Transcript the industrial revolution

9
ACCELERATION
TO WHAT EXTENT HAS THE MODERN REVOLUTION
BEEN A POSITIVE OR A NEGATIVE FORCE?
SY 2015-16
UNIT 9
ACCELERATION
CONTENTS
•
Collective Learning” (Part 4)
UNIT 9 BASICS
•
A Big History of Everything – H2
•
Unit 9 Overview
•
Smith, Marx, and Keynes
•
Unit 9 Learning Outcomes
•
How Was the Modern World Created
•
Unit 9 Lessons
•
•
Unit 9 Key Concepts
Why Is that T-Shirt So Cheap? The Origins of the Industrial
Revolution (WH)
•
Crash Course World History: Globalization I – The Upside
(WH)
•
You Say You Want a Revolution: Political Change on Both
Sides of the Atlantic (WH)
•
Crash Course World History: Imperialism (WH)
•
Imperialism and Resistance Shape a Modern World: 1850 –
1914 (WH)
•
Crisis and Conflict on the Global Stage (WH)
•
Crash Course World History: Archdukes, Cynicism, and
World War I (WH)
LOOKING BACK
•
What Happened in Unit 8?
KEY CONTENT
•
Threshold 8 – The Modern Revolution (WH)
•
Threshold 8: The Modern Revolution
•
Crash Course World History: The Industrial
Revolution
•
The Industrial Revolution
•
How Did Change Accelerate?
•
Crash Course World History: World War II (WH)
•
Acceleration
•
•
The Anthropocene and the Future: Crash Course
A Bird’s Eye View: Acceleration and Global Chaos in the
Early Twentieth Century (WH)
•
The Anthropocene
•
•
Anthropocene Africa
And Then Gandhi Came: Nationalism, Revolution, and
Sovereignty (WH)
LOOKING AHEAD
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
•
What’s Next in Unit 10?
2
UNIT 9
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of Unit 9, students should be able to:
1.
Describe accelerating global change and the factors that describe it.
2.
Understand the key features that define the Anthropocene.
3.
Describe the acceleration in world population, technology, science, communication, and
transportation. Explain how they have benefited and threatened humanity.
4.
Explain the changes in the use, distribution, and importance of natural resources on human
life.
5.
Analyze the causes and consequences of major revolutions in global political, economic, and
social networks. (WH)
6.
Analyze the causes and consequences of shifts in world population, including the impact of
industrialism and commerce. (WH)
7.
Analyze the causes, characteristics, and long-term consequences of World War I, the Great
Depression and World War II. (WH)
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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UNIT 9
LESSONS
9.0 Transitions, Thresholds, and Turning Points in Human History
How do historians periodize history? Firstly, find out what that means and secondly, use your skills to figure out how you
would periodize Big History and human history.
9.1 Acceleration
In the last 500 years, our world has undergone a dramatic transformation. The speed of communication and transportation
have accelerated, leading to greater interconnection of the four world zones. The consequences have been in the pace of
innovation, collective learning, and the human appetite for energy.
9.2 The Anthropocene
For the first time in the history of the biosphere, a single species can effect major change on a global level. The Industrial
Revolution has led us into the modern world. In the opinion of many, we are on the brink of a new threshold: the
Anthropocene.
9.3 Changing Economies
Smith, Marx, and Keynes are three of the most important economic thinkers of the Modern Revolution. These men had great
influence on modern thinking about commerce, labor, and the global economy.
9.4 How Was the Modern World Created? Industrialism
By studying the factors that led to industrialism – global exchange networks, competitive markets, and increasing use of fossil
fuels – you will better understand how the Industrial Revolution changed the modern world.
9.5 How Was the Modern World Created? Modern States and Identities
Find out how the Age of Exploration, the Columbian Exchange, and the Atlantic revolutions contributed to the creation of
modern states and identities.
9.6 Crisis and Conflict on the Global Stage
The twentieth century was an eventful 100 years! There were two world wards, a global depression, and the ideological
conflict known as the Cold War. Use primary sources and data to learn more about this period of time.
9.7 Acceleration – Demographic, Political, and Technological
How can increasing population, the creation of new nations, and technological innovations help us make sense of the modern
world? Analyze demographic data and primary source documents to learn more about acceleration in the modern era.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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THRESHOLD 8—THE
MODERN REVOLUTION
Video
• For most of the Agrarian era, the various agrarian civilizations had little contact with or
knowledge of agrarian civilizations in the other world zones.
