20th Century History Notes

The Twentieth Century: Periodization and Regional Analysis

Buildup to Crisis: 1900-1914

  • The Balkans:

    • A hotbed of tension due to national self-determination movements among Slavic groups.
    • Pan-Slavic nationalism: Slavic groups sought support from Russia, which became a sponsor.
    • Austria, surrounded by perceived hostile rebellions, turned to Germany for support.
    • The divisions and internal strife in the Balkans foreshadowed the empire's collapse.

  • Southeast Asia:

    • Dominated by the French; Burma became a British colony by 1914.
    • French interests: Primarily focused on rice production as a resource.
    • Urban areas became Europeanized, with French cuisine influencing Vietnamese cuisine.
    • Indigenous traditions persisted despite European influence, indicating limited transformation of local practices.

  • Africa:

    • Scramble for Africa: Intensified European colonization.
    • Moroccan Crisis (1905):
      • Linked to the Spanish-American War; Spain's defeat created an opportunity for Moroccan uprisings.
      • Germany sought control of Morocco to challenge British naval dominance at Gibraltar.
      • British diplomacy allowed France to gain control of Morocco.
      • Significance: Shifted British war planning from expecting Germany as an ally against France to anticipating Germany as a future enemy.
      • Kaiser Wilhelm II's call in 1899 to build a navy second to none intensified the arms race and diplomatic tensions.
    • Nationalism and Empire: The idea that empire was connected to the greatness of the state fueled tensions.

1914-1945: Regional Developments

  • Latin America:

    • Import Substitution Industrialization: Initiated during World War I due to German U-boat effectiveness disrupting imports (e.g., coffee sacks).
    • Social Changes:
      • Emergence of an urban proletariat and textile industries.
      • Development of a managerial class with access to education, leading to a college-educated middle class.
      • Radicalization of the managerial and working classes due to societal polarization.
    • Great Depression: Collapsed demand for basic commodities severely impacting economies.
    • Fascist Influence:
      • Some countries, like Argentina (Peronists) and Brazil, emulated European fascists.
      • Implementation of anti-immigrant platforms.
    • FDR's Good Neighbor Policy:
      • Shifted American foreign policy away from military intervention towards financial connections.
      • Sought to build financial connections that were durable and bind together interests.
      • Michael Mann's Analysis: American policy was ultimately incoherent due to racism, hindering the development of durable relations.
    • Impact of Marxism:
      • Contributed to radicalization in the managerial class and among unionized workers.
      • Liberation Theology: In the 1970s, some theologians, influenced by Marxist ideas, advocated for social justice in response to death squads, departing from the Catholic Church's traditional conservatism.
      • John Paul II, a Cold War figure from Poland, responded to liberation theology with an inquisition led by Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict), leading to the excommunication of radical theologians.

  • China:

    • Collapse of Dynastic China (1912):
      • Sun Yat-sen (or Sun Yip Sen) envisioned a unified, modern China.
      • Wan Shikai's attempted Red Dragon Dynasty led to warlordism.
      • Warlordism: powerful regional magnates with private armies try to become the next rulers.
      • China allied with the British during World War I.
    • Treaty of Versailles:
      • Awarded Manchuria to Japan, provoking the May Fourth Movement.
      • May Fourth Movement:
        • Anti-European and anti-Western movement protesting European influence in China.
        • Nationalistic movement with conflicting Marxist and Nationalist leadership.
        • An uneasy alliance between Marxists and Nationalists ended in 1927 with a Nationalist extermination campaign against the Marxists.
      • Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi): Leader of the Nationalists.
      • The nationalists launched an extermination campaign with substantial military assistance from the West.
      • Power shifted towards Mao Zedong, who focused on a peasant-based revolution in the countryside.
    • The Long March:
      • A 3,000-mile march where communists lost four-fifths of their troops but survived, solidifying Mao's leadership.
      • Demonstrated the importance of outlasting opponents and preserving forces.
    • Guerrilla warfare tactics (Vietnamese example):
      • The Vietnamese learned a lot from that.
      • Emphasized force preservation by engaging in small skirmishes with limited resources.
      • Vietnamese soldiers wore their pajamas, light cotton clothing and carried rice bowls for sustenance.
    • Communist Moral Leadership:
      • The communist had to demonstrate moral leadership.
      • Gained peasant support by prohibiting soldiers from stealing and compensating for damages.
    • War with Japan:
      • The nationalists retreated to Southern China, while communists engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese from 1937 to 1945.
      • The communist gained support they needed from the peasants to be successful.
      • After World War II, the communists defeated the nationalists, driving them to Taiwan by 1949.

Japan: 1900-1914

  • Rise as an Imperial Power:
    • Successful in the Sino-Japanese War (1895).
    • Annexed Korea in 1910 in partnership with the British.
    • Victorious in the war against Russia in 1905.
    • Pursued imperial expansion due to limited domestic resources (Lebensraum: "living space").
    • Lebensraum: Living space. So when they conquer Vietnam, they see the rice fields of Vietnam as feeding the Japanese empire. So they'll appropriate grain from that area to be fed.
    • Coveted resources like iron and coal in Manchuria for steel production.

