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The starting and ending time and reasons of World War I and World War II
I. World War I (referred to as World War I for short,1965438+August 2004-1965438+October 2008/kloc-0).

Reason:

1965438+On June 28th, 2004 (Serbia's National Day), Archduke Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, was shot and killed by Serbian youth Gaffry Joe Princip while inspecting Sarajevo. Become the fuse of World War I.

A month later, with the support of Germany, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia under the pretext of Sarajevo incident. Then Germany, Russia, France and Britain went to war one after another. The warring parties are the allies, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria that support them.

On the other hand, Britain, France and Russia, as allies, and Serbia, Belgium, Italy, the United States and other countries that support them.

Italy, which was originally an ally, joined the Allies for its interests.

In order to expand its influence in East Asia and invade China, Japan declared war on Germany in 19 14 under the pretext of the anglo-japanese alliance concluded in 1902, and quickly occupied Germany's sphere of influence in Shandong, China.

Second, World War II (hereinafter referred to as World War II,1939 September1-1945 September 2).

Reason:

The rapid rise of fascist regime. The basic characteristics of the fascist regime are totalitarian rule at home, foreign aggression and expansion, and world domination. In order to carve up the world again and expand the sphere of influence, the fascist rulers of Germany, Italy and Japan did not hesitate to launch the largest world war in human history.

Extended information about the background of World War I;

abstract

65438+At the end of 2009 and the beginning of 1920s, under the influence of the unbalanced development of capitalist economy and politics, imperialist countries launched a fierce struggle for world hegemony and colonies. The contradictions among European powers are complicated, but there are three basic contradictions, namely, the contradiction between France and Germany, the contradiction between Russia and Austria and the contradiction between Britain and Germany.

Franco-German contradiction

The contradiction between France and Germany is very sharp. France, defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, lost its original hegemony in Western and Central Europe, and all walks of life in China unanimously demanded revenge. In order to prevent France from making a comeback, Germany greatly expanded its armaments.

Russia-Austria contradiction

The contradiction between Russia and Austria is manifested in the struggle for the Balkans. Over the years, Russia, under the banner of Slavism, has expanded to the Yugoslav populated areas in the Balkans, and the sovereign state of Central Europe, Austria-Hungary, has also expanded to the northwest of the Balkans, fearing that the Yugoslavs under its rule will become independent from the rule of Austria-Hungary.

Contradiction between Britain and Germany

Starting from the traditional foreign policy, Britain strives to maintain the balance of power on the European continent, and neither wants Germany to be too strong nor wants to see Russia's power expand excessively in the Balkans. With the intensification of the conflict on the colonial issue, the contradiction between Britain and Germany began to intensify and gradually became the main contradiction between imperialist countries.

"three-nation alliance"

19 In the 1970s and 1980s, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy established triple alliance against Russia and France. 1879, under the impetus of Bismarck, Germany and Austria signed the Treaty of Alliance, which was obviously anti-Russian.

Later, because Italy failed in the struggle with France for Tunisia, Bismarck took the opportunity to win over Italy and jointly deal with France. 1882, Germany, Austria and Italy signed an alliance treaty, and triple alliance was formally established. Germany became the core of triple alliance.

Russian-French alliance

In order to deal with "triple alliance", France and Russia reached a military agreement in 1892, stipulating that once France is attacked by Germany or Italy supported by Germany, Russia will attack Germany with all its military strength, and once Russia is attacked by Germany or Austria-Hungary supported by Germany, France will attack Germany with all its military strength.

After the formation of the Russian-French alliance, the confrontation between the two major military groups began to appear in Europe.

This is also the first step towards the tripartite agreement. With the contradiction between Britain and Germany becoming the main contradiction between imperialism, Britain adjusted its relations with France and Russia, and signed the Anglo-French Agreement and the Anglo-Russian Agreement in 1904 and 1907 respectively. In this way, the two major military blocs in Europe finally formed.

World War II background:

In the 20 years after the First World War, the economic and political forces of capitalist countries developed unevenly, and the industrial development of Germany and Japan was more prominent, and their economic strength was significantly enhanced. Countries such as Britain, France and the United States have been stagnant.

1929 and 1937, two serious economic crises occurred in the capitalist world. In order to get rid of the economic, political and social crisis, the countries ruled by fascism in Germany, Italy and Japan embarked on the road of militarization of the national economy, becoming increasingly fascist politically, and gradually forming two major political and military groups: the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

After World War I, Germany was unwilling to be severely punished and restricted by the Treaty of Versailles, and secretly stepped up efforts to restore its national strength. Italy, the victorious country, was miserable because it failed to get the territory promised by Britain and France; Japan, another victorious country, is also full of resentment against the restrictions imposed on it by the Washington Treaty, and has launched a new competition with Britain and the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, preparing to invade and expand China.

The major victors such as Britain, France and the United States have serious differences on how to deal with the German issue.