CONTENT:

 ARCHDUKEFRANK FERDINAND
 ADOLF HITLER
 WORLD WAR II
 COLD WAR
 KAISER WILHEIM

Franz Ferdinand Biography

Duke (1863–1914)

Synopsis
PLACE OF DEATH
Sarajevo, Bosnia and
Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Herzegovina
ORIGINALLY
was born on December 18, 1863, in
Francis Ferdinand Graz, Austria. In 1900, Ferdinand
AKA gave up his children's rights to the
Franz Ferdinand throne in order to marry a lady-in-
Archduke Franz waiting. While in power, he
Ferdinand attempted to restore Austro-Russian
Francis Ferdinand relations while maintaining an
archduke of Austria- alliance with Germany. In 1914, a
QUICK FACTS Este Serb nationalist assassinated him.
NAME FULL NAME One month later, Austria declared
Franz Ferdinand Archduke Francis
OCCUPATION
war on Serbia, and World War I
Ferdinand began.
Duke
BIRTH DATE
December 18, 1863
DEATH DATE Early Life and Marriage
June 28, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz,
Graz, Austria Austria, on December 18, 1863, the
oldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig,
who was the younger brother of
Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz
Joseph. Franz Ferdinand was a
member of the House of Hapsburg,
rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Spanish Empire. He
began his military career at age 12 and was quickly promoted through the ranks becoming a
major general at age 31. After the suicide of the emperor's son, Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889,
and his own father's death from typhoid fever in 1896, Franz Ferdinand was groomed to inherit
the throne.
In 1894, Franz Ferdinand met Countess Sophia Chotek and the couple quickly fell in love.
However, marriage to a Hapsburg required that one be a member of a reigning or formally
reigning dynasty of Europe, and the Choteks were neither. The deeply in love Franz Ferdinand
refused to marry anyone else, however, so the couple kept their relationship secret. After the
family was informed of the relationship, Emperor Franz Joseph refused to give his permission to
the marriage. Eventually, several influential European leaders, including Pope Leo XIII, argued
on behalf of the love-sick Franz, stating that the disagreement was undermining the stability of
the monarchy. Franz Joseph finally agreed on the condition that no descendants of Franz and his
new wife succeed to the throne. The couple married on July 1, 1900.

Archduke of Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary was a polyglot empire of different ethnic groups at odds with each other over
religion and politics, and united to a flag that wasn't theirs. The only thing the divergent ethnic
people hated more than each other was Hapsburgs. Archduke Franz Ferdinand's public persona
was cold, sharped-tongued and short-tempered. He was also rumored to be insane due to the
inbreeding of the Hapsburg family. One matter is clear: Franz Ferdinand understood that the
empire was disintegrating and, thusly, that something needed to be done.

At one point, Franz Ferdinand proposed changing the Austro-Hungarian rule with a triple
monarchy of Slavs, Germans and Magyars, each having an equal voice in government. However,
this idea was unpopular with the ruling elite, further stirring doubts of Franz Ferdinand's sanity.
He also considered forming a federal government of 16 states, calling it the United States of
Greater Austria. This idea was in direct conflict with the Serbian nationalists who had designs of
breaking off with Bosnia and Herzegovina to form an independent state. Though he cared little
for their nationalist ambitions, he advocated for a careful approach with the Serbs, warning his
military leaders that harsh treatment toward them could cause an open conflict with Russia.

Assassination

In the summer of 1914, Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophie accepted an invitation to visit the
capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. He had been informed of terrorist activity conducted by the
nationalist organization the "Black Hand," but ignored the warnings. On the morning of June 28,
1914, the royal couple arrived by train and a six-car motorcade drove them to city hall for an
official reception. The archduke and his wife were in the second car with the top rolled back in
order to give the crowds a good view.

At 10:10 a.m., as the motorcade passed the central police station, a Black Hand agent, Nedjelko
Cabrinovic, hurled a hand grenade at the archduke's car. The driver accelerated when he saw the
flying object, and the bomb exploded underneath the wheel of the next car, injuring two of its
occupants along with a dozen spectators. Franz Ferdinand is reputed to have shouted in anger to
local officials, "So, you welcome your guests with bombs?!" He also reportedly stated, "What is
the good of your speeches? I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. It is
outrageous."
On the route back to the palace, the archduke's driver took a wrong turn into a side street, where
19-year-old nationalist Gavrilo Princip was waiting. As the car backed up, Princip approached
and fired his gun, striking Sophie in the abdomen and the archduke in the neck. Both died before
reaching the hospital.

Aftermath: Beginning of WWI

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand gave the hardliners in Austria-Hungary the
opportunity to act against Serbia and put an end to their fight for independence. In July 1914, the
situation escalated. After demanding impossible reparations and failing to receive them, Austria-
Hungary declared war against Serbia. As was expected, the complex web of alliances was
activated as Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany declared war on Russia, and
France and Britain declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. World War I had begun.
Adolf Hitler Biography
(1889–1945)

Who Was Adolf Hitler?

Adolf Hitler was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945,

serving as dictator and leader of the Nazi Party, or National
Socialist German Workers Party, for the bulk of his time in
QUICK FACTS power.
NAME
Adolf Hitler
BIRTH DATE Hitler’s fascist policies precipitated World War II and led to
April 20, 1889 the genocide known as the Holocaust, which resulted in the
DEATH DATE
deaths of some six million Jews and another five million
April 30, 1945
DID YOU KNOW? noncombatants.
Adolf Hitler wanted to be a
painter in his youth, but his Family
applications to obtain proper
schooling were rejected. The fourth of six children, Adolf Hitler was born to Alois
DID YOU KNOW?
Hitler personally designed the Hitler and Klara Polzl. As a child, Hitler clashed frequently
Nazi party banner, with his emotionally harsh father, who also didn't approve of
appropriating the swastika his son's later interest in fine art as a career.
symbol and placing it in a
white circle on a red Following the death of his younger brother, Edmund, in
background. 1900, Hitler became detached and introverted.
PLACE OF BIRTH
Braunau am Inn, Austria
PLACE OF DEATH Young Hitler
Berlin, Germany
Hitler showed an early interest in German nationalism,
rejecting the authority of Austria-Hungary. This nationalism
would become the motivating force of Hitler's life.

In 1903, Hitler’s father died suddenly. Two years later, Adolf's mother allowed her son to drop
out of school. After her death in December 1907, Hitler moved to Vienna and worked as a casual
laborer and watercolor painter. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts twice and was rejected
both times.
Lacking money outside of an orphan's pension and funds from selling postcards, he stayed in
homeless shelters. Hitler later pointed to these years as the time when he first cultivated his anti-
Semitism, though there is some debate about this account.

In 1913, Hitler relocated to Munich. At the outbreak of World War I, he applied to serve in the
German army. He was accepted in August 1914, though he was still an Austrian citizen.

Although Hitler spent much of his time away from the front lines (with some reports that his
recollections of his time on the field were generally exaggerated), he was present at a number of
significant battles and was wounded at the Battle of the Somme. He was decorated for bravery,
receiving the Iron Cross First Class and the Black Wound Badge.

Hitler became embittered over the collapse of the war effort. The experience reinforced his
passionate German patriotism, and he was shocked by Germany's surrender in 1918. Like other
German nationalists, he purportedly believed that the German army had been betrayed by
civilian leaders and Marxists.

He found the Treaty of Versailles degrading, particularly the demilitarization of the Rhineland
and the stipulation that Germany accepts responsibility for starting the war.

Nazi Germany

After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich and continued to work for the German military. As
an intelligence officer, he monitored the activities of the German Workers’ Party (DAP) and
adopted many of the anti-Semitic, nationalist and anti-Marxist ideas of party founder Anton
Drexler.

In September 1919, Hitler joined the DAP, which changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) — often abbreviated to Nazi.

Hitler personally designed the Nazi party banner, appropriating the swastika symbol and placing
it in a white circle on a red background. He soon gained notoriety for his vitriolic speeches
against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, Marxists and Jews. In 1921, Hitler replaced
Drexler as the Nazi party chairman.

Hitler's fervid beer-hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. Early followers included
army captain Ernst Rohm, the head of the Nazi paramilitary organization the Sturmabteilung
(SA), which protected meetings and frequently attacked political opponents.

Beer Hall Putsch

On November 8, 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting featuring Bavarian prime
minister Gustav Kahr at a large beer hall in Munich. Hitler announced that the national
revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government.

After a short struggle that led to several deaths, the coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch failed.
Hitler was arrested and tried for high treason and sentenced to nine months in prison.

'Mein Kampf'

During Hitler’s nine months in prison in 1924, he dictated most of the first volume of his
autobiographical book and political manifesto, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), to his deputy,
Rudolf Hess.

The first volume was published in 1925, and a second volume came out in 1927. It was abridged
and translated into 11 languages, selling more than five million copies by 1939. A work of
propaganda and falsehoods, the book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into
one based on race.

In the first volume, Hitler shared his Anti-Semitic, pro-Aryan worldview along with his sense of
“betrayal” at the outcome of World War I, calling for revenge against France and expansion
eastward into Russia.

The second volume outlined his plan to gain and maintain power. While often illogical and full
of grammatical errors, Mein Kampf was provocative and subversive, making it appealing to the
many Germans who felt displaced at the end of World War I.

Rise to Power

With millions unemployed, the Great Depression in Germany provided a political opportunity
for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent to the parliamentary republic and increasingly open to
extremist options. In 1932, Hitler ran against 84-year-old Paul von Hindenburg for the
presidency.

Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 36 percent of the vote
in the final count. The results established Hitler as a strong force in German politics. Hindenburg
reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor in order to promote political balance.

Hitler as Führer Hitler used his position as chancellor to form a de facto legal dictatorship.
The Reichstag Fire Decree, announced after a suspicious fire at Germany's parliament building,
suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial.
Hitler also engineered the passage of the Enabling Act, which gave his cabinet full legislative
powers for a period of four years and allowed for deviations from the constitution.

Anointing himself as Führer ("leader") and having achieved full control over the legislative and
executive branches of government, Hitler and his political allies embarked on a systematic
suppression of the remaining political opposition.

By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. On July 14, 1933,
Hitler's Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany. In October of that
year, Hitler ordered Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations.

Night of the Long Knives

Military opposition was also punished. The demands of the SA for more political and military
power led to the infamous Night of the Long Knives, a series of assassinations that took place
from June 30 to July 2, 1934.

Rohm, a perceived rival, and other SA leaders, along with a number of Hitler's political enemies,
were hunted down and murdered at locations across Germany.

The day before Hindenburg's death in August 1934, the cabinet had enacted a law abolishing the
office of president, combining its powers with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head
of state as well as head of government and was formally named leader and chancellor. As the
undisputed head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of the armed forces.

Hitler the Vegetarian

Hitler’s self-imposed dietary restrictions towards the end of his life included abstinence from
alcohol and meat.

Fueled by fanaticism over what he believed was a superior Aryan race, he encouraged Germans
to keep their bodies pure of any intoxicating or unclean substances and promoted anti-smoking
campaigns across the country.

Hitler’s Laws and Regulations Against Jews

From 1933 until the start of the war in 1939, Hitler and his Nazi regime instituted hundreds of
laws and regulations to restrict and exclude Jews in society. These anti-Semitic laws were issued
throughout all levels of government, making good on the Nazis’ pledge to persecute Jews.
On April 1, 1933, Hitler implemented a national boycott of Jewish businesses. This was followed
by the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" of April 7, 1933, which
excluded Jews from state service.

The law was a Nazi implementation of the Aryan Paragraph, which called for the exclusion of
Jews and non-Aryans from organizations, employment and eventually all aspects of public life.

On April 1, 1933, SA troopers urge a national

boycott of Jewish businesses. Here they are outside
Israel's Department Store in Berlin. The signs read:
"Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from
Jews." ("Deutsche! Wehrt Euch! Kauft nicht bei
Juden!"). The store was later ransacked during
Kristallnacht in 1938, then handed over to a non-
Jewish family.
Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-14469 / CC-BY-SA
3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons
Additional legislation restricted the number of Jewish students at schools and universities,
limited Jews working in medical and legal professions, and revoked the licenses of Jewish tax
consultants.

The Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Union also called for "Action
Against the Un-German Spirit,” prompting students to burn more than 25,000 “Un-German”
books, ushering in an era of censorship and Nazi propaganda. By 1934, Jewish actors were
forbidden from performing in film or in the theater.

On September 15, 1935, the Reichstag introduced the Nuremberg Laws, which defined a "Jew"
as anyone with three or four grandparents who were Jewish, regardless of whether the person
considered themselves Jewish or observed the religion.

The Nuremberg Laws also set forth the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German
Honour," which banned marriage between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans; and the Reich
Citizenship Law, which deprived "non-Aryans" of the benefits of German citizenship.

In 1936, Hitler and his regime muted their Anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions when Germany
hosted the Winter and Summer Olympic Games, in an effort to avoid criticism on the world
stage and a negative impact on tourism.
After the Olympics, the Nazi persecution of Jews intensified with the continued "Aryanization"
of Jewish businesses, which involved the firing of Jewish workers and takeover by non-Jewish
owners. The Nazis continued to segregate Jews from German society, banning them from public
school, universities, theaters, sports events and "Aryan" zones.

Jewish doctors were also barred from treating "Aryan" patients. Jews were required to carry
identity cards, and, in the fall of 1938, Jewish people had to have their passports stamped with a
"J."

Kristallnacht

On November 9 and 10, 1938, a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms swept Germany, Austria
and parts of the Sudetenland. Nazis destroyed synagogues and vandalized Jewish homes, schools
and businesses. Close to 100 Jews were murdered.

Called Kristallnacht, the "Night of Crystal" or the "Night of

Broken Glass," referring to the broken window glass left in
the wake of the destruction, it escalated the Nazi persecution
of Jews to another level of brutality and violence. Almost
30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration
camps, signaling more horrors to come.

Persecution of Homosexuals and People with Disabilities

Hitler's eugenic policies also targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities, later
authorizing a euthanasia program for disabled adults.

His regime also persecuted homosexuals, arresting an estimated 100,000 men from 1933 to 1945,
some of whom were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. At the camps, gay prisoners
were forced to wear pink triangles to identify their homosexuality, which Nazis considered a
crime and a disease.

The Holocaust and Concentration Camps

Between the start of World War II, in 1939, and its end, in 1945, Nazis and their collaborators
were responsible for the deaths of at least 11 million noncombatants, including about six million
Jews, representing two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe.

As part of Hitler's "Final Solution," the genocide enacted by the regime would come to be known
as the Holocaust.
German police shooting women and children from the Mizocz Ghetto, October 14, 1942.

Photo: Gustav Hille [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Deaths and mass executions took place in concentration and extermination camps
including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and Treblinka, among many others.
Other persecuted groups included Poles, communists, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and
trade unionists.

Prisoners were used as forced laborers for SS construction projects, and in some instances, they
were forced to build and expand concentration camps. They were subject to starvation, torture
and horrific brutalities, including gruesome and painful medical experiments.

Hitler probably never visited the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the mass
killings. However, Germans documented the atrocities committed at the camps on paper and in
films.

World War II

In 1938, Hitler, along with several other European leaders, signed the Munich Pact. The treaty
ceded the Sudetenland districts to Germany, reversing part of the Versailles Treaty. As a result of
the summit, Hitler was named Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1938.

This diplomatic win only whetted his appetite for a renewed German dominance. On September
1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, sparking the beginning of World War II. In response, Britain
and France declared war on Germany two days later.

In 1940 Hitler escalated his military activities, invading Norway, Denmark, France,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. By July, Hitler ordered bombing raids on the United
Kingdom, with the goal of invasion.

Germany’s formal alliance with Japan and Italy, known collectively as the Axis powers, was
agreed upon toward the end of September to deter the United States from supporting and
protecting the British.

On June 22, 1941, Hitler violated the 1939 non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin, sending a
massive army of German troops into the Soviet Union. The invading force seized a huge area of
Russia before Hitler temporarily halted the invasion and diverted forces to encircle Leningrad
and Kiev.

The pause allowed the Red Army to regroup and conduct a counter-offensive attack, and the
German advance was stopped outside Moscow in December 1941.
On December 7, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Honoring the alliance with Japan, Hitler
was now at war against the Allied powers, a coalition that included Britain, the world's largest
empire, led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill; the United States, the world's greatest
financial power, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt; and the Soviet Union, which had the
world's largest army, commanded by Stalin.

World War II was the biggest and deadliest war in history, involving more than 30 countries.
Sparked by the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland, the war dragged on for six bloody years until the
Allies defeated Nazi Germany and Japan in 1945.

The atomic bomb, and nuclear bombs, are powerful weapons that use nuclear reactions as
their source of explosive energy. Scientists first developed nuclear weapons technology
during World War II. Atomic bombs have been used only twice in war—both times by
the United States against Japan at the end of World War II, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A
period of nuclear proliferation followed that war, and during the Cold War, the United
States and the Soviet Union vied for supremacy in a global nuclear arms race.

Nuclear Bombs and Hydrogen Bombs

A discovery by nuclear physicists in a laboratory in Berlin, Germany, in 1938 made the

first atomic bomb possible, after Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered
nuclear fission.

When an atom of radioactive material splits into lighter atoms, there’s a sudden, powerful
release of energy. The discovery of nuclear fission opened the possibility of nuclear
technologies, including weapons.

Atomic bombs are weapons that get their energy from fission reactions. Thermonuclear
weapons, or hydrogen bombs, rely on a combination of nuclear fission and nuclear
fusion. Nuclear fusion is another type of reaction in which two lighter atom s combine to
release energy.

The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a
functional atomic bomb during World War II. The Manhattan Project was started in
response to fears that German scientists had been working on a weapon using nuclear
technology since the 1930s.

On December 28, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the formation of the
Manhattan Project to bring together various scientists and military officials working on
nuclear research.
Who Invented the Atomic Bomb?

Much of the work in the Manhattan Project was performed in Los Alamos, New Mexico,
under the direction of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic
bomb.” On July 16, 1945, in a remote desert location near Al amogordo, New Mexico, the
first atomic bomb was successfully detonated—the Trinity Test. It created an enormous
mushroom cloud some 40,000 feet high and ushered in the Atomic Age.

Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombings

Scientists at Los Alamos had developed two distinct

types of atomic bombs by 1945—a uranium-based
design called “the Little Boy” and a plutonium-based
weapon called “the Fat Man.”
While the war in Europe had ended in April, fighting in
the Pacific continued between Japanese forces and U.S.
troops. In late July, President Harry Truman called for Japan’s surrender with
the Potsdam Declaration. The declaration promised “prompt and utter destruction” if
Japan did not surrender.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B -29 bomber
plane called the Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The “Little Boy” exploded
with about 13 kilotons of force, leveling five square miles of the city and killing 80,000
people instantly. Tens of thousands more would later die from radiation exposure.

When the Japanese did not immediately surrender, the United States dropped a second
atomic bomb three days later on the city of Nagasaki. The “Fat Man” killed an estimated
40,000 people on impact.

Nagasaki had not been the primary target for the second bomb. American bombers
initially had targeted the city of Kokura, where Japan had one of its largest munition’s
plants, but smoke from firebombing raids obscured the sky over Kokura. American planes
then turned toward their secondary target, Nagasaki.

Citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb,” Japanese
Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender on August 15—a day that became
known as ‘V-J Day’—ending World War II.
The Cold War
The United States was the only country with nuclear
weaponry in the years immediately following World War
II. The Soviets initially lacked the knowledge and raw
materials to build nuclear warheads.
Within just a few years, however, the U.S.S.R. had
obtained—through a network of spies engaging in
international espionage—blueprints of a fission-style
bomb and discovered regional sources of uranium in
Eastern Europe. On August 29, 1949, the Soviets tested their first nuclear bomb.

The United States responded by launching a program in 1950 to develop more advanced
thermonuclear weapons. The Cold War arms race had begun, and nuclear testing and
research became high-profile goals for several countries, especially the United States and
the Soviet Union.

Read More: How The Hiroshima Bombing Kick-Started The Cold War

Cuban Missile Crisis

Over the next few decades, each world superpower would stockpile tens of thousands of
nuclear warheads. Other countries, including Great Britain, France, and China developed
nuclear weapons during this time, too.

To many observers, the world appeared on the brink of nuclear war in October of 1962. The
Soviet Union had installed nuclear-armed missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
This resulted in a 13-day military and political standoff known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

President John F. Kennedy enacted a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the
United States was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize the perceived
threat.

Disaster was avoided when the United States agreed to an offer made by Soviet
leader Nikita Khrushchev to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the United States
promising not to invade Cuba.

Three Mile Island

Many Americans became concerned about the health and environmental effects of nuclear
fallout—the radiation left in the environment after a nuclear blast—in the wake of World
War II and after extensive nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific during the 1940s and
1950s.

The antinuclear movement emerged as a social movement in 1961 at the height of the Cold
War. During Women Strike for Peace demonstrations on November 1, 1961 co -organized by
activist Bella Abzug, roughly 50,000 women marched in 60 cities in the United States to
demonstrate against nuclear weapons.

The antinuclear movement captured national attention again in the 1970s an d 1980s with
high profile protests against nuclear reactors after the Three Mile Island accident—a nuclear
meltdown at a Pennsylvania power plant in 1979.

In 1982, a million people marched in New York City protesting nuclear weapons and urging
an end to the Cold War nuclear arms race. It was one of the largest political protests in
United States history.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

The United States and Soviet Union took the lead in negotiating an international agreement
to halt the further spread of nuclear weapons in 1968.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (also called the Non-Proliferation
Treaty or NPT) went into effect in 1970. It separated the world’s countries into two
groups—nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states.

Nuclear weapons states included the five countries that were known to possess nuclear
weapons at the time—the United States, the U.S.S.R., Great Britain, France and China.

According to the treaty, nuclear weapons states agreed not to use nuclear weapons or help
non-nuclear states acquire nuclear weapons. They also agreed to gradually reduce their
stockpiles of nuclear weapons with the eventual goal of total disarmament. Non -nuclear
weapons states agreed not to acquire or develop nuclear weapons.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, there were still thousands of nuclear
weapons scattered across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Many of the weapons were in
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. These weapons were deactivated and returned to Russia.
Illegal Nuclear Weapon States

Some countries wanted the option of developing their own nuclear weapons arsenal and
never signed the NPT. India was the first country outside of the NPT to test a nuclear
weapon in 1974.

Other non-signatories to the NTP include: Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan. Pakistan has a
known nuclear weapons program. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons,
though has never officially confirmed or denied the existence of a nuclear weapons
program. South Sudan is not known or believed to possess nuclear weapons.

North Korea

North Korea initially signed the NPT treaty, but announced its withdrawal from the
agreement in 2003. Since 2006, North Korea has openly tested nuclear weapons, drawing
sanctions from various nations and international bodies.

North Korea tested two long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2017—one

reportedly capable of reaching the United States mainland. In September 2017, North Korea
claimed it had tested a hydrogen bomb that could fit on top an intercontinental ballistic
missile.

Iran, while a signatory of the NPT, has said it has the capability to initiate production of
nuclear weapons at short notice.

Cold War, the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between the United
States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. The Cold War was waged on political,
economic, and propaganda fronts and had only limited recourse to weapons. The term was first used
by the English writer George Orwell in an article published in 1945 to refer to what he predicted
would be a nuclear stalemate between “two or three monstrous super-states, each possessed of a
weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds.” It was first used in the
United States by the American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch in a speech at the
State House in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1947.
Origins of The Cold War

Following the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945 near the close of World War II, the uneasy
wartime alliance between the United States and Great Britain on the one hand and the Soviet Union
on the other began to unravel. By 1948 the Soviets had installed left-wing governments in the
countries of eastern Europe that had been liberated by the Red Army. The Americans and the
British feared the permanent Soviet domination of eastern Europe and the threat of Soviet-
influenced communist parties coming to power in the democracies of western Europe. The Soviets,
on the other hand, were determined to maintain control of eastern Europe in order to safeguard
against any possible renewed threat from Germany, and they were intent on
spreading communism worldwide, largely for ideological reasons. The Cold War had solidified by
1947–48, when U.S. aid provided under the Marshall Plan to western Europe had brought those
countries under American influence and the Soviets had installed openly communist regimes in
eastern Europe.
The Struggle Between Superpowers

The Cold War reached its peak in 1948–53. In this period the Soviets
unsuccessfully blockaded the Western-held sectors of West Berlin (1948–49); the United States
and its European allies formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a unified
military command to resist the Soviet presence in Europe (1949); the Soviets exploded their first
atomic warhead (1949), thus ending the American monopoly on the atomic bomb; the Chinese
communists came to power in mainland China (1949); and the Soviet-supported communist
government of North Korea invaded U.S.-supported South Korea in 1950, setting off an
indecisive Korean War that lasted until 1953.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization U.S. Secretary of State

