E

Chapter 1 Reading Notes

The Puzzle: How has conflict among nationals ebbed and flowed over the centuries? When and how have war or peace, prosperity or stagnation, prevailed?

  • 1815-1914

    • World peace is common, with occasional regional wars among European powers, Civil War confined to United States

    • Prosperity/advancing economies in w. Europe and N. Americas, fastest growth in world history

  • 1900s

    • Horrific - WW1, postwar violence, economic depression, WWII, Cold War.

    • Urbanization and Industrialization

Mercantilist Era

  • World became a political/eco unit after 1500 after the era of explorers and conquerors

  • 1500s —> World is ruled by Europeans - in India, w. Hemisphere, s.e. Asia. Disastrous

    • Non-European powers (U.S., Japan, China, Russia) only become important in the 1900s

  • Absolute Monarchy European govts

    • Wanted to ensure political and military power and access worldly markets (revenue)

    • this is Mercantilism

  • Mercantilism: imperial governments enrich themselves using military power, then use riches to further enhance that power. Included the establishment of monopolies to control trade to direct money to govt + supported businesses

    • Either colonial or business (Spanish crown or Dutch East India Company)

  • Age of Discovery (1492-1618)

    • Dominated by Spain

  • Manipulating terms of trade

    • Reduce prices paid by mother country paid for colonist purchases and raise prices on colonist product

      • Example: tobacco in Virginia (can only sell to England which lowers price, can only buy product from England for high price)

      • Seemed okay b/c they were protected by big sexy country

  • Political + Economic interests are intertwined “Wealth is power, Power is Wealth” - Thomas Hobbes

  • Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) —> Peace of Westphalia + Decline of Spain

    • France + Netherlands vs. Spain

    • Stabilized borders and attempts to resolve religious conflicts, seen as the modern beginning of modern state systems where one another’s sovereignty is respected

      • Sovereignty: Territorial integrity (no meddling in other countries’ domestic politics) and Supremacy of States (states begin negotiations, forming alliances)

  • Seven Years’ War (1756-63) England v. France —> ended the French presence in the New World and established British dominance

    • French challenge this dominance in 1789 —> Napoleonic Wars (1804-15), Napoleon is defeated which seals int’l British hegemony (the predominance of one state over others).

      • British Hegemony: one power won’t be challenged so there’s more of a focus on developing domestically, less resources put into fighting. Hegemons tend to have set standards that other countries begin to follow

  • Building blocks: Interests, Interactions, Institutions

    • Interests: security through power and control of markets/resources through country rivalries

    • Interactions: zero-sum bargaining (no cooperation to make the pie larger) and subjugation of colonies (unfair trade practices, high prices placed on colonies). Trade within empires, not between them.

    • Institutions: Empires (no UN, no NATO, every ‘man’ for himself)

Colonist vs. Colonized

  • How the fuck did Europe colonize these advanced, huge states??

  • Interests

    • Political and religious: beating other countries to precious metals + trade routes, missionaries seeking to convert

  • Interactions

    • The mix of imperialism facilitated by industrialization in Europe widened the wealth and technology gap between them and Africa/Asia: think steamship, telegraph, accurate rifles.

  • Institutions

    • Colonial empires form from these violent interactions, go on to rule colonies which control valuable resources. Creates a lack of political rights —> calls for independence (American Revolution)

The Hundred Years’ Peace (1815-1914)

  • Major powers began embracing global economic integration —> economic growth and peaceful ties among Europe (eventually extends to NA + Japan)

  • The Pax Britannica (British Peace)

    • Nations became more stable and cooperative

    • Sources that led to cooperation: protecting regimes from new political pressures (fear of revolution for democracy/commie/socialist mvmts) British dominance in military, diplomacy, and economy (led to peace b/c Britain stabilized many nations, maintained balance of power in Europe)

  • Biggest conflicts during this era

    • Ottoman Empire’s decline —> Russia tries to slide in there —> Crimean War (1853-1856) Russian defeat

    • Prussia gradually unifies a German empire, wins against French in Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) —> finalizes Germany as a new European power

    • Revolutions monarchs feared, didn’t want to fight —> fighting makes you weak —> domestic uprisings

      • French Revolution

      • American Revolution

Free Trade

  • absolutist European rulers reverse mercantilism due to changes in economic interests — grow the pie

    • British desire for open trade due to technological innovations (power looms, water power, textile/chemical industry boom in 1820s)

      • Mercantile trade was harmful, letting foreigners sell freely led to lower manufacturing costs (importing cheap materials), and paying lower wages b/c imported food was cheaper. Foreigners earn more = buy more British goods

      • London financial center was a change in interest b/c foreigners were customers, allows foreigners to pay debts back to London

      • Farmers liked mercantile trade because Corn Laws protected them but Parliament repealed most control on trade by the 1840s.

    • France joins this discarding in 1860 and Europe follows

    • Germany starts free trade in 1871 while unifying

    • many New World governments reduce trade barriers

  • Free trade encouraged advances in transportation and communications: railroad, steamship, telegraphs, telephones. Increased shipping capacity by the end of the 1800s

The Gold Standard

  • Gold Standard: Monetary system between 1870-1914, where countries tied currencies to gold at a legally fixed price. Started by Britain

    • Facilitated world trade, investment, lending, migration, and payments due to an internationally recognized currency. Easier to trade when you have a standard to go by.

Colonial Imperialism/Pax Brittanica

  • French in West Africa

  • America snatches the Philippines from a declining Spain

  • Three I’s

    • Interests: wealth accumulation and shared domestic interests among European powers

    • Interactions: state cooperation in security and trade, growth + interconnection of non-state businesses

    • Institutions: British hegemony, Concert of Europe

The Thirty Years Crisis (1914-1945)

  • Sources of Conflict

    • Shift in the balance

      • Rising: Germany (stronger resources, more production), US, Japan

      • Falling: Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian (both connect to Germany), Russian Empires

    • Rigid Alliances

      • British + French ally to counterbalance Germany’s rise

  • WW1 —> economic collapse

    • Post WWI hyperinflation in Germany (yet still had a lot of potential to grow, led to rise of Nazis) —> decline of international economic cooperation —> Great Depression

    • Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to pay France + their allies millions in reparations

  • Rise of Nazi party —> WWII

    • Japan rises in the Pacific theater, was industrializing and wanted to colonially expand but didn’t have the resources (oil/rubber). They invade China, everywhere in SE Asia, for these resources. They realize that the U.S. will try to stop them so they strike the US preemptively and we know what happens after that

  • Three I’s

    • Interests: security through alliances, economic self-sufficiency (worries over zero-sum gains leads to that)

    • Interactions: World Wars, collapse of free trade

    • Institutions: Treaty of Versailles (structured how European countries interact), League of Nations (early seeds of the UN)

The Cold War (1946-1990)

  • Post WWII, European countries see the destruction of their infrastructure that they need to become equal to the US’s strong post-war economy.

    • The US war machine is what kept us afloat, our industrial capacity and women in the workforce is what made our economy strong. Same happened with the Soviets

  • Nicaragua, Guatemala, Afghanistan, Vietnam all had guerilla Communist movements that were aligned with the Soviets

  • Opposed interests

    • Domestic institutions and ideology

      • Countries start internalizing what identities are ideal to developing economies. Demonization in US of communist/authoritarian regimes, the opposite in the Soviet Union. They are fundamentally misaligned in their values

    • Security dilemmas, “spiraling dynamic” (fear of other states leads to development of offensive capacity, guerilla groups in opposing territories, which leads to a circle of offensive and defensive measures) lead to:

      • Nuclear arms race (fear that the Soviets will strike, so we make them first)

      • Proxy wars (They’re messing in our territory so we support that group in their territory)

      • Economic bifurcation

  • Development of international institutions

    • Bretton Woods system created World Bank (crucial for investment), International monetary fund (for sovereign debt), GATT (precursor to World Trade Organization), NATO

      • The more investment and military protection you have, prop each other up, you grow the pie within your bloc

  • Trends in Conflict

    • Not much inter-state war BUT a rise in civil wars due to the proxy wars created by the Cold War, as well as decolonization during this period

  • Decolonization

    • The countries that held colonies in Africa were weakening which made this process easier, the world began seeing colonization as wrong in this time

  • Three I’s

    • Interests: superpowers wanted influence, other countries wanted wealth (by tacking onto superpower institutions)

    • Interactions: bipolarity between soviets/the West, coercive diplomacy

    • Institutions: US developed NATO, Bretton woods — and weaker Soviet institutions

Globalization (1990-present)

  • American hegemony begins

  • Regional trade agreements increase, US encourages free trade to begin economic integration

  • “Pax Americana” — once Cold War ends, conflicts cease across the world. Many fewer deaths from war then previously

  • Military Hegemony

    • China is rising relative to the US, but we spend 3x as much as China on our military