THE SECOND WORLD

WAR (WWII)
- 1939 – 1945 -
Class 7-B
1. Introduction
2. Causes
3. Military alliances and battlefronts
1.1. The Second World War was the conflict labelled as
a global war
that lasted from 1939 to 1945,
although some conflicts associated with it began even earlier.
It involved the vast majority of the world’s countries—including all the great powers—which formed two opposing military alliances:
the Allies and the Axis.
It was the largest war in history, with the greatest destructive force in human history, with huge human and material losses.and
directly involved more than 100 million people in more than 30 countries.
The most important participants devoted their entire economic, industrial and scientific capability to the war effort in a state of "total
war", erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by massive civilian deaths, including the Holocaust (in
which approximately 11 million people were killed) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centers (in which
approximately one million people died, and in which they distinguished (the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), it resulted in
between 50 and 85 million deaths, more than any other conflict in human history.
1. 2. International relations in the interwar period were dominated by the contradictions between revisionist and anti-revisionist states.
In the revisionist camp were those countries dissatisfied with the international system imposed by the Paris Peace Treaties signed in
1919-1920. In the anti-revisionist group were the states decided to support the respective system, which offered them a series of
advantages (Great Britain, France, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania or Yugoslavia).
Revisionism was fueled by political, social and economic disturbances, as well as the desire of some countries to take revenge for the
defeat suffered in 1918 (Soviet Russia, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria), as well as the dissatisfaction of others with the minor advantages
offered by victory (Italy and Japan). Totalitarian dictatorships promoted revisionism through aggressive military actions, which
ultimately led to the outbreak of the Second World War.
1. Introduction
2. Causes
3. Military alliances and battlefronts
• The interwar period was one of economic and technological progress. Despite the global economic crisis, the
countries of the world made remarkable progress and sought to assert themselves on the international stage.
• However, the world was still marked by the consequences of the First World War, especially by the
conditions in which it had ended. Both the defeated states and some victorious states wanted the revision
of the peace treaties.
• Created in 1919 precisely with the aim of preventing other wars, the League of Nations (or League of
Nations), based in Geneva, proved ineffective in stopping the revisionist wave.
• To counter revisionism, the anti-revisionist powers used diplomatic instruments in particular. In the years
1920-1921, Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Kingdom of Serbo-Croatian-Slovene established the Little
Entente (Little Antanta), and in 1934 the Balkan Entente was established at the initiative of Romania,
Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. Moreover, Romania allied itself with Poland in 1920.
• Another attempt to prevent the war was the 1928 Briand-Kellogg Pact, signed by 62 states. They pledged not
to use war to solve international problems. By it war, as a way to resolve misunderstandings between
states, was prohibited. Thus, the anti-revisionist bloc acted by strengthening the League of Nations, but also
by adopting a conciliatory attitude, in the hope that revisionism will be stopped through a series of
concessions, which did nothing but encourage military actions.
1. Introduction
2. Causes
3. Military alliances and battlefronts
1. 3. Interwar aggressions
• The years 1930 - 1939 were characterized by increasing international tension and by aggressions by stronger states on the weaker ones.
• In Asia, Japan conquered the province of Manchuria from China (1931). The territory, rich in resources, had to serve the Japanese
industry, which was in full swing.
• In Europe, the main aggressor states were Italy and Germany. Italy considers that it won too little after the First World War, compared to
the sacrifices made, and seeks to extend its help in the areas neighboring the Mediterranean Sea. The pride of the Italians was fueled by
the propaganda of the fascist regime, which believed that Italy must revive the former glory of ancient Rome. As a result, Italy invaded
Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935 and Albania (1939).
• Germany was the main revisionist power. New frustrations were added to the grievances related to the provisions of the Treaty of
Versailles, due to the global economic crisis. The Germans believed in the radical solutions proposed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
In 1933, the Nazi Party won the elections, and Hitler was appointed chancellor. Based on the racist doctrine, Hitler claimed for Germany
not only the territories lost after the First World War, but also "vital space" for development, which meant global domination. The
German state was called the Third Reich ), after the medieval and modern German empire.
• In 1935, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler began the creation of a new army, the Wehrmacht. In 1936 he created the Rome-
Berlin Axis, an alliance between Italy and Germany, to which Japan would join a year later (1937). The goal was to divide the world
domination between the three powers. In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria, claiming it was a "unification" ("Anschluss"). In the same year,
at the Munich Conference, Hitler obtained from France, Great Britain and Italy permission to annex the Sudeten region of
Czechoslovakia, inhabited by Germans. The next target was Poland.
• On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact, whereby the two powers pledged not to go to war against
each other and shared the territories of Eastern Europe, including Poland. The world was on the brink of a new world war.
1. Introduction
2. Causes
3. Military alliances and battlefronts

2. 1. THE GENERAL CAUSE of the war:

the struggle for territories and spheres of influence of totalitarian states.
This was the goal of Germany, which believed that the borders and conditions
imposed by the Treaty of Versailles were stifling its development. The same
expansionist and revisionist claims were manifested by Italy, in the Mediterranean
area and in Africa, Japan, in the Far East and the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.
2. 2. OTHER CAUSES that contributed to the outbreak of the war were:
the establishment of totalitarian regimes in a number of states;
the economic crises;
the conciliatory nature of France and the United Kingdom towards Hitler's
revisionist actions;
the inefficiency of the League of Nations;
etc.
1. Introduction

3. 1. To achieve their goals, the three revisionists (Germany, Italy, Japan) laid the foundations of
the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis (= the Axis Powers), the core of one of the camps engaged in the
war.
3. 2. The other camp, the United Nations Coalition, formed in 1941-1942, primarily brought
together the Big Three - the United Kingdom, the USSR, the USA.
These alliances were joined during the war by other states.
3. 3. The main war theaters were:
the Atlantic Ocean,
Western and Eastern Europe,
the Mediterranean Sea,
North Africa,
the Middle East,
the Pacific Ocean,
Southeast Asia, China.