PERIOD 6
CHAPTER 25 Revolution, World Wars, and Depression
CHAPTER 26 Cold War and the Postwar Balance of Power
CHAPTER 27 End of the Cold War and Nationalist Movements
CHAPTER 28 Global Trade
CHAPTER 29 Technological Developments
CHAPTER 30 Social Changes
CHAPTER 31 Demographic and Environmental Developments
CHAPTER 25
IN THIS CHAPTER
Summary: Because of European competition for colonies in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, the delicate balance of power that had existed in Europe after the Congress of Vienna gradually eroded. European rivalries negotiated new alliances that led to warfare, while conditions in Russia culminated in a new form of government. Mexico underwent a liberal revolution and Chinese dynastic rule ended with the fall of the Qing. The economic devastation of World War I led to global depression and extremism in the form of fascist ideology. The conclusion of World War II brought the end of the period of European dominance and the rise of two superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union.
Key Terms
An asterisk ( *) denotes items listed in the glossary.
Allied Powers*
Anschluss *
appeasement*
British Commonwealth*
Central Powers*
Duma*
fascism*
Great Depression
Holocaust*
League of Nations*
mandate*
Mexican Revolution
Pan-Slavic movement*
Potsdam Conference*
reparations*
Revolution of 1905*
Russo-Japanese War*
Russification*
Spanish civil war*
Tehran Conference*
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk*
Treaty of Versailles*
United Nations*
Yalta Conference*
Revolutions in Mexico and China
Revolution in Mexico
In 1876, Porfirio Díaz was elected president of Mexico. For the next 35 years, he continued the economic growth of the rule of his predecessor, Benito Juárez. Díaz encouraged foreign investment, industries, and exports. In contrast to other Latin American countries such as Argentina and Brazil, Mexico was not the destination of many immigrants; its population, therefore, was largely native. Often economic growth did not benefit the peasants and working classes. Opponents of Díaz were arrested or exiled and election fraud was common.
In 1910, the middle class began a movement for election reform. Soon joined by workers and peasants, the reform movement escalated into a ten-year-long rebellion known as the Mexican Revolution. The revolution ended in a new constitution that guaranteed land reform, limited foreign investments, restricted church ownership of property, and reformed education.
Revolution in China
The leaders of the movement that brought down the Qing dynasty were Western-educated reformers who wanted to model China’s government along Western lines. Sun Yat-sen, one of the movement’s chief leaders, also intended to carry out reforms to benefit peasants and workers. Although they admired some aspects of Western society, the revolutionaries envisioned a China free of foreign Imperialists. In 1911, opposition to Qing reliance on Western loans for railway improvements led to a final rebellion that toppled the Qing in 1912. Centuries of Chinese dynastic rule had come to an end.
Background of World War I
Three forces interacted to set the scene for World War I:
• Nationalism––an intense pride in one’s nation and its people
• Imperialism––the acquisition of colonies
• Militarism––the maintenance of standing armies
Added to these three forces was a system of entangling alliances that complicated international relations in the event of war.
The immediate cause of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by a Serbian Nationalist protesting against the Austrian annexation of Bosnia. In the aftermath of the assassinations, Germany supported Austria in a declaration of war against Serbia. Serbia, a Slavic nation, was in turn linked to Russia’s ethnic policies. By the early twentieth century, Russia’s policy of Russification , or insistence on the acceptance of Russian culture by its various ethnic groups, had broadened into a Pan-Slavic movement that was designed to bring all Slavic nations into a commonwealth with Russia as its head. Russia, therefore, began to mobilize its troops in defense of Serbia.
Within a few weeks after the assassination at Sarajevo, the system of European alliances had brought the world into war. Two alliances faced off against each other: the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria; and the Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, and later, the United States. British Commonwealth members Canada, Australia, and New Zealand took an active part fighting on the Allied side. In 1917, China also declared war on Germany. Subject peoples of Europe’s colonies in Asia and Africa participated in the war as combatants and support personnel. Many colonial peoples hoped to be granted independence as a result of their war efforts.
Throughout the early war years the U.S. government sold arms to the Allies, while U.S. bankers lent money to the Allied nations. In 1917, the United States was drawn into World War I by two events: Germany’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare and Great Britain’s interception of the Zimmermann Telegram. The telegram proposed that, if Mexico would enter the war as an ally of Germany, the German government would assist Mexico to recover the territory it had lost to the United States as a result of the Mexican War. U.S. entry into World War I provided the Allies with additional supplies and freshly trained troops, two factors that helped turn the tide of war in favor of the Allies.
