GS Notes

1.3 - World History Notes 12

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Elaborate Notes

Impact of First World War, a Total War

The First World War (1914-1918) is often described as a “total war,” a term popularized by German General Erich Ludendorff in his 1935 book Der totale Krieg. This concept signifies that the war was not confined to battlefields but involved the entire nation—its economy, society, and civilian population—in the war effort.

  • Social Impact:

    • Demographic Catastrophe: The war resulted in unprecedented casualties. Estimates vary, but a commonly cited figure is around 20-21 million total casualties, with over 8 million military deaths and millions of civilian deaths due to famine, disease, and military action. Historian Niall Ferguson in The Pity of War (1998) examines the immense human cost. In nations like France and Serbia, the demographic pyramid was permanently skewed, with a “lost generation” of young men. In some European villages, nearly every family lost a male member.
    • Dislocation and Migration: The war triggered massive population movements. Fear of invasion, destruction of homes, and ethnic persecution led to large-scale refugee crises. The collapse of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires created new borders and ethnic minorities, leading to forced migrations and population exchanges in the post-war period.
    • Family and Social Structure: Traditional family structures were profoundly disturbed. With millions of men at the front, women took on new roles in the workforce and as heads of households. The absence and loss of fathers and husbands had lasting psychological and social effects on families.
    • Occupational Shifts and Labour: The mobilisation of men for military service created severe labour shortages. This vacuum was filled by women, colonial subjects, and workers who moved into new industries, particularly armaments manufacturing. This necessity elevated the status and bargaining power of the labouring class. Compulsory military service or conscription became the norm, integrating the working class into the national effort as never before.
    • Education: The educational system was severely disrupted. Schools were often closed, converted into hospitals, or destroyed. Teachers and older students were conscripted. The curriculum in many countries was altered to promote nationalism and patriotism. Rebuilding the educational infrastructure and addressing the lost years of schooling was a major post-war challenge.
    • Psychological Trauma and Cultural Shift: The brutal reality of trench warfare, characterized by machine guns, artillery, and chemical weapons, caused widespread psychological trauma, then known as “shell shock” and now recognized as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This collective trauma was reflected in the arts and literature of the era. A sense of disillusionment and meaninglessness pervaded society, giving rise to literary and philosophical movements like Nihilism. Writers of the “Lost Generation,” such as Erich Maria Remarque in All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) and Ernest Hemingway, captured this profound sense of despair and the changed behavioral patterns marked by cynicism and aggression.

  • Positive Social Outcomes:

    • Rise of Labour Movements: The critical role of labour in the war effort strengthened trade unions and socialist parties. Governments, needing to ensure uninterrupted production, were forced to negotiate with labour leaders, granting concessions on wages and working conditions. This newfound influence culminated in the establishment of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1919 as part of the Treaty of Versailles, with a mandate to promote social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights.
    • Advancement of Women’s Rights: Women’s contributions were indispensable. They worked in factories (“munitionettes”), on farms (the Women’s Land Army in Britain), and served as nurses near the front lines. This active participation challenged traditional gender roles and strengthened the case for female suffrage. In recognition of their role, several countries granted women the right to vote soon after the war, including Britain with the Representation of the People Act of 1918 (for women over 30) and the United States with the 19th Amendment in 1920.

  • Economic Impact:

    • Economic Disruption and Famine: The war devastated European agriculture. Farmland was turned into battlefields, and labour was diverted to the military. This, combined with naval blockades (like the British blockade of Germany), led to severe food shortages and man-made famines across the continent.
    • Financial Crisis and Debt: The cost of the war was astronomical. The summary notes a peak expense of 81 million dollars per day. Nations financed the war through massive borrowing, leading to huge national debts. The intricate web of war debts and reparations, criticized by economist John Maynard Keynes in his seminal work The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), created immense instability. The US, which had lent heavily to the Allies, demanded repayment. The Allies, in turn, depended on reparations from a crippled Germany to pay the US. This fragile cycle collapsed, contributing significantly to the Great Depression of 1929.
    • Shift in Global Economic Power: The war marked the end of European economic dominance. European nations, once the world’s creditors, became debtors. The United States emerged as the world’s leading financial power and industrial producer, with the center of global finance shifting from London to New York.
    • Collapse of Democracies: The post-war economic turmoil and social unrest created fertile ground for extremist ideologies. The inability of fledgling democratic governments (like Germany’s Weimar Republic) to solve these crises led to a loss of faith in democracy and the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in Italy, Germany, and Spain.

World War II

The Second World War (1939-1945) was a direct consequence of the unresolved issues of the First World War and the rise of aggressive, expansionist ideologies.

  • Causes:
    • Nazism in Germany:
      • Ideology: The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), or Nazi party, espoused an ideology known as Nazism. It was a form of fascism characterized by extreme German nationalism and a virulent form of racial antisemitism.
      • Core Tenets:
        1. Extreme Nationalism: It proclaimed the superiority of the German nation and its destiny to dominate Europe and the world. This was rooted in 19th-century German Romanticism and the philosophical ideas of thinkers like G.W.F. Hegel, who wrote about the state as the ultimate expression of the spirit, which Nazis warped to justify state supremacy.
        2. Anti-Democracy and the Führerprinzip: Nazism rejected democracy as “mobocracy” (Mobokratie), believing that only a singular, charismatic leader (the Führer) could embody the will of the nation. It upheld the leader principle, demanding absolute obedience.
        3. Militarism and Pro-War Stance: War was glorified as a natural and necessary struggle for survival, a central tenet of social Darwinism. Peace was seen as a sign of weakness and decay.
        4. Totalitarianism: The Nazi state was totalitarian, meaning it sought absolute control over every aspect of public and private life. The individual existed solely to serve the state, a direct contradiction of liberal principles where the state exists to protect individual rights.
        5. Anti-Communism and Pro-Capitalism: Nazism fiercely opposed communism, viewing it as a Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy and a threat to national unity. While it suppressed trade unions and controlled industries, it preserved private property and collaborated with capitalists who supported its goals.
      • Distinction from Italian Fascism:
        1. Scope of Ambition: While Mussolini’s fascism was intensely nationalistic, its primary goal was to restore Roman greatness and dominate the Mediterranean. Hitler’s Nazism had a far grander, global ambition of world domination.
        2. Racial Ideology: The defining feature of Nazism was its systematic, pseudo-scientific racial theory, which posited the “Aryan” race as the master race and targeted Jews, Slavs, and others for persecution and extermination. While Italian Fascism was nationalistic, it did not initially have such a centrally defined and violently implemented racial doctrine (though anti-Semitic laws were passed in 1938 under German influence).
      • Reasons for Popularity:
        1. Humiliation of Versailles: The Treaty of Versailles (1919) imposed a war guilt clause, heavy reparations, territorial losses, and severe military restrictions on Germany. This was widely perceived as a national humiliation (Diktat), and Hitler’s promise to tear up the treaty resonated deeply.
        2. Great Depression: The Wall Street Crash of 1929 devastated the German economy, which was heavily reliant on American loans. Mass unemployment and hyperinflation created widespread misery and desperation, making people receptive to extremist solutions.
        3. Failure of the Weimar Republic: The democratic government was plagued by political instability, economic crises, and its association with the Versailles treaty, leading many to see it as weak and ineffective.
        4. Broad Appeal: The Nazi party masterfully used propaganda to appeal to diverse segments of society: nationalists (promise to restore German glory), industrialists (promise to crush communism), workers (promise of jobs), and the middle class (promise of stability).
        5. Hitler’s Charisma: As documented by biographers like Ian Kershaw, Hitler was a powerful and charismatic orator who effectively tapped into the fears and resentments of the German people. He came to power legally; after the Nazi party won 230 seats in the July 1932 election, President Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor in January 1933.

Nazi Foreign Policy

Hitler’s foreign policy was a direct implementation of Nazi ideology, aiming to dismantle the post-WWI order and establish German hegemony.

