Chapter 20: Collapse at the Center- World War, Depression, and the Rebalancing of Global Power (Week 10)

March 22, 2018

(1914-1970’s)

Here is a timeline of events from this period in time:

World War One And The Crisis Of Europe:

In 1914, World War One began and many things started to change. When the war was over, many things changed, including government ways and the communism. Like I mentioned in many of my previous blogs, Europe at this time was powerful and seen as being in a high position. After the first war however, things changed and the European civilization crisis began. The country started to lack unity and separation of powers formed. The rivalry was between two groups, the Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then there was the Triple Entente of Russia, France, and Britain. As you can see, most of Europe was apart of this rivalry of alliances and this was the collapse of Europe as the center of it all. I was surprised that the world’s most powerful empire came crashing down so quickly, I would have not predicted this to happen.

The Great Depression:

After the First War, things changed and the infamous Great Depression began. Western capitalism was failing and the economy was impacted greatly. Reading that the effects of capitalism caused the Great Depression made me remember all of Karl Marx’s ideas and views on why capitalism is bound to fail. The stock market crashed, employment rates dropped, and world trade decreased immensely. Marx predicted this all to happen and that makes me want to read more about Marx’s socialist views.

World War Two:

Later on the Second War happened and this was another global conflict, hence the name world war. This war involved both the Axis powers and the Allies, Asia refused to accept America’s interests, and the fighting began. Strayer and many others call this war “the most destructive conflict in world history” and that is because of the outstanding number of people who lost their lives in the war. After two World Wars, many countries just wanted peace again and were tired of living life while so many countries were at war. I think that both World War One and World War Two were related to one another in terms of conflict and reason. I personally think that nothing positive came out of these two wars and if there are any, they are small compared to how many negative effect they had on people.

Here is a map from our textbook of the world during World War Two: