WW1 & WW2
Asses nationalism,alliance, and economic factors in the wars
Nationalism
WW1 Nationalism-
nationalism helped lead to WWI because it caused conflict. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated because of nationalism. He was an ethnic German ruling an empire that included ethnic Slavs. Slavic nationalists did not like being ruled by Germans and killed the archduke in an attempt to help rid themselves of German rule.
Europeans nurtured a firm belief in the cultural, economic and military supremacy of their nation. This arrogance and overconfidence was fuelled by the jingoistic press. The pages of newspapers were often packed with nationalist rhetoric, inflammatory stories about rival nations and other forms of sabre rattling.
Propoganda also played a role in nationalism "The country needs you"
- Great Britian
- USA
- Germany
- France
Nationalism also demanded treaties of alliances intended to protect allies soverignity.
- Such treaties will be talked in Alliances.
Alliances
WW1 Alliances
European powers had adapted the same mechanical approach to warfare.
When one country would mobilize to go to war, specific steps were taken to begin the process. That in turn, would cause another country, either a friendly neighbor or regional ally, or an enemy, to begin their steps for going to war, which in turn causes another country to begin their steps for going to war, and etc, etc.
That's what happened when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. This caused countries allied with Austria-Hungary (the Triple Alliance) and countries allied with Serbia (the Triple Entente Powers) to declare war on each other, starting World War I.
National tensions and rivalries had made alliances a common factor of European politics , some alliances were negotiated in secret adding tension in pre-war .
Economic Factors
- Industrial revolution 1850 in Europe (Consumer market) expands, increases producer competing for those markets.
- Economic competition in each country were fierce nationalist feeling.
- European nations did two things to protect themselves they joined the rush for oversea colonies.(Britain, France, and Germany)
- Economic competition between capitalist groups leads to the encroaching on the markets and resources of foreign rivals, and governments retaliate with tariffs, quotas, subsidies and other methods of excluding goods from the market. In the last resort the struggle leads to wars of conquest, the object of which is to acquire control over markets, or over territories rich in mineral and other resources and in an exploitable working-class.
- Marshal Foch, French military leader in the First World War wrote in 1918 of the commercial nature of the forces leading to war: ‘What do we all seek? New outlets for an ever-increasing commerce and for industries which, producing far more than they can consume or sell, are constantly hampered by an increasing competition. And then? Why! New areas for trade are cleared by cannon shot. Even the Stock Exchange, for reasons of interest, can cause armies to enter into campaign' (United Service Magazine, December 1918). Even Keynes in 1936 identified that 'competitive struggle for markets' is the predominant factor in 'the economic causes of war' (The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1936). Capitalists who have money invested in some foreign territory will do their utmost to secure protection for their property through the activities – including in the last resort war – of their government. ***Very Interesting to include in your papers
- The origins of the First World War lay in the fact that the nineteenth century industrial, military and naval predominance of British and French capitalism was being challenged by the rapid expansion of Germany. As German industry grew, German production and exports were catching up with the British and the French.
WW2 Nationalism
- Nationalism was probably the main cause of World War 2.Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis wanted Germany's old land back. Using force! If you didn't know Germany lost their land due to the Treaty of Versailles who in 1919 (end of WW1).
- Extreme nationalism was displayed when Germany invaded The Soviet Union, and when Japan attacked the US on 1941.
- Annexation of Manchuria
- Invasion of China
Japanese desire to take over existing Western colonies in the Asia-Pacific region.
This eventually led to Japan's attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. - The US nationalism in the beginning of the war was Wilson's peace without victory slogan that mainly kept the country neutral.
- Italy showed nationalism with Mussolini in power advocating and Italian empire
- Once again propaganda played a huge rule in nationalism because A series of radio commercials, posters, and celebrity endorsements, gave America the fervor to support the war effort. It helped in a diversity of ways: posters encouraging young men to volunteer for military service, notifications of open jobs at facilities that produced military hardware, encouraging posters for people to buy war bonds, and derogatory posters demonizing the people of Germany and Japan. Hate sells, and Americans bought plenty.
WW2 Alliances
- After the war many countries were in debt. The losers had problems paying reparations and the winners borrowed a lot of money from the United States which they could not pay back. Inflation in many countries left people without any savings. In the 1930s the Great Depression, starting out in the USA, spread to Europe and stopped the continent's recovery. Millions of people were out of work and poverty rose.
- Two groups of nations fought against each other during the Second World War.
- During the 1930s Germany, Italy and Japan led a group of nations called the Axis. The leaders of these countries were dictators. They wanted their own countries to grow and others to become weaker. In the years before the beginning of World War II all three Axis powers had strengthened and modernized their armies.
- The Axis Powers invaded other countries and expanded their territory. At the beginning of the 1930s Japan invaded Manchuria because it had a lot of raw materials. In 1938 it attacked China and later on expanded to Southeast Asia. In 1935 Italy took over Ethiopia. Germany started its conquest of foreign territories by invading Austria. Italy and Germany also sent soldiers to help another dictator, Francisco Franco, in the Spanish Civil War.
- The Allies were made up of a total of 50 countries. They were led by Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France, China and the United States and opposed the Axis.
- World War Two was fought for many similar reasons as World War I.
- An alliance system existed again--this time it was the Axis Powers
- Germany
- Italy
- Japan
- and the Allied Powers
- Great Britain
- Russia
- France.
- Germany broke the Munich Pact and invaded Poland. Great Britain declared war on Germany, and the alliances kicked in again.
WW2 Economic Factors
- The basic cause of modern war is the international rivalries inseparable from capitalism and the capitalist class's domination of the world's resources. World War Two was no exception.
- The particular background to this, the most destructive war ever, was the formation of the German-Italian-Japanese alliance in the 1930s and their concerted effort to expand at the expense of weaker neighbours and the older colonial powers, notably Britain, France and Holland. Italy and Germany had long before 1914 entered into the colonial scramble but they developed late and found all the best territories, strategic positions and trade routes already dominated by the 'older and fatter' bandits. The line-up before 1914 was, on the one side, the 'Triple Alliance' of Germany, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and arrayed against their expansionist ambitions the 'Triple Entente' of Britain, France and Russia.