This is a map of Europe during the early 20th century, before the World War started.

The main aggressors were Germany and Austria-Hungary

Causes
The complex alliances between the countries-that maintained peace in Europe-required their
allies to come to their aid in case of an attack. Therefore any aggression between these two blocks
would escalate a global conflagration.

Unification of Germany
Now, Germany got unified under Bismarck in the late 19th century. Prussia baited France to
attack her, and with the help of the united German states, defeated France and seized the
economically valuable Alsace-Lorraine region. France was smarting from this defeat. This
unification, as well as the seizure of the Alsace-Lorraine region catapulted Germany as an
industrial power. Just look at the size of Germany compared to the rest of Europe, excluding
Russia. It was one of the largest states. It was industrialized and it had a resource rich region to
excavate for resources. Germany had also become the cultural capital of Europe. In fact, many
Bolsheviks (the ones who carried out the Russian Revolution) and British ministers had studied
in Germany.
Germany was thinking of dominating the world, and when you think of it, it wasn't that far
fetched of a dream. Most of Africa and Asia was being run from Europe. Germany had a
dominating influence in Europe. If it could cooperate with Austria-Hungary, it could well be on
the path to domination.
Now, Austria-Hungary was kind of unpopular. They annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina and there
were protests all around the Slavic nations.

Peace in Europe
Now, peace in Europe was maintained through a complex system of alliances. Germany and
Austria were two huge nations, who were allies. Germany and France were at odds with each
other, especially after the unification of Germany and Franco-Prussian wars. Bismarck had
allied with Russia but that was now long gone and German elite often looked down on Russia.
When the Germans' military power started growing, Russia allied itself with France. The
German empire was friendly with the Ottoman Empire. Russia supported Serbia and all the
Slavic nations which meant they were against Austria as well as the Ottomans. Now, the
Germans admired the Britons and vice versa. However, by Kaiser Wilhelm's decree, Germany
started building a navy to challenge Britain's sea dominance. This did not go down well with
Britain. Churchill suggested that both put a stop to naval building. He even told the Kaiser that
for Britain is a necessity but for Germany, it was a luxury.

The Moroccan Crisis

Germany in an attempt to weaken relations between France and Britain supported Moroccan
independence. This was an indirect challenge to France. However, Germany failed to get
Moroccan independence and only succeeded in strengthening the Triple Entente.
Now, all this is well and good. But while all this was going on, Italy thought of attacking the
Ottoman Empire. Since Germany, France and Great Britain weren't inclined to stop Italy, it got a
free hand. And therefore wrenched away territory from the Ottoman Empire. Serbia, Greece and
Bulgaria got together, and with the help of Russia succeeded in driving out the Ottomans from
the Balkan for the first time in 500 years. Serbia doubled her territory in these Balkan wars.

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The Archduke of Austria was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the terrorist group,
the Black Hat. He was visiting Sarajevo in June, 1914. This assassination was the immediate
spark that fueled the fire of the first World War

War Starts
The main war started over a few weeks. Austria declared war on Serbia because of Serbia's
refusal to accept Austria-Hungary's terms and conditions. Russia in an attempt to protect Serbia,
declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany declared war on France preemptively. Now, to
attack France it wanted to go through Belgium. Since Belgium was neutral, it refused passage to
Germany. Seeing this, Germany declared war on Belgium as well. Britain could not stand this
declaration of war on Belgium, and therefore declared war on Germany.

