World history (Part - 2)

World War II: Causes and Consequences

Causes of the World War

The long and disastrous war began with Hitlers blitzkrieg against Poland. He collapsed after
three weeks of fighting. Russia took full advantage of the situation of Germanys friendship and
her army overran eastern Poland and three Baltic states. Russia attacked Finland for not granting
certain strategic territories and forcibly occupied her after defeating her. She was expelled from
the League of Nations for this act of aggression. The German Panzer divisions (armoured tanks
division) and Luftwaffe (Air Force) came to be feared by every nation. After the conquest of
Poland, there was lull, with the French and German armies facing each other without doing
anything. After six months of waiting, Hitler struck a swift and deadly blow on Denmark and
Sweden. The former surrendered within a few hours, and southern Norway too came under Nazi
control thanks to their betrayal by the traitor, Major Quisling. The Allies were compelled to
withdraw after receiving heavy blows from German tanks and the Air Force. The fall of Norway
and Denmark caused a great handicap to be limited. The Netherlands and Luxemborg were
attacked in May, 1940, and both were taken by the Nazis. At the end of this month, Belgium
surrendered to the invading German troops and his king, Leopold, was taken prisoner. The
English and French troops who went to the rescue of Belgium, were surrounded and pushed into
the corner of Flanders. Thus the British expeditionary forces, the French First Army, and the
Belgians were trapped. The latter surrendered but the others were evacuated from Dunkirka
most remarkable feat achieved with the help of the British Royal Navy, Air Force and large
numbers of merchant seamen (26 May to 4 June, 1940).
France Surrenders

The German army marched towards the French capital after overcoming all obstacles. The
scattered French forces could not save their capital and it fell into the hands of the invaders. It
was around this time that Mussolini joined the war on the side of Germany by attacking southern
France (June, 1940). France sued for peace. Hitler received his formal surrender in the old
railway carriage at Compiegne with vicarious pleasurea place where Germans formally
surrendered after the First World War. Germany occupied a part of France leaving the
unoccupied with its capital at Vichy to the French General Petain who also surrendered. He
became a puppet in the hands of the Nazis and refused to fight Germany from the French
colonies. Thus the fall of France caused a great void, and Britain was left alone to carry on the
fight. But General De Gaulle organised French resistance movement from outside France with
the ultimate view of liberating his country.
Battle of Britain

The British government rejected the German peace offer which meant accepting the fait
accompli and the Nazi dictator was left with no choice but to invade Britain. One of the epic
struggles of the Second World War was the Battle of Britain (August-September, 1940). Like
Napoleon, the Nazi dictator had done careful planning since the British Channel had to be
crossed by German ships, and again, this meant that German Air Force (Luftwaffe) had not only
to maintain its air superiority to protect her ships, but also penetrate the British air defence
system. The Luftwaffe directed by its chief, Hermann Goering, did its utmost but to no avail.
The pilots of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) did a splendid job in denting all the German
aerial attacks, and by September end, the projected German invasion ended in a fiasco.
Winston Churchill, the war-time Prime Minister of Britain, paid handsome tributes to the RAF
pilots saying, Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Although the immediate invasion of Britain was warded off, Germany continued its Night Blitz
against her. British cities and towns suffered heavy damage and many civilians died. Britain
retaliated by bombing German industrial areas. It was during this time, that the United States
supplied war materials on lend-lease basis to Britain in sympathy for her fight against the Axis
powers.
North African Front

The lightning victories of Germans made Mussolini, the dictator of Italy, jealous and he too
attempted to claim similar credit. His troops attacked Greece, but within a few months, made a
hasty retreat after encountering heroic resistance.
The Italians also made an attempt to conquer Libya (in North Africa) but the British troops drove
them out. Furthermore, the British troops made advance towards Italian-controlled Ethiopia and
other colonies to bring about their liberation.
Between April and June 1941, the German troops made rapid advances into the Balkans and
occupied Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, the last one after encountering heroic
resistance. The British troops in Greece beat a hasty retreat and settled in the nearby Crete island.
They did not remain long as they were expelled from that island too.
To give substantial support to the Italians, the Germans landed in North Africa. Their combined
troops defeated the British and subsequenth advanced towards Egypt. Had Hitler suddenly not
changed his mind, the offensives launched by combined troops would have carried them far into
the heartland of the Middle East. But it was not to be.
Invasion of Russia

