Chapter 32 and 33 Outline

The World Since 1945: An Overview

I. The Changing Political Climate

A. The Great Liberation

1. By the 1930’s, nationalist movements had taken root in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and after World War II, nationalist leaders like Gandhi in India insisted on independence.

2. The United States backed the right of people everywhere to self determination, and the Soviet Union had long condemned western imperialism.

3. Altogether, nearly 100 new countries emerged during the “great liberation,” and these nations became known as the developing world.

B. The Cold War Goes Global

1. To avoid superpower rivalry, many new nations chose to remain nonaligned; not allied to either side in the Cold War in order to reduce world tensions and promote economic policies that would benefit developing nations.

2. On Occasion, the Cold War erupted into “shooting wars,” such as Korea and Vietnam, which were torn by brutal conflicts in which the United States and the Soviet Union.

3. With the end of the Cold War in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, many people hoped for a more peaceful world, with tensions eased and some long-standing conflicts resolved.

C. New Nations Seek Stability

1. In Africa, nations inherited random colonial borders that mixed together people with different languages, religions, and ethnic identities, leaving nations with few ties to unite them.

2. The new nations wrote constitutions modeled on those of western democracies, but many new nations were shaken by revolution or civil war.

3. Despite setbacks, democracy did make some progress in the late 1970s and early 1990s, but the outcomes of these democracies remains uncertain given the problems that face developing nations and their lack of experience with forms of representative government.

D. The Shrinking Globe

1. Since 1945, transportation and communications systems have made the world increasingly interdependent, or depending on other countries on goods, resources, and knowledge from other parts of the world.

2. The United Nations was set up as a forum for settling disputes, but its responsibilities, like its membership, have expanded greatly since 1945; the UN has played a vital role in decolonization and has tried to act as a peacekeeper in many conflicts.

3. UN agencies provide services for millions of people worldwide, including the World Health Organization, which helped wipe out smallpox through its program of vaccinations.

E. Enduring Issues

1. In 1968, a number of nations signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, agreeing to halt the spread of nuclear weapons, and in 1995 the treaty was renewed indefinitely.

2. Terrorism is the deliberate use of random violence, especially against civilians, to exact revenge or achieve political goals, through bombings, kidnappings, airplane hijackings, and shootings, terrorists focused attention on their causes and tried to force governments to give in to their demands.

3. The human rights debate raises tough issues, and as ethnic conflict rises around the world, intervention continues to stir debate.

II. Global Economic Trends

A. The Global North and South: Two Worlds of Development

1. Today, an economic gulf divides the world into two spheres, the relatively rich nations of the global North and the relatively poor nations of the global South.

2. The global North includes the industrial nations of Western Europe and North America, as well as Japan and Australia; most are located in the temperate zone north of the Equator and control most of the world’s wealth.

3. The global South refers to the developing world; most of these nations lie in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and has three quarters of the world’s population and much of its natural resources, although the global South remains generally poor and underdeveloped.

B. Economic Interdependence

1. Huge multinational corporations, enterprises with branches in many countries, have invested in the developing world; they bring new technology to mining, agriculture, transportation and other industries.

2. All nations use oil for transportation and for products ranging from plastics to fertilizers, and much of the world’s oil comes from the Middle East.

3. Privatization is selling off state owned industries to private investors, and nations that hoped that more efficient private enterprises would produce higher-quality goods in the long run, although most remain of poor quality.

C. Obstacles to Development

1. Many countries fail to modernize because of: (1) geography, (2) population and poverty, (3) economic dependence, (4) economic policies, and (5) political instability.

2. Each year, the populations of countries like Nigeria, Egypt, and India increase by millions.

3. The economic patterns established during the Age of Imperialism did not change after 1945, and most new nations remained dependent on their former colonial rulers.

D. Economic Development and the Environment

1. With the Industrial Revolution and the population explosion, the potential for widespread environmental damage grew.

2. Gases from power plants and factories produced acid rain, a form of pollution in which toxic chemicals in the air come back to the Earth as rain, snow, or hail.

3. Rich nations, the greatest consumers of natural resources, produce much of the world’s pollution, and at the same time, they have also led the campaign to protect the environment.

