Full transcript
0:00Hello, friends!
0:01World War II is the most devastating war in human history.
0:09Numerous large cities were left crumbling after this war.
0:14Today, nearly all geopolitical events
0:17and international relations can be traced back
0:19to this War.
0:20Friends, I've told you many stories from WWII
0:24in previous videos.
0:25But in this video, come, let's understand WWII in depth.
0:28Starting to end.
0:29What happened exactly?
0:31Why?
0:32And what was its impact?
0:34This is the story of World War II.
0:41"It is difficult to track down
0:42one single event
0:43that sparked the conflict.
0:45For ultimately, it was a series of events
0:47that conspired together.
0:49To eventually light a flame of war."
0:51"The world's most hated treaty,
0:53the Treaty of Versailles,
0:55thus starting World War II in 1939."
0:59"The whole world is
1:02against Hitler and Hitlerism."
1:06Let's begin this story in 1919.
1:08The year when World War I ended.
1:11And the famous peace treaty was signed
1:13known as the Treaty of Versailles.
1:16This treaty contained an important clause,
1:18Article 231.
1:19Which held that,
1:20all the losses caused due to World War I,
1:23Germany was to bear the responsibility for all such losses.
1:26This clause is also known as War Guilt Clause,
1:29because basically, it was trying to imply
1:30that regardless of the countries participating in the war
1:32Germany was to be blamed for it entirely.
1:35France and Britain wanted
1:37Germany to pay heavy costs for losing this war.
1:40They wanted to recover their losses from Germany.
1:43As a result, according to the Treaty of Versailles,
1:46Germany was told to pay a fine of $33 Billion to the other countries.
1:51In today's money, it amounts to around $270 Billion.
1:54This is such a large amount that you won't believe that
1:57it was only in 2010,
1:59Germany made the final payment of this fine.
2:01It took almost 100 years.
2:03You'd wonder where this money comes from.
2:06Obviously, from Germany.
2:08From its citizens.
2:09The first payment of this fine was made by Germany in 1921,
2:13right after that, there was hyperinflation in Germany.
2:21Germany's currency back then was the German Mark,
2:24you can't imagine how rapidly it was devalued.
2:27In 1922, in Berlin, a packet of bread cost 160 Marks.
2:31The following year, in 1923,
2:33the same packet of bread cost 200 Billion Marks.
2:37Obviously, the economy was crippled.
2:40And the rate of unemployment rose rapidly.
2:41In such circumstances, in our story, entered
2:44Adolf Hitler.
2:46A young political leader,
2:47who knew how to manipulate the masses with his speeches.
2:51In 1923, Hitler's Nazi Party
2:54tried to overthrow the German government.
2:56By staging a coup.
2:57Even though this attempt failed,
2:59this caused Hitler's popularity among the masses to increase manifold.
3:06Rumours were spread among the people
3:09that the embarrassment faced by Germany
3:11the international humiliation of Germany,
3:14were because of the 'anti-national' elements living in the country.
3:17People were distressed.
3:19It was easy to manipulate them.
3:20Hitler claimed that the Jews and Socialists living in the country,
3:24were to be blamed.
3:26They were the reason for Germany's disgrace.
3:28Over the next 10 years, propaganda was used in abundance,
3:31media organisations were paid, hate speeches were everywhere.
3:34I won't go into its details
3:36because I talked about these in the video on the rise of Hitler.
3:39In case you haven't watched it, I'll add the link in the description below.
3:42In 1929 came the Great Depression.
3:45This worsened the already bad unemployment situation,
3:48in 1933, 6 million people were unemployed in Germany.
3:52Many people were homeless.
3:54Children were starving to death.
3:55As a result, in 1933,
3:57Hitler declared himself the Dictator of Germany.
4:01After taking over full control of the country,
4:03Hitler started working on making his dream of a German Empire come true.
4:06German Reich.
4:08A state that would be racially pure.
4:10Its residents would be people of the Aryan race only.
4:13There would be no space for Jews and Slaviks.
4:15To fill people with hatred,
4:17they came up with the Judeo Bolshevism conspiracy theory.
4:20According to this conspiracy theory,
4:22the Russian Revolution in 1917,
4:24was supposedly caused by the Jews.
