World War 1 Outline

The First World War was the first industrialized total war, the Second World War was more total in nature and global scope but it brought key changes in politics. The Second World War brought the soviets and the Americans militarily and politically deep into Europe and also a transformation that reflected in their relations outside Europe. It brought the demise of Russia, Germany, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empire but USA and the USSR emerged as superpowers, combining political ambition with militaries capabilities. The legacy of WWII was the atomic bomb; nuclear weapons posed challenges to the politics world. Since 1900 world politics have changed, reflecting political, technological and ideological developments.

Modern total war

• After

The treaty failed because of a German revanchism and the great depression that cause unemployment but in Germany inflation was acute.

• WWII first used the term holocaust, in political lexicon of the 20th century, as the Nazi attempted the genocide of the Jewish people and other minorities, such as the Roma in Europe.

The rise and fall of Japan

• Japan had emerged from several centuries of isolation to pursue industrial and military modernization and for territorial expansion.

• The imposition of USA economic sanctions on Japan predicated Japanese preparation for a surprise attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor. With the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atomic bomb, and the defeat of Germany, the WWII end.

• Debates about the attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, still persists because of the effect that they could had in the cold war

The end of the empire

The self-determination as a principle in international politics marked a transformation of attitudes and values. Political, economic and military factors played various roles in the shaping of power.

In decolonization, far tribal divisions were created by the imperial powers. In Asia, the relationship between nationalism and revolutionary Marxism was a potent force. The global trends towards decolonization was a key development, while imperialism withered other forms of hegemony took shape. Hegemony was used to criticism of the behavior of the superpowers for example; soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe or American hegemony in Central America.

Cold war

USA as a world power after 1945 was important in the international politics. Its conflicts with the Soviet Union led one of the crucial dynamics in world affairs.

1945-53: onset of the cold war

The cold war demonstrates the failure of the implement of the principles agreed at the conferences of Yalta and Potsdam. The Truman Doctrine and the associated policy of containment show a USA as inherently defensive and were underpinned by the marshal plan for European economic recovery especially western Europe. During the cold war the first major confrontation was Berlin; because it had political autonomy. The north Atlantic treaty organization (NATO) stated that an attack of one member will be treated as an attack on all, according to the principle of collective self-defense. In the other hand, in the Middle East, the Soviet Union and USA helped the creation of a Jewish state in Arabs lands. Israel state was created