World History

Contradictions of the colonial empires: Major factors for the collapse of the colonial empires were the numerous contradictions between European ideals and the nature of colonial rule. How were Christians, heirs of the Enlightenment, and democratic states able to justify the stark injustices of colonial rule? A new international climate after WWII: Decolonization also saw some clear conjunctures of new forces after WWII. The war weakened Britain, France, and Holland, and the United Nations offered a new forum for arguing the anticolonial cause. Several of the colonizers began to prepare to divest themselves of their colonies but also to establish favorable postcolonial economic relationships. New elites challenge colonial rule: Several generations of Western rule had produced various new elites that could use their Western education, their military service for the colonizing power, and their knowledge of how to mobilize a mass-based nationalist party to challenge colonialism. A numbe...

Marxism’s path to the future: Interpretations of the work of nineteenth-century philosopher Karl Marx predicted a path to an egalitarian future utopia. Societies would industrialize under capitalism, then see revolutions that would take them through socialism and on to communism. This ideology was named after Marx, although he discussed the nature of capitalism and its history rather than spending much time thinking about the future. Communist revolutions in agrarian societies: Ironically, the revolutions that brought about so-called Marxist regimes happened in preindustrial agrarian societies such as Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba. This went against the actual theories of Karl Marx. Nonetheless, these revolutions and a few others established regimes that called themselves Marxist and communist. Communist parties outside of communist regimes: In Western Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere, there were communist parties that ran candidates for elections. T...

Treaty of Versailles, 1919: The treaty that ended the war punished Germany rather harshly, taking away 15 percent of its territory and all of its colonies. Furthermore, Germany was blamed for the war and forced to pay a massive sum in reparations. This only fostered great resentment within Germany and directly led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Armenian Genocide, Ottoman collapse, and the rise of Turkey: The young Turk nationalist government had long been suspicious of the Armenians. Fearing that they might work with the Russians, they launched a campaign of deportations and murder against 1 million Armenians. As the war saw uprisings from various Arab groups, the Ottoman Empire collapsed. However, the new Turkish Republic with its young Turk leaders emerged from the ruins of the empire. View from the colonies: Many in the colonies were stunned by the slaughter in Europe. In order to get support for the war, the French and British made promises for reforms and paths ...