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Indian Express
6 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Blitzkrieg to Hiroshima: How the Second World War reshaped the global order
In a historic move, the UK and Germany signed their first bilateral treaty since the Second World War, pledging 'mutual assistance' in case of attack. This development warrants a look back at the Second World War, in which the UK was a major Allied power while Germany was an Axis. The first thing that strikes one about the Second World War is the small time gap that divides it from the First World War, a mere 21 years. The First World War ended on November 11, 1918, and the Second World War began on September 1, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland. The First World War was concluded with a very flawed peace agreement in the form of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It was the failures of this peace agreement and the resentment felt by Germany at the unjust conditions imposed upon it that gave rise to the Second World War. The Second World War lasted from 1939 to 1945 and caused a staggering loss of between 40 to 50 million lives. The path to the Second World War was a steady, two-decade-long buildup. A combination of political and economic factors came together to pave the way for the rise of a politician like Adolf Hitler in Germany. After the First World War, the liberal Weimar Republic replaced the Wilhelmine monarchy in Germany. Throughout the 1920s, it was shaped by leaders like Gustav Stresemann, who adapted to the new realities of the Weimar Republic after the fall of the monarchy. Stresemann briefly served as Chancellor in 1923 and then as Foreign Minister until his death in 1929. He was opposed to the Treaty of Versailles, whose terms he found difficult to implement. Among the provisions of the treaty were the payment of war reparations to the victorious Allies and the demilitarisation of the Rhineland that lay on Germany's Western border with France. In 1923, Germany experienced hyper-inflation as it struggled to pay the war reparations that were imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Rifts appeared between Britain and France in terms of how to impose the measures of the treaty. At the same time, the famed and lofty idealism of the US President Woodrow Wilson came into play through his famous fourteen points. The last point created the League of Nations, which was to serve as the predecessor of the United Nations that was set up in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War in October 1945. However, other aspects of Wilson's lofty idealism such as the right to national self-determination were to come crashing down on the harsh realities of European politics in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Eventually, even the US Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. There are perhaps three elements that define the build-up to the Second World War. The first was the unstable nature of the Weimar Republic, whose economic difficulties were exploited by a rising politician like Adolf Hitler. The Weimar Republic came to an end in 1933 when the Nazi party secured dominance in the German parliament, the Reichstag, and Hitler was appointed as Chancellor. The second factor was the harsh economic realities of the 1920s and 1930s. The Great Wall Street Crash of October 1929 was one of the world's first truly economic crises, whose adverse effects and reverberations were felt all around the world, and especially in Europe. The Wall Street crash ushered in a decade (the 1930s) seen in terms of economic depression and unemployment. In response to this crisis, British economist John Maynard Keynes produced his seminal work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in 1936. His ideas would later play a significant role in shaping the post-Second World War international economic order, particularly through the setting up of the Bretton Woods institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The third major factor leading to the Second World War was the policy of appeasement adopted by Great Britain towards the escalating demands of Germany. This policy is associated with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, especially as it played out at the Munich conference of 1938. Chamberlain believed that the policy of appeasement was the best way to avoid war and to buy time for Britain to prepare militarily. Signs of impending war became obvious as early as 1936, when Hitler decided to remilitarise the Rhineland in violation of one of the key provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. That same year in July, Hitler's Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini's Italy came together and backed General Francisco Franco's fascist assault against the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. In 1938, Hitler signed the Anschluss or pact with Austria that resulted in the merger of Austria with Germany, which further consolidated his position. That same year, Hitler kept making the case for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia, using their minority status to persuade France and Britain that the Sudetenland must be ceded to Germany. This was followed the next year in 1939 by Germany's invasion and occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia. The Second World War was very different from the First World War as far as the greater use of air power was concerned. The German air force or the Luftwaffe, conducted devastating air raids on London and other major British cities in the early stages of the war. The Battle of Britain, which took place between July and October 1940, saw the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the German Luftwaffe engage in intense aerial combat. The Allied powers – Great Britain, France, the US, and the Soviet Union – were pitted against the Axis powers – Germany, Italy and Japan. The early stages of the war saw German advances through overwhelming aerial strikes that were then rapidly followed by military and tank maneuvers on the ground. These tactics, known as the blitzkrieg ('lightning war'), allowed the Germans to overrun Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece in the short span between September 1939 and April 1941. The American entry into the war, following