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AP European History Unit 9
9.2-9.4 Rebuilding Europe, Cold War and Two Superpowers
Aftermath of the Second World War
In the summer on 1945 Europe lay in ruins
Fighting had destroyed cities and landscapes
Buildings, factories, farms, rail tracks, roads, and bridges were obliterated
About 50 million humans died in the War
20 million Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed
9-11 million noncombatants died in Nazi concentration camps
6 million Jews
Over 220,000 gypsies
One out of every 5 Poles died
Over 400,000 US soldiers died in the European and Pacific campaigns
Tens of millions were left homeless
25 million in the USSR
20 million in Germany
French, Poles, and people from the Balkans and other nations who had been brought to Germany by the Nazis to work as forced laborers
The displaced persons increased by concentration camp survivors, released prisoners of war, and offended children
Germany and Austria were divided into 4 occupations zoned governed by the Allies
USSR
US
Britain
France
East Germany, Hungary, and Romania countries that had fought against Russia in the War were forced to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviet Union
After the created of Israel in 1948 over 330,000 European Jews left for the new state, others immigrated to the US, western Europe, South America, and Brazil
Postwar authorities were left to deal with those guilty of Nazi atrocities
Almost 100,000 Germans and Austrians were convicted of wartime crimes
Many more were investigated or indicted
In Germany and Austria authorities set up de-Nazification procedures
Meant to eradicate National Socialist ideology from institutions and punish former Nazi members responsible for the most crimes
At the Nuremberg Trails an international military tribunal organized by the four Allied powers tried to sentence 22 high ranking Nazi military and civilian leaders
In the Western zones huge numbers of people implicated in Nazi crimes
German oppositions to the proceedings and and the need for stability in the looming Cold War made thorough de-Nazification impractical
In the Soviet zone 45,000 party officials, upper-class industrialists, and large land owners as Nazis were sentenced to prison or death
Former Nazis who cooperated with authorities ****could avoid prosecution, however, and in both the Soviet and Western zones many found leading positions in government and industry
Nuremberg Trials were 1945 to 1946
West Versus East
After the War Truman stopped aid to the USSR and declared that the US will not recognize any government established by force
Churchill gives his famous Iron Curtain speech explaining the 2 antagonistic camps that have emerged
In Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary, communist politicians, back by Moscow repressed liberal opponents and created sham elections that endorsed communist regimes
The Truman Doctrine was introduced aimed at containment of communism at its current boarders
Promoted by using diplomatic, economic, and military resources
Used to prevent spread of communism
The Marshall Plan was a foreign aid program aimed at combating the poor economic conditions that existed in Western Europe
Food was scarce
Inflation was high
The Marshall Plan would provide over $13 billion in aid to Western Europe
Rejected by the Eastern states
Feared Western influence
In 1949, the Soviets created COMECON to economically organize and rebuild the Eastern countries
The discrepancy between the Marshall Plan aid to the west furthered the divisions of the Cold War
Berlin became the focus of the Cold War in 1949 because it was the only capitalist part of East Germany
The Soviets blocked off West Berlin cutting off access to 2 million citizens
The Western Airlines coordinated many flights to supply people with what they needed in Berlin
This succeed after 342 days and the Soviets lifted the blockade
Two separate German states were declared in 1949
Federal Republic of Germany - West Germany
The Germany Democratic Republic - East Germany
In 1949 US established NATO and anti-Soviet military alliance with Western Governments, including West Germany
To counter the Soviets created the Warsaw pact
Two sided conflict would play out in proxy wars during the second half of the 20th century
Soviets in North Korea invaded South Korea, the US sent troops to stop the spread of communism
Recovery in Western Europe
By the late 1950s contemporaries were talking about a widespread economic miracle that had brought robust growth to most western European countries
To avoid a return to the dangerous and demoralizing stagnation of the 30s postwar governments in Western Europe embraced new political and economic policies
These led to a remarkably social consensus
They turned to liberal democracy and generally adopted Keynesian economics
This applied a mixture of government planning and free-market capitalism to promote economic growth
New European politicians emerged across the West as newly formed Christian Democratic parties
Offered voters tired of radical politics a center-right vision of reconciliation and recovery
The Christian Democrats drew inspiration from a common Christian and European heritage
Rejecting authoritarianism
Communism
Narrow nationalism
Championing a return to traditional family values
Christian Democrats advocated free-market economics and promised voters prosperity and consumer goods; at the same time, they established education subsidies, family and housing allowances, public transportation, and public health insurance
In France, state-controlled banks funded industrial development, while in West Germany, Christian Democrats promoted a “social-market economy” based on a combination of free-market liberalism, some state intervention, and an extensive social benefits network
Though Portugal, Spain, and Greece generally supported NATO and the U.S., authoritarian governments of various stripes held power in all three until the 1970s
Norway, Denmark, and Sweden earned reputations for long-term Social Democratic governance, generous state-supported welfare benefits, independent attitudes toward Cold War conflicts, and tolerant lifestyles
In Britain, the social-democratic Labour Party took power after the war and ambitiously established a “cradle-to-grave” welfare state, giving citizens free medical and hospital care and retirement pensions, and nationalized many industries
Economic growth and state-sponsored welfare measures meant that by the early 1960s, western European living standards were higher than ever before
Many European intellectuals believed that only a new “European nation” could effectively rebuild the continent and reassert its influence in world affairs
The Bretton Woods agreement of 1944 had already linked Western currencies to the U.S. dollar and established the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to facilitate free markets and world trade
The close cooperation among European states as required by the Americans to receive Marshall Plan aid led to the creation of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the Council of Europe in 1948, both of which promoted international commerce and cooperation
In 1957 the six nations of the Coal and Steel Community signed the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community, or Common Market
Hopes of rapid progress toward political as well as economic union were frustrated by a resurgence of more traditional nationalism in the 1960s
France took the lead when President Charles de Gaulle withdrew all French military forces from what he called an “American-controlled” NATO (1966), developed France’s own nuclear weapons, and vetoed the scheduled advent of majority rule within the Common Market
Postwar Life in the East Block
Even before the war ended Stalin was moving the USSR back towards a rigid dictatorship in central and eastern Europe
Communist parties would base their societies on the Soviet model
Communist governments restructured national economies along Soviet lines, introducing five-year plans to deal with economic reconstruction
They emphasized rebuilding heavy industry and the military and neglected consumer goods, dismissed as Western consumer culture
Communist governments also collectivized agriculture and by 1960, only Poland still had independent farmers
Life in the Eastern Bloc proved challenging and people lacked basic goods and were forced to perform difficult labor for very low pay. This led to discontent and revolts, like one in East Germany in 1953, were put down by Soviet troops and tanks
Art and culture were purged of independence and strong anti-Western campaign that stressed conformity was introduced called Socialist Realism, which glorified the Soviet Union and idealized the working classes
Reform and De-Stalinization
After Stalin died in 1953 his successors realized that reforms were necessary because of the widespread fear and hatred created by Stalin’s political terrorism
Soviet leadership was badly split over just how much change to permit
Conservatives were opposed by reformers led by Nikita Khrushchev who emerged as the new Soviet premier in 1955
As state planners in the Soviet Union and East Bloc shifted resources from heavy industry and the military toward consumer goods and agriculture
The standard of living began to improve, and a limited consumer revolution ensued
De-Stalinization also created great ferment among writers and intellectuals who sought freedom from the constraints of socialist realism
Khrushchev also de-Stalinized Soviet foreign policy, arguing that “peaceful coexistence” with capitalism was possible, and even agreeing in 1955 to independence for a neutral Austria after ten long years of Allied occupation
In 1956 extensive popular demonstrations in Poland brought a new government that argued there were “many roads to socialism” and managed to win greater autonomy from Soviet control.
A student- and worker-led uprising in Budapest installed Imre Nagy, a liberal Communist reformer, as the new Hungarian prime minister in October 1956. When Nagy announced that Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact, Soviet leaders ordered an invasion and crushed the revolution
Around 2,700 Hungarians died in the crackdown, and a new, more conservative Communist regime executed Nagy and other protest leaders and sent thousands to prison.
After failed attempts to staunch the flow of disgruntled East Germans to the West, in 1961 East German authorities built a wall between East and West Berlin, thereby sealing off West Berlin in clear violation of existing access agreements between the Great Powers
Seeing a chance to change the balance of military power decisively, Premier Khrushchev ordered missiles with nuclear warheads installed in Fidel Castro’s Communist Cuba in 1962.
Sputnik was in 1957
1959 was the Kitchen Debate
9.5-9.7 Postwar Nationalism, Ethic Conflict, and The Fall of Communism
Crisis and Change in Western Europe
The post WWII economic boom came to an end in the early 70’s, starting a period of long economic decline.
President Nixon took the US off the gold standard
Countries abandoned fixed rates of currency
Caused uncertainty in trade and finance worldwide
This was followed by a crisis in energy prices that would plunge the world into economic decline further
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised oil prices and declared an embargo against the US after the US supported Israel in the fourth Arab-Israeli War
The price of oil quadrupled
Unemployment rose, inflation skyrocketed, and the standard of living declined.
The common market in Europe continued to grow
Britain joined in 1973, followed by Greece, Portugal and Spain in the 1980’s
Competition from East Asian countries exporting high-tech consumer good shifted manufacturing jobs to Asia
Western Europe was not able to create enough jobs to replace positions that had been lost
Factories closed as heavy industry such as steel and mining declined as there was a shift to computers and services like banking and finance
Former factory areas suffered and unemployment rose to its highest level since the Great Depression
New Conservatism
Margaret Thatcher (Great Britain) 1979-1990
Ronald Reagan (United States) 1981-1889
Helmut Cole (WG and G) 1982-1998 and 1990-1998
Leaders in the 1980’s in Western Europe followed neoliberalism, a philosophy that favored cutting services and adopting laissez-faire economic policies.
Policies called for privatization of industries that had been in the hands of the state, such as transportation and communication. This was in hopes of increasing profits, which would stimulate economic growth
This is best demonstrated in Britain by Margaret Thatcher, who served as prime minister from 1979-1990. She enacted policies to replace the welfare state with a state that pushed for free market and private investment.
The results of this transition were a significant rise in unemployment and increases in poverty and crime.
