World War II

The Background 

The First World War ended with Germany signing peace treaty called Treaty of Versailles, which forced it to pay a heavy war fine. This led to a general feeling of cheated in the common Germans. They were angry with the government for having dragged them into war. They were looking for a new leader. At this point of time a new leader came to the forefront. His name was Adolf Hitler, who is known as a ruthless dictator all over the world today.

Hitler was born in a small town in Austria in 1889. He admired Germany so much that he soon left his homeland to settle in Germany. Hitler served as an officer in the German army during the First World War. After the war he joined the National Socialist German Party which was later shortened to Nazi (Nat-Zee). 

Hitler soon became the leader of the Nazi Party. He was an able leader and a strong German patriot. He believed that the Germans were the superior to all the people in the world. He hated the communists and the Jews. He introduced a number of changes in the Nazi Party. He introduced uniforms and a flag with a swastika which became a symbol for the Nazis. He made Germans believe that violence was a brave and wonderful thing.

Hitler and Nazism 

Hitler was arrested for suggesting National Revolution and imprisoned for nine months, which he used to think clearly and made plans to come to power. In prison he wrote down his thoughts and later published them as a book called ‘Mein Kampf’ which means ‘My Struggle’.

In 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. He promised jobs for all Germans and food for all. He convinced the people of Germany that they needed more space to live in. For this he decided to drive out all foreigners, especially the Jews and the Gypsies. He also promised that a strong Germany would one day defeat the Allies. The German people believed and trusted him.

He built huge concentration camps to keep the expelled Jews before killing them. According to Hitler, the Jews had no right to live. These camps were terrible places where the Jews were tortured before being killed.

Mussolini and Fascism

In Italy another dictator Benito Mussolini, became very powerful. He and his party Fascist were dead against the Communists. They used to wear Black shirt, which was their symbol. In 1922, the Fascist Party led a march to Rome and manipulated the Italian King to allow them to form government. Mussolini became the dictator and within the next four years he killed or imprisoned all his opponents and controlled everything in Italy. He did not allow elections in 1926 and from now onwards he was a true dictator.

In 1935 Mussolini conquered Abyssinia, the present day Ethiopia, in Africa, which was resented by all European powers except Germany. Thus, started the alliance of Italy and Germany, called Rome-Berlin  Axis. Later Japan also joined this pact and this alliance of three powers i.e. Germany, Italy and Japan were known as the Axis Power.

The Second World War was fought between 1939 and 1945. IT started with Germany occupying Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland one after the other in 1939. Britain and France threatened Germany and asked it to stop conquering European countries as well as to leave Poland. German didn’t pay any heeds to this threaten. This led Britain declare war against Germany. Thus the Second World War started.

In the beginning the Axis Power of Germany-Italy-Japan won battles. Hitler tried to play safe by signing peace treaty with Russia. After securing Germany against Russian invasion, he attacked and conquered Denmark, Norway, Belgium and Holland. In June 1940, Hitler conquered France. In the east Japan conquered lands from China and British Indian colonies in the north east part of the Indian subcontinent.

The USA Enters 

Things took a different turn for the Axis power when USA was unwillingly dragged into the war. In 1941 Japan bombed US ships at Pearl Harbor on the Pacific Coast by mistake making US furious. The Us joined the Allies against the Axis powers. Soon the situation was different. By this time Italian people had have enough problems due to war. They were angry that Mussolini had dragged their country into war just to appease Germany. In 1943 Mussolini was overthrown and a new government was sworn in. The new Italian government withdrew from the war. Mussolini later was killed by angry Italian people. With the exit of Italy from the Axis camp, their power became less.

Result 

The USA and Britain defeated the Axis power in 1945. Hitler committed suicide in 1945 when Berlin was captured. The US dropped two atom bombs on twin cities of Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two cities were completely destroyed. This was the first time that a scientific invention was used to destroy humanity. Finally Japan surrendered in 1945 and the Second World War came to an end.