Chapter 4. Causes of World War One Imperialism – European countries competing for land overseas and in Europe Nationalism – belief that each nation or.

Chapter 4

Causes of World War One

Imperialism – European countries competing for land overseas and in Europe

Nationalism – belief that each nation or ethnic group should have its own nation

• German & Italian unification spurred other ethnic groups in a desire to unite; no longer wanting to live under foreign rule

• Multinational empires (Austria-Hungary) opposed unification of ethnic groups

Militarism – glorification of military power

•Arms race – a build up of new and devastating weapons

Alliances - nations agreed to protect their allies; a web of alliances began to develop

Outbreak of WWI

• Two Alliances formed in Europe at the outbreak of war

Allied Powers – France, Britain, and Russia

Central Powers > Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire

• 1914, heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne- Archduke Franz Ferdinand- was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist.

•This event ultimately set off World War One

A New Kind of War

Deadly form of warfare

• New weapons – machine guns, poison gas, submarines (U-boats), zeppelins, airplanes,

• New style of fighting – trench warfare, resulted in a stalemate (war of attrition)

• US remained neutral until Germany resumed practicing unrestricted submarine warfare, attacking US merchant ships carrying supplies to Allied nations; Zimmermann Note to Mexico

• US entered the war in 1917, breaking the deadlock

• 1918 the Central Powers declared a armistice (ceased fighting)

Legacy (results) of WWICasualties were astronomical, combined with a world-wide famine, and influenza pandemic

Collapse of European Empires – Pres. Wilson’s Fourteen Points were a plan for lasting peace with nationalism & democracy being the basis; the map of Europe changed greatly

• Austria-Hungary > split apart into Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia

• Ottoman Empire (Turkey) > lost its Arab possessions, became mandates of Britain & France

• Germany > democratic Weimar Republic set up as the gov.

• Russia > had left the Allies half way through war, with Treaty of Brest Livtovsk, b/c of the Bolshevik Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin; Bolsheviks (Communists) overthrew the Czar Nicholas II in 1917 and set up the dictatorship of the Soviet Union (USSR)

Results of WWI con’tTreaty of Versailles – extremely harsh penalties toward Germany by the Allied Powers

• Germany lost territory to France & Poland

• Germany forced to disarm; lost its navy, reduced army

• Germany forced to take entire blame for WWI

• Germany was forced to pay huge reparations to Britain & France

•All of these reason will lead to the rise of Adolf Hitler and World War II League of Nations

• Called for an international organization (proposed in Wilson’s 14 Pts.), purpose was to prevent future wars

• US did not join b/c after the devastating war, Americans wanted to be isolated from the world’s problems

Weaknesses of new governments after World War One

• Germany > Weimar Republic was very weak; economy destroyed b/c of huge reparations & soaring inflation; landowners, military & industrial leaders wanted to give power to single leader- no more democracy

• Soviet Union > Bolsheviks/Communists built a totalitarian state; other nations feared communism would spread (Red Scare); anti-communists like Hitler & Mussolini won support

• Italy > Benito Mussolini seized power and set up a Fascist state where individual rights were suppressed for the good of the nation; violence was used to suppress opposition

Rise of Nazis

Adolf Hitler became leader of Nazi Party, w/ his main ideas in book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle)

Hitler’s goals for Germany

• Opposition to Democracy > Blamed Weimar Republic for Germany’s humiliation in accepting the terms of the Versailles Treaty; abandon democracy

• Aryan Race > superior race; planned to wipe out Slavic peoples (in Poland, USSR, Eastern & Southern Europe) to make room for Germans)

Hitler’s Vision for Germ. Con’t

• Anti-Semitism > Hitler hated Jews, blamed them for all of Germany’s problems; tied the Jews to communism

• Extreme Militarism > Nazis used violence to defeat opponents & glorified use of force in relations w/ other nations

Nazis Come to Power

• Private army – Brown Shirts: former soldiers, unemployed workers

• Supporters: unemployed, farmers, middle class

• 1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany, seized power as absolute dictator, controlling all aspects of

• Germans’ lives > opponents were put in concentration camps, experienced forced labor, torture & death