Revolution in Russia
Nationalism and a mutual desire to control Korea led to war between Russia and Japan in 1904. When the Russo-Japanese War ended in Russian defeat in 1905, an uprising known as the Revolution of 1905 forced Tsar Nicholas II to allow the Duma , or Russian Parliament, to convene. When Nicholas abolished the Duma a few weeks later, small groups of radicals began planning the overthrow of tsarist rule.
In March 1917, Russia’s decline as a world power, peasant dissatisfaction, political repression, and the human and financial costs of World War I brought about the end of tsarist rule. After a weak provisional government failed to maintain social order, a second revolution in October 1917 brought the Bolsheviks, or Communists, into power. The new government, led by V. I. Lenin, decided that Russia was too devastated by revolution to continue the war. In March 1918, Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , which ceded vast amounts of Russian territory to Germany.
Between 1918 and 1921, Russia was engaged in a civil war in which the Bolsheviks, or Red Army, solidified their power over supporters of tsarist rule and wealthy landowners. The opposing forces, or White Army, were supported by troops from the United States, France, Great Britain, and Japan.
Peace Settlements
Several peace treaties were signed following the war’s end in November 1918; the most well known was the Treaty of Versailles between most of the Allied nations and Germany. As a result of the Treaty of Versailles:
• A war guilt clause placed total blame for the war on Germany.
• Germany was assigned reparations payments of $33 billion.
• Germany lost its colonies.
• Alsace and Lorraine were returned to France.
• Germany’s military power was severely limited.
• The coal-rich Rhineland was demilitarized.
• A League of Nations was established to work for international peace. The dream of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, the League’s future impact was weakened when the United States refused to join. (The United States later signed a separate peace treaty with Germany.) Also, Germany and Russia were forbidden to join the League.
Other Outcomes of World War I
Because of World War I:
• An entire generation of young European men was almost wiped out.
• Italy and Japan were angered at not receiving additional territory.
• The Ottoman Empire was reduced to the area of present-day Turkey.
• China lost territory to Japan and became a virtual Japanese protectorate.
• The Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved.
• The new nations of Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were formed from Austria-Hungary. All three nations contained within their borders a variety of ethnic groups with their own Nationalist aspirations.
• Russia lost territory to Romania and Poland. Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania gained their independence.
• Poland was restored to the European map. A Polish Corridor was created to give Poland an outlet to the Baltic Sea.
• The Ottoman Empire was divided into mandates with Great Britain controlling Iraq and Pakistan, and France acquiring Syria and Lebanon.
Great Depression
The cost of war in Europe devastated the economies of European nations on both sides of the conflict. When Germany announced it was unable to make its reparations payments to the former Allies, Great Britain and France were unable to fully honor repayment of their war debts to the United States. The agricultural sector in Europe and the United States suffered from overproduction that resulted in a decline in farm prices. Farmers in Western Europe and the United States borrowed to purchase expensive farm equipment. Overproduction also resulted in lower prices on plantation-grown crops in Africa and Latin America.
As the economic situation in Europe worsened, banks began to fail. In 1929, when the economy and banking systems in the United States also crashed, the United States was unable to continue its loans to European nations. Global trade diminished, creating massive unemployment not only in Europe and the United States but also in Japan and Latin America.
The economic distress of the Great Depression created various reactions in the political arena. In the West, new social welfare programs broadened the role of government. In Italy and Germany, fascist governments developed. Japan’s search for new markets was accompanied by increased imperial expansion.
World War II
Prelude to War
The fragmented political order that was the legacy of World War I combined with the economic distress of the Great Depression created the second global conflict of the twentieth century. Fascist governments (Nationalist, one-party authoritarian regimes) arose in Germany and Italy. The Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party of Adolf Hitler sought to redress the humiliation Germany had suffered in the Treaty of Versailles and to expand German territory. Fascism in Italy under Benito Mussolini hoped to restore the lost glories of the state. In Japan, competition among extreme Nationalists led to the rise of military rule in the 1930s.
Military expansionist policies during the depression created the stage for war:
• In 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria. The goal was to create a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and the Japanese and to make Manchuria’s coal and iron deposits available to resource-poor Japan.
• In 1935, Hitler began to rearm Germany.
• In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia.
• In 1936 to 1939, the Spanish Civil War brought into power the fascist regime of Francisco Franco. It served as a dress rehearsal for World War II, as Germany and Italy aided Franco, while the Soviet Union sent supplies and advisers to his republican opponents. Pablo Picasso expressed his view of the horrors of the Spanish Civil War in his painting Guernica .
