Key Concept Review

20th Century Key Concept Review

4.1 "Total war and political instability in the first half of the 20th century gave way to a polarized state order during the Cold War, and eventually to efforts at transnational union."

• Total warfare was used in both World Wars as a means to destroy the infrastructure and societies' of enemy nations. In many European countries, total warfare led to the deaths of millions of civilians and the widespread destruction of infrastructure.
• The Russian Revolution split the USSR and its allies in the west. As Stalin took control of the USSR and began spreading communism to Eastern Europe , many western countries feared that he might start an war against capitalism. This ultimately led to the Cold War, where capitalist countries were pitted against the USSR (and communism). Anti-communism propaganda was spread throughout Western Europe and the United States.

• The UN: After WWII the UN was created and its aim was to encourage international cooperation amongst the Allies in order to stabilize the political environment in Europe.

4.2: The stresses of economic collapse and total war engendered internal conflicts within European states and created conflicting conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the state, as demonstrated in the ideological battle among liberal democracy, communism, and fascism.

• During the 20th century new forms of governments emerged that caused conflicts about the relationship between the individual and the state. Communism placed a huge emphasis on state control; fascism focused on nationalism. After the World Wars, liberal democracy was able to conquer fascism, but communism remained. Communist countries greatly increased their control over the everyday lives of their people. 
• Communist countries were not alone in increasing the state's control over its people. Western liberal democratic countries new forms of social welfare emerged, greatly increasing the power of the state. Although each form of government had its differences, they all became more involved in their citizens' lives through economic regulation and expanding education.

4.3: During the 20th century, diverse intellectual and cultural movements questioned the existence of objective knowledge, the ability of reason to arrive at truth, and the role of religion in determining moral standards.

• After WWI, the lost generation became a group of intellectuals who generally had lost faith in the idea of progress.
• Movements like Dadaism satirized traditional beauty and placed an emphasis on the irrational and absurd. After witnessing the destruction of WWI, many artists like Duchamp had little faith in society and its ability to remained a peaceful place. Physicists and Chemists began to believe that humans were only capable of understanding the world to a certain degree. Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty marks the departure from traditional Newtonian physics and emphasized the lack of human ability to arrive at any perfect truth about matter. The field of psychology developed under Freud, who argued that the irrational nature of man was bound to lead to misery in life. Philosophers like Nietzsche further emphasized the irrational nature of man and believed that one's actions could never fully be explained.

• The cultural departure from the Enlightenment ideals is closely linked with the devastation of WWI, which cast a shadow of pessimism over most of Western society. In general, people during the first half of the 20th century had little faith in humanity and its ability to understand the world and its inhabitants.

4.4: Demographic changes, economic growth, total war, disruptions of traditional social patterns, and competing definitions of freedom and justice altered the experiences of everyday life.

• The events of the early 20th century led to changes later on. Total war used in both WWI and WWII devastated large portions of Europe. Decolonization gave way to large-scale migration of people across the globe, especially to Europe. This migration combined with the ever-increasing global economy led to the spread of new ideas and cultures throughout Europe. This altered the cultural identity of many European countries and cities became cultural and economic hubs and people no longer lived in rural isolation. 

 

This graph shows the declining birthrates in several European countries. Despite this, their populations actually increased due to the severe influx of people from the colonies. This further altered Europe's cultural identity as the original European populations declined and were replaced with colonists who shared different world views.

• In communist countries, religion and capitalism were viewed as a threat to individual freedom; in capitalist countries, these were viewed as a necessity to individual freedom. The conflicting ideas of freedom led to the tensions that culminated in the Cold War between the US and the USSR.