The 20th century

Milestones
The first World War (1914-1918)

Europe
● Competing nation-states
● Germany and Italy, around 1870, joined their fragmented
territories into two major new powers → old balance of power in
Europe changed
● By the early 20th century, two rival alliances:

Triple Alliance vs Triple Entente

German
y Italy Britain
Austro- Russia France
Hungarian
Empire
How World War I began….

On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a

Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist,
assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir
Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading
to the July Crisis.
In response, on 23 July, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to
Serbia.

Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austrians, and the two moved
to a war.
Events leading to World War I
1- Russo-Turkish war
2- Militarism, authoritarianism (especially Germany and Britain)
3 -Kaiser Wilhelm II -> cartoon villain for the world. He made some aggressive public statements
4- Balkan wars 1912-13
5- Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Austrian) assassinated by Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist
6- Germany “blank check” to Austria
7- Austria issued ultimatum to Serbia
8-Austria first to declare war on Serbia
9- Russia first to mobilize its massive army
10-Germany first to declare war on a major power, Russia
11-Germans advance to France through Belgium
12-Britain into the war
Why a World War?
● Europe’s imperial reach around the
● The Ottoman Empire entered the
world led to an inclusion of colonial
conflict on the side of Germany and
troops into the war effort, with men
became the site of intense military
from Africa, India, China, Southeast
actions and witnessed an Arab revolt
Asia, Australia, New Zealand and
against Ottoman Turkish control
Canada.
● British and French forces seized ● The US joined the war in 1917 when
German colonies in Africa and the German submarines threatened
South Pacific. Japan, allied with American shipping.
Britain, took various German
possessions in China and the Pacific.
The social aftermath….
● Disillusionment
● Loosening of the hold of traditions
(enormous casualties permitted
social movement)
● Suffrage movements revived
● Women received the right to vote in
Britain, the US, Germany, the Soviet
Union, Hungary and Poland
● Flappers
● New cultural industry
● American jazz on the radio in Europe
 ● Treaty of Versailles concluded
The political aftermath the war formally in 1919:
○ Germany lost its colonial
● German, Russian, Austro-Hunagrian empire
Empire collapsed ○ and 15% of its European
● Independent Poland, Czechoslovakia, territory,
Yugoslavia, and others ○ was required to pay heavy
● National self-determination reparations to the winners,
(Woodrow Wilson, US president) ○ had its military forces heavily
restricted,
1922: “It cannot be that ○ and was required to accept
two million Germans sole responsibility for the
should have fallen in outbreak of the war
vain…..No, we do not
pardon, we demand -
vengeance.”
(Adolf Hitler)
The League of Nations (established in
1920)
● International peacekeeping
organization committed to the goal
of collective security
● Germany was treated harsher than
intended by Wilson
● National self-determination was
difficult in multi-ethnic Europe
● US Senate refused to join the League
The new middle east (“Arabs emerged from
Turkish
● Iraq (Britishrule”)
mandate)
Conflicting promises from the British to
● Transjordan (British mandate)
both Jews and Arabs concerning Palestine
● Turkey
→ set the stage for an enduring struggle
● Syria (French mandate)
over that ancient and holy land.
● Palestine (British mandate)
The Russian Revolution and Soviet
Communism
● Early 1917: Tsar Nicholas II had lost
almost all support and was forced to
abdicate.
● Romanov dynasty ended after more
than 3 centuries
● Provisional Government
● Social Upheavals
● Grassroots organizations of workers
and soldiers = soviets
● Bolsheviks able to seize power by
end of 1917 under the leader LENIN
● Bolshevik’s message: an end to the
war, land for the peasants, workers’
control of factories, self-
determination for non-Russian
nationalities
 ● Modernization and
Communism in the USSR industrialization with
emphasis on social equality
● 3 years of civil war: and cultural values of
selflessness and collectivism
Bolsheviks fought hard and
● Totalitarian (other parties
succesfully
were forbidden)
● 1921: renaming of Russia ● Collectivization of agriculture
into: USSR, or Soviet Union: ● Famine , many killed
Union of Soviet Socialist ● Literacy rates raise
Republics ● Rapid urbanization
● Remained communist for ● A lot of conflict on the inside
25 years (corruption etc.)
● Joseph Stalin : leader in the ● The Great Purges of the late
late 1920s 1930s (denunciations,
suspicions, connections to
foreign countries→ arrested
The Great Depression
● Booming economy in ● Democratic socialism
the US in the 1920s (Britain, France,
● Stock market crash in Scandinavia)
● In the US: The New Deal
October 1929
(1933-42): Social Security
● Unemployment soared
System, minimum wage,
everywhere
various relief and welfare
● Europe affected too programs etc.
because economically
dependent on US
Fascism
Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, The Italian term fascismo is derived from fascio
authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by meaning "a bundle of sticks", ultimately from the
dictatorial power, forcible suppression of Latin word fasces.The symbolism of the fasces
opposition, and strong regimentation of society suggested strength through unity: a single rod
and of the economy which came to is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to
prominence in early 20th-century Europe.The break. Similar symbols were developed by
first fascist movements emerged in Italy during different fascist movements: for example, the
World War I, before Falange symbol is five arrows joined together
spreading to other European countries. by a yoke.
Opposed to liberalism, Marxism, and
anarchism, fascism is placed on the far-right
within the traditional left–right spectrum.
 Fascism
● Fascism:
○ Purify and revitalize the nation
○ mobilize its people to some grand
task
○ Bitterly condemned individualism,
liberalism, feminism, parliamentary
● democracy and communism
appealing????
● Yes to aggrieved people without hope
● To people who feared communism
● To intellectuals who liked the materialism
and artificiality of modern life

