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World Wars & the Cold War

The two World Wars, the League of Nations and the Great Depression, decolonisation, the Cold War, the Non-Aligned Movement and the end of the Soviet Union.

Lessons in this module

1

The First World War and Its Aftermath

Lesson • 5 quiz questions

Read notes ↓
2

The Second World War and Decolonisation

Lesson • 5 quiz questions

Read notes ↓
3

The Cold War, Non-Alignment and the End of the USSR

Lesson • 5 quiz questions

Read notes ↓

Lesson notes

1. The First World War and Its Aftermath

The First World War (1914–1918) was fought mainly in Europe but drew in countries and colonies across the world, including more than a million Indian soldiers. The peace treaties that followed, and the economic crash of 1929, set the stage for the next war.

Causes and course of WWI

  • Long-term causes are often remembered as MAIN: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism.
  • Two alliance blocs: the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) and the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia). Italy later joined the Allies (1915).
  • Immediate cause: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 by Gavrilo Princip.
  • The USA joined the war in 1917; Russia left after its revolution (1918).
  • The fighting ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

The Treaty of Versailles (1919)

  • Signed on 28 June 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference, between the Allies and Germany.
  • Germany had to accept blame for the war (the 'war guilt' clause), pay heavy reparations, give up its colonies and limit its army.
  • US President Woodrow Wilson's 'Fourteen Points' proposed a League of Nations and self-determination for peoples.
  • Many Germans resented the treaty; historians see this resentment as one cause of the Second World War.

League of Nations and the Great Depression

  • The League of Nations was created in 1920 to keep peace; its headquarters was in Geneva. India was a founding member.
  • The USA never joined, and the League could not stop aggression in the 1930s (for example by Japan, Italy and Germany).
  • The Great Depression began with the Wall Street (New York stock market) Crash of October 1929.
  • It caused mass unemployment worldwide. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the 'New Deal'.
  • Economic misery helped extremist parties rise: Mussolini's Fascists had taken power in Italy in 1922, and Hitler became German Chancellor in January 1933.
Quick facts
Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
28 June 1914, Sarajevo
WWI Armistice
11 November 1918
Treaty of Versailles
28 June 1919
Fourteen Points
Woodrow Wilson
League of Nations
1920, HQ Geneva; USA never joined
Wall Street Crash
October 1929: start of the Great Depression
New Deal
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Hitler becomes Chancellor
January 1933

💡 28 June appears twice: Franz Ferdinand was shot on 28 June 1914 and the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919.

📝 5-question quiz on this lesson: enrol free to take it and track your score.

2. The Second World War and Decolonisation

The Second World War (1939–1945) was the deadliest conflict in history, with tens of millions of deaths. It ended with the first and only use of atomic bombs in war. Afterwards, the old European empires weakened and many countries in Asia and Africa won independence.

Course of WWII

  • Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939; Britain and France declared war on 3 September 1939.
  • Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan. Main Allied Powers: Britain, the USSR (from 1941), the USA (from 1941), China and France.
  • Germany attacked the USSR in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa). Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) on 7 December 1941, bringing the USA into the war.
  • D-Day: Allied landings in Normandy, France on 6 June 1944.
  • Germany surrendered in May 1945; 8 May is celebrated as Victory in Europe (VE) Day in the West.

The Holocaust, the atomic bombs and the end of the war

  • The Holocaust was the systematic, state-organised murder of about six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Roma, disabled people and others were also targeted.
  • The USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945).
  • Japan announced its surrender on 15 August 1945 and signed the formal surrender on 2 September 1945, ending the war.
  • Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials (1945–46).
  • The Atlantic Charter (1941) of Roosevelt and Churchill and the wartime alliance led to the creation of the United Nations in 1945.

Decolonisation

  • The war weakened Britain, France and the Netherlands, while freedom movements in the colonies grew stronger.
  • India and Pakistan became independent in 1947; Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and Myanmar (then Burma) in 1948.
  • Indonesia declared independence in 1945; the Netherlands recognised it in 1949.
  • Ghana (1957), under Kwame Nkrumah, is usually described as the first sub-Saharan African colony to win independence from European rule.
  • 1960 is called the 'Year of Africa' because 17 African countries became independent that year.
  • Some independence struggles were peaceful negotiations; others, such as in Algeria (independent 1962) and Vietnam, involved long wars.
Quick facts
WWII begins
1 September 1939: Germany invades Poland
Axis Powers
Germany, Italy, Japan
Pearl Harbor attack
7 December 1941
D-Day
6 June 1944, Normandy
Hiroshima / Nagasaki
6 August / 9 August 1945
Japan's formal surrender
2 September 1945
Holocaust
About six million Jews murdered
Year of Africa
1960: 17 African countries independent

💡 Hiroshima comes first alphabetically and in time: Hiroshima 6 August, Nagasaki 9 August 1945.

📝 5-question quiz on this lesson: enrol free to take it and track your score.

3. The Cold War, Non-Alignment and the End of the USSR

After 1945 the USA and the USSR became superpowers with rival systems: capitalist democracy and communist one-party rule. Their long rivalry without a direct war between them is called the Cold War (about 1947–1991). Newly independent countries like India chose not to join either bloc, forming the Non-Aligned Movement.

Two blocs

  • Winston Churchill's 1946 speech at Fulton, USA spoke of an 'iron curtain' dividing Europe.
  • Truman Doctrine (1947): US support to countries resisting communism. Marshall Plan (1948): US aid to rebuild Western Europe.
  • Berlin Blockade (1948–49): the USSR blocked land routes to West Berlin; the West supplied it by the Berlin Airlift.
  • NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded on 4 April 1949 in Washington with 12 members. Article 5 says an attack on one is an attack on all.
  • The USSR and its East European allies formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. It was dissolved in 1991.
  • Proxy wars and crises included the Korean War (1950–53), the Vietnam War (ended 1975) and the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–89).

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)

  • Idea: newly independent nations would stay out of military blocs and decide each issue on its merits.
  • The Asian-African Conference at Bandung, Indonesia (1955) prepared the ground.
  • The first NAM summit was held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in September 1961.
  • Founding leaders: Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia), Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Sukarno (Indonesia) and Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana).
  • Nehru was a key voice for non-alignment. NAM today has 121 member states (South Sudan joined in 2024), the largest grouping of countries after the UN.

Crises and the end of the Cold War

  • Berlin Wall built in August 1961 to stop East Germans escaping to the West.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962): Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba led to a 13-day stand-off between US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It ended when the missiles were withdrawn.
  • From 1985 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).
  • The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989; Germany reunified on 3 October 1990.
  • The USSR was dissolved in December 1991 (Gorbachev resigned on 25 December); it split into 15 independent countries, with Russia the largest.
Quick facts
'Iron curtain' speech
Winston Churchill, Fulton, 1946
Marshall Plan
US aid to rebuild Western Europe, 1948
NATO founded
4 April 1949, Washington; Article 5 = collective defence
Warsaw Pact
1955 to 1991
First NAM summit
Belgrade, September 1961
Cuban Missile Crisis
October 1962: Kennedy vs Khrushchev
Fall of the Berlin Wall
9 November 1989
USSR dissolved
December 1991, into 15 countries

💡 Bandung 1955 came first (Asian-African Conference); Belgrade 1961 was the first actual NAM summit. Exams like to swap them.

📝 5-question quiz on this lesson: enrol free to take it and track your score.

Other modules in General Knowledge: India & the World, The Story So Far

Ancient IndiaFREE PREVIEW → Medieval IndiaFREE PREVIEW → Colonial Rule and the Freedom StruggleFREE PREVIEW → The Constitution of IndiaFREE PREVIEW → How India Is GovernedFREE PREVIEW → India's Economic Journey and PoliciesFREE PREVIEW → Post-Independence Milestones and PolicyFREE PREVIEW → Revolutions & the Modern WorldFREE PREVIEW → The United Nations & International OrganisationsFREE PREVIEW → The 21st-Century WorldFREE PREVIEW → World Geography & Facts for ExamsFREE PREVIEW → Final AssessmentFREE PREVIEW →

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