The Impact of the War:
 Among the 8-10million people that died from the war, about 2 million Germans, 1.7
million Russians, and 1.7 million Frenchmen. Austria-Hungary lost 1.5milllion, the British
Empire a million, Italy 460,000, and the united States 115,000
 Besides ending over 8 million lives, the war dislocated whole populations, creating
millions of refugees. War and revolution forced hundreds of thousands of Germans and
Hungarians to flee their homes. War also led to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands
of Greeks from Anatolia and Turks from Greece.
 Refugees found shelter in France but the preferred destination was the United States.
-About 800,000 immigrants succeeded in reaching before U.S. immigration laws passed
in 1921 and 1924 closed the door to eastern and southern Europeans. And Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand adopted similar restrictions on immigration
 The latin america republics welcomed European refugee, but their economies were hard
hit by the drop in the prices of their main exports and their poverty discouraged
potential immigrants.
 This influenza epidemic that started as a result of war was no ordinary flu but a virulent
strain that infected almost everyone on earth and killed one person in every forty.
-Caused the largest # of deaths in so short a time in the history of the world. Half a
million Americans died, 30million died worldwide, 20 milliion in India alone.
 War also caused serious damage to the environment
-The fighting ravaged forests and demolished towns, the earth was gouged by trenches,
pitted with crators, and littered with ammunition, broken weapons, chunks of concrete,
and the bones of countless soldiers.
-After the war, it took a decade to clear away the debries, rebuild the towns, and create
dozens of military cemeteries with neat rows of crosses stretching for miles.
 The war also hastened the buildup of industry, with mines, factories,and raildroad tracks
The Peace Treaties:
 The three men who dominated the Paris Peace Conference; United States president
Wilson, British prime minister David Lloyd George, and the French premier Georges
Clemenceau, were (in the words of Britain’s Foreign Secretary) “three all-powerful, allignorant men, sitting there and carving up continents”
 Each one had his own agenda
-Wilson wanted to apply the principle of self determination to European affairs, by
which he meant creating nations that reflected ethnic or linguistic divisions. He
proposed a League of Nations, a world organization to safeguard the peace and foster
international cooperation.
-To satisfy his constituents, Lloyd George insisted that Germany pay a heavy indemnity.
-Clemenceau wanted Germany to give Alsace and Lorrain and the industrial Saar region
to France and demanded that the Rhineland be detached from Germany to form a
buffer state
 The result was a series of compromises that satisfied nobody
-The US Congress refused to let them join the League of Nations. France was unable to
detach the Rhineland and had to content itself with vague promises of British and
American protection if Germany ever rebuilt its army. Britain acquired new territories in
Africa and the Middle East but was greatly weakened y human losses and disruption of
its trade
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The German delegates reluctantly signed the Treaty of Versailles where Germany was
forbidden to have an air force and was permitted only a token army and navy. Allies, like
Poland, made Germany promise to pay reparations, but they did not set a figure or a
period of type for payment.
-This treaty left Germany humiliated but largely intact and potentially the most powerful
nation in Europe. Establishing a peace neither of punishment nor of reconciliation, the
treaty was one of the great failures in history.
Meanwhile, the Austro-Hungarian empire had fallen apart
-In the Treaty of Saint-Germain, Austria and Hungary each lost three-quarters of their
territory.
New countries appeared in the lands lost by Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary
-Poland, resurrected after over a century; Czechoslovakia, created from the northern 3rd
of Austria-Hungary; and Yugoslavia, combining Serbia and the former south Slav
provinces of Austria-Hungary.
These small nations were save only as long as Germany and Russia lay defeated and
prostrate
Russian Civil War and the New Economic Policy:
 The end of the Great War did not bring peace to all of Europe and fighting continued in
Russia for another 3 years.
 The Bolshevik Revolution had provoked Allied intervention; French troops occupied
Odessa in the south, the British and Americans landed in archangel and Murmansk in
the north and the Japanese occupied Vladivostok in the Far East. Liberated Czech
prisoners of war briefly seized the Trans-Siberian Railway.
