World History Part 6, Conflict in the 20th Century

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Wan Wang

World History Finals Study Guide Part 6: Conflict in the 20 Century World War 1 The Causes: M: militarism

Concept of a country building up a large army, having advanced weapons, and then going into conflict and often “making up” an enemy

A: alliances Pacts or agreements to help each other in battle, kept secret before WW1 I: imperialism Causes competition N: nationalism Pride and a feeling of connection, without drawn political borders

Alliances and Fronts:    

Allies: Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, eventually US, Italy (switched sides) Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire Eastern Front: almost entirely in Russia Western Front: almost entirely in France

Other Important WW1 Information Catalyst: assassination of Archduke France Ferdinand of Austria---Hungary by the Black Hand (Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism)

Austria Hungary wanted to conquer Serbia, and Archduke France Ferdinand visited the Serbian capitol

Armenian Genocide: Ottoman Empire (Turks) took out Armenians Trench Warfare: slowed down progress of war New Weapons: poison gas Treaty of Versailles: Blamed everything on Germany Made Germany pay reparations (for entire cost of war)

Between the Wars: Economic Depression: no jobs, lost saving, homeless population increased Totalitarian Rulers: Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini Rise of Fascism: Hitler, Mussolini Glorified the state Forced “patriotism”

Source: Mr. Carroll’s Lecture and Notes Wan Wang

Sparknotes Version Overview World War I took place between 1914 and 1918. Although the conflict began in Europe, it ultimately involved countries as far away as the United States and Japan. At the time, the English-speaking world knew it as the ―Great War‖—the term ―World War I‖ was applied decades later. Historians still actively disagree over the fundamental causes of the war. The period leading up to the war was a complex tangle of diplomacy and political maneuvering—many countries debated over strategies and alliances until nearly the last minute—and the first few weeks of the conflict were similarly chaotic and confusing. However, historians agree nearly unanimously about the war’s consequences: World War I led almost directly to World War II and set the stage for many other important events in the twentieth century.

By conservative estimates, around 9 million soldiers died in battle—many of them defending entrenched front lines that were so stalemated that they rarely moved even a few yards in either direction. Civilian loss of life totaled an additional 13 million. Epidemics of influenza and other diseases, either induced or exacerbated by the war, raised the death toll by at least an additional 20 million. In total, counting battle

casualties, civilian deaths, and victims of disease, the loss of life worldwide surpassed 40 million.

Political tensions ran high in early twentieth-century Europe. Abroad, Europe’s great powers were increasingly coming to impasses over the acquisition of new colonies. As the unclaimed lands of the earth ran short, the race to claim them became fiercely competitive. At the same time, the Turkish-ruled Ottoman Empire, which had existed for

hundreds of years, was slowly decaying. Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and other southern European nations that had been under Ottoman rule became independent,

changing the balance of power in Europe. The many ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary, inspired by these new southern European nations, began to agitate for their own independence. Furthermore, Serbia wanted back the

territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, lost to Austria in a previous war.

At the same time, technological and industrial developments in Europe were advancing with unprecedented speed. Military technology was at the forefront of this trend, and a horrible war using these new weapons was both feared and seen as inevitable. Indeed, World War I turned out to be a showcase of new technologies that would change the nature, speed, and efficiency of warfare in the century to come. Tanks, airplanes, and submarines changed the way wars were fought. Other types of motorized vehicles, such as

trucks, cars, and especially trains, vastly improved the speed

with which troops and supplies could be deployed and

increased the distance over which they could be transported. Guns in all categories, ranging from pistols to major artillery, greatly improved in accuracy and range of fire, enabling armies to fire upon each other across long distances and in some cases without even having to see each other. The machine gun made it possible for a single soldier to

effectively take on multiple opponents at once. Chemical warfare was seen on a large scale for the first time, with results so gruesome that most countries vowed never to use such weapons again.

