European history between World War I and World War II

History after WWI through WWII

In general, world history can be considered a succession of experiments, just as modern science. On the other hand, both modern science and history are studied by gathering facts and figures and by putting together the information this obtained.

Surrealism, Dadaism, Fauvism, Cubism are some of the genres of 20th century art. They reflect, first of all, a quest for individual independence, for breaking rules in terms of the creation process, and an attempt to find new ways of expression rather than the classical ones. They also reflect a continuous experimentation in terms of form, shape and colouring.

Impossible for me to answer, since I don't have the book and don't know what the Shanfei story is.

The Indian National Congress, Gandhi, Tilak and the India Act were all different instruments by which (1) Indian nationalist came to exist and be defined within the Indian population, (2) Indian nationalism was promoted at a country level and (3) it became the main instrument of fighting against the English rule. Gandhi himself became the spokesperson of this new Indian nationalism.

5. Ever since the 19th century, China saw itself torn between the imperialist powers, with economic interests in the country, and local rulers fighting one another. Its quest for autonomy was a similar story, with the Nationalists and Communists battling it out in the end over a bitter civil war. In this sense, the quest for autonomy was indeed done at the cost of stability.

6. In both cases (Japan and Germany), the rise of fascism came on a weakening of other regional powers (England and France in Europe, China in Far East Asia) and the way of action was similar in both Germany's and Japan's case. This relied on provocation acts (the Mukden incident, in Japan's cases, the remilitarization of the Ruhr, the rearming - in Germany's case) that were accepted by England, France or China with either hope of avoiding a military confrontation (the European case) or because the armed forces were not prepared to retaliate (China's case). If we point out to the fact that retaliation was not possible because of Chinese weaknesses, we can sustain the argument that the Mukden Incident was possible due to Chinese weaknesses.

7. WWI and the depression brought out flaws that the African nationalist could speculate on their quest to freedom. They saw these events as expressions of the fact that European rule was already having more problems than it could handle. With Garvey, the black population saw their first ideologist who put the Black race on the first plan.

8. WWI and the depression brought a mistrust in the capitalist ideas and the capitalist world during the 1920s and 1930s. At this point, the Communist experiment in the Soviet Union seemed to be fully functional and there were voices suggesting that this economic system could better provide for the population. This is most likely why there was an overall mistrust that led people either towards socialism/communism or towards nationalism, seen as stable, strong solutions. In art as well, painters like Diego Rivera saw Communism as a way out of the economic situation many countries found themselves in.

9. World War II virtually started the same for Europe, China or the U.S.: as regional aggressions either against their own countries (China, the U.S.) or against their regional interests (Europe). Indeed, World War II didn't become WWII until all these regional conflicts were united as a global one with the countries joining up forces in two different camps. Until then, we may consider that the military conflicts were regional ones.

10. Mukden Incident (1931) - the Mukden Incident was provoked by Japanese officers as a motivation for invading and annexing Manchuria, part of China.

A the Rape of Nanjing (1937) - is a war crime committed by the Japanese army in the Chinese city of Nanjing, where the Japanese committed a number of atrocities.

Asia for the Asians" - a racist slogan that the Japanese implemented as an instrument against White domination in Asia.

A guerrilla war - a type of warfare that does not necessarily respect general war rules and manoeuvres and that allows smaller number of individuals to combat larger armies.

A anschluss (1938) - the union between Austria and Nazi Germany into one single state.

Munich - the place where racial laws and measures against the Jews in Germany were established.

Each of these announced the type of extremist, xenophobic policies that the Japanese and the Germans would be using against their enemies in WWII.

11. Total war was a new type of warfare that was introduced in WWII and that relied on the idea that there could be no limits to the way war was carried out. This included, for example, attacks on the civil population and acts such as massive bombardments of cities. Further more, total war also relied on a full connectivity between all parts of the army: infantry, air force etc. In order to obtain a full surprise effect.

12. The firs phase of the war was a defensive phase, with the UK and Russia (in Europe) and U.S. In the Pacific trying to fight back the German and Japanese aggressions. As soon as the level of forces changed, the Russians started pushing back the German invasion, with the U.S. fighting of the Japanese towards Japan itself. At this point, other fronts were opened in Europe with the invasion of the Italian Peninsula and the Normandy invasion, which meant that, at this point, Germany was virtually surrounded. The Russians played a crucial role in their resistance, not only because they gave hope that the Germans could eventually be defeated, but also because they were able to push them back all the way to Berlin.

13. The nature of bombing in WWII was in complete alignment with the total war concept. Cities were simply wiped out and this was the actual scope of the bombardment: impose terror on the civil population so that they would eventually ask for peace. There was no limit to how far this would go. London was bombarded for about a year in hope that the UK will pull out of the war, while Dresden was completely wiped out at the end of the war.

14. Germany occupied the Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, France, Holland, with countries like Romania, Hungary, Slovakia or Finland remaining independent, but with fascist governments that favoured German rule. With the invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany also occupied large areas such as Ukraine and Belarus. Italy occupied Albania and Greece, as well as Serbia after German intervention. Japan occupied a South East Asia, large parts of China, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as many of the islands of the Pacific, up to Australia. Most of the people occupied formed resistance movements during the war, fighting against the occupiers.

15. The holocaust was the genocide of the Jews in Europe during WWII. In this sense, the difference between the holocaust and other forms of ethnical genocides, like the ones mentioned, is that the holocaust refers explicitly to the extermination of the Jews during WWII. From this perspective, the holocaust is a genocide.