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World War II
drishtiias
...
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
...
Nearly some 100 million people had been militarised, and 50 million had been killed (around 3%
of the world's population)
...
They include the impact of the Treaty of
Versailles following WWI, the worldwide economic depression, failure of appeasement,
the rise of militarism in Germany and Japan, and the failure of the League of Nations
...
Germany
was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles
...
Germany lost
territory and was prohibited from having a large military
...
Failure of the League of Nations
The League of Nations was an international organization set up in 1919 to keep world peace
...
The League of Nations was a good idea, but ultimately a failure, as not all countries joined the
league
...
Great Depression of 1929
The worldwide economic depression of the 1930s took its toll in different ways in Europe and
Asia
...
In Asia, a resource-starved Japan began to expand aggressively, invading China and maneuvering
to control a sphere of influence in the Pacific
...
In the 1920s, however, the wave of nationalistic, militaristic totalitarianism known by its Italian
name, fascism
...
Benito Mussolini established the first Fascist, European dictatorship during the interwar period
in Italy in 1922
...
2/7
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
...
Moreover, in 1941 the Nazi regime unleashed a war of extermination against Slavs, Jews, and
other elements deemed inferior by Hitler’s ideology
...
Although Britain and France knew of Hitler’s actions, they thought a stronger Germany would
stop the spread of Communism from Russia
...
In the Agreement,
Britain and France allowed Germany to annex areas in Czechoslovakia where German-speakers
lived
...
However, in
March 1939, Germany broke its promise and invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia
...
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
...
This marked the beginning of World War II
...
This period of war is known as 'phoney war'
...
Ribbentrop Pact
By the early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to invade and
occupy Poland
...
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
...
3/7
Further, Russia followed Germany into Poland in September and Poland was carved up between
the two invaders before the end of the year
...
Denmark surrendered immediately, but the Norwegians fought on - with British and French
assistance - surrendering in June 1940
...
During this phase, the western Europe encountered the Blitzkrieg - or 'lightning war'
...
Despite greater numbers of air and army personnel in Allied powers, they proved no match
for German Forces
...
Having conquered France, Hitler turned his attention to Britain, and began preparations for an
invasion
...
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
...
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
...
Operation Barbarossa
After facing defeat in Britain, Hitler broke the Ribbentrop Pact and invaded Russia in 1941
...
The bitter Russian winter, however, like the one that Napoleon had experienced a century and a
half earlier, crippled the Germans
...
Pearl Harbour
The Japanese, tired of American trade embargoes, mounted a surprise attack on the US Navy
base of Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, on 7 December 1941
...
Also, within a week of Pearl Harbor, Japan had invaded the Philippines, Burma and Hong Kong
...
In this battle, US sea-based
aircraft destroyed four Japanese carriers and a cruiser, marking the turning point in World War
II
...
Reversal of German Fortunes
By the second half of 1942, British forces gained the initiative in North Africa and Russian forces
counterattacked at Stalingrad
...
This was the first major
defeat of Hitler's armies
...
As the Russian advance on the Eastern Front gathered pace, recapturing Kharkiv and Kiev from
Germany
...
The Russians reached Berlin (capital of Germany) on 21 April 1945
...
Germany surrendered unconditionally on 7 May, and the following day was celebrated as VE
(Victory in Europe) day
...
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
...
Three days later another was dropped on Nagasaki
...
With the surrender of Japan, World War II was finally over
...
Britain and France
lost their positions of preeminence as superpowers and yielded place to the USA and the USSR
...
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
...
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
...
However, the establishment of the UN was agreed, much before the end of World War II under
the Atlantic Charter
...
The countries that fought with Hitler lost territory and had to pay reparations to the Allies
...
The zones were to be controlled by Great Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union
...
This laid the foundation of the Cold War
...
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
...
India and World II
6/7
World War II had taken an immense toll on the British Empire
...
However,
Mahatma Gandhi at this time organized Indians against the British
...
Thus, after the war, people all over the world started supporting voices against British occupation
over its colonies
...
Soon after coming into power, Prime Minister Clement Attlee (Labour Party) began the process of
granting India its independence in 1947