Download UNIT SIX - Moore Public Schools

Unit Six: 1900 to present
Remember the acronym…
Technology Age
Revolution
Authoritarianism
Decolonization
Ideologies
Nationalism
Global Conflict
…and the song.
UNIT SIX
Two World Wars and Fascism,
Communists and Cold War;
Russia, China, Iran
All have revolutions;
Computers, Unit Six
World War I
Causes: M.A.I.N…Militarism, Alliances,
Imperialism, Nationalism
 Spark? Assassination of heir to Austrian
throne (Archduke Ferdinand)
 New Kind of War

– Improvements in weaponry increases casualties
(gas, machine guns)
– Trenches lead to prolonged, defensive war
– Civilians involved in war effort: “Total War”

Treaty of Versailles
– Big Four: US, GB, France and Italy meet at
Paris Peace Conference
– Wilson’s Fourteen Points: self-determination,
disarmament, peace w/o victory, League of
Nations
– Harsh terms of the treaty

Outcomes of the war
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Devastation of GB and France
Weakening of control over colonies
Japan and Italy upset at lack of spoils
US a true world power, but doesn’t want it
China’s May Fourth Movement
Russia’s early withdrawal and revolution
Germany WRECKED and forced to accept full
blame…ripe for rise of fascism
– Ottoman Empire collapses and creation of
Mandate System
– India intensifies push for independence
Global Depression

Global economy dependent on health of US
economy (especially Europe)
 US stock market crashed in 1929 and
created global depression
– Wave of bank failures and personal
bankruptcies
– Unemployment at double digit levels
– Increase in tariffs blocked international trade

Causes of depression
– Overdependence on American loans and buying
– Increase in tariffs and protectionism
– Industrial and farming surpluses led to deflation
– Poor banking management

Results?
– Political instability and rise in political
extremism (communists and fascists)
– Invasion by dictatorial states
– Modern welfare state emerges
What is Fascism?
Destroy will of individual in favor of “the
people”
 Unified society, but unlike the communists,
not at expense of private property or class
distinctions
 Rooted in extreme nationalism, usually
reliant on racial identity

Comparing Fascism and
Communism
Political
Philosophy
Communism
Fascism
Leader
Dictator/authoritarian
Dictator/authoritarian
Political Parties
One-party rule;
totalitarian
One-party rule;
totalitarian
Rights of Citizens
Individual rights
denied; use of
secret police
Individual rights
denied; use of
secret police
Social classes
Classless society
Favored upper
classes
Goals
Unite all workers
around the world
Promote national
interest; extreme
nationalism
Fascism in Italy

Benito Mussolini seizes power from King
Emmanuel III by threatening to march on Rome
 Completely took over Parliament in 1922
– Outlawed all political parties, seized radio stations and
newspapers, set up secret police

1926: Italy transformed into totalitarian regime
focused on expansion (Ethiopia 1936)

Germany
– Weimar Republic and Reichstag
– Rise of the National Socialist Party (Nazis) in the
20’s
– Hitler



Preached ultra-nationalism and promised a greater
Germany
1923 he was imprisoned and wrote Mein Kampf,
outlining ideas of “master race” and lebensraum
1933 appointed chancellor through aggressive anticommunist propaganda
– Gathering support
 Established himself as dictator: outlawed political
parties and SS (personal guard) eliminated all
opposition
 Gestapo: political police force
 Used schools, newspapers, radio, the arts, churches to
gather support
 Public rallies burned anti-Nazi books
 Openly attacked Jews, other minorities and Communists
– Hitler boldly announced would defy treaty, and
nobody stopped him. WHY?
Coming of War

Appeasement
– 1936: When Germany reoccupied the Rhineland,
France and Britain did nothing because they feared war,
hoping it would stop further aggression
– 1938: Marched into Austria and annexed it…again no
one steps in
– 1938: Germany wanted Sudetenland. Munich
Conference called and powers let him have it…he
ended up taking ALL of Czechoslovakia

Japanese Aggression
– Japan wanted Manchuria’s iron ore and coal,
seizing it in 1931
– League of Nations could do nothing
– 1937: Japanese soldiers sweep through much of
China, torturing and killing thousands

Italian Expansion
– 1935: Mussolini invaded Ethiopia
– League of Nations voted only for sanctions when
Emperor of Ethiopia asked for help
– Again…appeasement
World War II

In Europe
– Most of northern and Eastern Europe fall, as well
as France, fairly easily
– GB and RAF left to defend against Hitler
– Hitler invades USSR in 1941
– The Holocaust: as many as 20 million die,
including 6 million of Europe’s 9.5 million Jews

In the Pacific
– Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1941
– By 1942 controlled much of the Pacific
– Militarist oppression and extermination

New Technologies
– Radar and sonar to detect planes and subs
– Rockets
– Nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki (killing over 150,000)
– Industrial capacities of US and USSR outpace
Germany and Japan

Outcomes of WWII
– Unconditional surrender
– Only two “winners”: USSR and US as GB,
–
–
–
–
China, France are devastated (US-Soviet
ascendancy)
Formation of the United Nations and state of
Israel
War Crimes Tribunals and international law
Rise of women
Decline of colonialism
Cold War

De facto division of Western Europe and
Eastern Europe (Iron Curtain)
 US Foreign Policy
–
–
–
–

Containment and Domino Theory
Truman Doctrine
Marshall Plan
NATO
USSR Foreign Policy
– Eastern Bloc
– Warsaw Pact

Cold War competition: arms race, space
race, fight for aligned nations and
promotion of ideology
 Cold War turned HOT? Berlin Blockade,
Korean War, Berlin Crisis, Cuban Missile
Crisis, Vietnam War, Soviet war in
Afghanistan, Non-aligned nations (India)
 Normalizing relations with China
 Détente beginning in 1970s and M.A.D.
Independence and Nationalist
Movements

India (1947)
 Sub-Saharan Africa (beg. 1950s)
 Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism
(creation of Israel 1948)
 Vietnam (1950s to 1975)
INDIA

Led by the Indian National Congress
– British-educated

Government of India Act of 1919
– Gave some power over domestic issues

Repression (1919)
– Cracked down on freedom of press and
assembly
– Amritsar: troops fire on protest rally
Gandhi

Focus on peasant roots and spiritual
traditions of India
 Ahimsa: nonviolence in face of attack
 Civil disobedience

After WWII difficult for British to maintain
an empire
 August 15, 1947
– Independence granted to India and Pakistan
(Muslim-dominated area led by Muhammad
Ali Jinnah)
– Division led to mass migration of Muslim and
Hindu refugees and violence
– Gandhi assassinated by Hindu extremist
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Economically had become a monoculture of
cash crops and mines of precious metals such as
gold and diamonds
 Ownership exclusively in European hands
 Independence movements led by small minority
of Africans w/ European education
 Vehicles for protest: labor organization, social
clubs, literary circles, and youth movements
Ghana (The Gold Coast)

First to achieve independence 1957
 Led by US educated Kwame Nkrumah
 Strikes and protest removed British from
power
 On the other hand, Kenya had sizable
European population blocking
independence leading to armed revolt
(1963)
Chaos and Ethnic Tension in
Africa
 Congo 1959
– Belgian gov’t departed suddenly, leaving country of
chaos and civil war

Rwandan Genocide (1994)
– Political borders created by colonial powers led to
nations comprised of unrelated ethnic groups who
became rivals competing for power
– Conflict between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis
– 100 day genocide, almost 1 million Tutsi deaths
South Africa

Union of South Africa formed in 1910
 Black majority population granted no rights
 Restrictive laws controlled black pop.
 Apartheid: separate black and white
societies
Apartheid

87% of land for white citizens
 African National Congress (ANC):
organized resistance was formed
 Gov’t combated it repressive measures of
extensive jail times for opponents
 International opposition, like UN economic
sanctions and international boycotts,
brought global attention

1989, National Party began to take apart
apartheid system
 Nelson Mandela released from jail after 26
years and ANC legalized
 1994: elections for all people held and
Mandela became the first freely elected
president of South Africa
Zionism and Palestinian
Nationalism

After WWI, British had a mandate (nation
administers territory on behalf of League of
Nations) in Palestine
 Conflicting promises to Arabs and Jews
 Balfour Declaration of 1917
– Committed to support creation of homeland for Jews in
Palestine
– Allowed Jews to migrate to Palestine during mandate

Arab Palestinians saw British rule and Jewish
settlement as imperial control

Migration increased during WWII
 Pan-Arabism movement
 Holocaust increased Jewish commitment to
homeland
 1947: British gave up the mandate to the
UN
 UN decided to divide land into two states
 Civil war and Jewish victories create Israel
in May 1948

Continued fighting in the region
 Six Day War in 1967
 Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)
– Created and dedicated to reclaiming the land
and establishing a Palestinian state
Vietnam





French colonial rule of SE Asia dealt with rising
nationalism
France and colonies occupied by Axis powers
(Japan) during WWII
Vietnamese nationalists under Ho Chi Minh
fought Japanese then returning French using
guerilla warfare
Minh was a Marxist who idealized Jefferson
Wanted US support but…Cold War

French-Indochina War lasted 9 years before
France gave up Asian possessions
 Conference in Geneva in 1954 created four
zones: N and S Vietnam, Laos, and
Cambodia

Cold War sideshow
– US gave aid to South Vietnam
– Beijing and Moscow supported the communists
in the North
– Evolved into large-scale American war to
protect S Vietnam from communist
encroachment (1965-1975)
Revolution and Reform

Russia 1917
 China 1949
 Iran 1979
 Mexico 1910
 Cuba 1959
Russia
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
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
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
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Behind Western Europe economically and
technologically
Losses in Russo-Japanese War and Revolution of
1905 weakens ability to fight and strength of
autocracy
March of 1917: Duma forced czar to abdicate
Vladimir Lenin and Bolsheviks: “Peace, Land and
Bread”: Nov 1917
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
1918-1921 Civil War: Reds v. Whites
Lenin’s NEP
Joseph Stalin and 5-Year Plans
Great Purges of the 1930s

Khrushchev (1953): de-Stalinization,
encouraged more freedom of speech
 Brezhnev (1964-1982): more restrictive of
dissidents and freedom of expression;
industrial growth declined w/ no incentives
and a quota system
 Gorbachev (1985-1991): perestroika
(restructuring into a market economy w/ some
free-enterprise and private property); glasnost
(openness of discussing strengths and
weaknesses of Soviet system); other parties
and elections

Nationalism in the Soviet Republic
 Yeltsin (1991-1999): economic reform against
inequality and corruption; Chechnya
 Putin (2000-2008): return of order, stability
and progress at expense of liberties
 TODAY:
– Medvedev
– Changes too much, too fast??
– Major problems with corruption and an unstable
economy
Eastern Europe

Economic hardships
and lack of liberty
leads to dissent with
Soviet Union
 Did have rise in
education and urbanworking class
 1956: student protest
in Hungary crushed
 1960s:
Czechoslovakia’s
Prague Spring

Lech Walesa and
Solidarity in Poland
 1989: reunification of
Germany
 Eastern European
countries join
NATO/EU
 Ethnic cleansing in
Bosnia in 1990:
Milosevic on trial in
International War
Crimes Tribunal
China
Revolution of 1911: Nationalist gov’t only
nominally in control
 Chiang Kai Shek (Jiang Jieshi) leads Republic
of China in 1924
 1921 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) est.

– Initially RofC works with CCP, but turns on them
in 1927
– Unified against Japanese attacks in 1931 and 1937

1945: negotiations break down into civil war
 CCP and GMD fought until communists win
in 1949 under Mao Zedong
 Changes under Mao
– Economic: businesses nationalized, land
distributed to peasants, urged to pool land and
form cooperative farms
– Political: one-party totalitarian state, Communist
party supreme, gov’t attacked crime and corruption
– Social: peasants speak “bitterness” against
landlords, Communist ideology replaced
Confucian ideals, health care workers to
remote areas, women won equality?, extended
family weakened

Great Leap Forward in 1950s
– All life a collective: commune life, backyard
steel furnaces
– FAILURE: production tanked and bad weather
of 50s and 60s killed 16-30 million

