Chapter 20 - Collapse at the Center & Documents

In today's reading, Strayer introduce a new chapter about the World War, Depression, and the Rebalancing of Global Power that is taken place from 1914-1970s. The first World War happened from 1914-1918. A World War is a war involving many or most of the world's most powerful and numerous countries. A World War I veteran, Alfred Anderson, said, "I was told that I was fighting a war that would end all wars, but that wasn't the case." What he said is true because there are many wars that occurred after the World War I and there are many wars that happened that would end all wars. The World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war centered in Europe that began on the 28th of July 1914 and lasted until the 11th of November 1918. It was followed by the economic meltdown of the Great Depression, by the rise of Nazi Germany and the horror of the Holocaust, and by an even bloodier and more devastating World War II, a struggle that surround much of the world. More than 70 million military, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. Since 1500, Europe had militaries that were in excellent conditions and the marvels of its Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. However, great things did not last long for the Europeans and WWI was their starting point that conflicted everything. During WWI, there were many propaganda advertisements. Propaganda is an information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular cause or point of view. One of the propaganda that I am going to talk about is "Women and the Great War." This shows a woman putting on her working coat and hat to get ready to work making equipments for men to use during the war. The poster says, "These women are doing their bit. Learn to make munitions." WWI temporarily brought a halt to the women's suffrage movement as well as to women's activities on behalf of international peace. Most women on both sides actively supported their countries' war efforts, as suggested by this British wartime poster, inviting women to work in the munitions industry. Before women were not able to work, but when WWI started men had to leave their wife and children to serve their country. Now no one is working in the factories so women are stepping up to take the men's place and work. In one of the documents, document 20.1 talks about Hitler on Nazism and what Hitler had to do with WWI. Adolph Hitler published his political views well before he came to power. Hitler was born in Austria and he captivated a profound form of German nationalism, which he retained as a profoundly disappointed veteran of WWI. Next, Hitler joined a radical group called the German Workers Party, where he start to gain his powerful abilities. Soon Hitler wrote an autobiography about his political and social philosophy and titled it Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In his autobiography he starts off dictating the book to Hess while imprisoned for what he considered to be "political crimes" following his failed Putsch in Munich in November 1923. Overall, this chapter discuss about the transition from the first war to the Great Depression where everyone had to go through the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in history of the Western industrialized world.