Global Conflict: World War I & II Notes

Unit 7: Global Conflict - World War I and World War II

  • Focus: Causes, effects, similarities, differences, and the connection between World War I and World War II.
  • Nine topics covered in this unit.

Shifting Power

  • Addresses new forms of authoritarianism.
  • Examples discussed:
    • Mexican Revolution: Against an authoritarian regime.
    • Russian Revolution (1917): Against harsh conditions imposed by the Tsars and social dilemmas from industrialization.
    • Chinese Nationalist Rebellion: Against the Qing Dynasty, which allowed economic imperialism.
  • Keyword: Authoritarianism.

Causes of World War I & II

  • Acronym: MAIN (Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism) - applies to both World War I & II.
  • Differences:
    • Great Depression: Relevant only for World War II.
    • Rise of Fascism and Nazism: Relevant only for World War II.

Causes of World War I

  • MAIN
  • Short-term cause:
    • Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to Austro-Hungarian throne) in Serbia by the Black Hand, a nationalist group.
    • Gabriela Pizy apprehended and found guilty for the assassination
    • Sparked tensions between Serbia and Austria-Hungary.
      • Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia demanding accountability.
    • Ultimatum led to the formation of coalitions/alliances.
      • Russia supported Serbia (fellow Slavic-speaking group, opportunity to weaken the Ottoman Empire).
      • Germany supported Austria-Hungary.
    • Treaty of Versailles: Consequences punitive against Germany.
      • Berlin Blank Check: Germany's assurance to back Austria-Hungary against Serbia.
        • Aimed to pressure Austria-Hungary for quick action to preempt Russian mobilization.

Alliances in World War I

  • Central Powers: Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottomans.
  • Allied Powers (Triple Entente): Russia, UK, France, and later the United States, and Italy at some point.
  • Primary battlefields: Western Europe (trench warfare).
  • Stalemate broken by the United States joining the war, pressuring other battlefields and leading to allies winning against the central powers.

End of World War I

  • Marked by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
  • Critics argued it was merely an armistice, predicting further tensions.
  • Considered a long-term cause of World War II due to its unsustainability.

Unsustainability of the Treaty of Versailles

  • Germany's imperial monarchical system was replaced with the Weimar Republic.
  • Germany had to pay millions in reparations to affected countries (UK, France).
  • Military size was significantly reduced to only allow for domestic security.
  • Germany lost imperial status, giving up territories in Africa and spheres of influence in East Asia.

Germany's Post-World War I Discontent

  • Loss of imperial status.
  • Imposed government (Weimar Republic).
  • National debt.
  • Reduced military power.
  • Great Depression amplified these issues for Germany.

Conducting World War I

  • Trench warfare.
  • Weaponry: Poison gas, tanks, airplanes (initially for surveillance), heavy artillery, machine guns, gas masks, hand grenades, revolvers, rifles.
  • Industrial technologies, mechanized ammunition.

Economy and Interwar Period: The Great Depression

  • Not just the stock market crash.
  • The United States was economically strong post-World War I (few battles on their territory, later entry into war).
  • Military-industrial complex amplified economic growth during the war.
  • Economic questions arose with the end of the war regarding how to sustain growth of a war driven economy.
  • Farming sector: Overproduction led to bankruptcy as demand lowered after the war.
    • Farmers were indebted from investments made during the war.

Stock Market Crash of 1929 and Banking Collapse

  • Over speculation
  • Lack of regulatory oversight on banks that invested private savings into very risky ventures.
  • Commodity consumption decreased, innovations of the 20s like automobiles and household items created a bubble, but the market eventually took a turn.
  • Stock market grew rapidly and unpredictably.
  • Rumors and concerns about corporate profits led to fears that stock values were inflated.
  • Black Tuesday: Mass selling of stocks, leading to a crash.
    • Banks invested significantly less and collapsed unable to re-acquire their liquid capital.
  • Banks collapsed, people lost investments, and consumption decreased.
  • Businesses lowered costs and laid off employees, increasing unemployment.
  • Poverty increased, people lost homes and jobs, and couldn't afford food.

The New Deal

  • The US government shifted to playing a social welfare role.
  • Social reforms provided job security and Social Security.
  • Public work programs were created.

Impact of World War II on the Great Depression

  • Reactivated the industrial complex, leading to economic recovery.

Soviet Union during the Great Depression

  • Experienced social dilemmas due to industrialization and five-year plans, but not directly from the stock market crash.
  • Gulags (coercive labor camps).