  • Guiding Principles:
    • Reversal of Versailles: The primary objective was to avenge the humiliation of the Paris Peace Conference and restore Germany’s military and territorial strength.
    • Lebensraum (Living Space): This core concept, popularized by German geographer Karl Haushofer, called for the acquisition of new territory, primarily in Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine), to accommodate the German population and provide resources. It envisioned a Greater Germany dominating the continent.
  • Chronology of Aggression:
    1. 1934: Non-Aggression Pact with Poland: A tactical move to lull international suspicion and signal peaceful intentions while undermining France’s alliance system in Eastern Europe.
    2. 1935: Saar Plebiscite and Remilitarization: The Saar region, under League of Nations administration, voted to rejoin Germany, a major propaganda victory for Hitler. He then openly violated the Versailles Treaty by reintroducing military conscription and signing the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, which allowed Germany to build a navy up to 35% of the size of the British navy, a key moment in Britain’s policy of appeasement.
    3. 1936: Remilitarization of the Rhineland: Hitler sent troops into the demilitarized Rhineland, a blatant breach of both the Versailles and Locarno Treaties. The lack of response from Britain and France emboldened him.
    4. 1936: Spanish Civil War: Germany and Italy intervened on the side of the nationalist dictator General Francisco Franco, using the war as a testing ground for their new military tactics and equipment (e.g., the bombing of Guernica).
    5. 1936-1937: Formation of the Axis Powers: Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936, an alliance against the Soviet Union. Italy joined in 1937, formalizing the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.
    6. 1938: Anschluss (Union) with Austria: Hitler instigated unrest in Austria through the local Nazi party led by Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Under the threat of invasion, the Austrian government collapsed, and German troops marched into Austria, annexing it to the Reich. This provided Germany with Austria’s gold reserves and strategic position.
    7. 1938: The Sudetenland Crisis and Munich Pact: Hitler demanded the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, citing the principle of “self-determination.” This led to a major international crisis. At the Munich Conference in September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Premier Édouard Daladier agreed to Hitler’s demands in a policy of appeasement, sacrificing Czechoslovakia in the hope of avoiding war.
    8. 1939: Invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland: In March 1939, Hitler violated the Munich Pact by occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia, proving his ambitions went beyond uniting German speakers. He then signed a non-aggression pact with his ideological enemy, the USSR (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), to neutralize Russia before attacking Poland. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war, thus beginning World War II.
  • Failure of the League of Nations: In each instance of aggression—from the Rhineland to Poland—the League of Nations proved powerless. Its core principle of “Collective Security” failed completely due to the lack of an enforcement mechanism and the unwillingness of major powers to risk war.

Fascism in Italy

  • Origins and Ideology: The term “Fascism” derives from the Italian word fascio, meaning a bundle, which in turn comes from the Latin fasces—a bundle of rods with an ax, symbolizing unity and state authority in ancient Rome. Led by Benito Mussolini, Italian Fascism was a response to post-WWI turmoil.
  • Reasons for its Rise:
    • National Humiliation: Italy felt cheated at the Paris Peace Conference. Despite being on the winning side, its territorial gains (like parts of Fiume/Flum) were limited, leading to the nationalist sentiment of a “mutilated victory.”
    • Economic Crisis: Post-war Italy suffered from high inflation, unemployment, and widespread labour unrest, including factory occupations and strikes inspired by socialist and communist movements.
    • Political Instability: A series of weak and ineffective elected governments failed to address the country’s profound problems, creating a power vacuum. Mussolini and his blackshirts projected an image of order and strength.
  • Mussolini’s Foreign Policy:
    • Mussolini aimed to restore Italian pride, expand its influence in the Mediterranean and Africa, and revise the post-war settlement.
    • Early Actions (1920s): He secured control over the Dadacani (Dodecanese) islands from Greece (1922) and annexed the city of Fiume after an agreement with Yugoslavia (1924). He also established a virtual protectorate over Albania (1923).
    • Invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia): The defining act of Fascist aggression was the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Mussolini sought to build a new Roman Empire, avenge a previous Italian defeat (Battle of Adwa, 1896), and acquire resources. The League of Nations imposed weak economic sanctions, which failed to stop the invasion, and Italy formally annexed the country in 1936. This event fatally discredited the League and pushed Italy closer to Nazi Germany.

Japanese Imperialism and Manchuria Crisis

  • Motivations for Expansion: As the only major industrialized nation in Asia, Japan faced significant challenges: a lack of arable land for its growing population, and a severe shortage of industrial raw materials (oil, rubber, iron) and markets for its goods. Its foreign policy was heavily influenced by powerful industrial conglomerates (zaibatsu) and a rising militarist faction in the government.
  • Ideology: Japan promoted the idea of a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” a concept that cloaked its imperial ambitions under the slogan “Asia for the Asians,” aiming to replace Western colonial powers with Japanese dominance.
  • The Manchurian Crisis (1931): Claiming a Japanese-owned railway had been sabotaged by Chinese dissidents (the Mukden Incident), the Japanese army invaded and occupied Manchuria, a resource-rich region of China. In 1932, they established the puppet state of Manchukuo. When the League of Nations investigated and condemned the aggression in the Lytton Report, Japan simply withdrew from the League in 1933. This was the first major challenge to the League’s authority and its failure set a dangerous precedent for future acts of aggression by Italy and Germany.

