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| Late modern period | |||
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| c. 1789 – c. 1945 | |||
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.jpg) A 1899 German world map showingcolonial political divisions as well as major shipping routes andundersea cables. The late modern period saw global integration enabled by colonial expansion and technological change. | |||
| Location | Worldwide | ||
| Part ofa series on |
| Human history |
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| ↑Prehistory (Stone Age) (Pleistocene epoch) |
| ↓Future |
In many periodizations ofhuman history, thelate modern period followed theearly modern period. It began around 1800 and, depending on the author, either ended with the beginning ofcontemporary history in 1945, or includes the contemporary history period to the present day.
Notable historical events in the late 18th century, that marked the transition from the early modern period to the late modern period, include:[according to whom?] theAmerican Revolution (1765–91),French Revolution (1789–99), and beginning of theIndustrial Revolution around 1760.
There are differing approaches to defining a possible end or conclusion to the Late Modern period, or indeed whether it might be considered to have concluded at all.[according to whom?] If that period is indeed concluded, then there are various options[according to whom?] for how to label the subsequent era, i.e. the current contemporary era, as described below.
Additionally, the Late Modern period has been divided[according to whom?] into various smaller periods; there are differing opinions and approaches[by whom?] on which time periods to assert in doing so.
The development of thesteam engine started the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.[18][original research?] The steam engine was created to pump water from coal mines, enabling them to be deepened beyondgroundwater levels. The date of the Industrial Revolution is not exact, but some studies suggest it occurred after theEast India Company's conquests ofMughal Bengal,Kingdom of Mysore and the rest ofIndia, which were already observing theproto-industrialization.Eric Hobsbawm held that it "broke out" between 1789 and 1848,[19] whileT.S. Ashton held that it occurred roughly between 1760 and 1830 (in effect the reigns ofGeorge III, TheRegency, andGeorge IV).[20][better source needed]
Historians[which?] define the 19th centuryhistorical era as stretching from 1815 (theCongress of Vienna) to 1914 (the outbreak of theFirst World War). Alternatively,Eric Hobsbawm defined the"Long Nineteenth Century" as spanning the years 1789 to 1914.
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In the 1800s and early 1900s, the great and powerful Spanish, Portuguese, Ottoman, and Mughal Empires began to break apart. Spain, which was at one time unrivaled in Europe, had been declining for a long time when it was crippled by Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion.[citation needed]
The Ottoman Empire was wracked with a series of revolutions, resulting with the Ottoman's only holding a small region that surrounded the capital, Istanbul.[citation needed]
The Mughal Empire, which was descended from the Mongol Khanate, was bested by the upcomingMaratha Confederacy. All was going well for theMarathas until the British took an interest in the riches of India and the British ended up ruling not just the boundaries of Modern India, but also Pakistan, Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh and some Southern Regions of Afghanistan.[citation needed]
Portugal's vast territory of Brazil reformed into the independent Empire of Brazil. With the defeat of Napoleonic France, Britain became undoubtedly[according to whom?] the most powerful country in the world,[according to whom?] and by the end of the First World War controlled a Quarter of the world's population and a third of its surface. However, the power of the British Empire did not end on land, since it had the greatest navy on the planet.[according to whom?] Electricity, steel, and petroleum enabled Germany to become a greatinternational power that raced to create empires of its own.[citation needed]
Substantialdecolonization of the Americas occurred through various revolutions and wars of independence fought by new countries in the Americas against European colonizers in late 18th and early-to-mid-19th centuries. TheSpanish American wars of independence lasted from 1808 until 1829, directly related to the Napoleonic French invasion of Spain. The conflict started with short-lived governing juntas established in Chuquisaca and Quito opposing the composition of the Supreme Central Junta of Seville. When the Central Junta fell to the French, numerous new Juntas appeared all across the Americas, eventually resulting in a chain of newly independent countries stretching from Argentina and Chile in the south, to Mexico in the north. After the death of the king Ferdinand VII, in 1833, only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule, until the Spanish–American War in 1898. Unlike the Spanish, the Portuguese did not divide their colonial territory in America. The captaincies they created were subdued to a centralized administration in Salvador (later relocated to Rio de Janeiro) which reported directly to the Portuguese Crown until its independence in 1822, becoming theEmpire of Brazil.[citation needed]
TheMeiji Restoration was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure that was taking a firm hold at the beginning of theMeiji era which coincided the opening of Japan by the arrival of theBlack Ships ofCommodoreMatthew Perry and madeImperial Japan agreat power.Russia andQing dynasty China failed to keep pace with the other world powers which led to massive social unrest in both empires. The Qing Dynasty's military power weakened during the 19th century, and faced with international pressure, massiverebellions and defeats in wars, the dynasty declined after the mid-19th century.[citation needed]
European powers controlled parts of Oceania, with FrenchNew Caledonia from 1853 andFrench Polynesia from 1889; the Germans established colonies inNew Guinea in 1884, andSamoa in 1900. The United States expanded into the Pacific with Hawaii becoming aU.S. territory from 1898. Disagreements between the US, Germany and UK over Samoa led to theTripartite Convention of 1899.[citation needed]
| Decolonization of the Americas |
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The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period ofQueen Victoria's reign from June 1837 to January 1901. This was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed a large, educated middle class to develop. Some scholars[which?] would extend the beginning of the period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political games that have come to be associated with the Victorians—back five years to the passage of theReform Act 1832.[citation needed]
In Britain's "imperial century",[nb 2] victory over Napoleon left Britain without any serious international rival, other than Russia in central Asia. Unchallenged at sea, Britain adopted the role of global policeman, a state of affairs later known as thePax Britannica, and a foreign policy of "splendid isolation". Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, Britain's dominant position in world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many nominally independent countries, such as China,Argentina andSiam, which has been generally characterized as "informal empire".[21] Of note during this time was theAnglo-Zulu War, which was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and theZulu Empire.[citation needed]
British imperial strength was underpinned by thesteamship and thetelegraph, new technologies invented in the second half of the 19th century, allowing it to control and defend the Empire. By 1902, the British Empire was linked together by a network of telegraph cables, the so-calledAll Red Line. Growing until 1922, around 13,000,000 square miles (34,000,000 km2) of territory and roughly 458 million people were added to the British Empire.[22][23] The British established colonies in Australia in 1788, New Zealand in 1840 andFiji in 1872, with much of Oceania becoming part of the British Empire.[citation needed]
TheBourbon Restoration followed the ousting of Napoleon I of France in 1814. The Allies restored the Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne. The ensuing period is called the Restoration, following French usage, and is characterized by a sharp conservative reaction and the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Church as a power in French politics. TheJuly Monarchy was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution (or Three Glorious Days) of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848. TheSecond Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.[citation needed]
TheFranco-Prussian War was a conflict between France and Prussia, while Prussia was backed up by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria. The complete Prussian and German victory brought about the final unification of Germany under King Wilhelm I of Prussia. It also marked the downfall of Napoleon III and the end of the Second French Empire, which was replaced by the Third Republic. As part of the settlement, almost all of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine was taken by Prussia to become a part of Germany, which it would retain until the end of World War I.[citation needed]
TheFrench Third Republic was the republican government of France between the end of the Second French Empire following the defeat of Louis-Napoléon in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and the Vichy Regime after the invasion of France by the German Third Reich in 1940. The Third Republic endured seventy years, making it the most long-lasting regime in France since the collapse of the Ancien Régime in the French Revolution of 1789.[citation needed]
Italian unification was the political and social movement that annexed different states of theItalian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. There is a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and the end of this period, but many scholars agree that the process began with the end of Napoleonic rule and theCongress of Vienna in 1815, and approximately ended with theFranco-Prussian War in 1871, though the lastcittà irredente did not join theKingdom of Italy until after World War I.[citation needed]
Slavery was greatly reduced around the world in the 19th century. Following a successfulslave revolt in Haiti, Britain forced theBarbary pirates to halt their practice of kidnapping and enslaving Europeans, and passed theSlavery Abolition Act 1833 to ban slavery throughout its domain, and charged its navy with ending the globalslave trade. Slavery was then abolished inRussia (1861),America (1865), andBrazil (1888).[citation needed]
Following the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and propelled by economic exploitation, theScramble for Africa was initiated formally at theBerlin West Africa Conference in 1884–1885. The Berlin Conference attempted to avoid war among the European powers by allowing the European rival countries to carve up the continent of Africa into national colonies. Africans were not consulted.[citation needed]
The major European powers laid claim to the areas of Africa where they could exhibit a sphere of influence over the area. These claims did not have to have any substantial land holdings or treaties to be legitimate. The European power that demonstrated its control over a territory accepted the mandate to rule that region as a national colony. The European nation that held the claim developed and benefited from their colony's commercial interests without having to fear rival European competition. With the colonial claim came the underlying assumption that the European power that exerted control would use its mandate to offer protection and provide welfare for its colonial peoples, however, this principle remained more theory than practice. There were many documented instances of material and moral conditions deteriorating for native Africans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries under European colonial rule, to the point where the colonial experience for them has been described as "hell on earth."[citation needed]
At the time of theBerlin Conference, Africa contained one-fifth of the world's population living in one-quarter of the world's land area. However, from Europe's perspective, they were dividing an unknown continent. European countries established a few coastal colonies in Africa by the mid-nineteenth century, which includedCape Colony (Great Britain),Angola (Portugal), andAlgeria (France), but until the late nineteenth century Europe largely traded with free African states without feeling the need for territorial possession. Until the 1880s most of Africa remained uncharted, with western maps from the period generally showing blank spaces for the continent's interior.[citation needed]
From the 1880s to 1914, the European powers expanded their control across the African continent, competing with each other for Africa's land and resources. Great Britain controlled various colonial holdings in East Africa that spanned the length of the African continent from Egypt in the north to South Africa. The French gained major ground in West Africa, and the Portuguese held colonies in southern Africa. Germany, Italy, and Spain established a small number of colonies at various points throughout the continent, which included German East Africa (Tanganyika) and German Southwest Africa for Germany, Eritrea and Libya for Italy, and the Canary Islands and Rio de Oro in northwestern Africa for Spain. Finally, forKing Leopold (ruled from 1865 to 1909), there was the large "piece of that great African cake" known as theCongo, which became his personal fiefdom. By 1914, almost the entire continent was under European control.Liberia, which was settled by freed American slaves in the 1820s, and Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in eastern Africa were the last remaining independent African states.[24]
Around the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, theMeiji era occurred during the reign of theMeiji Emperor. During this time, Japan started its modernization and rose to world power status. Thisera name means "Enlightened Rule". In Japan, the Meiji Restoration started in the 1860s, marking the rapid modernization by the Japanese themselves along European lines. Much research has focused on the issues of discontinuity versus continuity with the previous Tokugawa Period.[25] It was not until the beginning of the Meiji Era that the Japanese government began taking modernization seriously. Japan expanded its military production base by opening arsenals in various locations. Thehyobusho (war office) was replaced with aWar Department and aNaval Department. Thesamurai class suffered great disappointment the following years.[citation needed]
Laws were instituted that required every able-bodied male Japanese citizen, regardless of class, to serve a mandatory term of three years with the first reserves and two additional years with the second reserves. This action, the deathblow for the samurai warriors and theirdaimyōs, initially met resistance from both the peasant and warrior alike. The peasant class interpreted the term for military service, ketsu-eki ("blood tax") literally, and attempted to avoid service by any means necessary. The Japanese government began modelling their ground forces after the French military. The French government contributed greatly to the training of Japanese officers. Many were employed at the military academy in Kyoto, and many more still were feverishly translating French field manuals for use in the Japanese ranks. Japan's modernized military gave Japan the opportunity to engage in Imperialism with its victory against theQing Empire in theFirst Sino-Japanese War Japan annexedTaiwan,Korea and the Chinese province ofShandong.[citation needed]
After the death of the Meiji Emperor, theTaishō Emperor took the throne, theTaishō period was a time of democratic reform granting democratic rights to all Japanese men. Foreigners would be instrumental in aiding in Japan's modernization. A key foreign observer of the remarkable and rapid changes inJapanese society in this period wasErnest Mason Satow.[citation needed]
TheAntebellum Age was a period of increasing division in the country based on the growth of slavery in theAmerican South and in the western territories ofKansas andNebraska that eventually led to theCivil War in 1861. The Antebellum Period is often considered to have begun with theKansas–Nebraska Act of 1854,[citation needed] although it may have begun as early as 1812. This period is also significant because it marked the transition of American manufacturing to the industrial revolution.[citation needed]
"Manifest destiny" was the belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. During this time, the United States expanded to the Pacific Ocean—"from sea to shining sea"—largely defining the borders of the contiguous United States as they are today.[citation needed]
The American Civil War began when sevenSouthern slave states declared theirsecession from the U.S. and formed theConfederate States of America, the Confederacy (four more states joined the Confederacy later). Led byJefferson Davis, they fought against theU.S. federal government (the Union) under PresidentAbraham Lincoln, which was supported by all the free states and the fiveborder slave states in the north.[citation needed]
Northern leaders agreed that victory would require more than the end of fighting. Secession and Confederate nationalism had to be totally repudiated and all forms of slavery or quasi-slavery had to be eliminated. Lincoln proved effective in mobilizing support for the war goals, raising large armies and supplying them, avoiding foreign interference, and making the end of slavery a war goal. The Confederacy had a larger area than it could defend, and it failed to keep its ports open and its rivers clear as was the case in theBattle of Vicksburg. TheNorth kept up the pressure as the South could barely feed and clothe its soldiers. Its soldiers, especially those in the East under the command of GeneralRobert E. Lee proved highly resourceful until they finally were overwhelmed by GeneralsUlysses S. Grant andWilliam T. Sherman in 1864–65. TheReconstruction era (1863–77) began with theEmancipation Proclamation in 1863, and included freedom, full citizenship and voting rights for Southern blacks. It was followed by a reaction that left the blacks in a second class status legally, politically, socially and economically until the 1960s.[citation needed]
During the Gilded Age, there was substantial growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of America's upper-class during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, in the late 19th century. The wealth polarization derived primarily from industrial and population expansion. The businessmen of theSecond Industrial Revolution created industrial towns and cities in theNortheast with new factories, and contributed to the creation of an ethnically diverse industrial working class which produced the wealth owned by rising super-richindustrialists and financiers called the "robber barons". An example is the company ofJohn D. Rockefeller, who was an important figure in shaping the new oil industry. Using highly effective tactics and aggressive practices, later widely criticized,Standard Oil absorbed or destroyed most of its competition.[citation needed]
The creation of a modern industrial economy took place. With the creation of atransportation and communication infrastructure, the corporation became the dominant form of business organization and amanagerial revolution transformed business operations. In 1890,Congress passed theSherman Antitrust Act—the source of all American anti-monopoly laws. The law forbade every contract, scheme, deal, or conspiracy to restrain trade, though the phrase "restraint of trade" remained subjective. By the beginning of the 20th century, per capita income andindustrial production in the United States exceeded that of any other country except Britain. Long hours and hazardous working conditions led many workers to attempt to form labor unions despite strong opposition from industrialists and the courts. But the courts did protect the marketplace, declaring the Standard Oil group to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under theSherman Antitrust Act in 1911. It ordered Standard to break up into 34 independent companies with different boards of directors.[26]
Replacing theclassical physics in use since the end of the scientific revolution,modern physics arose in the early 20th century with the advent ofquantum physics,[27] substitutingmathematical studies forexperimental studies and examiningequations to build atheoretical structure.[nb 3][citation needed] Theold quantum theory was a collection of results which predate modernquantum mechanics, but were never complete or self-consistent.[28] The collection ofheuristic prescriptions for quantum mechanics were the first corrections toclassical mechanics.[28][nb 4] Outside the realm of quantum physics, the variousaether theories in classical physics, which supposed a "fifth element" such as theLuminiferous aether,[nb 5] were nullified by theMichelson–Morley experiment—an attempt to detect the motion of earth through the aether. In biology,Darwinism gained acceptance, promoting the concept ofadaptation in the theory ofnatural selection. The fields ofgeology,astronomy andpsychology also made strides and gained new insights. Inmedicine, there were advances inmedical theory andtreatments.[citation needed]
Starting one-hundred years before the 20th century, the Enlightenment philosophy was challenged in various quarters around the 1900s.[29][30][31][32][33][nb 6] Developed from earlier secular traditions,[nb 7] modernHumanistethical philosophies affirmed the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularlyrationality, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts.[34][35] Forliberal humanists such asRousseau andKant, the universal law ofreason guided the way toward total emancipation from any kind of tyranny. These ideas were challenged, for example by theyoung Karl Marx, who criticized the project of political emancipation (embodied in the form of human rights), asserting it to be symptomatic of the very dehumanization it was supposed to oppose. ForFriedrich Nietzsche, humanism was nothing more than a secular version oftheism. In hisGenealogy of Morals, he argues that human rights exist as a means for the weak to collectively constrain the strong. On this view, such rights do not facilitate emancipation of life, but rather deny it. In the 20th century, the notion that human beings are rationally autonomous was challenged by the concept that humans were driven by unconscious irrational desires.[citation needed]
Sigmund Freud is renowned for his redefinition ofsexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life, as well as his therapeutic techniques, including the use offree association, histheory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and theinterpretation of dreams as sources of insight intounconscious desires.[citation needed]
Albert Einstein is known for his theories ofspecial relativity andgeneral relativity. He also made important contributions tostatistical mechanics, especially his mathematical treatment ofBrownian motion, his resolution of theparadox of specific heats, and his connection offluctuations and dissipation. Despite his reservations about its interpretation, Einstein also made contributions to quantum mechanics and, indirectly,quantum field theory, primarily through his theoretical studies of thephoton.[citation needed]
At the end of the 19th century,Social Darwinism was promoted and included the various ideologies based on a concept that competition among all individuals, groups, nations, or ideas was a "natural" framework for social evolution in human societies. In this view, society's advancement is dependent on the "survival of the fittest". The term was in fact coined byHerbert Spencer and referred to in "The Gospel of Wealth" written byAndrew Carnegie.[citation needed]
Karl Marx summarized his approach to history and politics in the opening line of the first chapter ofThe Communist Manifesto (1848). He wrote:
TheManifesto went through a number of editions from 1872 to 1890; notable new prefaces were written by Marx and Engels for the 1872 German edition, the 1882 Russian edition, the 1883 German edition, and the 1888 English edition. In general,Marxism identified five (and one transitional) successive stages of development in Western Europe.[37]
Major political developments saw the formerBritish Empire lose most of its remaining political power overcommonwealth countries.[nb 8] TheTrans-Siberian Railway, crossing Asia by train, was complete by 1916. Other events include theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict, two world wars, and theCold War.[citation needed]
In 1901, theFederation of Australia was the process by which the six separate Britishself-governing colonies ofNew South Wales,Queensland,South Australia,Tasmania, Victoria andWestern Australia formed one nation. They kept the systems of government that they had developed as separate colonies but also would have a federal government that was responsible for matters concerning the whole nation. When theConstitution of Australia came into force, the colonies collectively became states of the Commonwealth of Australia.[citation needed]
The last days of theQing dynasty were marked with civil unrest,failed reforms and foreign invasions such as theBoxer Rebellion. Responding to these civil failures and discontent, the Qing Imperial Court did attempt to reform the government in various ways, as the decision to draft a constitution in 1906, the establishment of provincial legislatures in 1909, and the preparation for a national parliament in 1910. However, many of these measures were opposed by the conservatives of the Qing Court, and many reformers were either imprisoned or executed outright. The failures of the Imperial Court to enact such reforming measures of political liberalization and modernization caused the reformists to steer toward the road of revolution.[citation needed]
The assertions of Chinese philosophy[38] began to integrate concepts of Western philosophy, as steps toward modernization. By the time of theXinhai Revolution in 1911, there were many calls, such as theMay Fourth Movement, to completely abolish the old imperial institutions and practices of China. There were attempts to incorporate democracy,republicanism, andindustrialism into Chinese philosophy, notably bySun Yat-sen at the beginning of the 20th century.[citation needed]
In 1912, the Republic of China was established and Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated inNanjing as the firstProvisional President. But power in Beijing had already passed toYuan Shikai, who had effective control of theBeiyang Army, the most powerful military force in China at the time. To prevent civil war and possible foreign intervention from undermining the infant republic, leaders agreed to the army's demand that China be united under a Beijing government. On March 10, in Beijing, Shikai was sworn in as the second Provisional President of the Republic of China.[citation needed]
After the early 20th century revolutions, shifting alliances ofChina's regional warlords waged war for control of the Beijing government. Despite the fact that various warlords gained control of the government in Beijing during the warlord era, this did not constitute a new era of control or governance, because other warlords did not acknowledge the transitory governments in this period and were a law unto themselves. These military-dominated governments were collectively known as theBeiyang government. The warlord era ended around 1927.[39]
In 1900, the world's population had approached approximately 1.6 billion. Four years into the 20th century saw theRusso-Japanese War with theBattle of Port Arthur establishing theEmpire of Japan as a world power. The Russians were in constant pursuit of awarm water port on the Pacific Ocean, for their navy as well as for maritime trade. The Manchurian Campaign of theRussian Empire was fought against the Japanese overManchuria andKorea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around theLiaodong Peninsula andMukden, and the seas around Korea, Japan, and theYellow Sea. The resulting campaigns, in which the fledgling Japanese military consistently attained victory over the Russian forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers. These victories, as time transpired, would dramatically transform the distribution of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. The embarrassing string of defeats increased Russian popular dissatisfaction with the inefficient and corrupt Tsarist government.[citation needed]
