SSWH17: THE STUDENT WILL BE ABLE

TO IDENTIFY THE MAJOR POLITICAL & ECONOMIC FACTORS THAT SHAPED

WORLD SOCIETIES BETWEEN WWI & WWII.

POST-WAR SOCIAL CHANGES: ALBERT EINSTEIN:

*theories of relativity

*measurements of space/time are not absolute

*inspired post-war scientists to accept the universe was beyond human understanding

SIGMUND FREUD:

*challenged faith in reason

*subconscious mind drives human behavior

*psychoanalysis: helped treat mental disorders

POST-WAR SOCIAL CHANGES:

PABLO PICASSO:

*created Cubanism

*three-dimensional objects as complex patterns of angels and planes

*included fragmented pieces

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (CAUSES): Slow to industrialize

Discontent among the peasant class towards the tsar

WW1 united Russians; due to slow industrialization, Russian factories couldn’t keep up

Soldiers were not properly equipped

Food shortages, many battlefield losses, & fuel shortages caused Tsar Nicholas to step down

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION:

Vladimir Lenin led a revolutionary group called the Bolsheviks (later called Communists)

Influenced by Marx

Nov. 1917: Bolsheviks overthrew government & seized power easily

After revolution, Lenin asked for peace with Germany, removing Russia from WW1

1922: USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic)

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (EFFECTS): Lenin set up new government that would allow all people to share equal rights

However, Communist Party reigned supreme, not the people

Had secret police to enforce laws

Peasants stopped producing grain knowing the government would take it

Lenin compromised with government & privately owned businesses & helped USSR recover from revolution & war

TOTALITARIANISM:

Form of government with a one-party dictatorship that regulates every aspect of the lives of its citizens

FASCISM IN ITALY:

Leader: Benito Mussolini

Political Party: Fascism (authoritarian government with extreme nationalism & is destructive to basic human rights)

Believed in extreme aggression & expansion

Wanted a society with classes

Used terror to guard power

Used propaganda tactics to control the citizens

Controlled all aspects of the media

Secret police: Black Shirts

Shaping the youth

COMMUNISM IN USSR:

Leader: Joseph Stalin

Political Party: Communism

Fiver Year Plan: build heavy industry, improve transportation, increase farm output all controlled by government

Standard of living remained low

Collectivization: government owned farms operated by peasants where all products are turned into government

People starved, famine occurred

Secret police (purges)

Control of media & elimination of individual rights; propaganda

Complainers sent to labor camps

Great Purge: 4 million people killed

NAZISM IN GERMANY:

Leader: Adolf Hitler

Political Party: Nazis (National Socialist German Workers)

Mein Kampf (Hitler’s Manifesto): extreme nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism

Controlled all aspects of German life: religion, education, media

SS: uniformed troops who enforced Hitler’s laws

Secret police: Gestapo

NATIONALISM IN JAPAN:

Leader: Emperor Hirohito

Ruled from 1926-1989

Was Japan’s supreme authority & a living god

In favor of expansion (China, Manchuria)

Issued an order that all Japanese should commit suicide rather than surrender (WWII)

NATIONALISM IN TURKEY:

Nationalist movements throughout Europe & Asia caused changes in the Middle East

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk led the nationalist movement in Turkey

Overthrew the sultan & made Turkey into a republic

Wanted to modernize Turkey, separate religion from government, encouraged industrial expansion

Ruled with an iron fist, some considered him a dictator

Replaced many Islamic traditions with Western alternatives

AGGRESSION GOES UNCHECKED:

1. ITALY2. GERMANY3. JAPAN

JAPANESE INVASION OF CHINA:

December 13, 1937: Japanese troops marched into Nanjing, China

300,000 Chinese civilians were murdered

City-wide burnings, stabbings, drownings, strangulations, & rape (became known as the Rape of Nanjing

Japanese introduced heroin & opium to the Chinese causing at least 50,000 people to become addicted to heroin or die overdose

News of the attack was reported worldwide, no country stepped in to help

ITALIAN INVASION OF ETHIOPIA:

1935: Mussolini invaded Ethiopia

Due to outdated weapons, Ethiopia was unable to compete

King of Ethiopia went to the League of Nations to ask for help, but they had no military to help defend the Ethiopians

1936: Italy conquered Ethiopia

HITLER TESTS TREATY OF VERSAILLES:

Began building up German military

Invaded the Rhineland (land between Germany & France)

League of Nations adopts appeasement (giving in to the demands of an aggressor in order to keep the peace)

Annexed Austria

Invaded the Sudentenland (region of Czechoslovakia)

Munich Conference (Sept. 1938) Hitler promises not to expand any further