World and Modern History

Prologue

Nazism (Adolf Hitler)

Fascism (Benito Mussolini)

Reasons of WW-II

Rise of Japan (Never in the history of world has such a event taken place. So do read it)

Korea ( Story of 38 parallel)

Vietnam (War of the Will of the people)

Nazism
Reasons for Nazism
i)
ii)
iii)

Economic crises
Political crises
Social crises
Economic Crises
a) Germany was already facing the unaffordable compensation from the treaty of
Versailles 1919 (It was a treaty completely against Germany on the principle of
revenge because all the provisions were against Germany).
b) In this scenario France & Belgium attacked Ruhr(Famous for iron & coal
mines) which led to the indefinite strike by the laborers of these mines, this
created supply shortage of fuel & raw material to German industries creating
deflation in 1923.
c) Germans showed the signs of recovery from 1926 but before it could strengthen
itself The great economic depression(1929) was a blow to the German economy
Political Crises
a) From 1871-1914, Germany has seen a strong monarchy, but as William-II escaped

to Holland in 1918 ,so monarchy came to an end & was replaced by a political
institution called Weimer in 1990 it was an infant & immature organization which
faced 2 coups from 1920 to 1923
1) By Dr Kapp(1920) who tried to seize the new Parliament by force
2) Ludendorff He was the mentor of Adolf Hitler, in 1923 Ludendorff tried to
repeat the story so from the very beginning Weimer Republic was struggling
to achieve strength & stability
Social Crises
a) Due to the economic & political crises Germany society was facing the brunt of

anarchy & employment & in this tension between Germans and Jews deteroited
the conditions in Germany
b) Germans accused on certain grounds that Jews were responsible for the defeat of
Germany in World War I

Treaty of Versailles

Adolf Hitler

Rise of Adolf Hitler

a) In 1919 Hitler formed Nationalist socialist party, in short Nazi Party. In the initial
phase Nazi Party & Adolf Hitler failed to impress the German people. In 1923 he
was imprisoned along with his master (I hope u remember Ludendorff).
b) But the economic depression in 1929 increased the trouble in Germany &
appeared to be a great opportunity for Adolf Hitler & his ambitions. He was able
to attract the masses & in the election of 1933 he succeeded in getting good
numbers of seats in Germany.
c) As none of the party had got majority (As happens in the case of Indian Politics
too. But still they manage with 17-18 coalition parties . And how well do they
manage... Management Gurus do take a note lolz) so Germany was going
through economic & political instability which frightened the capitalist class(e.g
of India tatas , ambanis , and Kumar managlam birla (In news recently do
google it)) in Germany
d) Adolf Hitler took anti-communist stand which provided him the support of
capitalist class & with this increased strength he compelled President Hindenburg
to accept him as the chancellor in 1933 (Note president Hindenburg president of
Germany from (192534))
e) During re-elections Adolf Hitler & his party were behind all the nuisance in
Germany, specially burning down of Reich-stag(the German parliament). Hitler
accused communist for this act & propagated that communist wanted to
destabilize, the political system in Germany, this increased the frustration in
capitalist class & they gave complete and unconditional support to him
f) In 1934 when President Hindenburg died, Hitler occupied the post of president &
became the chancellor cum president of Germany in 1934, later on to be the
dictator of Germany

Internal Policies of Adolf Hitler

1) Political reforms
2) Economic reforms
3) Social reforms
1) Political reforms In 1934 Adolf Hitler abolished provincial legislature in
Germany & that ended the status of states in Germany which completed German
unification. Hitler & Mussolini (Following soon) were of the opinion that a new
born & struggling nation should always be under strict supervision , which
requires a ban on civil rights. Under this important steps taken were
End of judicial rights
Ban on freedom of expression & speech (Art 19/1/a (Indian Constitution
just a passing reference to refresh your and my mind)
a) Abolition of opposition & Purge (Purification of critics of his own party) With
the coming to power he abolished his opposition in Germany (No opposition, no
tension free to do all atrocities) & by the concept of purge in 1934 he eliminated
& killed all his critics within his own party, so from 1934 Nazi was the only party
in Germany & Adolf Hitler the only German leader.
2) Economic reforms - 4 year plans with the objective to improve & increase
production in Germany
a) Evolution of synthetic Synthetic was evolved as a substitute for wool fiber and
motor fuel & this brought down the imports of Germany
b) Elimination of Jews 90% of German business was in the hand of Jews & with
the elimination of this community it was transferred to Germans & this became
the important reason for Germans giving the initial support to Adolf Hitler.
3) Social Reforms Education became a victim of Nazi Propaganda. Interference in
the personal life of people (e.g. a German women was not allowed to marry a
Non-German . Reference same as Vedic period 2 types of marriage (Anuloma
-Higher class male can marry female of lower class & Pratiloma Males of
lower class cannot marry female of higher class ))

External Policies of Adolf Hitler

1) Left disarmament conference (1933) according to Hitler disarmament was
the provision of Paris peace conference of 1990. And if European powers
would have been loyal its disarmament would have started from 1990

2) Left league of nations in 1934 on the grounds that it was a powerless body
acting as puppet of important European countries(great Britain & France)
3) Refused to accept Treaty of Versailles As according to Hitler it was a
dictated peace based on the philosophy of revenge.
4) Emphasized on the concept Third Reich also called as Heart Land Policy =
According to his concept Hitler declared formation of a greater German
empire by uniting all the areas dominated by Germans like Poland , Austria
& Czechoslovakia, this is also called as the heart-land policy of Hitler which
became the important cause for World war II
Heartland Policy Map

Heartland Policy (Third Reich Policy)

a) Under this policy Rhineland (River Rhine in Map) became the 1st target of Hitler
after which he moved towards Sudetenland which led to the Munich conference
of 1938, in which Hitler promised Britain & France to leave the policy of
aggression, if he was allowed to hold Sudetenland.
b) This was accepted by Britain & France but later on Hitler violator his promise &
attacked Czechoslovakia. This was an alarming bell for Britain & France. Lastly
in 1939 he attacked Poland & this was the end of patience of Britain, so Britain
declared war on Germany & this was the beginning of WW-II in which Hitler
was assisted by Italy & Japan
Benitto Mussolini

Fascism(Benito Mussolini)
1) Reasons For Fascism
a) Economic Crises - Italy was at the centre of renaissance(the activity, spirit, or time of the
great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and
extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern
world. ), but it was a backward country as it lacked industrialization, agricultural reforms
etc. Initially it refrained from the war because of its backwardness & socialist pressure in
the country.
But circumstances changed in 1915, & Italy with the hope of having Big gains
sided with allied powers (Britain & France). The reason for this was, some of the
specific areas of Italy were still under command of Austria & Neighboring
countries & they assumed that if they helped allied powers in the war, they would
get their areas back.
Although allied powers were victorious in WW-I Italy failed to full-fill its
aspirations & this increased economic crises in Italy.
And in this economic crises, Italy was not able to digest the philosophy of
democracy & none of the parties in Italy were able to gain majority, so there was
always a trouble of stable government in Italy.
Unemployment, power & anarchy were highly prevalent in Italy & in this way the
overall crises in the country prepared the ground for the emergence of Benito
Mussolini
Rise of Benito Mussolini
1) Benito Mussolini was a teacher & a strong follower of the philosophy of socialism
which he propagated through his newspaper Avanti.
2) In 1920 he formed fascist party & started a newspaper People of Italy. In 1922
elections he got good number of seats, but there was no majority to any single party
in Italy. So Italy was facing a scene of political instability which was a for the
capitalist story( Same story as that of Adolf Hitler)

3) Benito Mussolini took anti-communist stand & he was able to get the support of the
capitalist class, with this new strength and support of Brown Shirts (Youth
organization of his party) he moved towards Rome & horrified ruler Emmanuel who
accepted him as Prime Minister of Italy in 1922
4) From 1922-1924 he changed the entire structure in Italy appearing as a dictator of
Italy
1) Internal Reforms
a) Treaty of Lateran (1929)
b) Abolition of Opposition
c) End of Civil & Human Rights
Note (Abolition of opposition & end of civil and human rights same as that of
Hitler so I will not cover it over here.)

a) Treaty of Lateran (1929) By this treaty he gave autonomous charge of Vatican to the
pope with compensation & also accepted catholic religion as the official religion of the
state. In this way the long dispute between Italian government & pope was over. And
Pope accepted Benito Mussolini as the ruler of Italy.
2) External Policies
Benito Mussolini was able to satisfy his people in early phase of his
carrier, but then his superficial reforms, were washed away by economic
depression of 1929
Italy & Italians once again came into trouble & Mussolini had the only
way of war to satisfy the sentiment of people so he raised the new slogan
old glory of Rome which was based on the policy of aggression in
which his important targets were Albania, Ethiopia etc.
In this was Benito Mussolini & Adolf Hitler became friends having
common interest which lead to the Berlin- Rome Access which was
later joined by Japan & this Berlin-Rome- Tokyo was the rival party of
allied powers in WW-II

World War II (1939 - 1945)

Main reasons for World War II
a) Red threat communist (Became a panic for the entire European powers)
b) Dissatisfaction & Humiliation of European powers (Like Italy & Germany)

c) Failure of World Organization

d) The Great Economic Depression (1929)
e) Aggressive Nationalism (Nazism & Fascism)
Note Just Jotted down most important reasons for WW-II (Refer NCERT CLASS
12TH By Arjun Dev)

Emergence of Japan (One important event of WW-II)

