Unit 7 - WWI & WW2

7.1:

Russia:

  1. Russia was very behind other major countries in the early 1900s. They had lost to the Ottomans in the Crimean War and the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese war. They took a long time to industrialize and their infrastructure was not very developed. In addition, the Russian government did not give voting rights or education to their people.
  2. In 1905, the working class rebelled and they were shot at it in what is known as the Bloody Sunday massacre. Tensions grew, and eventually in 1917, the Bolsheviks and Vladimir Lenin overthrow the government. They are communists and represent the working class.

China:

  1. China was also very behind other major countries in the early 1900s. Their were ethnic tensions, constant risk of famine, and their tax system and infrastructure was outdated.
  2. Sun Yat-Sen took power in 1911, which marked the end of the dynasties. He wanted a democracy,  a fair livelihood, and nationalism. However, many warlords did not submit to Sun and he gave up his power to the military leaders after two months

The Ottoman Empire:

  1. The Ottoman Empire was nicknamed the “sick man of europe” because of its military defeats and sinking economy. They had tried to reform their country in a series of reforms called Tanzimat, but they were ultimately unsuccessful as they did not go far enough.
  2. A group called the Young Turks rose up and wanted everyone to embrace Turkish culture and for the Ottomans to have a European style government. Armenian Christians did not agree with them as Turkish culture is heavily influenced by islam, and they were heavily persecuted and scapegoated.
  3. The Young Turks also resented Britain and France and felt like they were responsible for their sinking economy as their policies were one-sided and controlling. This is one of the reasons that the Ottomans sided with Germany in WWI.
  4. After the Ottoman were defeated in WWI, the empire dissolved and became Turkey, now occupied by the British.
  5. In 1923, the Turks removed the British under their first president, Mustafa Ataturk. He wanted modernization and a western-style democracy, suffrage for women, public education for boys and girls, and secularism. He was authoritarian and very divisive as many conservative groups did not support him.

Mexico:

  1. Porfirio Diaz ruled Mexico in the early 1900s. He was an authoritatian and prioritized foreign investors, who owned 97% of Mexico’s land. This meant that most Mexicans were landless and in poverty.
  2. In the 1910 election, he jailed his opponent Francisco Madero and this led to the Mexican Revolution. He escaped from jail and under Madero, Diaz was defeated and exiled from Mexico.
  3. In 1917, Mexico under Emiliano Zapata ratified a constitution that redistributed land and wealth to farmers, gave better education, and voting rights to all men. However, there was violence and stability until 1930 because of various uprisings.

7.2:

Causes of WWII:

  1. Militarism
  2. Alliances
  3. Imperialism
  4. Nationalism

Immediate cause of WWII:

A serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and this set off the alliance system because Germany backed Austria-Hungary and Russia backed Serbia.

7.3:

1. Trench warfare was when soldiers would dig burrows and trenches and complete all of their activities in these trenches. They’d stay there for days on end and it was protected by wires called no-man land. Passing the wire meant that there was an attack. These trenches caused the entire war to drag on and created many armistices. Trenches were also very dirty and diseases spread easily

2. Chemical gases began to be used, which greatly harmed and even killed the people who they hit.

3. Machine guns were first used in this war. Machine guns were capable of wiping out entire armies, and because both sides had machine guns and were capable of killing the other, battles drew on and there were many draws as a result.

4. Submarines and tanks were also used. Planes were first used for observation and eventually they were used to drop bombs from the air or to shoot from the air.

5. Russia pulled out of the war in 1917 because of the Communist Revolution. They also pulled out because they had very high death rates since they were technologically behind the other countries.

6. The United States enters the war in 1917. The Germany shot at a ship called the Lusitania that held thousands of American passengers, which greatly upset the USA. However, the United States entered the war when the British intercepted the Zimmerman Program. Germany asked Mexico to start a war with the United States. They knew they were beginning to upset the US, and they didn’t want them to enter the war because they knew it would cause them to lose. They promised Mexico that if they did this, they would help them get back the land they lost in the Mexican-American War.

7. World War I was a total war. Factories made war supplies and women worked in these factories. Food was rationed. The media made war propaganda to keep morale up and to encourage people to join the military.

8. The war ended on November 11, 1918. France, Britain, Italy, and the United States met in Versailles for the Paris Peace Conference. The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to accept blame for the war and pay billions in reparations. This put them into poverty and caused many Germans to resent their government, which eventually led to Hitler taking power

7.4:

1. After WWI, many European countries went into debt. Most in debt was germany. They had to print more money to pay the reparations, so they suffered from massive inflation.