Unresolved Tensions of World War I

  • Treaty of Versailles: Very punitive against Germany.
  • USSR excluded from peace terms:
    • US, France, and UK didn't recognize the USSR as legitimate.
    • USSR withdrew from the war under Lenin.
      • Lenin's propaganda: The war is imperialistic and capitalist, serving economic interests.
  • Italy was unsatisfied with the treaty because they were promised lands that were not given to them.
  • These tensions contributed to the allied blocks in World War II.
  • USSR signed a non-aggression pact with Germany and remained on the sideline during the first two years of the conflict

Causes for World War II

  • MAIN (Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism).
  • Militarism: Nazi Germany broke the Treaty of Versailles by increasing army and expanding into new territories.
  • Failure of appeasement policy: The UK and France allowed Hitler's regime to take actions that should have been reprimanded.
  • Imperialism: Nazi Germany's imperialist agendas and expansion.
  • Nationalism: Extreme nationalism in fascist governments.
  • Alliances: Escalated the conflict further.

Conducting World War II

  • Similar technologies as World War I, but improved.
  • Airplanes used for air battles and bombing (including atomic bombs).
  • Amphibious attacks.
  • Generals directed from radio in the war.
  • Artillery no longer in the from lines
  • Continuities: Submarines, gas masks, rifles, machine guns.
  • Nazi Germany's annihilation camps for genocide.

Mass Atrocities of the 20th Century

  • Armenian genocide under Ottoman rule during World War I.
  • The Holocaust against Jewish population in Germany during World War II.
  • Rwandan and Sudanese genocide post-independence due to tensions from the scramble for Africa.

Key Concepts

  • Armistice
  • Fascism
  • Treaty of Versailles
  • Nazism
  • Antisemitism
  • Zionism: Nationalist ideology for creating a Jewish nation.
  • Genocide: Planned intentional mass killing against a specific group.
  • Kristallnacht
  • Anti-Comintern Pact: Alliance between Nazi Germany and Fascist Japan and Italy.
  • Lebensraum: German living space.
  • May 4th Movement
  • Lazaro Cardenas

Specifics of Genocides

  • Armenians: Seen as enemies rebelling against the Ottomans regimes with a religious difference from a prominent Christian community
  • The Holocaust: Fueled by Nazism and its antisemitism beliefs of a superior Aryan race with national cleansing agendas

End of World War II

  • Allies won against the Axis (Italy, Germany, Japan).
  • Marked by atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
  • New global order: The USSR and The United States most powerful and established new global entities
  • Tensions and ideological war between capitalism and communism during the Cold War.
  • United Nations established after the failure of the League of Nations.
  • Establishment of the European Union and the WTO.

Spread of Communism

  • World divided into communist, capitalist, and non-aligned blocs. Newly decolonized nations refused to align.
  • Representatives of communism:
    • USSR (Lenin, Stalin).
    • Eastern Europe.
    • China (Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping).
    • North Korea.
    • Vietnam.
    • Cuba.
  • Developments amplified the Cold War, making it global.
  • Proxy warfare: Involves fighting through third parties; examples include Korea, Afghanistan, Cuba, and Vietnam.
    • Cuba: Already established a communist regime led by Fidel Castro who declared support of USSR after many oppressive tactics from the US.

Land Reforms

  • Communist and socialist states eliminate private property and expropriate public land.
  • Other states address social inequity through land reforms (Iran, Venezuela, Guatemala, Peru, Ethiopia, India).

Struggles for Independence

  • Decolonization movement: Began in World War I, intensified in World War II.
  • Factors contributing to independence:
    • Western-educated elites.
    • Growing support for independence.
    • Veterans and urban workers aware of exploitation.
    • Small-scale female traders resentful of European privileges.
    • Indigenous sections questioning whether they could fare better as an independent country.
  • War and diplomacy balance led to independence among nations.
India's process to independence

-intervention by the UN
-multiple independent peaceful movements led by Gandhi
-negotiations with the National Indian Congress and diplomats with Niru
*All factors caused British to lose money on the Colony causing the partitioning of India into more religious states.
*Decolonization in the Middle East lead to multiple made up promises, agreements (Sky Pikola agreement, Baltic war declaration) which caused the establishment of Israel.

  • Algerians, and several other Africa nations' independence had both negotiation and achieved through warfare with France as colonization powers, colonies like (Senegal, Niger, Upper Volta, Kenya, Mozambique, Zimbabwe).
    *Egypt: It was originally against the British over the Suez Canal which lead to a corrupt monarchy overthrown by warfare to establish a republic

Global Resistance to Established Powers

  • Social justice movements: Civil rights movements (Martin Luther King, Malcolm X), suffragist movements in the United States, anti-racist movements (Nelson Mandela in South Africa).
  • Resistance against Soviet occupation led to the crumbling of the iron curtain in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
  • Age of Terrorism: Attacks by the IRA, Sephardic case in Spain, attacks in the Chinese past in Peru.