Imperialism, WWI, Russian Revolution & Interwar Period

Posted on Mar 24, 2025 in History

Unit 0 – Imperialism

Age of Imperialism: Beginning 1830s / 1870s – Intensification 1880s – End 1914 (WWl)

Industrial powers: (UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Russia* / USA, Japan) – Africa and part of Asia

Driving factors: Economic (new markets, raw materials) – Demographic (settlement) – Political (prestige) – Ideological (humanitarian / racial / social)

  • Berlin Conference: (1884 – 1885) – Summoned by Otto von Bismarck – European powers – Avoid clashes in Africa – Basic agreements: Free trade in Central Africa – Free navigation in Congo and Niger rivers – Military control of colonies
  • British Empire: Africa: North to South (Egypt → South Africa) – Asia: (British Raj, Burma)
  • French Empire: Africa: West to East – Asia: Indochina
  • Other powers: Germany – Belgium – Italy – USA – Japan
  • Colonial government: Exploitation colonies (metropolitan) – Settlement colonies (autonomous) – Protectorates (parallel for defence and foreign policy)

Unit 1 – The First World War

  • Outbreak (1914): Murder of Franz Ferdinand (Austria-Hungary) by Gavrilo Princip (Bosnian Serb nationalist) → Ultimatum (Austria-Hungary to Serbia) → War declarations
  • Central Powers: (Germany + Austria-Hungary + Ottoman Empire)
  • Western Front: War of movements (1914) – Trench Warfare (1914 – 1918) – Entrances: Italy (1915) – USA (1917) – German defeat (Internal revolts → Armistice → Weimar Republic)
  • Eastern Front: German victories → Russian Revolution (1917) – Peace treaty: Brest-Litovsk (1918): Independence of (Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) + Cessions of territories to (Poland and Romania)
  • Balkan Front: Entrances: Ottoman Emp. (1914), Greece (1917) → Allied victory (1918)
  • Treaty of Versailles (1919): Peace treaty for Germany → Punishments: (Only guilty + Territorial loses (Alsace and Lorraine, Danzig, colonies) + Economic reparations + Reduced army) – German reaction: refusal (“diktat”)
  • Dismantlement of Austria-Hungary: New states: (Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia) – Cessions of territories to (Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and Italy)

League of Nations: (1919 – 1946) – Precedent of the United Nations – Failure to avoid the WWIl

Unit 2 – The Russian Revolution and the Creation of the USSR

  • Revolution of 1905: Cause: Russo-Japanese War (1904 – 1905) – Appearance of soviets (councils) – Result: Failure – Only concessions: (Constitution + Duma (parliament))
  • Revolution of 1917: February: (Tsar abdication → Republic) – Provisional government (Kerensky) October → Bolshevik coup (led by Lenin) → Russian Civil War
  • Russian Civil War: (1918 – 1921) – Victory of the Red Army (Bolsheviks) over the White Army (Tsarists + Liberals)
  • Soviet Union (USSR): (1922 – 1991) – State for workers and peasants – 15 republics
  • Third International: (1919 – 1943) – Group of Communists parties all over the world – Led by the USSR
  • Vladimir Lenin: Bolshevik leader (Revolutions of 1905 and 1917) – Leader of the Soviet Union (1922 – 1924)
    Leon Trotsky: Bolshevik leader – Creator of the Red Army (1918) – Expulsed by Stalin
    Joseph Stalin: Bolshevik leader – Leader of the Soviet Union (1927 – 1953)
  • Stalinism (1927-1953): Period of the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule – Totalitarian state
  • Five-Year Plans: Economic management: (Central planning + Nationalisation of the means of production) – Created by Stalin (1928) – 1st stage: Collectivisation
  • Kolkhozes: Agricultural cooperatives with communal property.
  • Sovkhozes: State-owned rural estates without private property
    • Holodomor: (1932 – 1933) – Demographic catastrophe in Ukraine due the the First Five-Year plan – Deaths: 3 – 10 million – Result: total colectivisation of the land
    • Gulags: Concentration camps for dissidents in the USSR

Unit 4 – The Interwar Period and Totalitarianisms

The 1929 Crisis and the Great Depression

  • Roaring Twenties: 1920-29 – Peace and prosperity – USA and Europe
  • Great Depression: Black Thursday (Stock market crash, 24th Oct 1929) – Banking crisis – Capital withdrawal
  • Keynesianism: John Maynard Keynes – General Theory (1936) – State intervention → Mixed economies
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt: US President (1933 – 1945) – New Deal: state intervention: (Public companies + Public work plans (Infrastructures) + Minimum wages)