The non-aggression pact signed between Russia and Germany proved to be short-lived. It
seemed Stalin did not like the German penetration into the Balkans, and similarly, Hitler, the ring
of buffer states created by Russia. The conquest of Yugoslavia by Germany and the quarrel over
sharing of the spoils created a serious rift between the two. In June, 1941, Hitler attacked Russia
by ordering a well co-ordinated and massive attack. The Russians suffered heavy casualties, and
by November, lost eastern Poland, the Baltic Republics and western Ukraine. The German troops
laid siege to Leningrad and knocked on the doors of the Russian capital, Moscow. It was a matter
of life and death for that great nation and her patriotic citizens fought it out As during the
Napoleonic invasion, nature came to her rescue. The overconfident Axis troops under Hitler
hardly reckoned the advent of Russian winter as a menace. The Russian winter froze the German
soldiers, and the ice and snow blocked their advance into the Russian capital. Like the Battle of
Britain, the battle for Russia turned out to be a great disaster. Further offensives were postponed.
The commonwealth army inflicted crushing defeats on the Italians in east Africa, and
subsequently they attacked the Axis forces in north Africa. The British troops took Cyrenaica for
the second time.
Japanese Offensives

Japan came under militaristic leaders who were planning to conquer China and the Southeast
Asian countries. They conquered Manchuria in China in 1931. Using it as a base, they penetrated
into China and a full-scale war broke out between the two. With the outbreak of World War II,
Japan got an opportunity to expand his empire since the Western democracies were busy fighting
the war in Europe and Africa. But fortunately, the USA had been watching her aggressiveness
and tried to put a stop to it. The Japanese military leaders under the command of Commander
Tojo planned to put the US fleet stationed at Pearl Harbour out of action, so that their future
conquests could be accomplished easily. They joined hands with Germany and Italy and their Air
Force attacked the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbour on 7 December, 1941. As it was a
sudden attack carried out by Japanese planes, eight heavy battleships and several vessels were
sunk. American neutrality came to an end after this since the USA declared war on Japan. Britain
and France supported the USA by declaring war on Japan, and Germany and Italy in support of
Japan, declared war on the USA. Many South American states declared their support to the USA.
Japans offensives on the small nations of Southeast Asia yielded rich rewards. Hong Kong,
Malaya, the Netherlands, East Indies, Burma, the Philippines and a number of islands fell one by
one into the hands of Japan (December, 1941 to May, 1942). The Japanese successive victories
came to a stop when the American fleet won the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway (May-June,
1942). But Japan was in control of an empire stretching over three million square miles.
The summer of 1942, witnessed Rommels (renowned German tank commander) spectacular
victories in north Africa, and the Italo-German offensives there were carried on with great
success. They were within reach of the Egyptian port of Alexandria. At the same time, the
Germans reached the Caucasus and posed a serious threat to the Russian oilfields. The Russians

under General Zukhov fought to the last man to save their heavily destroyed city. The Russian
General brought about the greatest German disaster by surrounding the Germans and forcing
their commander, Field Marshal Paulus, to surrender on 31 January, 1943. In the north also, the
Germans were pushed back from Leningrad.
In yet another front, the Eighth Army under the command of the British General Montgomery,
won a historic battle against Rommel at El Alamein (October-November, 1943). It proved to be a
turning point in the North African War because the Italians were rounded up and the Germans
were chased across Africa. At this time there were Anglo-American landings in French North
Africa to force the Germans to retreat. The German struggle in north Africa came to an end on
May, 1943. The Allies launched their air and naval attacks by bombarding the Ruhr Valley
(German industrial centre) and ports. They were followed up by an Anglo-American invasion of
Sicily in July, 1943. The Allies gave full support to the resistance movements going on in the
German-occupied European countries. After capturing the island of Sicily, the Anglo-American
invasion was carried on to the Italian mainland. Meanwhile, Mussolini was dismissed and
imprisoned. General Badoglio, a confidant of the Italian royal family, took charge of the Italian
government. The new Italian government contacted the Allies secretly for arriving at an amicable
settlement. Alliance with Nazi Germany was shaken off. Mussolini was rescued by German
parachutists and taken to northern Italy where he set up a rival government. The progress of the
Allies on the Italian mainland was halted because of German resistance.
Invasion of Normandy

