Transcript ch29_sec3

Europe and North America
Changing Societies
Preview
• Main Idea / Reading Focus
• North America
• Faces of History: Martin Luther King Jr.
• Western Europe
• Quick Facts: Contrasting Economic Systems
• Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
• Faces of History: Mikhail Gorbachev
Section 3
Europe and North America
Section 3
Changing Societies
Main Idea
The Cold War brought tremendous economic and social change
to North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union.
Reading Focus
• What were the major social changes taking place in North
America after World War II?
• How did Western Europe recover economically in the postwar
era?
• How did Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union change after
World War II?
Section 3
Europe and North America
North America
The postwar United States was a land of tremendous prosperity. At
the same time, the country was undergoing rapid social change.
The U.S. Economy
• U.S. economy enjoyed great
success after World War II
• By 1960, total value of U.S.
goods, services two-and-a-half
times greater than in 1940
Inflation, Unemployment
• Early 1970s, rapid inflation,
high unemployment slowed
U.S. economy dramatically
• World’s oil supply disrupted
• Much economic growth driven
by consumer spending
• Steep spike in cost of energy,
driving prices of other goods
higher as well
• After years of economic
depression, Americans ready
to buy consumer goods
• Early 1980s employment,
economy grew, though
nation’s debts rose sharply
Europe and North America
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Industry and Technology
Postwar decades brought major structural changes to
economy
• Nation’s heavy industry suffered during 1970s, 1980s
– American shipbuilders, automakers, steel companies found it
more difficult to compete with companies in other countries
– Many Americans lost jobs when U.S. companies closed
factories
• Other American industries still proved successful
– New jobs created in advanced technology
– Also new jobs in service industries like banking, health care,
sales
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Europe and North America
Social Changes
Returning Veterans
• 1950s, booming U.S. economy
raised living standards of
millions, as did G.I. Bill of
Rights
• G.I. Bill helped millions of
American veterans attend
college
• Many World War II veterans
married, began families
• Birthrates rose, nation entered
so-called baby boom
African Americans
• African Americans made major
advances in postwar era
• Served bravely during war—but
in units segregated from whites
• 1948, President Truman issued
executive order ending
segregation in armed forces
• Desegregation of military first in
series of victories for African
Americans
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Civil Rights
• 1954, U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education
segregation of public schools had to end
• Next came civil rights campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr.,
James Farmer, Malcolm X, other activists, organizations
Groundwork for Future
• Civil rights movement achieved some major reforms
• 1964, Congress passed Civil Rights Voting Act, followed by Voting
Rights Act the next year
• Laws knocked down longstanding barriers for equality for African
Americans
• Did not end racism, laid groundwork for future progress
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Europe and North America
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Other Social Changes
Women’s Rights Movement
• Civil rights movement helped inspire renewed women’s rights movement in
1960s, 1970s
• Core belief: women, men should be socially, politically, economically equal
Changing Traditional Ideas
• Some wanted to change traditional ideas about women’s roles—including
idea that women happiest as wives, mothers, homemakers
• Idea met opposition—including women who believed in traditional roles
Counterculture
• 1960s, counterculture—rebellion of teens, young adults against mainstream
American society—spread across country
• Unconventional values, clothing, behavior adopted by many young people
• Some questioned government’s actions in Vietnam War
Section 3
Europe and North America
Changes in Canada
Similar Path
Jobs, Births, Movements
• Canada underwent many of
same economic, social changes
• Economy provided jobs,
birthrates rose
• Government programs helped
military veterans go to college,
buy homes, start businesses
• Canada also had active civil
rights, women’s counterculture
movements
Other Events
Quiet Revolution
• Canada sheltered many
American men who fled military
draft in U.S. during Vietnam war
• Movement featured growing
nationalism among Frenchspeaking residents of Quebec
• Quebec experienced Quiet
Revolution, 1960s
• Called for separation of Quebec
from rest of Canada
Europe and North America
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Summarize
What postwar changes took place in North
America?
Answer(s): economic boom; veterans bought
homes and consumer goods, went to college; the
civil rights, feminist, and counterculture
movements
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Europe and North America
Western Europe
• Western Europe faced challenging future after World War II
• At end of war, much of Western Europe lay in ruins
• Property, farmland destroyed; national economies collapsed; millions
displaced from homes; seemed on brink of chaos
• Chaos did not come, thanks in large part to Marshall Plan
Economic Growth
• With American aid, Western
Europe’s factories produced
more in 1950s than before war
• West Germany became major
economic power
• Growth strong in other countries
Influx of Immigrants
• Availability of jobs attracted
immigrants from former colonies
• Created strain as Europeans
struggled to adapt to
newcomers, their cultures
Europe and North America
Section 3
Alliances and Economic Unity
World War II had changed Europe’s place in the world. The continent
was no longer the center of world power; instead, the United States
and the Soviet Union were centers of power.
Alliances
• European nations
began to end
longstanding
rivalries, work for
common good
• NATO unified many
nations in strong
military alliance
with U.S., Canada
Economic Unity
• Many Western
European nations
moved toward
economic unity
• Cooperation begun
in coal, steel
industries, and
development of
atomic energy
Markets
• Broader efforts to
develop single
regional market,
free of trade
barriers
• Goal to create
single market to
rival United States
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The Common Market
European Economic Community
• 1957, six European nations founded European Economic
Community; also known as Common Market
• 1960, seven other European countries formed rival
European Free Trade Association
• True economic unity in Europe still years in future
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Europe and North America
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Find the Main Idea
Describe the economic recovery in Western
Europe after World War II.
Answer(s): uneven, some countries recovered
quickly with the Marshall Plan; others lagged;
generally high standard of living
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Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
The challenges facing the Soviet Union and the Eastern European
nations under its control were even more overwhelming than those
facing Western Europe. Like Western Europe, however, the region
soon began to recover.
The Postwar Soviet Union
• Tens of millions killed in war
• Heavy damage to cities and farms
• Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin
determined to rebuild quickly
• Soviet Union had command
economy
Command Economy
• Government controls all economic
decisions
• Goods at prewar levels by 1953
• Nikita Krushchev became leader of
Soviet Union, undertook effort to
“de-Stalinize” Soviet Union
Stalin-era economic and political restrictions loosened, but country remained
Communist. Individual freedoms limited, still hostile stance against the West.
Europe and North America
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Revolts in Eastern Europe
Many Changes
• Changes after Stalin’s death led
Eastern Europeans to hope for
end of Soviet domination
• Soviet leaders made it clear
reforms were limited
• Used or threatened force to
crush public protests in many
countries, assert control
• Troops put down revolts in East
Germany (1953), Poland
(1956), Hungary (1956),
Czechoslovakia (1968)
Solidarity
• Soviet crackdowns did not end
protests in Eastern Europe
• 1980, Polish electrician Lech
Walesa led hundreds of
thousands of workers in antigovernment protest movement,
called Solidarity
• Poland’s Communist
government used martial law to
suppress movement, could not
destroy it
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Glasnost and Perestroika
Soviet Economy Faltered
• Soviet economy performed well after war, began to falter in 1960s
• By 1980s, Soviet Union faced crisis; command economy system inefficient
• Production goals with little regard for wants, needs of marketplace
Gorbachev
• Goals stressed heavy industry, neglecting needed consumer goods
• As result most sectors of Soviet economy ceased to grow
• 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, saw need for change
New Concepts
• Proposed two radical concepts—glasnost, perestroika
• Glasnost, “openness,” willingness to discuss Soviet problems openly
• Perestroika, “restructuring,” reform of Soviet economic, political system
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Reforms
• Gorbachev pushed through number of major reforms
• Aggressively pursued arms control agreements with U.S.
• Also reduced central planning of Soviet economy, introduced some
free market mechanisms
Policy Reversal
• Gorbachev knew Soviet Union could not afford to prop up Communist
governments of Eastern Europe
• Began to pull Soviet troops out of region, urged local leaders to adopt
reforms
• Reversed decades of Soviet policy in Eastern Europe
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Revolutions in Eastern Europe
• Eastern Europeans longed for freedom, did not wait for reform
• 1989, revolution spread; citizens overthrew Soviet-backed leaders
• Gorbachev, no longer wanting to control Eastern Europe, did not
interfere
• Most revolutions were peaceful
• Solidarity forced elections in Poland; Lech Walesa elected president
Czechoslovakia, Romania
• Czechoslovakia had Velvet
Revolution—so called because it
was peaceful
• Pushed communists out of power
• Only bloodshed in Romania, where
some military forces remained loyal
to Communist dictator
East Germany
• Most dramatic changes took place
in East Germany
• Berlin Wall opened November 1989
• Strongest symbol of Soviet
repression, Cold War, finally fell
• Less than year later, East, West
Germany reunified as single nation
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Summarize
What changes took place in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe after
World War II?
Answer(s): Khrushchev tried to "de-Stalinize" and
loosen political restrictions, revolts after Stalin's
death, Solidarity, Gorbachev introduced reforms,
glasnost and perestroika