APWH

1. APWH Chapter 35 & 36 Overview The Inter War Years

2. Ch. 35 – The Age of Anxiety • The decades between the two world wars were neither peaceful nor prosperous. These were anxious, uncertain years. Old certainties were shaken; the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment lost their potency. After 1929, a global depression intensified the social and political unrest, and new extreme ideologies gained momentum. Common elements of this "age of anxiety" include…

3. Ch. 35 – The Age of Anxiety • Disillusionment: • The harsh realities of trench warfare shattered the illusions of many young intellectuals. The culture of the 1920s is characterized by uncertainty and experimentation. Old truths in science, art, and religion were challenged. Nothing seemed certain anymore.

4. Ch. 35 – The Age of Anxiety • Political extremism: • The momentum of the nineteenth century had been toward democracy and greater inclusion of the poor, minorities, and finally women in the political process. In desperate times, many found democracy too inefficient and sought simple solutions in charismatic dictators.

5. Ch. 35 – The Age of Anxiety • Extreme nationalism: • The Paris peace settlements both aroused and disappointed nationalist hopes, especially in Italy, Japan, and Germany. Nationalists in these countries were frustrated at being denied territory considered rightly theirs. These frustrations were channeled into militaristic parties: the Fascists and the Nazis.

6. Ch. 35 – The Age of Anxiety • The communist alternative: • The world watched, in horror and fascination, as the communist experiment unfolded in the Soviet Union. In spite of appalling losses through civil war, forced collectivization, and political purges, the Soviet Union did appear to deliver a basic living to all citizens. With capitalist nations slumped in depression, this was an intriguing alternative. Communism was violently attacked in Italy and Germany.

7. Chapter 36 - NATIONALISM AND POLITICAL IDENTITIES IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA • During the 1920s and 1930s, after the Great War and during the Great Depression, intellectuals and political activists in Asia, Africa, and Latin America challenged the ideological and economic underpinnings of European imperialism and neo-colonialism. • Nationalist and anti-imperialist movements gained strength on each of these continents.

8. Chapter 36 - NATIONALISM AND POLITICAL IDENTITIES IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA • In Asia, Japan's militarist leaders sought to build national strength through imperial expansion. • In China, the Ming dynasty ended, giving rise to a civil war fought between adherents of competing visions of the new Chinese state. Japanese imperial aggression complicated the progress of this war. • In India, a strong nationalist movement began to threaten the hold of the British Empire on the subcontinent.

9. Chapter 36 - NATIONALISM AND POLITICAL IDENTITIES IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA • In Africa, European imperialists tightened their control of colonial possessions, as African economic life became more tightly enmeshed in the global economy. • With the onset of the Great Depression, European countries that controlled the export of African products experienced dramatic decreases in trade volume and commodity prices and, consequently, African peoples suffered. • Meanwhile, African peoples challenged European imperial authority and developed competing visions of national identity and unity that would come to fruition after World War II.

10. Chapter 36 - NATIONALISM AND POLITICAL IDENTITIES IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA • In Latin America, statesmen and political activists worked to alter the neo-colonialist economic domination of the United States, their "good neighbor" to the north. • Neo-colonialism, which often featured military intervention and political interference, compromised the independent political and economic development of Latin American states, but it did not prevent nationalist leaders from developing strategies to counter new forms of imperialism

11. Chapter 36 - NATIONALISM AND POLITICAL IDENTITIES IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA