History: The 20th Century and the Contemporary World
This domain tests causes and consequences of global events from 1914 onward, firm chronology, and India's position in the world order - non-alignment, decolonisation and globalisation.
From Sarajevo to Versailles
Long-term causes of the First World War: militarism and the naval arms race, rival alliance blocs (Triple Alliance 1882; Triple Entente 1907), imperial competition and Balkan nationalism. Trigger: the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo, 28 June 1914. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) imposed the war-guilt clause on Germany, reparations, loss of territory and disarmament, and set up the League of Nations (1920) - without the United States.
Revolution and dictatorship
February 1917: food riots in Petrograd, the Tsar abdicates. October 1917: the Bolsheviks under Lenin take power, promising peace, land and bread, and Russia leaves the war by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918); the USSR is formed in 1922. The Great Depression from 1929 discredited parliamentary government and fed ultra-nationalism: Mussolini in power from 1922, Hitler as Chancellor in 1933.
War, Cold War and after
The Second World War (1939–45) ended with the Holocaust exposed and atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the United Nations was founded on 24 October 1945. The Cold War pitted NATO (1949) against the Warsaw Pact (1955) through proxy conflicts. Newly independent states chose non-alignment - Bandung 1955, and the Belgrade summit of 1961 with Nehru, Nasser and Tito. Decolonisation reshaped the map of Asia and Africa; India's 1991 reforms tied its economy to globalisation.
Worked example
How did Versailles contribute to the Second World War? War-guilt clause → humiliation and reparations → hyperinflation and the Depression → Nazi electoral gains → expansionist aggression → 1939. Write the chain with dates, not a list of grievances.
Traps
Confusing the February and October revolutions; claiming the League included the USA; swapping NATO and Warsaw Pact dates; calling the Cold War a direct shooting war; muddling Mussolini's and Hitler's years in power.