The First World War (1914-1918)The First World War bursts in August 1914, following the attack of Sarajevo. All the protagonists enter the conflict with the idea that it will be of short duration. Germany, Austria, Bulgaria then Turkey face Russia, France and the United Kingdom, then Italy and the United States.
In France, the mobile warfare (battles of the Marne, 1914) succeeds the wear and war of position, with the appearance of the trenches (1915-1916). In 1917, the war is disputed. On the two sides, mutinies take place, from the strikes emerge in the factories, while Russia signs peace with Germany.
The entry in war of the United States and the counter-offensive of Foch put an end to the conflict. The armistice is signed on on November 11th, 1918; the conflict will have cost approximately 10 million deaths. The treaty of Versailles, signed on on June 28th, 1919, marks the disappearance of the old order and closes truly the XIX E century.
The Second world war (1939-1945)
During Second world war, Hitler, which seeks to ensure “the living space” of Germany whatever is the price, invades Poland on on September 1st, 1939. It thus starts a new European war, which quickly becomes world. After having crushed Poland then France (May 1940), it fails in its attempt to invade Great Britain. During three years, the Nazi Germany dominates continental Europe in spite of the resistance movements, and exterminates 10% of the population Tzigane and six million Jews.
In 1941, the USSR is invaded by the Germans, and the United States declares the war in Japan after Pearl Harbor (December 7th). The eagerness of the Soviet armies and the enormous production of American war end up involving the backward flow of the powers of the Axis.
After the landing of the Allied of Normandy (June 6th, 1944), Germany, devastated by the air raids, is invaded. It capitulates on on May 8th, 1945. Japan capitulates in its turn after the explosion of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. At the time of assessment, the human losses are enormous: 50 woman and man million found death, and for the first time the civil losses are more important than the military losses.
The cold war (1947 - 1962)
The world resulting from the Second world war is very quickly dominated by the confrontation of two blocks, linked one around the United States, the other around the USSR. To the divergences on the fate of Germany the opposition of the Americans is added to the policy of Stalin in Eastern Europe, where all the countries pass in the Soviet zone of influence between 1947 and 1948.
The year 1947 marks truly the rupture between the allies of yesterday. The Marshall plan, intended to prevent the success of the communist movements in Western Europe, is denounced by the Soviets. The two blocks are constituted, Churchill evokes the “iron curtain then” which fall on Europe.
There are no direct confrontations, but of many crises, like the blockade of Berlin (1948) or the war of Korea (1950-1953). The crisis of the rockets in Cuba in 1962 marks at the same time the paroxysm of the cold war and the beginning of the “peaceful coexistence”. The fear of an atomic war obliges the United States and the USSR to take a series of control measures of the nuclear threat (“hot line”, non-proliferation treaty of the nuclear weapons) and imposes the relaxation to them.