*** modern history 20th century








Modern History: The 20th Century

World War I
Figure 1.-- Austrian Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated by Serb terrorists (1914). This launched Europe into the catasthrophic Great War--World War I (1914-18). What many Europeans thought was impossible became the most destructive war in history up to that time. This time France had allies to fight the Germans and their would be no quick German victory. In many ways, the rest of the century was working out the forces set in motion by the War.

Europe was optimistic at the turn-of-the 20th century. Technnological advances convinced many that nothing was beyond man's abilities. Civilization had reached a new stage in which technology could solve all problems. Wars were seen as a phenomenon of the past. Europe was seen as too economically inter-connected and the weapons too terrible for another major war. The Titanic disaster (1912) was the first shock of the century, highlighting the limits of technology. And this was followed by the catasthrophic Great War--World War I (1914-18). In many ways, the rest of the century was working out the forces set in motion by the War. Several rising, but disatisfied hegemonic powers attempted to supplant the Anglo-American world system (Willhemite Germany, NAZI Germany, Imperial Japan, and finally the Soviet Union). Despite many advantages, each failed. And a seeries of Revolutions (Mexico, Russia, and China) challenged the Western view of moderity. The great question to be answered in the 20th century was whether the individual mattered and had inalienable rights or whether it was the state collective was ultimately of primary importance. Many argued that the totalitarian systems be they Fascist or Communist could amass and mobilize power beyond that of democratic states. This proved to be a fundamental error. The wastelands of demolished German and Japanese cities stood in mute testimony of the power democratic peoples could generate. After World War II the European empires were unwound in the decolonization process. Few adopted either capitalism or democracy, opting for authoritarian socialist regimes. The optimism of independence was in country after country dashed by econimic failure. Only the Asian Tigers demonstrated the power of both democracy and capitalism. The century ended with the failure of Communism and the implosion of the Soviet Union. And both China and India introduced capitalist reforms demonsrratuing the power of free market capitalism.

The 1900s

The 1900s opened with the Paris Exhibition (1900) which sho cased technological achievements and prospects for the future. A huge electricity pavilion, moving staircases, and other marvels impressed the visitors. Some 50 million people came to wowed by all that technology and the progress it offered. In tht same year, Kodak in America introduced the Brownie camera, making amateur photography availble to the masses. Three years later in Ameica, the fitst heavier than air flight occurred, launching a new industry (1903) The 19th century began with an outburst of war and violence in urope, unprcedented to region known for war and violence. The rest of the century, however, was one of relarive peace and both economic and scientific progres. This was one of of the longest periods of relaive peace in European history and an era of enormous scientific and technological achievement. The result was at the turn-of-the 20th century there was enormous opotimism about the future. There was widespread belief that war was a phnomrnon of the past and that science could solve affect technological sollutions to any problem. The industrial revolution had brought prosperity to millions in the burgeoning industrial cities of Europe and America. There was a widespread belief that human civilization was at the peak of civilization and national achievement. Europeans and americans lived in a settled and stable society,, The economy in several countries had brought onsiderable change. Most of Europe, however, was still dominated by four enormous empires (Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, and the Ottomans). The Britis and French Empire controlled a huge expnse of fria, Asia, and Oceania. Below this shinong surface there were problems. A growing Germany and its bombastic Kaiser felt Germany was not given its due and began increasing military spending, including navl spending for thefirst time. . France yearned for the return of alsace-Loraine and stenghen diplomatic ties with ussia nd Britain. Industial workers still led constricted lives. Progresive refirms were addressing these concerns in the liberal democracies. The peasaht masses in Russia and Estern Europe were in even worse conditions. Throughout Eastern and Central Europe, ethnic minorities yarned for greater national freedom. And in Asia, China was a seething hotbed of resentment toward Europeam encroachments. Indians were pushing for home rule. Resource-poor Japan increasingly yened for a European-style empire and ibcresingly looked to China as a potential area of colonization. Across the Atlantic, Ameriva had emerged as the worlds greatst industrial power. It opened its borders to'millions of Europeans seeking opportunity and freedom. This included Catholics and Jews, signicanly expanding the diversity if its popultion. Unlike uope, there was no appetite for military spending.

