The Crisis of the Imperial Order 1900-1929

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The Crisis of the Imperial Order1900-1929
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Origins of Crisis in Europe Middle East

• Ottoman Empire in decline
• losing provinces closest to Europe
• Young Turks forced constitution, advocated
  centralized rule Turkification of minorities
• Carried out modernization

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Causes of World War I

• Military Strategy-Inflexible mobilization plans
• Alliances
• Imperialism
• Nationalism

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The Great War Russian Revolutions 19141918

• All entered war confident
• German victory seemed assured, but it
  faltered-formed an unbroken line of trenches (the
  Western Front) from North Sea to Switzerland
• Troops ordered to charge across open fields-cut
  down by machine-gun fire
• Four Year Stalemate

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The Home Front War Economy

• governments imposed controls
• Rationing recruitment of Africans, Indians,
  Chinese women into European labor force
  transformed civilian life
• German civilians paid high price because of
  British naval blockade
• British French forces overran Germanys African
  colonies (except for Tanganyika)
• Europeans requisitioned food, imposed heavy
  taxes, forced Africans to grow export crops and
  sell them at low prices, recruited African men
  to serve as soldiers porters
• U.S. businesses grew rich by selling goods to
  Britain and France

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The Ottoman Empire at War

• Turks signed secret alliance w/ Germany
• unsuccessful campaigns against Russia
• deported Armenians (causing deaths of hundred of
  thousands), closed Dardanelles Straits
• British tried to subvert Ottoman Empire- promised
  emir Hussein ibn Ali of Mecca a kingdom to lead
  revolt against Turks-he did in 1916
• Balfour Declaration suggested British would
  view with favor the establishment of Jewish
  national homeland in Palestine

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Double Revolution in Russia, 1917

• By late 1916, large but weak Russian army
  experienced numerous defeats
• civilian economy in collapse
• cities faced shortages of fuel food
• In March 1917, tsar overthrown replaced by
  Provisional Government
• On November 6, 1917 Bolsheviks staged uprising in
  Petrograd overthrew Provisional Government.

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The End of War in Western Europe 19171918

• German resumption of unrestricted submarine
  warfare brought US into war-April 1917
• Germans broke through pushed within 40 miles
  of Paris. Allies counterattacked in August 1918
• Germans retreated armistice signed on November
  11

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Peace Dislocation in Europe 19191929

• 8-10 million died in war
• millions of refugees, many fled to France US
• US passed immigration laws-closed doors to east
  south Europeans
• Influenza epidemic of 19181919-among soldiers
  headed for West Front-spread around the world,
  killing 20 million people
• War caused serious damage to environment

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The Peace Treaties

• Three men dominated the Paris Peace Conference
  U.S. President Wilson, British Prime Minister
  David Lloyd George, and French Premier Georges
  Clemenceau
• Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany-left
  largely intact potentially the most powerful
  nation in Europe
• Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart
• New countries created in lands lost by Russia,
  Germany, Austria-Hungary

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Russian Civil War the New Economic Policy

• In Russia, Allied intervention/ civil war
  extended fighting for 3 years
• By 1922, Soviet republic of Ukraine Russia
  merged- created Union of Soviet Socialist
  Republics (USSR)
• In 1921, Lenins New Economic Policy helped to
  restore production-relaxed government
  controls/allowed return of market economics
• Regarded as temporary-would be superseded as
  Soviet Union built a modern, socialist,
  industrial economy by extracting resources from
  peasants to pay for industrialization
• Lenin died in January 1924-power struggle ensued
  between Leon Trotsky Joseph Stalin
• Stalin filled bureaucracy with his supporters,
  expelled Trotsky-forced him to flee the country

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An Ephemeral Peace

• 1920s were decade of dissatisfaction among
  people whose hopes had been raised by rhetoric of
  war and dashed by its outcome
• In 1923, French occupation of the Ruhr and severe
  inflation brought Germany to the brink of civil
  war.
• Currency reform and French withdrawal from the
  Ruhr marked the beginning of a period of peace
  and economic growth beginning in 1924.

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China and Japan Contrasting Destinies

• China
• rapid population growth
• unfavorable ratio of population to arable land
• avaricious landlords and tax collectors
• devastating floods of Yellow River
• Chinese society divided among many groups
  landowners, wealthy merchants, and foreigners,
  whose luxurious lives aroused resentment of
  educated, young, urban Chinese
• Japan
• few natural resources-little arable land
• earthquakes, tsunamis
• Industrialization/economic growth aggravated
  social tensions
• Japanese prosperity depended on foreign trade
• more vulnerable than China to swings in the world
  economy

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Revolution and War, 19001918

• Chinas defeat/humiliation by international force
  in Boxer affair of 1900 led many to conclude that
  China needed a revolution to overthrow Qing-
  modernize the country
• When a regional army unit mutinied in 1911, Sun
  Yat-sens Revolutionary Alliance formed an
  assembly and elected Sun as president of China,
  but to avoid a civil war, the presidency was
  turned over to the powerful general Yuan Shikai,
  who rejected democracy and ruled as an autocrat
• Japanese joined Allied side in World War
  I-benefited from economic boom as demand for
  their products rose.
• Japan used war as opportunity to conquer German
  colonies in Northern Pacific and on Chinese coast
  and to further extend influence into China
• Forced Chinese government to accede to many of
  conditions presented in document called the
  Twenty-One Demands

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Chinese Warlords and the Guomindang, 19191929

• At Paris Peace Conference, great powers allowed
  Japan to retain control over seized German
  enclaves in China, sparking protests in Beijing
  (May 4, 1919) and other parts of China
• Chinas regional generalsthe warlordssupported
  their armies through plunder and arbitrary
  taxation so that China grew poorer while only the
  treaty ports prospered
• Sun Yat-sen tried to make comeback in Canton
  in1920s by reorganizing his Guomindang party
  along Leninist lines and by welcoming members of
  the newly created Chinese Communist Party
• Suns successor Chiang Kai-shek crushed the
  regional warlords in 1927
• Chiang then split with/decimated Communist Party-
  embarked on ambitious plan of top-down industrial
  modernization
• Chiangs government staffed by corrupt
  opportunists, not by competent administrators
  China remained mired in poverty

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The New Middle East

• The Mandate System
• Instead of being given their independence, the
  former German colonies and Ottoman territories
  were given to the great powers as mandates.
• Class C Mandates were ruled as colonies, while
  Class B Mandates were to be ruled under League of
  Nations supervision.
• The Arab-speaking territories of the former
  Ottoman Empire were Class A Mandates, a category
  that was defined to lead the Arabs to believe
  that they had been promised independence.
• In practice, Britain took control of Palestine,
  Iraq, and Trans-Jordan, while France took Syria
  and Lebanon as its mandates.

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The Rise of Modern Turkey

• At the end of the war, the Ottoman Empire was at
  the point of collapse, with French, British,
  Italian, and Greek forces occupying
  Constantinople and parts of Anatolia
• In 1919 Mustafa Kemal formed a nationalist
  government and reconquered Anatolia and the area
  around Constantinople in 1922
• Kemal was an outspoken modernizer who declared
  Turkey to be a secular republic introduced
  European laws replaced the Arabic alphabet with
  the Latin alphabet and attempted to westernize
  the Turkish family, the roles of women, and even
  Turkish clothing and headgear.
• His reforms spread quickly in the urban areas,
  but they encountered strong resistance in the
  countryside, where Islamic traditions remained
  strong.

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Arab Lands and the Question of Palestine

• Among the Arab people, the thinly disguised
  colonialism of the Mandate System set off
  protests and rebellions. At the same time, Middle
  Eastern society underwent significant changes
  the population grew by 50 percent from 1914 to
  1939, major cities doubled in size, and the urban
  merchant class adopted western ideas, customs,
  and lifestyles.
• The Maghrib (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco) was
  dominated by the French army and by French
  settlers, who owned the best lands and
  monopolized government jobs and businesses. Arabs
  and Berbers remained poor and suffered from
  discrimination.
• The British allowed Iraq to become independent
  under King Faisal (leader of the Arab revolt) but
  maintained a significant military and economic
  influence. France sent thousands of troops to
  crush nationalist uprisings in Lebanon and Syria.
  Britain declared Egypt to be independent in 1922
  but retained control through its alliance with
  King Farouk.
• In the Palestine Mandate, the British tried to
  limit the wave of Jewish immigration that began
  in 1920 but only succeeded in alienating both
  Jews and Arabs.

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Society, Culture, and Technology in the
Industrialized World

• Class and Gender
• Class distinctions faded after the war as the
  role of the aristocracy (many of whom had died in
  battle) declined and displays of wealth came to
  be regarded as unpatriotic. The expanded role of
  government during and after the war led to an
  increase in the numbers of white-collar workers
  the working class did not expand because the
  introduction of new machinery and new ways of
  organizing work made it possible to increase
  production without expanding the labor force.
• In the 1920s, women enjoyed more personal
  freedoms than ever before, and women won the
  right to vote in some countries between 1915 and
  1934.

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Revolution in the Sciences

• The discovery of subatomic particles, quanta,
  Einsteins theory of relativity, and the
  discovery that light is made up of either waves
  or particles undermined the certainties of
  Newtonian physics and offered the potential of
  unlocking new and dangerous sources of energy.
• Innovations in the social sciences challenged
  Victorian morality, middle-class values, and
  notions of western superiority. The psychology of
  Sigmund Freud and the sociology of Emile Durkheim
  introduced notions of cultural relativism that
  combined with the experience of the war to call
  into question the Wests faith in reason and
  progress.

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The New Technologies of Modernity

• The European and American public was fascinated
  with new technologies like the airplane and
  lionized the early aviators Amelia Earhart,
  Richard Byrd, and especially Charles Lindbergh.
  Electricity began to transform home life, and
  commercial radio stations brought news, sports,
  soap operas, and advertising to homes throughout
  North America.
• Film spread explosively in the 1920s. The early
  film industry of the silent film era was marked
  by diversity, with films being made in Japan,
  India, Turkey, Egypt, and Hollywood in the 1920s.
  The introduction of the talking picture in the
  United States in 1921, combined with the
  tremendous size of the American market, marked
  the beginning of the era of Hollywoods
  domination of film and its role in the diffusion
  of American culture.
• Health and hygiene were also part of the cult of
  modernity. Advances in medicine, sewage treatment
  systems, indoor plumbing, and the increased use
  of soap and home appliances contributed to
  declines in infant mortality and improvements in
  health and life expectancy.

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Technology and the Environment

• The skyscraper and the automobile transformed the
  urban environment. Skyscrapers with load-bearing
  steel frames and passenger elevators were built
  in American cities. European cities restricted
  the height of buildings, but European architects
  led the way in designing simple, easily
  constructed, inexpensive, functional buildings in
  what came to be known as the International Style.
• Mass-produced automobiles replaced horses in the
  city streets and led to the construction of
  far-flung suburban areas like those of Los
  Angeles. On farms, gasoline-powered tractors
  began replacing horses in the 1920s, while dams
  and canals were used to generate electricity and
  to irrigate dry land.

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Conclusion

• Postwar Realignments
• France and Britain emerged from the war
  economically weakened. Russia was left in civil
  war and revolution. The Austro-Hungarian and
  Ottoman Empires were divided into smaller, weaker
  nations.
• Japan and the United States came out of the war
  in a more strengthened position than before.

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Conclusion

• Postwar Promise
• The fall of the Ottoman Empire generated hope
  among Turks, Arabs, and Jewish immigrants of
  sovereign nation status.
• French and British mandates thwarted those
  aspirations.

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Conclusion

• Postwar Society
• Women remained in the workforce and demanded
  voting rights while governments took on more
  responsibility for citizens health and
  well-being.
• Science and technology brought entertainment,
  electricity, better health, and faster
  transportation to western nations.

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Impact Social

• Families altered by the departure of so many men
• With the death or absence of the primary wage
  earner women were forced into the workforce in
  unprecedented numbers
• Industry needed to replace the lost laborers sent
  to war aided the struggle for voting rights for
  women

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Impact Social

• One of the distinguishing features of the war was
  its totality
• All aspects of the societies fighting were
  affected by the conflict, even countries not in
  war zone

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Impact Political

• Expansion of government power responsibilities
  in Britain, France, the United States, and the
  Dominions of the British Empire
• New government ministries powers created
• New taxes levied, laws enacted, all designed to
  bolster war effort, many have lasted to today

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Demographic Impact

• more dead wounded
• more physical destruction
• millions of refugees many fled to France United
  States
• immigration laws closed doors to eastern
  southern Europeans
• Influenza epidemic, killed 30 million people
• serious damage to the environment hastened
  build-up of mines, factories, railroads

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Geographic Impact Territorial Changes

• tremendous changes to eastern Europe
• Empires shattered new nations established
• Dangerous power vacuum created between Germany
  Soviet Russia

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Global Impact

• Destroyed/reduced some empires diminished
  strength of others
• New nations emerged
• Shifted economic resources cultural influences
  away from Europe
• Reduced European global influence encouraged
  nations, notably the United States, to challenge
  Europe's international leadership

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Global Impact

• Bolsheviks seized power in 1917
• Ottoman Austro-Hungarian Empires disintegrated
• Germany replaced Kaiser's government with Weimar
  Republic
• New nations such as Poland, Czechoslovakia,
  Yugoslavia emerged
• European Allies owed over 11 billion to U.S.
• U.S. transformed from net debtor to net creditor
• New York replaced London as world's financial
  center
• Allies faced increasing demands for self-rule
  from their colonies
• They no longer controlled sufficient military
  economic resources to shape world affairs as
  before

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Global Legacy

• Wilsonianism
• Emphasized national self-determination
• League of Nations meant to curb nationalist
  excesses and aggression
• Collective security would enable nations to
  participate in new world order of peace
  prosperity
• influenced statecraft of future generations
• continued to shape the international history of
  twentieth century

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Global Legacy

• League of Nations failed to maintain peace when
  aggressive nationsnotably Communist Russia,
  Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial
  Japanlater challenged the Versailles peace
• These revisionist powers rejected democracy and
  capitalism and challenged the status quo