Similarly, in West Germany, Christian Democrat Hemut Kohl became chancellor and while his policies also led to unemployment, they did stimulate growth in the economy
Margaret Thatcher Reshapes Politics
Setting the stage
Continuing English economic decline
Revolt in Northern Ireland
Labor unrest
Rejects politics of consensus
Business is the only answer
Anti union
Anti Labour Party
Anti recipient of welfare-state benefits
Enemies of British prosperity
Scapegoats
Migrants
Unemployed
Results
Deterioration of universities, public transportation, highways, hospitals, scientific community (Brain Drain)
Responds with war for distraction
Falkland Islands off of Argentina
Reagan Follows Thatcher’s Lead
Follows a similar path to combat economic crisis
Supported the values of the moral majority
Commitment to Bible-Based religion
Dedication to work
Unquestioned patriotism
Trickle Down Economics
Reduce income taxes of the wealthy
Cut student loans, school lunch programs, and mass transit
Idea is that the wealthy will reinvest their money in the economy
Poland’s Resistance through the RCC and Labor Movement
Polish Cardinal chosen as the Pope
Church provided great cover for underground revolutionaries
Nationalist pride in the face of Soviet atheism
Supported the Solidarity movement of Lech Walesa
Most traveled Pope in history, made great efforts to unite all Christians, and heal relationships with Judaism
Lech Walesa leads Solidarity in Poland
Led a massive strike at the Gdansk Shipyard in Poland 1981
Imprisoned in 1982
Nobel Peace Prize 1983
Workers earned
Right to organize unions and strike
Freedom of speech
Promise of election reforms
Collapse of the USSR
Gorbachev took over 1985
Sweeping reforms
Perestroika (restructuring) because couldn’t keep up with the US’ spending
Glasnost (openness) most important in eventually bringing down the USSR
Limited democratic ideas
Freedom of speech and expression
Similar with public’s reaction to Khrushchev
Christmas Day 1991, USSR ceases to exist
Yeltsin takes over
Land was obviously desired by the Warsaw Pact countries
Containment more or less stopped this
If there would be victories it would be at a tremendous cost
Interesting that all over the spread of communism happened in more UN-industrialized areas
Not what Marx wanted
Labor was massively altered as between 1917 and 1989
Peasant economics categorized by Holy M-F or Holy Spring and Fall mentality
Capital investments and scientific techniques released many to go to the factories
Women were brought into work at record numbers
Education focused on and math helped with engineering
Can only go so far with heavy industrial production
Capital wasn’t worth the same in the Communist Bloc countries as in the West
Because there wasn’t a strong consumer society, there was little capital for people to invest
Wait 6 years for telephone (usually tapped) or a car
Money might have been saved but remained less value with huge wait for goods
Planned economies didn’t produce items that would fly off of the shelves
During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s growth was great, probably thanks to the industrial aspect of the economy
1960s a High Tech capital is necessary
Gorbachev’s Reforms in the Soviet Union
Shortly after the invasion of Czechoslovakia (Prague Spring, 1968), Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982) declared the so-called Brezhnev Doctrine
This asserted the right of the Soviet Union and its allies to intervene militarily in any East Bloc country whenever they thought it necessary to preserve Communist rule
Brezhnev’s Soviet Union ignored the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Agreement (1975)
East-West political competition remained very much alive outside Europe
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 caused many Americans to fear that the oil-rich states of the Persian Gulf would be next
They once again looked to the NATO alliance and military might to thwart Communist expansion
When the ailing Brezhnev finally died in 1982, his successor, the long-time chief of the secret police
Yuri Andropov (1914–1984), tried to invigorate the system, but relatively little came of these efforts
A sharply worsening economic situation set the stage for the emergence in 1985 of Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931), the most vigorous Soviet leader in a generation and an idealist who wanted to improve conditions for ordinary citizens
In order to meet the real needs of the Soviet population, some of Gorbachev’s first reform policies set out an ambitious program of economic restructuring, or perestroika, which allowed an easing of government price controls on some goods, more independence for state enterprises, and the creation of profit-seeking private cooperatives
After a few initial improvements, however, the economy stalled, and by late 1988 widespread consumer dissatisfaction posed a serious threat to Gorbachev’s leadership and reform program
Gorbachev’s bold and far-reaching campaign of openness, or glasnost, was much more successful and very popular in a country where censorship, dull uniformity, and outright lies had long characterized public discourse
Democratization through glasnost and perestroika ignited demands from non-Russian minorities for greater autonomy, leading to the emergence of national independence movements in the fifteen Soviet republics.
Gorbachev also brought reforms to the field of foreign affairs, withdrawing Soviet troops from Afghanistan in February 1989 and seeking to reduce East-West tensions.
Gorbachev also encouraged reform movements in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary and pledged to respect the political choices of the peoples of East Bloc countries, repudiating the Brezhnev Doctrine.
The Revolutions of 1989 and German Unification
In Poland, the outlawed democratic trade union
Solidarity led the civil actions towards reform. After widespread strikes in 1988
Communist leaders offered to negotiate with Solidarity, agreeing to legalize them and allow free elections
Solidarity won all but one seat in the Polish Parliament and swore in a noncommunist prime minister.
In Czechoslovakia, the Velvet Revolution happened in November to December 1989
Communist rule was ending peacefully
Popular demonstrations were led by students and intellectuals.
The communist government resigned and the assembly elected playwright Vaclav Havel as president.
In Romania, the end of communist was extremely violent, as protesters in December of 1989 were put down by security forces, killing about 800 people
After the execution of the dictator, Nicolae Ceaușescu, a coalition government took power.
