Chapter 30 (The Western Renaissance, 1945-1968)

Question 1

Western European empires were crumbling in the face of what?

Answer 1

Nationalism in Asia and Africa.

Question 2

What were the economic conditions in western Europe after the were?

Answer 2

They were terrible. Runaway inflation and black markets testified to severe shortages and hardships.

Question 3

Who were the Christian Democrats?

Answer 3

Progressive Catholics and revitalized Catholic political parties.

Question 4

Which political party in Italy emerged as the leading parting in the first postwar elections in 1946 and in early 1948 won an absolute majority in the parliament in a landslide victory?

Answer 4

the Christian Democrats.

Question 5

Who was the leader of the Christian Democrats?

Answer 5

Alcide De Gasperi, a courageous antifascist firmly committed to political democracy, economic reconstruction, and moderate social reform.

Question 6

What was West Germany officially known as?

Answer 6

Federal Republic of Germany.

Question 7

The Christian Democrats rejected what and placed their faith in what?

Answer 7

They steadfastly rejected authoritarianism and narrow nationalism and placed their faith in democracy and cooperation.

Question 8

What welfare measures were enacted throughout continental Europe?

Answer 8

Family allowances, health insurance, and increased public housing.

Question 9

What was established under the Labour party?

Answer 9

a “welfare state”. Many British industries were nationalized and the government provided them free medical service.

Question 10

How did the US provide western Europe with both massive economic aid and ongoing military protection?

Answer 10

Economic aid was channeled through the Marshall Plan, and military security was provided through NATO, which featured American troops stationed permanently in Europe and the American nuclear umbrella.

Question 11

What were the reasons for western Europe’s brilliant economic performance after 1948?

Answer 11

American aid helped the process get off to a fast start. Moreover, economic growth became a basic objective of all western European governments, for leaders and voters were determined to avoid a return to the dangerous and demoralizing stagnation of the 1930s.

Question 12

What was the economy of postwar West Germany under the Minister of Economy, Ludwig Erhard?

Answer 12

Erhard bet on the free-economy while maintaining the extensive social welfare network inherited from the Hitler era. He believed capitalism was more efficient but also that political and social freedom could thrive only if there were real economic freedom. Erhard’s first step was to reform the currency and abolish rationing and price controls in 1948.

Question 13

France combined what to achieve the most rapid economic development in its long history?

Answer 13

Flexible planning and a “mixed” state and private economy.

Question 14

Western European nations abandoned protectionism and gradually created a large unified market known as what?

Answer 14

The “Common Market”.

Question 15

How did Western Europe recover politically after 1945?

Answer 15

Republics were re-established in France, West Germany, and Italy. Constitutional monarchs were restored in Belgium, Holland, and Norway. Democratic government took root again and thrived. National self-determination was accompanied by civil liberties and individual freedom.

Question 16

The close cooperation among European states required by the Americans for Marshall Plan aid led to what?

Answer 16

The creation of both the Organization of European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the Council of Europe in 1948.

Question 17

European federalists hoped that the Council of Europe would quickly evolve into what?

Answer 17

A true European parliament with sovereign rights. (This did not happen.)

Question 18

Jean Monnet and Foreign Minister Robert Schuman called for what in 1950?

Answer 18

A special international organization to control and integrate all European steal and coal production.

Question 19

Which places accepted Monnet and Shuman’s idea?

Answer 19

West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg accepted the French idea in 1952.

Question 20

What was the economic and political goals of the six nations who accepted Monnet and Shuman’s idea?

Answer 20

Economic: a single steel and coal market without national tariffs or quotas.
Political: to bind the six member nations so closely together economically that war among them would eventually become unthinkable and virtually impossible.

Question 21

In 1957 the six nations of the Coal and Steel Community (France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) signed the Treaty of Rome to create what?

Answer 21

the European Economic Community, generally known as the Common Market.

Question 22

What were the goals of the Treaty of Rome?

Answer 22

• A gradual reduction of all tariffs among the six in order to create a single market almost as large as that of the US
• Free movement of capital and labor
• Common economic policies and institutions

Question 23

Who was General De Gaulle?

Answer 23

A romantic nationalist who established the Fifth Republic and ruled as its president until 1969, and viewed the US as the main threat to genuine French independence.

Question 24

What was done in France under De Gaulle?

Answer 24

He withdrew all French military forces from the “American-controlled” NATO, developed France’s own nuclear weapons, and vetoed the scheduled advent of majority rule within the Common Market.

Question 25

The Common Market thrived economically but remained a union of what?

Answer 25

Sovereign states.

Question 26

What was the most basic cause of imperial collapse?

Answer 26

Decolonization: the rising demand of Asian and African peoples for national self-determination, racial equality, and personal dignity.

Question 27

European empires had been based on what?

Answer 27

An enormous power differential between rulers and the ruled (a difference that had greatly declined by 1945).

Question 28

Not only was western Europe poor and battered immediately after the war, but imperial rulers had been what? Europeans faced what in these areas?

Answer 28

Imperial rulers had been driven from large parts of South Asia bu Japanese, and in these areas Europeans now faced strong nationalist movements that had developed under the Japanese occupation.

Question 29

Empire had rested on what?

Answer 29

Self-confidence and self righteousness.

Question 30

Europeans had believed their superiority to be what?

Answer 30

Technical, military, spiritual, and moral.

Question 31

What country played a key role in decolonization?

Answer 31

India: Britain’s oldest, largest, and most lucrative non-white possession.

Question 32

Nationalist opposition of British rule coalesced after the First World War under the leadership of who?

Answer 32

Mohandas “Mahatma” Ghandi

Question 33

In the 1920s and 1930s Gandhi did what?

Answer 33

Built a mass movement preaching nonviolent “noncooperation” with the British. In 1935 Gandhi wrested from the frustrated and unnerved British a new constitution that was practically a blueprint for independence.

Question 34

The obstacle to India’s independence posed by conflict between India’s Hindu and Muslim populations was resolved in 1947 through the creation of what two states?

Answer 34

Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan.

Question 35

Indian nationalism drew on what?

Answer 35

Western parliamentary liberalism.

Question 36

Chinese nationalism developed and triumphed in the framework of what?

Answer 36

Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Question 37

Who did Stalin and the Americans support in the Chinese civil war?

Answer 37

Stalin gave Mao some aid, and the Americans gave Chiang much more.

Question 38

Mao and the communists did what?

Answer 38

United China’s 550 million inhabitants in a strong centralized state, expelled foreigners, and began building a new society along Soviet lines, with mass arrests, forced-labor camps, and ceaseless propaganda. The peasantry was collectivized and the inevitable five-year plans concentrated successfully on the expansion of heavy industry.