Post-WWI Geopolitical Restructuring, the Armenian Genocide, and Global Economic Turmoil

Collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Genocide

• Erosion of Ottoman Inclusivity: The historical tolerance of the Ottoman Empire—which had historically provided sanctuary to persecuted groups such as European Jews—eroded under territorial decline, administrative failure, and a lack of industrialization.
• Scapegoating of Armenians: Ottoman military failures during World War I were falsely blamed on the Armenian Christian minority, claiming they conspired with the Russian Empire to sabotage the war effort.
• Implementation of the Genocide: The Ottoman state executed systematic extermination through mass killings, sexual violence, and forced death marches into the desert without food or water toward annihilation centers such as Der Zor and Rasalayn.
• International Awareness: The genocide was extensively reported at the time by United States newspapers and the United States ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, leading to the eventual resettlement of Armenian refugees in places like Minnesota, Michigan, and Canada.
• Denial: The Turkish government, whose leadership descends politically from the Young Turks, refuses to officially recognize the genocide.

Post-War Division of the Middle East and Modern Turkey

• Sykes-Picot Partition: Britain and France divided former Ottoman territories into arbitrary zones based on imperial self-interest rather than native populations:
  • Blue Zone: Direct French Control (coastal Cilicia and Lebanon).
  • A Zone: French Influence (interior Syria and northern Iraq).
  • Red Zone: Direct British Control (southern Mesopotamia/Basra and Baghdad).
  • B Zone: British Influence (trans-Jordanian and northern Arabian deserts).
  • Allied Condominium: International administration for Palestine.
  • Russian and Italian Claims: Italy claimed parts of southwestern Anatolia, while eastern Armenian provinces were designated for Russia.

• Establishment of Modern Turkey: The Young Turks, led by veteran military officer Mustafa Kemal (Atat\u00fcrk), rejected the post-war Allied partition. By reorganizing the military, they drove out Italian, French, and Greek forces in a war of independence ending around $1922\text{--}1923$, establishing the sovereign borders of the Republic of Turkey.
• British Mandate for Palestine ($1920\text{--}1922$): Established to administer Palestine; the sovereign state of Israel did not exist until the late $1940\text{s}$ following World War II and the Holocaust, primarily populated by Ashkenazi European Jewish immigrants.
• Racial Imperial Structures:
  • Dominion Status / Protectorates: Applied to regions with white majorities or ruling white minorities (such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa), granting domestic self-governance while Britain managed foreign trade and diplomacy.
  • Direct Control: Imposed on non-white colonial populations across Africa and Asia through appointed British governors.

Political Developments in East Asia

• Chinese Political Shift: Following the death of modernist revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) assumed control, establishing an authoritarian military dictatorship without democratic elections.
• Japanese Imperial Ambitions: Japan extracted labor and natural resources to support industrialization through oppressive occupations of Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula, conscripting Korean populations for mine and factory labor.
• The Shandong Peninsula and the Versailles Treaty: After destroying German naval forces in East Asia during World War I, Japan demanded territorial rewards. The Treaty of Versailles transferred Germany's former concession in the Shandong Peninsula (Qingdao) to Japan rather than restoring it to China, triggering Chinese national protests.
• Authoritarianism Across Ideologies: Far-right and far-left authoritarian regimes consistently prioritized political power over human life, viewing targeted populations as inferior.

Post-War Global Economic Disruption

• Timing of the Global Depression: The worldwide economic depression began immediately at the close of World War I ($1920\text{--}1921$), resulting from mass demobilization, shattered industries, and disrupted global trade, rather than originating purely from the United States stock market crash on Black Friday in $1929$.
• European Economic Destruction:
  • United Kingdom: Suffered an initial post-war economic depression ($1920\text{--}1921$), but mitigated widespread destitution through state unemployment insurance within the metropole.
  • Continental Europe: France, Germany, and Belgium suffered catastrophic economic halts due to obliterated factory capacity, physical infrastructure destruction, and farmland contaminated by unexploded artillery shells.
• Delayed United States Depression: The United States initially avoided severe depression by trading weapons and food to both sides during its early neutrality, avoiding domestic battlefield damage, entering late, and issuing loans to finance German war reparations.
• Wartime Military Expenditures:
  • Germany: $\$38\text{ bil}$
  • United Kingdom: $\$35.3\text{ bil}$
  • France: $\$24.3\text{ bil}$
  • Russia: $\$22.3\text{ bil}$
  • Austro-Hungarian Empire: $\$21\text{ bil}$
  • Italy: $\$12.4\text{ bil}$
  • Canada: $\$1.6\text{ bil}$
  • Australia: $\$1.4\text{ bil}$

Questions & Discussion

• Question: Did Armenian survivors leave for the United States after the war?
  • Response: Many emigrated to North America—settling in Canada, Minnesota, and Michigan—as Turkish control was re-established and no independent Armenian refuge survived within the region.
• Question: How was the newly reorganized Turkish military able to overcome European powers?
  • Response: The Young Turks were veteran professional officers and generals rather than untrained politicians. Conversely, European nations were unwilling or unable to maintain costly occupations: Italy was militarily weak, France was exhausted by immense wartime casualties, Britain lacked the will to sustain open conflict, and Soviet Russia was focused on internal revolution.
• Question: Why did other nations fail to intervene to halt the Armenian Genocide?
  • Response: Foreign powers were entirely committed to winning World War I. Halting a domestic genocide requires military invasion and risking citizen lives, an action rarely undertaken by the international community unless sovereign national interests are directly threatened.