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Course 7 of 9 · 1914 to 1945

The World Wars

Thirty years that reshaped the world

The thirty years that reshaped the world, from 1914 to 1945. The road to the First World War, the Russian Revolution, the end of old empires, the Great Depression, the rise of dictatorships and the Second World War.

7 modules · 49 lessons · a certificate of completion

See Inside the Course
The cover of The World Wars, with Mylo in costume

The period

1914 to 1945, in a few lines

In 1914 a crisis in the Balkans pulled Europe's great powers into a war that lasted four years and swept away four empires. Its unfinished business, and the Great Depression, opened the way to a second and even larger conflict.

This course follows both wars, the revolutions and the dictatorships between them, and the end of the war in 1945 and its legacy.

Moments that shaped it

Key events and turning points

  1. 28 June 1914

    Sarajevo

    The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand sets off a chain of alliances and declarations of war.

  2. 1917

    The Russian Revolution

    The tsar is gone and the Bolsheviks take power, taking Russia out of the war.

  3. 11 November 1918

    The Armistice

    Fighting on the Western Front stops after more than four years.

  4. 1929

    The Wall Street crash

    The collapse of the American stock market opens the Great Depression, which spreads around the world.

  5. 1 September 1939

    Germany invades Poland

    Britain and France declare war, and the Second World War begins in Europe.

  6. 6 June 1944

    D-Day

    Allied forces land on the beaches of Normandy and open a new front in western Europe.

  7. 1945

    The war ends

    Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Nuremberg trials and the founding of the United Nations mark the end of the war and its legacy.

What you will discover

What the course covers

From 1914 to 1945, two wars and a great depression remade the world. This course follows those thirty years from the road to war to the new order of 1945.

  • 1Trace how alliances, arms races and nationalism pulled Europe into the First World War and what life in the trenches was like.
  • 2See how revolution in Russia and the fall of old empires redrew the map after 1918.
  • 3Understand how the Great Depression and dictators like Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler led the world toward a second war.
  • 4Follow the Second World War in Europe and in Asia and the Pacific, from the blitzkrieg to D-Day and from Pearl Harbor to Midway.
  • 5Finish in 1945 with Hiroshima, the Nuremberg trials and the founding of the United Nations.

Who it is for

  • Readers who want one clear story that connects the two world wars instead of two separate topics.
  • Fans of war history and documentaries who want the causes and consequences, not only the battles.
  • Students and families visiting memorials and museums who want the history behind them.

Why it matters

  • The two wars killed tens of millions and ended the old European order, so most of the modern world starts here.
  • The way the first war ended helps explain why a second one followed twenty years later.
  • The United Nations and many modern borders and alliances come directly from these years.
  • Aircraft, radar, tanks and the atomic bomb changed how wars are fought and left a technological legacy we still use.

No prior knowledge needed. The course explains each war from the beginning.

Inside the course

7 modules and 49 lessons

This is the course exactly as it is in the app, module by module.

1The Road to 19146 lessons
  1. Europe's Alliance System
  2. The Arms Race and Rivalries
  3. Nationalism in the Balkans
  4. The Assassination at Sarajevo
  5. Europe Goes to War
  6. Let's Review
2The First World War8 lessons
  1. Plans and Early Battles
  2. Trench Warfare
  3. Verdun and the Somme
  4. New Weapons of War
  5. The Other Fronts
  6. The United States Enters
  7. The Armistice of 1918
  8. Let's Review
3Revolution and the End of Empires6 lessons
  1. Russia in Crisis
  2. The Russian Revolution and Lenin
  3. The Treaty of Versailles
  4. The Fall of Three Empires
  5. A Remade Map
  6. Let's Review
4Depression and Dictators8 lessons
  1. The Roaring Twenties
  2. The Crash of 1929
  3. The Great Depression
  4. Mussolini and Fascism
  5. Stalin's Soviet Union
  6. Hitler and Nazi Germany
  7. Japan and the Spanish Civil War
  8. Let's Review
5The Second World War in Europe9 lessons
  1. The Invasion of Poland
  2. Blitzkrieg and the Fall of France
  3. The Battle of Britain
  4. Operation Barbarossa
  5. The Holocaust
  6. Stalingrad
  7. D-Day
  8. The Fall of Berlin
  9. Let's Review
6The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific6 lessons
  1. Japan's War in China
  2. Pearl Harbor
  3. Early Japanese Victories
  4. The Turning Point at Midway
  5. Island-by-Island Across the Pacific
  6. Let's Review
71945: The War's End and Its Legacy6 lessons
  1. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  2. The Surrender of Japan
  3. The Nuremberg Trials
  4. The Birth of the United Nations
  5. A New World Order
  6. Let's Review

Certificate

A certificate when you finish

Finish every module of The World Wars and you can issue its certificate of completion in the app, as a PDF with your name to keep and to share. Certificates are part of the Premium plan.

Chronos

Certificate of Completion

This certifies that

Alex Morgan

has completed the course

The World Wars

World history learning
An example certificate with a made-up name
Before thisThe Industrial Agec. 1760 to 1914Next in timeThe Cold War1945 to c. 1975

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