http://peon.gnn.tv/blogs/20643/Brief_History_of_the_20th_Century Brief History of the 20th Century B20643 / Mon, 25 Dec 2006 00:56:19 / Government World War One (the Great War) 1907-1920
By 1907 the U.K has laid clam to her empire and settled with Russia and France. The U.K had a powerful navy unmatched by any other. With over sea matters handled, the lands at home fall under the prying eyes of the monarchs of Europe. Austria-Hungry negotiate for land in Serbia, Russia laying clam to the Balkans despite her humiliating defeat at the hands of Japan; France is thirsty for revenge due to her loss of Alsace-Lorraine to the Germans. Tensions began to swelter with each great power wanting more land at the expense of lesser developed nations. A system was put in place with the goal of preventing a war caused by Imperialism. The Triple Alliance composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, stood opposed to the Triple Entente composed of Britain, France, and Russia. With each country ready to act if the other was invaded. If this was the seed of World War one the root would be the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary and heir to the Austrian throne by a Serbian revolutionary. This enacted Austria-Hungry to demand certain conditions from Serbia. When all were not meet Austria-Hungry invaded Serbia with the backing of Germany on July 28, 1914. Italy hesitant to show support despite the Triple Alliance due to Austria-Hungary's out right goal of acquiring new lands. Russia begins to mobilize its forces against German contradiction. With no positive answer Germany declares war on august 1st. On the third of August, the Germans declare war on France. The U.K then declares war on Germany, the next day the World will enter a new age. Imperialism once again; like in all of history, the wealthy fought over land and used the masses to fight horrific wars in the names of colonialism, later to become free markets. Neither sides expected a drawn out war nor did they issue the amount of lives it would cost. World War one was the first modern war. It was the last war that used cavalry as a fighting force and the first to use aircraft, long distance projectiles and was fought inefficiently and with disregarded for human life. The war was divided into two fronts the west and the east. The western front ran from the Belgian coast to the Swiss boarder. Both sides fought in trenches, a trench is a long zing zaged hole in the ground. Most attempts at advancement were cut down by machine gun fire. Little land was gained on either front. The USA declared war on Germany on the 6th of April, 1917 .Russia resigned from the war due to the czar losing power in 1917. Finally, Germany unable to keep its citizens feed due to blockades and losses at the front; did she accept defeat at Versailles. Only then did the U.K end German starvation. The Germans were forced to give up most of her colonies and pay reparations for the war. This caused inflation and poverty for most of its people. The people often transported money in wheel barrels due to the worthlessness of the mark. The lone dollar was worth 4 trillion marks. The Ottoman Empire was divided into modern day Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Kuwait to name a few. In the end the war was pointless. Many died for no good reason and people will suffer until the end of the seconded World War. Both sides' worst off then when the war began, the people of Europe rebuild their lives only to be torn apart 20 years later. 1917 to 1929 The Czar of Russia lost power to Lenin and Trotsky in a communist revolt on Nov. 6, 1917. After the death of Lenin in 1924, Joseph Stalin rose to power and drove Trotsky out of the government by 1927. In 1919 Benito Mussolini formed his first military group that would eventually become the Fascist party in 1922. In 1919, China protested the failure of the Versailles conference to return the former German concession of Shantung; that instead went to Japan, and then the creation of the Chinese Communist Party. The German workers party was created in 1919, later to become the Nazis in 1920. Later that year the League of Nations had its first meeting. The U.S didn't join but played an important role in its creation. Also in 1920 The Treaty of Sevres on August 10; Britain and France divided the former Ottoman Empire into new mandates; Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. The Ottoman Empire was replaced by the new Republic of Turkey on October, 29 1923. The U.S followed a policy of Isolationism. Which they traded with Europe but stayed out of their affairs. That didn't mean the U.S didn't get involved economically and aid wise, they also lowered the interest on war debt and lowered the money to be played by Germany. By the end of the 20's Japan invaded Manchuria with out sanctions from the League of Nations and the world when into a great depression. Germany or The Allies ever paid back the amount owned to the U.S. During this period the world was recovering from the Great War and also devicing new forms of government. In some parts of the world Communism appealed to the larger middle class .Then similar to the Little Ice age and the famines during the revolutions periods of The Americans and the French in the enlighten period. This was a threat to free markets and the economies of the many European colonies in South East Asia. Japan at this time was booming almost as fast as Canada which was the hardest hit by the depression later on. Japan wanting more of the global pie; invaded parts of the east while the west was still recovering from World War One. The U.S policy of neutrality left Japan unopposed until the U.S entered World War 2. The great depression. (1929-1939) The U.K, U.S, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Latin America and South Africa were the hardest hit. This was the first blow to capitalism. All around the world socialism embedded its self in domestic policy. In the US, Roosevelt's new deal brought welfare, unemployment insurances, social secrecy and many other state sponcerd programs. This was also the start of the FDIC that insured money belongs to people up to a certain amount. Some disagree with the new deal but the fact remains it put the U.S on the path to get out of the depression and acted as a band-aid for the hungry people of the U.S. In France, as the U.K; were still recovering from the First World War. Since unable to collect from Germany; France invaded the Ruhr. The French failed and in 1936 socialist leader Léon Blum won the election for prime minister. In Germany, the Nazi party headed by Hitler took office in 1933. American exports declined from about $5.2 billion in 1929 to $1.7 billion in 1933; but price also fell, so the bodily volume of exports only fell in half. Mostly impacted were farm commodities such as wheat, cotton, tobacco, and lumber. The collapse of farm exports caused many American farmers to default on their loans leading to the bank runs on small rural banks that characterized the early years of the Great Depression. Many economists at the time argued that the sharp decline in international trade after 1930 worsen the depression, especially for countries dependent on foreign trade. The American Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 aggravating the depression by reducing international trade and causing retaliation. Foreign trade was a small part of overall economic activity in the United States. Many stress the negative role of the American Federal Reserve System in turning a small depression into a large one by cutting the money supply by one-third from 1930 to 1931. With significantly less money to go around, businessmen could not get loans and could not even get their old loans renewed, forcing many to stop investing. This interpretation blames the Federal Reserve, especially the New York branch, which was owned and controlled by Wall Street bankers. The Fed was primarily controlled by member banks and businessmen and it was to these groups that the Fed listened most attentively regarding policies to follow. The downward turn in the economy starting with the stock market collapse would have been just another recession. The problem was that some very large bank failures, predominantly the Bank of the United States, produced widespread runs on banks, and that the Federal Reserve did nothing while bank after bank fell. If the Federal Reserve had acted by providing emergency lending to these key banks or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell, all the rest of the banks that fell after the very large and public ones did would not have, the money supply would not have fallen to the extent it did and would not have fallen at the speed it did. World War Two (The Good War) Fascism in Germany has reached a high point. Hitler invaded Poland on September 1st 1939 under false pretences. Two days later The U.K and France declared war on Germany, due to treaties with Poland. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand quickly followed. On the 17th of September the Russians join Germany in Poland; by attacking from the east. The last of the polish troops surrendered on the 6th of October. In Asia, Japan and Russia occupy lands while fighting each other in what is known as the second Russo-Japanese War. Germany and Italy invade lands while a phony war was fought on the eastern front between The French, U.K and Germany. Russia supplied Germany with resources to hold the front and bomb England. Not surprisingly the Germans defeated the French rather quickly on June 22, 1940. This was due in part to the German tactic of war called the blitzkrieg. This involves an initial bombardment followed by mobile forces attacking with speed to prevent an enemy from implementing a coherent defense. The Germans attacked Russia despite the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. The war between Germany and Britain was mostly an air and sea war until D- Day. The Germans had a better air force while the U.K had a better navy. Germanys bombed the U.K while the U.K blocked supplies to Germany cities. The US joined the U.K after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The Allies won in most part due to Hitler's incompetence as strategists and unwillingness to work with his advisers. Russia then took Berlin from the east. The US ended the war with Japan after the fire bombing of Japan's many wooden cities. The U.S destroyed almost every major city in Japan. Did we need to drop an Atomic bomb to scare surrender into a defeated nation? The U.S and the U.K were closing in by sea also, Russia from the west. August we bombed Hiroshima, then Russia declared war on Japan, August 9 we drop the second bomb. All the Japanese people wanted were their emperor. He is their god, that is why they didn't surrender. The surrender said nothing about their emperor, there for it was rejected. All the U.S had to do was let them keep their God. If we went the diplomatic rout we wouldn't have had to use the Atomic bomb. Many say the bomb could have been prevented and disagreed with its use. Some reason we had to do it in order to stop the invading of Japan which saved lives. There are many reasons why one would be accused of being