Note Indo & China are called Golden Land (For its agricultural Productivity) & Indonesia,
Malaysia are called Golden Island
1) Golden land became the dream for European countries, so from 16th centaury they started
penetrating into eastern Asia.(reference Portuguese came to India - 1505)
2) Japan took stern action against the foreigners due to certain reason like conversion of
missionaries (they were converting Japanese people to Christianity), So Japanese
maintained isolation from 16TH centaury to the latter half of the 19th century.
3) They only allowed Dutch to be the intermediaries between Japan & Rest of the world.
USA was also struggling to get into East Asia & in 1853 commodore Perry a U.S naval
officer compelled Japanese Emperor to open the doors of Japan for USA.
4) With the entry of USA from 1853-1867, all European powers also entered & made their
place in Japan. This was a setback for aggressive Japanese sentiment.
5) Hence Japanese Found out the reasons for Europeans strength & that was
a) Powerful & stable Polity
b) Economic Development
This immediately became the target of Japan & led to rise of Japan.
Rise of Japan from fall
1) Self Liberation As Japan understood the reason of its failure, so it immediately took the
steps for it & in the most unique event in the world history is collective surrender of
power & privilege by Damios & Samurai to their emperors
Those who are confused with Damios & Samurai
Japanese Political Hierarchy
1) Emperor (Akihito)
2) Prime Minister(Shogun)
3) Feudal Lords(Daimios)
4) Spiritual Warriors(Samurai)
And never ever in the history of world you would see such an event occurring where
Feudal Lords & Warriors surrender its power & privilege to the emperor

This not only strengthens the Japanese emperor but established social equality in
Japan. This is called Self Liberation
2) Self Empowerment After having a strong policy from 1867 1894 Japan took some
wonderful steps
a) Compulsory primary education for boys & girls (1867)
b) Compulsory Modern Education to boys & girls (that too medium in English)
c) Framed the constitution of Japan on Prussian line having a string emperor, under the
guidance of Prince Ito
Note Compare this with the policy of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini (Ban on
education etc)
3) Formation of national Army which was possible because of social equality in Japan.
4) Emphasis on economic development, specially infrastructure & industrialization became
the back-ground for self empowerment & in 1894 Japan was a modern & advanced
Power in Asia
Rise of Japan as a power in Asia
1) After Japan completed its phase of transformation, the two immediate victims were china
& Russia, on the grounds of territorial dispute between both the parties.
2) Port Arthur the only ice-free port in northern zone was taken away by Japan from Russia
& Korea also came under the dominance of Japan from 1910.
3) As Japan defeated the 2 giants of Asia, so it immediately elevated its position & provided
Japan the status in world Aristocracy with USA & U.K
Imperialism of Japan
1) In the beginning of 20th Century, Japan had reached to the peak of development & now it
was hungry for the sources of raw material & market, but the trouble was Japan was that
the core areas in Asia (Like china & India) were under the control of its friends like U.S
& U.K.
2) In this scenario Japan adopted a very smart philosophy to fulfill its aim of imperialism
3) Under Japanese Monroe Doctrine (JMD) Japan gave the slogan of Asia for Asian &
under it appealed for the removal of all foreign powers from Asia & establishment of
local leadership in Asian countries.
4) In respect to this philosophy Japan gave the complete support to INA (Indian National
Army)
5) Taking advantage of WW-II Japan over ran entire East Asian countries from Korea to
Philippines, disturbing the political status of world powers in this region. This annoyed
U.S & it freezeed Japanese accounts in U.S
6) In reaction to this Japan attacked pearl harbor in 1941 which ended the isolation of USA
as it participated in WW-II & became active in world politics

7) Although Japan was defeated in WW-II, but it has changed the political status of east
Asia, which was still a aspiration for world powers due to its economic & strategical
importance
8) In this scenario Korea & Vietnam became the victim of WW-II

Korea
1) Korea is the story of 38 parallel (The 38th parallel was first suggested as a dividing line for
Korea in 1896.) Under this it was divided into North & South.
2) North under command of U.S.S.R & South under the control of USA
3) It was decided by both the powers that Japanese forces will be evacuated, stability was to
be maintained & then after elections Korea was to be left home.
4) As 2/3rd population of Korea was in South Korea, so it was clear to U.S that they will be
present in Korea after the elections this was the fear of USSR & CHINA, in 1953 North
Korea attacked South Korea which was declared as internal problem of both the country.
5) In such circumstances PANMUNJOAN agreement of 1956, declared that Korea will be
united only after the agreement of political setup & people of both the group. This seems to
be a challenge as North Korea is suffering from poverty & is under the control of
dictatorship

Korea 38 parallel

Vietnam (Story of the will of the people)

1) Vietnam was a poor & backward country basically dominated by Buddhist farmers. It has
faced a colonial era of 200 years under French & when Japan eliminated foreign powers
from east Asia, it provided relief for a small period to Vietnamese
2) But Vietnam became a victim of 17 parallel which was a similar agreement between U.S
& USSR like Korea.
3) Initially France was handed over South Vietnam, but in 1954 France handed over the
complete charge to USA.
4) USA failed to analyze the situation in Vietnam & the resistance of the most backward &
poor people became a matter of ego for USA.
5) Vietnam was a great story of the will of the people & presidents of USA like John F.
Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Nickson failed to subdue the people of Vietnam & in
1973 USA appealed for peace agreement with Vietnam, leading to the independence of
Vietnam in 1974

Vietnam war

References
www.google.com
NCERT CLASS 12TH By Arjun Dev
World History BV RAO
Notes of Avadh Ojha Sir
Name Arun Chettiar