Interwar Period 7.4-7.6

• WWI broke up the Ottoman Empire.
• Nationalistic activity began in Turkey and other neighboring countries in the Middle East.
• Nationalism triggered independence movements to overthrow colonial powers.
• These independent nations are key players on the world stage today.
• Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia are independent nations that emerged from the interwar period.
• Late 19th Century political factions began to challenge the sultan in the Ottoman Empire.
• Conspiracy by military medical students to overthrow ruler.
• Goal of the Young Turk Revolution was to restore the Constitution of 1876.
• The Sultan defied the constitution and dissolved parliament after 1 year.
• The Young Turk Revolution failed to quell uprisings around the empire and the Sultan restored the constitution.
• The Young Turk Revolution led to the creation of the modern Arab world and the Republic of Turkey.
• European nations controlled many new nations after WW1.
• Borders ignored ethnic history after WW1, leading to civil wars and political revolutions.
• Mustafa Kemal, a Turkish Commander who fought off a Greek invasion in 1919, became president of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.
• The Young Turk Revolution reforms included the separation of Church & State, the abolition of religious courts, and a legal system based on European law.
• Women’s suffrage and equality were also part of the reforms of the Young Turk Revolution.
• Abdulaziz Al Saud united Arabia naming it Saudi Arabia.
• Saudi Arabia is a theocracy and has no efforts to begin democracy.
• Rising demand for oil brought exploration to the region after WW1.
• European and US companies discovered massive oil deposits in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
• The region had two-thirds of the world's oil supplies after WW1.
• Companies invested huge sums of money in the region after WW1, leading to rapid growth and foreign involvement.
• The Constitution of 1876 was the 1st constitution in any Islamic country and provided a 2 house parliament.
• WW1 destroyed belief of continued progress
• Underrepresented persons sought improved lives
• Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher that wanted a return to values of pride & strength.
• Nietzsche's ideas became popular in Germany with the study of Existentialism
• Existentialism is the belief that there is no universal meaning to life
• The horrors of WWI destroyed Enlightenment belief of continued progress.
• Science and technology provided comfort to people struggling with the outlook of the world.
• Underrepresented persons sought improved lives.
• Postwar trends in psychs, psychiatry, art, literature, communication, music and transportation still affect our lives.
• WWI allowed women to take on new roles, changing traditional norms, with women earning the right to vote in most Western democracies, wearing shorter looser garment, “bobbed” hair cuts, wearing makeup, driving cars, dining and smoking in public, and beginning to speak about birth control.
• Friedrich Nietzsche, a prominent German philosopher, believed western ideas of reason and democracy stifled creativity and wanted a return to ancient heroic values of pride & strength.
• International air travel became an objective, with Charles Lindbergh making a 33 hour solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927 and Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932.
• Motion pictures became a major industry, with Charlie Chaplin, a famous Hollywood silent actor, among the stars.
• Surrealism sought to link the world of dreams with real life, inspired by Freud.
• Jazz emerged in the U.S, developed by African American musicians in New Orleans, Memphis and Chicago, with a lively, loose beat capturing the new freedom of the age.
• Radio became an important advertising tool, replacing print media as a news source, influencing consumer spending and spreading propaganda.
• The war benefited the automobile industry, with electric starters, air-filled tires, more powerful engines, headlights, bumpers, and cars becoming more affordable by 1937, with British producing 511,000 a year.