1900-1960 Timeline

World War I was a total war between the Allied (Entente) Powers (France, Great Britain, and Russia) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria Hungary, and Italy.) The War began when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian nationalist. The War was one of the first industrialized wars and was fought mostly through trench warfare. The War was won by the Allied Powers.

(McKay p. 835-865)

Baron Manfred von Richteofen, also known as the "Red Baron," was the most famous flying ace of World War I, known for shooting down eighty enemy aircraft. The German government publicized and turned Richthofen into a national hero. Richthofen was used to create a sense of nationalism in Germany.

(Sources, p. 407)

The Treaty of Versailles signified the ending of World War I. The Treaty laid out the terms of the postwar settlement with Germany. The "Big Three," which consisted of the United States, Great Britain, and France, controlled the conference and helped determine the outcome of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia.

(McKay, p. 859)

Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (My Struggle) looks at his view of politics and propaganda. Hitler believed that Germany lost in World War I because Germany had a lack of propaganda. Hitler explains that propaganda should reach the masses rather than be exclusive. "All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be..."

(Sources p. 444-446)

World War II was a war fought between the Allied (United States, France, and the Soviet Union) and the Axis (Germany, Japan and Italy). The War began when Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. Hitler's Nazi aggression, the bombing of Britain, and Occupation of France called for the Allied to stop Hitler's campaign. The War was settled at the Yalta Conference where the Big Three (Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt) discussed Europe's post-war reorganization.

(McKay p. 922-938)

Sigmund Freud, a Viennese psychoanalyst, argued that human behavior was irrational, driven by instincts and memories buried in the unconscious mind. He explains that dreams, although confusing or strange, have deeper meanings when the mind distorts the information.

(Sources, p. 421-425)

The United States, France, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy began making movies during World War I to distraction for audiences from the War. The Soviet Union and Germany later used filmmaking as a form of Propaganda. Leni Riefenstahl directed the Triumph of the Will, a documentary based on the 1934 Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg.
(McKay p. 883-884)

Dadaism was an artistic movement during the 1920s and 1930s where artist challenged the standard of art in outrageous conduct. The movement mostly developed in response to World War I, when many Dadaists created "anti-art," that challenged conventional ideas and spread radical social change.

"Art in its execution and direction is dependent on the time in which it lives, and artists are creatures of their epoch." --Richard Huelsenbeck.

McKay (p. 877-878)

Heinrich Hauser documented the experience of living in Germany during The Great Depression. Hit with wartime destruction, reparation payments, and hyperinflation, Germany struggled to recover during the time of unemployment.
(Sources, p. 432-436)

Sir Percy Malcolm Stewart and the Parliament conducted a study on the depressed regions of Great Britain. Great Britain responded by enforcing a classical economic theory, "when tax revenues drop, government spending should drop as well." However, the recovery was uneven since new industries were being created in the Midlands and South but very few in the Special Areas. There were also issues with the young people who had no work experience since their fathers were continuously unemployed.
(Sources, p. 430-432)