Hello, students, welcome to one of the most interesting chapters in your X standard history textbook that is ‘First World War’. In this particular module we will be studying about the Age of Conflicts. Now before we start this chapter what does Unit 2 of your X standard textbook talk about, it talks about 20^th Century – Age of Conflicts. A lot of conflicts happened. What are conflicts, conflict is nothing but a clash or a fight and eventually a war in terms of history is what we call it. So 20^th Century Age of Conflicts, now before we start with the chapter World War, let me explain the timeline of the entire 20^th century Age of Conflicts which will help us understand the term history better going forward, right. So there is a timeline.

The first major event that happened was in the year 1914 when World War I started. This First World War ended in the year 1918.

Between 1914 and 1918 another major event in history broke out in 1917 and that was the Russian Revolution.

Once the war ended in 1918, lot of efforts for peace began. So in the year 1920, an international organization was formed to establish peace in the world and it was called League of Nations. Eventually, it didn’t prove to be very successful.

1922 a violent ideology rose in the world, it was called Fascism, so Rise of Fascism happened in 1922.

Similar ideology came up in Germany in 1933, Rise of Nazism. Eventually all these violent ideologies led to another world war which started in 1939 where World War II began and finally this war ended in 1945 which led to another international organisation being formed which was known as United Nations Organization.

So if you ask me what does this represent, this represents chapters of Unit 2. Your 2A talks about World War I, 2B talks about Russian Revolution, 2C talks about League of Nations, 2D talks about Rise of Dictatorship in Europe where we talk about Nazism, Fascism and other features, and finally 2E talks about United Nations Organization.

So let’s not waste any further time and start with the first chapter World War I, that is 2a first chapter of Unit 2. Age of Conflicts, as we have already seen what is a conflict, a conflict is a clash or a fight. These conflicts in the 20^th century they had certain positive dimensions and they had certain negative dimensions as well. Now what were the positive dimensions? Now first and foremost what are dimensions, dimensions are nothing but aspects. So what were the positive dimensions? A lot of new inventions happened, right, in the 20^th century on account of industrial revolution. For example we had the airplane which was developed for the first time, invented for the first time. Man could fly from one place to another. How did this come about? It came about because of a very simple reason, progress in science and technology. A lot of changes happened and a lot of developments happened in science and technology, right. Next not only that, destruction of despotic reigns. What are despotic, despotic means cruel or unjust and reign means rule. So many despotic, many cruel, many unjust rules of the world came to an end, right. Example, Tsar Nicholas II, he was a very cruel ruler, and his rule in Russia came to end through the Russian Revolution, right. There was spread of democracy, very positive aspect. Democracy is nothing but government of the people, for the people, by the people. Many people realized that we do not want the kings to rule us anymore, we the people, we will rule ourselves, and that is how democracy came about in many countries in the world. And not only that, experiments in internationalism began. What do you mean by experiments, very simple, countries met at international level to discuss peace, to discuss progress, to discuss development which was never the case earlier. Earlier the countries only knew to fight. But after the Age of Conflicts, countries realized that fighting each other doesn’t give much, let us work with each other and contribute for the development of this world.

But as we are aware, every coin has got two sides. If there are positive dimensions, of course, there will be certain negative dimensions also, right. Experiments in internationalism, for example League of Nations was formed in 1920, United Nations Organization was formed in 1945. Now, my dear friends, every coin has two sides, if there are certain positive dimensions there will be certain negative dimensions also. Use of destructive weapons happened in the 20^th century. Atoms bombs were thrown in Japan at Hiroshima Nagasaki. Generations were destroyed together, right. Rise of dictatorship, one of the most cruel forms of government, where a person or a party decides to run a country by their own terms, just or unjust, which causes a lot of trouble for people, right. Rise of dictatorship, Nazism came about. Nazism was nothing but an ideology founded by the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler in Germany. Similarly there was Fascism, fascism was nothing but the ideology of the Fascist Party started by a person called as Benito Mussolini in Italy. So if you noticed dictators came up in the world, Germany saw dictatorship, Italy saw dictatorship. Things were looking very bad and all these dictatorships led to what? They led to a lot of conflicts. Lives were destroyed, properties were destroyed and eventually a whole loss to the entire world. So these were the positive and negative dimensions of the war.

Now when I talk about the First World War, or when I talk about any war, usually a few questions pop up to our mind. What are these questions that pop up?

First question is, when did the war happen? The First World War happened from 1914 to 1918.

Second question is, where did the war happen? See World War means happens across the world, but what was the epicentre, what was the central point, the central point was Europe, that is where it all started, it originated, right.

Next question is between whom did the war happen? Originally two groups were formed that is FER – GIA. FER represents France, England and Russia, right. So as you can see on the map, France, England and Russia, these were three countries which were in one team, versus we had Germany, Italy and Austria. This is how it all began, these two groups were supposed to fight each other initially. So remember FERGIA, France England, Russia known as Allied Powers and Germany, Italy, Austria known as Central Powers.

And the most important question, why did the war happen? And that is where we will be studying the causes of World War I.