Thursday, April 20, 2017

Collapse at the Center


The First World War: European Civilization in Crisis
  • Division was among European competing states 
  • Rivalries sharpened as nth Italy and Germany joined their fragmented territories 
  • Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy, Astro-Hungarian Empire
  • Triple Entente: Russia, France, Britain
  • Serbian nationalist assassinated the heir to the Astro-Hungarinan throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand 
Capitalism Unraveling: The Great Depression 
  • Most influential change of the postwar decades 
  • Western Capitalism was likewise failing 
  • Spread from America to Europe 
  • Germany and Austria had to make huge reparation payments
  • Britain and France depended on those reparations to repay their loans 
Democracy Denied: Comparing Italy, Germany, and Japan 
  • Democratic political ideals and their cultural values came under attack after WW1 
  • New political ideology known as fascism found expression across much of Europe
  • German expression of European fascism .. Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler 
  • Extreme Nationalism, openly advocated the use of violence as a political tool
  • Japan, shared features w/ Italy and Germany, but remained less repressive
A Second World War 
  • Genuinely global conflict with independent origins in both Asia and Europe 
  • Began in Asia before it began in Europe 
  • Japan was the dissatisfied power in Asia .. Germany was the dissatisfied power in Europe 
  • War was central to the Nazi agenda 
  • Deaths estimated to around 60 million, 6x that of WW1 

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