 Civil war also broke out in Russia
-For 3 years, the two sides (Communists and Allies) fought each other. They burned
farms, and confiscated crops, causing a famine that claimed 3 million victims, more than
that had died in Russian 7 years of fighting.
 By 1921, the Communists had defeated most of their enemies. Their victory was also
due to the superior discipline of their Red Army, and the military genius of their army
commander, Leon Trotsky.
 The Red Army reconquered other parts of the tsar’s empire one by one except for
Finland, the Baltic States, and Poland.
 Ukraine Communists, the provinces of the Russian empire in the Caucasus and Central
Asia all declared independence
 Although the Bolsheviks staunchly supported anti colonialist movements in Africa and
Asia, they opposed what they called “feudalism” in the former Russian colonies. Also,
they were eager to control the oil in both regions.
 In 1920-21 the Red Army reconquered the Caucasus and replaced the indigenous
leaders with Russians.
 Years of warfare, revolution, and mismanagement ruined the Russian economy
-It had declined to 1/6th of its prewar level. Factories and railroads had shut down for
lack of fuel, raw materials, and parts. Farmland had been devastated and livestock
killed, causing hunger in the cities. Finding himself master of a country in ruin, Lenin
decided to release the economy from party and government control.
-In March 1921 he announced the New Economic Policy that allowed peasants to own
land and sell their crop, private merchants to trade, and private workshops to produce
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goods and sell them on the free market. Only the biggest businesses, such as banks,
railroads, and factories, remained under government ownership.
The relaxation of controls had an immediate effect
-Production began to climb, and food and other goods became available. In the cities,
food remained scarce because farmers used their crops to feed their livestock rather
than sell them.
NEP reflected no change in the ultimate goals of the communist party. It merely
provided breathing space
The communists had every intention of creating a modern industrial economy without
private property, under party guidance
-This meant investing in heavy industry and electrification and moving farmers to the
cities to work in the new industries. It also meant providing food for the urban workers
without spending scarce resources to purchase it from the peasants. In other words, it
meant making the peasants pay for the industrialization of Russia. This turned them into
bitter enemies of the Communists
When Lenin died in January 1924, his associates jockeyed for power
-The leading contenders with Leon Trotsky, commander of the Red Army, and Joseph
Stalin, general secretary of the Communist Party. Trotsky had the support of many “Old
Bolsheviks” who had joined the party before the revolution. Having spent years in exile,
he saw the revolution as a spark that would ignite a world revolution of the working
class. Stalin, the only leading Communist insisted that socialism would survive “in one
country”
Stalin had Trotsky expelled and as the absolute master of the party, he prepared to
industrialize the Soviet Union at breakneck speed.
An Ephemeral Peace:
 Conservatives in Britain and France longed for a return to the stability of the pre-war era
-The hierarchy of social classes, prosperous world trade and European dominance over
the rest of the world
 Elsewhere, all over the world, people’s hopes had been raised by the rhetoric of the
war, then dashed by its outcome
 Germans felt cheated out of a victory that had seemed within their grasp, and Italians
were disappointed that their sacrifices had not been rewarded at Versailles with large
territorial gains.
 Asia, Arabs, and Indians longed for independence, Chinese looked for social justice and a
lessening of foreign intrusion, and the Japanese hoped to expand their influence to
China.
 In Russia, the Communists were eager to consolidate their power and export their
revolution to the rest of the world
 The decade after the end of war was divided into 2 distinct periods: 5 years of painful
recovery and readjustment, followed by 6 years of growing peace and prosperity
 German government began printing money recklessly in retaliation toward the French
for occupying Ruhr, causing the most severe inflation the world has ever seen and soon
German money was worth very little
-Radical nationalists soon tried to overthrow the German government
 Finally, German government issued a new currency and promised to resume reparation
payments, and the French agreed to withdraw their troops from Ruhr.
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Beginning of 1924, the world enjoyed a few years of calm and prosperity
-Western European nations became less confrontational, and Germany joined the
League of Nations
-The vexed issue of reparations also seemed to vanish, as Germany borrowed money
from New York banks to make its payments to France and Britain. This triangular flow of
money, based on credit, stimulated the rapid recovery of European economies.
-France began rebuilding its war-torn northern zone, Germany recovered from its
hyperinflation, and in the United States a boom began that was to last over 5 years.
While their economies flourished, governments grew more cautious and businesslike
In 1922 the Communists signed a secret pact allowing the German army to conduct
maneuvers in Russia in exchange for German help in building up Russian industry and
military potential.
The League of Nations proved adept at resolving numerous technical issues pertaining
to health, labor relations, and postal and telegraph communications, but only when the
great powers (Britain, France, and Italy) were in agreement.
Without US Participation, sanctions against states that violated League rules carried
little weight
Social and Economic Change:
 China’s population (400 million in 1900) was the largest in the world and growing fast
○ China had little new land for cultivation
○ In 1900 peasant plots averaged between 1 and 4 acres-half as large as they used to be
○ Farming hasn’t changed for centuries
○ Landlords and tax collectors took more than half of the harvest
○ Survived on grain and vegetables
○ Feared floods, bandits and tax collectors
 Constant labor was needed to prevent the Yellow river from bursting its dikes and flooding
○ Between 1913 and 1938 the river burst its dikes 17 times killing thousands of people,
millions lost their homes
 Japan had few natural resources and little land to grow food for rising population
○ Had regular typhoons south
○ Earthquakes
○ The Kanto earthquake of 1923 destroyed all of Yokohama and half of Tokyo and killed as
many as 200,000
 Chinese society divided into groups
○ Landowners lived off the rents of their tenants
○ Officials (chosen through elaborate exam system) enriched themselves from taxes and
the government’s monopolies on salt, iron and other products
○ Wealthy merchants handled trade with foreign companies
○ Shanghai (financial and commercial center) was famous from its wealth foreigners and
its opium addicts, prostitutes and gagsters
 Contact with the outside world had big impact on Chinese politics
○ Young men in treaty ports saw no chance for advancement in the old system of
examinations and official positions
○ Some learned foreign ideas in Christian mission schools or abroad
○ Enclaves in the treaty ports sharpened the resentment of educated Chinese
 Japan’s population reached 60 million in 1925 and was increasing a million a year
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○ The crash program of industrialization accelerated during the first world war when
Japan exported textiles, consumer goods and munitions
○ In the war years its economy grew 4x faster than western Europe’s, 8x faster than
China’s
In the 1880s Japan became competitive early on-electrification
○ Japan expanded its hydroelectric capacity because of its rainy climate and fast-flowing
rivers
○ By mid 1930s, 89% of Japanese households had electric lights (68 % US and 44% British)
Economic growth aggravated social tensions
○ The Narikin (new rich) effected Western ways and lifestyles that clashed with the
austerity of earlier times
○ In big cities modern boys and girls (mobos and mobas) shocked traditionalist with their
foreign ways: dancing together, wearing short skirts and tight pants, acting like Americans
○ Students who flirted with dangerous were called Marx boys
Main beneficiaries of prosperity were the zaibastu: controlled most of Japan’s industry and
commerce
○ Farmers (half of the population) remained poor, they sold their daughters to textile mills
or into domestic service
○ Labor unions were weak and repressed of the labor force
Japanese prosperity depended on foreign trade and imperialism in Asia
○ Country exported silk and imported almost all of its fuel, raw materials and machine
tools (some food).