Cultural Revolution of 1960s
– Instituted reforms to erase any Western-
influenced intelligentsia/elite
– “Cultural retraining” and forced egalitarianism
– Group of teenagers (Red Guards) destroyed
temples, cities and closed schools
– Military suppressed the anarchy, but cost
country loss of entire generation of educated
people

1976: Deng Xiaoping
– Four Modernizations (industry, agriculture,
technology, and national defense)
– Foreign investment increased and student study
abroad
– Economy booms with these capitalist reforms,
but left out democratic reform

1989 Tiananmen Square
Women of Russian and Chinese
Revolutions

Russia
–
–
–
–
–

Served in Red Army
65% of factory workers were women
Gov’t ordered equal pay (not enforced)
Maternity leave w/ full pay
Women entered professions
China
–
–
–
–
–
New marriage law forbade arranged marriage
Women worked with men in factories
State-run nurseries
Party leadership remained male
Efforts made to end foot-binding
Iran



Qajar Dynasty (1781-1921)
Reza Khan 1921
Shah Reza (1953-1979)
– Influenced by West and modernized, but also
oppressive, using secret police
– Opposed by




Religious ulama
Students and intellectuals
Farmers and urban workers
1979: demonstrations under Ayatollah Khomeini
force Shah into exile

Under Khomeini (Theocracy)
– Sharia (Islamic law) becomes law of land
– Women req’d to return to traditional clothing and under
legal restrictions
– A stand against Western culture??
– After Khomeini’s death in 1989, more moderate leaders
in power

Iran hostage crisis and Iran-Iraq War
 President Ahmadinejad (2005-present)
Mexico

Dictatorship of Portfino Diaz
– Late 19th, early 20th c.
– 95% people owned no land, foreign investors controlled
20-25%

1910: Civil War, mestizos want to break control of
creole elite
 Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata
 1916: Venustiano Carranza became president and
wrote Constitution of 1917

Constitution of 1917
– Promised land reform
– Imposed restrictions on foreign economic control
– Set minimum salaries and max hours for workers
– Granted right to unionize and strike
– Restrictions on Church-ownership of property
– 1928: National Revolutionary Party (Party of
Institutionalized Revolution - PRI) dominates
politics throughout 20th c.

Batista 1939-1959
Cuba
– Small % of people very wealthy and vast majority
extremely poor

Fidel Castro 1959-2008 guerrilla mm
– Did not hold elections but denied Communist
– Est. close ties with USSR
1961: communist plans – collectivized farms,
centralized control of economy, free education and
medical services
 Bay of Pigs 1961
 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

Japanese Reform





Occupied for 5 years by Allied administration
after WWII: constitution, land reforms, education
system
Defensive alliance with US: spent nearly no
money on own defense; tried to strengthen
economically (export economy with focus on
technology)
Economic stagnation starting in 1990s
Changes: a more individualistic society
Continuities: maintained importance of strong
work ethic
Demographic and
Environmental Issues

Demographic
– Population surpassed 6 billion
 Use of vaccines, antibiotics, and decline in death rate
 High levels of fertility in Asia and Africa
– Migration
 Internally (urbanization) and externally (lack of resources,
persecution, pop. pressure)

Environmental Problems
– Loss of animals species
– Overuse of natural resources
Social Changes

Gender Roles
– Political: Women’s suffrage, female heads of gov
(GB, Israel, Philippines)
– Economic: world wars give power in wages, feminist
movement
– Social: sexual revolution of 60s and 70s and use of
birth control, marriage and child-rearing, China’s
one-child policy
– Intellectual: educational opportunities, in South Asia
literacy rates still far below men

Globalization
– Regional and International Organizations
 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
1960
 General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) World
Trade Organization (WTO) 1995
 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 1967
 European Union (EU) 1993
 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
 NGOs (non-governmental organizations) such as Red
Cross and Greenpeace
– Internationalization of Culture
 Cultural imperialism? As Western companies and
entertainment spread, ideas do too
 Consumer culture and cultural conformity of
materialism (McDonalds, Coca-Cola, KFC)
 Rise in use of English
– Internet, movies, music

Traditional forces still strong though (Islamic
fundamentalism)
– Access to information
 Fax, phone, email, internet
– Globalization of multinational businesses