconditionally surrendered.
• World War II ended with victory for the Allied Powers.
• There were several reasons for the defeat of the Axis Powers.
• the Axis Powers had their forces stretched over vast territories, and they could not protect the vast territories which they controlled.
• the Soviet Union and the USA entered the war, the military balance shifted in favour of the Allies.
• Nazi Germany and militarist Japan made the mistake of provoking these powers and forcing them to enter into the war.
• The coordinated military operations of the Allies together with their mighty economic resources and enormous manpower ensured their success.
Effects of WWII
• The Second World War had far-reaching consequences.
• it caused an immense loss in human and material wealth.
• About 50 million people, fighters and civilians lost their lives,
~ millions of families were broken,
~children left orphans, and a significant number of fighters were to become handicapped.
• Material losses on infrastructures, factories, roads, buildings and others summed up to excel the destructions of the First World War.
• The war hastened the process of decolonization in Asia and Africa. Following the end of the war, the USA and USSR became super-powers of the world.
• The bloodless diplomatic and political competition and conflict between the two powers and their respective allies known as the Cold War-was another outcome of WWII.
The urge for the formation of a new international organization for the maintenance of world peace and order gave birth to the United Nations Organization(UNO), which replaced the League of Nations.
Prepared by:Eliyas Ahmed
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