Modern Europe

1
Modern Europe "The Political Collapse of
Europe"
GEN 2112 The Characteristics of Western Culture
2
World War I

• From cooperation to competition
• (from alliances to arms race)

3
Cooperation Among the Great Powers

• 1878 Berlin Conference
• Russo-Turkish War
• 1885 stopped Austro-Bulgarian War
• 1897 Br., R, Fr., I? stopped Greco-Turkish War

4
Cooperation Among the Great Powers

• 1900, Boxer Uprising in China
• US John Hays Open Door Policy
• Cooperation among the Great Powers
• International organization
• 1864 founded Red Cross
• 1875 Universal Telegraph
• Union (30 countries)
• 1878 Universal Postal Union (60 counties)

5
From Cooperation to Competition

• from Cooperation to Competition
• Scramble for Africa, Asia (China), (Alliances to
  arms race) ? highly dangerous
• Yet, ironic
• e.g.
• 1. guns

6
From Cooperation to Competition

• Yet,
• The central Powers
• Germany, Alliance, Italy
• Triple Alliance
• From Bismarck to Kaiser to ? count Schlieffen
  Plan ? young Moltke ? Triple Entente ? Britain,
  France, Russia
•  
• Miscalculation
•  
• 1871 Germany broke the balance power

7
The Alliances

• Germany Austria Italy ? ?Russia France
  Britain

8
2 armed camps

• 1879 Germany Alliance
• 1883 Triple Alliance
• 1892 Russia France
• (1894-95 Sino-Japanese War)
• 1902 Anglo-Japanese alliance
• 1904 Britain France
• (1904-05 Russo-Japanese War)
• 1907 Britain Russia
• ?2 armed camps

9
Balance of Power Theory

• balance of power theory --- controversial
• Irony

10
WWI A Question of Responsibility ?(?????)

• 1919 the victors certain of the answer
• the Central Powers begun WWI
• The Germans, in Article 231 of the Treaty of
  Versailles, were made to admit their war guilt
• 1919
• 33
• 1952

11
WWI A Question of Responsibility ?(?????)

• yet
• a committee of France Germany historian ??,
  agreed on the following, rather different
• The documents do not permit attributing, to any
  government or nation, a premeditated desire for
  European war in 1914. Distrust was at its
  highest, and leading groups were dominated by the
  thought that war was inevitable, everyone thought
  that the other side was contemplating
  aggression
• now, tons of documents, books, articles, etc.
• on the cause of the WWI

12
National Responsibility

• Austrian Serbia
• Russia Germany
• Britain France
• Other cause, alliances system, economic motives,
  imperialism, nationalism, militarism,
  miscalculation, overconfidence, distrust
• WWI, above all else, was caused by a tremendous
  lack of imagination

13
World War I Literature

• Hajo Holborn, The Political Collapse of Europe
• (?????????)
• ?
• (???????????????????????)
• Political miscalculation cruel war
• WWI

14
Paris Peace Conference

• 1919 Paris Peace Conference
• US President Wilson 14 Points
• (May Fourth ????)
• H.G. Wells (1866-1946) ????
• WWI

15
World War I

• 1919 Paris Peace Conference
• 1815 Vienna Settlement
• soon US withdrew
• cease-fire ?
• ?WWII ? (part II of WWI) ?

16
The Aftermath of World War I

• Paris Peace Conference (1919) tried to solve
  world problems but in vain.
• Germany
• Russia/ Soviet Union (1917) communism?

17
The Aftermath of World War I

• March 30, 1949 Sir Winston Churchill
• Boston
• France Revolution 1789 --- nationalism,
  liberalism? (Napoleon)
• Russia Revolution 1917 --- communism (Lenin)

18
The Aftermath of World War I

• Pan Slavism
• Russia --- Tolstoy, Peace War ?????
• Russian music --- Tchaikovsky (?????)
• International Communist Movement
• Lenin Stalin --- spreading
• USA, 1920 returned to splendid isolation

19
The Aftermath of World War I

• 1997HK
•  
•  
• Britain
• India
• Middle East
• Ireland
• John Maynard Keynes
• Br., Paris Peace Treaty

20
John Maynard Keynes,

• The Economic Consequences of the Peace Treaty

21
1929 Economic Depression

• Yet, 1929 Economic Depression
• Rise of Hitler
• Totalitarianism ? Nazism ? fascism ?/ communism?
• Germany?
• (appeasement policy)

22
1929 Economic Depression

• -3 millions German were unemployed
• 1932 6 millions Germen were unemployed
• 1930 Adolf Hitler (National Socialist Party)
• the most significant dynamic of the right wing,
  anti-democratic parties.
• NAZIs appealed to different classes for different
  reasons

23
1929 Economic Depression

• to those German who were shocked bitter ? of
  the defeat of 1918, the Nazi
• Promised a revival of Germany power revision of
  the peace treaty.
• to those distrustful of the republic, Nazi
  promised an authoritarian government
• to those who lost in the 1929 economic
  depression Nazi promised a revitalization of the
  economy a restoration of the old social order
• to the industrialists who were increasingly
  fearful of the growing communist movement, Nazi
  promised vigorous anti-Communist measures.

24
The Rise of Adolf Hitler

• Hitlers hypnotised oration
• vision of the future
• July, 1932 NAZIs 230 seats (37.8)
• January 30, 1933, Hitler chancellor
• national revival
• March 5, 1933 NAZIs 44
• majority
•  
• august 2, 1934 Hitler Chancellor President
• Germany unconditional obedience to the Fuehrer
  of the German Reich Volk (people) Adolf Hitler.

25
WWII Hitlers War

• 1929 1931 1933
• Economic depression
• appeasement policy
• Britain Empire
• ?Britain Commonwealth

26
WWII Hitlers War

• March, 1936 Germany in Rhine reorganized its
  military troops
• Against Versailles Treaty
• Mussolini (Italy) Fascism (invaded Ethiopia)
• Berlin --- Rome
• Axis
• Hitler (appeasement policy)
• Mein Kempf
• (My Struggle)
• ????
• Psychological - persuasive
• France

27
Hitler and Germany

• Hitler
• Germany
• Hitler German superior race, pure blood

28
Hitler and Germany

• Hitler undeniably, political genius
• Hysteria
• Stalin warned Churchill Roosevelt

29
Hitler and Germany

• 1938 Germany annexed Austria
• then Czechoslovakia
• 1939 Poland
• 1941 Soviet Union
• December 7, 1941
• Japanese ? USA WWII
• June 6, 1940, Normandy
• (the longest day)
• (May, 1945) the end of the War in Europe
• (August 5, 1945 US 1st atomic bomb on Hiroshima
  --- 100,000 killed
• August 7, 1945 US 2nd atomic bomb on Nagasaki//)