1. A Half Century of Crisis
Big Era Eight
A Half Century of Crisis

2. Why is Big Era Eight about crisis?
Three major events shook up the modern world system that had been created during Big Era Seven.
Depression
World War II
World War I

3. What could the crises of Big Era Eight upset? political and economic
They could upset
the balance of
political and economic
forces in the
modern world.

4. Before we go any further, how was the world tied together at the start of the 20th century?
Communications networks made possible by the telegraph, telephone, and undersea cable.
Transportation networks made possible by the railway, steamship, and (soon to come) airplane.
Trade and financial networks.
Diplomatic relations and alliances.
Relations between imperial powers and the colonial peoples they ruled.

5. political and military power exist among world regions
Did an equal balance of
political and military power
exist among world regions
in Big Era Eight?
Oh, no.
I like to throw my
weight around.
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At the start, European countries dominated Big Era Eight. By the end…well, we’ll talk about that towards the end. For now, let’s pick
up where Big Era Seven left off.

6. Europe
European descent-dense
European descent-sparse
European influence
European colonies
Japanese Empire
You already know that Europeans got the upper hand in the modern world system during the later part of Big Era Seven.
Map: G. Chaliand and J. Rageau, Strategic Atlas: A Comparative Geopolitics of the World’s Powers,
3rd ed. (Harper Perennial, 1992)

7. Why did Europeans have so much power in the modern world system?
In Big Era Seven, western European countries achieved greater economic power than most other countries as a result of industrialization.
Many European governments and businesses wanted more overseas markets and raw materials.
Western European military forces had big world leads in military technology.

8. These disasters were connected to El Niño climatic conditions.
Also . . .
The last quarter of the 19th century saw great droughts and famines in many parts of the world.
These disasters were connected to El Niño climatic conditions.
These disasters caused economic, social, and political disruption in African and Asian societies just when European power was strongest.
Photo: Beggar. Victim of famine in China. Library of Congress, Lot [item] [p&p], Reproduction number:  lc-usz (b&w film copy neg.). Ccreated/published between ca and 1926.

9. Did Europeans get only benefits from the modern world system?
No.
Europe’s leaders competed with each other to dominate the modern world. Their competition helped cause World War I, the first crisis of Big Era Eight.
Also, many workers in Europe felt that their political and business leaders treated them poorly.
German cartoon depicts the threat of British imperial expansion in the 19th century.

10. No. The Japanese government seized an empire in East Asia
No. Americans expanded their opportunities at home and abroad.
Did other industrial countries accept Europe having exclusive dominance?

11. Some collaborated with the European takeover…
What did peoples in Asia and Africa do when European powers invaded their lands or put economic pressure on them?
Photo Right: Battle of Adowa, Ethiopia. Artist unknown. Photo by R. Dunn
Many resisted, though usually
failed to defeat European
armies. The Ethiopians
repelled the Italians in 1896,
but this was an exception.

12. So, to review:
European countries dominated a booming world economy at the start of Big Era Eight. But many people in other places (and some in Europe) did not like this system.
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This is getting
old.

13. So how did the crises of Big Era Eight change things?
1. Two wars and a worldwide economic collapse weakened European dominance.
World War II
World War I
Depression
2. But some countries saw these crises as opportunities to gain new influence or take over parts of the system.

14. 20,000,000 people died in connection
World War I was fought in several parts of the world, though the longest and biggest battles took place in Europe. The war killed both soldiers and civilians, and it devastated both towns and countryside.
20,000,000 people died in connection
with the war, far more than in any earlier war in world history.
Photo: Library of Congress LOT REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZ

15. Regions where fighting took place
in World War I 1 2 3 12
1 Western European
Front
2 Eastern European
3 Italian Front
4 Balkan Front
5 Palestine/Syria
6 Iraq
7 Arabia
8 German Togoland
9 German Camaroons
10 German East Africa
11 German Southwest
Africa
12 German Pacific Islands 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

16. How did World War I weaken Europe’s global dominance?
It devastated Europe both physically and psychologically.
Europeans saw that industrialization made warfare more brutal, deadly, and destructive.
Many felt disillusioned and lost their belief in progress.