By war’s end, the map of Europe began to resemble the one we know today. The German and Austro-Hungarian empires ceased to exist. Much of eastern Europe, in particular, was redivided along ethno-linguistic lines, and Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland all became independent countries. Several other nations were

awkwardly combined into the countries of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. A major reorganization of the Near and Middle East also took place following the war, establishing the forerunners of the countries we know today as Armenia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

The aftermath of World War I also marked the practical end of monarchy on the continent and of European colonialism throughout the rest of the world. Most European nations began to rely increasingly upon parliamentary systems of government, and socialism gained increasing popularity. The brutality of the conflict and the enormous loss of human life inspired a renewed determination among nations to rely upon diplomacy to resolve conflicts in the future. This

resolve directly inspired the birth of the League of Nations.

Summary of Events

The Start of the War

World War I began on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. This seemingly small conflict between two countries spread rapidly: soon,

Germany, Russia, Great Britain, and France were all drawn into the war, largely because they were involved in treaties that obligated them to defend certain other nations. Western and eastern fronts quickly opened along the borders of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The Western and Eastern Fronts

The first month of combat consisted of bold attacks and

rapid troop movements on both fronts. In the west, Germany attacked first Belgium and then France. In the east, Russia attacked both Germany and Austria-Hungary. In the south,

Source: Mr. Carroll’s Lecture and Notes Wan Wang

Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia. Following the Battle of the Marne (September 5–9, 1914), the western front became entrenched in central France and remained that way for the rest of the war. The fronts in the east also gradually locked into place.

The End of the War and Armistice

Although both sides launched renewed offensives in 1918 in an all-or-nothing effort to win the war, both efforts failed. The fighting between exhausted, demoralized troops

continued to plod along until the Germans lost a number of individual battles and very gradually began to fall back. A deadly outbreak of influenza, meanwhile, took heavy tolls on soldiers of both sides. Eventually, the governments of both Germany and Austria-Hungary began to lose control as both countries experienced multiple mutinies from within their military structures.

The war ended in the late fall of 1918, after the member countries of the Central Powers signed armistice

agreements one by one. Germany was the last, signing its armistice on November 11, 1918. As a result of these agreements, Austria-Hungary was broken up into several smaller countries. Germany, under the Treaty of Versailles, was severely punished with hefty economic reparations, territorial losses, and strict limits on its rights to develop militarily.

The Ottoman Empire

Late in 1914, the Ottoman Empire was brought into the fray as well, after Germany tricked Russia into thinking that Turkey had attacked it. As a result, much of 1915 was dominated by Allied actions against the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. First, Britain and France launched a failed attack on the Dardanelles. This campaign was followed by the British invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Britain also launched a separate campaign against the Turks in

Mesopotamia. Although the British had some successes in Mesopotamia, the Gallipoli campaign and the attacks on the Dardanelles resulted in British defeats.

Trench Warfare

The middle part of the war, 1916 and 1917, was dominated by continued trench warfare in both the east and the west. Soldiers fought from dug-in positions, striking at each other with machine guns, heavy artillery, and chemical weapons. Though soldiers died by the millions in brutal conditions, neither side had any substantive success or gained any advantage.

Germany After the War

Many historians, in hindsight, believe that the Allies were excessive in their punishment of Germany and that the harsh Treaty of Versailles actually planted the seeds of World War II, rather than foster peace. The treaty’s declaration that Germany was entirely to blame for the war was a blatant untruth that humiliated the German people. Furthermore, the treaty imposed steep war reparations payments on

Germany, meant to force the country to bear the financial burden of the war. Although Germany ended up paying only a small percentage of the reparations it was supposed to make, it was already stretched financially thin by the war, and the additional economic burden caused enormous resentment. Ultimately, extremist groups, such as the Nazi Party, were able to exploit this humiliation and resentment and take political control of the country in the decades following.

The United States’ Entrance and Russia’s Exit

Despite the stalemate on both fronts in Europe, two

important developments in the war occurred in 1917. In early April, the United States, angered by attacks upon its ships in the Atlantic, declared war on Germany. Then, in November, the Bolshevik Revolution prompted Russia to pull out of the war.

World War 2

Causes: MAIN

Allies: Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia

Axis: Germany, Italy, Japan

Rise of Fascism: World War 1 left Germany humiliated and in a horrible economic condition. Hitler rose to power during this time and captivated the people of Germany. Not wanting to go to war again, Britain and France allowed

Source: Mr. Carroll’s Lecture and Notes Wan Wang

Hitler’s power to grow, even though he was raising a deadly army. The policy was appeasement: act of giving in to demands to avoid conflict.