2. Lenin did not pay back the debts because he felt that since the previous government owed the debts, he wasn’t responsible for it anymore

3. International trade began to decline more and more and venture capitalists took their money out of banks.

4. Eventually, the US suffers from the Great Depression and this makes matters in Europe worse.

5. Countries under imperialist rule also suffer. Trading partners also suffer (interdependence)

6. Totalitarianism begins to rise even more. People are not happy with their current government and begin to lose hope in capitalism because they are in poverty. They are willing to give up freedoms for financial gain.

7. Between 1928-1921, there is a Russian civil war between the Bolsheviks and people who want a czar again. The Bolsheviks win.

8. Lenin instituted the NEP, which reinstated some capitalist practices such as free trade to get the economy going again.

  1. When Lenin dies in 1924, Stalin replaces him and is even more totalitarian and communist.
    1. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union would go under a five year plan. Farms were taken from private owners and given to farmers who had to fill a quota of food. However, these farmers didn’t get this food and the food was instead given to urban workers. The farmers were very mad and burned crops and kill livestock. Millions of people starved under this plan

11. However, the five year plan’s industrialization plan is successful and the Soviet Union catches up to the rest of the world.

12. Fascism began in Italy under Benito Mussolini.

7.5:

1. In 1932, the Nazi party was elected and Hitler eventually became chancellor and then leader of the party. In his book Mein Kampf, he spoke about his views on Jews and spoke out against the Weimar Republic. He used Jews and other groups as scapegoats and blamed them for all of Germany’s problems.

2. He orchestrated the kristalnacht where synagogues and jewish shops were destroyed, burned, and looted.

3. Hitler also passed the Nuremberg Laws which stripped Jews of their citizenship and some of their rights. Non-jews could not marry or hire jews. Jews also had to walk around with a gold star for identification.

4. Jews were at first dragged out of their homes and into ghettos, but then they were forced into concentration camps where they were eventually executed.

5. He eventually annexed more lands, which violates the Versailles Treaty.

6. The League of Nations ruled that parts of the former Ottoman Empire would be given to Britain and France as mandates. This angered arabs and they decided to unite against european control (pan-arabism)

7. The Ottoman Empire became Turkey and they got self-determination under Mustafa Ataturk.

8. In 1917, the British government gave the Balfour Declaration that said that Jews could move to Palestine.

  1. During WWI, the Chinese were in service to the allies. Once WWI finished, the Japanese still held onto Chinese possessions which upset them and they began to reject the west and get more interested in communism.

11. The Chinese Civil War was between the communists (Mao) and the nationalists (Chiang Kai-Shek)

12. Chiang Kai-Shek was accused of being a Western puppet, while Communusm appealed to the peasant population. Mao’s army chased Chiang for months on the Long Walk, which gave him a cult-like status.

13. Japan became a strict military state. In the second Sino-Japanese War, they took Nanjing from Manchuria and brutalized the citizens even after China surrendered (Rape of Nanjing).

7.6:

1. Hitler annexes more land, including Rhineland (a land between Germany and Austria-Hungary.) However, no one stops him because they do not want to go to war (appeasement)

2. Hitler wants to take a piece of Czechoslovakia called Sudetenland. In the Munich conference, Britain and France say that if they let him have that land, that’ll be the last land he can take

3. On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland which invaded the Munich agreement and WWII began

4. Hitler and Stalin didn’t like each other, but they made a deal about Poland. However, Hitler betrays him and Stalin joins the allies and while he does not trust them, he agrees that Hitler needs to be stopped

5. The US said they were neutral, but they weren’t as they placed economic sanctions on Japan for their militarism and sent war materials to Britain. This angered Japan and was the reason for Pearl Harbor.

6. Germany was winning most of their battles in the first half of the war. By 1940, they had conquered Poland, France, Denmark, and Belgium.

7. The battle of Britain was from July 1940 - May 1941 and Germany attacked Britain. British technology was much better, but Germany had the upper land and more land Germany was unable to take Britain and gave up.

8. Hitler’s mistake was sending his soldiers to Russia in winter, where it was very cold. They had early success but then began to lose

9. Thingd officially turn over to the allies on June 6, 1943 with D-Day

10. In 1943, Italians forced Mussolini from power and executed him for losing so many holdings.

11. Hitler kills himself in an underground bunker after attempting a final battle and losing.

12. Japan is still fighting even after Germany surrenders. The United States then drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in an attempt to get them to stop fighting. However, they still continue to fight and the US drops another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan then surrenders.

13. The United Nations is formed and replaced the League of Nations.

  1. Former Nazis are put on trial for their crimes (Nuremberg trials)
  2. Japan demilitarized.