17. European power, how did it affect
If World War I weakened
European power, how did it affect
everyone else?
It’s about time
some more of us
made our weight
felt.
Hey! How’d I get
off the ground?
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18. The war caused death and destruction in the Middle East and Africa—wherever fighting took place. It caused economic and social stress in all the European colonial empires.
Photo of poster: Library of Congress POS - Fr .F68, no. 4 (C size) [P&P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZC (color film copy slide)

19. Societies all over the world contributed resources or soldiers to the war effort, gaining experience and a firmer voice on the global stage.
Clear The Way!! Buy Bonds. Fourth Liberty Loan. US National Archives. Color poster by Howard Chandler Christy., ca. 1918, ARC Identifier:
Faith in Canada, Use it all for Victory Bonds: Library of Congress POS - Can .A01, no. 2 (C size) [P&P] LC-USZC
French and African soldiers: Library of Congress POS - Fr .J65, no. 9 REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZC2-3949
Symbolos da liberdade y da humanidade A Crux Vermelha, Mãe de todas as nacões: Library of Congress POS - WWI - US, no. 24 (C size) [P&P] LC-USZC4-7381

20. by their foreign rulers. Indian soldiers in Belgium
Colonial soldiers became more confident in their own abilities and less awed
by their foreign rulers.
Indian Soldiers
The Indian Army,
Indian soldiers in Belgium

21. As a result, some local leaders in colonies began to call for self-determination or independence.
India
South Africa
Meanwhile, in Europe upheaval gave other industrial countries opportunities to grow.
Ford factory, first assembly line, Highland Avenue, Detroit, MI: Library of Congress REPRODUCTION NUMBER 16239, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Gandhi & Nehru: Indian National Congress,
South African Native National Congress: African National Congress,
Ford factory,
Detroit, Michigan

22. Women everywhere took on new responsibilities outside the home as part of the Total War effort.
France
Russia women soldiers: Spartacus Educational,
3 French women harnessed to plow: Courageous women, Oise, 1917, Library of Congress LOT [item] [P&P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZ
American woman operating drill press. Naval aircraft factory, Washington, D.C., Library of Congress LOT 5353, REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZ
Russia
USA

23. In 1917, the Bolshevik Party led a successful Communist revolution in Russia. The Bolsheviks overthrew the monarchy of the Tsar, which had been in power for centuries. Russia had been an ally of Britain, France, and the US. But Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, took Russia out of World War I.
Lenin: Mosaic in Moscow Metro Station. Photo by R. Dunn
Czar Nicholas II of Russia: Library of Congress, Call Number: LC-B [P&P] Reproduction Number:  LC-DIG-ggbain (digital file from original neg.). Medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. Created/Published, 1909.
Tsar Nicholas II was
Executed in 1918

24. After World War I, the modern world
became more closely tied together
than ever before.
Did the world change in
important ways?
Yes. Along with global trade and finance, sounds
from radios and images from movies and
magazines helped knit a modern global culture.

25. The 1920s saw silent film, tango, flappers, and jazz gain global popularity.
Paris
USA
Argentina
Charlie Chaplin: Encarta Encyclopedia Archive Photo
Women in front of car:
Silent movie lovers: – Indian cinema Sulochana (left) and Dinshaw Billimoria in Anarkali, 1928
What-cha gonna do when there aint no jazz by Wendling, Pete. New York: Stark & Cowan, Library of Congress, American Memory, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University, CALL/REPRODUCTION NUMBER Music A-6606; 1920.
Japan
India

26. Then, the Great Depression happened.
Value of Global Exports in Billions of Dollars
The Depression put another dent in the sense of progress and possibility that many people had felt. The global economy spread misery as well as wealth and prosperity.