• The lack of global connections was an impediment to innovation and growth. The linking of the
four world zones enabled the exposure of people cultures, ideas, foods, plants, and diseases
from the other world zones.
• This increased the exchanges between the different zones and increased the possibilities for
innovations. The modern world as we know it developed from these changes.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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CRASH COURSE WORLD
HISTORY: THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
Video / Crash Course
• Before the Industrial Revolution most people grew their own food to support themselves and
their families. What they needed to survive in terms of clothing, furniture, and utensils they either
made themselves or traded for the food they produced.
• During the Industrial Revolution, machines powered by steam and fossil fuels began to speed up
the production of textiles, and this work moved from homes and small shops into factories. As
production of these items grew, costs were lowered, and it became easier for people to buy the
items that they had typically made.
• The Industrial Revolution was different from other revolutions (American, French, Latin
American, and Haitian revolutions) because it transformed the way people lived, the way the
goods they used were made, and the way the economy worked rather than changing the ways in
which people were governed.
• Before the Industrial Revolution, 80 percent or more of people were involved in farming. Today
only a very small percentage of people in the US—perhaps as low as one percent of the
population—are involved in farming.
• The Industrial Revolution can be defined as a process by which machines powered by new
sources of energy were used to produce goods.
• The Industrial Revolution began around 1750 in England and spread from there to other parts of
the world.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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CRASH COURSE WORLD
HISTORY: THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
Video / Crash Course
• Eurocentrism is the idea that European ideas, technologies, and innovations are superior to
those in other parts of the world because European culture is superior.
• Some historians criticized the Eurocentric focus on cultural superiority because at the time of the
Industrial Revolution, India and China had the world’s strongest economies. Both countries had
long histories of innovation, creativity, and scientific achievement.
• The Industrial Revolution began in England because it was built on the automation of
production, and the machines that automated production needed a source of energy. England
had an abundant supply of coal, and the coal was close to the surface so it was fairly easy to
access.
• Wages were higher in eighteenth-century Britain than in other parts of the world. Some
historians think that this gave business owners an incentive to search for labor-saving
technologies, like the machines invented to speed up textile production. If business owners
could use cheap coal and machines to produce more goods, they could increase production
without increasing the amount of wages they had to pay.
• The Industrial Revolution consisted of a series of innovations that sped up the production of
goods by using machines. These machines required new sources of energy such as fossil fuels
like coal. Innovation in the textile industry soon spurred other innovations, and together they
transformed how people lived and worked
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
Article / Cynthia Stokes Brown
• The industrial revolution happened at about the same time as the American, French, and Haitian
Revolutions, but it focused more on economics than politics. This revolution transformed how
people lived, how goods were made, and how economies operated.
• Before the Industrial Revolution, 80 percent or more of people were involved in agriculture. The
Industrial Revolution ushered in an era of wage labor. People moved from the countryside to the
cities, and the numbers of people doing agricultural work began to decline in many parts of the
world.
• The Industrial Revolution began in England around 1750, and this revolution was characterized
by the introduction of machines into the manufacturing process. Fossil fuels came to be the
energy source for these machines.
• The economies of India and China dominated the world textile market prior to the Industrial
Revolution. The innovations introduced in English factories, coupled with the fact that British
could transport their products virtually anywhere, help explain why European countries
surpassed India and China in this period.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
Article / Cynthia Stokes Brown
• The Industrial Revolution is the name given to a series of economic and social changes first
observed in England about 250 years ago when the English began using coal, a fossil fuel.
• Steam engines used coal and water to power locomotives, steamboats, and machines in
factories. Using fossil fuels allowed humans to generate huge amounts of power.
• While the Industrial Revolution was born in England, its effects soon spread to the rest of
Europe, America, Russia, and Japan.
• Industrialized countries needed raw materials for factories and markets for finished goods, so
they began conquering non-industrialized countries to gain access to resources and markets.
• These unequal relationships have had lasting impact: there are significant differences in
income, life expectancy, birth rates, and levels of education between industrialized and nonindustrialized countries today.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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HOW DID CHANGE
ACCELERATE?