The 1910s

Europe dominates histories of the 1910s. Early in the decade, however, a revolution in China overthrew the Manchus and the imperial system and launched this huge country into the modern world (1911). Europe was optimistic at the turn-of-the 20th century. Technnological advances convinced many that nothing was beyond man's abilities. One especially important discovery was Ernest Rutherford's work on the structure of the atom. Civilization had reached a new stage in which technology was seen as capable of solving all problems. Wars were seen as a phenomenon of the past. Europe was seen as too economically inter-connected and the weapons too terrible for another major war. The Titanic disaster (1912) was the first shock of the century, highlighting the limits of technology. Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated by Serb terrorists (1914). This launched Europe into the catasthrophic Great War--World War I (1914-18). What many Europeans thought was impossible became the most destructive war in history up to thrt time. This time France had allies to fight the Germans and their would be no quick German victory. In many ways, the rest of the century was working out the forces set in motion by the War. One of the most destrictive was the Russian Revolution and the rise of Commuism as a powerful force (1917). American entered the War and assumed the role as a great power, something the Germans had not calculated (1917). The war ended with Germany's defeat (1918), but the bitterness and hatred engendered by the War festered which was further fuled by the punstive Treaty of Versailles (1919). The Treaty created the League of Nations ardently promoted by President Wilson. The U.S. Senate refuses to ratify the treaty. A war weakened continent was further devestated by the Spanish Flu Pandemic (1918). The optimism with which the century began was shattered along with confidence in elites. American food aid prevents starvation and famine after the War.

The 1920s

World war I in short changed everything. The old certainties of the west were broken. The changes set in motion, however, just began to work their way through society in the 1920s. The most important change was the destruction of the great European empires. The Tarist Empire was replaced by what some saw was a new more modern state--the Soviet Union, but we now know was simply a reenginered Russian empire with Commujism replacing Orthodoxy as the state religion. And from the beginning supporte major efforts to foment revolution in otehr countries--a kind of cold war became the term was coined after World war II. Another totslitariasn system was fiounf=ded by Mussolini in Taly--Fascism. The German Empire became the unstable Weimar Republic with the loss of some territory. The Austrian-Hungarian and Ottoman Empire broke up. Many small ethically based states appeared in Eastern and Central Eutope. Only Czechoslovkis developed into a dmocracy. The League of Nations was established at President Wilson's insistance to prevent another world war, but America did not join. Almost from the beginning of the decade, the public throughout Europe came to see World war I as a great mistake, the Germans because they lost the war, the Allies because of the horific carnage. Terrifying new ideologies appeared. Japan began pushing demands on China, but was constaind by American diplomacy and the washington Naval talks. Military spending was cut to the bone by the liberal democracies. Itly turned to Fascism. Lenin experimented with capitalism, but by he end of the decade, Stalin was in control and pursuing both radical Communism and a an absolute personl dictatorship. Economies boomed, even in Germany after a shaky start. Civil war broke out in China btween th Natiinlists and Communists. Indians began to shift their demands from home rule to indpendence. Europe still dominated much of the world, but all th old certainties were now being questioned, religious conviction, ethics, patriotism, and above all an unquestioned belief in technology and prigress. In several countries (Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Soviet Union) totalitarian ideologies began to take shape with horific ntional and social goals. The Westerm democracies, however, turned inwards, seeking more personal fulfilment. (This was partially true of Germany as well.) We see the pursuit of hedonism, aesthic, and intelectual pursuits without the old social controls--the roaring 20s. We see surrealism nd other abstrct forms in art as well as dicordant jazz in music. Jophine Baker appeared in rance and became an intrnational star--with both scandal and sensation. Theoretical physics and a wide range of philosophies became topics of popular discussion. Amid all the turmoil both racism and xenephobia increased. One authors descibes the ferment, "Amid the bitterness nd the urgency of the postwar years, jaz burst onto the scenrlike a liberaing blast .... The JazzAge with its flappers in the United states, the Bright Young Things in Britain, and the andriynous , fun-loving girls and boys in the bars of Berlin the cellar joints of Paris was a spontaneous protest against an era tht was growing too serious , a time that seemed either devoid of hope or inflated with utopian dreams by the partisans of left and right. No dictatorship has ever approved of jazz. People whodrink or danc together and eel their partner's moving body on the dance floor simply find it more difficult to hate one another." [Blom]