27. Brazil
Unemployment and hunger rippled through many societies, raising doubts about the system.
Brazil picture from escenasdebrasil.shtml
USA: Unemployment benefits aid begins, Lange, Dorothea, photographer.1938 Jan., Library of Congress CALL NUMBER:  LC-USF D, Reproduction Number: LC-USF D
France: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, .
USA
France

28. Did the Depression in the modern world system affect everyone the same way?
No, some industries in the West kept going.
And some workers kept going on strike when they felt the system was treating them badly. (Remember the unhappy workers before World War I?)
Sit-down strikers in the Fisher body plant factory number three. Flint, Michigan.
Dick, Sheldon, photographer. CREATED/PUBLISHED, 1937 Jan.-Feb, Library of Congress CALL NUMBER:  LC-USF D [P&P], REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USF D (b&w film nitrate neg.) LC-USZ
Sit-down strikers, 1937, USA.

29. Soviet GNP growth per year
Communists said the modern world system had to change. Government planning, communal ownership, and a classless society should replace free markets and close the divide between rich owners and poor workers.
In fact, the Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks remained authoritarian and repressive.
Even so, while most of the capitalist world struggled in the 1930s, the Soviet Union’s industrial economy grew rapidly. .
Soviet GNP growth per year

30. How did the Depression and the challenge of Communism add to the crisis in the modern world?
By the mid-1930s, there was a three-way struggle for control of modern world’s future.
Along with Communism’s challenge to liberal capitalism, a new challenger appeared: Fascism.
Hitler
Hitler and Mussolini walking in front of saluting military in Venice, June 14-16, 1934:
Library of Congress CALL NUMBER  LOT REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZ
Stalin: "Soviets must do 100 yr. job in 10 or perish,“ Library of Congress CALL NUMBER:  BIOG FILE - Stalin, Joseph, [item] [P&P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER  LC-USZ
Hitler
Mussolini
Stalin

31. Major countries with Fascist- style governments by the 1940s
Fascist leaders used nationalism and state control of industries and cultural life to unite people of all classes.
These leaders blamed national troubles on foreigners and communists.
Some fascist-run countries recovered quickly from the Depression, partly by expanding their military economies.
Bulgaria
Germany
Spain
Japan
Major countries
with Fascist-
style governments
by the 1940s
Italy
South Africa

32. Leaders of capitalist democracies believed that they could meet the challenges of Communism and Fascism…
by defending democratic values.
by modernizing capitalism through economic and social reform. .
Photo: Library of Congress LC-H
REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-H824-T

33. Hawaii pineapple plantation
Regardless of these beliefs, democracies used overseas colonies to help prop up the home economies during the Depression.
Pineapple plantation: Library of Congress Digital ID: cph 3c08295   Source: b&w film copy neg. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ
Hawaii pineapple plantation

34. As they recovered from the Depression, both Germany and Japan became increasingly aggressive. When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Britain and France went to war against Germany. World War II was underway. At first, Fascist Germany and Communist Russia had a tense alliance. But when Hitler invaded Russia in June 1941, Stalin allied Russia with Britain and the United States. The US entered the war after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A small boat rescues a seaman from the 31,800 ton USS West Virginia burning in the foreground. Library of Congress, CALL NUMBER:  LC-USW C [P&P], REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USW C
Japanese
Bombing
of Pearl
Harbor

35. World War II Alliances
Axis Powers: Italy, Germany, and Japan were fascist, anti-communist, and anti-liberal democracy.
Mussolini and Hitler
Hitler and Mussolini: Library of Congress LOT [item] [P&P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZ (b&w film copy neg.)
Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill: Library of Congress LOT <item> [P&P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZ (b&w film copy neg.)
Allies: The US and
Britain were liberal democracies. The USSR was Communist.
But all three were anti-fascist.
Stalin, Roosevelt, & Churchill