One of the most spectacular events of the Second World War was the Allied invasion of
Normandy on 6 June, 1944, led by an American commander.
General Eisenhower. After few weeks of tough struggle with the Germans,the Allies liberated
northern and western France. This accomplished, they advanced towards Belgium and Holland.
Another Allied force landed in southern France held by Germany and moved towards the Upper
Rhine in August, 1944. The Allies were moving across the German frontiers. The Germans
fought the Battle of the Bulge, and succeeded in halting the advance of the Allies. But the
latter began to penetrate through Germanys weak defences. Simultaneously a Russian army
reached the German Capital and heavily bombarded it. Hitler committed suicide. On 8 May, the
war came to an end after an armistice agreement was signed by Hitlers successor, Admiral
Doenitz. Some prominent Nazi leaders died and the others faced trial.
Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombed

The Allies concentrated on the defeat of Japan. After the Pearl Harbour setback, the Allies
regrouped their forces in Australia, commanded by the American Five-Star General, MacArthur,
and took Coral Sea and Midway (May-June, 1942). They conquered the Solomon islands and
New Guinea. They went on to conquer many central Pacific islands, and recovered the

Philippines. Meanwhile, the Allied armies fought in Burma and captured Rangoon. The Allies
next took control of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the two islands located within striking distance of
Japan. They started bombing Japan. President Truman who succeeded President F. D. Roosevelt
after the latters death took the most decisive step in ending the war, by dropping atom bombs on
Japan. The first atom bomb was dropped on the port-city of Hiroshima on 6 August, 1945 and
three days later on Nagasaki, and the deaths caused by these two atom bombs compelled the
Japanese military rulers to agree to an unconditional surrender demanded by the Allies. In
Hiroshima, 80,000 people were killed, and two and a half square-miles of area was totally wiped
out. Heavy damage occurred in another 14 square miles. This nuclear holocaust came as a finale
to the Second World War.
Peace Treaties after World War II

Regarding the fate of Germany, the Allies had made their aims explicit through the Atlantic
Charter, and in Tehran, Yalta and Postsdam conferences. Germany and her capital was to be
divided into zones and occupied till such time as she was transformed into peace-loving and
democratic country. The Nazi leaders were to be tried for offences and punished. The FrancoGerman frontier of 1939 was restored. After a plebiscite, the Saar was annexed to western
Germany. Russia and the Western Allies quarrelled over many matters and many problems
concerning the unification of Germany remained unsolved.
A council of foreign ministers prepared drafts of peace treaties to be signed by the five Nazi
satellite states, namely, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Finland (July, 1945). The Paris
Peace Conference was held in July ,1946, which was attended by tenty-one nations. In February,
1947, these satellite countries of Nazi-Germany signed the treaties after pleading their own
cases.
(a) Italy surrendered all her territorial conquests gained after the First World War. Albania
became independent and a communist state. Trieste was divided into two zones occupied by
Anglo-American and Yugoslavian forces.
(b) Austria was separated from Germany and the Four Big Powers occupied it till 1955.
(c) Hungary and Bulgaria came under communist governments. The latter received south
Dobrudja from Romania.
(d) Finland ceded some territories to the USSR.
(e) After receiving the Japanese surrender, the Allies under General MacArthur occupied her
territories until 1951. Japan signed treaties with Britain, France and the USA. She gave up her
control over Korea, Formosa, Sakhalin, Kuriles. the Mandated islands, and signed a defence
treaty with the USA permitting her forces to remain in Japan and granted bases for joint-defence.
Results of World War II

During the five years and ten months war, it was estimated that twelve million soldiers were
killed in action. Another twenty-five million civilians died due to starvation and disease. About
1,60,000 people in Japan died due to dropping of the atom bombs on their cities, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Even today the children of those who survived this holocaust have been suffering from
skin diseases. The USA spent nearly 350 billion dollars. The other countries might have spent
something close to a trillion dollars (i.e., 1,000 billion). In terms of damage, the cost was another
trillion dollars. The Second World War caused untold sufferings to millions of people all over the
world. Everything was in short supply and prices rose. The issue of resettlement of the homeless
became a task of great magnitude.
The people of the world were aghast at the moral degeneration due to the senseless war resulting
in enormous civilian casualties. The dropping of two atom bombs on the innocent people of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki roused the conscience of humanity.
The barbarous attitude of men in power at perpetrating the worst massacressuch as the Nazi
massacres of millions of Jews in particularindicated the depth of their moral degradation.
World War II brought about changes in the status of countries and continents. Britain and France
lost their positions of preeminence as superpowers and yielded place to the USA and the USSR.
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. Their economies were in the
red and their colonial subjects were demanding independence. Europe lost its status as the citadel
of Western civilization.
The USA became a global power and this was manifest during World War II. Tapping her vast
resources, she became a great industrial giant. She emerged from her isolation and saved Western
democracies from peril.
One of the startling results of the war was the rise of the USSR as a superpower. She was partly
responsible for the defeat of Germany. She joined the Western powers when she was attacked
treacherously by Hitler. The heroism shown by her people at the time of war would never be
forgotten by posterity.
World War II left tales of misery everywhere. Food shortage, inflation, unemployment and all
other legacies of war raised their dragon heads. The people at large were left at the mercy of their
corrupt governments. It was in this atmosphere of wretchedness that communism began to thrive.
The progress achieved by the Communist Russia dazzled them.
The post-war world witnessed the end of colonialism in Africa and Asia. There, the people
struggled for their freedom. The new governments in Western democracies had to finally yield to
this demand. The Afro-Asian countries gained independence one by one.

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.
Peace Plans of the Allies During the War

The aftermath of the war included the occupation of Germany by the Allied powers for the
second time. Even before the conclusion of the war, both Britain and the USA had stated what
their aims were going to be after the defeat of Germany. The British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, and American President F.D. Roosevelt, met somewhere off the coast of
Newfoundland in 1941 and prepared a charterthe Atlantic Charterexpressing what they
wished to accomplish soon after the conclusion of the war. Many lofty ideals were declared and
these inspired the other nations fighting the Axis powers. These two leaders, according to the
charter, declared that they seek no territorial gains, will not make territorial changes, bring about
the restoration of freedom of nations denied by Germany, provide self-government to the
European colonies and so on. The most important object which these two leaders desired to
achieve was the establishment of a new international machinery (birth of the UNO) to maintain
international peace and security. About Germany, they wished to ensure that she does not repeat
her aggressiveness in future. These two leaders met time and again and planned to bring about
the defeat of Germany. They felt it necessary to take the cooperation of Stalin, the leader of the
Soviet Union. The three leaders met in 1943, at Tehran to prepare military plans for defeating
Germany through well co-ordinated attacks. They met again at Yalta (Crimea), where three
important agreements were reached. The first concerned about the division of Germany and its
capital into four occupational zones after her surrender. The second related to the nations about
to be liberated and also about the satellite countries of the Axis powers. The third was kept a
secret and it related to the compensation Russia was to receive in the Far East for declaring a war
against Japan. Russia was to get some islands belonging to Japan and special rights in
Manchuria, which she had lost after the Russo-Japanese war (1905) Soon after Germanys
defeat, President Truman of America, Prime Minister Clement Attlee of Britain, Chiang Kai-shek
of China and Marshal Stalin of Russia met in Potsdam (a suburb of Berlin). The four great
leaders drafted plans which gave details regarding what they would like to do with defeated
Germany. The details included the Allied occupation of that country, liquidation of her armed
forces, dismantling of her war industries, and the eventual transfer of power to a democratically
elected government, after the destruction of Nazi Party and its elements. The leaders meeting in
Potsdam also planned as to how Japan should be treated after her defeat. They agreed that she
should be occupied like Germany, and most of her colonies (acquired by conquest) should be
handed back to China and some to Russia.
One of the wartime agreements included the provision for rendering economic assistance to the
peoples who would be liberated from Nazi Germany. It took shape in the form of UNRRA

(United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) which was to render much needed aid
from 1943 to 1948, to the people of Europe to fight famine and disease. Subsequently, UNRRA
provided food, clothing and other assistance to millions of people in various countries, helping
them to make speedy economic recovery. At Bretton Woods (New Hampshire), an International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now known as World Bank) was set up in July, 1944.
This bank was to render assistance to war-torn countries of Europe to make efforts to improve
their economies. America under the stewardship of President Roosevelt realised that it was his
absence in the League of Nations that had caused another world war. She, therefore, was
determined not to let this be repeated. President Roosevelt took the initiative to build a
machinery for post-war collective security wherein the USA would play a leading role.
Accordingly, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference was convened in August, 1944 and by October,
the four big powers (UK, USA, Soviet Union, and China) formulated general principles for a
world organisation on the lines of the earlier League of Nations. It was followed by another big
conference convened at San Francisco (April-June, 1945).