1. Women gained a variety of rights during the time period between the wars, what did
they gain and how did they gain it?
Women won the right to vote in the United States with the 19th Amendment to the
Constitution, ratified in 1920. That meant more than 26 million new voters could head to the
election booth. Candidates and political parties sought women’s support; the impact was seen
in legislation and policies that improved working conditions and wages for women, terms of
inheritance, and divorce settlements. Some families maintained a middle-class income by
adding an extra wage earner. Despite widespread unemployment during the Depression years,
the number of married women in the workforce actually increased.
During the time between the two Great Wars, specifically the Roaring Twenties, the
societies in America and other parts of the world changed comprehensively. One of the
significant aspects of the social change was the rising status of women, including working
opportunity and suffrage.
Between the wars, women in America and other parts of the world gained the
opportunity to work on tasks originally done by men. A large part of this was due to the lack
of labour forces in World War 1, where males were mostly on the battlefields. Although
many women left their jobs after the war, many industries and professions still opened up for
women later.
Not only did women get working opportunities, but many of them also gained the
right to vote. During World War 1, many feminist shelved their suffrage movement to
support the war through being humanitarian workers, physicians, nurses, etc. Eventually,
their honorable actions convinced many people, including governors, that female citizens
deserve the right to vote.
To conclude, women gain a lot of rights and opportunities during the time between
the two Great Wars. Without their great efforts, nations wouldn’t be able to maintain their
power, prosperity, or even progress in women rights.
2. In America, the roaring twenties dominated the time period between WW1 and
WW2. Explain what life is like in America during the Roaring 20s and later crashing
down with the Great Depression. How did America and the world get out of the great
depression?
Peacetime prosperity raised the standard of living for millions. Assembly lines and
mass production were technological advances that brought down the prices of consumer
goods. The cost of owning a car decreases, and many families could afford a car. Spending
on public education increases. Millions of women found themselves able to vote for the first
time. Life is much easier and the Americans were making more money compared to before.
As a result, they start investing their money on the stock market. The stock prices started to
rise crazily, which eventually led to a crash in the stock market and a huge economic
collapse. This is the start of the Great Depression.
During the Great Depression, lots of factories shot down. About a quarter of the U.S.
workforce was unemployed. upper-middle class professionals, such as doctors and lawyers,
saw their incomes drop by as much as 40 percent. The stress of financial strain took a
psychological toll—especially on men who were suddenly unable to provide for their
families. The national suicide rate rose to an all-time high in 1933. Crime rate rises.
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and
regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933
and 1939. The government aimed to provide more job opportunities. It did help the economy
to a certain extent. However, what really brought the United states and the world out of the
Great Depression is World War 2. In the short term, fighting a war usually helps a country’s
economy. Since when a country is under war, there must be people fighting the war, and
there also must be people making the weapons for the war. In other words, job opportunities
temporarily rise. This is exactly what happened to the countries during world war
2.Unemployed people went on becoming soldiers, engineers and had a job. Also during
wartime patriotism rises and people work harder since it’s, from their point of view, for the
country.
In 1929, due to the financial panic towards the loan market, the already-risky stock
market completely crashed within a month, causing investors to lose large amounts of capital.
Bankruptcy started to occur frequently, and the unemployment rate steeply increased.
Millions of people lost their jobs and had miserable conditions of living, such as sleeping on
the bench outside and lining up for food or unemployment compensation.
The Great Depression lasted for a few years, and the economy wasn’t recovered until
the New Deal, a collection of economic and social programs prompted by the Roosevelt
Administration. Under the policy, new legislations were used to regulate the market, protect
bank deposits, and government programs created new jobs for those unemployed labourers.
Gradually, the United States and other parts of the world got out from the shadow of the
Great Depression.
4. the apartheid system in south africa was put in place in 19xx explain what it is and
why is it important for us to study
Since 1910, whites in South Africa imposed an unofficial system of racial
segregation, widening the economic, social, and political gap between whites and colored. In
1948, apartheid became law, along the arrival of Apartheid System, which aimed for a
complete racial segregation, Although it was already ended in the early 1990s, it still has
long-lasting impact to the economy and society of South Africa and should be a reminder for
the present and future generation to not make the same mistake again.
The Apartheid System separate whites and colored, or non-white on almost every
aspects of life. For example, they banned marriage between the two races, restricted the areas
for non-whites to hold properties and set public facilities in different zones. These measures
brought absolutely unfair treatment between whites and non-whites.
Not only did it casted consequences during the imposing periods, but the impact of
the system still lasted to modern-day South African societies. In terms of economic status, the
economic preference towards whites during the apartheid caused most of the income and
wealth be controlled in the their hands, and this economic inequality hasn’t decreased yet. In
addition to that, the unsanitary environment of the living condition of the non-whites led by
the apartheid is still one of the unsolvable problems in South Africa. Due to the requirement
of segregation, the whites gained large numbers of lands from suburban and rural areas,
whereas non-whites were assigned to the houses made by scrap metals in urban areas.
Overall, although the Apartheid System was abolished in the 1990s, its long-lasting
impact still affects the contemporary South African citizens. As a bitter experience in human
history, it is important that no more policies like that will occur ever again.
6. Science, art and literature all had significant advancement during this time. Some
had a big impact on the impending war while others changed the culture forever.
Explain these impacts and use examples to elaborate on them.
The art of this period was polarized, as movements like Dada and Surrealism
responded to the unprecedented death toll of World War I by embracing absurdity,
irrationalism, and the unconscious, while other artists “returned to order” by painting in more
classical styles.
Quantum mechanics, which led to the expansion of physics into the core of the atom
and the growth and strengthening of the discipline. These important developments in
scientific inquiry into the micro-world and light have turned historical attention away from
other significant historical processes and from other equally important causes for the
expansion of physics. (atomic weapons are being investigated)
In literature, ideas of utopia and dystopia became the trend of the time, along with
modernist satires that mocked the society during the interwar period. Writers also wrote
novels criticizing the policy and the failure of government. (Animal Farm is a classic novella
that satires the society under communism.)
The Spanish Civil War(Summary)
On April 14, 1931 the Spanish monarchy was declared overthrown and a provisional
government took power. In the ensuing years, the government became increasingly divided
between the socialists of the extreme left and the monarchists of the extreme right. In the
elections of February 1936 the left won a clear majority. The right reacted with fervor.
Generals Goded, Mola, and Francisco Franco disagreed with the leftist efforts at army
reform, and viewed with distaste the violence and anarchy which reigned in the streets of
Spain. They decided to overthrow the government.
Mola organized for military action in Pamplona, while Franco traveled to Morocco to
lead the African installment of the Spanish army against the republic. The military
Nationalists pronounced their intentions on July 17, 1936. The rebels stirred by the
Nationalists were easily defeated in many cities where the loyal Civil Guard was present.
However, in cities unprotected by the Civil Guard, the Nationalists took control quickly, in
many cases aided by supplies from Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. The Republicans,
aided by the Soviet Union, consolidated support for the republic, and by May 1937 were
entrenched in defensive positions in a triangle of cities with the points in Madrid, Valencia,
and Barcelona.
The Republicans tried to turn their rag-tag militia into an effective fighting force,
beginning in October 1936 with the creation of the Popular Army, which, while better
organized than the militias, was chronically short of arms and ammunition, and was beset by
incompetent junior officers and political factions within the ranks. With only limited support
from France, and none at all from Britain, The Spanish Republicans turned to the Soviet
Union for support. Soviet tanks, superior to the German Mark IIs, arrived in October, along
with advanced aircraft and Soviet military advisors. One source of support for the
Republicans was the presence of the International Brigades. These groups of leftist volunteers
were made up mostly of workers, who volunteered out of boredom, disillusionment, or a
desire for adventure as often as genuine political idealism. The protagonist of Ernest
Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is such an international brigadier. However, this
support was not enough.
