Unit+V

=Unit V:= World War I and Europe in Crisis

Chapter 26: Imperialism, Alliances, and War


__The "important guideposts" for Chapter 26 are:__
 * The economic, strategic, and cultural forces driving the [|New Imperialism].
 * The search for strategic advantage among European nations and the creation of [|opposing alliance systems].
 * The immediate origins and course of the [|Great War (World War I)].
 * The [|Bolshevik Revolution] in Russia that permanently swept away the monarchy and created the world’s first viable Communist state.
 * The [|Versailles Treaty] and associated treaties that ended the war, but left a very difficult legacy that threatened the post-war order in Europe.

__Corresponding chapters:__
 * Kagan Chapter 26 ([|Companion website page])

__Class assignments/notes:__
 * Wiki Assignment: Economic and Social reasons behind Imperialism
 * //[|White Man's Burden]// by Rudyard Kipling
 * //[|Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism]// by V.I. Lenin
 * //Guns, Germs and Steel// ([|Episode 3: Into the Tropics])
 * __World War I__
 * //The Century: America's Time// ([|Episode 2: Shell Shock])
 * Wiki Assignment: Impact and aftermath of World War I
 * //[|The Six Months That Changed the World]// (Google video)
 * //[|American Experience: Influenza 1918]//

Chapter 27: Political Experiments of the 1920's
__

The "important guideposts for Chapter 27 are:__
 * [|Economic and political disorder] in the post-Great War years.
 * The establishment of the [|Soviet Union’s] far-reaching [|political] and [|economic] experiment.
 * Mussolini’s [|Fascist Italy].
 * French efforts to enforce the Versailles Treaty, leading to the [|Ruhr crisis of 1923].
 * Britain’s first [|Labor Party government] and the [|General Strike of 1926].
 * The struggle of the **successor states of eastern Europe.**
 * The [|Weimar Republic’s] efforts to create a stable, unthreatening Germany.

__Corresponding chapters:__
 * Kagan Chapter 27 ([|Companion website page])
 * //The Century: America's Time// ([|Episode 4: Stormy Weather])

__Class assignments/notes:__
 * The dark side of nationalism - the rise of extremists on the left (Communism) and right (Facism)

Chapter 28: Europe and the Great Depression
__The "important guideposts for Chapter 28 are:__
 * Financial panic and the [|Great Depression] in the United States and Europe.
 * Coalition governments of the Left and the Right in the [|National Government of Britain] and the [|Popular Front of France].
 * The [|Nazi seizure of power] in Germany and its effects.
 * Central economic planning in the [|Soviet Five Year Plan] and Italian Fascist "[|syndicalism]."
 * The dark side of Soviet Communism, particularly the [|Great Purges] of the army and the party.

__Corresponding chapters:__
 * Kagan Chapter 28 ([|Companion website page])
 * //The Century: America's Time// ([|Episode 4: Stormy Weather])

__Class assignments/notes:__
 * How democracy survived the Great Depression (examining [|France] and [|UK])
 * How democracy failed during the Great Depression ([|Germany])
 * [|Great man theory of history]

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