The Second World War was fought from 1939 to 1945. In this war Germany, Italy, Japan, Romania etc. were on one side and were known as ‘the Axis Powers’. On the other side were Britain, France, America, Soviet Russia, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway etc., in all 30 countries and these were known as ‘the Allies’. Do you know the causes of this historic war?
The treaty of Versailles, concluded at the end of the First World War (1914-1918), was very unjust and became the root cause of the IInd World War. Dictated and unfair terms were imposed by the Allied Powers on unwilling Germany. The treatment meted out to the defeated countries of the 1st World War like Germany, Austria, Hungary and Turkey was humiliating and hence it created feelings of reaction and retaliation in the minds of Germans and their allies. The aggressive policy followed by Germany, Italy and Japan and the total failure of the League of Nations to put a check on them was also much responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War.
Then the Western policy of appeasement of the fascist powers like Germany and Italy also emboldened these countries to attack and capture territories of other countries. America’s aloofness from the European politics after the First World War also became one of the causes of the Second World War. It encouraged France to humiliate Germany.
Germany attacked Poland in 1939 and it forced both England and France to give up the policy of appeasement and to declare war against Germany on 3rd September, 1939. Soon after, other countries were drawn into this War and it took the shape of World War II.
The Second World War came to an end in 1945 when Germany was surrounded by the forces of Allied powers from all sides and Hitler committed suicide on May 2, 1945. On May 7, Germany surrendered unconditionally and with the dropping of the Atom Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on 6th Aug. and 9th Aug., 1945 respectively Japan also surrendered on August 14, 1945, and thus the Second World War came to an end.