4:26Which eventually led to the formation of the Soviet Union.
4:29In 1935, the rest of the world came to know that
4:31Germany had an air force.
4:34This might not seem like a big deal to you,
4:36after all, every country has its air force.
4:38But friends, the Treaty of Versailles laid down the condition
4:41that Germany cannot have any form of military power.
4:44This was an open violation of the Treaty of Versailles by Hitler.
4:48But by this point in time, many people in Britain believed that
4:50the contents of the Treaty of Versailles
4:52were very unfair to Germany.
4:54They were asking for such a large ransom,
4:56that crippled the country.
4:58And the country wasn't even allowed to have military
5:01people consider it to be very demanding.
5:02In June 1935, Britain signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement.
5:06This formally recognised that
5:09Hilter had the authority to form his navy.
5:12Germany could have an independent navy.
5:14But the growing militarisation in Germany
5:16alerted France.
5:18France built a 450 km long fortification on its Eastern border.
5:24This was named the Maginot Line.
5:26In 1938,
5:27when Hitler believed that his military was sufficiently prepared,
5:31he focused his attention on their neighbour Austria.
5:34Austria was a must-have country for Hitler.
5:37He wanted all German-speaking countries
5:39to unite as one nation.
5:41His ultimate goal was not only to
5:43conquer as many countries as possible to satisfy his pride,
5:45but also to acquire its resources
5:48to advance his own country.
5:50The people Hitler believed to be racially superior,
5:53his Aryan race,
5:54he wanted to give them Lebensraum.
5:56To give them living space.
5:57So that they could live freely.
5:59In February 1938, Hitler met Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg,
6:04he was forced into signing an agreement.
6:07The agreement allowed Hitler to
6:10place pro-Nazi people on the Austrian government.
6:13The Austrian government was infiltrated
6:15by appointing his own people
6:16For example Dr. Hans Fischböck.
6:18He was supposed to be the new finance minister of Austria.
6:20He was a Nazi,
6:22and the other Nazis who were in jail,
6:24were set free by him.
6:26Within a month, things were out of control.
6:29Austrian Chancellor knew that if the infiltration was to be stopped
6:33the people needed to be consulted first.
6:35Whether Austria should be an independent country
6:38or be a united country with the Nazis.
6:42He decided to have a national vote for it.
6:44As soon as Hitler found out about the national vote,
6:47Hitler took his army and marched into Austria.
6:51The German military entered Vienna.
6:53But the Austrian Chancellor wanted no bloodshed.
6:56He resigned from his seat.
6:58Hitler used his propaganda ministry to spread fake news.
7:01Of riots happening in Vienna.
7:04And how the Communists were responsible for the riots.
7:07And so the Austrian government asked the German army
7:10to help them protect Austria.
7:11The next day, the Austrian Parliament was dissolved
7:14And Austria ceased to be an independent country.
7:17This invasion was successful without any bloodshed.
7:20A major reason for this was that
7:22at this point, many people in Austria were in Hitler's favour.
7:26They were victims of the propaganda.
7:29They believed Hitler's invasion would help them.
7:32That Hitler could make their country into a superpower.
7:34After taking over Austria,
7:36Hitler moved on to the next country.
7:38Czechoslovakia.
7:39On Czechoslovakia's border, there was the region
7:41Sudetenland.
7:43Of the people living here, around 3 million were Germans.
7:46Hitler used that as an excuse to claim
7:50that region as German's,
7:53due to the Germans living there.
7:54Here British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain came into the picture.
7:59He wanted to avoid a war at all costs.
8:01He believed that if Hitler was given what he wanted
8:04he would stay calm, and there would be no wars.
8:07This is why, in September 1938,
8:09the Munich Agreement was signed.
8:11"The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem,
8:15which has now been achieved,
8:17is, in my view,
8:19only the prelude.
8:21There are larger settlements
8:22in which all Europe may find peace."
8:25Under this agreement, this region of the Sudetenland,
8:27was to be given to Germany
8:29only if Hitler promised that there would be no more wars.
8:32Hitler gladly took this piece of Czechoslovakian land,
8:36but not even 1 year passed
8:38before he violated the Munich Agreement.
