Ch 21:
World War I was a new chapter in world history, and considered a European war with a global reach. By 1900, Europeans controlled most other peoples of the world. Modernization and Europe’s rise to global dominance had polished traditional rivalries between European states. Alliance began to form with Germany, Italy, and Austria; as well as, Russia, Britain, and France which ultimate led to World War I. Some of the factors that gave way to war were intense nationalist competition between countries and industrialized militarism. The war last until 1918 and for the most part was trench warfare. The war itself became a “total war,” mobilizing the entire population of countries, women going to work in factories, and the government’s authority expanding. World War I is also thought to have started widespread disillusionment, leading to the questions of Enlightenment values and questioning the superiority of the West. After the war ended November 1918 the Treaty of Versailles was signed shortly after in 1919. However, many of the conditions certainly caused World War II. Germany was required to pay heavy reparations, had to accept sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war, and lost its colonial empire and 15% of its European territory.
The war seemed to have slackened the hold on many conventional values in Europe. Women are winning the right to vote, enormous casualties promoted social mobility, new consumerism was on the rise. But also, the Great Depression symbolized the most significant postwar change by signifying that Europe’s economy was failing and creating worries about industrial capitalism. World trade dropped 62% within a few years, many lost their life savings, and unemployment reached about 30% in the US and Germany. After the war, Europe was in recovering and with America making more than could be sold it caused the stock market to crash. The Depression brought about some major changes. Some states turned to a more democratic socialism, and in the United States President Roosevelt’s administration launched a complex series of reforms called the New Deal.
During the period of 1919-1945 a new political ideology known as fascism became important in most of Europe. Fascism was against individualism, liberalism, feminism, democracy, and communism. Fascism appears to have started in Italy by Mussolini. He put together an army and used violence as a political tool. He was further backed by big businesses because they feared communism and wanted social order. German fascism however, was more important than that in Italy. Taking shape as the Nazi Party under Hitler they grew out of the collapse of the imperial state after World War I. They proposed that Germany had not really lost the war but had been betrayed by civilians. By the 1920s they were assassinating hundreds of supporters of their opposition and were gradually gaining support from the middle class and landowners. Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933 and as chancellor, Hitler suppressed all other political parties, arrested opponents, censured the press, and assumed police power. Emphasizing a racial revolution he used Jews as the ultimate scapegoat for the ills of society.
World War II was even more global than World War I. Autonomous origins in Asia and Europe were displeased states in both continents and wanted to rearrange global relations. Japanese imperial desires rose in the 1920s and 1930s. Japan had attained influence in Manchuria after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. By 1936, Japan was more closely associated with Italy and Germany. There was an international opinion against Japan; which made the Japanese feel threatened. By 1940 Japan had launched a conquest of European colonies, which presented themselves as liberators of their fellow Asians, when in reality they wanted to rule these territories. After The U.S. put an oil embargo on Japan, they saw no other choice but to go to war with the U.S and so on December 7th 1941 they attacked Pearl Harbor which ultimately joined the Asian and European theaters of war into a single global fight. Hitler’s attack on Poland in 1939 triggered World War II in Europe. They were superior in the air against Britain, rapidly defeated France and invaded parts of the USSR. By the end World War II left Europe impoverished, with its industrial infrastructure in ruins and millions of people homeless or displaced. Europe soon was divided into U.S. and Soviet spheres of influence.
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Ch 22:
Communism had its roots in 19th century socialism, inspired by Karl Marx. However, most European socialists came to believe that they could achieve their goals through the democratic process. Communism, according to Marx, is the final stage of historical development, with full development of social equality and collective living. And by the 1970s almost a third of the world’s population was government by communist regimes. However, none of these countries had the industrial capitalism that Marx found necessary for a socialist revolution. Communist revolutions were created by highly organized parties conducted by a Marxist ideology. Joseph Stalin built a socialist society in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s; Mao Zedong did the same in China in the 1950s and 1960s. There first steps were to modernize and in industrialize. They attacked class and gender inequalities and both created a political system dominated by high-ranking party members to embody socialism. They denied any other party from forming and controlled almost the entire economy. China’s adaptation of communism was a much easier process than that experienced by the USSR mainly because the USSR had already paved the way and Chinese communists won support from the rural masses. Both the USSR and China worked towards more equal rights for women in the work place, marriage laws, leadership positions, etc.
