Unit 7

• Unit 7 covers global conflict from 1900 to 1945, including World War I and World War II
• Major players in World War I

  • Allies: Britain, France, Russia, United States
  • Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire
• World War I

  • Mostly limited in scope to Europe, with some fighting in North Africa
  • No clear reason for individual countries to be fighting
• Causes of World War I (MAIN)

  • Militarism
  • Alliance systems
  • Imperialism
  • Industrialization
  • Nationalism
• Tensions that still existed or were created after World War I included the collapse of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, leading to issues in the Middle East, and independence movements in colonial states
• The Great Depression led to extreme responses from states, including fascism, communism, and the New Deal in the United States
• Major players in World War II

  • Allies: Britain, France, United States, Soviet Union
  • Axis: Germany, Italy, Japan
• World War II

  • More clear-cut in terms of good vs. evil, with Hitler and Mussolini as clear antagonists
  • Allies also included Stalin, who committed atrocities
• Causes of World War II

  • Aggression by Germany and Japan
  • Appeasement by other states
• After World War II, the only two major powers left standing were the United States and the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the Cold War conflicts of the second half of the 20th century
• Total War

  War that requires each country involved to mobilise its entire population to win
• World War I (1914-1918)

  • Began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian nationalist
  • Involved industrialized militarism and new weapons & technology
  • Had global dimensions
• Outcomes of World War I

  • Authority of governments increased
  • Propaganda used
  • Strikes suspended
  • Women's suffrage movement suspended
  • Disillusion in intellectuals
• Treaty of Versailles

  1919 treaty that ended World War I and imposed penalties on Germany
• Treaty of Versailles was seen as too harsh and a cause of World War II
• Women were encouraged to leave work after World War I
• Social and cultural changes after World War I

  • American consumerism
  • Women's right to vote
  • Class shift
• Collapse of many European empires and emergence of new states after World War I
• National self-determination and the Ottoman genocide of Armenians were outcomes of World War I
• The collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to the creation of new Middle Eastern states
• World War I increased the power of the United States and led to the creation of the League of Nations
• Bolsheviks


  Socialist party that gained control of Russia and led to the Russian Revolution and Soviet Communism
• The Russian Revolution was catalysed by World War I
• Tsar Nicholas II abdicated during the Russian Revolution
• The Bolshevik communist party emerged as a totalitarian regime in Russia
• Collectivization of agriculture in Russia led to famine, with the kulaks (richer peasants) being targeted
• The Great Purges in the Soviet Union involved the arrest and execution or imprisonment of prominent communists
• The Great Depression


  Global economic disaster starting with a stock market crash in the US in 1929
• The Great Depression led to the rise of authoritarian alternatives to democracy, such as fascism
• Import substitution


  Replacing foreign imports and exports with domestic production
• The Great Depression challenged the democratic socialist model and strengthened the role of the state
• The New Deal programs in the US included public spending, social security, minimum wage, and support for labor unions
• Axis Powers


  Alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan
• Fascism


  • Conflict is the driving force of history
  • Intense nationalism
  • Condemned other ideologies
• Benito Mussolini

  Leader of the Italian Fascist party
• Italy and Germany lacked a long-term democratic tradition
• Mussolini made agreements with the Catholic Church, known as the Lateran Accords, to establish a new Roman Empire
• Adolf Hitler and the Nazis

  Resented the Treaty of Versailles and gained popular support during the Great Depression by helping Germany recover
• The Nazis drew on scientific racism
• Japanese Authoritarianism


  • Began adopting Western society
  • Democracy was avoided
  • Influenced by the Great Depression
  • No fascist party gained support