Introduction
The modern world is still living with the consequences of World War 2, the most titanic conflict in history. Seventy years ago on September 1st 1939, Germany invaded Poland without warning, sparking the start of World War Two. By the evening of September 3rd, Britain and France were at war with Germany and within a week, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa joined the war. The world had been plunged into its second world war in 25 years. Six long and bloody years of total war, fought over many thousands of square kilometres, followed. It was caused due to the unjust treaty of Versailles, failure of the League of Nations, Japanese aggression and the aftermath of invasion of Poland by Germany. The war ended with the defeat of the axis powers by allied powers.
World War I
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was the proximate trigger of the war. Long-term causes, such as
- Ø Imperialistic foreign policies of the great powers of Europe
- Ø Unresolved territorial disputes,
- Ø Intricate system of alliances
- Ø Balkan Tension
- Ø The growth of nationalism across Europe and
- Ø No effective International organization for the preservation of Peace.
The World War ended when a war torn Germany signed the Treaty Of Versailles on November 11, 1918.
One of the major results of the world war was the formation of the League of Nations to ensure that such a war never broke out. The league proved to be ineffective, however, because it was unable to intervene in acts of aggression by Japan, Italy or Germany. It finally collapsed on the outbreak of World War 2 .These failures were due to the fact that United States, the biggest power that emerged after World War 1 refused to join the league. Even though it was a failure it led to the formation of United Nations organization.
World War II
World War 2, the second world war (abbreviated as WWII or WW2), lasted from 1939 to 1945, with very few nations of the world left out. 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. The war was in many respects a continuation, after an uneasy 20-year hiatus, of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. The 40,000,000–50,000,000 deaths incurred in World War II make it the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in history.
Causes of World War 2
1. The Treaty of Versailles
The victorious nations deprived Germany of its territories in Africa and also according to the Treaty of Versailles German army was allowed to keep only 100000 soldiers, navy 15000 men and air force was banned. Germany was burdened with an immense amount as compensation for the damage it did in the war. This compensation amount cumulated with the great depression thus forcing Germany into great economic problems. It also had to give away all its merchant ships to the allies. It was impossible for a proud German to forget all this and when Hitler came to power he invoked the feelings in German citizens and exploited it for starting the war.
2. The League of Nations failed to keep the peace
It was weak from the beginning, and had spectacular failures in Manchuria and Abyssinia, and it failed to prevent Hitler breaking the Treaty of Versailles. It failed to achieve disarmament, which resulted in an arms race. Countries left the failing League, and realised that they would have to fight a war. Britain and France abandoned collective security, and turned instead to appeasement.
3 Expansionism
Hitler launched his own expansionist drive with the annexation of Austria in March 1938. The way was clear: Mussolini supported him; and the British and French, overawed by German rearmament, accepted Hitler’s claim that the status of Austria was an internal German affair. The United States had severely impaired its ability to act against aggression by passing a neutrality law that prohibited material assistance to all parties in foreign conflicts.
4 Fascism, Nationalism, Totalitarianism, and Collectivist Ideology
Fascists fully support the military and feel war is acceptable in achieving national goals. Because of this, Italy and Germany were prepared to follow this policy and expand and form empires of their own. Germany wanted to unite the dominant German "race."
5 Policy of appeasement
British and France thought that the treaty of Versailles was too severe for the defeated Germany and thought that if they removed genuine grievances of Germany, it would not disturb world peace. But these thoughts proved wrong as Hitler’s demands grew shockingly excessive as he was really aiming at European mastery if not world conquest.
6 The Anschluss
Hitler began to move forward with a plan to unite all German-speaking peoples under one "Greater German" regime. Again operating in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, German troops crossed the border to enforce the Anschluss (annexation). International reaction was again mild, with Great Britain and France issuing protests, but still showing that they were unwilling to take military action.
The immediate cause (the German invasion of Poland )
Hitler demanded Danzig from Poland as it was mostly inhabited by Germans and also he could connect East Prussia with German. As a result on 1st September, 1939 German troops storms into Poland. On 3rd September Britain and France declared war on Germany. Thus the world war begins
Course of the World War 2
There were several major events included in the world war 2, like the Holocaust and the nuclear bombing of Japan, which made it the deadliest conflict in human history, with casualties somewhere between 50 to 70 million.
It is the general opinion that the World War 2 started on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and 2 days later the France and the British Empire declared war on Germany. Soviet Union joined the war in June 1941 when the Axis launched a massive invasion on their ground. This was to be the largest land theatre of war in history of mankind. The Japan, even though being in war with China since 1937, joined the Great War in December 1941 by attacking United Stated in the Pacific.
Germany invaded most of the continental Europe from 1939 to 1941 and with Nazi-Soviet agreements, Britain and the Commonwealth remained the only force that fought against the Axis, until United States and Soviet Union joined the war.
After the defeats of Axis troops in Stalingrad and North Africa, and the defeat of Japan in 1942, the Axis advance was finally put into a halt. Strategic retreats took place in all fronts at 1943 after the invasion of Italy and the victories in the Pacific. The Allies invaded France and the Soviet Union recaptured all lost territories in 1944.
The World War 2 ended in Europe on 8 May 1945 when Soviet and Polish troops captured the city of Berlin. On the Asia, the war ended on 15 August 1945 with the surrender of Japan after the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Results of the war
The World War 2 ended in total victory of the Allies over Axis. The world was never to be the same. The United Nations were founded to prevent future conflicts of this magnitude. The United States and Soviet Union emerged as superpowers and the Cold War started. Decolonisation of Asia and Africa began and most of the countries started their economic recovery.
Cold war
Cold war was an era of neither peace nor war and the world was divided into two power blocs the soviet or the eastern power bloc and the American power bloc. As result of the World War 2, the USA and USSR emerged as the two top-level global powers. Any spirit of compromise that had existed during the war soon paled as the two nations pursued their separate and sometimes conflicting goals. Fear of soviet expansionist aims and disagreement over the settlement of Eastern Europe and to new kind of international tensions. Lasting roughly from 1946 to 1991,the world came to the brink of an another great war many times. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred - the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some. For many the growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most worrying issue. The cold war ended with the fall of Berlin wall that divided Germany into east and west Germany each controlled by the two power blocs and eventually the cold war led to the disintegration of USSR due to various internal problems that arose from cold war. After the fall of USSR , Untied States of America emerged as a super power.
UNO
During the war the five major allied powers including China agreed to establish new international peacekeeping organisation to replace the ineffectual League of Nations. At the Dumbarton Oaks conference of 1944, a tentative charter was drawn up. In a conference in San Francisco from April to June 1945 attended by delegates from 50 nations, The United Nations was established.
Conclusion
From the Hedgerows of Normandy to the streets of Stalingrad, the icy mountains of Norway to the sweltering deserts of Libya, the insect infested jungles of Burma to the coral reefed islands of the pacific. On land, sea and in the air, Poles fought Germans, Italians fought Americans and Japanese fought Australians in a conflict which was finally settled with the use of nuclear weapons. It was, and still is the greatest war ever fought in the human history and involved every major world power in a war for global domination and at its end, more than 60 million people had lost their lives and most of Europe and large parts of Asia lay in ruins. Let us pray that such a war will never come again.
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