8:39March 1939,
8:41Hitler took his army to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia.
8:45People fought for the first time.
8:47But the German army won easily
8:49and the country was split into 2.
8:52One part was included in the German territerritory
8:54and the second part was made a Nazi client state.
8:58A puppet government was placed
9:01under the name of the Slovak Republic.
9:02British Prime Minister Chamberlain faced heavy criticism due to this
9:06At this point in time, Winston Churchill famously said,
9:15Hitler looked for the next country.
9:17Poland.
9:19To take control of Poland,
9:21in a sly move, Hitler signed a Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union,
9:25in 1939.
9:28At first glance, you'd think that Hitler hated
9:30the Soviet Union and Communist ideology.
9:31So why would he do this?
9:33The only reason for this was
9:35to invade Poland.
9:36The Soviet Union wanted a part of Poland too.
9:38In this situation, the interests of the two nations were aligned.
9:42On 1st September 1939,
9:43nearly 1 million German troops started moving towards Poland.
9:47They planned on attacking from the North and South simultaneously.
9:51Other countries were shocked at this.
9:54The UK and France were at the edge of their patience.
9:57If Hitler continued invading one country after the other,
10:00the next number could be theirs.
10:01How will the world cope?
10:03They couldn't tolerate it any longer.
10:04The UK gave an ultimatum to Hitler.
10:07If they went ahead with Poland's invasion,
10:09they would declare war against Germany.
10:11Hitler ignored the ultimatum.
10:14And with this, the UK officially declared
10:17a war against Germany.
10:19After this, France, Australia, New Zealand,
10:21South Africa, and Canada declared war on Germany too.
10:25UK's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
10:27broadcasted this announcement on the radio.
10:42But friends, at this point in time,
10:44World War II hadn't actually begun.
10:47This period is known as the Phony War.
10:50Because there was no real war yet.
10:52Though technically, these countries had declared war on Germany,
10:55none of these countries
10:57provided military support to Poland.
10:59Poland's army was extremely old-fashioned.
11:02Their army still used horses.
11:05They couldn't last against Germany's military strategy.
11:09Neither Britain nor France could save them.
11:12Nearly 1.3 million people were mobilised in Poland,
11:15but it didn't even take 1 week for the German army to defeat them.
11:18On 8th September 1939,
11:20German troops occupied Poland.
11:23Friends, here it's important to mention
11:25Hitler's revolutionary warfare strategy.
11:27Known as Blitzkrieg.
11:30Using this, Hitler successfully invaded several countries.
11:33This military strategy focused on speed and stealth.
11:38They used tanks to invade the countries so quickly
11:42that their opponents didn't have the time to think.
11:44And then their air force would join from above.
11:47It was known as Luftwaffe.
11:48And the invasion took place at a lightning speed.
11:52In German, Blitz means lightning.
11:54Hitler focused on making the wars as small as possible.
11:57A war that could be wrapped up quickly.
12:00Within less than a week.
12:01To maintain this Blitzkrieg,
12:03German soldiers were given drugs.
12:05That's right.
12:07A drug by the name of Pervitin was quite common.
12:09Today, we know it as Crystal Meth.
12:12"Confidential military communications
12:14revealed that the Allies suspected that
12:16the Nazis were using something
12:18to supercharge their troops.
12:20But they had no idea what it was."
12:23When this drug is taken,
12:25it takes away fatigue.
12:27One doesn't need sleep.
12:29It suppresses hunger and thirst,
12:31reduces pain,
12:32and gives a confidence boost to the user.
12:34Giving such drugs to soldiers proved enormously advantageous.
12:38Even if it was extremely harmful to their long-term health,
12:41in the short term, it was very useful in winning these wars.
12:46The defending soldiers would waste their time by sleeping at night,
12:49while the German soldiers could fight day and night
12:51and finish the task within 2-3 days.
12:53As we move forward with the story, you'd see
12:55how successful the Blitzkrieg military strategy was for Germany.
12:59Now, back in Poland,
13:00Not only was Poland invaded by Hitler,
13:02but the Soviet Union was also invading it from the other side.
13:06After it was defeated, it was partitioned into two.
13:09Half of it went to Nazi Germany,
13:11And the other half to the Soviets.
