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age of coal
The age of coal as the main source of energy enabled industrialization to rapidly expand worldwide. The discovery of new energy sources, finite and renewable such as steam, water and wind. It brought steel, chemical and electricity production to the front of industry and induced mass production of cheap goods and new markets. Consequences were in nature, creating air and water pollution from drilling and burning and created a large need for more land to be cleared for agricultural demands. -
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Environmentalism
The field of ecology was formed, campaigning against air pollution in Europe and the US. Against leaded gasoline and industrial smog outputs. Environmentalism spread to the Soviet Union and raised concerns over the preservation of land instead of clearing for agriculture. The world was becoming aware of the consequences of rapid industrialization and the growing populations worldwide. -
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
The beginning of the conflicts leading up to WWI was led by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The assassination induced Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, which encouraged alliances on both sides to eventually join the effort. By November 4th, Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Japan and Britain all entered the war -
US Entry into WWI
At the beginning of the war, the President Woodrow Wilson stated the US position as absolute neutral This remained the US's position until several events occurred. The sinking of the Lusitania and four unarmed American merchant ships by the Germans whom declared unlimited submarine warfare on any ship in war zones. And the interception of the Zimmerman telegram which was a message from Germany to Mexico proposing an alliance and to attempt to regain lost land that America had gained. -
The End of WWI
The war ended when American pressure became too great for Germany. The US sent 2 million soldiers to war and repelled German forces away from France. US victory in Meuse-Argonne made Germany surrender. The Bulgarians were also defeated resulting in liberation of the Balkans and also lead to the signing of the official end of the war. -
Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
Postwar, Wilson advocated for self-determination in developing countries and his own and also called for decolonization. He saw colonization as a harmful thing, as it was, for the pre-existing peoples. Colonization, in theory was good for the home land but in the long term promoted poverty, injustice and violence all in all leading to communism. The goal of his fourteen point speech was to prevent what led to WWI from happening again in hopes to gain other countries attention and support. -
The Paris Peace Conference
A conference made up of the largest powers, Britain, France, Italy and US concerned about Germany's power and how they would reprimand them. Created at this conference was the Treaty of Versailles in which Germany looses 13.5% of their territory and their army was heavily restricted. Germany was forced to sign the treaty and were to take full responsibility. In total, Germany had to pay $33 billion in war reparations. -
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Offshore Oil Drilling
As oil became a hot product for every country and started to be used in everyday lives with new technology, companies found new places in which they could drill for natural oil. This was the start of ocean drilling and also led to a gradual destruction of the ocean's and body of waters' ecosystems. The tradeoff was an easy decision for companies. They wanted to get rich off of high oil demand with little to no concern for the surrounding environments. -
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America's Stock Market Crash
Postwar, the countries involved in WWI relied on US loans to reestablish their economies. At this time the US had the largest economy and large numbers of Americans began buying on credit from banks that were already being stressed. The US market was not able to keep up with the amount of goods produced by factories. Stocks began to inflate but people continued to buy stocks, causing the market to crash on october 28th, 1929. Stock prices continued to plummet through 1932. -
Washington Naval Conference
Designed to settle the balance of power in the Pacific between Britain, the United States and Japan. Japan was able to keep control of Manchuria and agreed not to expand further into China as Japan was becoming a larger industrial force in the world. The goal was to ease tensions in East Asia as Japan grew larger and to reduce conflicts. It limited the amount of naval ships that could be built and limited the size of fleets Japan was able to have. -
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Collectivized Agriculture Under Stalin
Under Stalin's five year plan, he wished to divert agricultural workers to industrial workers and coerced a state takeover of all farms in order to move away from capitalism. Farm land was seized, people were forced to resettle and/or were subjected to forced labor. Collectivization led to high production and low payment to laborers. Agricultural output dropped and created large famines which killed at least 5 million in Ukraine. With all of its faults, Stalin continued his original plan. -
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Batista's Cuba
Rising to leadership in the 1930s, Fulgencio Batista seized the entire cuban gov't. He cancelled all election and banned the communist party from cuba, hoping to get rid of the idea in its entirety. Batista wanted close relations with the US, primarily economic interests. He grew the Cuban economy but in result, grew increasingly unpopular as Cuban nationalists disagreed with US influence, sparking political protests, leading to the overthrow of Batista to Castro. -