Dean Acheson (center) calling to order a meeting of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on September 15,
1950.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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From 1953 to 1957 Cold War tensions relaxed somewhat,
largely owing to the death of the longtime Soviet
dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953; nevertheless, the standoff remained. A unified military
organization among the Soviet-bloc countries, the Warsaw Pact, was formed in 1955; and West
Germany was admitted into NATO that same year. Another intense stage of the Cold War was in
1958–62. The United States and the Soviet Union began developing
intercontinental ballistic missiles, and in 1962 the Soviets began secretly installing missiles in
Cuba that could be used to launch nuclear attacks on U.S. cities. This sparked the Cuban missile
crisis (1962), a confrontation that brought the two superpowers to the brink of war before an
agreement was reached to withdraw the missiles.

Cuban missile crisis Aerial photograph of Medium Range

Ballistic Missile (MRBM) Launch Site 1 near San Cristóbal, Cuba,
taken on October 25, 1962.U.S. Department of Defense/John F.
Kennedy Presidential Library
The Cuban missile crisis showed that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union were ready
to use nuclear weapons for fear of the other’s retaliation (and thus of mutual atomic
annihilation). The two superpowers soon signed the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty of 1963, which
banned aboveground nuclear weapons testing. But the crisis also hardened the Soviets’
determination never again to be humiliated by their
military inferiority, and they began a buildup of both
conventional and strategic forces that the United States
was forced to match for the next 25 years.

Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy

signing the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, October 7,
1963.National Archives and Records Administration
Kaiser Wilhelm Biography
Emperor (1859–1941)

Kaiser Wilhelm served as emperor of Germany from 1888

until the end of World War I.

Synopsis

Born in Germany in 1859, to Germany's Frederick III and

Victoria, Queen Victoria of England's eldest daughter,
Kaiser Wilhelm served as emperor of Germany from 1888
QUICK FACTS until the end of World War I. During his rule, Germany's
relations with Britain, France and Russia became strained.
NAME
During WWI, Wilhelm allowed his military advisers to
Kaiser Wilhelm
dictate German policy. After realizing that Germany would
OCCUPATION lose the war, Wilhelm abdicated the throne in November
Emperor 1918 and fled to the Netherlands, where he died in 1941.
BIRTH DATE
January 27, 1859
DEATH DATE
Early Life
June 4, 1941
Kaiser Wilhelm, also known as Wilhelm II, was born
PLACE OF BIRTH
Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert in Potsdam, near Berlin,
Potsdam (near Berlin), Germany, to Frederick III of Germany and Victoria (the
Germany future Empress Frederick), the eldest daughter of England's
PLACE OF DEATH Queen Victoria, on January 27, 1859. Wilhelm was born
Doorn, Netherlands with a withered arm. (Some historians believe that his
AKA insecurity over this handicap fueled his later erratic
Kaiser Wilhelm behavior.) His parents, particularly his British mother, tried
Wilhelm II to provide Wilhelm with a liberal education and a love of
William II England.
Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor
Albrecht von Preußen
After Wilhelm II's grandfather, Wilhelm I, died in 1888, at
FULL NAME the age of 90, Frederick III was named emperor. But
Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Frederick III would only rule for 99 days. Following a long
Albert battle with throat cancer, Emperor Frederick III died on
June 15, 1888. Wilhelm II succeeded his father, becoming Kaiser of Germany at the tender age
of 29.

Kaiser of Germany
The young Kaiser dreamed of building Germany into a major naval, colonial and economic
power. Determined to have his own way, he forced Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to resign in
1890, and took charge of domestic and foreign policy himself.

A series of inept political moves and Kaiser Wilhelm's fear of being encircled by enemy states
strained Germany's relations with Britain, France and Russia—moves that helped lead to World
War I. In 1896, Wilhelm enraged Britain by sending congratulations to Boer (Dutch South
African) leader Paul Kruger following the defeat of a British raid into Boer territory. Not long
after, Wilhelm rallied German soldiers to fight in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901),
nicknaming the soldiers "Huns" and encouraging them to fight like Attila's troops.

During WWI, Wilhelm allowed his military advisers to dictate German policy.

Later Years and Death

After realizing that Germany would lose the war, Wilhelm abdicated the throne on November 9,
1918, and fled to the Netherlands. He resided there as a country gentleman until his death, on
June 4, 1941, in Doorn.