U.7 (1900 - now)

• Genocide


  Mass killing of a group based on race, religion, and ethnicity
• Crimean War

  • Russian vs Ottomans, Russians trying to expand towards the Ottomans (Russians lose)
• Duma

  • Russian legislative body created after they have a revolution in 1905
• Young Turks

  • Against ottomans
  • an ultranationalist group that wanted Turkey to undergo Turkification
  • Wanted to remove all Islamic rule and make Turkish the main language
• Kamal Ataturk

  • Turkish, part of Young Turks
  • Led an uprising against the Muslim sultanate, creating the Republic of Turkey
• What caused WWI


  On June 28, 1914 Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated
• Black Hand

  • Killed Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary
  • Because while he was in favor of greater Serbian autonomy, it wasn't enough for the Black Hand: extremists
  • Austria-Hungary demanded for Serbia to punish the Black Hand, they didn't, leading to Austria-Hungary to declare war
• 4 M.A.I.N. long-term causes for the war (later described in other cards)

  • Militarism
  • Alliances
  • Imperialism
  • Nationalism
  • (M.A.I.N.)
• Militarism


  ideology that celebrates war and armed force
• Alliances


  Groups whose members secretly agree to protect and help another when attacked, this makes people joining into war, like dominos
• Imperialism


  European countries ended up being rivals from competition of land, leading to heightened tensions
• Nationalism


  Feeling of intense pride for one's national identity, after all it was a nationalist group that killed the Archduke
• Outcomes of World War 1

  • 15 million people died and 20 million were injured
  • End of colonialism
  • 9 new countries formed
  • 2 new superpowers: US and Japan
  • communism, facism, genocide at rise
  • Many enclaves and diasporas formed due to migration
• The WWI led to which empires downfall?

  • Russia
  • Austria-Hungary
  • Germany
  • Ottoman Empire
  • Provinces of the Middle East (Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon) came under control of Britain and France
• Paris Peace Conference & Treaty of Versailles

  • Blamed Germany for the whole war
  • Led Germany to start Nazism
• Self determination


  newly autonomous European nations allowed to declare themselves as one unified nation
• Roaring twenties & The Great Depression

  • Roaring Twenties: time of great prosperity,
  • Great Depression: Stock markets crash, which caused deflation and collapse, affected basically everywhere
• The Atomic Bomb

  • Japanese and American turmoil causes Americans to freeze Japanese assets in the US and cut of oil shipments to Japan, leading them to declare war on US
  • The US first firebombed Tokyo, causing massive destruction, then March 1945, sent Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Led to Emperor Hirohito surrendering unconditionally, Sept 2, 1945
• Women during WWII

  • WAVES (Women Appointed for Volunteer Emergency Service) became popular
  • Began to be active in resistance movements and occupied the jobs of men in the factory while they were away. While still being head of the household
  • Started gaining more rights and going against the conventional ideologies of all women being homemakers
  • U.S and Great Britain prohibited women from fighting, China and Soviets allowed it
• Causes of WWII

  1. Austrians issues an impossible ultimatum (getting rid of all propaganda & changing government in like 48hrs) to Serbs
  2. Austrians declare war
  3. Russia mobilized to defend Serbs
  4. Germany issues an ultimatum to Russia and France
  5. Germany declares War on Russia; France mobilizes to protect Russia
  6. Germany goes through Belgium to attack France
  7. Britain comes to defend Belgium
  8. US join due to the sinking of passenger ships by Germans
• Germany before WWII

  • Due to the stock market crash, Germany was at an all time low. The interwar period (in-between WWI and WWII) was a time of famine, poverty, instability, and inflation
• Mein Kampf

  • Book about the superiority of the Aryan race and persecution of minorities.
  • Written by Adolf Hitler
  • Also talked about a systematic seizure of land to create a German Homeland
• Nazis

  • National Socialist German Workers Party, legally came to power and Hitler went from the Chancellor of Germany to its dictator
• Burning of the Reichstag

  • Nazi orchestrated event where they burned the Reichstag, and then blamed it on Jews, fueling a hatred for them.
• Rhineland

  • Hitler started taking over this area, a part of Germany pre-WWI. Europeans will practice appeasement against this
• Appeasement

  • European belief where you have to sacrifice some things to maintain peace. Let Hitler take land in hopes he'll be satisfied
• Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia

  • After taking Rhineland, he went to take over here, Europeans still practiced appeasement
• Poland

  • After Sudetenland, Hitler looks to take over here, Europeans, Britain, will not practice appeasement this time: if Hitler tried taking Poland, they would declare War
  • Hitler takes over Poland, starting WWII
• German-Soviet nonaggression pact

  • Russians and Germans won't fight each other, even though they have conflicting beliefs
  • Will agree in the taking the West and East halves of Poland
• US Enters the War

  • While US wasn't in the War, would be constantly sending supplies to the Allies.
  • US enters War after the German U-Boat sunk a US passenger ship - Lusitania, on top of the Zimmerman Telegram
• Zimmerman Telegram 


  Germany offered to help Mexico reclaim territory in the US
• Pancho Villa and Emilio Zapata

  • US had a lot of economic control over Mexico due to their investiments in the nation
  • These two men led the Mexican Revolution against Dictator Porfirio Diaz alongside middle-class Mexicans and peasants
  • Wanted redistribution of land, universal suffrage, and public education
• Bolshevik Revolution

  • Extremist, communist/Marxist group under Vladmir Lenin that were the revolutionary working class that set up a communist government (Soviet Union, USSR)
  • Believed workers should own all the means of production collectively
  • Abolished private trade
  • Distributed private peasant crops to feed urban workers
  • Took ownership of the country's factories and industries
• 5 Year Plan - Stalin

  • collectivization of agriculture into one big farm and the expansion of industry to attempt to industrialize
• The Great Purge

  • Stalin executed a cleansing of people who were suspected to be opposing him
• Use of Propaganda


  Used to convince other people something is better or worse than it really is
• Paris Peace Conference

  • Dominated by allies, namely France, Britain, US, and Italy, came to settle things after the end of WWI. punished Germany for starting the war and pay reparations.
  • This was called the Treaty of Versailles
• League of Nations


  Kind of like the United Nations, wanted to settle conflicts peacefully, using Wilson's 14 points (self-determination)
• Nuremburg Laws

  • Highly racist against Jews, believed the Aryan race(blond, white, blue eyes) were superior.
  • Minoritized Jewish & non-Aryan people
  • Forbid marriage between Jews and non-Aryans
  • Wanted to conquer and make Jews similar to trash
  • Laws were meant to make Jews suffer.
• Chinese Communism vs Russian Communism

  • Chinese Communism: based on peasants, Mao Zedong advocated for this
  • Russian Communism: all about the working class