World War II: Causes, Course & Aftermath | UPSC History

1. Causes of World War II

Rise of Fascism: The humiliation and economic devastation of the Versailles settlement created fertile ground for totalitarian nationalism:

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany (took power January 1933): Nazism combined extreme nationalism, racism (anti-Semitism at its core), anti-communism and authoritarianism.
Benito Mussolini in Italy (took power 1922): Fascism — corporate state, imperial expansion, rejection of parliamentary democracy.
Militarist Japan: Expansionism in Asia (Manchuria 1931, China 1937).

Appeasement Policy: Britain and France, traumatised by WWI losses and fearing another war, appeased Hitler's early aggressions:

Remilitarisation of Rhineland (1936): Allies protested, did nothing.
Anschluss (annexation of Austria, March 1938): Accepted.
Munich Agreement (September 1938): Britain (Chamberlain) and France gave Hitler the Sudetenland (Czech frontier region with German population) in exchange for a promise of "no more territorial claims." Hitler broke the promise in 6 months.

Immediate Cause: Germany invaded Poland (1 September 1939); Britain and France declared war (3 September 1939).

2. Course of the War

Phase 1: German Dominance (1939–1942)

Fall of France (June 1940): Six weeks of Blitzkrieg (lightning war); France surrendered; Germany occupied northern France, collaborated Vichy regime in south.
Battle of Britain (1940): Germany failed to achieve air superiority for an invasion; the RAF held.
Operation Barbarossa (June 1941): Germany invaded the Soviet Union — the largest military operation in history; initially spectacular German advances.
Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941): Japan attacked the US naval base; USA entered the war.

Phase 2: Turning Points (1942–1943)

Battle of Stalingrad (November 1942 – February 1943): Germany's 6th Army surrounded and destroyed; 330,000 Germans killed or captured. The decisive turning point of the European war.
El Alamein (October 1942): British General Montgomery defeated Rommel in North Africa.
Midway (June 1942): US naval victory over Japan in the Pacific.

Phase 3: Allied Victory (1943–1945)

D-Day (6 June 1944): Allied landing in Normandy; second front in Western Europe.
Liberation of Paris (August 1944).
Fall of Berlin (April–May 1945): Hitler committed suicide (30 April); Germany surrendered (8 May 1945) — V-E Day.
Atomic Bombs: USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945). Japan surrendered (15 August 1945) — V-J Day; formal surrender on USS Missouri (2 September 1945).

3. The Holocaust

The Holocaust (Shoah in Hebrew) was the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of 6 million Jews (two-thirds of European Jewry) by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

Phases:

1933–39: Legal persecution — Nuremberg Laws (1935) stripped Jews of citizenship; systematic exclusion from economic and social life.
1939–41: Ghettoisation — Jews confined to overcrowded urban ghettos (Warsaw Ghetto, Łódź Ghetto).
1941–45: Systematic murder — Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) shot 1.5 million Jews in mass executions; death camps (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor) used gas chambers for industrial-scale murder.

The Holocaust also targeted Roma, Sinti, disabled people, political prisoners, Soviet POWs, homosexuals and Jehovah's Witnesses — total victims ~11 million.

The Nuremberg Trials (1945–46): 24 senior Nazi leaders tried for crimes against peace, war crimes and "crimes against humanity" (a new category of international law). 12 sentenced to death.

4. Impact on the World and India

Formation of the United Nations (October 1945):

Replaced the failed League of Nations.
Security Council with five permanent members (P5): USA, USSR, UK, France, China (each with veto).
General Assembly — all member states.
Key institutions: WHO, FAO, UNESCO, IMF, World Bank (Bretton Woods system, 1944).

Cold War: USA and USSR emerged as superpowers; their wartime alliance broke down immediately into geopolitical competition.

Decolonisation: European colonial powers were weakened; the wartime promises of self-determination and the UN Charter's anti-colonial language accelerated independence movements across Asia and Africa.

Impact on India:

The war depleted British economic and military capacity; Britain could no longer afford to hold India.
India's war contribution (2.5 million soldiers) created expectations of post-war political rewards.
Bengal Famine (1943): War-time food policies (denial policy to prevent Japanese use), export of rice from Bengal and Churchill's indifference caused 2–3 million deaths.
Cripps Mission (1942) and Quit India Movement (1942) were direct products of the war situation.
The INA trials (1945–46) and RIN Mutiny (1946) made British military position untenable.

5. UPSC Relevance

Prelims: Munich Agreement = September 1938; Operation Barbarossa = June 1941; Pearl Harbor = 7 December 1941; Stalingrad = February 1943; D-Day = 6 June 1944; Hiroshima = 6 August 1945; UN founded October 1945; P5 members; Bengal Famine = 1943.

Mains GS1: "World War II was not merely a military conflict but the crisis of Western civilisation." Discuss. | Analyse the impact of WWII on the decolonisation process in Asia and Africa. | How did WWII accelerate Indian independence?

Frequently Asked Questions

What caused World War II?

The harsh Treaty of Versailles, the rise of fascism and Nazism, expansionist aggression by Germany, Italy and Japan, and the failure of appeasement led to war in 1939.

What was the Holocaust?

The systematic genocide of about six million Jews, along with other targeted groups, by Nazi Germany during World War II.

What were the turning points of World War II?

Battles such as Stalingrad, Midway and the D-Day Normandy landings shifted the war decisively against the Axis powers.

What was the post-war order?

The war's end saw the founding of the United Nations, the onset of the Cold War, decolonisation and the emergence of the USA and USSR as superpowers.

Sources and Further Reading

According to standard UPSC references and NCERT texts, the war and its aftermath are studied through official records and standard world histories.

United Nations Charter (1945).
NCERT, Themes in World History.

World War II (1939–1945): Causes, Course, Holocaust and Post-War Order