• In 1937, the Japanese invaded China, whose opposition was a threat to their presence in Manchuria. The event signaled the beginning of World War II in Asia.
• In 1938, Hitler proclaimed Anschluss , or the unification of Austria with Germany.
• In 1938, Hitler annexed the Sudetenland, the German-speaking western portion of Czechoslovakia.
• In 1938, the Munich Conference followed a policy of appeasement , in which Great Britain and France accepted Hitler’s pledge not to take any further territory.
• In 1939, Hitler annexed all of Czechoslovakia.
• In 1939, Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union.
• On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe.
Opposing Sides
Two opposing sides arose, with the major powers including:
• The Axis Powers ––Germany, Italy, and Japan
• The Allied Powers ––Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union
Course of the War
World War II was fought in two theaters: the Pacific and the European, which included the Middle East and Africa. In an effort to control the oil reserves of Southeast Asia, Japan seized Indochina from France and attacked Malaysia and Burma. When the United States imposed an embargo against Japan as a result of these actions, Japan retaliated by attacking the U.S. fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The Japanese attack brought the United States and its greater industrial power into the war on the side of the Allied powers.
The early years of the war showcased Axis strength. In 1941, the tide began to turn in favor of the Allies when Hitler undertook an unsuccessful winter invasion of Russia and the United States entered the war. When Hitler was forced to withdraw his forces from Russia in 1942, Soviet armies began their advance through Eastern Europe and into Germany. After deposing Mussolini, Allied forces pushed into France and met in Germany in April 1945. Hitler’s subsequent suicide was followed by Allied victory in Europe in May 1945.
After victory in Europe, the Soviet Union assisted in the Allied effort against Japan. After the U.S. use of atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, ending World War II.
Cost of the War
World War II took a devastating toll in human life, killing about 35 million people, including about 20 million in the Soviet Union. The Holocaust , Hitler’s elimination of European Jews in gas chambers, took the lives of six million. Other groups such as Gypsies, Slavs, political prisoners, and Jehovah’s Witnesses were also sent to extermination camps during the Holocaust. More than 300,000 were killed by the Japanese offensive in China, most of them in the city of Nanking. The fire bombings of Japanese cities and of the German city of Dresden added tens of thousands to the death toll. Nearly 80,000 were killed in Hiroshima, and tens of thousands were killed in Nagasaki.
Designing the Peace
World War II peace settlements began before the war had ended:
• In 1943, at the Tehran Conference , the Allied powers decided to focus on the liberation of France, allowing the Soviet Union to move through the nations of Eastern Europe as it advanced toward France. The Soviet Union, therefore, gained ground and influence in Eastern Europe.
• In 1945, at the Yalta Conference , the Soviet Union agreed to join the war against Japan in exchange for territory in Manchuria and the northern island of Japan. The Yalta Conference also provided for the division of Germany into four zones of occupation after the war.
• In 1945, the Potsdam Conference gave the Soviets control of eastern Poland, with Poland receiving part of eastern Germany. It made the final arrangements for the division of Germany and also divided Austria.
After the war had ended:
• The United States occupied Japan.
• Korea was divided into U.S. and Soviet occupation zones.
• China regained most of its territory, but fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces resumed.
• Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia became Soviet provinces.
• Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania were occupied by the Soviet Union.
• Colonies renewed their independence efforts.
• European world dominance ended.
• A new international peace organization, the United Nations , was created in 1945, with the United States among its key members.
• International dominance remained in the hands of two superpowers––the United States and the Soviet Union.
Rapid Review
The forces of nationalism, imperialism, and militarism combined with entangling defense alliances produced the first global war of the twentieth century. Postwar peace settlements created new nations without consideration of ethnic differences within those nations. The Treaty of Versailles left Germany economically and militarily devastated and humiliated by the war guilt clause. The costs of war ruined regional economies and world trade, creating a depression that reached most regions of the world. Out of the despair of the Great Depression arose new political institutions, including fascism in Germany and Italy and military rule in Japan. The world found itself at war for the second time in the twentieth century. Millions died in the Holocaust, while the atomic age was launched with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The lessons of war created an attempt at a new world order that included a stronger international organization, the United Nations.