○ Japan was more vulnerable to swings in economy
Revolution and War, 1900-1918
 In 1900 China’s Empress Dowager Cixi encouraged a secret society (Righteous Fists/Boxers)
to rise up and expel all foreigners
○ When the Boxer’s threatened the foreign legation in Beijing Japan captured the city and
forced China to pay a huge indemnity
○ Chinese students were convinced that China needed a revolution to get ride of the Qing
and modernize the country
 Cizi died in 1908 and the Revolutionary Alliance led by Sun Yat-sen prepared to take over
○ Spent time in Japan, England and US plotting to overthrow the Qing dynasty
○ Ideas were a mixture of nationalism, socialism and Confucianism
 Military stopped Sun’s plans
○ After China lost the war with Japan in 1895 the government equipped the army with
modern rifles and machine guns
○ With traditional regionally autonomy and modern tactics and equipment led to the
creation of local armies: local generals-warlords
○ When the regional army mutinies in October 1911 Yuan Shikai refused to defend the
Qing
○ Sun elected as president of China in December 1911
○ Sun had no military forces so to avoid clash with the army he resigned after a few weeks
and Yuan was elected president
 Yuan had no political program
○ Sun organized his followers into a political party called Guomindang
○ Yuan didn’t want a western style government and harassed Sun’s followers
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Japanese were quick to join the Allied side in World War 1
○ Saw war as an opportunity to advance their interest wile Europeans were occupied
○ War created an economic boom-Japanese products in greater demand
○ Created hardships for workers who rioted when the cost of rice rose faster than their
wages
Japanese conquered German colonies then turned attention to rest of China
○ In 1915 Japan presented China with 21 demands
○ Britain and US persuaded Japan to soften demands but couldn’t prevent it from keeping
the German coastal enclaves and extracting railroad and mining concessions at China’s
expense
○ Anti-Japanese riots and boycotts broke out throughout China
Chinese Warlords and the Guomindang, 1919-1929
 At the Paris Conference, the great powers went along with Japan’s seizure of German
enclaves in China
 Chinese students demonstrated in front of the Forbidden City of Beijing. Despite the
government ban, May Fourth spread through regions of of China. A new generation was
growing up to challenge the old officials, and the regional generals and the foreigners.
 China’s regional generals supported their armies through plunder and arbitrary taxation.
They frightened off trade and investment in railroads. Industry and agricultural
improvement.
 They fought one another and protected the gangsters who ran the opium trade. During the
warlord era, China grew poorer and only the treaty ports prospered
 Sun yat-sen tried to revive Canton (Guangzhou) in early 1920s. Not a Communist, he
impressed efficiency of Lenin’s revolutionary tactics and let a Soviet adviser reorganize the
Guomindang along Lenist lines.
 Jiang Jieshie (aka Chiang Kaishek in the West) replaced Sun. He trained hundreds of military
officers and in 1927 he crushed the regional warlords.
 His army moved north from its base in Canton and he briefly formed an alliance with the
Communists. When he occupied Shnagai, he allied himself with gangers to crush labor
unions and decimate the Communitsts, whom he considered a threat. He then defeated or
co-opted most of the other warlords and established a dictatorship
 Chiang’s government issued ambitiouts plans to build railroads, develop agriculture and
industry, and modernize China
 His followers were niether competent administrators nor ruthless modernizers like the
Russian Bolsheviks.
 The government attracted thousands of opportunists whose goal was to become an official
and get rich” by taxing and plundering business. In the countryside, tax collectors and
landowners squeezed the peasants even harder, even druing natural disasters.
 China remained in poverty after the Qing, cause of corrupt officials and the whims of nature.
The Mandate System
 The Paris Conference proposed the division of former colonies of the Ottomans
between France, Italy, Britain, and Japan, but President Wilson’s ideas clashed and
made the Mandate system
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Colonial rulers would administer the territories but would be accountable to the League
of the Nations for the “material and moral well-being and the social progress of
inhabitants.”
Class C Mandates- those of smallest population- where treated as colonies. South
African replaced Germans in Southwest Africa.
Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan took German islands.