The 1930s

The Roaring 20s came to an abrupt end with the American Wall Street Crash (October 1929). It was not so much the Crash, but the American Governments reaction to it, especially the Federal Reserve, that turned what was an ordinary if serious recession into the Great Depression. As a result the Depression was especially serious in America. President Roosevelt's New Deal stabilized the situatiion, but did not end the Depression. The New Deal launched needed reforms, but did not end the Depression. Policies like adopting huge tax increases actually impeded recovery. Germany was also heavily affected because so much of the German econmy was devoted to exportuing. And because of the Depression, export markets were drawing up. German politics included the Comminist and far right parties. The major party was, however, thhe Socialist Party, strongly supported by the German working class, The imoact of the Depression was so severe that the two mist extrene parties, the NAZIs and Communists dominated the Reichstag and Hitler nd the NAZIs seize power (1933). The British and French managed the Depression better, but m,ost counties were affected. Japan was radiczalized in part because its exoport markets, like Germany's were, aversely affected. World War II would involve horrible atricuties, but in the 1930s, most of the killing wasc done by the Soviets, the most terrible of the many Soviet atrocities was the terrible Ukranin engineered by Stalin (1931-32). A good case can be made for World War II neginning in Asia, first when Japan's invasion of Machuria (1931) and then China proper (1937). Hitler at first played his cards cautiously while launching a major expndion of the military. Up intell that gime it was he most frapouid expsnsion of the military in history. And within a few years Hitler had achieved a military advantage over Britain and France, both of which fervently wanted to avoid war. This led to the Autrian Anbschluss anf them Munich with Hitler clasiming thst his was his last territorial demand (1938). Six months later, he broke his pfromose sd seized the rest of Czechoslovakia (March 1939). And then he invased Poland (September 1939). This time Britin and France did not back down. But Hitler did not start World War II on his own, he negotiated an alliance with he Soviet Union (August 1939). Both the Germans and Soviets invaded Poland (Septenber 1939).

The 1940s

The 1940s was dominated by World War II. Hitler and the NAZIs achieved sopectacukar successes, most importantly the fall of France. This left Britain without its World War I alliance to face a NAZI-dominated Europe. The NAZIs came close to ending the War as France was collapsing, byt Churvhill manafed to convince the war Cabinet not to ngotuare again with Hitler. And the RAF's brillint defeat of the Luftwaffe, turned the War into a battle of attrition. With the Empire and Americam support, the NAZIs no longer had the capability of defeating Britain. The German Army was capable of short, sharp vivtoties and would it achieve more in the Balkans (April 1941). Defeating the Soviet Union would require more than a short, sharp victory. Once the Red Army survived Barbarossa, Hitler was involved in another protracted war of attrition, made even worse by declaring war on the United States (December 1941). The American Arsenal of Democracy was beyond anything the NAZIs and Japanese anticipated. Germany had lost World War In when it turned into a war of attrition. The same would play out in World War II. Japan like Germany achieved huge victories, but the victories ended after only 6 months at Midway (June 1942). The War in Europe al;o chznged drmarically with Allied victories at Stalingtad and El Almeion and the Totch Invasion in Notyh Africa (November 1942). The decisive campaign of the war was the Ostkrieg. Here the Red Army tore the heart out of the Wehrmacht. A major part of the Red asrmy Victory was that a major part of the Germam industrial output was used to fight the War in the West. Hitler had sent the Ostheer East largely on foot with hirse-drawn carts. It would have to fight the war poorly equipped and supplied. The War in the West involved the air war and Battle of the Atlantic, involving huge industrial inputs. The Western Allies rentered the Continent with the D-Day landungs in Normandy. These landings were critical, not only in defeating the NAZIs, but akso preventing the Siviets friom miving into Western Europe. In the Pacific, the Japanese after Guadalcanal (1942) was on the defensive. The Japanese adopted a strategy of killing as mny American as possible in a seies of island campaigns, climaing on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. This led directly to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945). The Allies despite the Soviets being a NAZI ally (1939-41), the Allies had becone accustomed tio thinkinh of the Soviets as allies. Thus it took some time for attitudes to change even after Stalin launched the Cold War. A range of actions finalled changed perceptions. The Soviets began instaling Communist police states in Eastern Europe. Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain Speech (1946). Finally it was the Soviet blocade of Berlin and resulting Berlin Air Lift that finally brought the Cold War to light.

The 1950s


The 1960s


Sources

Blom, Philipp. Fracture: Life & Culture in the West, 1918-38 (2015), 512p.







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Created: 8:27 AM 12/2/2010
Last updated: 3:12 AM 5/7/2023


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