NIOS History (315) • Module 5

The Inter-War Period & Second World War

Lesson 24 Study & Exam Master
NIOS History (315) • Module 5: Contemporary World

Lesson 24: The Inter-War Period and the Second World War

An exhaustive synthesis detailing the peace treaties after WWI, territorial shifts across Europe, the rise of totalitarian regimes (Fascism, Nazism, Japanese militarism), the Great Depression, the policy of appeasement, and the catastrophic course of the Second World War (1939–1945).

01

The Peace Treaties & The Changed Map of Europe

1. The Paris Peace Conference & League of Nations

The First World War concluded with peace treaties drafted in Paris by key Allied leaders: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister Lloyd George, and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. In April 1919, the Covenant of the League of Nations was approved to promote international cooperation, peace, and collective security.

However, the League was crippled from inception: major powers like Germany and Soviet Russia were excluded initially, and despite President Wilson's leading role, the United States Senate voted not to join. Consequently, the League failed to prevent fascist aggression during the 1930s.

Key Provisions of the Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919):
  • War Guilt Clause: Germany was blamed as the sole aggressor and forced to accept full responsibility for war damages.
  • Reparations: Germany was compelled to pay $6,600 million in financial compensation to the Allies.
  • Saar Coal Basin: Given to League control for 15 years, with coal mines handed directly to France.
  • Polish Corridor & Danzig: Newly created Poland received a corridor to the Baltic Sea splitting East Prussia from Germany; Danzig became a Free City.
  • Military Restrictions: German army capped at 100,000 men; air force and navy completely prohibited.
  • Colonial Loss: All German colonies were partitioned as Mandates among victorious Allied powers.

2. Territorial Re-alignments across Europe

Germany returned Alsace-Lorraine to France and surrendered northern border lands to Belgium and Denmark. Poland reappeared after disappearing in 1815. Austria-Hungary was dismantled into small states: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. The Ottoman Empire was dismembered; Britain gained Palestine & Iraq as Mandates while France gained Syria. Mustafa Kemal ('Ataturk') ousted the Sultan and established the modern secular Republic of Turkey in 1923.

02

Rise of Totalitarian Regimes: Italy, Germany & Japan

1. Italian Fascism under Benito Mussolini

Discontented with meager territorial gains despite fighting on the Allied side, Italy suffered economic chaos and unemployment. Benito Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party in 1921, utilizing private armed gangs called Blackshirts to crush socialist strikes and spread terror. In October 1922, 30,000 Blackshirts staged the March on Rome; King Victor Emmanuel III yielded, appointing Mussolini Prime Minister. By 1928, Mussolini banned non-fascist parties, set up the Fascist Grand Council, and ruled as "Il Duce" (The Leader).

2. Hitler & Nazi Dictatorship in Germany

Adolf Hitler transformed the German Workers' Party into the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party), organized with an armed wing called Brownshirts (Storm Troopers). Following the failed Munich Putsch (1923), Hitler wrote Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") in prison, promoting extreme anti-Semitism, anti-communism, and Aryan racial supremacy.

Hitler's Consolidation Timeline (1932–1934):

• 1932: Nazis became the largest parliamentary party due to Great Depression economic distress.
• Jan 30, 1933: President Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor.
• Feb 1933: Reichstag Fire blamed on communists; civil liberties suspended.
• June 30, 1934: Night of the Long Knives — hundreds of SA Storm Troopers purged.
• Aug 2, 1934: Hindenburg died; Hitler combined Presidency and Chancellorship as Fuehrer.

3. Military Fascism in Japan

Japan defeated China (1894–95) and Russia (1905, acquiring Manchuria). After WWI, Japanese military cliques dismantled domestic democratic parliamentary rule, promoting aggressive militarism and imperial expansion into Asia to secure industrial raw materials.

03

The Great Depression (1929) & Socialist Economy in the USSR

1. The Global Great Depression

Triggered on October 29, 1929 by the Wall Street stock market crash in New York, the Great Depression was caused by overproduction and maldistribution of purchasing power. Over 9,000 U.S. banks failed, 15 million Americans became unemployed, and global unemployment surpassed 50 million. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the New Deal program of social welfare and economic reform.

Soviet Economic Evolution (1918–1930s):
  • War Communism (1918–1921): Forcible requisitioning of surplus grain from rich peasants (Kulaks) to survive civil war and allied intervention.
  • New Economic Policy / NEP (1921): Introduced by Lenin replacing War Communism; peasants paid a 1/10th tax and sold surplus in open markets; small private trade revived.
  • Five-Year Plans & Collectivization (1928 onwards): Under Joseph Stalin, private peasant farms were forcibly merged into collective farms (Kolkhov) to modernize agriculture. Kulaks resisting collectivization were liquidated. USSR rapidly industrialized and remained insulated from the Great Depression.
04

Fascist Aggression & Western Appeasement (1931–1939)

Appeasement was the policy of making concessions to aggressors at the cost of weaker nations to maintain peace and redirect aggression against Soviet Communism.

Aggression Milestones

• 1931: Japan invaded Manchuria (China); League took no effective action.
• 1935: Mussolini invaded Ethiopia.
• 1936: Hitler re-militarized Rhineland with 800,000 troops.
• 1936: Rome-Berlin Axis signed; 1937 Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan.
• 1938: Anschluss — annexation of Austria by Germany.

Munich Pact & Spanish Civil War

• Spanish Civil War (1936–39): "Dress Rehearsal of WWII" — Franco's fascists supported by Hitler/Mussolini defeated Popular Front.
• Sept 1938 Munich Pact: Britain and France conceded Czech Sudetenland to Hitler without Czech input. Jawaharlal Nehru condemned the pact in National Herald.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and USSR signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war on September 3, 1939 — marking the start of World War II.

05

Course of World War II & Allied Victory (1939–1945)

1. Blitzkrieg & The Battle of Britain (1939–1940)

Hitler unleashed Blitzkrieg ("Lightning War"), taking Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France by June 1940. Over 350,000 Allied troops evacuated from Dunkirk; Col. Charles de Gaulle established "Free France". In the Battle of Britain (Aug–Nov 1940), the British RAF (*Spitfires & Hurricanes*) defeated the German Luftwaffe, forcing Hitler to cancel Operation Sea-Lion. PM Winston Churchill praised RAF: "Never have so many owed so much to so few."

Turning Points of World War II:
  • Operation Barbarossa (June 22, 1941): Germany invaded USSR. Russian winter (-40°C) halted Nazis outside Moscow.
  • Pearl Harbor (Dec 7, 1941): Japan attacked US naval fleet in Hawaii; USA entered global war on Dec 8.
  • Battle of Stalingrad (Aug 1942 – Jan 31, 1943): Red Army encircled and destroyed German 6th Army. Major decisive turning point of WWII.
  • El Alamein (Oct 1942): British 8th Army (Gen. Montgomery) defeated German Afrika Korps (Gen. Rommel) in Egypt.
  • D-Day / Normandy (June 6, 1944): Allied invasion of France under Gen. Dwight Eisenhower opened Second Front.

2. Axis Collapse & Atomic End

Mussolini was executed on April 28, 1945. As Soviet forces stormed Berlin, Hitler committed suicide on April 30, and Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7, 1945. To force Japanese surrender, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug 9, 1945). Japan signed formal surrender on September 2, 1945. Over 50 million perished globally, leading directly to the founding of the United Nations Organization (UNO).