Class B was larger than Class C but was still undeveloped and was used to be ruled for
the benefit of their inhabitants under League of Nations supervision. They were to
receive autonomy at some unspecified time in the future. Most of Germany’s colonies
fell in Class B
Arab-speaking territories of the old Ottoman Empire were Class A Mandates. League of
Nations said they had “reached a state of development where their existence as
independent nations could be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of
administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory, until such time as they were able
to stand alone”
Arabs thought this was a promise of independence. Britain and France sent troops to
reign “for the benefit of its inhabitants”
Palestine, Israel, and Iraq became British mandates. Syria and Lebanon became French
mandates
Rise of Modern Turkey
As Ottomans were about to collapse, France, Britain, and Italy saw an opportunity to
expand their empires, and Greece eyed those parts of Anatolia inhabited by Greeks.
Eventually, all countries occupied Constantinople and Anatolia. By the Treaty of Sevres,
the Allies made sultan give up most of his land
1919 Mustafa Kemal formed a nationalist government in central Anatolia with some
army officers. They conquered Anatolia and the areas around Constantinople in 1922.
Turks forced over 100,000 Greeks leave from their ancestral homes in Anatolia, making
the Greek government expel all Muslims from Greece. The ethnic diversity in this
country ended
Kemal was able to impose changes on his people really fast. He was eager to bring
Turkey to Europe as quickly as possible. He abolished the sultanate, and in 1923 he
declared Turkey a secular republic
In a radical break with Islamic tradition, he suppressed Muslim courts, schools, and
religious orders and replaced the Arabic alphabet with Latin alphabet.
Kemal attempted to westernize the traditional Turkish family. Women received civil
equality, including right to vote and elected to the national assembly. He forbade
polygamy and instituted civil marriage/divorce.
He changed people’s clothing, discouraging women from veiling the faces and replacing
the fez until then the traditional Turkish men’s hat, with the European brimmed hat.
He ordered everyone to take a family name. His was Ataturk (“father of the Turks”)
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His reforms spread quickly in the cities; but people resisted in rural areas with lamic
traditions.
Arab Lands and the Question of Palestine
 The Arabs didn’t like the Mandate system. It set off many rebellions and was viewed at
foreign occupation rather than liberation.
 After World War I, Middle Eastern society went through dramatic changes. Nomads
disappeared as trucks replaced camel caravans. the population grew fast (increased by
50% from 1914 to 1939, some cities doubled) and peasants moved to cities.
 The urban mercantile middle class adopted Western ideas, customs and styles of
housing and clothing.
 Sons were sent to European secular/mission schools, then to Western colleges in Cairo
and Beirut or universities abroad, to prepare for jobs in government and business
 Few educated elites were women who became schoolteachers or nurses. There were
great variations. Ranging from Lebanon, with its strong French influence, to Arabia and
Iran, which retained the diverse cultural traditions
 Marghrib (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco) was the closest contact with Europe. The
French army considered Maghrib its private domain. The French built neighborhoods
inhabited by Europeans.
 France had Algeria since 1830 and encourages European immigration. The settlers
owned the best lands and monopolized the government jobs and business while Arabs
and Berbers remained poor and suffered intense discrimination. Nationalism was
appearing only before World War II, and settlers quickly blocked any attempt at reform
 British tried to control the Middle East with Bribery and intimidation. They put Faisal,
leader of Arab Revolt, as king in Syria, but was soon ousted by French and was later
made king of Iraq
 British used bombers to quell rural insurrections in Iraq. 1931, they reached an
agreement with King Faisal’s government: official independence for Iraq in exchange for
the right to keep two air bases, a military alliance, and an assured flow of petroleum.
Meanwhile, France sent thousands of troops to Syria and Lebanon to crush nationalist
uprisings
 In Egypt, British substituted a phony independence for official colonialism. They
declared Egypt independent in 1922 but kept rights to station troops along Suez Canal
to secure links with India.
 Wafd (Nationalist) party tried to remove Egyptian troops from Sudan ( the ‘colony’ of
Egypt)
 Britain was successful in keeping Egypt in Limbo-neither independent nor a colonycause of King Farouk and Egyptian politicians who feared both secular and religious
radicalism
 Palestine became a British Mandate and Jewish immigrants began to arrive, encouraged
by the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
 Most stayed in cities, but some bought land for kibbutzim, or communal farms.
