The Crisis of the Imperial Order1900-1929

Origins of Crisis in Europe & Middle East

• Ottoman Empire in decline

• losing provinces closest to Europe

• “Young Turks” forced constitution, advocated centralized rule & “Turkification” of minorities

• Carried out modernization

Causes of World War I

• Military Strategy-Inflexible mobilization plans

• Alliances• Imperialism• Nationalism

The “Great War” & Russian Revolutions 1914–1918

• All entered war confident

• German victory seemed assured, but it faltered-formed an unbroken line of trenches (the Western Front) from North Sea to Switzerland

• Troops ordered to charge across open fields-cut down by machine-gun fire

• Four Year Stalemate

The Home Front & War Economy

• governments imposed controls • Rationing & recruitment of Africans,

Indians, Chinese & women into European labor force transformed civilian life

• German civilians paid high price because of British naval blockade

• British & French forces overran Germany’s African colonies (except for Tanganyika)

• Europeans requisitioned food, imposed heavy taxes, forced Africans to grow export crops and sell them at low prices, & recruited African men to serve as soldiers & porters

• U.S. businesses grew rich by selling goods to Britain and France

The Ottoman Empire at War

• Turks signed secret alliance w/ Germany

• unsuccessful campaigns against Russia

• deported Armenians (causing deaths of hundred of thousands), closed Dardanelles Straits

• British tried to subvert Ottoman Empire- promised emir Hussein ibn Ali of Mecca a kingdom to lead revolt against Turks-he did in 1916

• Balfour Declaration suggested British would “view with favor” the establishment of Jewish national homeland in Palestine

Double Revolution in Russia, 1917• By late 1916, large but weak

Russian army experienced numerous defeats

• civilian economy in collapse• cities faced shortages of fuel &

food • In March 1917, tsar overthrown &

replaced by Provisional Government

• On November 6, 1917 Bolsheviks staged uprising in Petrograd & overthrew Provisional Government.

The End of War in Western Europe 1917–1918

• German resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare brought US into war-April 1917

• Germans broke through & pushed within 40 miles of Paris. Allies counterattacked in August 1918

• Germans retreated; armistice signed on November 11

Peace & Dislocation in Europe 1919–1929

• 8-10 million died in war• millions of refugees,

many fled to France & US• US passed immigration

laws-closed doors to east & south Europeans

• Influenza epidemic of 1918–1919-among soldiers headed for West Front-spread around the world, killing 20 million people

• War caused serious damage to environment

The Peace Treaties• Three men dominated the Paris

Peace Conference: U.S. President Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and French Premier Georges Clemenceau

• Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany-left largely intact & potentially the most powerful nation in Europe

• Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart

• New countries created in lands lost by Russia, Germany, & Austria-Hungary

Russian Civil War & the New Economic Policy

• In Russia, Allied intervention/ civil war extended fighting for 3 years

• By 1922, Soviet republic of Ukraine & Russia merged- created Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

• In 1921, Lenin’s New Economic Policy helped to restore production-relaxed government controls/allowed return of market economics

• Regarded as temporary-would be superseded as Soviet Union built a modern, socialist, industrial economy by extracting resources from peasants to pay for industrialization

• Lenin died in January 1924-power struggle ensued between Leon Trotsky & Joseph Stalin

• Stalin filled bureaucracy with his supporters, expelled Trotsky-forced him to flee the country

An Ephemeral Peace

• 1920s were decade of dissatisfaction among people whose hopes had been raised by rhetoric of war and dashed by its outcome

• In 1923, French occupation of the Ruhr and severe inflation brought Germany to the brink of civil war.

• Currency reform and French withdrawal from the Ruhr marked the beginning of a period of peace and economic growth beginning in 1924.

China and Japan: Contrasting Destinies

• China:• rapid population growth• unfavorable ratio of population to arable land• avaricious landlords and tax collectors• devastating floods of Yellow River• Chinese society divided among many groups: landowners, wealthy merchants, and

foreigners, whose luxurious lives aroused resentment of educated, young, urban Chinese

• Japan: • few natural resources-little arable land• earthquakes, tsunamis• Industrialization/economic growth aggravated social tensions • Japanese prosperity depended on foreign trade• more vulnerable than China to swings in the world economy

Revolution and War, 1900–1918

• China’s defeat/humiliation by international force in Boxer affair of 1900 led many to conclude that China needed a revolution to overthrow Qing- modernize the country

• When a regional army unit mutinied in 1911, Sun Yat-sen’s Revolutionary Alliance formed an assembly and elected Sun as president of China, but to avoid a civil war, the presidency was turned over to the powerful general Yuan Shikai, who rejected democracy and ruled as an autocrat

• Japanese joined Allied side in World War I-benefited from economic boom as demand for their products rose.