Video / David Christian
•
The modern era is characterized by acceleration. This is shown most clearly by the dramatic
rise in human population in the last 200 years.
•
Acceleration has been driven by three important factors:
• The breakdown of barriers between the four world zones, which made a truly global, network
possible.
• The rise of commerce and markets, where competition spurred innovation that was critical for
success.
• New sources of energy, primarily fossil fuels, which powered these expanding networks and
new connections.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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ACCELERATION
Article / Cynthia Stokes Brown
•
The increasing speed of expansion of the Universe provides evidence of acceleration at the
cosmic level.
•
On Earth, we see acceleration when we look at the rate of human population growth, the pace
of human history, the expansion of humans’ global economy, and the rate of human
consumption of fossil fuels.
•
Technology may provide the clearest example of acceleration in human life:
• From the introduction of the worldwide web in 1990, to the introduction of the iPad in 2010,
there is an enormously long list of new technologies that have been introduced in recent
decades.
• These technologies have facilitated access to increasingly large amounts of information,
as well as increasing the speed of human communication.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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THE ANTHROPOCENE AND THE
NEAR FUTURE: CRASH COURSE
Video / Crash Course
• The Anthropocene is an unofficial geological era in which humans have a massive impact over
the biosphere. The idea of the Anthropocene is that due to the increase of collective learning,
there has been an enormous increase in complexity, making the last century substantially
different from those before.
• Collective learning has grown exponentially. Since the population keeps increasing
exponentially, collective learning is undergoing a “snowball effect.” More people gives rise to
more innovation, which means more knowledge is being shared, leading to more collective
learning, and so on.
• An enormous number of people died in the twentieth century, globally, because of World War I,
the Spanish flu, and World War II.
• In the agrarian era, roughly 10 to 20 percent of people were considered wealthy. Today, if you
earn more than $20,000 per year, you are in the top 20 percent of the world’s richest people.
• People who are alive today and part of the “global aristocracy” have a better quality of life than
kings had just a few centuries ago.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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THE ANTHROPOCENE AND THE
NEAR FUTURE: CRASH COURSE
Video / Crash Course
• During the Anthropocene, jobs have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty; quality
of life has generally increased; we can clothe and feed more people than ever before; we can
harness a lot of energy; and collective learning’s impact helps keep death rates relatively low.
• However, more people in the developing world are forced from traditional lives to work in
factories; most of the goods they produce go overseas to make other people’s quality of life
better; the income gap in the world is becoming wider and wider; and we are negatively
impacting the environment with our use of nonrenewable energy.
• Some possible dangers of the twenty-first century include natural disasters, superbugs that wipe
out millions of people, global conflict, and a general decrease in stability.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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THE ANTHROPOCENE
Article / Cynthia Stokes Brown
•
The Anthropocene is the name proposed by scientists for a new geological epoch. They believe
that the human impact on the biosphere is so profound that this new geological epoch ought to
be created to distinguish it from earlier times when the human impact was not as great.
•
These scientists cite the movement of plants into new regions, glacial melting, the increase of
CO₂ in the atmosphere, and changes in the chemistry of the oceans as evidence of the nature
of human impact.
•
While change should be expected to result from the geologic and climatic processes that take
place naturally in the biosphere, change in a number of areas is greater than expected, and
many see humans as the cause. Some of these changes, like increases in carbon in the
biosphere, can happen without human intervention, but humans can also contribute to the rise
of carbon in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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ANTHROPOCENE AFRICA: OUT OF
EVERY CRISIS, AN OPPORTUNITY
Article / David Baker
• Africa was a land well-suited for small, closely-knit foraging communities for many thousands of
years.
• The rise of agriculture in Egypt and West Africa created many states that competed for land and
resources.
• These states expanded and prospered until 1500 when the world zones began to unite, and
slavery robbed the African population of millions of potential innovators.
• European imperialism also swept through the continent, as European nations established
colonies across the continent.
• As populations have rebounded and begun to explode, sub-Saharan Africa has found itself at a
supreme disadvantage.
• The primary goals for the region must be to industrialize and lowerbirth rates or it will experience
an extreme social catastrophe.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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COLLECTIVE LEARNING
(PART 4)
Article / David Christian
•
Collective learning has increased exponentially in the postindustrial world because:
•
The current global population of 7 billion humans is connected in a single network.