the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, significantly turned the tide in favour of the Allied powers as the US was able to deploy massive amounts of military resources. The American entry into the war was preceded by the lend-lease agreement that allowed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to transfer large amounts of war material, supplies and munitions to the Allies. A decisive turning point came when the German offensive against Soviet Russia on the Eastern Front was thwarted at the famous Battle of Stalingrad that took place between August 23, 1942 and February 2, 1943. The Germans suffered other major reversals in the battlefields in Northern Africa, most famously the Second Battle of El-Alamein between October 23 and November 11, 1942, when the famous German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was defeated. As a result, Italian and German advances in North Africa, especially around the strategically significant Suez Canal, were checked. The Axis powers seemed to be doing better in East Asia. In February 1942, British-controlled Singapore fell to the Japanese Red Army, which continued its advance by taking over the Andaman Islands in March 1942. One of the most frequently talked about military turning points of the Second World War happened on June 6, 1944, with Operation Overlord that saw the landing of 1,56,000 men on the beaches of Normandy in northern France. This military operation was under the overall command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would go on to serve as US President in the next decade. As 1944 drew to a close and 1945 began, the war's trajectory was marked by advances of Allied powers, the US and British, from the West and the Soviet forces from the East as they closed in on Berlin, with the final fall happening in May 1945. Hitler himself committed suicide along with his mistress Eva Braun on April 30, 1945, when Soviet forces were on the verge of reaching Berlin. A few months later, the Second World War came to a conclusive end, with the dropping of atomic bombs by the US over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945. The defeat of the Axis powers created a new world order that was defined by the hegemony of the US. In terms of the lineaments of the new world order, it gave rise to an international rules-based system. Landmark proceedings such as the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials set important legal precedents by introducing concepts like war crimes and crimes against humanity. The horrors of the Holocaust and the concentration camps run by the Nazis gave rise to the Genocide Convention adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, which emphasized the idea that such unspeakable crimes must 'never again' happen. In what ways did the Second World War differ from the First World War in terms of strategy, technology, and scale? To what extent was the German strategy of blitzkrieg responsible for early Axis victories? How did the entry of the US in WWII transform the balance of power? How did the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki shape the post-war geopolitical landscape? In what ways did the Holocaust influence the formation of post-war human rights conventions and norms? Evaluate how the experiences of the Second World War shaped the creation of post-war multilateral institutions, such as the UN, the IMF and the World Bank. (Amir Ali is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) Share your thoughts and ideas on UPSC Special articles with Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.
Chicago Tribune
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: President Abraham Lincoln appoints Maj. Gen. George G. Meade
Today is Saturday, June 28, the 179th day of 2025. There are 186 days left in the year. Today in history: On June 28, 1863, during the Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Maj. Gen. George G. Meade as the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, following the resignation of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. Also on this date: In 1914, in an act that sparked World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death in Sarajevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending the First World War. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Alien Registration Act, also known as the Smith Act, which required adult foreigners residing in the U.S. to be registered and fingerprinted. In 1969, riots broke out following a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, an LGBTQ+ bar in New York's Greenwich Village neighborhood, leading to six days of violent protests that served as a watershed moment in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. In 1997, boxer Mike Tyson was disqualified from his rematch with heavyweight titleholder Evander Holyfield after Tyson bit Holyfield twice in the third round, including biting off a portion of Holyfield's right ear. In 2000, seven months after he was found adrift in the Straits of Florida, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba. In 2017, a man armed with a shotgun attacked the offices of The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, killing four journalists and a staffer before police stormed the building and arrested him; authorities said Jarrod Ramos had a long-running grudge against the newspaper for its reporting of a harassment case against him. (Ramos would be convicted and sentenced to six life sentences plus 345 years in prison.) In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields, who deliberately drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a young woman and injuring dozens, apologized for his actions before being sentenced to life in prison on federal hate crime charges. In 2022, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. Today's Birthdays: Filmmaker-comedian Mel Brooks is 99. Diplomat and politician Hans Blix is 97. Actor Bruce Davison is 79. Actor Kathy Bates is 77. Football Hall of Famer John Elway is 65. Actor John Cusack is 59. Actor Mary Stuart Masterson is 59. Actor Tichina Arnold is 56. Filmmaker-actor Mike White is 55. Business executive Elon Musk is 54. Actor Alessandro Nivola is 53. Country singer-TV personality Kellie Pickler is 38. Olympic track gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah is 33.
