With the end of World War I, the old international system was torn down, Europe was reorganized, and a new world was born. The European nations that had fought in the Great War emerged economically and socially crippled. Economic depression prevailed in Europe for much of the inter-war period, and debtor nations found it impossible to pay their debts without borrowing even more money, at higher rates, thus worsening the economy to an even greater degree. Germany especially was destroyed economically by World War I and its aftermath: the reparations to Britain and France forced on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles were impossibly high. The League of Nations represented an effort to break the pattern of traditional power politics, and bring international relations into an open and cooperative forum in the name of peace and stability. However, the League never grew strong enough to make a significant impact on politics, and the goals of deterrence of war and disarmament were left unaccomplished. The political atmosphere of the inter-war years was sharply divided between those who thought the extreme left could solve Europe's problems, and those who desired leadership from the extreme right. There were very few moderates, and this situation kept the governments of Britain, France, and Eastern Europe in constant turmoil, swinging wildly between one extreme and the next. Extreme viewpoints won out in the form of totalitarian states in Europe during the inter-war years, and communism took hold in the Soviet Union, while fascism controlled Germany, Italy and Spain. The extremist nature of these disparate ideologies turned European politics into an arena for sharp conflict, erupting in Spain during the late 1930s in the form of the Spanish Civil War, after which Francisco Franco became dictator. In Germany, Adolf Hitler's fascist Nazi Party came to power during the 1930s and prepared once again to make war on Europe. With Britain and France tied up in their own affairs, the path to World War II lay clear. - https://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/interwaryears/summary/
Mohandas Gandhi was born in the western part of British-ruled India on October 2, 1869. A timid child, he was married at thirteen to a girl of the same age, Kasturbai. Following the death of his father, Gandhi's family sent him to England in 1888 to study law. There, he became interested in the philosophy of nonviolence, as expressed in the Bhagavad-Gita, Hindu sacred scripture, and in Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount in the Christian Bible. He returned to India in 1891, having passed the bar, but found little success in his attempts to practice law. Seeking a change of scenery, he accepted a position in South Africa for a year, where he assisted on a lawsuit. In South Africa, he became involved in efforts to end discrimination against the Indian minority there, who were oppressed both by the British and by the Boers, descendants of the original Dutch settlers of the region. Having intended to stay a year, he ended up remaining until 1914 (his wife and children had joined him, meanwhile, in 1896). He founded the Natal Indian Congress, which worked to further Indian interests, and commanded an Indian medical corps that fought on the British side in the Boer War (1899-1901), in which the British conquered the last independent Boer republics. The Government of India Act (1935) surrendered significant amounts of power to Indians, and the Indian National Congress clamored for more. When World War II broke out, India erupted into violence, and many nationalist leaders, including Gandhi, went to prison. After the war, the new British government wanted to get India off its hands quickly. But Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the head of the Muslim League, demanded that a separate state be created for India's Muslims, and to Gandhi's great distress, the Congress leaders and the harried British agreed. August of 1947 saw India's attainment of independence–as well as its partition into two countries, India and Pakistan. However, neither measure served to solve India's problems, and the country immediately fell apart: Hindus and Muslims killed each other in alarming numbers while refugees fled toward the borders. Heartbroken, Gandhi tried to calm the country, but to no avail. He was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist in Delhi on January 30, 1948, and India mourned the loss of its greatest hero. - https://www.sparknotes.com/biography/gandhi/summary/
