Empires, nationalism and reform, 1900β1914
Around 1900, empires such as Britain, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire ruled many peoples. Imperialism means one country controlling other lands for wealth and power.
- Nationalism: groups inside empires (Poles, Serbs, Indians, Irish) wanted their own nation.
- Reform movements: workers formed unions; women campaigned for the vote (New Zealand first, 1893); people demanded schools and health laws.
- Rivalry: big powers built armies and navies and formed two alliances.
The First World War and its results, 1914β1919
Main causes (remember MAIN): Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism. The spark was the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo (June 1914).
- Trench warfare, machine guns and poison gas; about 17β20 million deaths.
- Soldiers came from colonies too: over a million from India.
- Short-term results: the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman empires collapsed; the Russian Revolution (1917); the Treaty of Versailles (1919) blamed and punished Germany; the League of Nations was formed.
Between the wars and the Second World War, 1919β1945
- League of Nations: the first world body for peace. It had no army, and the USA never joined, so it could not stop aggression in the 1930s.
- Great Depression (1929): banks failed and millions lost jobs; anger helped extreme parties.
- Dictators: Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, military leaders in Japan used force and fear.
- Second World War (1939β45): about 70β85 million died. Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust (genocide = deliberate killing of a whole group). The war ended with atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- United Nations (1945): a stronger body with a Security Council and peacekeepers; it adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
Cold War and decolonisation, 1945β1991
- Cold War: the USA (capitalism, democracy) and the USSR (communism) competed without fighting each other directly: arms race, space race, NATO vs Warsaw Pact, proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
- Decolonisation: colonies won freedom. India and Pakistan (1947), Indonesia (1949), Ghana (1957), most of Africa by the mid-1960s. UN membership rose from 51 (1945) to 154 (1980).
- Non-Aligned Movement (1961): India, Egypt, Indonesia, Ghana and Yugoslavia led countries that joined neither bloc.
- Human-rights movements: struggles against apartheid in South Africa and for civil rights around the world.
A globalising world since 1991
- The USSR broke up in 1991; the Cold War ended. UN membership reached 193 by 2011.
- Globalisation: more trade, investment, travel, migration and the internet tie countries together (India opened its economy in 1991).
- Regional conflicts: wars in former Yugoslavia (1990s), the Rwandan genocide (1994), and wars in the Middle East and elsewhere.
- Intergovernmental bodies: the UN, the EU, the African Union, ASEAN and the World Trade Organization. How well do they work? UN peacekeepers helped in places like Sierra Leone, but failed to stop the killing in Rwanda and Srebrenica.
- Shared problems: climate change (Paris Agreement 2015), pandemics (COVID-19), terrorism and inequality.
Try it: use the slider in the last 3D step. Note the UN count in 1945, 1965 and 1993. Write one reason for each big jump.
Key formulas and definitions
- Imperialism: one country ruling other lands and peoples
- Nationalism: strong loyalty to one's nation; wanting a nation-state of one's own
- MAIN: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism (causes of WWI)
- Genocide: the deliberate killing of a whole national, ethnic or religious group
- Cold War: USAβUSSR rivalry (1947β91) without direct war between them
- Decolonisation: colonies becoming independent countries
- Non-alignment: staying out of both Cold War blocs
- Globalisation: countries becoming closely linked by trade, people and ideas
Worked examples
1. How did the First World War lead to the Second?
Step 1: the Treaty of Versailles punished Germany, causing anger. Step 2: the League of Nations was weak. Step 3: the 1929 Depression brought mass unemployment. Step 4: Hitler used this anger to win power and then invaded neighbours in 1939. So WWI's results became causes of WWII.
2. Why did the number of UN members rise from 51 to 154 between 1945 and 1980?
Because of decolonisation. Colonies in Asia and Africa became independent and joined the UN. 154 β 51 = 103 new members, most of them former colonies.
3. Assess the UN as a peacekeeper.
Strengths: it brings almost every country together, runs peacekeeping missions and aid, and helped end some wars. Weaknesses: the five permanent members can veto action, it depends on member armies and money, and it failed in Rwanda (1994). Judgement: useful but limited by the will of powerful states.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the murder in Sarajevo was the only cause of WWI. It was the spark; the causes were MAIN.
- Mixing up the League of Nations (1919) and the United Nations (1945).
- Thinking the Cold War had no fighting. The superpowers did not fight each other directly, but proxy wars killed millions.
- Thinking globalisation started in 1991. Trade links are old; they became much faster after 1991.