Southeast Asia: 1914-1945

  • Japanese Supervision:
    • Territories annexed when France was driven from the war in 1939. Japan then declares fear.
    • Initial perception of Japanese as liberators by some Asians.
    • Imperial practices were harsh (e.g., comfort women, nucleosomes, appropriated rice).
    • Ho Chi Minh showed up at Versailles asking for independence from Vietnam.
    • Ho Chi Minh:
      • Communist leader who gained local support by raiding Japanese granaries to feed the Vietnamese people.
      • Sought American assistance for an independent Vietnam in a 1945 letter to Harry Truman, which went unanswered.
      • America did not respond because Ho Chi Minh was communist and to maintain alliance with France.

1945-1991: The Cold War Period

  • Beginning of the Cold War:

    • Triggered by the end of World War II and the atomic bomb, which established American superpower status. The bomb to me has to be under Diego.

    • Atomic bomb drop:

      • The iron weapons and chariots were thinly distributed around the planet and were dominant for two hundred years, similarly, the atomic bomb interval of dominance only lasted five years.

    • The Chinese civil war doesn't really end till 1949.

    • The Soviet Union launched their own or, you know, explodes their own has their successful nuclear test five years later.

    • Marshall Plan (1947):

      • American initiative to rebuild European and Japanese economies through loans with the condition of free and fair elections.
      • Aimed to revive demand for basic commodities and stabilize regions. By the way, like what was it?
      • The Soviet Union and its satellites could not allow for free and fair elections.

    • The Soviet Union did not accept due to its sphere of influence. Did he crush the satellites?

    • In 1947, describing the Marshall Plan, it was the single greatest act of generosity in the history of humanity.

    • Were we rebuilding Germany?

      • Yes. Wait a minute. So we're gonna loan them money so they can buy our stuff. So we're loaning them money and they're gonna buy our stuff. And since we're loaning them money, are they gonna pay us back with interest? Yeah.

    • Good business right there that undergird American prosperity right up until the nineteen seventies.

    • This feels like a betrayal. Right? So we can see the Marshall Plan as a moment where the Russians escalate their tightening of control in those satellite zones.

  • Detente (Easing of Tensions):

    • End of the Soviet Union.
      • Collapses in 1991.
    • Gorbachev matters.
    • There are clearly problems within the Soviet Union.

  • Problems in the Soviet Union By 1985:

    • Great Bureaucrats: The last three rulers of the Soviet Union are described as great bureaucrats as their greatest achievement.

      • Longest Brezhnev served for about eighteen year.
        *Reflects complacency and ossification of the state, where advancement depended on outlasting rivals and acquiring clients.

    • Brezhnev educational system creates critical thinking. The number of Nobel Prizes in science and math won by Russians during this period was significant.

    • Disillusionment: Citizens, told they lived in a workers' paradise, faced shortages and corruption.

    • Corruption: Black markets flourished with police involvement.

    • Economic Stagnation.

       *By 1985, we have no world class educational system.*

      Akantiv Gorbachev: 1985.

    • Selected for being a Soviet reformist politician.*
      Perestroika: restructuring and Glasnost is openness. Right?*
      Restructuring, one of the things they're gonna do is they're gonna force state enterprise to justify their existence.
      That's gonna upset a lot of bureaucrats.

      *American corporations open up in Red Square. McDonald's is there.*

      Glasnost restructure the economy Gorbachev recognized if you're gonna reform the state, you have to reform the state with the people's interests in mind, so he invited the people to criticize the state.

    Glastonos: Why the Soviet Union collapses. Does Poland become an independent state.

    What happened to oligrachs who stood up?

    They'd get thrown out of windows.

    Transitioning from Communist system to a capitalist system.

    • Shock Therapy. Does that sound like a good thing or a bad thing?

      ***Auctioning off all state assets so that the system could be rapidly transformed. Because Because of the corruption in the Soviet system, it also meant that the auctions were rigged****.

      brain trained also occurred.

    Important Concepts:
    Shock therapy: Auction off all state assets, which a state asset is, it's mines, it's factories, it's forests, mineral deposits, it's oil deposits, it's oil fields: all these became now private.
    All of that stuff's happening between like 1989 and 1991*.
    *One of things that's gonna happen is the satellites will enter into open rebellion. And so one of the reasons that I treat Gorbachev as a hero in my little book of heroes because he had a vision. He had a goal. He wanted to create a communist system for the future.*
    According to Gorbachev, the biggest problem was turnover.*

    1989.*

    • Chernobyl blows up*

      *The republics within the Soviet Union begin to leave.*
        *Yeltsin*: convinces the army to shoot on the whites, and the next big challenge is how do you turn a Soviet system into a capitalist system.*
        *McDonalds: American advice*?
                            *Shock therapy*.  *Yeltsin recruited American experts for advice on this. The standards of living decreased.*
                                                ***This is 1991***.