What explains the disasters that befell Europe in the first half of the twentieth century

I should have kept my mouth shut! I had hoped to warn you guys about letting things slip this time of year, and sure enough, many of you hurt yourselves last week. Please, for your sake, power through these last four chapters about the highly consequential 20th century.

Bingham

18/2/2018 16:45:04

Really guys? I hope your lack of posts indicates confidence, and not apathy!

Kyra M.A.

18/2/2018 17:40:51

What aspects of Europe's 19th century history contributed to WWI?

- Emergence of Germany and Italy as major powers [esp. Germany] threw off European political balance of powers

- 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand [heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne] by a Serbian nationalist

- Rivalry between "Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and the Austro-Hungary Empire" and the "Triple Entente of Russia, France, and Britain," two alliances formed for national security after the above incident

- Industrialism = colonialism = rivalry = nationalism, which was then pressured onto people by schools, media, and military service, which made many men rush to join the military

- Industrialized militarism facilitated warfare [submarines, poison gas, machine guns, barbed wire, tanks, airplanes]

- Imperialism: countries brought colonial troops and laborers into the war effort; now there were battles being fought in the colonies

Have I missed or misunderstood anything?

Just realized the assassination of the archduke & the alliances wouldn't count because they're in the 20th century

Ella Bernstein

18/2/2018 21:09:55

- World trade dropped to 62% in a few years.
- Unemployment soared everywhere: In Germany and the US, it reached at least 30% by 1932.
- Europe’s economic ties in colonies gave the Great Depression more of a global impact
- Colonial Southeast Asia suffered as automobile sales in Europe and America were cut in half and demand for its its greatest export, rubber, dropped dramatically
- Farmers in the British colony of the Gold Coast [present-day Ghana] had relied on worldwide demand for cocoa and were badly hurt by the collapse of commodity prices
- In Britain, France, and Scandinavia, the Great Depression energized “democratic socialism” that partially was inspired by the ability of communist Russia to dodge the effects of the Depression
- Italy: trade unions, peasant movements, unemployment, communist and socialist parties, strikes, and land seizures from by the Depression paved the way for Mussolini’s fascist takeover
- Germany: mass unemployment and extreme inflation in Weimar Germany during the Depression helped lead to the rise of the communist party and event

Latin America:
- Latin American countries, whose economies were dependent on export of agricultural products and raw materials, were very vulnerable to fluctuations in the world market
- The value of Latin American exports was halved by the great depression
- In an effort to control the price of coffee, Brazil destroyed enough crops to have supplied the world for a year, leading to social tensions and widespread unemployment
- The Great Depression caused military takeovers and more authoritarian governments in many Latin American countries
- In Latin America there was widespread effort to create independent economies, known as import substitution industrialization
- In Brazil, the depression discredited established export elites and led to the dictatorship of Getulio Vargas
- In Mexico, the Depression led to the leadership of Lazaro Cardenas who revived Mexican Revolution principles and nationalized the oil industry

Ella Bernstein

18/2/2018 21:11:17

^MQ 2: In what ways was the Great Depression a global phenomenon?

*MQ 3, sorry for all the typos!!

Ella Bernstein

18/2/2018 21:13:44

another typo: in the Germany line it should end with "eventually the Nazi Party"

Ella Bernstein

19/2/2018 12:05:58

MQ 4: In what ways did fascism challenge the ideas and practices of European liberalism and democracy?
I wasn't sure exactly how to answer this question because it seemed more interpretable, but here is what I found!

-bitterly condemned individualism, liberalism, feminism, parliamentary democracy, and communism
-far-right embrace of traditional values and opposition to modern life
-rejected rationalism, tolerance, democracy, and human equality [esp. the Nazis]
-anti-feminism: wanted women to stay in the domestic realm and have lots of children to increase the "superior" population
-ideas of racial purification, especially Nazi anti-Semitism, undermined values of equality and tolerance
-dictatorial rule and militarism crushed free speech, individualism, democracy, and tolerance

Chloe Shupe

20/2/2018 18:25:16

9. How was Europe able to recover from the devastation of war?
- Apparent resiliency of an industrial society with knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that enable society to operate effectively that remained intact
- Ability of major Western European countries to integrate their recovering economies
- Europe previously spawned its own civilization in what became the US, and leadership of the Western world was passed to the US in 1945. One of its intentions to exercise global leadership was in its efforts to rebuild and reshape shattered European economies [Marshall Plan]

Did I include enough information in this answer?

