A Time to Review The Contemporary Era
WHAP/Napp
- World War I
- Background
1)The Causes [MAIN]
- Militarism – the desire to maintain a strong army to promote or defend national interests
- Alliances – a series of European alliances were formed; alliances increased a nation’s willingness to fight
- Imperialism – the competition for the acquisition of colonies
- Nationalism – an intense pride in one’s nation and its people
2)The Immediate Cause
- The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by a Serbian nationalist protesting against the Austrian annexation of Bosnia
- In the aftermath of the assassinations, Germany supported Austria in a declaration of war against Serbia
- Serbia, a Slavic nation, was in turned linked to Russia
-By the early twentieth century, Russia’s policy of Russification, or insistence on the acceptance of Russian culture by its various ethnic groups, had broadened into a Pan-Slavic movement that was designed to bring all Slavic nations into a commonwealth with Russia as its head
-Russia, therefore, began to mobilize its troops in defense of Serbia
- The alliance system was quickly triggered and within a few weeks, war had begun
-Two alliances were formed
-The Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria
-The Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, and later, the United States
Of course, British Commonwealth members, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, took an active part fighting on the Allied side
-Subject peoples of Europe’s colonies in Asia and Africa participated in the war as combatants and support personnel
-Many colonial peoples hoped to be granted independence as a result of their war efforts
- Throughout the early war years the United States government sold arms to the Allies, while U.S. bankers lent money to the Allied nations
- In 1917, the United States was drawn into the war by two events:
Germany’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare and Great Britain’s interception of the Zimmerman Telegram
The telegram proposed that, if Mexico would enter the war as an ally of Germany, the German government would assist Mexico to recover the territory it had lost to the United States as a result of the Mexican War
U.S. entry into World War I provided the Allies with additional supplies and freshly trained troops, two factors that helped turn the tide of war in favor of the Allies
- The Russian Revolution Occurred During the First World War
1)In March 1917, Russia’s decline as a world power, peasant dissatisfaction, and the human and financial costs of war brought about the end of tsarist rule
2)A second revolution in October 1917, brought the Bolsheviks, or Communists, into power
-The Bolshevik cry to the people was “Bread, Peace, and Land”
3)The new government led by V.I. Lenin, decided that Russia was too devastated by revolution to continue the war
-In March 1918, Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ceded vast amounts of Russian territory to Germany
- The Aftermath
1)After four years of trench warfare in Western Europe, the Central Powers surrendered
2)Several peace treaties were signed following the war’s end in November 1918
-The most well-known was the Treaty of Versailles
-It was a treaty between most of the Allied nations and Germany
-It included:
A war guilt clause which placed the blame for the war on Germany
Reparations – Germany had to pay for the cost of the war; payments totaled $33 billion
Germany lost its colonies
Alsace and Lorraine were returned to France
Germany’s military power was severely limited
The coal-rich Rhineland was demilitarized
A League of Nations was established to work for international peace; the League had been the dream of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson but the United States refused to join
-Woodrow Wilson had also preferred his Fourteen Points which included the idea of self-determination (a people and a country determine their own form of government and rules)
-However, the Fourteen Points would not be the basis for peace
-Germany and Russia were forbidden to join the League
3)Many young European men was maimed or killed fighting the war
4)Italy and Japan were angered at not receiving more territory after the war
5)The Ottoman Empire eventually collapsed and out its ashes arose the independent nation of Turkey
6)The Ottoman Empire was divided into mandates (except Turkey) with Great Britain controlling Iraq and Pakistan, and Franc acquiring Syria and Lebanon
7)China lost territory to Japan and became a virtual Japanese protectorate
8)The Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved
9)The new nations of Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were formed from Austria-Hungary; all three nations contained within their borders a variety of ethnic groups with their own nationalist aspirations
10)Russia lost territory to Romania and Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania gained their independence
11)Poland was restored to the European map; A Polish Corridor was created to give Poland an outlet to the Baltic Sea
- The Great Depression
- The cost of war in Europe devastated the economies of European nations on both sides of the conflict
- When Germany announced it was unable to make its reparations payments to the former Allies, Great Britain and France were unable to fully honor repayment of their war debts to the United States
- The agricultural sector in Europe and the United States suffered from overproduction that resulted in a decline in farm prices
- Farmers in Western Europe and the United States borrowed to purchase expensive farm equipment
- Overproduction also resulted in lower prices on plantation-grown crops in Africa and Latin America
- As the economic situation in Europe worsened, banks began to fail
- In 1929, when the economy and banking systems in the United States also crashed, the United States was unable to continue its loans to European nations