a war criminal but one factor is always the same. That person being charge is on the losing end of a War. With the start of the industrial revolution mankind has devised enough weaponry to void the bible's "eye for an eye" version of justice in any culture. Powerful nations were able to mass produce weapons that could dominate the majority of the world. The main goal of war will always be killing. That is the point of war. How we defined a war crime is by the acts of the accuser's courts. Not by the number of people killed. The cold war (Capitalism vs. Communism) Korea An idea of the U.S propaganda strategies, The War was dubbed The Forgotten War because not many people talk about it. Yet the highest viewed show percent wise on television took place in the setting of the Korean War. I think Alan Alda's staring role and later production of Mash will be studied by Humanitarians in the future. For some one that has seen his fair share of Mash, the show seldom dealt with political issues other then civil rights and anti-war. The warfare has begun to change. In Korea and Vietnam the trenched soldier evolved into smaller clearing and scouting groups to find bombing locations and clear "rat nests", also with occupation skills to max out profit gained while holding the city; this would often involved puppet rulers appointed by the U.S. Both theaters of operations ended poorly. The saying of history repeating itself rang true once again, like in the U.K's attempted suppression of the colonies gorillas' fighters, in the American Revolution. We should have learned that a force with similar weapons, would win if they are fighting for food and family. The history books call it a Cold War but I disagree. So would veterans of Korea, Vietnam and the many other smaller "Police actions" from the 50's on. The two super powers of the world were the US and the USSR. The USSR had a larger army where the US had a slight technological advantage. This war wasn't over land, religion or Freedom in the eyes of the super powers, but in the lands they fought in that had everything to do with it. The US and the USSR fought over influence in South East Asia while the U.K and France were unable to keep her colonies afloat. The US and the USSR had no intentions of doing this. They fought over the lands in south East Asia that the rest of the west gave up on. Both spreading their propaganda in order to streathen their hold on the world market. Economics is the lifeblood of any society there for even uneducated people will fight for a fair system through an educated leader. You cannot have communism without capitalism first. Communism arises when the working class demands more from the upper classes. When the people do not get what they want, revolutions happen. In the processing paragraphs, I will explain reasons why communism failed and how that relates to capitalism. In addition, what are the main differences between the two systems and how the modern world has adapted to a comnation of both in today's free market economies? They are two types of main governments today. "Communism is means of production by government and Capitalism is government in means of production". Socialism is a combination of capitalism and communism. In a communistic society, the government determents your needs and supplies you with the resources to live; like your peers. In a capitalist society, your resources are dependent on you and your skill level. Each person's wealth is determined on how much they can profit from the lower classes. An example is how farming firms profit from cheap immigrant's labor while large fast food chains profit from the farming firms selling the food to the masses as a huge profit. The result is a feed working class and more profit for the upper class. Capitalism is similar to a stairway. The immigrant labors on the first step and tycoons on the last. Each step towards the top better off than the last but without stepping on the lower step one cannot reach the top. The capitalist system empisises on efficiency and a communistic or socialistic system focuses on fairness. When the middle class becomes so small compared to the lower and upper class the lower class; bigger in numbers revolts and extreme change is the result. Communism is seen as a way to end starvation and put an end to wars in the name of profit. On paper, it seems to work. Over time, the effects seem positive. Starvation diminishes and disasters do not have a devastating effect since food and supplies can be distributed easier. There are many reasons why communism failed. Many point to the constant wars with capitalist societies or the idea that if people get what they want, they lack the will to be productive. Some could argue that the U.S military defeats in South East Asia contributed to the fall of the Soviet Empire by easing the fear of U.S military intervention.What ever the case communism may have failed but the ideas have not. In almost all parts of the industrialized world, we see aspects of capitalism and communism called Socialism. Socialism is when a government in acts Nationalization (Public Ownership) of all industries but is elected on a Regular bases. The whole "to the left or to the right " applies here in determining a level of Nationalization or government responsibilities one wants in a government. Even in The USA, we have social service programs like Social Security, Welfare, FASA, Public schools, Public Transportation and Health Care for poor children. While in parts of Europe, they have adopted more aspects of Socialism. Like universal health care for all citizens and guarantied employment.
