World Wars, Decolonization and the Cold War
What this domain tests
This domain links total war, the end of European empires and superpower rivalry. Questions often ask for causation, consequence and chronology, so you must be able to separate the assassination at Sarajevo from the underlying tensions of 1914.
The World Wars
- First World War (1914–18): the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 triggered a crisis, but alliances, militarism, imperial rivalry and Balkan nationalism made it general.
- The Treaty of Versailles (1919) imposed reparations and territorial losses on Germany and created the League of Nations, which lacked enforcement power.
- Second World War (1939–45): expansionist fascism, the failure of appeasement and the Nazi–Soviet Pact preceded the invasion of Poland. The war ended in Europe in May 1945 and in the Pacific in August 1945.
Decolonization
- India and Pakistan became independent in 1947; Ghana in 1957; many African states in 1960.
- The Bandung Conference (1955) and the Non-Aligned Movement offered an alternative to bloc politics.
- Independence did not automatically bring stable nationhood; partition, arbitrary borders and economic dependency shaped postcolonial politics.
Cold War
- Containment, the Marshall Plan (1948), NATO (1949) and the Warsaw Pact (1955) divided Europe.
- Crises included the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Wall (1961), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) and proxy wars.
- The USSR dissolved in 1991.
Worked example
'Did the Treaty of Versailles cause the Second World War?' Reasoning: it created resentment and economic strain, but it did not make Hitler inevitable; the Depression, the weakness of the League and appeasement also mattered. Link, do not reduce.
Traps that cost marks
Treating Sarajevo as the sole cause of WWI; confusing the League with the UN; assuming decolonization was peaceful everywhere; dating the Cold War's end to 1989 rather than the USSR's dissolution in 1991.