Preceden

1890-1950

Political

World War I

June 28,1914 - November 11, 1918

Assassination of Austrian of Archduke Francis Ferdindad lead to the outbreak of World War I. The war was against the Triple Entente of Great Britain, France, Russia and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

Russian Revolution

February 1917

Sources: Text book/Lecture slides

The Russian Revolution destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917 In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and Bolshevik enters government.

The Fourteen Points

January 1918

Sources for Western History: Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points (1918)

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson came up with the "Fourteen Points" where he linked the war to essential American political values that laid out a plan for a postwar international order that would keep the peace and pave the way for the spread of democracy around the world.

Treaty of Versailles

June 1919

Sources: Text book/Lecture slides

At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sought the creation of a League of Nations to avoid future international conflict.

Great Depression

1929 - 1939

Sources: Text book/Lecture Slides

Recall of private loans by American banks caused the world banking system to fall apart.The financial crisis caused world production of goods to fall by more than one-third between 1929 and 1933.

World War II

September 1, 1939 - September 2, 1945

Sources: Text book/Lecture Slides

After concluding an alliance with the Soviet Union to divide Poland, Hitler invaded on September 1, 1939. Britain and France soon declared war. (922)

Holocaust

1941 - 1945

Sources: Text book/Lecture slides

The ultimate abomination of Nazi racism was the condemnation of all European Jews and other peoples considered racially inferior to extreme racial prosecution and then annihilation in the Holocaust. (925) 6 million Jews and
approximately 5 million homosexuals, gypsies, handicapped and other victims were killed.

Cultural

Nationalism

1914

Sources: Text book
Support for military values was closely linked to a growing sense of popular nationalism, the notion that one’s country was superior to all others. Nationalism drove the spiraling arms race and the struggle over colonies. Broad popular commitment to national interests above all else weakened groups that though in terms of international communities and consequences. (834)

Dadaism

1916

Sources: Text book/Lecture Slides

Dadaism attacked all the familiar standards of art and delighted in outrageous behavior. The war had shown once and for all that life was meaningless, the Dadaists argued, so art should be meaningless as well. (877)

Functionalism in Modern Architecture

1919

Sources: Text book

Functionalism is the principle that buildings, like industrial products, should serve as well as possible the purpose for which they were made.(876)

Existentialism

1920

Sources: Text book

Existentialism is a highly diverse and even contradictory system of thought that was loosely united in a courageous search for moral values in a world of terror and uncertainty after World War I. (871)

"Modern Girl"

1920

Sources: Text book

Independent female who could vote and held a job, spent her salary on the latest fashions, applied makeup and smoked cigarettes, and used her sex appeal to charm any number of young men. However, the "modern girl" was seen as a stereotype that was used to sell goods to the masses. (882)

Movies and Radio

1920

Sources: Text book

Movies became a form of mass entertainment that replaced traditional arts and amusement for rural people. (883) Radio became commercially viable and by the 1930s most households in Britain and Germany had inexpensive individual sets. The influence of mass culture was highly evident in
both radio and movie, and were used as powerful outlets for political propaganda. (884)

Individual/collective rights

Labor Force During WW1

1914

Sources: A History o Western Society/ Lecture Slides

Unions cooperated with war governments on workplace rules, wages, and production schedules in return for real participation in important decisions.

The War in Its Effect Upon Women (1916)

1916

Sources for Western Society Book
Helena Swanwick, The War in Its Effect Upon Women (1916)

Swanwick regarded the war as an opportunity or women to improve their social, economic, and political status.

The Second Sex

1949

Sources book: Simone De Beavoir, The Second Sex (1949)

De Beavoir and many other women wanted full inclusion in society. She discuses the complex issues of attitudes and values, and was particularly concerned with the persistence of traditional attitudes long after the circumstances that had created them no longer existed. (471)