•
It’s possible to travel and exchange goods across the entire planet in the space of a single
day.
•
Uneven distribution of knowledge has led to greater inequalities in wealth and power than ever
before.
•
Collective learning has turned humans into a species capable of transforming the entire
biosphere.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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A BIG HISTORY OF
EVERYTHING
Video / H2
• Innovation in transportation, production technologies, and communication were critical to the
making of the Industrial Revolution and led to an acceleration of rates of innovation and
collective learning.
• Oceans provided the first links between the four world zones. Although travel by sea was slow,
these new connections led to larger and more diverse networks, conditions critical for the growth
of collective learning.
• Metals brought by meteors, fuels produced by ancient plants, and water all combined to initiate
the Industrial Revolution and thus accelerate human innovation because all of these ingredients
were combined to create the steam engine, one of the most critical innovations of the Industrial
Revolution.
• The Industrial Revolution ushered in a era of innovation and an explosion of collective learning.
During the era of the steam engine, it took 150 years for humans’ collective knowledge to
double. Innovations in communication technology and the ongoing expansion of communication
networks means that it now only takes two years for collective knowledge to double and by 2020
it will take only about 72 hours.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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SMITH, MARX, AND KEYNES
Article / Daniel Adler
• A number of important economic thinkers emerged during the Modern Revolution. Their ideas
had a tremendous influence on government policies and world events in the twentieth century.
• Adam Smith, an eighteenth century philosopher, is considered by many to be the father of
capitalism. He wrote about the benefits of a division of labor—the idea of breaking down a job
into smaller parts, with each performed by one person—for increasing efficiency in the
production process. He also wrote positively about self-interest in economics.
• Karl Marx is considered the father of communism. In his writings, he criticized what he saw as
the excesses of capitalism, with its focus on profit and efficiency and what he saw as a disregard
for the worker.
• John Maynard Keynes was an important twentieth century economist. His observations of the
economic crash of the Great Depression led him to argue that government had the resources to
stimulate an economy during difficult economic times. He believed that certain economic
conditions required governments to step in and use their resources to create jobs and stimulate
economic growth.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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HOW WAS THE MODERN
WORLD CREATED?
Video / David Christian
•
Humans have become the most powerful force for change in the world.
• Some change has been positive: there have been increases in life expectancy, literacy
rates, and gender equality.
• Other change has been negative: there have been world wars, atomic bombs, and gaps in
living standards between the industrialized and nonindustrialized worlds.
•
In the modern world, innovations in food production and economic expansion have resulted in
an unprecedented rise in human population without the declines typical of the agrarian era.
•
Some scholars argue that the Earth has entered a new age, the Anthropocene. This name
reflects the dominant role that humans play in the modern world.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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WHY IS THAT T-SHIRT SO CHEAP?
THE ORIGINS OF THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
Article / Saul Staussman and Bridgette Byrd O’Connor
•
The Industrial Revolution changed how humans produced and traded goods, it changed the landscape
of work in the twentieth century, and it impacted global relations.
•
Between 1750 and 1914, there was a huge shift in the way that goods were manufactured. An increase
in energy sources and the shortening of trade lines dramatically changed the world. This revolution
started in Britain and spread around the globe. During this time period,
•
people started working much harder, for much longer hours, and in unsafe conditions. In addition,
much of the labor force consisted of slaves.
•
New energy that came from fossil fuels, a concentration of capital, and the shortening of trade lines
transformed the production and distribution of goods.
•
Europe’s manufacturing output was relatively small compared to Asia’s in the mid-eighteenth century
because Europeans did not wear cotton clothing, and therefore were not part of the cotton industry. To
compete in the global market, they had to get into the cotton business.
•
The textile industry was the main beneficiary of coal in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, using
the energy derived from coal to run its factories.
•
During the Industrial Revolution, people generally moved from rural areas to cities so that they could
find employment.
•
The main idea of mercantilism is that you want to create a balance of trade that most benefits your
home country – in other words, to make more money, you should export more than you import.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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CRASH COURSE WORLD HISTORY:
GLOBALIZATION I – THE UPSIDE
Video / Crash Course
• The scale of trade has increased dramatically since the time of early civilizations because
multinational corporations have global reach and increasing power, travel and shipping are
cheap and safe, and governments have decreased tariffs and regulations on international trade.