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Hitler in Power
As the German President began to lose control of the Gov't, industrial leaders pressured him into appointing Hitler as chancellor of Germany. While chancellor in the 1933 enabling act, Hitler could seize control of the gov't. In 1934, Hindenburg dies, leaving Hitler to combine the offices of president and chancellor and the power to purge the gov't of nonNazis. He aimed to purge society of anyone not German, denounced the T.o.V and remilitarized the Rhineland, creating world tensions again. -
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Dust Bowl
In the Western Hemisphere, the United States and Canada witnessed great wind storms that took topsoil off farm land and created dust storms. The dust storms led to the destruction of many farms, forcing people to flee their own land or leaving them for starvation and hardship. This was especially hard for farmers because it followed the Great Depression when people were already trying to climb out of poverty. More than 75% of topsoil was taken by the wind and devastated thousands. -
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Great Purge
To remain in power, Stalin used the police force to target and eliminate all possible political opponents that pressured his power. He purged high ranks of the bureaucracy and removed high ranking military officials and anyone who he saw as a threat to his power. IT was estimated that 1 million people were killed with an average of 1000 people killed per day. Stalin was paranoid and this began his movement towards fascism. -
Nanking Massacre
The Japanese were looking to expand into China and they did so ruthlessly. Japanese soldiers murdered 150000-300000 chinese civilians in their quest for expansion. Soldiers were ruthless, killing, executing and raping innocent chinese civilians and continued onwards. -
Germany invades Poland
As Germany continued to break agreements and pushed into other countries, they proceeded into Poland causing Britain, France and their allies to declare war on Germany. Although they declared war, no allied troops were sent to Poland, leaving them for Nazi takeover. This caused the Soviet Union to also push into Poland as they are allied with Germany. The creation of the Brest-Litovsk agreement stated the USSR and Germany had dual occupation of Poland. -
Germany Invades the USSR
Drawing on plans to invade the Soviet Union that was delayed 5 weeks by Greece resistance to Italy, Operation Barbarossa was in motion. Germany sent 3.5 million troops to the USSR and unprepared, the Soviet army fell in great numbers. At this point the Germany army occupied Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states but as winter became more brutal to the German forces, morale fell and kept Germany at a standstill, facing gradual supply issues. -
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WWII in Europe
Allies began dropping bombs on Germany and on June 6th 1944, the allies landed on Normandy Beach and stormed the shore in large amounts, resulting in a large number of deaths on both sides, called D-Day. Paris was liberated on August 5th and during the summer the Soviets began to invade Germany. Hitlers plan was halted and soiled causing him to commit suicide on April 30th 1945 and on May 8th, Germany surrendered unconditionally. -
1st Arab Israeli War
On may 15th, Arab liberation army invaded Palestine but Israel kept nearly 60% of the UN mandated territory of Palestine. This invasion led to a massive refugee crisis of 725,000 Palestinians fleeing Israel and an equal number of Jews fleeing Arab states. The Israeli government refused to allow the fleeing refugees back into the country and they also instituted mandatory conscription of anyone over 18 to the Israeli defense force. -
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Arms Race
A race for greater technology, weaponry, and knowledge between the US and USSR. The United States were worried about the scientific achievements in Russia pertaining to weapons of mass destruction and in 1949, Russia produced their first atomic bomb, leading the US to retaliate and create the hydrogen bomb. This turned into a back n forth over who could produce the biggest threat. This time costed both countries majorly for investments in military industrial complexes. -
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Green Revolution
The green revolution was forged to increase global agricultural production, calling for a higher yield of cereal crops. Scientists used synthetic fertilizers, irrigation, mechanized cultivation and other methods to increase production rates. Ideas originated from Scientist Norman Borlaug who researched disease resistant, high yield varieties of wheat in Mexico. Large support from big companies like Rockefeller and Ford, the United Nations food and agriculture org and international food orgs. -
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Korean War
The Korean war was a civil war that broke out following their liberation from Japan after WWII. This civil war included North Korean support from the S.U and South Korea support from the US. The SU was supporting the now North Korea in secret, undermining their postwar sanctions. The US discovered the soviet support and saw it as a threat to containment, concerned about a larger, deadlier war. North and South Korea were formed, South supported by US and UN and North supported by SU and China. -
Creation of WTO
The world trade organization was created in 1955. It granted $90 billion in debt relief to mexico, russia and asian nations to help the world wide economy's flow after WWII, as the world was still in an economic slump. It aimed to boost international trade and limit tariffs -
Almost WWIII
The Hungarian revolt was a revolt by the people against their oppressive ruler, Matyas Rakosi. Finally removed from power, intellectuals draft 16 reforms and present them to the next ruler who denies them, making the people of Hungary more angry. The Hungarian leaders called for Soviet intervention, making protestors more angry and revolted further. Some Hungarians called for the UN and the US for intervention but they declined, wishing to avoid another devastating world war. -
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Great Chinese Famine
Under control of Mao, China was beginning their own communist, collective societies, starting with agrarian reforms: collectivization of farms and communes. Essentially, Mao followed Stalin and his five year plan except Mao's focus was on education, industrialization and agriculture. But in result of collectivization of agriculture, China experienced widespread famine across the country, estimating 15-55 million deaths. This is much like Stalin and the famine he created in Ukraine -
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Post Colonial Africa
Supposed to be the freedom from European influence on new African sovereign states, but France had other plans. While colonies were being broken up, France created the French Union, asking those states if they wanted French influence, in which many accepted, denying that it was still neocolonialism. Colonies received economic aid and expertise from France and they kept France happy. Colonialism never stopped in Africa and not only France but other European companies used Africa for industry. -
Berlin Wall
The building and creation of the Berlin Wall was an awful time for Germany as it divided west and east germany and prevented crossing. It was a heavily guarded wall built to keep the soviet controlled east from the free west and also to maintain the high standard of living in the west and separate it from the east which was a lower standard of living. -
Bay of Pigs
a CIA attempted invasion on Cuba against the communist regime. After Castro took power in Cuba, he relied on the Soviet Union for support, weakening US influence in Latin America. The bay of pigs was a failed invasion stopped by cuban forces, making Castro move towards a military alliance with USSR. This results in the USSR sending short ranged missiles to Cuba, antagonizing the US. The US demanded the missiles be removed and Kennedy had to give up saving Cuba from communism to have them removed -
US entry into Vietnam war
USS maddox exchanged fire with NVA boats but US claimed it was only there to maintain presence. US ships were attacked again by NVA forces and President Johnson requested to send US troops to Vietnam. The US goal of entering the war was to support South Vietnams fight against communism, in response to the USSR pledging unconditional military support to NVA, but the US did not want conflict with the USSR again. In march 1965, the first US troops land at Da Nang, escalating attacks on NVA -
6 day war
From a project by Israel to expand irrigation to its eastern border, Syria demanded Egypt destroy the project because it overlapped contested land. The Syrian leader, Nasser resisted because of UN peacekeepers close by but when they left, Nasser moved 80,000 troops to the Egypt Israeli border and cut off trading ports from Israel. Arab oil producing countries to boycott any intervening force, bringing the US Britain and France into the picture and also the Soviet Union on the other side. -
US withdrawal from Vietnam
After Nixon was elected he promised no further escalation of the war and began withdrawing troops in 1970, but secret bombings still took place.US declared end of proxy battle in Vietnam, withdrawing all troops, returning prisoners of war and the NVA regained its territories seized by south Vietnamese. When Nixon resigned from office, NVA attacked south Vietnam and US troops were unable to respond due to the congressional ban. Vietnam fell shortly after to NVA and became a communist regime. -
oil crisis
OPEC, consisting of numerous middle eastern countries as the main exporter of oil, banned oil exports to any nation supporting Israel in the Arab-Israeli war. This led to a 300% increase in the price of oil, forcing the US and most of Europe to reduce consumption and rationing energy resources. This also led to the exploration of other energy resources, countries looking into nuclear, solar, wind and geothermal energy research. -
Chernobyl Disaster
A nuclear power plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, built by the USSR as a technological advantage, melted down and created unimaginable damage to the surrounding environment. The plant had 4 reactors, each of which could not be shut down by a computer in case of a crisis or error. The setting off of the reactors threw radioactive material into the air of Ukraine and initially it cost $68 billion in damages/recovery costs. This explosion led to some countries like Italy to move away from nuclear power. -
Democracy in USSR
After Gorbachev gained power, he separated the control of the gov't from the communist party and aimed to end corruption and begin social reform. He looked to take away from USSR defense budget and put it towards the deficit the country has faced for many years although, he still rejected capitalism. -
Tiananmen Massacre
Against Deng's socialist regime in China, the people began protesting with hunger strikes, labor strikes and public demonstrations. When the chinese army occupied the streets, 1 protestor stood in the way and was removed then executed 2 weeks later. This sparked 1 million protestors to battle the military for the square and it resulted in the military winning and over 7,000 deaths and 10,000 wounded.