World War II effectively stopped the world between 1939 and 1945. To this day, it remains the most geographically widespread military conflict the world has ever seen. Although the fighting reached across many parts of the globe, most countries involved shared a united effort aimed at ending the aggression of the Axis Powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan. Despite the fact that Germany and Japan were technically allies, however, they had vastly different motives and objectives, and their level of cooperation was primarily one of distracting the attention of each other’s enemies rather than of attaining any specific common goals. Therefore, most studies of the war cover the conflicts with Germany and Japan separately, dividing treatment of the war between the European and Pacific theaters of operation. The rise of Nazi Germany and its aggression can be traced directly back to World War I. Following that war, Germany was economically devastated. The Treaty of Versailles unfairly placed the full blame for the war on Germany and demanded heavy reparations payments in return. Although Germany never paid the bulk of these reparations, the treaty humiliated the German people and obstructed the nation’s efforts to rebuild itself and move forward economically and technologically. Then, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the worldwide Great Depression took a further heavy toll on the country. As resentment and desperation in Germany grew, radical political parties gained in popularity. They ranged from Communists to right-wing nationalists. Among the more extreme activists of the latter category was Adolf Hitler, who had founded the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) in 1920–1921. By the time of the depression in Germany, Hitler’s party had more than 100,000 members and was growing rapidly, and it began participating in parliamentary elections with increasing success. In 1933, Hitler pressured the German president, Paul von Hindenburg, into appointing him chancellor—a position from which he was quickly able to consolidate his power. - https://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/ww2/context/
State Standards:
.H.7 - Understand how national, regional, and ethnic interests have contributed to conflict among groups in the modern era. 7.3: Analyze economic and political rivalries, ethnic and regional conflicts, and nationalism and imperialism as underlying causes of war (e.g., WWI, Russian Revolution, WWII). 7.6: Explain how economic crisis contributed to the growth of various political and economic movements (e.g., Great Depression, nationalistic movements of colonial Africa and Asia, socialist and communist movements, effect on capitalist economic theory, etc.). WH.H.8 - Analyze global interdependence and shifts in power in terms of political, economic, social and environmental changes and conflicts since the last half of the twentieth century. 8.1: Evaluate global wars in terms of how they challenged political and economic power structures and gave rise to new balances of power (e.g., Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, Colonial Wars in Africa, Persian Gulf War, etc.).
Essential Questions:
1. How do legacies of the past influence societies and shape contemporary history? 2. What role do economic systems and ideologies have in establishing and maintaining power and authority? 3. What are the positive and negative implications of increased global interconnectedness?
Major Learning Points:
1. Unresolved international conflicts as well as economic and ideological strife result in political instability and changes in foreign policy which serves as a catalyst for war.
2. Economics of one country can substantially alter the economies of others. Unequal distribution of wealth may lead to economic crisis and the need for economic and political reform.
3. Changing political power structures (ie the collapse of a government of nation) can determine the extent of global economic interdependence.
4. Causes of World War II: failure of Treaty of Versailles, weaknesses of the League of Nations, impact of the global depression and expansionist policies, aggression by the totalitarian powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan, appeasement, tendencies towards isolationism and pacifism in Europe and US
5. Causes & Impact of Worldwide Depression: German reparations, US dominance in the global economy, high protective tariffs, excessive credit, Stock Market Crash of 1929, bank failures and collapse of credit. high unemployment
6. Rise of Totalitarian Governments; How and why the rise of totalitarian governments contributed to World War II, Germany : rise in inflation and economic depression, antisemitism, extreme nationalism leading to National Socialism (Nazism), and German occupation of other countries, Italy- Rise of Fascism, invasion of Ethiopia, Japan - industrialization leading to drive for raw materials, invasion of Korea, Manchuria, and China
7. World War II & End of the War: Major Events: German invasion of Poland, Fall of France, Battle of Britain, German invasion of Soviet Union, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Major Leaders: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Hideki Tojo; Hirohito, elements leading to (Anti-semitism, master race, totalitarianism, economic depression) and the impact of the Holocaust, Major outcomes of WW2: Yalta Conference, Potsdam Conference, loss of empires by European powers, Bipolar world: US v USSR/democracy v. communism, Sphere of influence, Brinkmanship, war crimes trials, establishment of UN, Marshall Plan, decision to drop the atomic bombs, formation of NATO and Warsaw Pact, Efforts for reconstruction after World War 2 : Germany and Berlin decided among the four allied powers, emergence of West Germany as economic power, US occupation of Japan and the elimination of Japan’s military offensive