History Stuff

Global Great Depression

- Happened in October 1929

- New York stock crashed that would last 4 days.
- European markets depended on America for loans, America’s economy crashed and brought
Europe down with it.
- Europe were linked to economies in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and didn’t take long for
those economies to fall as well.
- The Great Depression caused WWII, and the Great Depression ended because of WWII.

 Effects of the Great Depression

- Crisis and Isolationism in the west, international trade fell by 30 percent and prices of basic
necessities tanked globally. By 1932, around 30 million people were unemployed worldwide.
- Exploitation in the Colonies
- Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin used the Great Depression as an opportunity to create the Five-Year
Plan, involving taking land from peasants and poor people to quickly build the Soviet Industry
and Economy.
- The New Deal, the US president, Franklin Roosevelt addressed the wealth inequality by providing
government jobs which comes in the minimum wage. Many capitalists thought it gave too much
power to the government.

Internationalism

- Internationalism: a movement about global unity

- Example:
 The Photograph of the First Solvay Conference Attendees (1911, Belgium)

Two dozen European and American scientists were invited to an exclusive scientific conference, The
First Solvay Conference. This international group came together to discuss the topics of radiation and
quanta, classical physics, and quantum theory. Even if they were interrupted by the war, they
continued in times of peace. This network continued to move and transform scientific knowledge,
most were European and all men.

- Internationalism was first, a great idea to achieve peace and economic prosperity through
diplomacy and politics between nations, but eventually lead to war due to feelings of superiority
and inability to compromise.

World War II

 Caused by:
- The Great Depression
- Fascism
- Loss of belief in democray and international cooperation
 Axis Powers: Germany, Japan, Italy
 Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, The United States, Soviet Union.
  Their victory was partly due to larger populations and stronger economies. Superior technology
gave them an edge as well. It concluded with nuclear bombs dropped by the United States in
August 1945. They destroyed the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. These devastating
attacks forced Japan’s surrender and ended the war.

Nuclear Weapons

- German Scientists discovered a nuclear fission that might be useful as a war weapon and famed
Albert Einstein on the power of the nuclear fission.
- Einstein warned the US, and President Roosevelt set up the Manhattan Project in 1942 to
harness the nuclear fission to create a bomb.
- New American President Harry Truman sent a warning to Japan, and the first atomic bomb
dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Known as “Little Boy,” the bomb was dropped from a
plane named the Enola Gay. Killed about 80,000 people.
- Because Japan didn’t surrender, the second bombing was called the ‘Fat Man’ and dropped in
Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. 40,000 more people were killed.
- Thousands more died due to the poison by radiation from the blasts and Japan surrendered on
August 15.