Other Factors for War

  • Ideological Conflict: The world was starkly divided. On one side were the democracies (Britain, France, USA), and on the other, the totalitarian dictatorships (Germany, Italy, Japan). Mussolini famously stated that a clash between these two irreconcilable worlds was inevitable. The conflict was also framed as one between “have” nations (the established colonial empires) and “have-not” nations seeking their own empires.
  • Problem of National Minorities: The principle of “right of self-determination,” championed by Woodrow Wilson after WWI, was imperfectly applied. The new borders of Europe left significant ethnic minorities in various countries, such as Germans in Poland, Lithuania, and Czechoslovakia. Hitler exploited the grievances of these German minorities to justify his expansionist policies.

Results of World War II

  • Division of Germany and Europe: Germany was defeated and divided into four occupation zones (US, UK, French, and Soviet). This evolved into two states: the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), with its capital at Bonn, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), with its capital in East Berlin. The city of Berlin itself was also divided, and the Berlin Wall (built in 1961) became a potent symbol of the new division of Europe. The wall fell in 1989, leading to German reunification.
  • The Cold War: The wartime alliance between the USA and the Soviet Union disintegrated into a global ideological, political, and strategic struggle known as the Cold War. It was not a direct military conflict between the two superpowers but was fought through proxy wars, an arms race, espionage, and propaganda campaigns.
  • Decolonization: The war shattered the prestige and power of European colonial empires like Britain and France. Economically exhausted and militarily weakened, they could no longer afford to maintain their vast overseas territories. The war also inspired nationalist movements in Asia and Africa. This led to a rapid process of decolonization in the decades following 1945.
  • The Third World and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): The newly independent nations of Asia and Africa came to be known as the “Third World.” Seeking to avoid entanglement in the Cold War rivalry between the US-led capitalist bloc and the USSR-led communist bloc, many of these nations formed the Non-Aligned Movement. A key meeting was held in Algiers in 1973, but the movement was formally established at the Belgrade Conference in 1961. NAM’s policy was not neutrality or passivity, but active independence, allowing member states to take positions on international issues based on their merits rather than superpower allegiance.
  • Shift in Global Power: The war definitively ended the era of European global dominance. Power shifted from Western Europe to two new superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. The world became bipolar, dominated by the rivalry between these two giants.
  • Creation of the United Nations (UNO): To prevent a recurrence of such a devastating conflict, the Allied powers established the United Nations Organization in 1945. It was conceived as a more robust successor to the failed League of Nations, with a Security Council empowered to enforce international peace and security.

Prelims Pointers

  • Total War: A war involving the entire nation, not just the military. Coined by German General Erich Ludendorff.
  • WWI Casualties: Approximately 21 million total casualties, with over 8 million military deaths.
  • Nihilism: A philosophical and literary trend reflecting a sense of meaninglessness and despair that grew after WWI.
  • International Labour Organization (ILO): Formed in 1919 as part of the Treaty of Versailles.
  • Women’s Suffrage in the UK: The Representation of the People Act of 1918 granted the vote to women over 30.
  • Great Depression: Started with the Wall Street Crash in 1929.
  • Shift in Financial Center: After WWI, the global financial center shifted from London to New York.
  • Nazi Party Full Name: National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP).
  • Nazism vs. Fascism: Key differences were Nazism’s ambition for world power and its central racial ideology (hatred of Jews).
  • Weimar Republic: The democratic government of Germany before Hitler’s rise to power, also known as the Ebert Republic initially.
  • Hitler’s Rise to Power: Became Chancellor in January 1933 and combined the roles of President and Chancellor in 1934.
  • Lebensraum (Living Space): A concept for territorial expansion in Eastern Europe, popularized by the German philosopher Karl Haushofer.
  • Key Events in Hitler’s Foreign Policy:
    1. 1934: Non-Aggression Pact with Poland.
    2. 1935: Saar Plebiscite; remilitarization begins.
    3. 1936: Remilitarization of the Rhineland.
    4. 1936: Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan.
    5. 1938: Anschluss with Austria.
    6. 1938: Munich Pact, annexing the Sudetenland.
    7. 1939: Invasion of Poland, starting WWII.
  • Key Figures: Arthur Seyss-Inquart (Austrian Nazi leader), Neville Chamberlain (British PM associated with appeasement).
  • Axis Powers: The alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan, formalized by the Tripartite Pact in 1940, building on the Anti-Comintern Pact.
  • Fascism: Derived from the Italian word ‘Fascio’ (bundle), symbolizing unity and strength.
  • Mussolini’s Aggression:
    • 1923: Corfu incident with Greece.
    • 1935-36: Invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
  • Japanese Imperialism: Motivated by a lack of resources and markets. Promoted the “Asia for Asians” slogan.
  • Manchurian Crisis: Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and created the puppet state of Manchukuo. Japan left the League of Nations in 1933 after being condemned.
  • Post-WWII Germany: Divided into West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany, capital: Bonn) and East Germany (German Democratic Republic, capital: East Berlin).
  • Cold War: An ideological and geopolitical struggle between the USA and the USSR.
  • Third World: A term for newly independent countries in Asia and Africa after WWII.
  • Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): Formed by Third World countries to maintain independence from the two superpower blocs. The first summit was in Belgrade in 1961.
  • United Nations Organization (UNO): Established in 1945 to replace the League of Nations and maintain international peace.