13:13The logic used by the Soviets was that
13:15before the Russian Revolution,
13:16the area actually belonged to the Soviets.
13:19And so they deserved it.
13:21But from the Soviet's perspective, there was another country
13:23which was a part of the Russian Empire before 1917.
13:27Finland.
13:28Stalin was worried that Germany would invade Finland.
13:31Stalin couldn't really trust Hitler.
13:34The worst problem with it would've been that
13:36the city of Leningrad, where Stalin resided,
13:39was only 50 km from the Finnish border.
13:41Had Finland been actually occupied by Nazi Germany,
13:45they would've been too close to Stalin's home.
13:48So without waiting for Hitler to try to occupy Finland,
13:52the Soviet Union asks Finland to hand over their territory to the Soviets.
13:55Obviously, Finland refused.
13:57And so the Soviets launched military action
14:06Soviet Union's army was much larger than Finland's.
14:09They had better equipment too.
14:11But this war lasted for more than 2 months.
14:14And the Soviets couldn't gain much.
14:16Finally, in March 1940, this battle was over.
14:19And the Moscow Peace Treaty was signed.
14:22According to this, 11% of Finland's land,
14:25would be handed over to the Soviet Union.
14:28In the meanwhile, Hitler's focus wasn't actually on Finland.
14:31He was looking at Norway and Denmark.
14:34In April 1940, Hitler prepared his plans
14:37on how he could establish control over Norway and Denmark.
14:40On 9th April 1940,
14:42Hitler used his Blitzkrieg strategy
14:45to invade Norway and Denmark.
14:48This invasion didn't last long either.
14:50Both were small countries.
14:52How could they compete against the German Army?
14:54The Norwegian government fled to London
14:58and in London, a Government in Exile was set up.
15:02In Norway, Hitler established his puppet pro-Nazi government.
15:05British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
15:08accepted his failure.
15:10The failure to protect so many neighbouring countries
15:13from the Nazi invasion.
15:15Due to this, on 10th May 1940,
15:18he resigned from the position of Prime Minister.
15:37The seat of the Prime Minister and its responsibilities
15:40were handed over to the infamous Winston Churchill.
15:43On the same day, 10th May,
15:45Hitler launched an attack on
15:46France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
15:50This was a declaration of an all-out war.
15:52Everyone could see that Hitler didn't intend to stop.
15:55At the beginning of the video, I told you
15:57how France had built the Maginot Line because they were worried
16:00that Hitler would attack their country.
16:02They were building a wall at the border.
16:05The French troops lined the wall
16:08to protect their country.
16:10"...is the fate of Holland and Belgium,
16:11like that of Poland
16:13and Czechoslovakia,
16:14and Austria
16:15will be decided by the victory
16:17of the British Empire."
16:18On the borders of Belgium and Luxembourg
16:21the Allied forces were stationed to protect them.
16:24Hitler used his trademark Blitzkrieg strategy.
16:27More than 1,000 fighter bomber airplanes
16:30around 3 million soldiers on the ground as the offence for Germany,
16:34this was known as the Battle of France.
16:37The German troops were divided into 3 groups.
16:39A, B, and C.
16:41Group B was to attack the Netherlands.
16:44And then enter Belgium to fight the Allied forces.
16:47Group C was to attack the Maginot Line.
16:50And are you wondering what was Group A supposed to do?
16:53Group A was the master plan.
16:55Group C's attack on Maginot Line
16:58was merely a distraction
16:59so that Group A could sneakily execute the master plan.
17:02Entering France through the Ardennes Forest.
17:05This was a vast forest
17:07was believed to be a strong fortress by France's military experts.
17:12They assumed that the German army would never be able to come through it
17:14because it would be too difficult.
17:15They didn't expect the German army to invade via this forest.
17:19More than 40,000 military vehicles were used.
17:22by Group A to enter France through this forest.
17:25On 15th May 1940,
17:26they captured Sedan
17:28and started travelling Northwards.
17:30The British army fighting Group B in Belgium
17:35were shocked to see the suddenness
17:38with which the large force attacked them from behind.
17:41The soldiers were surrounded by the Nazi army from three sides.
17:45They had only 1 way to escape.
17:47Through the sea.
17:48Near the port of Dunkirk.
17:51So they planned to escape from there.
17:54What happened in Dunkirk was a historical turn of events in WWII.
17:58Nearly 400,000 allied troops were stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk.
18:03When I'm using the term 'Allied'
18:06it basically refers to the British and French armies.
18:08The countries fighting Hitler
18:10their group or their collation is known as the Allies.
18:13And the countries fighting in support of Hitler,
18:16are known as the Axis Powers.
18:17It was crucial to save the Allied soldiers in time
18:20because the Nazi army was moving towards them at great speeds.
18:23They had no other way of escape.
18:26They could evacuate only through the sea.
18:28If this couldn't be done in time, 400,000 troops could be killed there.
18:31It would've been a huge drawback for Britain and France.
18:34They might have lost their countries forever.
18:36Winston Churchill made a plan to evacuate the soldiers.
18:40On 26th May 1940,
18:42Operation Dynamo was launched.
18:44The biggest evacuation in military history.
18:48On land, the German army had reached the beaches.
18:51They were firing at the troops.
18:53The German airforce was attacking from above.
18:56Christopher Nolan made the amazing film Dunkirk
18:59which masterfully depicts the events that took place there.
19:03This film focuses on 3 areas of evacuation.
19:06First, British Royal Air Force's counter attack.
19:09The British ships which were coming to evacuate the Allied soldiers
19:12were given cover by the British air force.
19:14To protect the ships.
19:15Second, some private fishing boats in the English Channel
19:19and the common civilians joined in to help in the evacuation.
19:23And third, the events that took place on Dunkirk's beach.
19:26The soldiers trying to save themselves
19:28and helping each other.
19:374th June 1940.
19:39Nearly 350,000 soldiers were successfully evacuated.
19:42As you would've seen in the film as well.
19:44But the bad news was that
19:46most of the military equipment of the Allied forces was used up in this evacuation.
19:50Some days later, on 22nd June 1940,
19:53France surrendered to Hitler.
19:56By this point in time, in Italy,
19:58was under the rule of Dictator Mussolini.
20:01He formed an alliance with Hitler
20:04to wage war against France.
20:05The alliance of Italy and Germany
20:08was known as the Pact of Steel.
20:09The two countries declared war against France and Britain
20:13on 10th June.
20:14By July 1940, the situation was that
20:17Hitler had established control over nearly all neighbouring countries.
20:21Austria, Poland, Denmark,
20:23Norway, Belgium,
20:25Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
20:26and France.
20:28At this point in time,
20:30Hitler's Germany, Britain, and the Soviet Union.
20:34Germany and the Soviet Union had a Peace Agreement.
20:37So Hitler needn't be wary of the Soviet Union.
20:39He believed that the Soviets wouldn't attack Germany.
20:42He thought that Britain was the only remaining fighting Germany.
20:46You'd be wondering about America's role.
20:47Friends, America wasn't involved in WWII yet.
20:50America was standing back
20:52because after World War I,
20:55America wasn't interested in
20:57interfering with Europe's situation.
21:00It was clear that
21:02had they stopped fighting at this point in time,
21:04Hitler would've been the clear victor.
21:06Hitler had a major upper hand.
21:08So how did the situation take a U-turn?
21:12And Britain could defeat Germany?
21:14"We shall fight on the landing grounds,
21:17We shall fight in the fields
21:20and in the streets,
21:23We shall fight in the hills,
21:26We shall never surrender!!"
21:28Friends, let's talk continue this story in the next video,
21:31part 2 of the video on World War II.
21:34I know what you're thinking,
21:35this might sound vague to you,
21:37that you'd have to wait months for the part 2,
21:40don't worry about that,
21:41I won't torment you with the suspense for too long.
21:42Because this time around, both videos were shot together,
21:45and edited together.
21:46Till then, you can watch this video,
21:48in which I explained how Hitler used propaganda
21:52to brainwash German citizens.
21:54Basically, the way Hitler took over the government and control.
21:57There's an interesting angle to this story
21:59involving Albert Einstein.
22:00You can click here to watch it.
22:01And I'll see you in the next video.
22:03Thank you very much!