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History · NDA

HN08 — World History: Revolutions, World Wars & the Cold War

📖 HN08 · NDA General Ability Test — History ★ Moderate Yield — 2–3 Questions

World History in NDA tests your knowledge of the defining events that shaped the modern world — the great revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries, two devastating World Wars, and the Cold War that dominated the second half of the 20th century. Questions are factual: which event caused which, who led which movement, which treaty ended which war. Approach this chapter as a chain of causes and effects — each major event created the conditions for the next one.

🏭 NDA Focus: French Revolution (1789) = Liberty, Equality, Fraternity; Bastille stormed 14 July 1789; Napoleon = Code Napoleon; American Revolution = Boston Tea Party 1773; Declaration of Independence 4 July 1776; Russian Revolution 1917 = Bolsheviks (Lenin); WWI = started 1914 (Franz Ferdinand assassination); Treaty of Versailles 1919; WWII = 1939–45; Pearl Harbor (Dec 1941); UN founded 1945; Cold War = USA vs. USSR; NATO vs. Warsaw Pact; Berlin Wall 1961–89; Cuban Missile Crisis 1962.

PART 1 — GREAT REVOLUTIONS

1. Three Transformative Revolutions

🇺🇸 American Revolution (1775–1783)

Cause: British taxation without representation — "No taxation without representation"
Boston Tea Party (1773): American colonists dumped British tea into Boston harbour to protest tea tax — pivotal act of defiance
Lexington & Concord (1775): First armed battles — "shot heard around the world"
Declaration of Independence: 4 July 1776 — drafted by Thomas Jefferson; "all men are created equal"
Key leaders: George Washington (Commander), Benjamin Franklin (diplomat), Thomas Jefferson (writer)
Treaty of Paris (1783): Britain recognised American independence
Impact: First modern republic; inspired French Revolution; "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness"

🇫🇷 French Revolution (1789–1799)

Causes: Financial bankruptcy of French state; unfair taxation (clergy and nobles exempt); food shortages; Enlightenment ideas (Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu)
Storming of Bastille: 14 July 1789 — most iconic act; fortress-prison symbol of royal tyranny; celebrated as French National Day (Bastille Day)
Slogan: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité)
Reign of Terror (1793–94): Maximilien Robespierre; mass executions by guillotine; Louis XVI executed January 1793; Marie Antoinette executed October 1793
Napoleon Bonaparte: Rose from revolution; Emperor (1804); spread revolutionary ideas across Europe; Code Napoleon — modern legal framework; defeated at Waterloo (1815)
Impact: Ended feudalism in France; spread nationalist ideas across Europe; influenced world democracies

🇷🇺 Russian Revolution (1917)

Causes: WWI defeats; food shortages; Tsar Nicholas II's autocracy; workers' misery; rising socialist ideas
February Revolution (1917): Tsar Nicholas II abdicated; Provisional Government took power (Alexander Kerensky)
October Revolution (Nov 1917 in modern calendar): Bolsheviks (led by Vladimir Lenin) seized power — "All power to the Soviets"
Slogan: "Peace, Land, Bread" — direct appeal to war-weary soldiers, landless peasants, hungry workers
Outcome: Formation of USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922); world's first Communist state
Leon Trotsky: Organised the Red Army; key in revolution's success

PART 2 — WORLD WAR I (1914–1918)

2. The First World War

WWI Causes — the MAIN Framework (NDA Tested)

M — Militarism

European powers in an arms race — especially Germany and Britain (naval rivalry)
Military planning took precedence over diplomacy
"Schlieffen Plan" — Germany's war plan assumed a two-front war

A — Alliance System

Europe divided into two armed camps: Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) vs. Triple Entente (France, Russia, Britain)
A small conflict between two nations automatically pulled in all allied nations

I — Imperialism

Competition for colonies in Africa and Asia created tensions between European powers
Moroccan Crises (1905, 1911) — France vs. Germany nearly went to war over Morocco

N — Nationalism

Pan-Slavic nationalism in Balkans challenged Austria-Hungary's multinational empire
Serbia wanted to unite all South Slavs; Austria wanted to crush Serbian nationalism
"The Balkans — the powder keg of Europe"

