Chapter 21

Chapter 21: The Collapse and Recover of Europe (1914-1970)

By 1900 Europeans controlled most of the world. Modernization and Europe's rise to global ascendancy sharpened traditional rivalries. By 1900 the balace of power in Europe was shaped into two rival alliances. The triple alliance with Germany, Austria, and Italy; the Triple Entente with Russia, France, and Britian.  These alliances turned a minor incident into WW1. War broke out by 1914 from the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne.  Popular nationalism, industrialized militarism, and Europe's colonial empires contributed to the outvreak and character of the war. Most expected WW1 to be a quick war instead it became a war of attrition "trench warfare" and a "total war".  The war left widespread disillusionment amond intellectuals in its wake leading to questions of enlightenment values.  The war led to the rearrangement of the map of Central Europe and triggered the Russian Bolshevik revolution in 1917.  The Treaty of Versailles made the conditions that caused WWII and the US appeared as a global power.
The war loosened the hold of many traditional values in Europe.  The Great Depression represented the most influential postwar change. Europe's economy was failing and there were concerns about industrial capitalism.  The great depression hit in 1929 and caused the American economy to boom. Speculative stock market had driven stocl prices up. when the stock market crashed the whole economy collapsed.
The great depression became a worldwide problem.  The New Deal in the United States was administrated by Franklin Roosevelt.  The deal did not work well, the US economy only imporved the massive government spending beecause of WWII. However, Nazi Germany and Japan coped the best with the depression. 
WWII was more global that WWI. The outcomes of global conflict estimated 60 millino deaths in WWI. Governments' mobilization of economies, people and propaganda reached further than ever before.  The Holocaust had killed 6 million Jews in genocide. WWII left Europ impoverished, and millions of people homeless or displaced. WWII consolidated and expanded the communist world. It also led to the new dominance of the US as a global superpower.
Europe recoverd; they rebuilt industrial economies and revived democratic systems. The US took the initiative to rebuild Europe.