HIST 1103-W1: World at 1900

World History 1900-1945

Niall Ferguson, War of World Ep: 1

What are Niall Ferguson’s main arguments to explain why the 20th century was so deadly?

• Humans, not martians, were responsible. Divided by race

• “Not the triumph of the west, but the resurgence of the east” - Clash of Empires

  • Trans-Siberian railway all the way to east asia

  • “Biological superiority” Russian thinking - ex propaganda, dehumanization

• 1905 - Russia, Romanov dynasty is challenged by public, REVOLUTION!! (Japan thumps Russia for Manchuria, The Great Game)

• TECHNOLOGY - increasing = mass murder 

• WW1 start - Archduke Franz Ferdinand, June 28, 1914 by Gavrilo Princip (Bosnian Serv)

  • Bosnia - Ottoman empire, 1908 - Austria annexed. Serb murders archduke, spiral

  • Catalyst of racial hatred for 4 decades to come - ex change in POWs (“vermin-like plague”)

• WW1 changed little in Western Europe, much in Eastern (Bolsheviks & Lennon)

  • Germans unable to consolidate gains, became civil war of Bolsheviks (working class) & Provincial Government

  • Trotsky organizes, “terror” is the motto, many killed for false charges

• Explosion of ethnic conflict (Sovereign states against Russia, nationalization)

• STALIN comin’ in hot. Ethnic/class war 1918-1922. Outcome… bad (not much change)

• Jan 1919 - treaty of Versailles. WW1 not the “war to end wars,” but “the peace to end peace” ig

•  Armenian genocide of 1915? To 1923

• Ethnic cleansing of Greeks as well by Turks

Niall Ferguson, Civilization Ep 2:

What are Niall Ferguson’s arguments about the work of the European empires in Africa? 

• Modern medicine, but also more ethnic cleansing (West was good and mostly bad)

• French empire begun w/ slavery, abolished+added democracy (progressive imperialism)

  • Right to vote/bear arms

• Big issue - disease, aided by West (product of age of colonial empire) 

  • Limits to $$ spent on Senegalese (ex inland, rural villages)

  • EWWW eugenics (selective breeding) dominated European thinking of Africans 

• At first, colonization was limited to coast, but mechanized transport! 

• Herero/Nama part of German empire (pseudo-science master race [Aryans]) FIRST GENOCIDE OF 20TH CENTURY

  • “Testing ground for racial theory” - Von Troter? Forced Herero out/killed

  • Concentration camps - “justify” genocide through medical experimentation

• Not just a world war, but war between Western nations 

• France turns to Africa for soldiers (from Senegal to Congo) & Africans revolt - Blaise Deinge proposes French citizenship

  • Medical advancements - surgery, psychiatry, skin grafting/antiseptic wound irrigation, blood transfer

  • Eugen Fischer - pseudoscience, student was Joseph Mendeles

Skulls of My People

What is the documentary ‘Skulls of My People’ about? What did Ms. Utjiuna Muinjangue, Chairperson of the Herero Genocide Foundation, find out during talks in Germany about “the issue of genocide”?

• Missionaries of Christ influencing Africans (genocide)

• “Brought Christianity/churches, but also have the land”

• “80% of my people were wiped from this Earth” Herero genocide (80k to 15k)

• Gets the director of archives email - wants to see the skulls

  • “No pictures,” skulls are mixed up. She asks the German government for the skulls back, they reply with, “we don’t talk and negotiate with groups.” 

• Religion used to gather people for their death
  
  —-From optional reading—-

• Still feel impact of genocide. German government “you are not direct victims. It was a joke.” Permanently changed culture (people cannot speak language/culture, parents went to Botswana to flee Namibia) 

• Wants gov to: publicly apologize/recognize genocide, then sit with representatives & influence outcome of reparations 

• “We will follow the German government to the end of the world” 

• Land, cattle, psychological payment that’s been passed down from generation to generation

Lecture: what was the “Scramble for Africa”?

“Scramble for Africa” - European countries rushing to get land, colonize (imperialism).

Imperial ambition was there before, now it’s possible

• Steamboats, machine guns/firearms, telecommunications, canals (Suez, Panama) make it easier to colonize (only so much to carry with a horse)

• Conquest of tropical diseases (quinine as a medical cure for malaria)

• Otto Von Bismark unifies Germany 1871-1918 (germanic states) Federation united with wars

• 1820s until 1900ish, British/French are rivals (almost went to war in 1898) 

• Alaska purchase of 1867 - Russia sells Alaska to US (good for US)

Lecture: Southern Africa

• British takes Cape Colony from Holland during Napoleonic wars (^ colonization, lucrative mines)

• 1880s Zulu uprising crushed

• ‘Boer Wars’ of 1879 & 1899-1902: British vs Dutch Boer settlers (concentration camps used to house villagers burnt down villages to deny rebels supplies) 

• Apartheid - former combatants should be rulers of South Africa (segregated non-whites, no civil rights)

Lecture: Belgian Congo

King Leopld exploits Congo (½ population nearly dies in 30 years) - rubber, tusks (piano keys made from ivory)

Lecture: German Southwest Africa

-Southwest Africa. German colony 1884-1919

Expansion of territory in 1890s, 1900s meets resistance

Herero Rebellion. Initial success, retaliation by General Von Trotha (massacared, camps [shark island] exploited, driven into the desert to die)

• 20th century first genocide (race murder) acknowledged by German gov in 2016

• I feel like this has been gone over a lot, should be okay in terms of understanding/significance.

Lecture: What was the “Great Game”?

• rivalry between Britain/Russia for influence in Afghanistan, Persia, Tibet (Asia & beyond)

Lecture: How was nationalism transforming Europe? 

• Countries wanted more power/influence, thought to unify nations under one flag

• Map of Europe is becoming more individual (more sovereign countries)

• Serbia, Bulgaria, parts of Greece - nations within empires want their own country (Russian & Austrian empire) 

• Germany/Italy are coming together

Lecture: How were the fortunes & international relations of China/Japan changing?

• Japan bunkered down, America comes knocking. Meiji restoration (we need ___, copy Europe, catch up, building up an industrial economy/military)

  • Works (wins war w/ China), annexes Korea, 1910

  • Transforming society while pushing borders

  • Culminates w/ Russo-Japanese War 1904-5

• China, tough times (Qing Dynasty declining-ruled for MILENIUM)

  • Internal instability & external pressure (opium wars, 1840s-50s, Taiping Rebellion, 1840-64) 

  • Loss of territory

  • Boxer rebellion (anti-Christian uprising) - Eight Nation Alliance/Army (everyone agrees to subjugate China & reestablish hold on China)

  • Kuomintang: revolutionary nationalist movement (change in middle working class)

  • 1911-it’s a Republic! Sun Yat-Sen: first president

Lecture: What challenges was Russia facing in the early 20th century?

• Russo-Japanese war brings shock (military defeat, push, gone far enough) - too much belongs to the upper class (land, labor, political reform [democracy & socialism])

• 1905 unrest (worker strikes, peasant uprising, army mutinies)

• Creation of Duma (parliament) & a Constitution (1906) - takes power from monarchs

Lecture: How had the United States become an empire in the early 20th century?

• Latin America: most states gain independence, struggles between conservatives/liberals, rich/poor

• US: getting imperial - monroe doctrine (1832) “Latin America is ours” - currently aimed at China, used to be aimed at Europe

• Expands presence/influence in Pacific (Alaska purchase 1867 + Hawaii, 1898)

• Spanish & Philippine-American Wars

• Casting influence across Americas/Pacific