• Japan used war as opportunity to conquer German colonies in Northern Pacific and on Chinese coast and to further extend influence into China

• Forced Chinese government to accede to many of conditions presented in document called the Twenty-One Demands

Chinese Warlords and the Guomindang, 1919–1929

• At Paris Peace Conference, great powers allowed Japan to retain control over seized German enclaves in China, sparking protests in Beijing (May 4, 1919) and other parts of China

• China’s regional generals—the warlords—supported their armies through plunder and arbitrary taxation so that China grew poorer while only the treaty ports prospered

• Sun Yat-sen tried to make comeback in Canton in1920s by reorganizing his Guomindang party along Leninist lines and by welcoming members of the newly created Chinese Communist Party

• Sun’s successor Chiang Kai-shek crushed the regional warlords in 1927

• Chiang then split with/decimated Communist Party- embarked on ambitious plan of top-down industrial modernization

• Chiang’s government staffed by corrupt opportunists, not by competent administrators: China remained mired in poverty

The New Middle East

The Mandate System

• Instead of being given their independence, the former German colonies and Ottoman territories were given to the great powers as mandates.

• Class C Mandates were ruled as colonies, while Class B Mandates were to be ruled under League of Nations supervision.

• The Arab-speaking territories of the former Ottoman Empire were Class A Mandates, a category that was defined to lead the Arabs to believe that they had been promised independence.

• In practice, Britain took control of Palestine, Iraq, and Trans-Jordan, while France took Syria and Lebanon as its mandates.

The Rise of Modern Turkey

• At the end of the war, the Ottoman Empire was at the point of collapse, with French, British, Italian, and Greek forces occupying Constantinople and parts of Anatolia

• In 1919 Mustafa Kemal formed a nationalist government and reconquered Anatolia and the area around Constantinople in 1922

• Kemal was an outspoken modernizer who declared Turkey to be a secular republic; introduced European laws; replaced the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet; and attempted to westernize the Turkish family, the roles of women, and even Turkish clothing and headgear.

• His reforms spread quickly in the urban areas, but they encountered strong resistance in the countryside, where Islamic traditions remained strong.

Arab Lands and the Question of Palestine

• Among the Arab people, the thinly disguised colonialism of the Mandate System set off protests and rebellions. At the same time, Middle Eastern society underwent significant changes: the population grew by 50 percent from 1914 to 1939, major cities doubled in size, and the urban merchant class adopted western ideas, customs, and lifestyles.

• The Maghrib (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco) was dominated by the French army and by French settlers, who owned the best lands and monopolized government jobs and businesses. Arabs and Berbers remained poor and suffered from discrimination.

• The British allowed Iraq to become independent under King Faisal (leader of the Arab revolt) but maintained a significant military and economic influence. France sent thousands of troops to crush nationalist uprisings in Lebanon and Syria. Britain declared Egypt to be independent in 1922 but retained control through its alliance with King Farouk.

• In the Palestine Mandate, the British tried to limit the wave of Jewish immigration that began in 1920 but only succeeded in alienating both Jews and Arabs.

Society, Culture, and Technology in the Industrialized World

Class and Gender

• Class distinctions faded after the war as the role of the aristocracy (many of whom had died in battle) declined and displays of wealth came to be regarded as unpatriotic. The expanded role of government during and after the war led to an increase in the numbers of white-collar workers; the working class did not expand because the introduction of new machinery and new ways of organizing work made it possible to increase production without expanding the labor force.

• In the 1920s, women enjoyed more personal freedoms than ever before, and women won the right to vote in some countries between 1915 and 1934.

Revolution in the Sciences

• The discovery of subatomic particles, quanta, Einstein’s theory of relativity, and the discovery that light is made up of either waves or particles undermined the certainties of Newtonian physics and offered the potential of unlocking new and dangerous sources of energy.