In November 1989, the East German government opened the Berlin Wall
A reformist government took power and scheduled free elections
Over 9 million East Germans had entered West Germany in the week the wall opened and West German chancellor Helmut Kohl presented a plan for unification
Gorbachev and Kohl signed an agreement in July of 1990, and by October of 1990, East and West Germany had merged into a single nation under West German laws and constitution
Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans
Tragedy in Yugoslavia after the death of leader Josip Tito’s in 1980, power devolved to the constituent republics of Yugoslavia
Economic decline and revived memory of World War II massacres inspired by ethnic hatred caused more ethnic division
In 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence and defended it from Serbia, led by President Slobodan Milosevic
In 1992, civil war spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the Serbs (30 percent of the population) refused to live under Bosnian Muslim rule
The ensuing civil war involved rape, murder of civilians, and widespread use of concentration camps
In 1995, intervention by NATO air forces against the Bosnian Serbs led to a negotiated settlement dividing Bosnia between Serbs and Bosnians
Ethnic conflict broke out in Kosovo as Albanians strove for independence and Serbs began a campaign of intimidation and ethnic cleansing
In March 1999, NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, forcing the Serbs to withdraw from Kosovo (after expelling 750,000 Albanians)
In July 2001, Serbs voted Milosevic out of office and the new Serb government turned him over to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Netherlands
9.8-9.10 Feminism, Decolonization, European Union
Challenges and Victories for Women
The arrival of a diverse and widespread feminist movement devoted to securing genuine gender equality and promoting the general interests of women arose out of changing patterns of motherhood and paid work
Feminists were inspired by works such as the foundational book The Second Sex (1949) by French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), which argued that a woman had to take courageous, self-assertive action to become a completely free person and escape the role of the inferior “other” that men had constructed
In the United States, writer and organizer Betty Friedan’s (1921–2006) path-breaking study The Feminine Mystique (1963) called attention to the stifling aspects of women’s domestic life and exclusion from professional jobs
In 1966 Friedan helped found the National Organization for Women (NOW) to press for women’s rights
Advocates of women’s rights pushed for new statutes in the workplace: laws against discrimination, equal pay for equal work, and measures such as maternal leave and affordable day care designed to help women combine careers and family responsibilities
The movement also addressed gender and family questions, including the right to divorce (in some Catholic countries), legalized abortion, the needs of single mothers, and protection from rape and physical violence
The women’s movement of the 1970s won new rights for women, but it subsequently became more diffuse, a victim of both its successes and the resurgence of an antifeminist opposition
Women in East Bloc countries experienced the contradictions of the socialist system: the state guaranteed equal rights for women, encouraged them to join the workforce, and offered an extensive childcare system, while at the same time rarely allowing them into the upper ranks of business or politics
East Bloc women faced the same double burden as those in the West—on top of their full-time jobs, they were expected to do the shopping, the cooking, and the cleaning at home
Because the government controlled the public sphere, independent feminist groups did not develop in the East Bloc or the Soviet Union
Contextualizing Decolonization
In the postwar era, Europe’s long-standing overseas expansion was dramatically reversed in a process that Europeans called decolonization; the retreat from imperial control remade the world map, as some one hundred new nations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East joined the global community
The most basic cause of imperial collapse was the rising demand of non-Western peoples for national self-determination, racial equality, and personal dignity
Before 1939 empire had rested on self-confidence and self-righteousness; Europeans had believed their superiority to be not only technical and military but also spiritual, racial, and moral
The horrors of the First and Second World Wars undermined such complacent arrogance, and the economically weakened imperial powers preferred to avoid bloody colonial wars and concentrate on rebuilding at home
Popular anticolonial politicians and intellectuals, including China’s Mao Zedong, India’s Mohandas Ghandi, and Frantz Fanon, provided determined leadership and trenchant critiques of imperial power, inspiring colonized peoples to resist and overturn imperial rule
Western Europe and the United States, offered a competing vision of independence based on free-market economics and, ostensibly, liberal democracy, and they promoted cautious moves toward self-determination while attempting to limit the influence of communism in newly liberated states
The Struggle of Power in Asia
During the Second World War, the Japanese had overrun the archipelago of the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia) and encouraged hopes for independence from Western control
When the Dutch returned after Japan’s defeat in 1945, they faced a determined group of rebels inspired by a powerful combination of nationalism, Marxism, and Islam
Four years of deadly guerrilla war followed, ending in 1949 when the Netherlands reluctantly accepted Indonesian independence
Anti-colonialism inspired the independence movement in French Indochina (now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), though noncommunist nationalists were also involved
France desperately wished to maintain control over these colonies, but the French army was defeated in 1954 by forces under the guerrilla leader Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969)
Nationalist opposition to British rule in India coalesced after the First World War under the leadership of British-educated lawyer Mohandas (“Mahatma”) Gandhi (1869–1948)
In the 1920s and 1930s, Gandhi built a mass movement by preaching nonviolent “noncooperation” with the British, and in 1935 he wrested from the frustrated and unnerved British a new, liberal constitution that was practically a blueprint for independence
Muslim leaders called for partition and the British agreed, and so when independence was made official on August 15, 1947, predominantly Muslim territories on India’s eastern and western borders became Pakistan (today the eastern section is Bangladesh)
In January 1948, a radical Hindu nationalist who opposed partition assassinated Gandhi. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, India became a liberal, if socialist-friendly, democratic state and successfully maintained a policy of nonalignment, dealing with both the United States and the Soviet Union
Chinese nationalism developed and triumphed in the framework of Marxist-Leninist ideology
After the withdrawal of the occupying Japanese army in 1945, China erupted again in open civil war between the authoritarian Guomindang (Kuomintang, or National People’s Party), led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975), and the Chinese Communists, headed by Mao Zedong
Winning the support of the peasantry by promising to expropriate the holdings of the big landowners, the tougher, better-organized Communists forced the Guomindang to withdraw to the island of Taiwan in 1949
Mao and the Communists united China’s 550 million inhabitants in a strong centralized state, expelled foreigners, and began building a new society that adapted Marxism to Chinese conditions and brought Stalinist-style repression to the Chinese people
Cultural Revolution: Exterminte the 4 Pests
1958 started the 4 Pests Campaign
While the campaign was meant to increase yields, concurrent droughts and floods as well as the lacking sparrow population decreased rice yields. In the same month, Mao Zedong ordered the campaign against sparrows to end. Sparrows were replaced with bed bugs, as the extermination of sparrows had upset the ecological balance, which subsequently resulted in surging locust and insect populations that destroyed crops due to a lack of a natural predator.