Europe was the cold war’s first arena and created Soviet concern for security and control in Eastern Europe. At the same time U.S. and British desire for open societies connected the capitalist world economy. This created rival military alliances such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact. U.S. influence was most voluntary, whereas, Soviet influence was forced. The Iron Curtain was created and divided the two influences. Communism began to spread more into China, Korea and Vietnam. North Korea invaded South Korea and the U.S. intervened ultimately ending in a standoff and splitting the country into two. In the 1960s the U.S. also intervened in Vietnam, but eventually the communist successfully united the country by 1975. The Soviet military attempted intervention in Afghanistan but found little success and eventually withdraw from international pressure. In Cuba, Fedel Castro came into power by 1959. Castro allied with the USSR and by 1962 there was the Cuban missile crisis. The massive arms race occurred by 1989 between the USSR and the U.S. and both countries were also in a race to court third world countries. For example, the U.S. intervened in Iran, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile, the Congo, and elsewhere because of fear of communist penetration. The United States became leader of the West against communism and led to the creation of an “imperial” presidency in the United States. Power was given to defense and intelligence agencies, creating a “national security state”. U.S. military effort was sustained by a thriving economy and an increasingly middle-class society mainly because the U.S. industry hadn’t been harmed by WWII, unlike every other major industrial society
The communist era ended rapidly and peacefully between the late 1970s and 1991. When Mao Zedong died in 1976 the CCP gradually abandoned Maoist socialism. Popular movements started to overthrow communist governments and the USSR suffered political breakdown by 1991. In China, Deng Xiaoping came into power. He began to release political prisoners, dismantled the collectivized farming system, and relaxed censorship. Furthermore, China began to open itself up to the world economy and resulting in massive economic growth. China was becoming a combination of nationalist state, with consumerism and a new respect for ancient traditions. The Soviet Union attempted to launch an economic reform program in 1987 to restructure themselves but were met with heavy resistance. Therefore, Gorbachev responded with greater freedoms; more freedom of religious expression, ending of government censorship of culture, and a free election in 1989. However, Gorbachev’s reforms led to the collapse of the USSR. These new freedoms led to more vocal demands demanding greater autonomy of independence. Communism had lost its dominance completely in the USSR and Eastern Europe. China had mostly abandoned communist economic policies. Vietnam and Laos remained officially communist but pursued Chinese-style reforms. In fact, North Korea is the most unreconstructed communist state.
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Ch 23:
After spending 27 years in prison for sabotage, conspiracy, and treason, Nelson Mandela became the first black president in South Africa. Towards the end of the twentieth century decolonization became very important, and newly independent states became to experiment culturally, politically, and economically. In the 1940s Pakistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and India won independence. Ultimately between the 1950s and 1970s roughly 50 colonies won freedom. Furthermore, The Austrian and Ottoman empires had collapsed in the rouse of World War I, as well as, the German and Japanese empires ending with World War II. In 1910 the U.S. intervention helped encourage the Mexican Revolution and disintegration of the USSR occurred in 1911, creaking 15 new states. Many explanations for decolonization had appeared. For example, Europeans increasingly democratic values were in conflict with colonial dictatorship, the rhetoric of Christianity did not fit the reality of exploitation, poverty, and racism, and the idea of national self-determination was at odds with repression of the same in colonies.
British rule in India promoted a growing sense of Indian identity. British communications and administrative networks, schools, and the use of English bound India together. The Indian National Congress was established in 1885 and consisted of English-educated, high caste Hindus. They made demands for a greater role in India, but were mocked and reject by British rule. By the end of the World War I the Indian National Congress had gained a wide following and by 1917, Britain had assured a future self-government. Mohandas Gandhi had studied law in England and took a job in South Africa in 1893 where he eventually joined a racial segregation movement. Gandhi developed the philosophy of “truth force,” which was basically to be active but nonviolent in confrontation. He returned to India and became the leader of the Indian National Congress. Britain reacted with concessions and repression. By 1947 independence was won and it created two countries: Pakistan and India.
As new nations began emerging from colonial rule they were confronted by the problem of how to parlay independence into economic development and industrial growth, unification, and political participation. Further, already independent but non-industrialized countries faced the same pursuit for a better life. Throughout 1950–2000 developing nations contained 75 percent of world population accounting for almost all of the quadrupling of world population in the twentieth century. Many states that were under colonial rule had not provided much infrastructure for modern development and most developing countries didn’t have leverage in negotiation with wealthy nations and corporations.
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