REVIEW:
EUH3206
FROM LATE 19 TH CENTURY TO 1936:
NEW IMPERIALISM,
GREAT POWER SYSTEM
ROAD TO WWI
WWI AND ITS AFTERMATH;
PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE;
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR
RISE OF FASCISM IN ITALY AND
GERMANY
READINGS:
Conan Fischer, Europe Between
Democracy and Dictatorship,
Chapters 1-6 (relevant sections).
Aspects of Western Civilization,
Part II., Chapters 8-12 (relevant
sections).
Background material
Intellectual/Cultural themes of the 19th century:
Positivism – A. Comte, H. Spencer, K. Marx
Liberalism – J. Bentham, J.S. Mill
Conservatism – E. Burke, B. Disraeli, Joseph de
Maistre
Socialism/Anarchism/Marxism – Marx/Engels,
K. Kautsky, V. Lenin, M. Bakunin, Peter
Kropotkin
th
19
Century Background
Social Darwinism – T.H. Huxley, A. Gobineau
(Racism)
Nationalism – Italy, Germany, Balkan
countries
Imperialism: Africa (Scramble for Africa) and
Asia (Unequal treaties, concessions in
China)
Background to WWI
Great Powers and their relative position to one
another: Germany, Italy, Great Britain, France,
Austria-Hungary, and Russia.
Alliances of Great Powers:
Triple Alliance (Germany, A-H, Italy), 1882
Dual Alliance (France, Russia), 1894
Great Powers, cont.
Entente Cordiale (France, Great Britain), 1904. 1907
(France, Great Britain, Russia)
Types of alliances/diplomatic relations between
1879 and 1914? Why were these countries allied?
Did these alliances create a web of interlocking
commitments which led to war?
Great Powers, cont.
 Causes of WWI: Diplomatic ties; militant
nationalism; imperial tensions (Morocco,
Bosnia, Balkan Wars, Military planning).
Moroccan crises of 1905 and 1911
Bosnian crisis, 1908
Balkan wars, 1912-1913
Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
First World War, 1914-1918
How did war start?
What was war about?
What kind of war was it? (Stalemate/trench warfare,
Total War, etc.)
Role of propaganda
Role of Home Front
First World War
What were the major turning points of the
war:
1914 – Battle of Marne
1915 -- Unrestricted submarine warfare,
Gallipoli
1916 -- Verdun, Somme
1917 -- Russia leaves the war US joins it.
End of War
1918 – Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, German
Spring offensive.
Who won the war? Why did they win?
Expectations of victors? Punish Germany,
establish a “new” Europe based on
Wilson’s 14 points (issued in January,
1918).
Russian Revolutions, 1917
Russia during WWI and in the
post-war era:
Political/Social Background:
Types of political parties on the
left: Marxists (Bolsheviks and
Mensheviks, SRs, Anarchists)
Russian Revolutions, 1917Russian Revolution of March, 1917 –
Provisional Government est., Soviets share
power with new PG.
October, 1917 – Storming of the Winter Palace,
beginning of Bolshevik-led revolution
Revolution and Civil War, 1918-1921
Opposing sides: Reds (Bolsheviks, Mensheviks,
SRs, Anarchists) vs. Whites (monarchists,
military, liberals, traditionalists)
Reasons for Bolshevik victory?
Party organization – “What is to be done?”
Cheka – created 1917
Propaganda (Agit-prop) -- Posters, lectures, etc.
Revolutionary Utopia: Winning over the people:
ending the war, promising a new world…
Leadership (Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Zinoviev,
Kamenev, Bukharin).
Red Army -- Trotsky
Aftermath of WWI
Significance of Paris Peace Conference, 1919-1920
(winners and losers, League of Nations, treaties, etc.)
Treaties: Versailles, Trianon, Saint Germain, Sevrès.
New Europe? What did it look like? What had
changed? (Borders, new countries, new political systems,
continuation of “old” politics…)
New Countries: Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Balkan states (Yugoslavia), Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Austria, Poland.
Map of Post-FWW Europe
Aftermath of war, 1919Pros- and Cons- of Post War European
Settlement: Diplomatic arrangements?
Economic conditions? Political
conditions in Victorious
countries/Vanquished countries.
Fate of Imperialism? (Middle East,
Africa, Asia)
Fate of Great Power system
Italy in the post-war era: rise of
fascism (causes and consequences,
1919-1934)
What is fascism? Major ideological
tenets: Statism, Corporatism, AntiEnlightenment, Belief in Violence…
Role of Mussolini (Il Duce)?
Germany
Germany in the post-war era: rise of Nazism,
Weimar interlude.
Communist uprising, 1919
Right-wing coup attempts, 1920,1923.
Define Weimar Republic (dates?) and know
about political, economic, social circumstances
which gave rise to extremist movements.
Weimar Germany, cont.
Ideological/Political features of Nazi
movement to 1934?
Fate of Left-wing movements in Weimar?
Cultural legacy of Weimar (Bauhaus/Mies
van der Rohe, W. Gropius; Art/Otto Dix,
Georg Grosz, Kirchner, Literature/M.
Remarque, H. and T. Mann)
Fascism in Italy and Germany,
1922-1934
Contrasts/comparisons between
Fascism and Nazism.
National and international
policies pursued by Italians and
Germans in interwar period?