• Innovations in the social sciences challenged Victorian morality, middle-class values, and notions of western superiority. The psychology of Sigmund Freud and the sociology of Emile Durkheim introduced notions of cultural relativism that combined with the experience of the war to call into question the West’s faith in reason and progress.

The New Technologies of Modernity

• The European and American public was fascinated with new technologies like the airplane and lionized the early aviators: Amelia Earhart, Richard Byrd, and especially Charles Lindbergh. Electricity began to transform home life, and commercial radio stations brought news, sports, soap operas, and advertising to homes throughout North America.

• Film spread explosively in the 1920s. The early film industry of the silent film era was marked by diversity, with films being made in Japan, India, Turkey, Egypt, and Hollywood in the 1920s. The introduction of the talking picture in the United States in 1921, combined with the tremendous size of the American market, marked the beginning of the era of Hollywood’s domination of film and its role in the diffusion of American culture.

• Health and hygiene were also part of the cult of modernity. Advances in medicine, sewage treatment systems, indoor plumbing, and the increased use of soap and home appliances contributed to declines in infant mortality and improvements in health and life expectancy.

Technology and the Environment

• The skyscraper and the automobile transformed the urban environment. Skyscrapers with load-bearing steel frames and passenger elevators were built in American cities. European cities restricted the height of buildings, but European architects led the way in designing simple, easily constructed, inexpensive, functional buildings in what came to be known as the International Style.

• Mass-produced automobiles replaced horses in the city streets and led to the construction of far-flung suburban areas like those of Los Angeles. On farms, gasoline-powered tractors began replacing horses in the 1920s, while dams and canals were used to generate electricity and to irrigate dry land.

Conclusion:

Postwar Realignments• France and Britain emerged from the war economically weakened.

Russia was left in civil war and revolution. The Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires were divided into smaller, weaker nations.

• Japan and the United States came out of the war in a more strengthened position than before.

Conclusion

Postwar Promise• The fall of the Ottoman Empire generated hope among Turks,

Arabs, and Jewish immigrants of sovereign nation status.• French and British mandates thwarted those aspirations.

Conclusion

Postwar Society• Women remained in the workforce and demanded voting rights

while governments took on more responsibility for citizens’ health and well-being.

• Science and technology brought entertainment, electricity, better health, and faster transportation to western nations.

Impact: Social

• Families altered by the departure of so many men

• With the death or absence of the primary wage earner women were forced into the workforce in unprecedented numbers

• Industry needed to replace the lost laborers sent to war; aided the struggle for voting rights for women

Impact: Social

• One of the distinguishing features of the war was its totality • All aspects of the societies fighting were affected by the conflict,

even countries not in war zone

Impact: Political

• Expansion of government power & responsibilities in Britain, France, the United States, and the Dominions of the British Empire

• New government ministries & powers created • New taxes levied, & laws enacted, all designed to bolster war effort,

many have lasted to today

Demographic Impact

•more dead & wounded•more physical destruction •millions of refugees many fled to France & United States •immigration laws closed doors to eastern & southern Europeans•Influenza epidemic, killed 30 million people•serious damage to the environment; hastened build-up of mines, factories, & railroads

Geographic Impact: Territorial Changes

• tremendous changes to eastern Europe

• Empires shattered; new nations established

• Dangerous power vacuum created between Germany & Soviet Russia

Global Impact

• Destroyed/reduced some empires & diminished strength of others• New nations emerged • Shifted economic resources & cultural influences away from Europe • Reduced European global influence; encouraged nations, notably the

United States, to challenge Europe's international leadership

Global Impact

• Bolsheviks seized power in 1917• Ottoman & Austro-Hungarian Empires disintegrated• Germany replaced Kaiser's government with Weimar Republic• New nations such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia emerged • European Allies owed over $11 billion to U.S.• U.S. transformed from net debtor to net creditor• New York replaced London as world's financial center• Allies faced increasing demands for self-rule from their colonies• They no longer controlled sufficient military & economic resources to

shape world affairs as before

Global Legacy

• “Wilsonianism” • Emphasized national self-

determination• League of Nations meant to

curb nationalist excesses and aggression

• Collective security would enable nations to participate in new world order of peace & prosperity

• influenced statecraft of future generations

• continued to shape the international history of twentieth century

Global Legacy

• League of Nations failed to maintain peace when aggressive nations—notably Communist Russia, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan—later challenged the Versailles peace

• These revisionist powers rejected democracy and capitalism and challenged the status quo