Weaknesses of League of Nations

Goal was to prevent further conflicts like WWI

Weaknesses > Had no armed forces; U.S. never joined; Soviets not allowed to join; failed to stop Spanish Civil War, Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia & Japan’s attack of China

Isolation of Britain & France

• U.S. retreated into policy of isolationism after World War One

• Soviet Union had its own troubles

• Britain & France had to oppose dictators on their own continent

Failure of Appeasement

Britain & France wanted to avoid another world conflict so they followed policy of appeasement – giving into demands of aggressor nation in order to avoid war

• Gave Hitler Rhineland (area of Czechoslovakia)

• Allowed Hitler to annex Austria

• At Munich Conference gave Hitler the rest of Czechoslovakia

The Beginnings of World War Two

Old Alliances Re-emerge• Axis Powers > Germany, Italy & Japan• Allied Powers > Great Britain, France, and Russia• Britain abandoned appeasement policies and declared war on

Germany when Germany declared invaded Poland > start of WWII

• France was quickly defeated & Britain was left alone to fight the Axis Powers

• Soviet Union had signed a nonaggression pact w/ Germany, but joined the Allies when Germany invaded

• U.S. joined Britain & USSR when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor• Allied victory in Europe, April 1945 & in the Pacific, August

1945

“Old Powers” exhausted after WWII, left two “Superpowers” -- U.S. led world democracies in the West and Soviet Union led countries in the East

American Democracy

• Political System > to join political parties & elect officials to run the gov. that is to protect individual rights

• Individual Rights > free speech, freedom of the press, religion, to right to assemble

• Economic System > individuals & corporations own businesses, provide goods & services to consumers; goal is to make a profit

Soviet Communism

• Political System > dictatorship controlled by Communist Party, only political party allowed

• Individual Rights > suppressed by secret police; anyone who criticized the gov. was arrested

• Economic System > communist gov. owned all major industries & determined what was produced

Origins of COLD WAR con’t

Soviet Expansion in Eastern Europe

• At the end of WWI, Churchill, Roosevelt & Stalin met at Yalta to determine plans for post-war world > would divide Germany into 4 zones of occupation

• USSR; Stalin promised to allow free elections in Eastern Europe > Soviet army occupied

Eastern European nations “satellites nations” buffer to protect USSR from attacks

• western democracies stopped trading & diplomacy w/ Eastern Europe; Churchill coined the term “Iron Curtain” to describe the divisions between Western & Eastern Europe

Growing American Involvement

• Truman Doctrine – 1947 US gave aid to Turkey & Greece to help stop Communism

• Pres. Harry Truman said that U.S. would help all free people resist communism;

America’s containment policy – stop communism from spreading into new areas

• Marshall Plan – U.S. gave billions of $$ in aid to help Western European nations rebuild after WWII; also to help them resist communism

Germany Creation of Two• 1948, Britain, France & US took steps to unify their 3 zones in Germany to form West Germany;

• Stalin decided to blockade West Berlin, capital of Germany; Western nations airlifted supplies to Berlin for a year – Berlin Airlift

• Western allies merged the western zones into West Germany, a democratic nation; Soviets turned their zone into Communist East Germany

Emergence of NATO & Warsaw Pact

• 1949 U.S., Canada & 10 Western European nations formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; to protect against Communist aggression

• 1955 Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact w/ Eastern European satellites

Mao Zedong Communist Revolution in China

• During WWII Chinese communists (led by Mao Zedong) & Chinese Nationalists (led by Chiang Kai-shek) united against the Japanese

• After WWII Mao drove the Nationalists out of power to the island of Taiwan

• Communist Chinese set up a dictatorship under Mao

The KOREAN WAR 1950-1953

Japanese withdrew soldiers from Korea after WWII; country divided in two at the 38th parallel of latitude

• Communist-- North Korea

• Pro-Western-- South Korea invaded by the North Koreans

• United Nations troops, led by U.S. drove Communist forces back; China entered the war to aid the north

• War “ended” in compromise

Repression in Eastern Europe

• Satellite nations rebelled against Communist control

• Hungary tried to leave the Warsaw Pact and was free for a few days in 1956; Communist troops crushed the short-lived rebellion

• East Germans constantly escaped the harsh regime into the democratic west; Soviets built the Berlin Wall to contain the East Germans

Communism in Latin America

Fidel Castro and communist rebels overthrew Flugencio Batista in Cuba, 1959

• 1962 U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuban soil, armed & aimed at U.S.

cities. This was the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• Pres. John F. Kennedy instated a naval blockade, keeping Soviet ships from delivering more

missiles

• Soviets finally agreed to disarm missiles; U.S. did the same with missiles in Turkey, avoiding

nuclear war

VIETNAM WAR 1954-1975

• In 1954, Vietnamese nationalist won their freedom from France

•Vietnam, like Korea, was divided into Communist North Vietnam & pro-Western South Vietnam along the 17th parallel

• Civil War ensued; b/c of our containment policy and an attempt to keep the “domino theory” from becoming a reality, the U.S. entered the war on the side of the South Vietnamese

• U.S. & South Vietnamese were unable to stop the North Vietnamese Army & Vietcong guerilla fighters (people who lived in S. Vietnam but fought for N. Vietnam) and U.S. troops were forced to withdraw

• 1975 North & South Vietnam were reunited as a Communist nation

Collapse of the Soviet Union• Attempts at Reform Fail > 1970’s & 80’s Soviet command economy declined: consumer shortages, no high-tech industries, corruption; Mikhail Gorbachev tried to save communism, but change w/ glosnost (openness)& perestroika (economic reforms allowing for more individual ownership/free market economy)

• Gorbachev’s increasing difficulties > failed to solve economic problems; ethnic nationalist tensions; 1991 new President of the Russian Republic took authority over Soviet gov’t

• Break-up of the USSR > Aug. 1991 Communist hardliners tried to overthrow Gorbachev, but he held power; Dec. 1991 Belarus, Russia, Ukraine declared independence & formed Commonwealth of Independent States; the Soviet Union ceased to exist

Liberation of Eastern Europe• Gorbachev permitted reforms in satellite nations > new democracies resulted

• Poland’s Solidarity Movement brought free elections in 1989 resulting in a non-Communist gov’t

• Soviet troops pulled out as democracies were instated

End of Cold War con’t

German Re-Unification

• 1989 East Germans began leaving to live in the West

• East German Communist gov. stepped down; new democratic gov’t tore down the Berlin Wall

• West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, brought about the re-unification of the two Germanies in 1991

Problems in the Middle East

• Many British & French colonies won independence after WWII

• U.N. created the state of Israel in 1948 > homeland shared by Jews & Palestinians

• However, a series of wars were fought between Israelis & Arab nations, w/ Israel winning > many Palestinians have become refugees > problems continue; U.S. continually intervenes on Israel’s behalf in conflicts w/ Arabs

Terrorists Threats and Aggression in the Middle East

• 1991 U.S. & U.N. forces forced Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait

• America has become a target of terrorist activities > Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network threats & attacks on U.S. citizens and soil > Pres. G.W. Bush’s “War on Terrorism” has led to U.S. involvement in Iraq and continued effort to encourage democratic reforms there

Ethnic Cleansing in Eastern Europe

Ethnic tensions increased with the Cold War ending

• Czechoslovakia divided into Slovakia & the Czech Republic at end of Cold War

• Croatia, Slovenia & Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia

• Serbian troops used “ethnic cleansing” to try to rid Bosnia & Kosovo of their Muslim population

• Russia – Chechen nationalists have resorted to terrorist activities to try to win independence

Contemporary Conflicts con’t

Problems of Independence in Asia & Africa

Independence movements strong after WWII; spirit of nationalism inspired desire for independence & to break from colonial rule & in some cases mistreatment

• India achieved independence in 1947 > Pakistan was formed for Muslim population, while India was to be primarily Hindu > violence resulted during the migration

• Rise of independent nations in Africa resulted in civil wars between ethnic groups in Nigeria, Rwanda, etc.; severe problems w/ economic development, disease & famine