April 5th: The two world wars and the crisis of Europe 20th century primary sources Pages 973-1017; documents on pages 1018-1033, choose one

April 5th: The two world wars and the crisis of Europe 20th century primary sources 
Pages 973-1017; documents on pages 1018-1033, choose one 

The 20th century:
Breaking up time into ordered segments is the way historians mark major things from the past. There was a new human journey that began in 1914. The big WW1. This terrible conflict was a spark to much more conflict. After this huge war, a lot followed like the experiment Hitler had, countries coming together or fighting against each other, and the atomic bombs, cold war, etc.. A lot happened in the twentieth century. Many wars and conflict. Also, slavery lost its international acceptance in this century. Global population increased and the industrial output grew fortyfold. 

The first world war:
Since the 1500s, Europe had been a huge power. It was well advanced with the help of the scientific revolution and it had a lot of power due to much of its territory. But centuries after, this power shattered. The first world war. The spark of this was was kind of like an accident. There were a lot of alliances that made the continent pretty vulnerable. So what started WWI? the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was definitely the spark. The murdur of the archduke of Austria-Hungary. The aftermath brought some social and cultural changes. This echoed loudly around the world. 
There was the trench warfare and a lot of things derived from that.
There Colonial structures and the alliances were a huge boost for WWI to happen. 

The great depression:
After having those glamorous 1920's... spending, spending, spending and having new money come in there was a big break in America. Around 1929 America faced a great depression. This recession "generated profound anxiety and threatened the livelihood of both industrial workers and those who had gained a modest toehold in the middle class"(990). The flaws of capitalism definitely showed here. How did this affect the people? The rich had to contract "stock prices that wiped out paper fortunes almost overnight"(990). A lot of banks closed, people lost savings, world trade dropped and many businesses were not able to sell. The unemployment dropped and there was a huge economic disaster. The US then brought up all these reforms. There was some experimenting being done so the economy of the US flourished. The US did not want to have any interactions with other countries because they were going through so much themselves. 
The after math of the great depression was that there was a social safety net. There was also a regulation of capitalism. We see that with what happened in 08/09. We have to implant a sense of ethics that corresponds to the national values. We need to make sure that that system is regulated and we do do so... we could do a better job too (since what happened about a decade ago). 

Between 1919- 1945 there was new political ideology in Europe: Fascism. Fascism was intensely nationalistic, seeking to revitalize and purify the nation and mobilize its people for some grand task. 
Lets talk about the faces of European Fascism. Mussolini thought that "fascism was resolutely anticommunist" he wrote, "fascism combats the whole complex system of democratic ideology and repudiates it"(996). The German's expression of European fascism was huge! It took shape as the Nazi Party under the leadership of the great Adolf Hitler. It was pretty similar to the Italian views. 
This section is important because we need to realize what fascism is and how we can see parallels forming now. For example, again, the Germans were imposing punishment and blaming Jews. We see this now... people blaming muslims. You can't just punish a country indefinitely or a group because it will bubble to the top and become even more violent. Now, we have so many people wanting to push groups of popped out, violence in rallies, etc.. This is a parallel to what happened in Germany. We look at Hitler now and we cannot believe people loved this monster so much. But its happening now. How many people don't praise Trump? This guy that is willing to pay fees for those that participate in violent acts.. This guy that wants to exclude muslims. This guy that wants to take out immigrants. This guy who thinks pretty poorly on women. I've never been so disappointed...I can't believe this is happening and people are showing so much hatred. It really goes to show that we haven't gotten far. Trump isn't a joke anymore. The more time that goes on, the more realistic it gets. He can be our next president. And that, that is pretty scary. 

The end of the first world war witnessed the fall of the German imperial government. Right after the WWI, Hitler and his party talked to a large group of scared individuals begging for change. The proclaimed a message of intense German nationalism cast in terms of racial superiority... hate towards Jews and may other individuals like: handicapped, homosexuals, etc.. This would tackle the economic problems they were facing. 

World war two:
The second world war occurred in the origins of Asia and Europe. It actually began in Asia before it got to Europe. Germany made big noise. As soon as there was that attack on Poland, it was war number 2.