III. Changing Patterns of Life

A. The Village: Continuity and Change

1. Village people continue to form the largest part of the world’s population, about 3.3 billion of the 5.7 billion people on Earth.

2. Many village ways have endured fro centuries, but decades of urbanization, westernization, and new technology have left their mark.

3. For millions of market women and teachers, healers and match makers, children and old people, the village remains a vital center of existence.

B. Old Ways and New

1. People in the developing world have flocked to the cities to find jobs and escape rural poverty, because cities offer not only economic opportunities but also attractions such as pop music concerts, stores, and sports.

2. During the Age of Imperialism, westerners taught that their civilization was superior, and even after independence, many people in emerging nations felt that the way to modernize was to follow western models.

3. In Latin America, some Roman Catholic clergy adopted a movement called liberation theology, or urging the Church to take a more active role in opposing the social conditions that contributed to poverty.

C. New Rights and Roles for Women

1. After 1945, Women’s movements brought changes to both the western and developing worlds, and the UN charter included a commitment to work for “equal rights for men and women.”

2. In the industrial world, more and more women worked outside the home and gradually won equal access to education.

3. While women still had less education than men in developing nations, the gap is still narrowing.

D. Science and Technology

1. Since 1945, technology has transformed human life and thought, and instant communication via satellites has shrunk the globe.

2. The computer is among the most revolutionary developments of the past 50 years, and computers led to an information revolution.

3. Technology has improved life for people everywhere, and many people, especially in the industrial world, pin their hopes on technology to solve a variety of economic, medical, and environmental problems.

E. A New International Culture

1. Radio, television, satellites, fax machines, and computer networks have put people everywhere in touch and helped create a global culture.

2. Since World War II, American fads, fashions, music, and entertainment have captured the world’s imagination.

3. Global interest in the arts has made nations realize the value of ancient cultural treasures, and the UN and other groups are helping countries preserve and restore temples, palaces, manuscripts, and other artifacts.

F. Looking Ahead

1. Many current trends and issues emerged long before 1945 and will continue beyond 2000.

2. At the same time, new issues and conflicts will almost certainly take shape in the new millennium that begins after the year 2000.

3. Nationalism is on the rise, yet global interdependence has become an inescapable fact of life, and in many nations and regions, people must reconcile local and global interests.

Chapter 33 Europe and North America

I. The Western World: An Overview

A. The Cold War in Europe

1. Berlin remained a focus of Cold War tensions throughout the period, as the city was divided between democratic West Berlin and communist East Berlin.

2. Both sides tried to avoid a nuclear showdown by holding disarmament talks, but mutual distrust often blocked progress.

3. By the 1970’s, American and Soviet leaders promoted an era of détente, or relaxation of tensions.

B. Recovery and Growth in Western Europe

1.With the Marshall Plan aid, western European countries recovered fairly quickly from War II, rebuilding industries, farms and transportation networks destroyed by the war, and in the 1950’s, western democracies boomed.

2. A major goal of leftist parties was to extend the welfare state, and under this system, a government keeps most features of a capitalist economy but takes greater responsibility for the social and economic needs of its people.

3. A service industry is one that provides a service rather than a product, such as health care, finance, sales, education, and recreation, and most new jobs were created by them after World War II.

C. Toward European Unity

1. Europe’s recovery from World War II was helped by economic cooperation, such as in 1952 when the European Coal and Steel Community was created between France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

2. In 1973, after much debate, Britain was admitted, along with Denmark and Ireland, and in the 1980’s and 1990’s, it expanded still further and took the name the European Union.

3. The EU has become a powerful economic force, and controls over 6 percent of the world’s population and 37% of the world’s trade; the EU also promotes regional peace by replacing destructive competition with an amazing degree of cooperation.

D. Social Trends

1. By the 1950’s, more and more people in the West belonged to the middle class, and as wages rose, working class people bought homes and cars, and their children could qualify to study at state funded universities.

2. Since the 1950’s, many immigrants from former colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean settled in Europe, which created racism and segregation problems.

3. A woman’s income helps improve her family’s standard of living, but while ideals about families have survived, family life itself has changed.

II. The Western European Democracies

A. Britain: Government and the Economy

1. World War II left Britain physically battered and economically drained, and in 1945 voters put the Labour party in power, nationalizing major industries and expanding social welfare benefits such as unemployment insurance and old-age pensions.

2. After the war, Britain had to adjust to a new world role, as the British Empire shrank as colonies in Asia and Africa won independence.

3. Outbreaks of violence continued for more than 20 years over conflict with Northern Ireland.

B. France: Revival and Prosperity

1. In 1958, de Gaulle set up the Fifth Republic in France, whose constitution gave him, as president, great power; he granted independence to Algeria and other French colonies in Africa without bloodshed.

2. De Gaulle worked hard to restore French prestige and power; he forged new ties with West Germany, developed a French nuclear force and challenged American dominance in Europe.

3. Like Britain, France nationalized some industries and expanded social welfare benefits after the war and with government help, industry and business modernized, leading to new prosperity by the 1970’s.

C. Germany: Reunited at Last

1. By 1949, feuds among the Allies divided Germany into to parts: West Germany as a member of the western alliance, and East Germany in the Soviet orbit, and over the next decades, differences between the two Germanies widened, and the Soviet Union opposed a unified Germany that might pose a new threat to its security.

2. As the Cold War began, the United States rushed aid to its former enemy in Western Germany to strengthen them against the Communist tide sweeping Eastern Europe.

3. By 1989, the decline of communism in the Soviet Union at last made reunification possible and Helmut Kohl was elected as the architect of unity.

D. Other Democratic Nations of the West

1. The Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark created extensive socialist welfare programs that many countries considered necessary for a successful postwar democracy.

2. Change came more slowly to three other countries of southern Europe: Spain, Portugal, and Greece, and dictatorships clung to power in those countries until 1970’s until developing into democracies.

3. After World War II, communist rebels unleashed a civil war in Greece, and with American aid, the government won.

III. North American Prosperity

A. The United States and the Cold War

1. The United States built bases overseas and organized military alliances from Europe to Southeast Asia and its fleets patrolled the world’s oceans and its air power provided a nuclear umbrella over its allies.

2. By 1967, Americans at home were bitterly divided over the Vietnam War and many opposed supporting an unpopular regime in South Vietnam and by 1974 Nixon had negotiated an American withdrawal.

3. The end of the Cold War did not bring world peace, but rather, conflicts erupted in many places around the world and left the United States as the world’s lone superpower.

B. Economy and the Role of Government

1. Unlike Europe, the United States emerged from World War II with its cities and industries undamaged, and in 1945 it produced 50 percent of the world’s manufactured goods.

2. During the 1960’s, the government expanded social programs, and President Kennedy wanted to provide health care to the elderly; his plan was pressed ahead by Lyndon B. Johnson.

3. Government spending and tax cuts greatly increased the national deficit, the gap between what a government spends and what it takes in through taxes and other sources.

C. The Civil Rights Movement

1. Although African Americans had won freedom nearly a century before, many states, especially in the South, denied them equality legally.

2. In 1954, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional.

3. In time, Congress responded by outlawing segregation in public accommodations, protecting the rights of black voters, and requiring equal access to housing and jobs.

D. The United States and the Global Economy

1. In the postwar decades, the United States profited greatly from the growing global economy, but independence also brought problems.

2. American industries faced stiff competition from Asian and other nations, and like Western Europe, the United States lost manufacturing jobs to the developing world.

3. Still, the United States remained a rich nation and a magnet for immigrants.

E. Postwar Canada

1. After gaining independence, it charted its own course but still maintained links with Britain through the Commonwealth of Nations.

2. Canada ranks among the major democratic, industrial powers in the world and sided with the allies during both World Wars.

3. Through quiet diplomacy, Canada often worked behind the scenes to ease Cold War tensions and its troops served in UN peacekeeping missions around the world.

IV. The Soviet Union: Rise and Fall of a Superpower

A. Stalin’s Successors

1. The Soviet Union emerged from World War II a superpower, and Stalin forged a Soviet sphere of influence from the Baltic to the Balkans.

2. Nikita Krushchev emerged as the new Soviet leader after Stalin’s death and practiced a policy of “de-Stalinization.”

3. Dissidents are people who speak out against the government, and there were several famous Soviet dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov.

B. The Soviet Economy

1. After the war, Stalin rebuilt the shattered Soviet industries by using factories and other equipment stripped from Germany.