With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the ecological problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward, including widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons and pesticides. Ecological imbalance is credited with exacerbating the Great Chinese Famine. The Chinese government eventually resorted to importing 250,000 sparrows from the Soviet Union to replenish their population
The Great Famine (1959-1961 the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history, with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions (15 to 55 million)
Independence and Conflict in the Middle East
The French League of Nations mandates in Syria and Lebanon had collapsed during the Second World War. Saudi Arabia and Transjordan had already achieved independence from Britain
The tenuous compromise that had established a Jewish homeland alongside the Arab population in the British mandate of Palestine unraveled after World War II, with neither Jews nor Arabs happy with British rule
In 1947 the frustrated British decided to leave Palestine, and the United Nations voted in a nonbinding resolution to divide the territory into two states—one Arab and one Jewish
The Jews accepted the plan and founded the state of Israel in 1948. The Palestinians and the surrounding Arab nations viewed Jewish independence as a betrayal of their own interests, and they attacked the Jewish state as soon as it was proclaimed
The Israelis drove off the invaders and conquered more territory, and roughly 900,000 Arab Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, creating a persistent refugee problem
The Arab defeat in 1948 triggered a powerful nationalist revolution in Egypt in 1952, led by the young army officer Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–1970), who became president of an independent Egyptian republic after revolutionaries drove out the pro-Western king
Nasser advocated nonalignment and expertly played the superpowers against each other, securing loans from the United States and purchasing Soviet arms
In July 1956 Nasser abruptly nationalized the foreign-owned Suez Canal Company; the resulting Suez crisis showed that the European powers could no longer maintain their global empires
Decolonization in Africa
After WWI, Wilson’s expectation of national self-determination raised expectations in the non-European world for new freedoms, and after WWII, the exhaustive struggles of the war had crippled the power of many European states. Political parties that had existed before WWII became formal political parties with independence as their goal
Many of these newly-independent countries would face severe challenges, particularly because of the artificially boundaries created by European countries that did not consider different religious and ethnic groups
In many places, the struggle for independence was led by Western-educated intellectuals. In Egypt, the British remained in control, despite its formal independence in 1922. Egyptian intellectuals opposed both British control and the monarch and a coup in 1952 set up an independent government
In Algeria, nationalist known as the National Liberation Front began a guerrilla war in 1954 that lasted 8 years and resulted in atrocities on both sides. French President, Charles de Gaulle, eventually granted independence in 1962
In South Africa, European settlers had dominate control over the political system. The African National Congress had been formed in 1912 began as a reform group seeking economic and political reforms, but with little success. In the 1950s, South African whites in government were creating and strengthening laws creating a system known as apartheid. The ANC leader, Nelson Mandela, was arrested in 1962 and apartheid would persist until 1994
Most African countries achieved their independence in the late 1950s and 1960s, and by the late 1960s, only parts of southern Africa and Portuguese Mozambique and Angola were under European control. These territories would gain independence by the 1970s
The End of the Soviet Union
In Lithuania the people elected an uncompromising nationalist as president, and the newly chosen parliament declared Lithuania an independent state
Gorbachev responded by placing an economic embargo on Lithuania, but he refused to use the army to crush the separatist government, resulting in a tense political stalemate that undermined Gorbachev’s popular support
Gorbachev’s eroding power and his unwillingness to risk a universal suffrage election for the Soviet presidency strengthened his great rival, Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007)
Yeltsin embraced the democratic movement, and after he was elected parliamentary leader of the Russian Soviet Republic in May 1990, he boldly announced that Russia would put its interests first and declare its independence from the Soviet Union
Gorbachev tried to save the Soviet Union with a new treaty linking the member republics in a looser, freely accepted confederation, but six of the fifteen Soviet republics rejected his plan
In August 1991, a gang of Communist Party hardliners kidnapped Gorbachev and his family in the Caucasus and tried to seize the Soviet government, but the attempted coup collapsed in the face of massive popular resistance that rallied around Yeltsin
Yeltsin defiantly denounced the rebels from atop a stalled tank in central Moscow and declared the “rebirth of Russia,” and with the support of the army, Gorbachev was rescued and returned to power as head of the Soviet Union
An anticommunist revolution swept Russia as Yeltsin and his supporters outlawed the Communist Party and confiscated its property
Yeltsin and his democratic allies declared Russia independent, withdrew from the Soviet Union, as did the other Soviet republics, and renamed the Russian Soviet Republic the Russian Federation
Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991, and the next day the Supreme Soviet dissolved itself, marking the end of the Soviet Union
The independent republics of the old Soviet Union then established a loose confederation, the Commonwealth of Independent States, which played a minor role in the 1990s
European Union
After WWII, there was slow movement towards European economic integration. The European Coal and Steel Community was founded in 1952, eliminating tariffs between the Inner Six countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg
The success of this arrangement had the same six counties meeting in 1957 to agree to the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community, also called the common market. This arrangement would allow for common policies and a free-flow of capital without trade barriers
There would be several enlargements of the EEC, with Great Britain, Denmark, and Ireland joining in 1973 and countries like Greece and Spain joining in the 1980s once they had democracies and eastern European countries joining in 2004 after the fall of communism
In 1991, the Maastrich Agreement was signed, creating the European Union and adopting the Euro as currency. While this had initial economic prosperity, the fiscal crisis in 2008 and immigration issues have presented challenges to this system, dividing Europeans and leading to disputes and a desire for some states to leave the EU, most recently with Brexit
9.11-9.13 Migration ad Immigration, Technology, Globalization
Patterns of Postwar Migration
Postwar migration took place both within countries and across national borders. Within countries, many small farmers left rural areas with declining job prospects to seek jobs in more urban and developed regions of their own countries.
Because of the economic growth of the 1950s and 1960s, migrant workers from southern Europe, Asia, and Africa immigrated to western and central Europe.
Countries like West Germany, who had lost over 5 million people in WWII, implemented guest worker programs to recruit labor. By the 1970s, foreign guest workers from southern European countries and Northern Africa made up about 12 percent of the workforce in West Germany and France
After WWII, the wave of decolonization also saw movement of people from former colonies back to Europe in search of the prosperity that could be found there, and immigrant labor helped fuel economic recovery in former colonial powers and changed Europe through ethnic diversity and enriched cultural life.
These immigrants were not always welcome. Many migrants faced discrimination in finding jobs and housing and groups of immigrants would frequently live in separate communities.
After the economic downturn of the 1970s, these workers and their families often became targets of anti-immigrant feelings and extreme nationalist political parties.
These new right-winged parties opposed immigration and argued that immigrants taxed state resources and stole jobs from native—born Europeans. They began winning seats in the 1980s, claiming to champion ordinary workers and calling for a return to traditional national customs. This alienated immigrants who were a growing segment of the population.
Ethnic Diversity in Contemporary Europe
As the 21st century opened and ongoing globalization transformed European society and politics, Europeans also saw the ethnic makeup of their communities change.
Europe experienced a remarkable decline in birthrates resulting from an aging population, and a shift in social norms – more women choosing careers and fewer choosing to have children or simply having smaller families.
At the same time, the peaceful, wealthy European Union attracted a rapidly growing number of refugees and immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
A new and different surge of migration into western Europe began in the 1990s. The collapse of Communism, civil wars in Yugoslavia, and conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, and most recently Syria brought thousands of refugees.
Many sought political asylum, but most were eventually rejected and classified as illegal job seekers.
Organized crime continues to prey upon this population of immigrants for their labor or forcing some into prostitution.
For centuries, the number of foreigners living in Europe had been relatively small. Now, permanently displaced ethnic groups, or diasporas, brought ethnic diversity to the continent.
The multiculturalism and ethnic diversity associated with globalization have contributed through food, literature, film, and the fine arts to enrich European culture.
Europe’s Muslim residents have been living under a cloak of suspicion that accelerated with the rise of Islamic extremists – especially after the al-Qaeda attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001; a train bombing in Madrid carried out by Moroccan Muslims living in Spain, 2004; and attacks by British citizens of Pakistani descent that took place in London on July 7, 2005.
The vast majority of Europe’s Muslims clearly support democracy and reject violent extremism, but the attacks have sharpened the European debate on immigration.
Secular Europeans at times struggle to understand the depths of Muslim spirituality. French attempts to enforce a ban on wearing the hijab (the headscarf worn by many faithful Muslim women) in public schools expressed the tension between Western secularism and Islamic religiosity.
Immigration is a highly charged political issue that has given rise to far-right populist politics/parties such as the National Front in France, the Danish People’s Party, and Austria’s Freedom Party.
Many second- and third-generation Muslim immigrants argue they are outcasts in their adopted countries. To them economics, inadequate job training, and discrimination had more influence on attitudes than did religion or extremist teachings.
Big Science in the Nuclear Age
As part of the arms race of the Cold War, Big Science emerged combining engineering and theoretical work. It was extremely expensive, frequently requiring financing from large corporations and governments.
After 1945, about a quarter of all men and women with science and engineering backgrounds were immersed in the arms race, and by 1960, the nuclear stockpiles of both the United States and the Soviet Union were significant.
The Space Race began after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth in 1957. NASA was founded in 1958 in an effort to compete and were able to land a manned craft on the moon by 1969.
World War II had stimulated the search for better weapons and showcased the need to have better machines to process data. Sophisticated computers were built for breaking German codes and by the 1960s, sophisticated computers were used in military, commercial, and scientific applications.
The Consumer Revolution
Western Europe’s growing economy in the second half of the 20th century led to a rising standard of living and an increase in consumer goods.
Massive increases in the production and availability of consumer goods stimulated mass consumption. People expected to have goods such as televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, music systems and cars as a basic requirement. Before the war these had been luxury items available only to the most privileged sections of society.