On April 25, 1937, the small northern town of Guernica was bombed by the
Nationalists, and civilians were gunned down as they fled the scene. In this brutal massacre
1500 died and 800 were wounded, but the military targets in the town remained intact. As the
bloody conflict escalated, the Republican government fell prey to corruption and faction, and
support and organization steadily waned. Under the barrage of nationalist attack Barcelona
fell, during January 1939. Catalonia fell during February, and Valencia and Madrid collapsed
by the end of March. Franco's ensuing rein was one of oppression and tradition. He
imprisoned and many upon coming to power--up to a million according to some estimates.
Many fled Spain, becoming refugees and awaiting the toppling of the Franco government.
They would wait for 36 years, for Franco remained in power until his death in 1975.
Nazi and the Cause of Totaitarianism
There are many explanations for why Hitler was able to come to power in Germany.
The first focuses on the evil genius of Hitler himself. He was a master of demagoguery,
practicing his oratorical skills in front of the mirror for hours at a time. A skilled manipulator,
he played the masses, the government, and the media perfectly, creating a party that reached
into every aspect of German life. A second explanation contends that the German people
were in a situation that made totalitarianism possible. Germans were deeply ashamed of their
loss in World War One, and the German state was devastated by the war and the Treaty of
Versailles, which mandated vast reparations payments. Soldiers returned from the war to
rampant unemployment and general misery. The German people, with a history of antiSemitism, found it much easier to blame the defeat on the Jews and socialists than
themselves. Hitler provided this scapegoat, and claimed that if only the Germans could expel
the Jews, the state could return to its past glory. The German state had a long tradition of
authoritarian government, and many Germans associated the liberalization of that
government with the outbreak of war, and more importantly, the devastation of the post-war
period. Many sought a return to the old ways, believing that modern, liberal beliefs had
sacrificed German honor and allowed the state to depreciate in the name of freedom. Hitler
offered not freedom, but rather security. He promised to take action to improve the economy,
and return German national pride, and the masses, in most cases, were happy to grant him the
ultimate power he needed to do so.
Hitler's political program was a vague collection of promises that led each societal
group to believe it would be the primary beneficiary of the Nazi government. He promised
relief for the unemployed, protection of private property against the communist threat, profits
for large businesses, and survival for small businesses. These promises addressed the most
important reason for Hitler's ascent to power: the economic depression that wracked Germany
during the interwar periods. This is demonstrated most clearly by the lack of growth in the
Nazi Party between 1925 and 1928, a period of relative prosperity during which the Party
actually lost three seats in the Reichstag. Luckily for Hitler, the 1930s brought depression to
Germany, and one out of every two German families was affected by unemployment. As the
leader of the frustrated and disillusioned, Hitler reaped the political benefits.
Hitler's consolidation of power mirrored Benito Mussolini's in many ways, as Hitler
manipulated President Hindenburg into granting him legal dictatorial power, one step at a
time, so as to legitimize the rise of the Third Reich. Hitler had used corruption and
intimidation to get what he wanted, and he had gotten away with it, due in part to the legality
of many of his actions under concessions made by Hindenburg.
Hitler's government was the ultimate example of totalitarianism. The swastika, it's
symbol, could be seen all over Germany. Its ideology could be read in pamphlets, or in the
newspaper every day. The Ministry of Propaganda exerted total control over the media,
playing a large role in the production and direction of movies, and monitoring every image
and thought shown or expressed to the German people, all the while gauging their response
and adjusting the propaganda attack accordingly. During the twelve-year reign of the Third
Reich, Germany had one police officer for every 155 citizens, serving as enforcers of the
system of total control. The Nazi Party controlled and defined Germany, and was in turn
controlled and defined by Hitler.