• Cotton is cheaper in the United States because the government subsidizes cotton.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF), offers low-interest loans to developing world economies.
• Globalization increased worldwide economic output and moved jobs to low wage countries,
which is allowing people to live much better than they did in the first half of the twentieth century.
In the last 30 years, 600 million people emerged from poverty.
• Globalization has had negative effects as well: it’s not been good for some individuals; it’s hurt
the environment, and may even lead to catastrophic environmental events.
• Because people can now migrate with increased ease and live all over the world, people
themselves are becoming more culturally homogenous. However, our access to culturally
diverse experiences has never been better.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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YOU SAY YOU WANT A
REVOLUTION: POLITICAL CHANGE
ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC
Article / Saul Staussman
•
The Age of Exploration and the Columbian Exchange didn’t just change world markets and systems of
exchange and trade; they also changed the ways in which people viewed their human rights. The
Atlantic revolutions were the result of people’s efforts to protect those rights.
•
Revolutions in the Atlantic world began around the time of the Age of Enlightenment, when
philosophers such as John Locke started to think about people’s natural rights and how those rights
should be protected. This started a series of revolutions in which countries and individuals fought to
earn back their rights.
•
According to Enlightenment thinkers, people are born with natural rights that no one, including the
government, has the right to take away.
•
Goldilocks Conditions that led to the Atlantic revolutions include the Seven Years War, burdensome
taxes, and governments ignoring the wishes of the general population.
•
The idea of liberty evolved over time. In Haiti, it was seen as only being for the free white people of the
island. In France, people fought for the liberty of all people no matter their race, and this sentiment
spread throughout the Atlantic world.
•
Some revolutions had a nationalistic message, meaning that they weren’t just against oppression, but
particularly against foreign oppression. In other words, people were protecting their own nationalities
and countries.
•
The Venezuelan military junta was a group of people who took over the country by force, and who then
passed sweeping reforms, lifting restrictions on trade and ultimately providing the people with economic
liberty.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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CRASH COURSE WORLD HISTORY:
IMPERIALISM
Video / Crash Course
• Although Europeans started to create colonial empires as early as the sixteenth century, this
really took off in the nineteenth century. Europeans began to leverage what they could from the
Industrial Revolution as a way to take over and colonize other parts of the world.
• The British were able to move beyond trading only silver with China when they started selling
opium to China in large amounts.
• When China stopped allowing Britain to trade, the British opened trade with China by force,
sending in gunships.
• As a result of the treaty of Nanjing, Britain would be given control of Hong Kong and five other
treaty ports as well as the equivalent of two billion dollars.
• Europeans were able to colonize almost all of Africa in the nineteenth century. Industrialization
and nationalism both contributed to this take-over. Europeans wanted to control the means of
production – in other words, they wanted the colonies to secure sources of raw materials such
as cotton and rubber. The British also had more advanced technology, including guns.
• Japan, Thailand, Iran, and Afghanistan were not colonized by the Europeans.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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CRASH COURSE WORLD HISTORY:
IMPERIALISM
Video / Crash Course
• European colonists resorted to indirect rule, meaning that because there were so few colonists
in each of the countries, most of the colonists exerted rule over the local governments.
• Local rulers allowed indirect rule because they were still rulers and were able to keep their
prestige and to some extent their power. Also, many were able to gain access to European
education for themselves and their families.
• During the nineteenth century, politics and economics came together through imperialism.
European countries wanted more money, and one of the best ways to do this was through
colonization. Colonizing often meant taking over the governments in other countries. Although
most countries are now independent from their colonizers, the impacts of this colonization are
still felt today.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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IMPERIALISM AND RESISTANCE
SHAPE A MODERN WORLD: 1850 –
1914
Article / Saul Staussman and Bridgette Byrd O’Connor
• The age of imperialism was caused by a variety of factors, including the Industrial Revolution.
Imperialism and colonialism help explain why former colonies, now independent nations, are
behind both economically and politically in relation to their former rulers. This helps us
understand some of the economic and political disparities that exist around the world today.
• The age of imperialism was different from previous eras because of the changes in industrialism
and consumer economies around the world; the geographic scope of the conquests; and the
impact of colonization on tens of millions of people.
• Countries moved toward imperialism for different reasons:
• Economics, countries needed export markets to continue to improve their economies.
• Cultural and racial, which argued that some races and cultures were better than others and
therefore had more rights.
• Religious, in which the colonizers brought Christianity to other countries.
• Nationalism, in which people felt their own nations were important and great enough to
spread.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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IMPERIALISM AND RESISTANCE
SHAPE A MODERN WORLD: 1850 –
1914
Article / Saul Staussman and Bridgette Byrd O’Connor
• Europeans controlled 90 percent of Africa, 57 percent of Asia, and 99 percent of the Pacific
Islands.
• In some areas, such as in India, people thought that participating in colonial governments
offered them opportunities to advance within British society.
• Some colonies resisted colonization through co-option, military resistance, mysticism, and
nationalism, however, these methods rarely proved successful.
• Gandhi was most famous for promoting Indian freedom through nonviolent resistance.
• The primary economic reason for European colonization was the need for raw materials so
Europe could manufacture and export goods.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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CRISIS AND CONFLICT ON THE
GLOBAL STAGE
Article / Saul Straussman
•
Three big themes are used to make sense of the major events that took place during the first half of the
twentieth century:
•
Global political order, which involves how nations interacted with one another politically and
diplomatically
•
Economics
•
Technological advancements
•
The four main long-term causes of the First World War include militarism, alliances, imperialism, and
nationalism.
•
Political and military alliances arose because nations thought that if they became allies, it would deter
any one nation from attacking another nation out of fear of bringing more nations into a conflict.
•
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, launched the
First World War.
•
The First World War is considered particularly horrific because technology had progressed much faster
than war strategies, and trench warfare was tremendously lethal.
•
After the First World War, Germany was unable to pay its war debts, so they stopped paying
reparations altogether. To keep the economic system afloat, a system (The Dawes Plan) was created in
which the United States lent money to Germany so it could pay France and Great Britain, and then
France and Great Britain could pay back the United States.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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CRISIS AND CONFLICT ON THE
GLOBAL STAGE
Article / Saul Straussman
•
There is no agreed upon cause of the Great Depression, but many different events seemed to come
together to cause it. Some of those were the inability of nations to pay their reparations and war debts,
the overproduction of goods in the United States, and the crash of the stock market.
•
Following the Great Depression, countries took different populist paths including the creation of welfare
states to protect people from the depression, the organization of freedom movements for
independence, and creation of dictatorships. Hitler’s dictatorship is the most famous example of this.
•
J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill assert multiple distinct conflicts that made up the Second World
War including:
•
•
The conflict between Japan and China
•
Japan’s bombing of the United States
•
Germany’s invasion of Poland
•
Great Britain and France’s declaration of war on Germany
The United States emerged from World War II as the greatest economic power, because it was
contributing more than half of the world’s industrial output, it had the largest navy in the world, and it
was the only country to have a nuclear weapon.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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CRASH COURSE WORLD HISTORY:
ARCHDUKES, CYNICISM, AND
WORLD WAR I
Video / Crash Course
•
World War I set the stage for the world to go to war again a few decades later. However, what it did
change was the way people look at the world, and as John Green says, “normalized cynicism and
irony” in the world.
•
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian was the catalyst for the World War I. This
assassination caused Austria to declare war against Serbia.
•
Some blame the Web of Alliances for World War I, some blame Russia, some blame Germany.
Leninists claim the war came out of imperialism and fueled capitalist rivalries. Others claim it was a war
between Germany’s radical modernism and Britain’s traditional conservatism.
•
Over 15 million people were killed and over 20 million people were wounded in World War I. Fighting
caused much of this destruction, but disease was what killed the most people. In addition, new
technology combined with outdated tactics contributed to the destruction. In particular, machine guns
and barbed wire were incredibly destructive.
•
Conditions for the soldiers in World War I were atrocious. The trenches were horrible places, and there
was more than the threat of death to distress soldiers – the fatigue and wretched conditions were
wearing.
•
The Treaty of Versailles ended WW I, and placed the blame for the war on Germany. This blame was
ruinous to the Germany economy and also destructive to its political institutions. WW I also had a large
impact on the future of Russia, because it allowed the rise of the Bolsheviks.
•
The Russian Revolution was carried out in two phases: the February Revolution, during which army
mutinies and civil unrest caused the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty; and the October Revolution, in
which Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks promised the Russian people peace, bread, and land.
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CRASH COURSE WORLD HISTORY:
WORLD WAR II
Video / Crash Course
• There are different events that could be considered the beginning of World War II. These include
the Nazis invasion of Poland (1939), the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, when Hitler
took power (1933), or when the United States joined the war (1941).
• The Rape of Nanking was the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Chinese people and it still
affects relations between Japan and China today.
• Blitzkrieg refers to a devastating military tactic used by Nazi Germany whereby it combined the
quick movement of troops, tanks, and massive use of airpower to support infantry movements.
• 1941 was an important year in the war because the Nazis invaded Russia, breaking a
nonaggression pact and escalating the war quickly, and also made allies of Russia, the United
States, and France. This is also the year the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the year they
invaded much of Southeast Asia.
• The successful British, Canadian, and American invasion of Normandy on D-Day signaled
beginning of the end for the Nazis.
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CRASH COURSE WORLD HISTORY:
WORLD WAR II
Video / Crash Course
• On May 8, 1945, the allies declared victory in Europe after Germany surrendered
unconditionally. Three months later, after the United States dropped the only two nuclear
weapons ever deployed in war and defeated Japan, WW II was officially over.
• Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis, many through starvation but also many by
extermination in death camps.
• The assertion that World War II was about the Allies fighting for democratic ideals against the
imperialism of the fascist powers is a faulty one. Stalin’s Soviet Union was one of the least
democratic places of all time. The British were imperialistic and could not have fed or clothed
themselves without their colonies and commonwealth.
• During the Holocaust, elements of Western progress, such as record keeping, industrial
production, and technology were used to slaughter millions. WW II saw modern industrial
relations descend into unimaginable cruelty.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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A BIRD’S EYE VIEW: ACCELERATION
AND GLOBAL CHAOS IN THE EARLY
TWENTIETH CENTURY
Article / Saul Straussman
• In the early twentieth century, chaos was experienced all over the globe. The population grew
and then dropped, the impact of war was felt all over the globe, and countries’ GDPs reflected
that impact.
• The world’s population doubled from 1850 to 1950 as a result of readily available food, improved
medical care, and longer life expectancies.
• Europe’s population didn’t grow as quickly as populations in other parts of the world during this
time because it lost about 15 million people in WW I and another 36 million people in WW II.
• Straussman asserts that the scramble for resources and power among industrialized nations
ultimately led to the two world wars. The industrialized nations dragged their colonies into the
wars, making them full-scale world wars.
• Governments and economists use the GDP (gross domestic product to gauge the health of an
economy.
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AND THEN GANDHI CAME:
NATIONALISM, REVOLUTION, AND
SOVEREIGNTY
Article / Crash Course
• In the past 100 years, millions of people have revolted against their governments and formed
new, independent nations. Over 50 new nations have formed since 1945.
• According to Benedict Anderson, nationalism is imagined. You can’t know everyone in your
nation. You have to imagine your fellow-members and imagine yourselves as a community, even
though there are many people you will never know or meet. You have to imagine that you are
part of something that is bigger than just yourself and the people you know.
• Anderson also says the nation is imagined as sovereign. When forming new nations, the people
put the concept of independence, or sovereignty, at the center of what that nation is trying to do.
• Community is the relationships or “comradeship” that people have in relationship to the loyalty
that they have to their nation. It is what unites people under a common vision.
• The Amritsar Massacre (April 13, 1919) involved people being fired upon at a peaceful gathering
in a park in the city of Amritsar, India. This event started India’s move toward independence from
the British.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 9 / ACCELERATION
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AND THEN GANDHI CAME:
NATIONALISM, REVOLUTION, AND
SOVEREIGNTY
Article / Crash Course
• Gandhi brought new ideas about freedom, sovereignty, and community, which were related to
truth, nonviolence, and self-suffering
• The Quit India movement was a nonviolent path, as outlined by Gandhi, for waging a revolution
and achieving independence from Britain.
• The concepts of nationalism, according to Benedict Anderson, applied to India. Imagination:
Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha was adopted by the people. Sovereignty: The Amritsar
Massacre helped solidify the idea that Indians wanted independence. Community: Indians had
to trust that if they were to follow Gandhi’s proposal, they would have to have faith that the rest
of the country would be following it as well.
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