The World between Wars 1900-1950 Part-I

Key Points:

1. Industrial capitalism has changed the way many people earned their livelihood but only in the western countries.
2. Eric Hobsbawm, a renowned British Marxist historian, called the 20th century ‘The Age of Extremes’. Politically the world saw shoots of democratic aspirations grow amidst the rise of Fascist dominations.
3. This was also an age of great experiment as people strove to build socialist societies based on the principles of equality and fraternity.
4. The ‘Great depression’ causing massive unemployment and economic breakdown.
5. The immediate provocation for World War-I was the murder of Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian on 28th June 1914 and for World War-II war the invasion of Poland by Hitler as a punishment for refusing to handover the port of Danzig to Germany.
6. The Treaty of Versailles setup the League of Nations to prevent wars in the future and the United Nations organization (UN) was formed after world war-II.
7. The two wars established a regime of lethal arms race, particularly of nuclear and chemical weapons.
8. With the process of decolonization after World War-II, the colonies rose to independence and several of new countries were born across Asia and Africa.
9. UN is a kind of world government based on four principles, viz, preserve peace, uphold human rights, respect international law and promote social progress.
10. After a long struggle for political right like right to vote- British women got these rights in 1913. It was a big step in achieving enfranchisement of women.

Key words:

1. Industrial Capitalism: Industrial capitalism is characterized by the increasing use of machinery to maintain an economic balance through its production processes.
2. Alliances:A union or association formed for mutual benefit between countries, made in order to advance common goal. It is a political agreement between countries to support each other in disputes.
3. Aggressive Nationalism:It is the extreme belief that one’s home country is better and more important than any nation in the world. It is the ideology of having pride in oneself and hatred against neighboring countries.
4. Militarism:The belief that a country should maintain a strong military capacity and be prepared to use it aggressively to depend or promote national interest.
5. Fascism : It is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that came to prominence in early 20th century Italy.
6. Imperialism: Imperialism is the polity of extending a nation authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations.