the world since the XX E century
What has it occurred in the world for more
than one hundred years? The xx E century saw being
born and disappearing from the totalitarian systems; two world wars took place;
countries were born, of the empires died; the "cold war" divided the
world in two during nearly 50 years; finally, the nature of the international
relations was modified.
THE WORLD OF 1900 TO 1945
The "Beautiful Time"
At the dawn of the xx E century, the world is dominated by the
powerful ones and prosperous nations of Europe.
Two immense colonial empires, those of England and France, divide the
world and dominate the economic exchanges.
Three other empires, the
Empire austro-Hungarian, the German Empire (called the II E Reich)
and the Russian Empire, divide "the old" Central Europe.
The world economy is in full growth, the
industrial production increases, technical progress relate to all fields
(transport, industry, chemistry, etc). It is what one calls the
"Beautiful Time".
Impact of the First World War
(1914-1918)
It is often said that the First World War
inserts the world in the xx E century.
Already, it is the first war which
uses modern weapons. Especially, the peace treaties put an end to the
great European empires. The borders of Europe are redrawn and of the State-nations are born like Finland,
Czechoslovakia, Poland or Yugoslavia.
At the end of the war, the
United States, which played a decisive role during the Large War, finances
the rebuilding of Europe and becomes the banker of the world.They become also
the first industrial power and manage to impose their economic standards.
Lastly, they play a major role in all the international negotiations. The
United States became a super power.
Inter-war period
? The Russian Revolution of 1917
In October 1917, whereas the country are
engaged in the First World War, Lénine and the party Bolshevik seize the power in Russia.
They found "dictatorship of the
proletariat" (the government by the workmen) and set up a single
party, the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union. In 1922 the USSR is
created (Union of the Soviet socialist
Republics).
When Lénine dies in 1924, it is replaced
by Joseph
Stalin. This last directs the country until its death (in 1953) and founds
a totalitarian mode.
? The world economic crisis of 1929
In 1929, New York Stock Exchange breaks down. The economic crisis is propagated
quickly in all the industrialized nations. During the years 1930, the world is
in economic
recession, which causes deep social and political upheavals.
This situation supports the arrival with
the capacity of totalitarian modes in Europe, causes direct Second World war.
? Appearance of totalitarian modes
After the Russian revolution of 1917 which
sets up the USSR in Russia, of the totalitarian modes appear in several
countries of Europe. In 1922, Benito Mussolini seizes the power and founds a fascistic
mode in Italy. In 1933, Adolf Hitler reaches the capacity in
Germany and creates the mode Nazi.
In 1939, the Francisco nationalist Free triumph in
Spain.
The first common point of these political
régimes is to be dictatorships, i.e. to impose on the populations an ideology and a
single political party. They control also the economy, all the means of
expression and communication, and practise the "worship of the head".
Certain countries even set up a vast system organized to get rid of the enemies
of mode (concentration camps, death camps, Gulag, etc).
The Second World war (1939-1945)
The most direct reason of the release of
the Second World war is the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler in Germany. It wishes
to avenge its country for the humiliation of the peace treaties signed at the
end of the First World War; moreover, he wants to take a lead in all Europe
where he seeks to conquer new territories. Japan makes in the same way in Asia.
The Second World war is long (6 years) and
loophole (approximately 50 million dead).
THE WORLD OF 1945 TO 1989
Whereas the Second World war is not
completed yet, UNO (United Nations) is created, in June 1945. The
objective of this international authority is to develop the dialogue and the
co-operation between all the countries of the world, to avoid all new conflict.
Birth of the conflict israélo-Arabic
The shortly after the Second World war,
the general assembly of UNO decides to give a ground to the Jewish people which
have just undergone a génocide. She votes a plan of division of Palestine,
which allows the creation of the State of Israel in May 1948.
However, the Palestinians react to the
loss of part of their country and they are supported, in their claim, by the
countries of the Arab League. Thus the conflict israélo-Arabic in 1948 begins.
It continues today still.
The cold war
At the end of the Second World war, two
superpuissances were essential in the world:
the United States and the
USSR. As in 1918, the United States contributes to the rebuilding of Europe
(Western). They wish to reorganize the world according to a liberal model. The American dollar becomes the principal currency of exchange.
