After WWI a short period of stability in Europe was experienced as the ROARING TWENTIES
This was a period of economic prosperity and cultural expression in the arts and fashion.
But at the end of this JAZZ decade came an economic collapse called THE GREAT DEPRESSION which lasted through the 193O's
This was caused by a sharp drop in market value of companies that were owned by investors. This resulted in a world wide economic downturn and millions out of work .
(a financial crash similar to the stock market dotcom boom / bust in the digital 9O's)
As well as in the USA this depression hit Germany very hard who had lost badly in the 1st World War. Germany was dealt harshly at the PEACE TREATY of VERSAILLES - a peace settlement between the victorious allied powers and Germany to prevent another war.
In the early 193O's a political leader Adolf Hitler took advantage of the German peoples discontent and began to rally the German people with Nazism.
Hitler quickly rose to power in the German government then combining the German Chancellorship and the German Presidency under one title of supreme Nazi FUHRER - or leader.
NAZISM, National Socialism or National Socialist German Workers Party is an ideology of racism particularly anti semitism,
Under Hitler's leadership Germany quickly re armed and by 1939 was ready to wage war on the rest of Europe to establish what Nazi Germany called the THIRD REICH or 3rd Empire after the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire.
The causes for the 1st WW were numerous the cause of the 2nd WW was basically Hitler's plan to dominate Europe.
The 2nd World War begins in 1939 when Hitler invades Poland. Successive invations continued across Europe until the ALLIED POWERS combined BRITAIN FRANCE RUSSIA CHINA AND THE USA to defeat the AXIS POWERS of GERMANY ITALY AND JAPAN
ITALY & JAPAN like GERMANY had turned to MILITARISM and FASCIST TOTALITATIAN SUPREMACISTS ideologies .
When Japan bombed PEARL HARBOUR in Hawaii the USA entered the war.
Planes add considerable new power to the art of warfare
BOMBING OF DRESDEN IN GERMANY BY THE ALLIES
GERMANY BOMBS LONDON
In this war attacks on the civilian population was considered normal (unlike the trench warfare /battle grounds of WW1 and previous military warfare)
ALLIED VICTORIES eventually defeated HITLER and MUSSOLINI (of Italy) and 2 atomic bombs dropped by the USA on Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to Japan's surrender. The was over by 1945.
THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB HAD BEEN DETONATED
ON JULY 16TH 1945 IN THE NEW MEXICO DESERT USA
Nazi military survivers complicit in what is called the Holocaust ( the extermination in concentration camps of ethic minorities and 6 million Jews ) were tried by a court in Nuremberg . Hilter was not captured or brought to trial , he commited suicide in a bunker in Berlin at the end of the war.
In total 55 million people were killed in World War 11
THE COLD WAR
THE VICTORIOUS ALLIES
CHURCHILL (BRITAIN)- ROOSEVELT(USA) - STALIN (USSR)
THE IRON CURTAIN
THE 3 ALLIED POWERS WHO HAD FOUGHT TOGETHER TO DEFEAT HITLER NOW REALISED THERE IDEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES - THE CAPITILIST WEST v THE COMMUNIST EAST -
AFTER THE WAR CHURCHILL THE BRISTISH PRIME MINISTER SAID THAT AN 'IRON CURTAIN' HAD DESCENDED OVER MAINLAND EUROPE.
THE IRON CURTAIN WAS A POLITICAL / IDEOLOGICAL SEPARATION BETWEEN SINGLE PARTY TOTALITARIAN COMMUNIST ALIGNED COUNTRIES AND
DEMOCRATIC CAPITALIST ALIGNED COUNTRIES
IT WAS ALSO AN NUCLEAR ARMS RACE BETWEEN
THE USSR v THE USA
THIS WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE COLD WAR DIVIDE OF THE WHOLE WORLD
THE POST WAR WORLD NOW HAD THE USSR AS WELL AS THE USA WITH ACCESS TO ATOMIC WEAPONS - THIS HEIGHTENED THE TENSION BETWEEN THE WARSAW PACT (THOSE COUNTRIES ALIGNED OFTEN BY FORCE TO THE USSR) AND WITH NATO (THOSE COUNTRIES ALIGNED WITH THE USA)
IN 1961 THIS ESCALTING TENSION LED TO A WALL BUILT SEPARATING BERLIN INTO EAST AND WEST SECTORS
THIS EAST WEST POLITICAL TENSION LED TO AN NUCLEAR ARMS RACE BETWEEN THE USA AND THE USSR -
THIS LED TO THE POLITICAL POLICY OF M.A.D - MUTUAL ASSURED DISTRUCTION
FURTHER TENSIONS IN ASIA OCCURED WHEN
IN 1949 THERE WAS A REVOLUTION IN CHINA LED BY MAO ZEDONG - CHINA ADOPTED 'MARXIST' COMMUNISM AS ITS IDEOLOGY
AND IN THE CARIBBEAN WHEN
IN 1959 THERE WAS A REVOLUTION IN CUBA FIDEL CASTRO ALSO ADOPTED MARXIST COMMUNISM AS ITS NEW SOCIAL IDEOLOGY
THE WORLD NOW BECOMES IDEOLOGICALLY DIVIDED INTO
CAPITALISM V COMMUNISM
A SUPER POWER RIVALRY CONFRONTATION OCCURS IN OCTOBER 1962 WHEN US AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE REVEALS THAT THE USSR HAD DEPLOYED SECRET MISSILES TO THE ISLAND OF CUBA
EVENTUALLY PREMIER KHRUSCHEV OF THE USSR BACKS DOWN TO THE US PRESIDENT KENNEDY - FOR 1O DAYS THE WORLD WAS ON THE BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR
OTHER COLD WAR FLASH POINTS AND CONVENTIONAL WARFARE CAMPAIGNS HAPPEN IN KOREA IN 195O WHEN COMMUNIST NORTH KOREA INVADED SOUTH KOREA - AND IN THE 196O'S WHEN COMMUNIST NORTH VIETNAM INVADED SOUTH VIETNAM
THE COLD WAR ENDED IN 1991 WHEN THE USSR COLLAPSED AFTER 74 YEARS OF COMMUNISM -
PRIOR TO THIS THE BERLIN WALL HAD COME DOWN IN 1989
COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION
1. THE SOVIET ECONOMY WAS FAILING UNDER THE COMMUNIST SYSTEM
2. A NEW LEADER PRESIDENT MIKHAIL GORBACHEV BROUGHT IN LIBERAL REFORMS
GLASNOST - OPENESS AND TRANSPARENCY
PERESTROIKA - RESTRUCTORING OF ECONOMY
3. ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE WAS GIVEN TO THE BALTIC STATES
4. OTHER COUNTRIES WITHIN THE SOVIET UNION PUSHED FOR THEIR OWN INDEPENDENCE
5. THE LARGEST COUNTRY WITHIN THE SOVIET UNION 'RUSSIA' DECIDED TO CLAIM ITS OWN POWER BASE UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF BORIS YELSIN
6. GORBACHEV RESIGNS AND DISSOLVES THE USSR IN 1991
7. AS THE USSR BROKE UP THE SOVIET ALIGNED COUNTRIES LEFT THE WARSAW PACT AND GAINED THEIR INDEPENDENCE LEAVING RUSSIA TODAY A REDUCED LAND MASS BUT NOT WEAKENED AS A MAJOR GLOBAL POWER
OLD SOVIET MAP PRE 1991
CURRENT EUROPEAN MAP
THE MODERN ERA
THE MODERN ERA OF INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES EVOLVED FROM A DISMANTLING OF THE EASTERN BLOCK COLD WAR SOVIET SUPER POWER AND ITS ALIANCES
THE EVENTS OF 9 -11 -2OO1 IN NEW YORK REVEALS THE EXTREME ISLAMIC GROUP AL-QAEDA AS A NEW THREAT TO THE WESTERN GEOPOLITICAL BASE
AL-QAEDA SEEKS TO FORCE THE USA FROM THE MIDDLE EAST AND END ITS SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL
A 'WAR ON TERRORISM' IN AFGANISTAN AND IRAQ FOLLOWS - TERRORISM IS CURRENTLY THE MAJOR THREAT TO WORLD POLITICAL PEACE AND STABILITY
IN A COMPLEX DIGITAL WORLD CYBERSPACE WAR IS ALSO A FEATURE OF MODERN TIMES
DISPITE THIS THE WORLD IS PROGRESSING IN TECHNOLOGY, STANDARDS OF LIVING AND WITH INFORMATION COMMUNICATION VIA THE WORLD WIDE WEB
THE 21ST CENTURY'S HISTORY IS YET TO BE WRITTEN ... BY YOU
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NEXT EXAM QUESTIONS WILL COME FROM :
DEPRESSION - WORLD WAR 11 - COLD WAR
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION - WORLD WAR 1 - RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
NATIONALISM - IMPERIALISM
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS
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