7/31/2019 Hist 102 Timeline

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1416-1796 1800-1914 1914-1919 1910-1939 1931-1945 1945-Present

European powers gradually built trading empires

in Asia

Improvements in technology helped European

explorers navigate.

The desire for spices led Europeans to seek

control trade network in Asia.

By the late 1500s, the Dutch replaced the

Portuguese as the major European power in Asia.

In the 1700s, England and France vied for

dominance.

During 1500s and 1600s, China and Korea

restricted contact with the outside world. The

Japanese initially welcomed the western traders,but they later adopted a similar policy of isolation.

Taking advantage of the slowly crumbling

Ottoman empire, Britain, France and Russia

competed to extend their influence over Ottoman

lands.

Western Powers carved out spheres of

influence along Chinese coast. China tried

unsuccessfully to resist foreign influence with

belated efforts at modernization and reform.

By the early 1900s, leaders in many

colonized regions were forging their own

nationalistic movements.

As defense against western imperialism,

Japan transformed itself into a modern industrial

power and set out on its own imperialist path.

By 1900s, western powers had claimed

most islands in the Pacific and divided up most of

Southeast Asia. Europeans forced subjects to

accept western ideas about government,

technology and culture.

Between 1919 and 1939, the

desire for democracy and self-determination contributed to

explosive struggles in many

regions. New leaders in Asia built

liberation movements.

Arab nationalism led to

Pan-Arabism, uniting Arabs against

foreign domination.

In India, Gandhi led a

campaign of non-violent resistance

against the British rule.

In china, foreigners

extended their spheres ofinfluence. Later, Communists and

Nationalists engaged in civil war.

In th e1920s and 1930s,

extreme nationalism and

economic upheaval set Japan on a

militaristic and expansionist path.

European powers embarked on a period of

aggressive expansion known as the Age of

Imperialism.

World War I

Many forces-including nationalism, militarism, and imperialist rivalries-

propelled Europe into World War I. This massive conflict engulfed much

of the world for four years and ushered in a new age of modern warfare.

Two huge alliances emerged: Central Powers, dominated by

Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the Allies, led by France, Britain and

Russia.

Although the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in

1914 ignited World War I, historians agree that all major powers share

blame for the conflict.

Trench warfare and new weapons contributed to a stalemate on

the western front.In 1917, the United States entered the war, allowing the Allies to achieve

victory.

The Paris Peace Conference imposed heavy penalties on

Germany and redrew the map of Eastern Europe.

Between 1939 and 1945, nations all

over the world fought World War II, thelargest and most costly conflict in

history. The war shifted the balance of

world power from Western Europe to

the United States and the Soviet Union.

The Axis powers-Germany, Italy

and Japan-embarked on a course of

aggression in the late 1930s. France and

Britain first adopted a policy of

appeasement but declared war when

Germany invaded Poland. The United

States, the Soviet Union, and the Allied

powers joined to defeat Germany.To force Japan to surrender, the

United States dropped two atomic

bombs.

The Cold War followed World

War II, pitting the western democracies,

led by US, against the communist bloc,

dominated by the Soviet Union.

Nationalism and Revolution World War II

The collapse of the western colonial

led the emergence of nearly 100 new

mostly in Africa and Asia.

China, Japan, and other Asian

have achieved varying degrees of su

their efforts to modernize. The Asia

Taiwan, HongKong, Singapore and Sou

vaulted into the class of newly indu

nations. Cold War tensions spark

devastating conflicts in Korea, Viet

Cambodia.

In South Asia and the Mid

nations cast off western rule and se

modernize. Ethnic and religious rivalri

ongoing conflict among the people Asia. When secular governments in th

East did not yield promised impro

some reformers rejected western mo

called for reaffirmation of Islamic va

long Arab-Israel struggle and other

have focused world attention on th

East.

Since the end of World War II, the world has ch

rapidly.

The collapse of western colonial empito the emergence of nearly 100 new cou

Nuclear weapons, terrorism, and humaare enduring issues in an incre

independent world.

Complex economic ties link the rich natthe global north and the poor nations

global Sout.

Urbanization, modernization, wmovements and technology have bdramatic social changes.

Technology has revolutionized mediciagriculture and helped create a

westernized popular culture.