TheRussian Revolution of 1905 was a wave of mass political unrest through vast areas of theRussian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It includedterrorism, worker strikes, peasant unrests, and military mutinies. It led to the establishment of thelimited constitutional monarchy, the establishment ofState Duma of the Russian Empire, and themulti-party system.[citation needed]
In China, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown following theXinhai Revolution. The Xinhai Revolution began with theWuchang uprising on October 10, 1911, and ended with the abdication ofEmperor Puyi on February 12, 1912. The primary parties to the conflict were the Imperial forces of theQing dynasty (1644–1911), and the revolutionary forces of theChinese Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui).[citation needed]
TheEdwardian era in the United Kingdom is the period spanning the reign ofKing Edward VII up to the end of the First World War, including the years surrounding thesinking of the RMSTitanic. In the early years of the period, theSecond Boer War in South Africa split the country into anti- and pro-war factions. The imperial policies of the Conservatives eventually proved unpopular and in thegeneral election of 1906 the Liberals won a huge landslide. The Liberal government was unable to proceed with all of its radical programme without the support of theHouse of Lords, which was largely Conservative. Conflict between the two Houses of Parliament over thePeople's Budget led to a reduction in the power of the peers in 1910. Thegeneral election in January that year returned ahung parliament with the balance of power held byLabour andIrish Nationalist members.[citation needed]
Thecauses of World War I included many factors, including the conflicts and antagonisms of the four decades leading up to the war. TheTriple Entente was the name given to the loose alignment between theUnited Kingdom,France, andRussia after the signing of theAnglo-Russian Entente in 1907. The alignment of the three powers, supplemented by various agreements withJapan, the United States, andSpain, constituted a powerful counterweight to theTriple Alliance ofGermany,Austria-Hungary, andItaly, the third having concluded an additional secret agreement with France effectively nullifying her Alliance commitments. Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism played major roles in the conflict. The immediate origins of the war lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals during theJuly Crisis of 1914, the spark (or casus belli) for which was the assassination ofArchduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.[citation needed]
However, the crisis did not exist in a void; it came after a long series of diplomatic clashes between the Great Powers over European and colonial issues in the decade prior to 1914 which had left tensions high. The diplomatic clashes can be traced to changes in the balance of power in Europe since 1870. An example is theBaghdad Railway which was planned to connect theOttoman Empire cities ofKonya andBaghdad with a line through modern-day Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The railway became a source of international disputes during the years immediately preceding World War I. Although it has been argued that they were resolved in 1914 before the war began, it has also been argued that the railroad was a cause of the First World War.[40] Fundamentally the war was sparked by tensions over territory in theBalkans. Austria-Hungary competed with Serbia and Russia for territory and influence in the region and they pulled the rest of the great powers into the conflict through their various alliances and treaties. TheBalkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913 in the course of which theBalkan League (Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece, and Serbia) first captured Ottoman-held remaining part of Thessaly, Macedonia, Epirus, Albania and most of Thrace and then fell out over the division of the spoils, with incorporation of Romania this time.[citation needed]
The First World War began in 1914 and lasted to the finalArmistice in 1918. TheAllied Powers, led by theBritish Empire,France, Russia until March 1918, Japan and the United States after 1917, defeated theCentral Powers, led by theGerman Empire,Austro-Hungarian Empire and theOttoman Empire. The war caused the disintegration of four empires—the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian ones—as well as radical change in the European and West Asian maps. The Allied powers before 1917 are referred to as theTriple Entente, and the Central Powers are referred to as theTriple Alliance.[citation needed]
Much of the fighting in World War I took place along theWestern Front, within a system of opposing manned trenches and fortifications (separated by a "No man's land") running from theNorth Sea to the border of Switzerland. On theEastern Front, the vast eastern plains and limited rail network prevented a trench warfare stalemate from developing, although the scale of the conflict was just as large. Hostilities also occurred on and under the sea and—for the first time—from the air. More than 9 million soldiers died on the various battlefields, and nearly that many more in the participating countries' home fronts on account of food shortages andgenocide committed under the cover of various civil wars and internal conflicts. Notably, more people died of the worldwideinfluenza outbreak at the end of the war and shortly after than died in the hostilities. The unsanitary conditions engendered by the war, severe overcrowding in barracks, wartime propaganda interfering with public health warnings, and migration of so many soldiers around the world helped the outbreak become apandemic.[41]
Ultimately, World War I created a decisive break with the oldworld order that had emerged after theNapoleonic Wars, which was modified by the mid-19th century's nationalistic revolutions. The results of World War I would be important factors in the development of World War II approximately 20 years later. More immediate to the time, thepartitioning of the Ottoman Empire was a political event that redrew the political boundaries of West Asia. The huge conglomeration of territories and peoples formerly ruled by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was divided into several new nations.[42] The partitioning brought the creation of the modernArab world and theRepublic of Turkey. TheLeague of Nations granted France mandates overSyria andLebanon and granted the United Kingdom mandates overMesopotamia andPalestine (which was later divided into two regions:Palestine andTransjordan). Parts of the Ottoman Empire on theArabian Peninsula became parts of what are todaySaudi Arabia andYemen.[citation needed]
