The World at War, 1900-1945

How did industrial capitalism and international rivalries contribute to the outbreak of war in 1914 and again in the 1930s?
In what ways did the two world wars differ from previous wars? Why are they considered total wars?
What historical developments of the modern era contributed to events like the Holocaust and the dropping of the atomic bomb?

Comparison of World Wars I & II:
their underlying and immediate causes
as examples of modern, total warfare
as world-wide conflicts
the post-war settlements

World War I                                                                                          World War II
underlying causes                                                                                   underlying causes
economic and social instability                                                                   economic and social instability
    economic depression (1873-1890s)                                                           war debts, reparations
    class conflict                                                                                                     Dawes, Young plans
imperialism                                                                                                     agricultural overproduction
    Moroccan crises (1905, 1911)                                                                    low consumer demand
        France, Germany                                                                                    collapse of American stock market (1929)
militarism                                                                                                            worldwide economic, financial crisis
    Germany                                                                                                         Great Depression (1930s)
    Great Britain                                                                                           imperialism/territorial expansion
        dreadnoughts                                                                                          Japan
alliance systems                                                                                                 Manchuria (1931)
    early 1900s                                                                                                    China (1937)
        Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy                                   Germany
        Triple Entente: Great Britain, Russia, France                                             Rhineland (1936)
    1914                                                                                                              Austria, Czechoslovakia (1938)
        Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire           militarism
        Allied Powers: Great Britain, Russia, France, Italy (1915)                  worldwide political realignments
nationalism                                                                                                       totalitarian, authoritarian dictatorships
        Bosnia-Herzegovina                                                                                   Soviet UnionóCommunismóJoseph Stalin
            Austro-Hungarian Empire                                                                      ItalyóFascismóBenito Mussolini
        Balkan Wars (1911-1912)                                                                         GermanyóNational SocialismóAdolf Hitler
            Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro vs. Ottoman Empire             Japanómilitaristic/imperialistic governments
immediate cause                                                                                                  Hirohito
    assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (June 1914)                       nationalism
            Sarajevo, Serbia                                                                            immediate cause
                                                                                                                     German invasion of Poland (1939)

World War I ("The Great War") (1914-1918)                                      World War II (1939-1945)
9 million killed                                                                                            60 million killed (including civilians)
20 million wounded                                                                                    25 million wounded

total war
mobilization of industrial economy & society
centralized planning
involvement of soldiers and civilians (men & women) in war effort
propaganda, censorship
military atrocities against civilians
new tactics & technologies

new tactics & technologies
submarine warfare                                                                                     aerial bombardment
trench warfare                                                                                            guerrilla warfare
planes                                                                                                        jet aircraft
automatic weapons                                                                                    rockets
poison gas                                                                                                 radar
tanks                                                                                                          aircraft carriers
                                                                                                                  atomic bomb

world-wide conflict
involvement of Asian, African, Commonwealth, troops                             war in Asia (1937-1945)
    logistical support                                                                                  civil war in China (1920s-1930s)
Africa                                                                                                             Jiang Jieshi (Guomindang or GMD, or Nationalists)
China                                                                                                             Mao Zedong (Communists or CCP)
    Republic of China (1912)                                                                                 "Long March" (1934-1936)
        warlords                                                                                           conflict within Japanese leadership
Japan and the Allies                                                                                         Mukden Incident (1931)
Russia                                                                                                                    South Manchuria Railway
    Provisional Government (February 1917)                                                   Manchukuo
        liberal constitutional democracy                                                                     Pu Yi (Kangde)
    Bolshevik Revolution (October 1917)                                                 Japanese invasion of China (1937)
        social revolutionaries                                                                          ìRape of Nanjingî (December 1937-March 1938)
        Marxist socialism                                                                                Nationalistsósouthwest China
            Vladimir Lenin                                                                                 Communistsónorthwest China
            Leon Trotsky                                                                                         United Front (1937)
    Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)                                                 "Asia for Asians"
    civil war (1918-1920) (Reds vs. Whites)                                                   Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
    Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union) (1922)       attacks on European Pacific colonies (1941)
Western Europe                                                                                             war in Asia, the Pacific
    stalemate (1915-1917)                                                                                     island-hopping
    entry of the United States into the war (April 1917)                             Axis Powers: Japan, Germany, Italy
    surrender of Germany (November 1918)                                             Allies: Great Britain, United States, Soviet Union
the Ottoman Empire                                                                                 war in Europe (1939-1945)
    1.5 million Armenians killed (1915-1916)                                                 Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
    capture of Iraq, Palestine, Syria by British & Arab allies (1917)                    Francisco Franco
    Treaty of Sevres (1920)                                                                             German invasion of Poland (1939)
            Ottomans lost all territories; Anatolia occupied                                  German invasion of France (1940)
    British control of Palestine, Iraq; France, Syria (1920)                              German invasion of the Soviet Union (1941)
        settlement of Palestine                                                                            Allied advance on Germany (1944-1945)
    Mustafa Kemal                                                                                          the Holocaust
        Republic of Turkey (1923)                                                                         Nuremberg Laws (1935)
            secular Islamic state                                                                                "euthanasia"
                                                                                                                            concentration camps, death camps
                                                                                                                            surrender of Germany (May 7, 1945)
                                                                                                                war in Asia (August-September 1945)
                                                                                                                        Hiroshima (August 6, 1945)
                                                                                                                            80,000 initially killed, tens of thousands wounded
                                                                                                                        Nagasaki (August 9, 1945)
                                                                                                                            35,000 initially killed, tens of thousands wounded
                                                                                                                        surrender of Japan (September 1945)

post-war settlements
Paris Peace Conference (1919)                                                             military occupation
    Great Britain, France, United States                                                         GermanyóUS, Great Britain, France, USSR
    Woodrow Wilson                                                                                    JapanóUnited States
    "peace without victory"                                                                     United Nations (1945)
    self-determination                                                                             International Monetary Fund (1945)
    League of Nations                                                                            World Bank (1946)
Treaty of Versailles (with Germany) (1919)
Treaty of St. Germain (Austria-Hungary) (1919)
Treaty of Sevres (Ottoman Empire) (1920)
mandate system