2. The Soviet trumpeted Sputnik as a victory in the propaganda war against the West and claimed other advantages such as low rents, cheap bread, free health care, free day care for children, and although wages were low, unemployment was nonexistent.

3. The state-run economy could produce impressive results when it poured resources into major projects such as weapons manufacture or the space race, but collectivized agriculture remained so unproductive that the Soviet Union frequently had to import grain to feed its people.

C. Foreign Policy Issues

1. The Soviet Union, like the United States, supplied nations with military and economic aid and the Soviet Union participated in several “shooting wars,” such as Korea and Vietnam.

2. In 1961, the building of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban missile crisis a year later dramatically increased Cold War tensions.

3. In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan to ensure Soviet influence in the neighboring nation and like the Vietnam War for the United States, the Afghan War drained the Soviet economy and provoked a crisis in morale at home.

D. Collapse of the Soviet Empire

1. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union and was eager to reform inefficiencies in government and the economy and his decisions cataclysmically ended the Soviet Union.

2. Gorbachev called for glasnost, or openness, to end censorship and encouraged people to discuss problems with the country.

3. He also urged the restructuring of government and the economy called perestroika, which aimed to streamline the government and reduce the size of bureaucracy to increase efficiency and output.

E. The Russian Republic

1. After the breakup of the Soviet Union and the election of its president, Boris Yeltsin, Russians approved a new constitution but had no previous democratic traditions.

2. Yeltsin often clashed with the parliament, which included many former Communists and extreme nationalists who wanted to create a Russian empire.

3. In 1994, Yeltsin brutally crushed a revolt in Chechnya, which revealed divisions within the army and the government itself.

F. The Other Republics

1. Like Russia, the other former Soviet republics wanted to build stable governments and improve their standard of living.

2. These new nations endured hard times as they switched to market economies, and they suffered a shortage of trained managers and technicians.

3. The republics of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus gave up the nuclear weapons left on their soil in return for trading privileges or investments from the West.

V. A New Era in Eastern Europe

A. In the Soviet Orbit

1. In 1945, Soviet armies occupied much of Eastern Europe and converted the nations into satellites of the USSR.

2. As the Cold War deepened, the Soviet Union tightened its grip on its satellites by creating more than 30 divisions of Soviet troops that were stationed throughout Eastern Europe.

3. By 1956, Imre Nagy gained power in Hungary and ejected Soviet troops and Hungarian “freedom fighters” resisted the Soviet advance, but failed to gain Western help and the rebellion was crushed.

B. Poland’s Struggle Toward Democracy

1. Poland was the Soviet Union’s most troublesome satellite and used the Roman Catholic Church as a rallying point for Poles opposed to the Communist Regime.

2. An independent trade union called Solidarity claimed 10 million members and pressed for political change, but was cracked down upon by the Soviet Union.

3. In 1989 Poland sponsored the first free elections in 50 years and Solidarity was legalized.

C. Revolution and Freedom

1. By late 1989 a “democracy movement” was sweeping Eastern Europe and everywhere people took to the streets demanding reform, which led to the collapse of Communist governments in Eastern Europe.

2. Eastern European nations set out to build stable governments and free-market economies based on those of the west.

3. In the 1990s, Eastern European nations looked to the West for aid, and many hoped to join the European Union and NATO.

D. War Comes to Sarajevo

1. After Tito’s death and the fall of communism, a wave of nationalism tore Yugoslavia apart and ambitious extremists, stirred ethnic unrest for their own ends.

2. Serbs practiced “ethnic cleansing,” forcibly removing other ethnic groups from the areas they controlled, and hundreds of thousands of Bosnians became refugees, living on food sent by the United Nations and by charities.

3. Serbian troops shelled schools, hospitals, and libraries and cut off electricity and water supplies for long periods.

E. Looking Ahead

1. In 1995, the United States finally brought the warring parties to Dayton, Ohio to hammer out a series of agreements called the Dayton Accords.

2. When the civil war in Yugoslavia began, United Nations forces tried but failed to restore peace.

3. As Serb forces advanced, the United States and its European allies were uncertain whether or not to intervene militarily or arm the Muslims or Croats, and while they debated, the war raged on.