Mains Insights

  • Cause-Effect Analysis: From WWI to WWII

    • The First World War did not resolve the underlying tensions in Europe; it amplified them. The Treaty of Versailles is a classic example of a “victor’s peace” that sowed the seeds of future conflict.
    • Cause: The harsh terms of the Versailles Treaty (war guilt, reparations, military restrictions) created deep-seated resentment in Germany.
    • Effect: This resentment was expertly exploited by extremist politicians like Adolf Hitler, who built their entire political platform on revoking the treaty and restoring national pride, directly leading to the aggression that caused WWII.
    • Historiographical Debate: Historians are divided. The traditional view, espoused by figures like Winston Churchill, holds that the treaty was not enforced strictly enough. The revisionist view, pioneered by John Maynard Keynes, argues it was too harsh and economically crippling. A modern synthesis suggests the treaty was harsh enough to provoke resentment but not harsh enough to permanently disable Germany.

  • Failure of Institutions and Ideologies

    • Collective Security: The failure of the League of Nations in Manchuria (1931), Abyssinia (1935), and during German rearmament demonstrates the inherent weakness of an international security system without the commitment of major powers (USA was absent) and without a mechanism for enforcement. This provides a crucial lesson for the functioning of modern institutions like the UN.
    • Policy of Appeasement: This policy, epitomized by the Munich Pact of 1938, is a subject of intense debate.
      • Argument for Appeasement: Proponents argue that leaders like Chamberlain were constrained by public opinion (aversion to another war), military unpreparedness, and the genuine belief that Hitler’s demands were limited. They also saw a strong Germany as a bulwark against Soviet Communism.
      • Argument Against Appeasement: Critics, like Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm (1948), argue it was a moral and strategic failure that emboldened Hitler, convincing him that the Western democracies were weak and would not fight. It sacrificed smaller nations and ultimately made a wider war inevitable. Historian A.J.P. Taylor controversially argued in The Origins of the Second World War (1961) that Hitler was more of an opportunist than a master planner, and appeasement simply gave him opportunities.

  • The Transformative Nature of “Total War”

    • The concept of “Total War” fundamentally altered the relationship between the state, the economy, and the individual.
    • State Power: WWI and WWII led to an unprecedented expansion of state power. Governments took control of national economies (rationing, price controls, directing industrial production), managed propaganda, and conscripted millions, blurring the lines between the civilian and military spheres.
    • Social Change: The wars acted as powerful, albeit brutal, catalysts for social change. They accelerated the entry of women into the workforce, empowered organized labour, and reshaped class structures. This highlights the dialectical nature of history, where immense destruction can also inadvertently lead to progressive social outcomes.

  • WWII and the Reshaping of the Global Order

    1. Decline of Eurocentrism: WWII marked the definitive end of European dominance in global politics. The continent was devastated, its economies were in ruins, and its empires were crumbling.
    2. Rise of a Bipolar World: Power consolidated around two non-European superpowers, the USA and the USSR, whose ideological conflict (capitalism vs. communism) would define international relations for the next 45 years.
    3. Dawn of the Nuclear Age: The use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki introduced a new, terrifying dimension to warfare and international diplomacy, creating a “balance of terror” that characterized the Cold War.
    4. Beginning of Decolonization: The war fatally weakened the colonial powers and inspired anti-colonial movements, leading to the liberation of hundreds of millions of people in Asia and Africa and the emergence of the “Third World” as a significant geopolitical bloc. This fundamentally redrew the political map of the world.

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