history

• Course of the Second World War

  • Occupation of Poland (1939)
  • Fall of Western and Northern Europe (1940)
  • Italian invasion of North Africa (1940)
  • German invasion of the Soviet Union (1941)
  • Entry of the United States (1941)
  • Allied counter-offensives (1942-4)
  • End of the Second World War (1945)
• Blitzkrieg strategy


  • Mobile tactic combining the air force and armored united, allowing Germany to successfully occupy Poland within less than a month
• Germany occupied Denmark, Norway, Belgium the Netherlands and France, leading to the retreat of 370,000 Allied soldiers to Britain
• In June 1940, Italy entered the war and invaded North Africa, but Britain made a counter-attack against Italy
• Germany adopted the blitzkrieg strategy against the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union suffered heavy casualties due to being ill-equipped
• On December 7 (December 8 in Asia), Japanese troops made a sudden attack on the American naval based in Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, leading the United States to declare war on Japan and the start of the Pacific War
• Allied counter-offensives (1942-4)


  • United States defeated Japan in the sea battles in 1942
  • Soviet forces launched a counter-attack against German troops in February 1943
  • Fascist regime in Italy was overthrown in July 1943
  • Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, and started liberating Europeans countries from Nazi rule in 1944
• When Soviet troops took Berlin on April 30, 1945, Germany surrendered, and the United States dropped two powerful atomic bombs on Japan, leading Japan to surrender on August 15, marking the end of the six-year-long war
• Total war


  Warfare was not confined to the front lines where the armies fought, as the warring countries mobilized more resources in the rear, including manpower and agricultural and industrial goods to support the long-lasting war
• During the First World War, neither the Central Powers nor the Allied Powers could win decisive victory, and the stalemate and technological innovations gradually caused the First World War to be a total war
• Features of total war

  • Warfare was not confined to the front lines where the armies fought
  • The warring countries mobilized more resources in the rear, including manpower and agricultural and industrial goods to support the long-lasting war
  • The differentiation between combatants and non-combatants disappeared, as civilians were regarded as rear servicemen and also became attack targets
• After the First World War, newly independent nation-states were established in Eastern Europe, and Asian and African colonial nationalists were encouraged
• Principle of national self-determination


  A group of people with a common language and culture have the right to form their own state and choose their own government
• After the Paris Peace Conference, more than ten new nation-states were formed in Eastern Europe, which encouraged colonial nationalists in Asia and Africa and gave birth to the idea of decolonization
• After the Second World War, the European colonial powers further declined and were unable to restore or maintain colonial rule, leading their colonies in Asia and Africa to eventually gain independence through negotiations or wars
• Decolonization of Asia


  • American colony: through the suzerain's assistance
  • British colonies: through negotiation
  • French and Dutch colonies: through armed struggle
• During the Second World War, Japan occupied the colonies of Western countries in Southeast Asia, further stimulating nationalism in the region, and anti-colonialism also ran high in British India in South Asia
• In the 1930s, the United States introduced reforms in the Philippines and passed the Philippine Independence Act (1934) to provide for the adoption of a constitution and establishment of a new government, leading to the Philippines becoming independent in 1946
• Britain was relatively moderate towards its colonies after the Second World War, and the colonies gained independence through negotiation, such as Burma gaining independence in 1948
• After the Second World War, France and the Netherlands attempted to restore their colonial rule in Southeast Asia by force, leading to armed struggles for independence in French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies
• During the Second World War, the Allied Powers gathered supplies from Africa, and after the war, Africans believed that their suzerains should give them more rights in return, leading to the decolonization of Africa
• In the 1950s, Nkrumah, a nationalist leader of the Gold Coast in West Africa, negotiated with Britain for independence, and the Gold Coast gained independence in 1957 and was renamed Ghana
• Third World


  Those countries belonging neither to the First World (more developed capitalist countries led by the United States) nor the Second World (communist countries led by the Soviet Union), including the less developed countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, many of which were former Western colonies
• In April 1955, Indonesia, Burma, Ceylon, India and Pakistan held the Bandung Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, which was the first Asian-African conference without the participation of the Western powers
• Major achievements of the Bandung Conference


  • Participating countries discussed economic and cultural cooperation and colonial issues
  • They opposed colonialism and affirmed the right of national self-determination
  • They declared the Ten Principles of the Bandung Conference to promote world peace and strengthen international cooperation
• Significance of the Bandung Conference

  It consolidated the independent position of Asian and African countries, and promoted the rise of the Third World as the participating countries declared that they would not align with the United States or the Soviet Union
• The Non-Aligned Movement was an international organization founded in 1961, with most members being Third World countries, and its membership is now second only to the United Nations
• Main objectives of the Non-Aligned Movement

  • Advocating being un-aligned with the United States or the Soviet Union
  • Supporting national self-determination
  • Advocating cooperation to narrow the economic gap between more developed and less developed countries
• Structure of the Non-Aligned Movement


  • It did not have a headquarters or permanent institutions, and a summit conference would be held every three years
  • Members could not join any military alliances or sign military agreements with any major power or intervene in the conflicts between these powers
• Major developments of the Non-Aligned Movement

  • It supported decolonization and absorbed newly independent countries as members to affirm their independent position
  • By 1964, it already had 47 member countries, and 17 Latin American countries also joined in the 1970s and 1980s
  • It proposed a 'new international economic order' at a summit conference in 1973, which helped facilitate the adoption of the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order by the United Nations in 1974
• Significance of the Non-Aligned Movement

  It showed the rising influence of the Third World, and helped maintain world peace by opposing forming alliances with the United States or the Soviet Union and advocating that all countries should be allowed to develop their economies based on equality and mutual cooperation