Progress of War in Europe: Germany:

      

Takes over Czechoslovakia Invades and takes over Poland

Invades and takes over Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands Invades and takes over part of the Soviet Union Invades and takes over part of France Bombs Britain Holocaust

The Allies:

 Attack Northern Africa and Italy  Fight back in the Soviet Union

 Attack Northern France and eventually beat the Germans Progress of the War in the Pacific Japan:

 Invades Manchuria  Bombs Pearl Harbor

 Invades and takes over various islands in the Pacific The Allies, Mostly US:

 After winning the battle of Midway, US forces begin to win back islands throughout the Pacific Ocean  Fire bombs Japanese cities

 Drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Cold War In Europe:    

Cold War: war without actual violence, war of ideas Arms Race: race for the most and best weapons

Space Race: race between the US and the Soviet Union to reach space

Iron Curtain: not actual curtain, divided Warsaw Pact countries and NATO countries

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Source: Mr. Carroll’s Lecture and Notes

Berlin Wall constructed: divided East and West Berlin Berlin Airlift: lifted people in East Berlin to West Germany

Wan Wang

End of the Cold War 

Glasnost: policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s; can also refer to the specific period in the history of the USSR during the 1980s when there was less censorship and greater freedom of information.

Perestroika: Perestroika allowed more independent actions from the various ministries and introduced some market-like reforms; intention of perestroika, however, was not to dismantle communism but rather to make communism work more efficiently to better meet the needs of Soviet consumers.

Fall of Berlin Wall: On the 9th of November, 19, the Border separating Western from Eastern Germany was torn down

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Around the World: 

Truman Doctrine: policy set forth by U.S. President Harry S Truman on March 12, 1947 stating that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere

Korean War: a military conflict between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC), with military material aid from the Soviet Union. The war was a result of the physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II.

Cuban Missile Crisis: the closest the world ever got to a nuclear war, solved by a phone call

Vietnam War: The Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region, the US supported South Vietnam

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Source: Mr. Carroll’s Lecture and Notes Wan Wang

Overview

World War II effectively stopped the world between 1939 and

1945. To this day, it remains the most geographically

widespread military conflict the world has ever seen. Although the fighting reached across many parts of the globe, most countries involved shared a united effort aimed at ending the aggression of the Axis Powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan. Despite the fact that Germany and Japan were technically allies, however, they had vastly different motives and objectives, and their level of cooperation was primarily one of distracting the attention of each other’s enemies rather than of attaining any specific common goals. Therefore, most studies of the war cover the conflicts with Germany and Japan separately, dividing treatment of the war between the European and Pacific theaters of operation.

The rise of Nazi Germany and its aggression can be traced directly back to World War I. Following that war, Germany was economically devastated. The Treaty of Versailles unfairly placed the full blame for the war on Germany and demanded heavy reparations payments in return. Although Germany never paid the bulk of these reparations, the treaty humiliated the German people and obstructed the nation’s efforts to rebuild itself and move forward economically and technologically. Then, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the worldwide Great Depression took a further heavy toll on the country.

As resentment and desperation in Germany grew, radical political parties gained in popularity. They ranged from

Communists to right-wing nationalists. Among the more extreme activists of the latter category was Adolf Hitler, who had founded the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) in 1920–1921. By the time of the depression in Germany, Hitler’s party had more than 100,000 members and was growing rapidly, and it began participating in parliamentary elections with increasing success. In 1933, Hitler pressured the German president, Paul von Hindenburg, into appointing him chancellor—a position from which he was quickly able to consolidate his power.

By 1935, Germany had ceased to recognize the Treaty of Versailles and all the restrictions that accompanied it. In particular, Hitler announced his intention to fully rebuild

Germany’s military forces. In 1938, Germany began annexing the territories of neighboring countries, including all of Austria and most of Czechoslovakia. When Germany attacked Poland in September 1939, Britain and France aligned against Germany, and the war began.