Fascism or highly authoritarian movements

appeared in many European countries such as
Spain, Romania, and Hungary, and some Latin
American countries. But only in Italy and Germany
these movements achieved prolonged power in
Swastika Mass Ornament, Nuremberg,
1933
Adolf Hitler and the Nationalist Party (Nazi)
● Racial superiority 1932: Nazi Party wins 37 percent of vote
● Bitter hatred for the jews at election
● Opposition to communism
● Determination to rescue Germany 1933: Hitler legally installed chancellor of
from the humiliating requirements of the German government
the Treaty of Versailles
● Willingness to tackle economic The Third Reich
problems
All other political parties were outlawed.

Independent labor unions were ended

● Successful at bringing
Germany out of the Opponents were arrested
Depression
● Erna Kranz: “a glimmer of The press and the radio came under state
hope….(...) it was a good
control.
time….there was order
Nazi Eugenics
This is how it would end.

Qualitative decline of population

due to a too weak reproduction
of the superior ones.

This is how it will be

if the inferior ones have 4

children and the superior ones 2.
 ● Jews were excluded from
Anti-Semitism universities, professional
organizations, and civil employment
Jews as the “urban, capitalist, and foreign ● In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws ended
influences undermining German culture” German citizenship for Jews and
forbade marriage or sexual relations
Long-established current of anti-Semitism between Jews and Germans
in Europe ● On November 9th 1938, known as
the “(Reichs)kristallnacht”,
persecution gave way to terror

Read second last paragraphs

before “Japanese
Authoritarianism”
Holocaust
The word Holocaust is derived from Concentration camps.
the Greek holokauston, a translation
Extermination camps. (Death camps)
of the Hebrew word ʿolah, meaning a
burnt sacrifice offered whole to God. The intellectual, emotional or physical
This word was chosen, and gained unfit.
wide usage, because, in the ultimate Jews.
Russians, Poles, other Slavs.
manifestation of the Nazi killing Gypsies
program—the extermination camps— Mentally or physically handicapped people
the bodies of the victims were Homosexuals
consumed whole in crematoria or Communists
Jehova’s Witnesses
open fires.

6 Million Jews were killed and Millions of other innocent

human beings.
Japanese Authoritarianism
Impact of the Great Depression, as in Growing movement called Radical
Germany, paved the way for harsher and Nationalism or Revolutionary Right.
more authoritarian action.
But no right-wing or fascist party was able
Many began to doubt the ability of to seize power.
parliamentary democracy and capitalism
to address Japan’s national emergency. No charismatic leader like Mussolini or
Hitler.

● In the 1930s: right-wing nationalist thinking very prominent.

● Military played a strong role.
● Censorship limited free expression.
● One single news agency.
● State-financed credits etc. helped Japan out of the crisis. By 1937, Japan was in good
shape (economically)
 World War II Independent origins in
Asia and Europe
Asia: Europe:
● Japan increasingly had felt threatened by China’s ● Hitler rearmed the country
growing nationalism, by the British, French and ● Pursued territorial expansion
Dutch imperialist economies in South-East Asia ● Annexed Austria and the German-
and by the United States, and Russia! speaking parts of Czechoslovakia
● Japan invaded Manchuria (they needed land for a ● British and French gave it
growing population). By 1932 they had full control their”blessing”, hoping to appease
(puppet state) Hitler
● The League of Nation condemned this; Japan left ● On September 1 1939, Germany
the league and build closer ties with Germany and attacked Poland → Britain and
Italy France declared war on Germany
● In 1937, Japan full-scale attack on heartland ● Germany quickly defeated France,
China launched destructive war against
● In 1940-41, Japan extended its military operations Britain, turned their war machine
to the French, British and Dutch, and American loose on the Soviet Union in 1941
colonies in Southeast Asia (ressources!!) (when most of Europe was under Nazi
● Japanese attack on the United States at Pearl control).
Harbor in Hawaii in December 1941 as a response ● The US joined the struggle against
to the American oil embargo imposed on Japan Germany in 1942. German defeat in
 World War II, Outcomes….
● Most destructive conflict in world ● The United Nations (UN) established
history with ca.60 million deaths (6 in 1945
times that of World War 1), more ● Creation of the World Bank and
than half of them civilians International Monetary Fund in 1945
● Russia and China particularly ● US emerged as global superpower
devastated ● Soviet victory over the Nazis gave
● Holocaust→ Jews fleeing to Israel: credibility to that regime
Urgency of the establishment of a ● Communism in Eastern Europe
modern Jewish nation in the ancient ● Communism in Asia: Ho Chi Minh in
homeland → this outraged many Vietnam: communist regime
Arabs → enduring conflict ● Communism in China: Mao Zedong,
● Europe was impoverished after the leader of a small communist party,
war, many of its great cities in ruins (CCP) winner in the 1949 Chinese
● Europe divided: West under America, Revolution against Guomindang
East under Soviet control (Nationalist Party)
● Many colonial soldiers from Africa
had seen white people die, fight, etc.
→ new image of colonial rule and its