World history for CDS

World history gets fewer questions in CDS than Indian history, but they are among the most answerable if you have a clean timeline. The questions test anchors: a year, a treaty, a thinker linked to a revolution, the side a country fought on. For a defence aspirant, the two world wars and the Cold War are also useful background for SSB discussions on current affairs and alliances.

Early modern Europe

• Renaissance (c. 14th–16th centuries): began in Italy. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo. Gutenberg's movable-type printing press (c. 1440s) spread new ideas.
• Reformation: Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses at Wittenberg in 1517, challenging the sale of indulgences.
• Voyages: Columbus reached the Americas in 1492; Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498; Magellan's expedition completed the first circumnavigation (1519–1522), though Magellan himself died on the way.
• Glorious Revolution (1688) in England, followed by the Bill of Rights (1689), established the supremacy of Parliament.

The age of revolutions

Industrial Revolution

It began in Britain in the second half of the 18th century. Key inventions include John Kay's flying shuttle (1733), Hargreaves's spinning jenny, and James Watt's improved steam engine (patented 1769). Britain had coal, iron, colonies for raw materials and markets, and capital from trade.

American Revolution

The Boston Tea Party (1773) protested taxation without representation. The Declaration of Independence was adopted on 4 July 1776, drafted mainly by Thomas Jefferson. Britain recognised independence in the Treaty of Paris (1783), and the US Constitution was drawn up in 1787.

French Revolution

The storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 is its symbolic start. The Declaration of the Rights of Man followed; Louis XVI was executed in 1793; the Reign of Terror is associated with Robespierre. The slogan was "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804 and was finally defeated at Waterloo (1815). The Congress of Vienna (1815) redrew Europe's map.

Nationalism and unification

In Asia, Japan's Meiji Restoration (1868) modernised the country quickly, and China's 1911 revolution under Sun Yat-sen ended the Qing dynasty.

World War I (1914–1918)

• Trigger: the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary at Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.
• Long-term causes: militarism, alliances, imperial rivalry, nationalism (remember MAIN).
• Sides: the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria) against the Allies (Britain, France, Russia, later Italy, and the USA from 1917).
• End: armistice on 11 November 1918. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919.
• League of Nations: set up in 1920, based in Geneva, inspired by President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points. The USA never joined.

The Russian Revolution (1917)

The February Revolution ended the rule of Tsar Nicholas II. In the October Revolution the Bolsheviks under Lenin took power with the slogan "Peace, Land and Bread". Russia then used the old Julian calendar, so these events fell in March and November by the modern calendar. Russia left the war through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918), and the USSR was formed in 1922.

The inter-war years and World War II (1939–1945)

The Axis was Germany, Italy and Japan. The main Allies were Britain, the USSR, the USA, China and France.

The United Nations

The Atlantic Charter (1941) of Churchill and Roosevelt set out war aims. The UN Charter was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945 and came into force on 24 October 1945, now UN Day. The five permanent members of the Security Council are the USA, UK, France, Russia and China. India was a founding member.

The Cold War (c. 1947–1991)

Decolonisation and non-alignment

After 1945, empires collapsed: India and Pakistan (1947), Sri Lanka and Myanmar (1948), Indonesia (recognised 1949), Ghana (1957, under Kwame Nkrumah), and much of Africa around 1960. The Bandung Conference (1955) brought Asian and African states together. The first Non-Aligned Movement summit was held at Belgrade in 1961; its founders included Nehru, Tito, Nasser, Sukarno and Nkrumah. In South Africa, apartheid ended in the early 1990s and Nelson Mandela became president in 1994.

Practice MCQs

1. Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses were posted in (a) 1492 (b) 1517 (c) 1648 (d) 1789
2. "Separation of powers" is associated with (a) Montesquieu (b) Voltaire (c) Rousseau (d) Locke
3. The US Declaration of Independence was adopted in (a) 1773 (b) 1776 (c) 1783 (d) 1787
4. The German Empire was proclaimed in 1871 at (a) Berlin (b) Frankfurt (c) Vienna (d) Versailles
5. Which country was in the Triple Alliance before 1914 but joined the Allies in 1915? (a) Italy (b) Russia (c) Bulgaria (d) Japan
6. The USA entered World War II after (a) the invasion of Poland (b) Operation Barbarossa (c) Stalingrad (d) Pearl Harbor
7. The UN Charter came into force on (a) 26 June 1945 (b) 15 August 1945 (c) 24 October 1945 (d) 10 December 1948
8. Which was formed last? (a) NATO (b) United Nations (c) People's Republic of China (d) Warsaw Pact
9. The first NAM summit was held at (a) Bandung (b) Belgrade (c) Cairo (d) New Delhi
10. The Berlin Wall fell in (a) 1961 (b) 1985 (c) 1989 (d) 1991

Answers:

1. (b) 1517, at Wittenberg.
2. (a) Montesquieu, in The Spirit of the Laws.
3. (b) 4 July 1776.
4. (d) In the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, January 1871.
5. (a) Italy switched sides in 1915.
6. (d) Japan's attack on 7 December 1941.
7. (c) 24 October 1945; the Charter was signed on 26 June.
8. (d) 1955; NATO and the PRC are 1949, the UN 1945.
9. (b) Belgrade, 1961; Bandung (1955) was the Asian–African conference.
10. (c) 9 November 1989; the USSR ended in 1991.

Revise this

For the organisations that grew out of this history, see international organisations for CDS. India's own path to 1947 is in the freedom struggle.

• I can write one date and one fact each for the Reformation, American, French and Russian Revolutions.
• I can match four Enlightenment thinkers to their ideas.
• I know who unified Italy and Germany and when.
• I can list the sides and turning points of both world wars.
• I can give the two key UN dates and the P5.
• I can put the Cold War events from 1947 to 1991 in order.