WORLD WAR II

 The other major war that took place was World War II which is known to have been the

biggest and deadliest war in history involving more than thirty countries in 1939.

 By the

early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to invade

and occupy Poland.

 Poland, for its part, had guarantees of French and British military

support should it be attacked by Germany. Hitler intended to invade Poland anyway, but

first he had to neutralize the possibility that the Soviet Union would resist the invasion of

its western neighbour. Secret negotiations led on August 23rd 1939 to the signing of the

German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in Moscow.

 In a secret protocol of this pact, the

Germans and the Soviets agreed that Poland should be divided between them, with the

western third of the country going to Germany and the eastern two-thirds being taken

over by the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R). Having achieved this cynical agreement, the other

provisions of which stupefied Europe even without divulgence of the secret protocol,

Hitler thought that Germany could attack Poland with no danger of Soviet or British

intervention and gave orders for the invasion to start on August 26. 

News of the signing,

on August 25, of a formal treaty of mutual assistance between Great Britain and Poland

(to supersede a previous though temporary agreement) caused him to postpone the

start of hostilities for a few days.

 He was still determined, however, to ignore the

diplomatic efforts of the western powers to restrain him. Finally, on August 31, 1939,

Hitler ordered hostilities against Poland to start at 4:45 the next morning. The invasion

began as ordered.

 In response, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. World War II had begun.

 The principal belligerents were the Axis

powers Germany, Italy, and Japan and the Allies France, Great Britain, the United

States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China. The Axis powers were in

support of Adolf Hitler while the allies were in support of Poland and other European

countries. It was the qualitative superiority of the German infantry divisions and the

number of their armoured divisions that made the difference in 1939. The firepower of a

German infantry division far exceeded that of a French, British, or Polish division. The

German Air Force, or Luftwaffe, was also the best force of its kind in 1939. It was a

ground-cooperation force designed to support the Army, but its planes were superior to

nearly all Allied types. Hitler’s greatest strategic disadvantage in opposing the Allies’

imminent reentry into Europe lay in the immense stretch of Germany’s conquests, from

the west coast of France to the east coast of Greece. It was difficult for him to gauge

where the Allies would strike next. The Allies’ greatest strategic advantage lay in the

wide choice of alternative objectives and in the powers of distraction they enjoyed

through their superior sea power. Hitler, while always having to guard against a cross-

Channel invasion from England’s shores, had cause to fear that the Anglo-American

armies in North Africa might land anywhere on his southern front between Spain and

Greece. Having failed to save its forces in Tunisia, the Axis had only 10 Italian divisions

of various sorts and two German panzer units stationed on the island of Sicily at

midsummer 1943. The Allies, meanwhile, were preparing to throw some 478,000 men

into the island—150,000 of them in the first three days of the invasion. Under the

supreme command of Alexander, Montgomery’s British 8th Army and Patton’s U.S. 7th

Army were to be landed on two stretches of beach 40 miles long, 20 miles distant from

one another, the British in the southeast of the island, the Americans in the south. The

Allies’ air superiority in the Mediterranean theatre was so great by this time—more than

4,000 aircraft against some 1,500 German and Italian ones—that the Axis bombers had

been withdrawn from Sicily in June to bases in north-central Italy. Through the efforts of

the allied powers World War II stopped in 1945.

 World War II was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history leading to the death of over fifty million

civilians and soldiers making it the bloodiest and biggest war in history. World War II

also involved the death of over six million jews during the Holocaust.

The Rwandan genocide was a horrific ethnic conflict that unfolded over 100 days in

1994, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi and moderate

Hutu people.

 The genocide was fueled by longstanding tensions between the Hutu

majority and Tutsi minority in Rwanda. In 1990, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front

(RPF) rebel group invaded Rwanda from Uganda, sparking a civil war.

 Despite a peace agreement in 1993, Hutu extremists opposed the power-sharing plan and began a

campaign of violence. On April 6, 1994, the assassination of Hutu President

Habyarimana served as a catalyst, with Hutu extremists quickly launching a coordinated

genocide against the Tutsi population.

 Soldiers, police, and Hutu militia systematically

identified and killed Tutsi and moderate Hutu leaders, while also inciting Hutu civilians to

murder their Tutsi neighbors. The methods were shockingly brutal, often involving

machetes and other crude weapons. Rape was also used as a weapon, with some

perpetrators deliberately infected with HIV/AIDS. Despite the presence of a UN

peacekeeping force, the international community failed to intervene and stop the

killings. It was not until the RPF forces seized control of the country in July 1994 that the

genocide came to an end.

 The aftermath saw millions displaced and ongoing conflict in

the region. The Rwandan genocide stands as one of the darkest chapters in modern

history, a tragic example of the devastating consequences when ethnic tensions spiral

out of control.

These constant conflicts and wars have taught us multiple painful lessons through the

death of loved ones and through the destruction of infrastructure leading to the

crumbling down of empires and nations. Although this has now become basic

knowledge we still find many nations and people always wanting to overpower others

leading to unwanted conflicts and even wars.