The Russian Revolution is the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed theTsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Following the abdication ofNicholas II of Russia, theRussian Provisional Government was established. In October 1917, ared faction revolution occurred in which theRed Guard, armed groups of workers and deserting soldiers directed by the Bolshevik Party, seized control ofSaint Petersburg (then known as Petrograd) and began an immediate armed takeover of cities and villages throughout the formerRussian Empire.[citation needed]
Another action in 1917 that is of note was the armistice signed between Russia and the Central Powers atBrest-Litovsk.[43] As a condition for peace, the treaty by theCentral Powers conceded huge portions of the former Russian Empire toImperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire, greatly upsettingnationalists andconservatives. The Bolsheviks made peace with theGerman Empire and theCentral Powers, as they had promised the Russian people prior to the Revolution. Vladimir Lenin's decision has been attributed to his sponsorship by the foreign office ofWilhelm II, German Emperor, offered by the latter in hopes that with a revolution, Russia would withdraw from World War I. This suspicion was bolstered by the German Foreign Ministry's sponsorship of Lenin's return to Petrograd (St. Petersburg). TheWestern Allies expressed their dismay at the Bolsheviks, upset at:[citation needed]
In addition, there was a concern, shared by many Central Powers as well, that the socialist revolutionary ideas would spread to the West. Hence, many of these countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies.Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle".[44]
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after theRussian provisional government collapsed and theSoviets under the domination of theBolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd and then in other places. In the wake of theOctober Revolution, the old Russian Imperial Army had been demobilized; the volunteer-based Red Guard was the Bolsheviks' main military force, augmented by an armed military component of theCheka, the Bolshevik state security apparatus. There was an instituted mandatory conscription of the rural peasantry into the Red Army.[45] Opposition of rural Russians to Red Army conscription units was overcome by taking hostages and shooting them when necessary to force compliance.[46] Former Tsarist officers were used as "military specialists" (voenspetsy),[47] taking their families hostage to ensure loyalty.[48] At the start of the war, three-fourths of the Red Army officer corps was composed of former Tsarist officers.[48] By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers.[49]
The principal fighting occurred between theBolshevikRed Army and the forces of theWhite Army. Many foreign armies warred against the Red Army, notably theAllied Forces, yet many volunteer foreigners fought in both sides of the Russian Civil War. Other nationalist and regional political groups also participated in the war, including the Ukrainian nationalistGreen Army, the Ukrainian anarchistInsurgent Army andBlack Guards, and warlords such asUngern von Sternberg. The most intense fighting took place from 1918 to 1920. Major military operations ended on October 25, 1922, when the Red Army occupiedVladivostok, previously held by theProvisional Priamur Government. The last enclave of the White Forces was theAyano-Maysky District on the Pacific coast. The majority of the fighting ended in 1920 with the defeat of GeneralPyotr Wrangel in theCrimea, but a notable resistance in certain areas continued until 1923 (e.g.,Kronstadt uprising,Tambov Rebellion,Basmachi Revolt, and the final resistance of theWhite movement in theFar East).[citation needed]
While the early 1920s was a time of flux for revolutionary Russia and Central Asia, theUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics was proclaimed in 1922 as the successor state to the fallen Russian Empire. Revolutionary leaderVladimir Lenin died of natural causes and was succeeded byJoseph Stalin.[citation needed]
In 1917, China declared war on Germany in the hope of recovering its lost province, then under Japanese control. TheNew Culture Movement occupied the period from 1917 to 1923. Chinese representatives refused to sign theTreaty of Versailles, due to intense pressure from the student protesters and public opinion alike.[citation needed]
TheMay Fourth Movement helped to rekindle the then-fading cause of republican revolution. In 1917Sun Yat-sen had become commander-in-chief of a rival military government inGuangzhou in collaboration with southern warlords. Sun's efforts to obtain aid from the Western democracies were ignored, however, and in 1920 he turned to the Soviet Union, which had recently achieved its own revolution. The Soviets sought to befriend the Chinese revolutionists by offering scathing attacks on Western imperialism. But for political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly establishedChinese Communist Party (CCP).[citation needed]
In early 1927, the Kuomintang-CCP rivalry led to a split in the revolutionary ranks. The CCP and the left wing of the Kuomintang had decided to move the seat of the Nationalist government from Guangzhou toWuhan. ButChiang Kai-shek, whoseNorthern Expedition was proving successful, set his forces to destroying the Shanghai CCP apparatus and established an anti-Communist government at Nanjing inApril 1927.[citation needed]
The "Nanjing Decade" of 1928–37 was one of consolidation and accomplishment under the leadership of the Nationalists, with a mixed but generally positive record in the economy, social progress, development ofdemocracy, and cultural creativity. Some of the harsh aspects of foreign concessions and privileges in China were moderated through diplomacy.[citation needed]
The interwar period was the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War. This period was marked by turmoil in much of the world, as Europe struggled to recover from the devastation of the First World War.[citation needed]
In North America, especially the first half of this period, people experienced considerable prosperity in the Roaring Twenties. The social and societal upheaval known as the Roaring Twenties began in North America and spread to Europe in theaftermath of World War I. TheRoaring Twenties, often called the "Jazz Age", saw an exposition of social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. "Normalcy" returned to politics, jazz music blossomed, theflapper redefined modern womanhood,Art Deco peaked. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, a break with traditions. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology. New technologies, especiallyautomobiles, movies and radio proliferated "modernity" to a large part of the population. The 1920s saw the general favor of practicality, in architecture as well as in daily life. The 1920s was further distinguished by several inventions and discoveries, extensive industrial growth and the rise in consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle.
Europe spent these years rebuilding and coming to terms with the vast human cost of the conflict. Theoccupation of Istanbul andİzmir in theOttoman Empire by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of theTurkish National Movement. TheTurkish War of Independence (1919–1923) was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres. After the Turkish victory, theTreaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923, led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923, in Ankara, the country's new capital. The Lausanne Convention stipulated apopulation exchange between Greece and Turkey, whereby 1.1 million Greeks left Turkey for Greece in exchange for 380,000 Muslims transferred from Greece to Turkey. The economy of the United States became increasingly intertwined with that of Europe. In Germany, theWeimar Republic gave way to episodes of political and economic turmoil, which culminated with theGerman hyperinflation of 1923 and the failedBeer Hall Putsch of that same year. When Germany could no longer afford war payments, Wall Street invested heavily in European debts to keep the European economy afloat as a large consumer market for American mass-produced goods. By the middle of the decade,economic development soared in Europe, and the Roaring Twenties broke out in Germany, Britain and France, the second half of the decade becoming known as the "Golden Twenties". In France and francophone Canada, they were also called the "années folles" ("Crazy Years").[citation needed]
Worldwide prosperity changed dramatically with the onset of theGreat Depression in 1929. TheWall Street Crash of 1929 served to punctuate the end of the previous era, asThe Great Depression set in. TheGreat Depression was a worldwide economicdownturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries.[50] It was the largest and most importanteconomic depression in the 20th century, and is used in the 21st century as an example of how far the world's economy can fall.[51]
The Great Depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich or poor. International trade plunged by half to two-thirds, as did personal income, tax revenue, prices and profits.Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent onheavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by roughly 60 percent.[52][53][54] Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent onprimary sector industries suffered the most. The Great Depression ended at different times in different countries with theeffect lasting into the next era.[55] America's Great Depression ended in 1941 with America's entry into World War II.[56] The majority of countries set up relief programs, and most underwent some sort of political upheaval, pushing them to the left or right. In some world states, the desperate citizens turned toward nationalistdemagogues—the most infamous beingAdolf Hitler—setting the stage for the next era of war. The convulsion brought on by the worldwide depression resulted in the rise ofNazism. In Asia, Japan became an ever more assertive power, especially with regards to China.[citation needed]
The interwar period was also marked by a radical change in the international order, away from thebalance of power that had dominated pre–World War I Europe. One main institution that was meant to bring stability was theLeague of Nations, which was created after the First World War with the intention of maintaining world security and peace and encouraging economic growth between member countries.[57]
However the League failed to resolve any major crises and by 1938 it was no longer a major player. The League was undermined by the bellicosity ofNazi Germany,Imperial Japan, the Soviet Union, andMussolini's Italy, and by the non-participation of the United States.[citation needed]
A series of international crises strained the League to its limits, the earliest being theinvasion of Manchuria by Japan and theAbyssinian crisis of 1935/36 in which Italy invadedAbyssinia, one of the only free African nations at that time.[citation needed]
The League tried to enforce economic sanctions upon Italy, but to no avail. The incident highlighted French and British weakness, exemplified by their reluctance to alienate Italy and lose her as their ally. The limited actions taken by the Western powers pushed Mussolini's Italy towards alliance with Hitler's Germany anyway. The Abyssinian war showed Hitler how weak the League was and encouraged the remilitarization of the Rhineland in flagrant disregard of the Treaty of Versailles. This was the first in a series of provocative acts culminating in theinvasion of Poland in September 1939 and the beginning of the Second World War.[citation needed]
Facing resource scarcity due to a growing population, Japan seizedManchuria in September 1931 and put ex-Qing emperorPuyi in charge as head of thepuppet state ofManchukuo in 1932. During theSino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the loss of Manchuria, and its vast potential for military-industrial development, was a blow to the Chinese economy. After 1940, conflicts between the Kuomintang and Communists became more frequent in theareas not under Japanese control. The Communists expanded their influence wherever opportunities presented themselves through mass organizations, administrative reforms, and the land- and tax-reform measures favoring the peasants—while the Kuomintang attempted to neutralize the spread of Communist influence. TheSecond Sino-Japanese War had seen tensions rise between Imperial Japan and the United States; events such as thePanay incident and theNanjing massacre turned American public opinion against Japan. With the occupation ofFrench Indochina in the years of 1940–41, and with the continuing war in China, the United States placed a metal and oil embargo on Japan which were vital to its war effort. The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource-rich, European-controlled colonies of Southeast Asia—specificallyBritish Malaya and theDutch East Indies (modern-dayIndonesia).[citation needed]
Although Japan had invaded China in 1937, the conventional view is that the World War II began on September 1, 1939, whenNazi Germany invaded Poland. Within two days the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany, even though the fighting was confined to Poland. Pursuant to a then-secret provision of its non-aggressionMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union joined Germany on September 17, 1939, to conquer Poland and divide Eastern Europe. TheAllies were initially made up of Poland, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, as well asBritish Commonwealth countries which were controlled directly by the UK, such as theIndian Empire. All of these countries declared war on Germany in September 1939.[citation needed]
Following the lull in fighting, known as the "Phoney War", Germany invaded western Europe in May 1940. Six weeks later, France, in the meantime, attacked by Italy as well, surrendered to Germany, which then tried unsuccessfully to conquer Britain. On September 27, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a mutual defense agreement, theTripartite Pact, and were known as theAxis Powers. Nine months later, on June 22, 1941, Germany launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, which prompt it to join the Allies. Germany was now engaged in fighting a war on two fronts. This proved to be a mistake – Germany had not successfully carried out the invasion of Britain and the war turned against the Axis.[citation needed]
On December 7, 1941,Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, bringing it too into the war on the side of the Allies. China also joined the Allies, as did most of the rest of the world. China was in turmoil at the time, and attacked Japanese armies through guerilla-type warfare. By the beginning of 1942, the alignment of the major combatants were as follows: the British Commonwealth, the Soviet Union and the United States were fighting Germany and Italy; China, the British Commonwealth, and the United States were fighting Japan. The United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and China were referred as a "trusteeship of the powerful" during theWorld War II[58] and were recognized as the Allied "Big Four" inDeclaration by United Nations[59] These four countries were considered as the "Four Policemen" or "Four Sheriffs" of theAllies power and primary victors of World War II.[60] Battles raged across all of Europe, in theNorth Atlantic Ocean, across North Africa, throughout Southeast Asia, throughout China, across the Pacific Ocean and in the air over Japan.[citation needed]Italy surrendered in September 1943 and was split into a northern Germany-occupiedpuppet state and an Allies-friendly state in the South; Germany surrendered in May 1945. Following theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,Japan surrendered, marking the end of the war on September 2, 1945.[citation needed]
It is possible that around 62 million peopledied in the war; estimates vary greatly.[citation needed] About 60% of all casualties were civilians, who died as a result of disease, starvation,genocide (in particular, theHolocaust), and aerial bombings. The Soviet Union and China suffered the most casualties. Estimates place deaths in the Soviet Union at around 23 million, while China suffered about 10 million. No country lost a greater portion of its population than Poland: approximately 5.6 million, or 16%, of its pre-war population of 34.8 million died.[citation needed]The Holocaust (which roughly means "burnt whole") was the deliberate and systematic murder of millions of Jews and other "unwanted" during World War II by the Nazi regime in Germany. Several differing views exist regarding whether it was intended to occur from the war's beginning, or if the plans for it came about later. Regardless, persecution of Jews extended well before the war even started, such as in theKristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). The Nazis used propaganda to great effect to stir up anti-Semitic feelings within ordinary Germans.[citation needed]
Over the course of the 20th century, the world's per-capita gross domestic product grew by a factor of five,[61] much more than all earlier centuries combined (including the 19th with its Industrial Revolution). Many economists made the case that this understated the magnitude of growth, as many of the goods and services consumed at the end of the 20th century, such as improved medicine (causing world life expectancy to increase by more than two decades) and communications technologies, were not available at any price at its inception. However, the gulf between the world's rich and poor grew wider,[62] and the majority of the global population remained in the poor side of the divide.[63]
In Latin America in the 1970s, leftists acquired a significant political influence which prompted the right-wing, ecclesiastical authorities and a large portion of the individual country's upper class to support coups d'état to avoid what they perceived as a communist threat. This was further fueled by Cuban and United States intervention which led to a political polarization. Most South American countries were in some periods ruled bymilitary dictatorships that were supported by the United States of America. In the 1970s, the regimes of theSouthern Cone collaborated inOperation Condor killing manyleftist dissidents, including someurban guerrillas.[64]
The Information Age began in the mid-20th century, characterized by a rapid epochal shift from the traditional industry established by the Industrial Revolution to an economy primarily based upon information technology.[65][66][67][4] The onset of the Information Age can be associated with the development oftransistor technology,[4] particularly theMOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductorfield-effect transistor),[68][69] which became the fundamental building block ofdigital electronics[68][69] and revolutionizedmodern technology.[4][70]
According to theUnited Nations Public Administration Network, the Information Age was formed bycapitalizing oncomputer microminiaturization advances,[71] which, upon broader usage within society, would lead tomodernized information and to communication processes becoming the driving force ofsocial evolution.[66]
humanismn. 1 a rationalistic system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. 2 a Renaissance cultural movement that turned away from medieval scholastic-ism and revived interest in ancient Greek and Roman thought.Typically, abridgments of this definition omit all senses except No. 1, such as in theCambridge Advanced Learner's DictionaryArchived December 30, 2003, at theWayback Machine,Collins Essential English DictionaryArchived June 6, 2011, at theWayback Machine, andWebster's Concise Dictionary. New York: RHR Press. 2001. p. 177.ISBN 97-80375425745.
The rejection of religion in favour of a belief in the advancement of humanity by its own efforts.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)While the bipolar junction transistor was the first transistor device to take hold in the integrated circuit world, there is no question that the advent of MOSFETs, an acronym for metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor, is what truly revolutionized the world in the so-called information age. The density with which these devices can be made has allowed entire computers to exist on a few small chips rather than filling a room.