On its
side, the USSR wishes to benefit from its position of winner of the war to
extend his zone of influence on the countries of Eastern Europe.
During
one half-century, the cold war opposes the
Eastern bloc (communist, behind the
USSR) to the block of the West (liberal, behind the United States). The world
is then cut into two: one speaks about a bipolar world.
Decolonizations
and birth of the Third World
In
parallel, as of the end of the Second World war, a movement of decolonization
develops in the colonies of the European countries. One of the reasons of this
movement is the weakening of the colonizing countries, which must think of
their own rebuilding. Moreover, the colonies are constant in their claims by
the United States and the USSR which hope to see new countries joining their
"camp".
In 1955,
these new nations born of the decolonization meet at the time
of the
conference of Bandung (in Indonesia).
It is L ' "birth certificate" of
the Third World, i.e. the
recognition of a third world, at the sides of the blocks of the West and Is.
The
construction of Europe
The
countries of Western Europe (i.e. pertaining to the block of the West) take
part the ones after the others in the construction of Europe. The first
European alliance goes back to 1951 and joins together 6 countries (France,
West Germany or FRG, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands): it is a
question at the beginning of making impossible all new war between France and
Germany by sharing their productions of raw materials making it possible to
build weapons.
Thereafter,
of many countries of Europe ask to join the organization, which extends soon to
the remainder from the economy then to the policy. Today, the European Union comprises
27 Member States.
The
collapse of the Soviet block
At the
end of the years 1980, each one their turn, the countries of Eastern Europe
know upheavals which lead to the fall of the communist governments. Free
elections are organized and of the economic reforms are committed.
The
example more symbolic system of the collapse of the Soviet block is the
fall of the wall which separates
into two the German city from Berlin, in November 1989: West Berlin and East
Berlin do again nothing any more but one. The following year, Germany
is reunified: FRG in the West and GDR in the East disappear.
In 1991,
the USSR disappears in its turn, the profit of Russia. The brutal
collapse of the communist countries of Europe means the
end of the cold war. After one half-century, the Est/Ouest opposition does
not exist any more.
THE
WORLD TODAY
The
disappearance of the bipolar world upsets the world order (i.e. reports/ratios
of force between the countries). The diplomatic relations calm down between
"the countries of the West" and "the Eastern European
countries". Thus, in 2004, the European Union widens with the arrival of
10 new countries resulting from the old Eastern bloc; then again in 2007, two
other countries join the UE; it gathers from now on 27 countries.
Another
upheaval resulting from the disappearance of the two blocks is a greater
universalization, on all the levels: economy, culture, communications. It is
said that the world became a "total village", which means that the
borders do not exist any more (or almost). However, this economic
universalization and the
liberalization of the exchanges increase
the inequalities between developed countries and country in the
process of development. The world passes then from the old Est/Ouest opposition
to a
NORTH-SOUTH opposition, i.e. with an opposition between the developed
countries and the countries in the process of development.
Despite
everything the hopes put in UNO to preserve peace, the conflicts do not cease.
For example, in Balkans and the ex-USSR, of
the nationalist claims new conflicts involve, as the civil war which
bursts in Yugoslavia (between Serbes, Croatian and Bosniaques) and causes the
explosion of the country. Terrorism finally takes a new scale, as the attacks
testify some to September 11 2001 in the United States.
TO GO FURTHER
? the First World War
? the Russian Revolution and the USSR
? Nazism and the III E Reich
? the Second World war
? decolonization
? the war of Algeria
? the cold war
? the war of Viêt Nam
? European construction
? characters: Albert II of Belgium –Jacques Chirac –Winston Churchill –Élisabeth II of England –Francisco Free –Mohandas Gandhi –Charles of Gaulle –Che Guevara –Hirohito –Adolf Hitler –Jean Jaurès –John Fitzgerald Kennedy –Martin Luther King –Lénine –Nelson Mandela –François Mitterrand –Jean Monnet –Jean Mill –Benito Mussolini –Nicolas II –Philippe Pétain –Franklin Delano Roosevelt –Joseph Stalin –Woodrow Wilson –Mao Zedong
? interactivity: chronology since the xx E century
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