Mastering
Modern World History
Fifth edition
Norman Lowe
© Norman Lowe 1982, 1988, 1997, 2005, 2013
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First edition published 1982
Second edition published 1988
Third edition published 1997
Fourth edition published 2005
Fifth edition published 2013
Published by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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ISBN: 978–1–137–27694–0
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Printed in China
For Jane
Contents
List of figures
List of maps
List of tables
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface to the fifth edition
PART I WAR AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1 The world in 1914: outbreak of the First World War
1.1 Prologue
1.2 The world in 1914
1.3 Events leading up to the outbreak of war
1.4 What caused the war, and who was to blame?
Further reading
Questions
2 The First World War and its aftermath
Summary of events
2.1 1914
2.2 1915
2.3 1916
2.4 The war at sea
2.5 1917
2.6 The Central Powers defeated
2.7 The problems of making a peace settlement
2.8 The Treaty of Versailles with Germany
2.9 The peace treaties with Austria-Hungary
2.10 The settlement with Turkey and Bulgaria
2.11 Verdict on the peace settlement
Further reading
Questions
3 The League of Nations
Summary of events
3.1 What were the origins of the League?
3.2 How was the League organised?
3.3 The successes of the League
3.4 Why did the League fail to preserve peace?
Further reading
Questions
4 International relations, 1919–33
Summary of events
4.1 What attempts were made to improve international relations, and how successful were they?
4.2 How did France try to deal with the problem of Germany between 1919 and 1933?
4.3 How did relations between the USSR and Britain, Germany and France develop between 1919 and 1933?
4.4 The ‘successor’ states
4.5 United States foreign policy, 1919–33
Further reading
Questions
5 International relations, 1933–39
Summary of events
5.1 Relations between Japan and China
5.2 Mussolini’s foreign policy
5.3 What were Hitler’s aims in foreign policyand how successful had he been by the end of 1938?
5.4 What is meant by the term ‘appeasement’? How could such a policy be justified, and what part did it play in international affairs between 1935 and 1939?
5.5 Munich to the outbreak of war: September1938 to September 1939
5.6 Why did war break out? Were Hitler or the appeasers to blame?
Further reading
Questions
6 The Second World War, 1939–45
Summary of events
6.1 Opening moves: September 1939 to December 1940
6.2 The Axis offensive widens: 1941 to the summer of 1942
6.3 The offensives held in check: summer 1942 to summer 1943
6.4 What part was played in the war by Allied naval forces?
6.5 What contribution did air power make to the defeat of the Axis?
6.7 Why did the Axis powers lose the war?
6.8 The Holocaust
6.9 What were the effects of the war?
Further reading
Questions
7 The Cold War: problems of international relations after the Second World War
Summary of events
7.1 What caused the Cold War?
7.2 How did the Cold War develop between 1945 and 1953?
7.3 To what extent was there a thaw after 1953
7.4 The nuclear arms race and the Cuban missiles crisis (1962)
Further reading
Questions
8 The spread of communism outside Europe and its effects on international relations
Summary of events
8.1 The war in Korea and its effects on international relations
8.2 Cuba: why did Castro come to power and how were Cuba’s foreign relations affected?
8.3 The wars in Vietnam, 1946–54 and 1961–75
8.4 Chile under Salvador Allende 1970–3
8.5 More United States interventions
8.6 Detente: international relations from the1970s to the 1990s
8.7 The collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War: international relations transformed
Further reading
Questions
9 The United Nations Organization
Summary of events
9.1 The structure of the United Nations Organization
9.2 How different is the United Nations from the League of Nations?
9.3 How successful has the UN been as a peacekeeping organization?
9.4 UN peacekeeping since the end of the Cold War
9.5 What other work is the UN responsible for?
9.6 Verdict on the United Nations Organization
9.7 What about the future of the UN?
Further reading
Questions
10 The Two Europes, East and West since 1945
Summary of events
10.1 The states of western Europe
10.2 The growth of unity in western Europe
10.3 The early days of the European Community
10.4 The European Community from 1972 to Maastricht (1991)
10.5 Communist unity in eastern Europe
10.6 Why and how did communism collapse in eastern Europe?
10.7 Civil war in Yugoslavia
10.8 Europe since Maastricht
10.9 The European Union in Crisis
Further reading
Questions
11 Conflict in the Middle East
Summary of events
11.1 Arab unity and interference from the outside world
11.2 The creation of Israel and the Arab-Israeli war 1948–9
11.3 The Suez War of 1956
11.4 The Six Day War of 1967
11.5 The Yom Kippur War of 1973
11.6 Camp David and the Egyptian-Israeli peace, 1978–9
11.7 Peace between Israel and the PLO
11.8 Conflict in the Lebanon
11.9 The Iran-Iraq War, 1980–8
11.10 The Gulf War, 1990–1
11.11 Israelis and Palestinians fight again
Further reading
Questions
12 The new world order and the war against global terrorism
Summary of events
12.1 The new world order
12.2 The rise of global terrorism
12.3 11 September 2001 and the ‘war on terrorism’
12.4 The downfall of Saddam Hussein
12.5 The continuing war in Afghanistan
12.6 The problem of Iran
12.7 The Arab Spring
Further reading
Questions
PART II THE RISE OF FASCISM AND GOVERNMENTS OF THE RIGHT
13 Italy 1918–45: the first appearance of fascism
Summary of events
13.1 Why was Mussolini able to come to power?
13.2 What did the term ‘fascism’ stand for?
13.3 Mussolini tries to introduce the fascist state
13.4 What benefits did fascism bring for the Italian people?
13.5 Opposition and downfall
Further reading
Questions
14 Germany 1918–45: the Weimar Republic and Hitler
Summary of events
14.1 Why did the Weimar Republic collapse?
14.2 What did National Socialism stand for?
14.3 Hitler consolidates his power
14.4 How was Hitler able to stay in power?
14.5 Nazism and Fascism
Further reading
Questions
15 Japan and Spain
Summary of events
15.1 Japan before the Second World War
15.2 Japan recovers
15.3 Spain
Further reading
Questions
PART III COMMUNISM – RISE AND DECLINE
16 Russia and the revolutions, 1900–24
Summary of events
16.1 After 1905: were the 1917 revolutions inevitable?
16.2 The two revolutions: March and November 1917
16.3 How successfully did Lenin and the Bolsheviks deal with their problems (1917–24)?
16.4 Lenin – evil genius?
Further reading
Questions
17 The USSR and Stalin, 1924–53
Summary of events
17.1 How did Stalin get to supreme power?
17.2 How successful was Stalin in solving the USSR’s economic problems?
17.3 Politics and the Purges
17.4 Everyday life and culture under Stalin
17.5 Stalin’s final years, 1945–53
Further reading
Questions
18 Continuing communism, collapse and aftermath, 1953 to the present
Summary of events
18.1 The Khrushchev era, 1953–64
18.2 The USSR stagnates, 1964–86
18.3 Gorbachev and the end of communist rule
18.4 The aftermath of communism: Yeltsin, Putin and Medvedev
Further reading
Questions
19 China 1900–49
Summary of events
19.1 Revolution and the warlord era
19.2 The Kuomintang, Dr Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek
19.3 Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party
19.4 The communist victory, 1949
Further reading
Questions
20 China since 1949: the communists in control
Summary of events
20.1 How successful was Mao in dealing with China’s problems?
20.2 Life after Mao
20.3 Tiananmen Square, 1989 and the crisis of communism
20.4 The changing face of communism in China
Further reading
Questions
21 Communism in Korea and South East Asia
Summary of events
21.1 North Korea
21.2 Vietnam
21.3 Cambodia/Kampuchea
21.4 Laos
Further reading
Questions
PART IV THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
22 The USA before the Second World War
Summary of events
22.1 The American system of government
22.2 Into the melting pot: the era of immigration
22.3 The USA becomes economic leader of the world
22.4 Socialists, trade unions and the impact of war and the Russian revolutions
22.5 Racial discrimination and the Civil Rights Movement
22.6 The Great Depression arrives: October 1929
22.7 Roosevelt and the New Deal
Further reading
Questions
23 The USA since 1945
Summary of events
23.1 Poverty and social policies
23.2 Racial problems and the Civil Rights Movement
23.3 Anti-communism and Senator McCarthy
23.4 Nixon and Watergate
23.5 The Carter–Reagan–Bush era, 1977–93
23.6 Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama
Further reading
Questions
PART V DECOLONIZATION AND AFTER
24 The end of the European Empires
Summary of events
24.1 Why did the European powers giveup their Empires?
24.2 Indian independence and partition
24.3 The West Indies, Malaya and Cyprus
24.4 The British leave Africa
24.5 The end of the French Empire
24.6 Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Italy
24.7 Verdict on decolonization
Further reading
Questions
25 Problems in Africa
Summary of events
25.1 Problems common to the African states
25.2 Democracy, dictatorship and military government in Ghana
25.3 Civil wars and corruption in Nigeria
25.4 Poverty in Tanzania
25.5 The Congo/Zaire
25.6 Angola: a Cold War tragedy
25.7 Genocide in Burundi and Rwanda
25.8 Apartheid and black majority rule in South Africa
25.9 Socialism and civil war in Ethiopia
25.10 Liberia – a unique experiment
25.11 Stability and chaos in Sierra Leone
25.12 Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe
25.13 Confusion and civil war in Somalia
25.14 The Sudan
25.15 Africa and its problems in the twenty-first century
Further reading
Questions
26 Latin America
Summary of events
26.1 The era of US domination
26.2 South America: Brazil and Venezuela
26.3 Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua
26.4 The challenge to US domination
Further reading
Questions
PART VI GLOBAL PROBLEMS
27 The changing world economy since 1900
Summary of events
27.1 Changes in the world econ
omy in the twentieth century
27.2 The Third World and the North–South divide
27.3 The split in the Third World economy
27.4 The world economy and its effects on the environment
27.5 Global warming
27.6 The world economy at the turn of the millennium
27.7 Capitalism in crisis
27.8 The world economies in 2012
Further reading
Questions
28 The world’s population
Summary of events
28.1 The increasing world population since 1900
28.2 Consequences of the population explosion
28.3 Attempts at population control
28.4 The population increase and Islamism
28.5 The HIV/Aids epidemic
Further reading
Questions
Index
List of figures
2.1 Trench cross-section
3.1 Great power membership of the League of Nations
6.1 Second World War dead
10.1 Statistics of GDP per head of the population (1977)
13.1 The fascist symbol
20.1 How the government of China works
22.1 How the federal government and the states divide powers in the USA
22.2 The three separate branches of the US federal government
27.1 Calorie intake per person per day
27.2 World oil production in billions of barrels per year
28.1 World population increases from AD 1 to 1995
28.2 Rate of population growth by regions
List of maps
1.1 Europe in 1914
1.2 Peoples of the Habsburg Empire
1.3 The Balkans in 1913 showing changes from the Balkan Wars (1912–13)
2.1 The Schlieffen Plan
2.2 The western front
2.3 Europe at War
2.4 War on the Eastern, Balkan and Italian Fronts
2.5 European frontiers after the First World War and the Peace Treaties
2.6 Africa and the Peace Treaties
2.7 The treatment of Turkey (Treaty of Sèvres) and Bulgaria (Treaty of Neuilly)
5.1 Japanese expansion 1931–42
5.2 The position of Abyssinia and the territories of Britain, France and Italy
5.3 Hitler’s gains before the Second World War
6.1 The beginning of the war in Europe – main German thrusts, 1939–40
6.2 North Africa and the Mediterranean
6.3 The Russian front
6.4 The war in the Pacific
6.5 The D-Day landings – 6 June 1944
6.6 The defeat of Germany, 1944–5
6.7 The Holocaust
7.1 Europe after 1945
7.2 Central and eastern Europe during the Cold War
7.3 Berlin and the wall, 1961
7.4 The Cuban missiles crisis, 1972