⚔ The World Wars and the world they made
How nationalism and empire led to the First World War, the Depression between the wars, the Second World War, and the new world order — the IMF and World Bank, decolonisation, the Cold War and its end.
🧭 The road to war, 1815–1914
Treaties, empires and rival nationalisms.
-
1815
The Congress of Vienna
Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria, who had together defeated Napoleon, met at Vienna to draw up a settlement for Europe.
-
1885
Africa divided at Berlin
The big European powers met in Berlin to complete the carving up of Africa between them.
-
1905
Slav nationalism in the Balkans
Slav nationalism gathered force in the Habsburg and Ottoman empires.
🪖 The First World War, 1914–18
Mainly fought in Europe, felt around the world.
-
1914–1918
Two power blocs
The Allies — Britain, France and Russia, later joined by the US — fought the Central Powers — Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey. The war began in August 1914 and lasted more than four years.
-
The first modern industrial war
It saw machine guns, tanks, aircraft and chemical weapons on a massive scale; some 9 million were killed and 20 million injured.
-
1917
The Russian Revolution
The socialist revolution in Russia in 1917 led to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
📉 Between the wars
Economic crisis and the rise of dictatorship.
-
c. 1929 – mid-1930s
The Great Depression
It began around 1929 and lasted till the mid-1930s; by 1933 over 4,000 banks had closed, and between 1929 and 1932 about 110,000 companies collapsed.
-
1933
Hitler takes power in Germany
Hitler captured power in Germany.
💣 The Second World War, 1939–45
Six years of war on land, at sea and in the air.
-
1939–45
Axis against Allies
The Axis powers — mainly Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy — fought the Allies — Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the US — for six years on many fronts.
-
The human cost
At least 60 million people — about 3 per cent of the world’s 1939 population — are believed to have been killed, directly or indirectly.
-
July 1941
Germany attacks Russia
German forces attacked Russia.
-
1942
Quit India
In India, the Quit India Movement.
-
1945
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The USA dropped atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
🕊 The world after the war
New institutions, new nations and a long Cold War.
-
July 1944
Bretton Woods
The framework of the post-war economy was agreed at the UN Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, USA; the IMF and the World Bank began operations in 1947.
-
1948
The Marshall Plan
Under the Marshall Plan, the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation was set up to channel aid to west European states.
-
1950–53
The Korean War
The Korean War and the Cold War deepened the rivalry between the two Koreas.
-
1955
The Bandung Conference
NCERT’s world timeline lists the Bandung Conference (1955) together with the Non-Aligned Movement.
-
Decolonisation and the G-77
Newly independent developing countries organised themselves as the Group of 77 to demand a new international economic order.
-
1961–1989
The Berlin Wall
Built in 1961 to separate East from West Berlin, the wall — the greatest symbol of the Cold War — was broken by the people on 9 November 1989.
-
December 1991
The Soviet Union is disbanded
Under Yeltsin, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus declared the Soviet Union disbanded; Gorbachev resigned on 25 December.
-
1992
The European Union
The Treaty of Maastricht, signed on 7 February 1992, established the European Union.
How we check: every entry is from an NCERT textbook; our build fails unless its key phrases are found in the chapter itself. Figures of the dead are NCERT’s estimates.