UPI
28-06-2025
- General
- UPI
On This Day, June 28: Biscayne National Park established in Florida
On this date in history: In 1778, the Continental Army under command of Gen. George Washington defeated the British at Monmouth, N.J. A pair of saddle pistols used by the Marquis de Lafayette during the battle fetched nearly $2 million at a 2002 auction. In 1838, Victoria was crowned queen of England. She would rule for 63 years, 7 months. In 1914, Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, an act considered to have ignited World War I. In 1919, World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI In 1969, the clientele of a New York City gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, rioted after it was raided by police. The event is considered the start of the gay liberation movement. In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of public funds for parochial schools was unconstitutional. In 1972, President Richard Nixon announced that no more draftees would be sent to Vietnam unless they volunteered for service in the Asian nation. In 1980, Biscayne National Park, previously a national monument, was established by an act of Congress. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and offshore barrier reefs in South Florida. In 1997, Mike Tyson bit off a piece of one of heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield's ears during a title fight in Las Vegas. In 2007, the American bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list. Officials of the Interior Department said the eagle, which had been declared endangered in 1967, was flourishing and no longer imperiled. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI In 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, rousted out of bed in the middle of the night by soldiers, was forced from office and into exile in Costa Rica in the culmination of a bitter power struggle over proposed constitutional changes. He was in exile for more than a year. In 2011, the International Monetary Fund's executive board named Christine Lagarde chairwoman, the first woman to lead the organization. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the new healthcare law known as the Affordable Care Act. In 2016, militants opened fire and set off explosions at Turkey's Ataturk Airport, killing 45 people and leaving more than 230 injured. Turkish officials blamed the Islamic State. In 2018, five people -- four journalists and a sales assistant -- died after a gunman opened fire at the Annapolis, Md., office of the Capital Gazette newspaper. In 2022, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking scheme. In 2023, South Korea scrapped its traditional age-counting system, instantly reducing the age of citizens by one or two years in a move to align with international standards and reduce clerical headaches. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that enforcement of camping regulation laws against homeless people does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment banned by the Eighth Amendment.