Review Questions
1 . World War I was considered a global conflict because
(A) it involved battles on every continent
(B) it was fought in both European and Pacific theaters
(C) the warring powers held colonies that participated in the war
(D) it began in Europe, whose culture dominated the globe in the early twentieth century
2 . Russia’s role in twentieth-century global conflicts included all of the following EXCEPT
(A) an ethnic-based alliance with Serbia
(B) providing opportunity for Germany to turn its attention to France
(C) participation in the formation of the League of Nations
(D) creating opportunities for postwar influence in Eastern Europe
3 . Spain did not participate in World War II because
(A) its republican government feared a Fascist coup
(B) it was still recovering financially from World War I
(C) it feared Communist domination
(D) it had just endured a civil war
4 . The Allied policy toward Hitler in the 1930s can best be described as one of
(A) confrontation
(B) appeasement
(C) containment
(D) indifference
5 . All of the following are true of communism after World War II EXCEPT that
(A) it produced a division in Korea
(B) Eastern European countries were subjected to Soviet occupation
(C) it spread to largely agricultural regions
(D) it created a pause in the civil war in China
6 . In contrast to the period following World War I, that following World War II
(A) did not produce a single defining peace treaty
(B) produced an international organization with fewer powers of enforcement
(C) saw immediate independence for Europe’s African colonies
(D) disregarded the Soviet war effort
7 . The nation that rose in power during World War I but declined in power during World War II was
(A) Great Britain
(B) Japan
(C) Russia
(D) Ottoman Empire
8 . The nation that saw a consistent rise in global influence during both world wars was
(A) Germany
(B) China
(C) France
(D) United States
9 . The French Revolution of 1789 and the Chinese revolt of 1911 were alike in that
(A) they were initiated by the lower classes
(B) they were not Nationalist independence movements
(C) they ended immediately in dictatorship
(D) they failed to achieve their goals
10 . Both the Mexican revolts of 1821 and 1910
(A) were initially Creole-backed movements
(B) ended in the immediate establishment of a republic
(C) resulted in territorial losses within a few years after the revolt
(D) involved resistance to foreign influence
Answers and Explanations
1 . C The European nations possessed Asian and African colonies that participated in the war in hopes of being granted independence. No World War I battles were fought in Australia or South America (A). World War II was fought in both European and Pacific theaters (B), not World War I. European dominance alone did not give the war its global status (D).
2 . C Because of its early withdrawal from the war and its Communist regime, Russia was not allowed to join the League of Nations. Russia’s Pan-Slavic movement hoped to unite all Slavic peoples, including the Serbs (A). Russia’s early withdrawal from the war allowed Germany to devote its full attention to the defeat of France and other Allies (B). As the Soviet Union pushed toward Germany in the final months of World War II, it moved through Eastern Europe, establishing its presence in that region (D).
3 . D The Spanish Civil War occurred between 1936 and 1939. During World War II, Spain was already Fascist (A). It had not participated in World War I (B). Its Fascist government was firmly in power in 1939 (C).
4 . B An example is the Munich Conference, which allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge to refrain from taking additional territory. Containment (C) was the U.S. policy against communism.
5 . D After World War II, the Chinese civil war, which had been put on hold, resumed. Korea was divided into north and south, with the north under communism (A). In the final months of the war, the Soviet Union occupied many European nations (B), most of them agricultural rather than industrial nations (C).
6 . A World War II peace arrangements were formulated through a series of conferences rather than through one major treaty such as the Treaty of Versailles. The United Nations was a more effective organization than the League of Nations (B). Europe’s African colonies did not begin receiving independence until the 1950s (C). The Soviet Union was included in the Yalta and Potsdam conferences (D).
7 . B Japan rose in power, especially in East Asia, during World War I, but its empire ended after World War II. Great Britain (A) declined in power as a result of both wars. Russia (C) declined in power during World War I, but emerged from World War II as a superpower. The Ottoman Empire ended after World War I (D).
8 . D The United States emerged as a major world power after World War I and a superpower after World War II. The power of European nations declined markedly during both wars (A, C). After World War II, China remained involved in a civil war (C).
9 . B Neither revolution desired independence from a colonial power. The French Revolution was initiated by the bourgeoisie, and the Chinese revolt by the Western-educated middle class (A). The French Revolution ended in the ultimate dictatorship of Napoleon, whereas the Chinese revolution at first attempted to model China’s government after Western republics (C). The French Revolution reached its goal of ending absolute monarchy, while the Chinese revolt ended Qing rule (D).
10 . D The 1821 revolution was an independence movement against Spain, while the 1910 revolution came about in part because of foreign influence during the rule of Díaz. The 1821 revolt was initially backed by mestizos , whereas the later revolt was Creole-backed from its beginning (A). The Mexican republic was established in 1824, three years after the end of the earlier revolt (B). Although the 1910 revolt did not result in territorial loss, the earlier revolution saw the separation of the Central American republics a few years later (C).