AP Euro

• The backdrop for 20th century global conflicts is the second industrial revolution and unprecedented European dominance with technological advancements
• Main causes of World War I

  • Militarism
  • Alliances
  • Imperialism
  • Nationalism
• Militarism


  The Anglo-German arms race, nations striving for the best military technology
• Dreadnought


  A battleship that eclipsed all other battleships created up to that point
• Alliance system


  Put together by Otto von Bismarck to prevent war, but ultimately failed
• Imperialism


  Competition for empire across the globe, including internal European imperialism
• Assassination of Franz Ferdinand


  Sparked the chain of events leading to World War I
• Military technologies of World War I


  • Offensive technologies like machine guns and poison gas led to trench warfare and stalemate
• The US intervention in World War I marked the first time the US played a prominent role in European and Western history in the 20th century
• 1905 Russian Revolution


  Tsar Nicholas II released the October Manifesto, establishing a constitution and representative body (the Duma)
• 1917 Russian Revolution


  Collapse of the Tsarist government during World War I, leading to the provisional government overthrown by the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin
• Leninism


  An updated form of Marxism, believing a revolutionary vanguard must give the working class class consciousness, leading to a top-down communist dictatorship rather than a true communist society
• War Communism


  Lenin's initial attempt to implement a completely communist society, later replaced by the New Economic Policy (NEP) allowing some forms of petty capitalism
• The Treaty of Versailles saddled Germany with war guilt, reparations, and other harsh terms, contributing to the wrecking of the European economy in the 1920s
• The Great Depression in the late 1920s led to an upsurge in support for the Nazis and communists in Germany
• Fascism


  A totalitarian ideology that endorses a social hierarchy, with the means of production in private hands but mobilized by the state
• Left-wing totalitarianism


  Rejects social hierarchy, as seen in Bolshevism and communism
• Right-wing totalitarianism


  Endorses social hierarchy, as seen in fascism and Nazism, with private corporations mobilized by the state
• The Nazis' theories of racial superiority and bigotry culminated in tragedies like Kristallnacht
• Germany's expansion leading to World War II

  • Invasion of the Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland, and Poland, aided by the Soviets in dividing Poland
• Blitzkrieg strategy


  Fast-moving tanks and warfare, in contrast to World War I trench warfare
• Winston Churchill


  Inspirational British leader who rallied support against Hitler and helped bring the US into the war
• New military technologies in World War II

  • Jet engines
  • V2 rockets
  • Nuclear weapons
• The defeat of Nazi Germany revealed a level of human barbarism not seen before or since
• Dada/Dadaism


  An anti-art art movement that emerged after World War I, rejecting rationalism and progress
• Expressionism


  An art movement that brought a poignant emotional experience, especially from veterans
• World War I and World War II were instrumental in advancing women's rights and roles in European society