🔥 Immediate Cause & Start

28 June 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to Austro-Hungarian throne) assassinated in Sarajevo (Bosnia) by Gavrilo Princip (Bosnian Serb nationalist)
Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia; issued ultimatum; Serbia partially complied
Austria declared war on Serbia (28 July 1914)
Alliance system triggered: Russia mobilised, Germany declared war on Russia and France, Britain declared war on Germany
Within weeks, most of Europe was at war

☠ Key Facts & Outcome

Allied Powers: France, Britain, Russia (later USA from 1917); Serbia
Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria
Trench warfare: Stalemate on Western Front; gas attacks; millions died
USA joined 1917 — after German submarine warfare threatened American ships
War ended 11 November 1918 (11th hour, 11th day, 11th month) — Armistice
Treaty of Versailles (1919): Germany blamed for war ("War Guilt Clause"); massive reparations; lost territory; army limited; this humiliation led directly to WWII
League of Nations: Created to prevent future wars — failed

PART 3 — WORLD WAR II (1939–1945)

3. The Second World War

WWII — Causes, Key Events and Outcome

Causes

● Harsh Treaty of Versailles → German humiliation and resentment → fertile ground for Nazi ideology
● Rise of Fascism: Benito Mussolini in Italy (1922); Adolf Hitler in Germany (Nazi Party, 1933)
● Hitler's aggressive expansion: remilitarised Rhineland (1936); annexed Austria (Anschluss, 1938); seized Czechoslovakia
● Policy of Appeasement: Britain and France gave in to Hitler's demands hoping to avoid war (Munich Agreement, 1938)
● German invasion of Poland (1 September 1939) → Britain and France declared war on Germany

Key Events

● Blitzkrieg (Lightning War): Germany rapidly conquered France, Belgium, Netherlands (May-June 1940)
● Battle of Britain (1940): RAF (Royal Air Force) repelled German Luftwaffe air attacks — "their finest hour" (Churchill)
● Operation Barbarossa (June 1941): Germany invaded the USSR — Eastern Front; Hitler's greatest mistake
● Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941): Japan's surprise attack on US naval base; USA entered the war
● Holocaust: Systematic murder of ~6 million Jews by Nazi Germany
● D-Day (6 June 1944): Allied forces landed in Normandy, France — beginning of liberation of Western Europe
● Germany surrendered 8 May 1945 (VE Day); Japan surrendered 2 September 1945 after atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 Aug) and Nagasaki (9 Aug)

Outcomes & Allied Leaders

● Allied leaders: Winston Churchill (UK), Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA), Joseph Stalin (USSR) — the "Big Three"
● Axis leaders: Adolf Hitler (Germany; committed suicide April 1945), Benito Mussolini (Italy; killed by partisans April 1945), Hirohito (Japan)
● United Nations founded (1945) — replaced failed League of Nations; 51 original members
● Start of decolonisation — European empires weakened; India, African nations gained independence
● Beginning of Cold War — USA and USSR emerged as superpowers; ideological conflict began

PART 4 — THE COLD WAR (1947–1991)

4. Cold War — The Ideological Standoff

The Cold War was a 44-year geopolitical struggle between the USA (Capitalism/Democracy) and the USSR (Communism) — "cold" because the two superpowers never directly fought each other, but fought proxy wars across the globe and engaged in an arms race that threatened nuclear annihilation. It shaped the post-WWII world and directly affected India's foreign policy choices (Non-Aligned Movement).

🏴‍☠︎ USA's Camp — NATO

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949): Military alliance of USA, UK, France, West Germany, and other Western nations
Truman Doctrine (1947): USA would support any nation threatened by communism
Marshall Plan (1947): USA provided $13 billion to rebuild war-damaged Western European economies — prevent communism from spreading to desperate, poor nations
Berlin Airlift (1948–49): USSR blockaded West Berlin; USA airlifted supplies for 11 months — first major Cold War confrontation

★ USSR's Camp — Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Pact (1955): Military alliance of USSR and Eastern European communist states — formed in response to NATO
Soviet satellites: East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria
Iron Curtain: Churchill's term for the divide between communist Eastern Europe and democratic Western Europe
Berlin Wall (1961–1989): Built by East Germany/USSR to stop the flood of East Germans escaping to West Germany — became the most powerful symbol of the Cold War