- Global trade diminished, creating massive unemployment not only in Europe and the United States but also in Japan and Latin America
- The economic distress of the Great Depression created various reactions in the political arena
- In the West, new social welfare programs broadened the role of government
- In Italy and Germany, fascist governments developed
- Japan’s search for new markets was accompanied by increased imperial expansion
- World War II
- Background
1)Fascist governments (nationalist, one-party authoritarian regimes) arose in Germany and Italy
2)The Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party of Adolph Hitler sought to redress the humiliation Germany had suffered in the Treaty of Versailles and to expand German territory
3)Fascism in Italy under Benito Mussolini hoped to restore the lost glories of the Roman Empire
4)In Japan, competition among extreme nationalists led to the rise of military rule in the 1930s
- Fascist Aggression
- In 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria
- In 1935, Hitler began to rearm Germany
- In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia
- In 1936-1939, the Spanish Civil War brought into power the fascist regime of Francisco Franco; the Civil War served as a rehearsal for World War II, as Germany and Italy aided Franco, while the Soviet Union sent supplies and advisers to his republicans opponents
- In 1937, the Japanese invaded China, whose opposition was a threat to their presence in Manchuria; this event signaled the beginning of World War II in Asia
- In 1938, Hitler proclaimed Anschluss, or the unification of Austria with Germany
- In 1939, Hitler annexed all of Czechoslovakia
- In 1939, Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union
- On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe
- The Alliances
- The Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan
- The Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union [Eventually the United States would join the Allied Powers after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor]
- The War
1)World War II was fought in two theaters: The Pacific and the European conflict, which included the Middle East and Africa
2)In an effort to control the oil reserves of Southeast Asia, Japan seized Indochina from France and attacked Malaysia and Burma
3)When the United States imposed an embargo against Japan as a result of these actions, Japan retaliated by attacking the U.S. fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941
4)The Japanese attack brought the United States and its greater industrial power into the war on the side of the Allied powers
5)During the early years of the war, the Axis powers had many victories
6)However, in 1941, the tide began to turn in favor of the Allie when Hitler undertook an unsuccessful winter invasion of Russia and the United States entered the war
7)When Hitler was forced to withdraw his forces from Russia in 1942, Soviet armies began their advance through Eastern Europe and into Germany
8)After deposing Mussolini, Allied forces pushed into France and met in Germany in April 1945
9)Hitler’s subsequent suicide was followed by Allied victory in Europe in May 1945
10)After victory in Europe, the Soviet Union assisted in the Allied effort against Japan
11)After the U.S. use of atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, ending World War II
- The Aftermath
- World War II peace settlements began before the war had ended:
-In 1943, at the Tehran Conference, the Allied powers decided to focus on the liberation of France, allowing the Soviet Union to move through the nations of Eastern Europe as it advanced toward France; the Soviet Union, therefore, gained ground and influence in Eastern Europe
-In 1945, at the Yalta Conference, the Soviet Union agreed to join the war against Japan in exchange for territory in Manchuria and the northern island of Japan; the Yalta Conference also provided for the division of Germany into four zones of occupation after the war
-In 1945, the Potsdam Conference gave the Soviets control of eastern Poland, with Poland receiving part of eastern Germany; it made the final arrangements for the division of Germany and also divided Austria
- The United States also occupied Japan and established a democratic government in Japan; the emperor was a mere figurehead
- Korea was divided into U.S. and Soviet occupation zones
- China regained most of its territory, but fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces resumed
- Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia became Soviet provinces
- Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania were occupied by the Soviet Union
- Colonies renewed their independence efforts
- European world dominance ended
- A new international peace organization, the United Nations, was created in 1945, with the United States among its key members
- International dominance remained in the hands of two superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union
- The Cold War Era
- Origin
1)British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the new postwar world order by stating that an “iron curtain” dividing free and communist governments had fallen across Europe
2)The Soviet Union established communist, pro-Soviet governments in the countries of Eastern Europe against the will of the majority of Eastern Europeans
3)In order to prevent the communist-dominated nations east of the Iron Curtain from spreading communism, the United States sponsored a program of European recovery known as the Marshall Plan (1947)
- The Marshall Plan provided aid to European nations to rebuild after the Second World War
- The program provided loans to European nations to assist them in wartime recovery
4)The U.S. also pursued a policy of containment
- Containment is a policy designed to stop the spread of communism
- The U.S. policy of containment was set forth in 1947 in the Truman Doctrine
- When Greece and Turkey were threatened by communism, U.S. President Truman issued his policy, which pledged U.S. support for countries battling against communism
- To contain communism – to keep it within the areas where it existed but not allowing communism to spread
5)Berlin
- In 1946, Great Britain, France, and the United States merged their occupation zones into a unified West Germany with free elections
- In 1947, Western attempts to promote economic recovery by stabilizing the German currency resulted in a Soviet blockade of Berlin – the divided city located within the Russian zone of occupation
- For nearly eleven months, British and U.S. planes airlifted supplies to Berlin (Berlin Airlift) until the Soviets lifted the blockade
6)Opposing Alliances
- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
-Led by the United States
-Was founded in 1949
-NATO allied Canada, the United States and most of Western Europe against Soviet aggression
- The Warsaw Pact
-Led by the Soviet Union
-An alliance between the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites
- Rivalry intensified in 1949 when the Soviet Union developed an atomic bomb
- The Cold War escalated to military confrontation in 1950 when North Korean forces invaded South Korea
-North Korea eventually received the backing of the Soviet Union and Communist China
-A United Nations coalition led by the United States supported South Korea
-The Korean Conflict ended with the establishment of the boundary between the two Koreas near the original line of demarcation
- Decolonization
1)After the end of World War II, most European nations and the United States decided that their colonies were too expensive to maintain
2)Within the colonies, renewed nationalist sentiments led native peoples to hope that their long-expected independence would become a reality
3)In 1946, the United States granted the Philippines their independence
4)France was alone in wanting to hold on to its colonies in Algeria and Indochina
- Decolonization in Africa
- In 1957, Ghana became the first African colony to gain its independence
-Kwame Nkrumah was the independence leader of Ghana
- By 1960, French possessions in West Africa were freed and the Belgian Congo was granted independence
- Independence movements in the settler colonies of Algeria, Kenya, and Southern Rhodesia were often violent
-By 1963, Kenya was independent
(Jomo Kenyatta was the independence leader of Kenya)
-In 1962 a revolt in Algeria also ended colonial rule
-South Rhodesia became the independent state of Zimbabwe in 1980
-In 1990, Namibia (German Southwest Africa, which had been made a mandate of South Africa in 1920) became the last African colony to gain independence
- South Africa
-The white settler population was divided almost equally between Afrikaners and English settlers
-Although the white settlers were a minority, by 1948 the Afrikaners had imposed apartheid
-Apartheid literally means “apartness” in Afrikaans, the language of the Afrikaners; it was a system of racial segregation
-Apartheid was a highly restrictive form of racial segregation
-Apartheid prohibited people of color from voting and from having many contacts with whites
-The best jobs were reserved for whites only
-Apartheid continued even after South Africa gained its independence from Great Britain in 1961
- Egypt
-Won independence in the 1930s
-Yet the British continued to maintain a presence in the Suez Canal zone
-After Egypt’s defeat in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the Egyptian military revolted
-In 1952, King Farouk was overthrown
-In 1954, Gamal Abdul Nasser was installed as ruler of an independent Egypt
-In 1956, Nasser, backed by the United States and the Soviet Union, ended the influence of the British and their French allies in the Suez Canal zone
-Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal and claimed the Canal belonged to the Egyptian government
-In 1967, Nasser faced a decisive defeat once again the Six-Day War with Israel
-His successor, Anwar Sadat, strove to end hostilities with Israel after a nondecisive war with Israel in 1973
-Sadat’s policy of accepting aid from the United States and Western Europe was continued by his successor, Hosni Mubarak
-Sadat was assassinated in 1981
-Mubarak was removed from office during the Arab Spring of 2011; some Egyptians challenged military rule
- Soviet Communism
-After the Russian civil war, which lasted from 1918 to 1921, Vladimir Lenin moved quickly to announce a program of land redistribution and a nationalization of basic industries
- When his initial programs culminated in industrial and agricultural decline, Lenin instituted his New Economic Policy (NEP)
-The NEP permitted some private ownership of peasant land and small businesses
-It resulted in an increase in agricultural production
-However, the NEP was discontinued under Lenin’s successor, Joseph Stalin
-In 1923, Russia was organized into a system of socialist republics under a central government and was renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)
- The republics were under control of the Communist Party
-When Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin eventually became the leader of the Soviet Union
- Joseph Stalin’s regime was characterized by purges and collectivization
-Purges involved the expulsion from the Communist Party and/or the execution of Stalin’s rivals
-Collectivization was a policy of creating state farms as opposed to individual plots of land for families
Farmers became farm workers for the state
Some farmers resisted; in particular, kulaks or wealthy peasants often refused to submit to Stalin’s policy of Collectivization
Collectivization consolidated private farms into huge collective farms worked in common by farmers
Farmers were to share the proceeds of the collective farms and also to submit a portion of the agricultural products to the government
Millions of kulaks were executed or deported to Siberia
Even after farmers accepted collectivization, however, lack of worker initiative prevented it from being successful