Progress of the War

Germany attacked Belgium since that was the quickest way to get to France. France had
defended the Alsace-Lorraine region's borders pretty thoroughly. France alone could not defeat
Germany. Belgium put up a brave fight in the sight of insurmountable odds. This gave Britain
and France a few more days in which to prepare the defense of Paris. When Germany reached
Paris, it was met by well prepared troops. Germany and Britan and France tried to outmaneuver
each other's troops until the battle lines reached the North Sea. Then no more maneuvers were
possible. Then the Western Front started getting stalemated because of trench warfare. Germany
planned to bring down France quickly so that its troops could be moved to Russia. This plan
failed.
Now, at the Eastern Front, Germany could not afford to lose against Russia. Russia's First and
Second Armies together would have defeated Germany's division. The First Army waited for the
Second Army to arrive. Their coordination was poor. Germany broke Russian cryptography and
got to know of their plans. They attacked the armies before they could gather their wits and
defeated them.
Soon, to further irritate Germany, Britain instituted an economic blockade of Germany. In
return, Germany tried to torpedo Britain's trade with the US. The result was it sunk some US
ships which angered Germany and it declared waron Germany.
In 1917, Russia's Czarist regime fell and all discipline fell. Russia negotiated a separate peace
with Germany, and the Bolsheviks took over.
The remaining war consisted of Britain conquering Palestine. Germany's colonies in South-West
Africa were attacked. The Turks committed genocide against the Armenians.

Why did Germany lose?

Germany was the very best in military leadership. Its superior military leaders allowed it to
overcome numerical superiority. If the war had gone on longer, it would have probably won
the war.
However, there was a problem that Germany faced. Britain and France could draw on their
overseas colonies for resources. Germany did not have a network of colonies like Britain and
France. Britain and France could trade with neutral countries to win the war. Germany could
not. In effect, Britain's economic blockade of Germany had crippled its food supply.
The above map was published by the US and depicts conditions of food as thewar was drawing to
a close. By 1918, the Central Powers had begun facing sever food shortages and the Germany
citizens began to pressurize German Government to end the war. The food situation would have
likely become worse if the war had continued till the winter of 1919.

Europe after the first World War

The above is a map of Europe after the First World War. The victorious Allies met in Paris to
decide what to do with the losers. They transformed Europe's borders.
The famous Treaty of Versailles was signed here. Germany was absolutely humiliated. Her key
regions were taken from her and the remaining terms were mortifying. There were restrictions
on her army size, on her navy and almost everything else. It seemed that the victors wanted to
crush her into oblivion.
Austria-Hungary was carved up into 6 different states. One was Czechoslovakia. This country
later split up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Serbia combined with some territories from
Austria-Hungary formed Yugoslavia. It too disintegrated in the early 1990s to produce several
small nations in the Balkans. Poland was created from some territory taken from Russia as well
as Germany. This set up the scene for World War 2.
And one major mistake was made by the victors. They split up the Ottoman Empire. This gave
rise to the boiling cauldron that is the modern Middle East. The Ottoman Empire was divided
between the French and British zones of control, however they pleases. The territories were
divided without giving any thought to the ethno-sectarian make up on the ground. Today's
problems probably wouldn't have existed had the victors of those days shown some foresight.

Finally, the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia during the Civil War. This was to set the stage for
the Cold War in 1945. America was against the Bolsheviks and had supported their enemies. This
ingrained a deep mistrust of Americans in general within the minds of the Russians.
Finally, the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations was formed to maintain
international peace. The League was ineffectual due to the absence of the US. It totally failed in
its objectives to prevent the breakout of another war.

World War 2
Now, let's start with the Treaty of Versailles. As I wrote earlier, the Treaty of Versailles was
signed with Germany, and it was a humiliation for the government.
Alsace-Lorraine was given to France. Prussia had taken it from France almost 50 years ago.
Silesia (rich in coal) was given to Poland.
Germany was allowed to maintain a token army of 100,000 personnel only, that too, to only
maintain internal peace.
German colonies in the rest of the world were divided by the allies.
Reparations were to be made. They were $132 billion dollars.
These are the most important terms. The allies were avaricious and tries to get everything that
they could get from Germany. Germany expected a truce, but was faced with an ultimatum of
surrender.
Naturally, the Germans would be angry.
Japan and China were already at loggerheads when World War 2 started. Japan had invaded
Manchuria in 1937 and had taken it. It ignored the directives of the League of Nations to stop the
invasion and proved how futile the League was.
Hitler came to power in 1933. After coming to power, he stopped paying reparations which were
to be paid in accordance with the Treaty Of Versailles. He started becoming aggressive. He
started rearming Germany. He started armament production, introduced conscription and
reduced unemployment. Therefore, Germany's economy began to come around (there are some
arguments though, that the economy was not sustainable without a war).

Hitler's ambitions rise

Hitler took over Austria. The annexation was welcome by a large number of the Austrian
population. Next, Hitler aimed his sight at the German speaking population of Czechoslovakia,
the Sudetenland. Britain's Prime Minister Chamberlain, in a private meeting with Hitler agreed
to Hitler annexing these territories with the assurance that Hitler wouldn't ask for more
territories. Hitler promised and annexed those areas. France and Britain were following an
"Appease Hitler" policy, since neither of these nations had the strength or will to oppose him.
Hitler signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. This pact was a Germany-Soviet Union nonaggression pact signed in secret. This shocked all the Allied powers and got Poland worried

Next, he turned towards Poland. If you look at the very first map I provided in my answer, you
will see that there is no Poland. Poland was carved out from Russian and German territories after
WWI, and as such faced a constant threat form both of them.
In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. Britain declared war on Germany the next day. Russia was
planning to invade Poland from the other side. Poland was to be gobbled up by these two powers.

An innovative attack technique, blitzkrieg, was used by Germany. France fell in some weeks.
The whole world was stunned. The Russians invaded Finland. Finland offered a surprisingly
tough resistance (Google search for "the white death"). Now, Hitler broke the non aggression
pact by invading Soviet Union and surprisingly he captured a large amount of territory. However,

the Russian winter set in and the German army was not equipped for the winter. They failed to
take Moscow and lost the crucial battle of Stalingrad.
Now, in 1944 France was under Nazi control. The Allies planned the Normandy landings to take
control of France and drive Germany out from there. The landings succeeded and the Nazis lost
France.
By 1945, the Soviets were quite close to Berlin and had it surrounded. Hitler committed suicide
in his bunker and Germany surrendered. The Soviets took over and committed mass rapes. It is
estimated that the Soviets raped approximately a 100,000 German women.
Although, Germany had resigned, Japan was carrying on. Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and
the US declared war on Japan. In response, Germany declared war on the US. It proved costly
for Germany. The US developed the atomic bomb and then bombed Japan in August 1945,
thereby getting Japan to surrender.
As a result, the second World War came to an end and Germany was carved up into 4 parts to
prevent it from getting strong again.

COLD WAR
Origin
During World War 1, the Russians experienced the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Bolsheviks
seized power and they negotiated a separate peace with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Due to this
the Russians withdrew from the war, and Soviet Russia found itself isolated in international
diplomacy. However, the separate peace, ingrained a deep mistrust of the Soviets in the
Americans, because they had to fight the Central Powers alone. Then in 1918, US troops landed
in Russia and assisted the anti-Bolshevik white in the Russian Civil War. This gave rise to anticapitalist tendencies of the Russians. In this way, the tensions between Russia and the US turned
intensely ideological.
The Bolsheviks won the Civil War and proclaimed a challenge to capitalism. Stalin viewed the
world as bipolar, in which he would attract those countries which were gravitating towards
capitalism and democracy. This further increase tensions. Furthermore, Stalin disliked Britain
and France's policy of appeasing Hitler.
From 1939-1941 (till Germany invaded the Soviet Union), relations between the USSR and the
West further deteriorated, while Germany and USSR economic relations further developed. In
fact, the USSR was even considering joining an Axis alliance.
During the Second World War, the US and the USSR joined hands to defeat Nazi Germany.
However, this was a marriage of convenience. The USSR was smarting at the late entry of US into
the war. Millions of Soviet soldiers had died in this war and this was resented by the USSR. They
wanted the USA to enter the war earlier. There were also many disagreements during the war
which alienated both the allies.
After the war, however, there was intense disagreement on how to maintain peace. The US
viewed international peace in terms of international institutions where disputes could be
peacefully resolved. However, Russia viewed international peace in terms of space. Therefore
Stalin created the Eastern Bloc, a group of satellite countries across the Soviet Union as a buffer
space in case of invasion. Thereby the Cold War "officially" began.

Truman's Vision
President Truman worked hard to establish a new global order. He set up the IMF
(International Monetary Fund) as well as the World Bank. He funded the rebuilding of Japan. In
1947, under the Marshall Plan, he set aside $10 billion, for rebuilding and re-industrializing
Germany. The Marshall Plan was very successful with most of the factories in West Europe
being up to their pre-war production levels.

Stalin's Vision
Stalin joined the US in forming the United Nations for establishing global peace. However, he
fought with Truman on almost every other issue. He protested the setting up of the Marshall
Plan, as well as the Truman Doctrine. He created a buffer between Germany and USSR by setting
up communist states in East Europe in Poland and others. As a result, an Iron Curtain soon fell
over Europe, and divided East and West Europe. Stalin unsuccessfully tried to drive away
British, French and American forces from their occupation zones in Berlin by blocking access to
Berlin. However, the West soon airlifted supplies to Berlin. This incident came to be known as
the Berlin Blockade.

Events during the Cold War

Yalta Conference
This was a wartime conference between the allied powers regarding postwar division of Europe.
Here the division of Germany was agreed upon, as well as the allies agreeing to use German labor
as reparations. Nazi war criminals were to be hunted down and brought to justice. The US, UK
and France further agreed to hold democratic elections in all the countries freed by them and in
formed Axis allied states.
Postdam Conference
This was the final wartime conference. In this conference, Truman informed Stalin that the US
had nuclear weapons. This conference ended with the Postdam agreement. This agreement
confirmed the division of Germany. This agreement revised Soviet-Polish-German borders.
Containment and Truman Doctrine
This was the USA's policy of stopping the spread of communism. To implement this policy of
containment, the Truman Doctrine policy was adopted. This doctrine impelled the US to aid any
nation militarily as well as economically if its stability was threatened by USSR or communism.
This doctrine become a metaphor for emergency aid.
In fact, this doctrine would go on to become a pain in the neck for both sides. Nations threatened
to join the other side if they did not receive aid from one side.
The Truman doctrine resulted in Greece and Turkey joining the NATO alliance.
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Europe. The US wanted to remove trade
barriers, rebuild war devastated regions, modernize industries and make Europe prosperous
again. It was a counter to perceived threats such as communists seizing power in Eastern Europe.
The USSR was also offered aid under this program but they not only refused, they also blocked
the aid to Eastern Bloc countries.
The twin policies of Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan helped Europe very much. With the
help of the US, Greece military won the Greek civil war.

Berlin Blockade
The US, UK and France merged their occupation zones in Berlin. In accordance with the
Marshall Plan, they began to build back war torn Germany and began to industrialize her. A new
currency, the DeutscheMark was introduced thus debasing the Soviet ReichMark. Then Stalin
instituted the Berlin Blockade. Since Berlin was in East Germany, the USSR controlled access to
it. Stalin refused to let the Western powers enter. Then the Western allies joined hand and
started airlifting supplies to Berlin. After almost a year, in May 1949, Stalin gave up and removed
the blockade. This was the first major crisis of the Cold war.
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was formed in April 4, 1949. The nations who signed the
treaty were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, UK, US, Luxembourg, Norway and
Portugal. This was created to stop communists expansion. It was a inter governmental military
alliance. This treaty made it mandatory for all member nations to come to aid to other member
nations if they were attacked.
SEATO
The Chinese Civil war occurred during this period. The US backed party lost and Mao came to
power. Due to this setback, the US signed an alliance with Japan, Australia and New Zealand,
Thailand and Phillipines, thereby guaranteeing it military bases there. This agreement was know
as The South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO).
Korean War
The Korean war was another major crisis. This divided the peninsula into North and South
Korea. This galvanized the NATO into developing a military structure. Until then NATO was just
a political association aimed at maintaining political unity to tackle communism.
Khruschev and Eisenhower
This is the most important event in the Cold War. Stalin died in 1953 and Nikita Khruschev took
over (after executing Beria). He shocked the world by denouncing Stalin's crimes and in his
secret speech admitted to much of the Soviet Union's atrocities.
At the same time in the US, president Dwight D. Eisenhower took over. John Foster Dulles took
over as Secretary of State and announced a New Lookpolicy of containment. It referred to
balancing military commitments with financial spending.
Now, there was beginning to be a slight thaw in War. Khruschev was not as rigid as Stalin and
had in fact denounced him. At the same time, the US under Eisenhower was also more open to a
truce.
Warsaw Pact and further increase of tensions
The Warsaw Pact was signed by 8 communist and Eastern European countries as a counterpart
to NATO. This treaty was signed in 1953.
However, soon after the uneasy peace was disturbed. Khruschev deposed Hungary's Stalinist
leader. This caused the Hungarian revolution. And then he repeatedly threatened the West with
nuclear annhilation.
One more thing, Khruschev repeatedly exaggerated the nuclear reserves of the USSR. The US
was intimidated by this and tried to develop even more nuclear weapons. This went on and on.

Then one day, a American U2 spy plane, went over Soviet territory, and found out that
Khruschev had been bluffing.
Now, unsatisfied with what he had been achieving, Khruschev went a step further. He proposed
to make Berlin a free city and gave the West 6 months to de-occupy their zones. Needless to say,
the West refused and Khruschev withdrew the ultimatum in return for a Geneva conference on
the German question.

De-colonization
Now, we have come till the 1960s. The 1960s were a momentous decade. The most significant
event in this decade was de-colonization. Many European nations had colonies all over the third
world. They were forced to release their colonies by the US and the USSR.
This led to both these groups competing against each other for influence in the third world. This
led to a formation of the third block known as the Non-Aligned Movement. Although this block
was not powerful in a traditional sense, it provided newly formed nations a ray of hope that they
could remain free from the machinations of these two nations.
In reality though, almost all the nations of the Non Aligned Movement developed either a small
capitalist or communist tilt.
This was the time when there was a split between China and Soviet Russia. Mao was upset over
Khruschev defaming Stalin.
Space Race
Technologically, the Space Race was the most important consequence of the Cold War. When you
have two nations hellbent on demonstrating superiority in every possible field, there is bound to
be spectacular results in technology. The Space Race put a man in orbit, as well as a moon and
developed shuttles and probes capable of traveling vast interplanetary distances.
It is said that the Russian scientist who put Yuri Gagarin in space, feared for his life, had his
mission failed. That was the intensity with which the Space Race went on and how intense the
rivalry between the two blocks was.
Cuban Missile Crisis
This was the closest the world ever got to a nuclear war. Khruschev learned of American plans to
overthrow the Cuban government possibly with the help of the American military, as well as a
planned Fidel Castro assassination. To thwart this, Soviets installed nuclear installations in
Cuba. Now, if you see the map of Cuba, it is very near to the US. JFK was understandably
alarmed. He responded with a naval blockade and presented an ultimatum to the Soviets to
remove the installations. Khruschev backed down a nuclear war was averted.

Dtente-Easing of tensions
During this time tensions between the Soviet Union and the US considerably eased though by no
means was the Cold War over.
The French withdrew from NATO under De-Gaulle's presidency. Czechoslovakia was invaded by
the USSR with most of the nations under the Warsaw pact forcing as many as 100,000 Czechs to

migrate.
An important point here is the Brezhnev Doctrine. The doctrine stated that the USSR would
invade any country that attempted to replace Marxism-Leninism with capitalism.
American relations improved with China due to Sino-Soviet split.
Second Cold War
The phase from 1979-1985 is often known as the Second Cold War due to the ramping up of
tensions between the two blocs again. It was during this time that the Soviets invaded
Afghanistan. The after effects of that invasion continue till today.
US and USSR military issues
The USSR had, by this time, overtaken the US in terms of military arsenal and army power. This
was countered by President Reagan ramping up the US military after the Soviets invaded
Afghanistan. This was the largest peace time buildup of military.
NATO deployed some missiles in West Germany. These missiles were within 10 minutes' striking
distance of Moscow.
Gorbachev Reforms
By 1985, Leonid Brezhnev had stepped down and Gorbachev had taken up the role of the leader
of the Soviet Union. He was quite young. He introduced the concepts of perestroika and glasnost.
Perestroika referred to the opening of the economy. Glasnost referred to more freedom. This
meant more freedom to the press and more rights to civilians in general.
However, these reforms failed and in 1991, Gorbachev was deposed in a coup by Boris Yeltsin.