36. Microsoft®Encarta®Reference Library 2002
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World War II involved men and women fighting and serving all over the world.
Areas of Fighting

37. Even more than in World War I, men and women around the world fought in or supported the battles of World War II.
Canadian
West African
Indian
Women had big share in filling these bundles for Berlin in a Canadian plant, Library of Congress CALL NUMBER:  LOT 915 [item] [P&P], REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZ
Ashanti troops in Gold Coast Regiment. Library of Congress CALL NUMBER:  LC-USE6- D [P&P], REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USE6-D
India in the war. Indian soldiers in action before the capture of Keren. Library of Congress CALL NUMBER:  LC-USE6- D [P&P], REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USE6-D

38. New weapons and tactics of war made World War II even more destructive and deadly than World War I.
German plane
wreckage in
North Africa
Wreckage of giant German transport planes intended for the Axis troop evacuation from Tunis, Library of Congress, CALL NUMBER:  LC-USW E [P&P], REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USW E (b&w film nitrate neg.)

39. Both sides in the war targeted civilians.
Dresden, Germany
Tokyo,
Japan
London,
England

40. The deadliest war in history (over 50 million killed)…
ended with the use
of the deadliest
weapon in history.
Mushroom cloud, Library of Congress, CALL NUMBER:  POS 6 - U.S., no (C size) <P&P>[P&P]

41. What global changes resulted
from World War II?
New powers and political groups competed to reshape the world.
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42. The United States took over as the world’s leading military and economic power and supporter of reformed capitalism and liberal democracy
"Buy War Bonds" (Uncle Sam) US National Archives ARC Identifier: ,
A poster encouraging
Americans to buy war
bonds to support the war effort

43. A devastated Western Europe depended on US aid for rebuilding.
This American effort was called the Marshall Plan.
Jo Spier. "The Marshall Plan and You.“ The Hague, the Netherlands: Ministry of Economic Affairs, 1949, p.5., Averell Harriman Papers, Manuscript Division.
Dutch cartoon, late 1940s

44. The USSR also emerged from the war stronger than ever.
It rebuilt its economy without Western aid.
It created an empire in Eastern Europe.
It worked to spread Communist ideas and revolutions.
It became the USA’s main rival for power in the modern world.
Red Army Soldiers
Red Army soldiers in the USS, CALL NUMBER:  LC-USF A [P&P], REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USF A (b&w film neg.), 1941?

45. Japan lost its empire, swore off militarism, and rebuilt with American aid.
China became the second major communist country after its revolution in 1949.
Ships of 3rd fleet steam into Tokyo Bay, Japan, for the occupation, US National Archives ARC , 08/1945 NAIL Control Number: NWDNS-80-G , Local Identifier: NWDNS-80-G
Mao Tse-Tung, leader of China's Communists, addresses some of his followers. US National Archives, ARC Identifier: , 12/06/1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (NLFDR), 4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, NY
American Ships Sail to
Japan for Occupation,
1945
Mao Zedong, Leader of the
Communist Revolution in
China

46. Nehru with Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast/Ghana
Colonies sought
independence
from their former
European rulers.
Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam
Nehru and Gandhi: ind-spl/intro.htm
Nehru and Nkrumah: Library of Congress NYWTS - BIOG--Nkrumah, Kwame—Ghana REPRODUCTION NUMBER:  LC-USZ (b&w film copy neg.)
Replace Ho Chi Minh with
Nehru and Gandhi
in India
Nehru with Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast/Ghana

47. European countries recovered from the war and went on to new prosperity.
But Europe no longer dominated the world as it had at the start of the century.
That’s more
like it.
What happened?
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48. What will Big Era Nine bring for the modern world system?
More world-wide integration (now called globalization).
More conflict too! Will capitalism triumph over Communism? The USA over the USSR? Will new groups push their way into the competition for power? How will the environment change?
Stay
tuned!