Chloe Shupe

20/2/2018 18:48:56

MQ8. How did World War II differ from World War I?
- Most destructive conflict in world history with 6 times the deaths of WWI
- New technologies of warfare- heavy bombers, jet fighters, missiles, and atomic weapons
- Almost complete blurring of the traditional line between civilian and military targets
- Governments' efforts to mobilize their economies, their people, and their propaganda machines
- Colonial resources were harnessed once again
- Huge numbers of women drawn into both industry and the military on a larger scale than WWI
- War heightened prestige of masculinity, and few women were inclined to directly challenge patriarchy immediately following the war
- Women and children could not escape death and injury as they largely had in WWI
- The Holocaust led to the definition of genocide
- Europe's Jews fled to Israel and wanted to establish a Jewish Nation, fostering an enduring conflict in the Middle East
- Rearranged the architecture of world politics on a larger scale than WWI
- Europe's diminished role in the world registered internationally as Asian and African colonies achieved independence
- Consolidation and extension of the communist world
- End of WWII witnessed emergence of US as a global superpower while end of WWI saw US withdraw from world affairs become isolationist

This one is kind of long but was there anything I skipped over?

Alison Wang

20/2/2018 20:15:12

BPQ 1: What explains the disasters that befell Europe in the first half of the twentieth century?
- competitive states that drove Europe’s expanding influence in the world became a liability as they turned on one another in devastating wars within Europe.
- industrial production that underpinned Europe’s wealth and power was used to fight destructive wars within Europe.
- growing power of governments and the resources of their colonial empires were directed toward warfare between European powers.
- nationalism, communism, and fascism all provided ideological motivations for war.
- the Great Depression destabilized Europe and added to tensions within societies.

Alison Wang

20/2/2018 20:19:08

MQ7: In what ways were the origins of WWII in Asia and Europe similar and different to each other?

Similar:
-Japan and Germany were dissatisfied with their positions in the international power structure.
-Both expanded their territories through force, causing tensions with other powers.

Different:
- Japanese leaders felt that they were not being treated as an equal power on the world stage because of racism, while Germans felt that they were being treated unfairly because of their defeat in WWI.
- Japan’s initial conquests were driven primarily by a desire for raw materials and other resources, whereas Germany’s were driven by rivalries with neighboring powers.

Ella Bernstein

20/2/2018 21:54:47

MQ 6: How did Japan's experience during the 20s and 30s resemble Germany's, and how did it differ?

similar:
- newcomer to great power status [Japan began industrializing and empire-building only in the eighteenth century]
- limited experience with democracy
- moved to authoritarianism, denial of democracy, and aggressive expansion in the 1930s
- the Great Depression fueled political frustration that led to authoritarianism
- developed extensive imperial ambitions
- was able to more quickly emerge from the Great Depression through state-financed credit, large-scale spending on armaments, and public works projects

different:
- Japan was minimally involved in WWI and experienced economic growth as Germany was consumed by the conflict
- In the 1920s, as Germany's economy crashed, Japan was thriving and seeing a growth of democracy:
*universal male suffrage achieved in 1925
*cabinets lead by major parties overcame political power of bureaucrats or imperial favorites
*two-party system emerged
*education expanded
*urban consumer society emerged
*middle-class women entered new professions
*modern girls and boys were similar to flappers in America
*many generally embraced individualism, free expression of ideas, and gender equality
- rise of parties such as Socialist and Communist parties in the 20s
- gradual rise of authoritarian politics, not like in Germany where there was a takeover of a specific right-wing party
- political offenders not criminalized or exterminated, but rather "resocialized" to return to the "Japanese way"
- less repressive and more pluralistic than Germany
- ideas of Japanese racial purity targeted foreigners, not an internal minority

Ella Bernstein

20/2/2018 22:13:13

MQ 5: What was distinctive about the German expression of fascism? What was the basis of popular support for the Nazis?

-the Nazi party gained support due to the Weimar government's inability to respond effectively to the economic devastation of the Depression
-Hitler and the Nazis established their control over Germany far more thoroughly than Mussolini
-majority support for the Nazis because policies of public construction projects, rebuilding the military, and more practically solved unemployment and brought Germany out of the Depression
-central to Nazi ideology was the concept of racial revolution and purification
-In Italy, Jews were a small and deeply assimilated minority: Mussolini initially ridiculed Nazi racism, but even when he adopted overt Anti-Semitism in Italy, nothing approached the extremes of Nazi Germany.
-the Nazis were deeply antifeminist but saw women and prostitution as a necessary outlet for active Nazi soldiers, and encouraged even illegitimate births to boost the Aryan population
-massive torch-light ceremonies reinforced both German superiority and the personality cult surrounding Hitler
-"the Nazi phenomenon represented a moral collapse within the West"
-drew heavily on the "scientific racism" on the late 1800s

Leave a Reply.

Bingham

Welcome class of 2020. Some years students collaborate in this space effectively, some years not so much. One thing I know, collaboration significantly enhances learning. If you want access to my thoughts, this is the collaboration space to use. Most people propose an answer to margin questions, big picture question, or anything else related to managing Strayer. Other people can then comment leading to a stronger answer. I'll keep an eye on these pages, and pop in when I think you need me.

Archives

March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
July 2017


Categories

All


RSS Feed