Goods were purchased using installment plans, which allowed people to purchase things on credit. Banks and credit unions issued loans for consumer purchases.
By the 1960s, consumption had become less connected with utilitarian needs, and more to do with status and comfort. The youth became a recognized commercial group and they demanded goods that could differentiate them from the adult world and express their group identity.
Images of consumerism became powerful propaganda during the Cold War, as both sides claimed to be able to provide citizens with ample consumer goods
9.14-9.15 Culture, Arts, and Demographic Trends and CCOT in the 20th and 21st Century
The Human Side of Globalization
Globalization transforms the lives of millions of people, as the technological changes associated with a postindustrial society remade workplaces and lifestyles around the world.
A question historians will ask in the future: Evaluate whether globalization served as a transformative or destructive force in early 21st century European society.
Low labor costs in the neo-industrializing world (former East Bloc, Latin America, East Asia) encouraged corporations to outsource labor-intensive manufacturing jobs to these regions.
For example, a car made by the German company Volkswagen could be assembled in Tennessee, using steel from South Korea and computer chips made in Taiwan.
In the 1990s China, with its low wages, huge labor population, and rapidly growing industrial infrastructure, emerges as an economic powerhouse that supplied goods across the world.
The outsourcing of manufacturing jobs dramatically changed the nature of work in western Europe and North America.
In France in 1973, for example, some 40% of the employed population worked in industry, e.g., mining, construction, manufacturing, and utilities.
About 49% worked in services (France 1973), e.g., retail, hotels, restaurants, transportation, communications, etc.
In 2004, only 24% of the French worked in industry, and 72% worked in services.
Across Europe by 2005, only about 1 in 3 workers was still employed in the once booming manufacturing sector.
What are the effects of the deindustrialization of Europe?
At the top (economically) emerges a small, affluent group of experts, executives, and professionals.
Next, the middle class struggles with stagnating incomes, and a declining standard of living as once-well-paid industrial workers face unemployment and cuts in both welfare and work-place benefits, forcing many to take jobs in the low-paying retail sector.
In the bottom-tier – a poorly paid underclass (~25% in some areas) perform unskilled jobs or are chronically unemployed.
The human costs of globalization resulted in new forms of global protest.
Critics accuse global corporations and financial groups of doing little to address problems caused by their activities, such as social inequality, pollution, and unfair labor practices.
The general tone of the anti-globalization movement was captured at the 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle.
Tens of thousands of protestors from around the world marched in the streets and disrupted the meeting.
“The WTO seems to be on a crusade to increase private profit at the expense of all other considerations, including the well-being and quality of life of the mass of the world’s people…. It seems to have a relentless drive to extend its power.” Source: The Independent, July 18, 1999.
Life in the Digital Age
New communication and transportation technologies multiplied the connections across space and time, transforming daily life and contribution to the proliferation of ideas
This growing information technology was a part of globalization transformed communication, commerce and politics. The internet grew in scope and became essential to global daily interactions.
Leisure time was also transformed by digital technology as DVDs were introduced and gave way to streaming video, which allowed people to watch entertainment on computers and smartphones. Private enterprises competed with national networks over viewership. An example of this is Netflix, which entered the European media market in 2014.
Digitalization transformed communication as the cell phone evolved into a smart phone and internet completely changed how people correspond with one another. The emergence of email, texting, Facebook, Twitter replaced most pen and paper communication, and people began using teleconferencing to communicate.
The internet transformed commerce, as online shopping became increasingly popular and is used for all kids of goods from clothing to groceries. Books and music are digital and shared over platforms, transforming the printing and music industries.
With the increase in the use of the internet, questions about personal privacy and the use of information would arise. Government regulations about online privacy would be created, with Europe generally being more stringent than the United States.
The digital age would have internet security and international political implications. Arab Spring, where protests were mobilized via social media and organizations such as Wikileaks, which publishes secret are just two examples of this
Russian Revival Under Putin
Vladimir Putin was first elected President as Yeltsin’s successor in 2000. He won re-election in 2004, and then spent four years as Prime minister, before returning to the presidency in 2012.
Putin, a former officer in the secret police during the Communist era, he has maintained relatively liberal economic policies but re-established semi-authoritarian rule.
The combination of autocratic policies and economic reform – aided greatly by high world prices for oil and natural gas, Russia’s most important exports – led to a decade of strong economic growth.
In 2008, the global financial crisis caused the Russian stock market to collapse. The government initiated a $200 billion rescue plan and the economy returned to modest growth in 2010.
Putin’s domestic policies, e.g., housing, education, health-care, significantly improved living standards.
Putin has championed an anti-Western form of Russian nationalism where he regularly challenged U.S. and NATO foreign policy goals.
The Russian president centralized power in the Kremlin, increased military spending and expanded the secret police.
Putin’s government moved decisively to limit political opposition – although Russia’s constitution guarantees freedom of the press, the government cracked down on the independent media.
Putin’s government has used a variety of tactics to promote his pro-business agenda while also intimidating journalists who are critical of his rule. The suspicious murder in 2006 of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent critic of the government’s human rights abuses and its war in Chechnya, reinforced Western worries that the country was returning to Soviet-style press censorship.
Most recently, Russia has been explicitly tied to interference in the U.S. elections in 2016; corroborated by several intelligence sources.
New Movements in Architecture
Already in the late 19th century, architects inspired by modernism had begun to transform the physical framework of urban society.