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First Post
20-06-2025
- Politics
- First Post
'Accept our terms or face total surrender': Russia gives ultimatum to Ukraine
Russia has given an ultimatum to Ukraine: either accept Vladimir Putin's terms or be ready for full surrender. In Ukraine, however, there are barely any takers for Putin's maximalist terms as the terms mean the end of Ukraine as they have known it for generations. read more Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with representatives of the Russian business circles in Moscow on May 26, 2025. (Photo: AFP) Russia has issued an ultimatum to Ukraine: either accept President Vladimir Putin's terms or be ready for full surrender. The ultimatum has come at a time when Russia has increased the pace of its offensive against Ukraine and the world is distracted by the ongoing war between Israel and Iran. Even as Ukraine has scored many substantial hits inside Russia in recent weeks, including the drone attack on June 1 in which it took down a third of Russian long-range bomber and surveillance fleets, Russia advance has picked up pace on the ground. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Amid such circumstances, Andrei Kelin, the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, told CNN that Ukraine could either surrender now or 'we will continue this drive and Ukraine will have to surrender under much worse conditions'. Kelin said, 'We are now on the offensive and Ukraine is in retreat. In May alone, we took about 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) of Ukrainian territory and we continue to gain more ground. For Ukraine, there is a choice: either they will take our conditions right now, a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive settlement of the situation, or we will continue this drive and Ukraine will have to surrender under much worse conditions." ALSO READ: Russia-Ukraine talks: What terms and conditions Putin and Zelenskyy want to apply to peace In the direct talks in Turkey, Russia had conveyed Putin's maximalist demands to Ukraine. If implemented, the demands would end the Ukrainian nation as generations have known it. The demands understandably have few takers in Ukraine. Putin seeks Ukraine's surrender, not peace With his maximalist demands conveyed in Turkey, Putin made it clear that he is seeking Ukraine's subjugation, not a peace deal. Putin has not just sought the recognition of Ukrainian territories that Russia has occupied since 2014, but has also sought Ukraine's surrender of all territories it claims but not currently occupies. In provisions similar to those imposed on defeated Germany after the World War I in the Treaty of Versailles, he has also sought restrictions on the size, deployment, and equipment of the post-war Ukrainian military. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD ALSO READ: Ukraine and beyond: 25 years on, Putin is still fighting Cold War In addition to complete occupation of five Ukrainian provinces (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia) even beyond what Russia currently occupies, Putin has also sought the creation of a buffer zone of an unspecified length on the Ukrainian side of the new border. The buffer zone would essentially further reduce Ukraine's territory. In what break change the character of the Ukrainian nation, Putin has sought to insert the Russian language into formal business, restore the pro-Russia Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and ban so-called Ukrainian 'nationalist formations'.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Yahoo
Today in Chicago History: Captain Bill Pinkney becomes first Black person to circumnavigate the globe solo
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on June 9, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 98 degrees (1911) Low temperature: 40 degrees (1994) Precipitation: 1.31 inches (2018) Snowfall: Trace (2011) 1919: Under headline 'TRIBUNE HAS TREATY,' Tribune scooped the world with details of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. It was the Tribune who presented the U.S. Senate with the original copy of the treaty, setting the newspaper apart from other publications at the time. 1930: As Tribune police reporter Alfred 'Jake' Lingle walked toward the stairway to the Illinois Central Railroad station at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue — clutching a copy of the Racing Form that he bought at the adjoining newsstand — he was shot in the head and fell over dead. Splashed across the Tribune's front page the next morning, was the headline: 'OFFER $30,000 FOR ASSASSIN.' But as details of Lingle's life subsequently dribbled out, the narrative changed dramatically, leading to a quite different headline: 'Tribune reporter was on the take, big time.' 1992: Chicagoan Bill Pinkney sailed into Boston Harbor having circumnavigated the globe all by himself, the third American and the first Black person to have accomplished the feat. Armed with a satellite phone, an array of prepared foods, a stack of books and a Sony Walkman, Pinkney traveled from Boston to Bermuda and then to the British Virgin Islands, Brazil, Cape Town, South Africa, and across the Indian Ocean to Tasmania. After that, he sailed across the South Pacific around Cape Horn to Uruguay before turning north again to Bermuda. During his voyage, Pinkney experienced some harrowing moments, but no brushes with total disaster. 'I have not had any near-death experiences, thank goodness,' he told the Tribune in 1992. 'I was caught in a lightning storm between Argentina and Uruguay. For four hours, the lightning was hitting like mad all around me. I was the tallest thing.' It took Pinkney 22 months to complete the 27,000-mile circumnavigation. 2010: Patrick Kane sealed the Chicago Blackhawks' first Stanley Cup since 1961, with a goal 4 minutes, 6 seconds into overtime of Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers. WGN-AM 720's John Wiedeman made the radio call: 'It's in the back of the net! The Hawks have won the Stanley Cup! Blackhawk fans around the world, you've endured 49 years of frustration, but your patience has finally paid off! Sweet Home Chicago!'' Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
