Strayer Unit 7 Flashcards
the Great War is synonymous for what war?
WWI
Main causes of the Great War
1) Nationalism
Germany and Italy’s unification around 1870 intensified European rivalries and created a delicate balance of European power. Nationalism was promoted and intensified through education, military service, mass media, propaganda, and public pressure to go to war to preserve nationalities. In some societies, war and a focus on nationalism as motivation was used and honored as a major unifying factor that distracted from gender and class inequalities.
2) Allies
Alliances, often secret, often were formed to secure national security. The most prominent of these are the following:
- Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy, Austro-Hungaria
- Triple Entente: Russia, France, Britain
3) Industrialized/advanced militaries
Military men were praised and highly honored in social classes. Many European countries, except for Britain, relied on conscription. Countries pre-made war plans so that they could jump on a conflict as soon as it arose, hopefully before others, so that their specific war plans could be carried out. New weapons were developed:
- submarines, tanks, barbed wire, machine guns, poison gas, airplanes
Warring countries drew from colonial troops, and had diverse militaries consisting often of Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Chinese, South East Asians, Africans, and Indians.
Europe’s decline during and after WWI
Europe had risen to dominance in the global stage due to the earlier Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and colonialism. They had significant military and economic prominence. With industrialization, population grew wildly, however social stability and political unity was not maintained, leading to its decline after WWI.
What is conscription?
Conscription is the equivalent of a military draft
What started WWI?
Austro-Hungaria annexed Serbia, where nationalistic sentiments were brewing. Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited, and was murdered by a Serbian. Austro-Hungaria declared war on Serbia, and Germany did too, because they were allies.
Russia declared war on Austro-Hungary, Germany.
Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, Austro-Hungary.
U.S. joined WWI
In 1917.
German U-Ships conducted unrestricted submarine warfare and endangered U.S. commerce ships to Europe. They sunk the Lusitania in 1917, U.S. citizens died.
+
Zimmermann note in 1917 urging Mexico to declare war on U.S., promising to retrieve land they lost in Mexican-American war.
German colonies during WWI
Present in Asia, Africa, South Pacific
Taken over by Japan, Britain, France
Japan and China during WWI
While Japan was taking over German colonies in Asia, they also demanded concession from China
WWI allies
Britain + Japan
Austro-Hungaria, Ottoman Empire, Germany
Ottoman Empire during WWI
Fraught w/ militaristic acton and struggled/declined with Arab resistance against Turkish government
Total war definition and examples
war in which participating countries’ entire population, industries, and efforts are mobilized for the war.
Leads to expanded government control.
EX:
- Germany instituted “war socialism”
- mass censorship, propaganda
- women across the globe temporarily abandoned the large-scale fight for suffrage
- labor unions suspended strikes to support wartime production
Consequences of WWII
- mass civilian casualties (mostly elites, educated populations)
- blurred lines between military and civilian targets during warfare
- German bombing of British cities
- Allies firebombed German and Japanese cities
- Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- less women outwardly challenged patriarchy during this time; men made the biggest sacrifices and during wartime, masculinity grew in prestige and social admiration
- physical destruction of countries and their infrastructures
- intellectuals lost faith in European superiority and culture (why couldn’t they prevent such a catastrophic war with their Enlightenment background and supposed better morality/development?)
*German veteran Erich Remarque’s book “All Quiet On The Western Front” shows disillusionment with European progress - increased social mobility as lower classes replaced dead elites’ positions
- restart of fight for women’s suffrage, achieved in: Britain, USSR, US, Hungary, Poland, Germany
- ramped up tech. production: led to consumerism culture, esp. in US:
*gas ovens, cars, vacuums, electric irons, washing machines - mass media and popular (pop) culture made international celebrities for the first time through radio and movies (Hollywood)
- women’s empowerment in US
*Flappers; young middle-class women who wore more revealing clothing, smoked, drank in bars, went to nightclubs, danced openly, and cut their hair short - revolutions and independence movements, esp. in China and India [Gandhi]
- creation of the League of Nations as a forum for international opinion and discussion of action
- 1945: creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, meant to regulate the global economy
- US becomes star of global stage, a “superpower” due to its military ability, economic capacity, and popular moral values
*decline of European domination of the world: impoverished, broken infrastructure, millions of displaced and homeless people. - Europe left divided
*Western half under American security, willingly
*Eastern half not-so-willingly under control of USSR - emboldened nationalist/independence/anticolonial movements
*European colonial prestige damages by Japanese victories in Southeast Asian colonies
*African soldiers who fought for Britain and France returned with different notions about white superiority now
Collapse of Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, Russian empires led to…
the creation of new countries
Treaty of Versailles
Marked the end of WWI in 1919
- Germany lost colonies, and lost 15% of European territory
- reparations
- restricted German military
- War Guilt Clause
Armenian Genocide
Ottomans suspected Armenians had connections with Russia, felt threatened by their presence, massacred ~ 1 million Armenians
New Middle Eastern map following Ottoman collapse
- Turkey
- Syria
- Transjordan
- Iraq
- Palestine
Many Arabs were under British rule, now, and the British voiced conflicting promises regarding Palestine to the Jews and Arabs, setting up rising tensions and ongoing Middle Eastern conflict.
Overview of Russia under Stalin
Bolsheviks civil war fought against current government and aiding British, Japanese, American and French troops (bc they didn’t want Russia to become a communist state).
Bolsheviks successful by 1921, established USSR under Joseph Stalin during the late 1920s.
Stalin sponsored industrialization and modernization through his 5-Year Plans because he deemed them crucial to socialistic society. Emphasis on collectivism and social equality.
RURAL AREAS:
- end of private land ownership
- collectivism of agriculture (1928-1933)
Kulaks excluded; they were killed or deported instead. Farmers protested collectivism by killing their livestock and burning their crops. Mass famines ensued, leading to malnutrition and over 5 million deaths (including Holodomor).
Dominating communist party w/ marxist ideology, used totalitarianism:
- other parties banned
- state controlled economy
- censored media, education, art
- no independent mass organizations for particular people groups (women, laborers, students, etc.)
- constant search for threats to state power, any opposition to Stalin’s policies met w/ death
- even powerful supporters of communism executed bc they were powerful… they were painted as corrupted by being in the place of the bourgeoisie
THE GREAT PURGES/THE TERROR
- during the late 1930s
- opponents/threats sent to gulags
Through Great Depression, USSR remained nearly completely employed and built industrial foundations that helped it defeat WWII Germany - it was a flex over the more industrialized and capitalist countries who were struggling
What are kulaks?
rich[er] peasants
Aspects of the USSR’s industrialization
- rapid urbanization
- exploited countryside w/ collectivism
- growing bureaucratic/technological elite class
Under Stalin’s leadership
What were gulags?
USSR labor camps
For the purposes of the class, they were used under Stalin during the 1930’s Great Purges. Horrible work conditions and treatment of workers; prison camps.
Explain corporate state under Mussolini’s Italy
Stalin established a corporate state, which means that workers were organized within corporations and labor sectors designed to settle disputes under state supervision, rather than leaving that job to independent labor unions.