The United States pioneered the new architecture. In the 1890s the Chicago School of architects led by Louis H. Sullivan, used inexpensive steel, reinforced concrete, and electric elevators to build the first skyscrapers.
Sullivan’s student, Frank Lloyd Wright built a series of radically modern houses with mass-produced building materials and open interiors. Europeans were inspired by these and other American examples of functional construction.
Promoters of modern architecture argued that buildings and living spaces should be ordered according to a new principle: functionalism.
Franco-Swiss architect, Le Corbusier was a great champion of modernism, “a house is a machine for living in.” He published, Towards a New Architecture (1923), that laid out the guidelines meant to revolutionize building design.
Le Corbusier argued that architects should affirm and adopt the latest technologies; reject fancy ornamentation and find beauty in clean, straight lines of practical construction and efficient machinery.
The resulting buildings, fashioned according to what was soon called the “international style,” were typically symmetrical rectangles made of concrete, glass, and steel.
In Europe, architectural leadership centered in German-speaking countries. In 1911, Walter Gropius broke sharply with the past with his design of a shoe factory in Alfeld, Germany.
In 1919 Gropius merged the schools of fine and applied arts at Weimar into a single interdisciplinary school, the Bauhaus.
The Bauhaus brought together many leading modern architects, designers, and theatrical innovators. They would work in teams to combine the study of fine art e.g., painting, sculpture, with the study of applied art e.g., printing, weaving, and furniture making.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, who opposed modern art of all kinds, shut down the Bauhaus. Many of teachers and students fled persecution and moved to the United States.
New Movements in Visual Arts
CUBISM
Cubism marks the beginning of modern art and is an analytic approach to art that uses geometrical shapes and zigzagging lines.
Inspired by collections of objects from European colonies, such as masks, textiles, tools and weapons and showed fragmented subjects from different points of view, often a collage of images
Pablo Picasso pioneered the Cubism movement, a revolutionary style of modern art that Picasso formed in response to the rapidly changing modern world.
FUTURISM
Futurism had a focus progress and modernity and wanted to be rid of traditional artistic notions and replace them with an energetic celebration of the machine age.
A central theme of Futurism creating a unique and dynamic vision of the future, which would come to include portrayals of urban landscapes as well as new technologies such as trains, cars, and airplanes in the works.
Speed, violence, and the working classes were all glorified by the group as ways to advance change and their work covered a wide variety of artforms, including architecture, sculpture, literature, theatre, music, and even food.
A key focus of the Futurists was the depiction of movement. Futurists developed new techniques to express speed and motion, including blurring, repetition, and the use of lines of force.
DADISM
Dadaism is the product of hysteria and shock from WWI. It was intended to outrage and scandalize.
As the conflict had shown that life was meaningless, art should be equally meaningless.
Dadaist looked to shock people with what they called ”anti-art” and after WWI, Dadaism became an international movement, spreading to Paris, New York, and Berlin.
SURREALISM
Surrealism emerged in the 1920s, painting fantastic world and uncomfortable symbols.
Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes, sometimes with incredible realism. They created strange creatures from everyday objects, and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious mind to express itself, as they were deeply influence by Freudian psychology.
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
In abstract expressionism, the artist does not actually portray anything, but rather uses the canvas to express an emotion or mood.
The style was popularized by American Jackson Pollock with a drip technique of pouring and splashing paint on immense canvases placed on the floor.
This movement achieved international influence and shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York City.
Climate Change and Environmental Degration
One of the most significant long-term challenges facing Europe and the world in the 21st century is the need for adequate energy resources.
The global struggle for ample energy has placed Russia, which in 2011 became the world’s number- one oil producer (surpassing Saudi Arabia) and the number-two natural gas producer, in a powerful position.
Russian leaders readily use their control over energy to assert political influence. The Russian corporation Gazprom, sells Europe 28% of its natural gas, and the EU treads softly with Russia to maintain this supply.
Russia has often demonstrated hard-ball tactics with their energy supplies – in January 2009 Russia shut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine for three weeks, resulting in closed factories and no heat for hundreds of thousands of people.
The continued use of fossil fuels has led to serious environmental problems, specifically the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is the leading cause of climate change.
Since the 1990s the EU has worked to control energy consumption and contain climate change. EU leaders have imposed tight restrictions on CO2 emissions, and Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark have become world leaders in harnessing alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power.
Environmental degradation encompasses a number of problems beyond climate change. Overfishing and toxic waste threatens the world’s oceans and freshwater lakes.
European governments, NGOs, and citizens have taken a number of steps to limit environmental degradation and regulate energy use, however, the overall effort to control energy consumption has been an especially difficult endeavor.
Climate change and environmental degradation will be one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century.
Promoting Human Rights
The European Union enjoyed extremely high standards of living at the turn of the 21st century, and this fostered many intellectuals to believe that the EU had a mandate to promote and maintain peace and secure human rights.
Human rights policies would mean obligating states to military intervention when these rights were threatened. The EU joined the US in military interventions in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo.
The EU supported UN initiatives that would ban germ warfare and outlaw the use of land mines, as well as establish a new court to prosecute war criminals.
The EU abolished the death penalty and expanded personal rights, with countries like the Netherlands recognizing same-sex marriage and 21 countries recognizing some alternative form of civil union by 2013.
Despite great strides, countries often differed in responding to human rights crises, such as the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015.