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Unit Introduction:

Unit 9: Ideological Confrontations and International Conflict

WWI was an unprecedented disaster for an unprecedented number of people worldwide. Because European imperialism extended the west’s power throughout the world it extended the problems of nationalistic competition, militarization, jingoism, social Darwinism, and secret alliances. The period between WWI and WWII proved to be a time of vast political, social, and economic change with the rise of fascism, the development of the “cult of modernity”, and the further integration of the world economy – all agitated by the Great Depression. The second world war proved to be even more brutal, widespread, and deadly than the first, again impacting the globe in ways both creative and destructive. Movements towards decolonization that followed the World Wars met with mixed success in India, the Middle East, and Latin America. The repercussions of this period of ideological conflict and war continue to be reflected in contemporary affairs, with unknown and unforeseeable consequences still awaiting discovery. Short term the conflicts led to a bi-polar world with “east” and “west” vying for ideological, economic, political, and military control of the planet.

The Multinational empires characteristic of the Age of Imperialism were put to the test in the 20^th century. The Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires failed to emerge intact, while the Russian Empire shrank drastically only to later expand to an even greater extent as the U.S.S.R. Woodrow Wilson’s “nationality principle”, while never fully embodied in the League of Nations or the Treaty of Versailles, reflected the establishment (or reestablishment) of independent nations in Europe. Elsewhere nations remained under the control of European powers as “Mandates”, a form of neocolonial domination legitimized by a weakly supported League of Nations. Policy making within the mandate nations of the middle east, particularly Palestine, would later lead to chronic conflict in the region.

China and Japan, both subject to western penetration, continued on different paths. China, after the establishment of a nationalist government, continued to be plagued by internal rebellion and foreign interference. Japan, in an eventually unified effort, rose as an industrial and military giant and took part in the extraterritorial claims on China as well as an invasion of Korea. Japan’s imperial ambitions would eventually lead it to annex the Philippines toward the goal of Pacific empire and a “Co-Asian Prosperity Sphere”.

Russia’s withdrawal from WWI was shortly followed by the overthrow of Czarist government, and subsequent overthrow of moderate provisional governance. A Marxist revolution transformed Russia into a socialist behemoth with Joseph Stalin directing massive industrialization and militarization campaigns at the expense of the long harried Russian peasantry. Stalin’s imperial ambitions led to deal-making with another ambitious leader with “grand” plans, Germany’s Adolph Hitler.

The cult of modernity also characterized the between war period, with technologies of mass communication and transportation changing and making more homogenous the culture of the west and its territories. Existentialism, psychoanalysis, and quantum physics challenged long-held beliefs in the rational nature of humankind and the controllability of nature itself. Anthropologists and espousers of comparative religion advanced the idea of “cultural relativism”, a seeming departure from an earlier ethos of Social Darwinism. The film and radio industries transmitted culture in an ever-widening circle, bringing peripheral peoples further into the fold. Advances in health and hygiene prevented or cured long-troublesome disorders and diseases. Modernity’s grasp was architecturally and symbolically evident in skyscrapers; the transient and mobile nature of modern humans in the mass production of the automobile.

But the Great Depression, with its origins in the failure of the American banking, agriculture, and stock exchange systems, was also spread throughout the global economic network. Coupled with the lingering impact of WWI, desperate populations listened to the racist and fascist ideas of would-be dictators who promised protection from the “specter of communism” and a return to “greatness”. Elsewhere governments like the United States experimented with socialistic policies to address the desperate needs of their citizens.

World War II, linked causally to WWI and the Great Depression, was influenced not only by fascist, Marxist, and racist ideologies but also to the lack of global oversight. A failed League of Nations could not forestall the invasions of Ethiopia, Albania, Korea, and China. A policy of appeasement as well as secret alliances between Stalin and Hitler allowed military aggression to take the day. The impacts of WWII, particularly decolonization in Sub-Saharan Africa and India, as well as chronic ideological, economic, and political conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States, led to a tense and complex post-war world. The use of atomic weaponry by the United States in a war that saw not only targeting of civilian populations but outright genocide, led to profound changes in the nature of warfare in the 20^th century.

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Objectives: What will the students learn….

1. Evaluate the efficacy of WWI as a marker event in historical periodization.

2. Compare (and contrast) domestic and international issues of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

3. Analyze and compare the consequences of World War I on the major regions of the world.

4. Analyze and compare the consequences of World War II on the major regions of the world.

4. Analyze global demographic and environmental impacts of WWI & WWII, including migration.

5. Analyze factors leading to the rise of nationalist ideologies in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan.

6. Compare traditional colonies versus mandate nations.

7. Analyze reasons for failure of the League of Nations.

8. Compare and contrast the responses of Japan and China to western penetration.

9. Compare and contrast Japanese and Chinese nationalist movements

10. Analyze causes and effects of revolution in Russia and Mexico.

11. Define “cult of modernity” and evaluate the utility of modernization theory as a framework for interpreting events from 1914-1945.

12. Analyze impacts of the Great Depression on the global economic system.

13. Compare decolonization and early nationalist movements in India Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.

14. Analyze changes in the political, economic, and social status of women from 1914-1945.

15. Analyze causes of the rise of 20^th century racism and fascism.

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Readings in the text:

• Chapter 30: The Crisis of the Imperial Order

Bulliet, Pages 752-778

• Chapter 31: The Collapse of the Old Order

Bulliet, Pages 780-803

• Chapter 32 Striving For Independence: Africa, India, and Latin America

Bulliet, Pages 806-825

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Terms:

Western Front	Faisal	Theodore Herzl	Balfour Declaration
Bolsheviks	Vladimir Lenin	Woodrow Wilson	League of Nations
Treaty of Versailles	New Economic Policy	Sun Yat-Sen	Yuan Shikai
Guomindang	Mandate system	Max Planck	Albert Einstein
Joseph Stalin	Five-Year Plans	Benito Mussolini	Fascist Party
Adolf Hitler	Nazis	Chiang Kai-shek	Mao Zedong
Long March	Stalingrad	El Alamein	Pearl Harbor
Hiroshima	Auschwitz	Holocaust	Blaise Daigne
African National Congress (ANC)	Haile Selassie	Indian National Congress (INC)	Bengal
All-India Muslim League	Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi	Jawaharlal Nehru	Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Emiliano Zapata	Francisco “Pancho” Villa	Lazaro Cardenas	Getulio Vargas
Import substitution industrialization	Juan Peron	Eva Duarte Peron

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