Unit 7 Evidence

The West dominated the global political order at the beginning of the 20th century, but both land-based and maritime empires gave way to new states by the century’s end.

Answer explanation

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a European-dominated global political order existed, which also included the United States, Russia, and Japan. Over the course of the century, peoples and states around the world challenged this order in ways that sought to redistribute power within the existing order and to restructure empires, while those peoples and states in power attempted to maintain the status quo. Other peoples and states sought to overturn the political order itself. These challenges to, and the attempts to maintain, the political order manifested themselves in an unprecedented level of conflict with high human casualties. In the context of these conflicts, many regimes in both older and newer states struggled with maintaining political stability and were challenged by internal and external factors, including ethnic and religious conflicts, secessionist movements, territorial partitions, economic dependency, and the legacies of colonialism.

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6.2.I

The older, land-based Ottoman, Russian, and Qing empires collapsed due to a combination of internal and external factors. These changes in Russia eventually led to communist revolution.

Answer explanation

The really old land-based empires: Ottomans, Russia (czarist), and Qing are in decline because of Economic hardship, Political and social discontent, Technological stagnation, and/or Military defeat.

Some countries negotiated their independence. Examples: India from British Empire, Gold Coast (Ghana) from British Empire, Dismemberment of USSR.

Some Colonies gained independence through armed struggle. Examples: Vietnam, Algeria.

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6.2.I.A

States around the world challenged the existing political and social order, including the Mexican Revolution that arose as a result of political crisis.

Answer explanation

Also includes states in Africa and Asia (China, Russia), sometimes advocating for communism and socialism.

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6.2.II.D

The causes of World War I included imperialist expansion and competition for resources. In addition, territorial and regional conflicts combined with a flawed alliance system and intense nationalism to escalate the tensions into global conflict.

Answer explanation

-The Great Powers of Europe competed intensely for colonies, spheres of influence, and superiority in armaments.

-One expression of the quickening rivalry among these states was a mounting arms race in naval warships, particularly between Germany and Britain.

-Battles raged in Africa and the South Pacific as British and French forces sought to seize German colonies abroad.

-This system of alliances made Europe primed for a war

-Slavic nationalism and Austro-Hungarian opposition to it certainly lay at the heart of the war’s beginning.

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6.2.IV.B.i

World War I was the first total war. Governments used a variety of strategies, including political propaganda, art, media, and intensified forms of nationalism, to mobilize populations (both in the home countries and the colonies) for the purpose of waging war.

Answer explanation

Examples of mobilization of a state’s resources:

• The Gurkha soldiers in India • The ANZAC troops in Australia • Military conscription

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6.2.IV.A.i

New military technology led to increased levels of wartime casualties.

Answer explanation

Examples of military technology: tanks, airplanes, trench warfare, firebombing

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6.1.III.C.i

Following World War I and the onset of the Great Depression, governments began to take a more active role in economic life.

Answer explanation

Example of government intervention in the economy:

• The New Deal- The New Deal was the effort by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in 1933 Stabilizing the banks Creating jobs Public works

• The Fascist corporatist economy- An example is Italian fascism where the economy is collectively managed by employers, workers and state officials by formal mechanisms as the national level

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6.3.I.B

In the Soviet Union, the government controlled the national economy through the Five Year Plans, often implementing repressive policies, with negative repercussions for the population.

Answer explanation

Examples of Communist governments controlling their national economies:

• The Five-Year Plans- Five year plan called for a rapid industrialization of the economy with an emphasis on heavy industry Also called for changing agriculture from individual farms into a system of large state collective farms (this was fiercely resisted by peasants and farmers, the government had essentially seized their farms)

• The Great Leap Forward- Part of an economic and social campaign under the CCP Greatly altered the lives of rural Chinese citizens in which there was a gradual increase of collectivized agriculture

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6.3.I.A.i

Between the two world wars, Western and Japanese imperial states predominantly maintained control over colonial holdings; in some cases, they gained additional territories through conquest or treaty settlement and in

other cases faced anti-imperial resistance.

Answer explanation

-Beginning in the late 1800’s, Japan had started encroaching into Korea. By 1910, Japan had complete control of Korea.

-May 4th Movement in China

Examples of negotiated independence:

• India from the British Empire • The Gold Coast from the British Empire

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6.2.I.B

The causes of World War II included the unsustainable peace settlement after World War I, the global economic crisis engendered by the Great Depression, continued imperialist aspirations, and especially the rise to power of fascist and totalitarian regimes that resulted in the

aggressive militarism of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler.

Answer explanation

-Treaty of Versailles War Guilt Clause which directly blamed Germany, forced Germany to disarm, make territorial concessions and pay reparations in the amount of 5 billion $

-Great Depression Caused a collapse in international trade, worsened the economic situation in Europe and allowed Hitler to rise to power with the promise of revitalization of the German people and economy

-Continued Imperialism (Japan encroaching into Asia)

-Rise of Fascism: Continued appeasement towards Germany while Hitler continued to grow the military, stopped reparation payments and capitalized on the unfair terms laid out after WWI through the Treaty of Versailles

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6.2.IV.B.ii