The history of the Great War of 1939-45 and the postwar history of the world are highly exciting and inspiring. This is one of the periods in history when many things happened and which changed the face of the earth more than ever before. It saw the birth of new nations and there was all-round progress in human affairs and there has been a tremendous impetus in the field of science and technology. Great, wonderful and dangerous things from the point of view of humanity have happened. Great is the founding of the UNO which was raised from the dust of war. Wonderful has been man's achievements in the field of space probe. Dangerous has been the unleashing of the atomic energy. Great empires were dissolved and many free nations came into existence. One can't say whether the process has come to an end. Colonialism of old became a thing of the past and a new sort of colonialism under the aegis of communism is rearing its head. Its progress is received with mixed reception and it is too early to speak anything final about it.
The first World War left the world gloomy, the victorious nations having an economic set back from 1929 onwards and the vanquished nations, especially Germany struggling to come up. The League of Nations was there but it proved itself unequal to the task on more than one occasion. This encouraged Germany under Hitler to think of Germany's supremacy and a probable German Empire. His rape of Austria and Czechoslavakia were seen without protest by bigger nations like Great Britain and France. Encouraged by such victories, Hitler invaded Poland on 3rd Sept, 1939. Then the whole world was stunned. Hitler found partners for his devilish activities in Italy under Mussolini, and in Japan. Of course the latter came a bit later into the war. By a stroke of diplomacy Hitler entered into a pact with the USSR and this at least for the time being saved Germany from worries from the East. In the meantime Hitler invaded Belgium. Later Holland and France fell below the well trained German Army like nine pins. Hitler wanted to invade Great Britain and his air force pounded London which had never seen direct war for many centuries before. This was called Blitzkrieg and the Englishmen stood the trial valiantly. It was the blackest hour in the history of England. But it also found the man of the hour, Sir Winston Churchill. He became the champion premier of England. In spite of Dunkirk Great Britain was able to retaliate and stem the German attack.
Two things happened now which changed the course of the war. Germany invaded Russia and Japan attacked Pearl Harbor which brought the U.S.A. directly into the war. Japan progressed fast and went as far up to the Burmese border overthrowing the countries on the way. But Germany had many reversals, her earlier victories were nullified and she came to be on the defensive. The Big Three namely Great Britain, the USA and the USSR found a common enemy in the Axis partners comprising Germany, Italy and Japan. So they joined hands and once the USA landed her marines in Brittany in France, sometime in 1942 the tables were turned against Germany. Mussolini was shot dead as a war criminal and the Germans could not stand before the pincer movement of the Allies and as a result after a bitter struggle Berlin fell to Allies in May 1945.
In Eastern Sector the USA was fighting successfully against Japan and pushed them back to Japan. Still they would not yield. So President Truman ordered the release of the Atom Bomb on 7th Aug, 1945 on Hiroshima. Two days later Nagasaki was bombed and Japan surrendered.
The end of war saw the birth of the United Nations which sincerely attempted to establish peace on the earth. The American Atom bomb had led to what is called the atom diplomacy, for, other nations also came to have atom bombs. The two big nations of the world namely the U.S.A. and the USSR began looking up at the skies. The USSR stole the thunder when it put her Sputnik into the space in 1957. The USA followed suit and has had many creditable performances up-to-date, the last one being her three astronauts sent to the moon for a second time. Quite a good lot of things have happened in the field of technology.
The mention of a few would be enough to justify why this period in history has been so exciting. It saw the coming of many man made fabrics, the transistor, the ballpoint pen, the Jumbo Jets and supersonic planes, the space flights, the computer and many other things as well.
There are areas of conflict which if not handled wisely may explode into another world war.
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