Global History - Part IV: World War I to Post Cold War

Pre-WWI alliances

Triple Alliance:

• Germany

• Austria-Hungarian Empire

• Italy

Triple Entente:

• Br. Britain

• France

• Russia

Total War

mobilizing all of society to contribute to war

The “Big Four” at the Paris Peace Conference (1919)

• Woodrow Wilson (U.S.) - 14 points

• Georges Clemenceau (Fr) - reparations & Germ. destruction

• David Lloyd George (U.K) - continued trade

• Vittorio E. Orlando (IT) - territorial promises

The WWI cultural shift

The end of World War I brought a desire for escapism and celebration, encouraging spending on entertainment & leisure.

Countries hit the hardest from the stock market crash

U.S.

Germany

Communist Party leader in the Russian Revolution 1917

Vladimir Lenin

Leon Trotsky

secondin command to Lenin

founded the Red Army

Got Russia out of WWI

Assassinated by Stalin after Lenin’s death

Chinese Civil War (1927-1949)

Nationalists vs. Communists

Communists won

Warlords popped up

Nationalists exiled to Taiwan

Chinese Communist Revolution (1949)

After WWII, Nationalists killed Communists to be rid of warlords.

Communists won.

China became the Communist Peoples Republic of China

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

• the 1st president of the Republic of Turkey

• modernized Turkey

• Separation of church and state

• women’s rights

Irish War for Independence (1919-1921)

• Irish Nationalists (IRA) wanted to be free from British rule

• established the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland) & Northern Ireland (staying British)

• led to Civil War for complete independence

Enabling Act (1933)

Allowed Hitler to bypass the Reichstag and consolidate power.

The First Reich (962–1806)

The time of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Second Reich (1871–1918)

The time of the German Empire, founded by Otto von Bismarck and ended by WWI.

The Third Reich (1933–1945)

Hitler’s regime

Benito Mussolini's March on Rome (1922)

Mussolini & his Fascist Party seized power with the support of King Victor Emmanuel III, who gave in and named him Prime Minister. Transferring power peacefully.

Francisco Franco

Nationalist dictator that took over Spain (supported by Germany)

1939-1975

Shōwa Restoration

a political movement by military to assassinate & remove power from elected officials and give absolute rule to Emperor Hirohito - who didn’t actually want it.

Invasion of Manchuria (1931)

• Japan lacked natural resources & they wanted to colonize Manchuria.

• Led to undeclared war with China.

• The 1st domino to WWII - showed other dictators they could invade without int’l intervention

The first domino in WWII

Japan’s invasion of Manchuria

The Munich Conference (1938)

• Germ., Br., Fr., & Italy

• to address Germany’s territorial claims in Czechoslovakia

• Germ threatened war if his demands weren’t met

• The “great appeasement”

• Hitler ended up taking all of Czech anyways and declaring war

The amount of lives taken by the Holocaust

12 million total

Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939)

• aka the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

• a non-aggression treaty signed between Germany & Soviet Union

Hitler’s response to Britain & France declaring war on Germany

Invading Norway & Denmark

Operation Barbarossa (1941)

the largest military operation in all of history

Germany broke the pact

the surprise invasion of the Soviet Union

The first concentration camp

Dachau

Gestapo

Hitler’s secret state police

Nuremberg Laws

• Nazi laws that stripped German Jews of citizenship & banned them from marrying non-Jews.

• They made discrimination legal

Kristallnacht

It was a massive, state-sponsored riot against Jewish people across Germany & its territories.

Birkenau

extermination camp

Final Solution

the official Nazi plan to exterminate all Jews in Europe

Germany sent these people to concentrations camps (7)

• Jews

• Gypsies

• Poles

• Czechs

• Russians

• Disabled

• Queer

The Battle of Berlin (1945)

• Allies bombed Berlin on Hitlers birthday

• Allies circles Berlin

• Hitler committed suicide (4/30)

• Surrender

• V-E Day

Yalta Conference (1945)

the wartime meeting where the big three allied leaders planned the final defeat of Germ., and planned the post-war organization of Europe

FDR agenda at Yalta Conference

Soviet commitment to join the Pacific War

Soviet participation in United Nations

Churchill agenda at Yalta Conference

• Protect the British Empire and

• ensuring democratic elections throughout Europe

Stalin agenda at Yalta Conference

Demanded a Soviet geopolitical sphere of influence in E. Europe to act as a military buffer zone against future Western invasions

Core agreements made at Yalta (4)

• division of Germany into occupation zones

• free elections for all liberated nations

• Soviet entry - territory would be given to USSR in exchange in exchange for their support to end the Pacific war

• Stalin agreed to join the U.N if there was a permanent veto power to the 5 primary members of the security council

Bandung Conference (1955)

a meeting of 29 newly independent Asian & African countries to promote cooperation & to oppose colonialism

Challenges faced by newly independent nations (5)

• dependent on former colonial powers

• limited infrastructure/resources

• political instability

• border disputes

• leadership transitions

Berlin blockade (1948)

• the first international crisis of the Cold War

• Stalin wanted complete control of Berlin

• During the occupation of Germany (post WWII), USSR blocked the W.Allies access to the parts of Berlin they were supposed to have access to

• U.S. airlift goods into Berlin

• lasted a year

Apartheid

legalized racial segregation

white minority rule in S. Africa

Africans stripped of citizenship and forced them into “Bantustans”