Key Cold War Events — NDA Tested Facts:
● Korean War (1950–53): North Korea (communist, backed by China/USSR) vs. South Korea (backed by USA/UN); ended in stalemate; Korea still divided at 38th Parallel
● Cuban Missile Crisis (1962): USSR placed nuclear missiles in Cuba; USA blockaded Cuba; 13 days of extreme tension (October 1962); Kennedy and Khrushchev negotiated; missiles removed — closest the world came to nuclear war
● Vietnam War (1955–75): USA fought to prevent communist North Vietnam from taking South Vietnam; USA withdrew 1973; South Vietnam fell 1975
● Space Race: USSR — Sputnik (first satellite, 1957); Yuri Gagarin (first human in space, 1961); USA — Apollo 11 (first Moon landing, Neil Armstrong, 20 July 1969)
● Dissolution of USSR (1991): Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms (Glasnost = openness; Perestroika = restructuring) led to Soviet collapse; Berlin Wall fell 9 November 1989; Cold War officially ended

📝 NDA PYQs — World History

Q1. The Bastille was stormed on which date during the French Revolution? NDA PYQ

(a) 4 July 1789(b) 14 July 1789(c) 26 August 1789(d) 21 September 1789

✔ Answer: (b) 14 July 1789

The Bastille — a royal fortress and prison in Paris — was stormed by revolutionary mobs on 14 July 1789, symbolically marking the start of the French Revolution. The Bastille represented royal tyranny; its fall became the defining moment of the revolution. France celebrates Bastille Day on 14 July as its National Day — equivalent to India's 15 August or America's 4 July. Only 7 prisoners were found inside when it fell — but the symbolic impact was enormous.

Q2. The immediate cause of World War I was: NDA PYQ

(a) Germany's invasion of Poland(b) USA's entry into the war(c) Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand(d) Treaty of Versailles

✔ Answer: (c) Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The immediate cause of WWI was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne) and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo, Bosnia on 28 June 1914 by Gavrilo Princip (Bosnian Serb nationalist, member of the "Black Hand" group). Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia; issued an ultimatum; Serbia partially complied; Austria declared war. The Alliance System then dragged in Russia, Germany, France, and Britain within weeks. Germany's invasion of Poland was the cause of WWII — a common confusion point in NDA.

Q3. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) was a standoff between the USA and: NDA PYQ

(a) China(b) Cuba(c) USSR(d) North Korea

✔ Answer: (c) USSR

The Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) was the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War — between USA (President JFK) and the USSR (Premier Khrushchev). The USSR had secretly installed nuclear missiles in Cuba (just 90 miles from Florida). The USA blockaded Cuba and demanded removal of missiles; USSR ships were sailing toward Cuba; the world was on the brink of nuclear war. After 13 days of intense negotiations, the USSR agreed to remove missiles in exchange for USA's pledge not to invade Cuba and secretly remove American missiles from Turkey.

Q4. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) ended: NDA PYQ

(a) The French Revolution(b) World War I(c) World War II(d) The Russian Revolution

✔ Answer: (b) World War I

The Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919) formally ended World War I — signed exactly 5 years after Archduke Ferdinand's assassination. Germany was forced to: accept full "war guilt" (Article 231); pay enormous reparations ($33 billion); surrender Alsace-Lorraine to France and other territories; limit army to 100,000; surrender all colonies. These humiliating terms created deep resentment in Germany — which Hitler exploited to rise to power, ultimately leading to WWII. Historians call the Treaty "the peace that passed nothing but war."

🧠 Quick Memory Chart — HN08

🏭 Revolutions

American: 4 July 1776 (Independence); Boston Tea Party 1773
French: Bastille 14 July 1789; Liberty-Equality-Fraternity
Russian: October 1917; Bolsheviks; Lenin; USSR formed 1922
Napoleon: rose from French Revolution; Code Napoleon

☠ World Wars

WWI: 1914–18; Franz Ferdinand killed; Treaty of Versailles
WWII: 1939–45; Germany invades Poland; Pearl Harbor 1941
Atomic bombs: Hiroshima (6 Aug) + Nagasaki (9 Aug) 1945
UN founded 1945 (after WWII)

☆ Cold War

USA: NATO (1949); Truman Doctrine; Marshall Plan
USSR: Warsaw Pact (1955)
Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962 (nearest to nuclear war)
Moon Landing: USA; Apollo 11; Neil Armstrong; 20 July 1969
USSR dissolved: 1991; Berlin Wall fell 1989

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