Like Germany, Japan was severely affected by the Great Depression. Japan relied heavily upon imported resources and desperately needed more land for its expanding population. Japanese military leaders, who at the time had a strong influence over the civilian government, saw territorial expansion as the best solution. As a result, beginning in 1931, Japanese forces began occupying territory in the Chinese region of Manchuria. By

1937, Japan and China were officially at war. In 1940, the

Japanese government announced its intention to establish a ―new order in East Asia,‖ under which the region would be freed of Western influence and guided by Japan. In 1940, Japan signed a formal alliance with Germany and Italy, setting the country on a clear course to enter World War II.

In the meantime, the United States, disapproving of Japan’s actions, placed a heavy trade embargo on Japan, severely restricting its ability to import oil, scrap metal, and other resources vital to its war effort. Japan saw itself facing an impossible crisis, and without prompt and decisive action, total collapse was inevitable. The action Japan chose was a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on

December 7, 1941. This action brought the United States into World War II in both theaters, Europe and the Pacific.

Summary of Events

The European Theater German Aggression

The war in Europe began in September 1939, when Germany, under Chancellor Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany but took little action over the following months. In 1940, Germany launched its next initiative by attacking Denmark and Norway, followed shortly thereafter by attacks on Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. All of these nations were conquered rapidly.

The Battle of Britain

Later in the summer of 1940, Germany launched a further attack on Britain, this time exclusively from the air. The Battle of Britain was Germany’s first military failure, as the German air

Source: Mr. Carroll’s Lecture and Notes Wan Wang

force, the Luftwaffe, was never able to overcome Britain’s Royal Air Force.

Greece and North Africa

As Hitler plotted his next steps, Italy, an ally of Germany, expanded the war even further by invading Greece and North Africa. The Greek campaign was a failure, and Germany was forced to come to Italy’s assistance in early 1941.

The USSR

Later in 1941, Germany began its most ambitious action yet, by invading the Soviet Union. Although the Germans initially made swift progress and advanced deep into the Russian heartland, the invasion of the USSR would prove to be the downfall of Germany’s war effort. The country was just too big, and although Russia’s initial resistance was weak, the nation’s strength and determination, combined with its brutal winters, would eventually be more than the German army could overcome. In 1943, after the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, Germany was forced into a full-scale retreat. During the course of 1944, the Germans were slowly but steadily forced completely out of Soviet territory, after which the Russians pursued them across Eastern Europe and into Germany itself in 1945.

The Normandy Invasion

In JUNE 1944, British and American forces launched the D-Day invasion, landing in German-occupied France via the coast of Normandy. Soon the German army was forced into retreat from that side as well. Thus, by early 1945, Allied forces were closing in on Germany from both east and west. The Soviets were the first to reach the German capital of Berlin, and Germany surrendered in May 1945, shortly after the suicide of Adolf Hitler.

The Pacific Theater Pearl Harbor

The war in the Pacific began on December 7, 1941, when warplanes from Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By this time, Japan had already been at war with China for several years and had seized the Chinese territory of Manchuria. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan began a massive campaign of expansion throughout the Southeast Asia–Pacific region.

The U.S. Entrance and Battle of Midway

Although the Pearl Harbor attack provoked a declaration of war by the United States on Japan the very next day, it would be several months before U.S. forces would get seriously involved militarily. In late spring of 1942, the United States and Japan engaged in a series of naval battles, climaxing in the Battle of Midway on June 3–6, 1942, in which Japan suffered a catastrophic defeat.

The Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal

For the next year, the United States engaged Japan in a protracted struggle for the Solomon Islands, which lay near vital Allied shipping routes. Between August 1942 and February

1943, Allied forces carried out an invasion on the island of

Guadalcanal—the beginning of a long series of Allied offensives that would eventually force the Japanese out of the Solomons and then pursue them from various other Pacific island chains that the Japanese had earlier seized. In the meantime, British and Indian forces were combating Japanese troops in Burma.

The Approach to Japan

Fighting continued throughout the Pacific in 1944 and early

1945, including major battles at Leyte, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. By the late spring of 1945, most of Japan’s conquests had been

liberated, and Allied forces were closing in on the Japanese home islands. As they neared Japan proper, the Allies began heavy bombing campaigns against major Japanese cities, including Tokyo. This process continued through the summer of

1945 until finally, in early August, the United States dropped two

atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stunned by the unexpected devastation, Japan surrendered a few days later.