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Their goals were to become self-sufficient and reestablish their ties to the land of their
ancestors. The purchases of land by Jewish agencies angered the indigenous
Palestinians, especially tenant farmers who had been evicted to make room for settlers
1920-1921 riots erupted between Jews and Arabs. Increasing number of Jews lead to
the limit the immigration. This lead to Jews arriving without papers, smuggled in militant
Zionist organizations. In 1930’s the country was torn by strikes and guerilla warfare that
the British could not control. This earned Britain the hatred of both sides and the Arab
world.
Class and gender
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After the war, class distinctions began to fade
Many aristocrats died in the war and they lost their dominance of the army,
diplomatic corps and other sectors of society
US and Canada’s classes weren’t as elaborate or defined as Europe
During and after the war, displaying wealth and privilege was unpatriotic
Engineers, businessmen and lawyers rose to prominence which increased the
importance of the middle class
Activities of govs expanded during and after the war. They provided houses,
highways, schools, public health facilities, broadcasting, etc. this created a need for
thousands more bureaucrats. Department stores, banks, insurance companies and
other businesses increased the white collar work force
Womens lives changed rapidly in the 1920s. Even though the war was over, some
women remained in the work force as wage earners and salary professionals. The
young and wealthy had more personal freedoms than their mothers before the war.
They drove cars, played sports, traveled alone, and smoked in public. Their fashion
also changed after the war
Others found the war brought more suffering than liberation. Many women lost
family members in the war or the flu epidemic. Shortage of young men caused many
women to lead lives of loneliness
Suffragates in Europe and US had demanded voting for women since 1890s. New
Zealand was the only place where women could vote. Women in Norway were the
first to obtain it in Europe in 1915, Russia followed, then Canada and Germany, and
it was later extended to younger women
The 19th amendment in the US granted women the right to vote in 1920. Most other
countries didn’t grant it til 1945
In dictatorships, women voting made no difference and in democratic ones, women
voted like their male relatives
In the British election of 1915 women overwhelmingly voted for conservative party.
Their influence in politics was less radical everywhere else but it was still a potent
symbol
Revolution in the sciences
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A revolution in physics undermined all old certainties about nature. Physicists
discovered that were not invisible but consisted of small subatomic particles. Max
Planck found that light and energy travel in units called quanta. What really
undermined newton physics was the theory of relativity developed by Einstein. He
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announced that time, space, and mass are not fixed but relative to each other. Other
physicists said light was made of waves or particles and that an experiment could
determine either the speed or position of a particle of light(not both)
To nonscientists it seemed that formulas were replacing common sense and truth.
The new physics promised to unlock secrets of matter and provide plentiful sources
of energy
The new social sciences were even more unsettling for they challenged Victorian
morality, mid class values and notions of western superiority. Sigmund Freud
developed a technique-psychoanalysis- to probe the minds of his patients. He found
rationality as well as hidden layers of emotion and desires repressed by social
restraints
Sociologists and anthropologists began the study of societies. Before the war French
sociologist Emile Durkheim said that all religions are true in their own way
Cultural relativism, as the new approach was called, was as unnerving as relativity
in physics
Wartime experiences called into question the west’s faith in reason and progress.
Some accepted the new ideas with enthusiasm while others condemned and
rejected them, clinging to the sense of order and faith in progress
The new technologies of modernity
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New tech caused almost universal excitement. Even working class could afford some
of the new products of scientific research. Mass consumption lagged in Europe but
the tech was just as advanced and fascination with the latest inventions- the cult of
the modern- was just as strong
Airplanes attracted the most public interest. In 1903 the Wright brothers built the
first aircraft that could be maneuvered. In the 1920s aviation became a sport and
form of entertainment. The most celebrate were Amelia earhart- first women to fly
over atlantic, Richard byrd- first to fly over north pole, and Charles Lindbergh- first
to fly over the atlantic
The first home use of electricity was for lighting, then having persuaded people to
wire their homes, electrical utilities joined manufactures in advertising electric
irons, fans, washing machines, hot plates and other electric appliances
Radio(called wireless telegraphy) was by ships and the military during the war as a
means of communication. After the war amateurs used surplus radio equipment to
talk to one another. The first station began broadcasting in Pittsburgh in 1920. In
1923 there were 600 stations in US. 1930- 12 mil families owned radios. Radio
spread slowly in Europe because the gov reserved airwaves for cultural and official
programs and taxed radio owners
Film also spread explosively. Motion pictures began in France in 1985. In the US film
making started at almost the same time, but US wanted to entertain the audience
while Europe wanted to preserve stage plays. While competing for audiences, they
looked to cinematic innovation, broad humor, and exciting spectacles
Diversity was a hallmark in the early film industry. After WWI film making
flourished in Japan, India, turkey, Egypt, and Hollywood. American and European
movie studios were both successful in exporting films since silent movies presented
no language problems. Then the US introduced the first “talking” film(the Jazz
Singer) which changed all the rules. The number of Americans who went to see films
rose dramatically. Europe had the tech and art but not the wealth or huge market of
the US
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Health and hygiene were also a part of the cult of minority. Advances in medicine
saved many lives. Wounds were disinfected and x rays indentified fractures.
Scientists knew that disease causing bacteria could be transmitted through spoiled
food, contaminated water, and fecal matter. After the war, cities built water supply
and sewage treatment systems. By the 1920s indoor plumbing and flush toilets were
becoming common
Interest in cleanliness altered private life. Doctors bombarded women with
warnings and advice on how to banish germs. Women’s magazines were filled with
advertisements on how to keep their house clean
Technology and the environment
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The skyscraper and automobile transformed the urban environment more than
railroads did. At the end of the 19th century, architects had begun to design even
higher buildings using steel frames and passenger elevators. Corporations in
Chicago and new York competed to build the most daring buildings in the world.
The empire state building was built in 1932
European cities restricted the heights of their buildings to protect their architectural
heritage. Paris forbade building over 56 feet high. In innovative designs, European
architects lead the way. Swiss architect Charles edouard jeanneret(le Corbusier)
outlined a new approach with simplicity of form, absence of surface ornamentation,
easy manufacture and inexpensive materials. He designed the main buildings of
Chandigarh(capital of the Indian state of punjab). Other architects advanced his
lines of thought and added their own to create the International style
Central business districts were reaching for the sky while outlying areas were
spreading far out into the countryside thanks to the automobile. The assembly line
made by henry ford mass produced vehicles in even greater volume and at falling
prices. In 1929 the US had 1 car for every 5 peoples. Automobiles were praised as
the solution to urban population. As cars replaced horse carriages, horses and
manure began to disappear from city streets
Most important effect of automobiles was suburban sprawl. Families could live in
single family homes spread too far apart to be served by public transportation.
Paved roads rivaled railroads in length and in the surface they occupied. As families
bought cars, cities acquired suburbs. LA the first true automobile city had suburbs
over hundreds of square miles. In the sections where street car lines went out of
business, the automobile became a necessity for commuters. Many saw LA as the
portent of a future when everybody would have a car. Only a few foresaw the
pollution
Tech advances also transformed the rural environment as well. Car owners
developed an interest in motoring- driving their vehicles out into the country on
weekends or holidays. Farmers began to buy to cars and light trucks using them to
transport produce and passengers. Govs obliged by making new roads and paving
old ones
Horses were used to pull plows, reapers and power threshing machines and only the
rich could afford the slow and costly steam tractor. 1915- ford introduced a gasoline
powered tractor and in the mid 1920s they began replacing horses. Large farms
benefitted the most while small farms sold their land and moved to cities. Tractors
transformed ag from family enterprises to large agribusinesses
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In India, Australia and west US; lands with little rain, engineers built dams and
canals to irrigate dry lands. The benefits-land, food, and electricity- outweighed the
consequences-salt deposits and harm to wildlife