Accelerating Global Change and Realignments
Key Concept 6.1 Science and the Environment
Rapid advances in science altered the understanding of the universe and the natural world and led to the development of new technologies. These changes enabled unprecedented population growth, which altered how humans interacted with the environment and threatened delicate ecological balances at local, regional, and global levels.
I. Researchers made rapid advances in science that spread throughout the world, assisted by the development of new technology.
A. New modes of communication and transportation virtually eliminated the problem of geographic distance.
B. New scientific paradigms transformed human understanding of the world.
C. The Green Revolution produced food for the earth’s growing population as it spread chemically and genetically enhanced forms of agriculture.
D. Medical innovations increased the ability of humans to survive.
E. Energy technologies including the use of oil and nuclear power raised productivity and increased the production of material goods.
II. As the global population expanded at an unprecedented rate, humans fundamentally changed their relationship with the environment.
A. Humans exploited and competed over the earth’s finite resources more intensely than ever before in human history.
B. Global warming was a major consequence of the release of greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere.
C. Pollution threatened the world’s supply of water and clean air. Deforestation and desertification were continuing consequences of the human impact on the environment. Rates of extinction of other species accelerated sharply.
III. Disease, scientific innovations, and conflict led to demographic shifts.
A. Diseases associated with poverty persisted, while other diseases emerged as new epidemics and threats to human survival. In addition, changing lifestyles and increased longevity led to higher incidence of certain diseases.
B. More effective forms of birth control gave women greater control over fertility and transformed sexual practices.
C. Improved military technology and new tactics led to increased levels of wartime casualties.
Key Concept 6.2 Global Conflicts and Their Consequences
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a European-dominated global political order existed, which also included the United States, Russia, and Japan. Over the course of the century, peoples and states around the world challenged this order in ways that sought to redistribute power within the existing order and to restructure empires, while those peoples and states in power attempted to maintain the status quo. Other peoples and states sought to overturn the political order itself. These challenges to, and the attempts to maintain, the political order manifested themselves in an unprecedented level of conflict with high human casualties. In the context of these conflicts, many regimes in both older and newer states struggled with maintaining political stability and were challenged by internal and external factors, including ethnic and religious conflicts, secessionist movements, territorial partitions, economic dependency, and the legacies of colonialism.
I. Europe dominated the global political order at the beginning of the twentieth century, but both land-based and transoceanic empires gave way to new forms of transregional political organization by the century’s end.
A. The older land-based Ottoman, Russian, and Qing empires collapsed due to a combination of internal and external factors.
B. Some colonies negotiated their independence.
C. Some colonies achieved independence through armed struggle.
II. Emerging ideologies of anti-imperialism contributed to the dissolution of empires and the restructuring of states.
A. Nationalist leaders in Asia and Africa challenged imperial rule.
B. Regional, religious, and ethnic movements challenged both colonial rule and inherited imperial boundaries.
C. Transnational movements sought to unite people across national boundaries.
D. Movements to redistribute land and resources developed within states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, sometimes advocating communism and socialism.
III. Political changes were accompanied by major demographic and social consequences.
A. The redrawing of old colonial boundaries led to population resettlements.
B. The migration of former colonial subjects to imperial metropoles maintained cultural and economic ties between the colony and the metropole even after the dissolution of empires.
C. The proliferation of conflicts led to various forms of ethnic violence and the displacement of peoples resulting in refugee populations.
IV. Military conflicts occurred on an unprecedented global scale.
A. World War I and World War II were the first “total wars.” Governments used ideologies, including fascism, nationalism and communism, to mobilize all of their state’s resources, including peoples, both in the home countries and the colonies or former colonies, for the purpose of waging war. Governments also used a variety of strategies, including political speeches, art, media, and intensified forms of nationalism, to mobilize these populations.
B. The sources of global conflict in the first half of the century varied.
Required examples of the sources of global conflict:
• Imperialist expansion by European powers and Japan
• Competition for resources
• Ethnic conflict
• Great power rivalries between Great Britain and Germany
• Nationalist ideologies
• The economic crisis engendered by the Great Depression.
C. The global balance of economic and political power shifted after the end of World War II and rapidly evolved into the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers, which led to ideological struggles between capitalism and communism throughout the globe.
D. The Cold War produced new military alliances, including NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and promoted proxy wars in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
E. The dissolution of the Soviet Union effectively ended the Cold War.
V. Although conflict dominated much of the twentieth century, many individuals and groups — including states — opposed this trend. Some individuals and groups, however, intensified the conflicts.
A. Groups and individuals challenged the many wars of the century, and some promoted the practice of nonviolence as a way to bring about political change.
B. Groups and individuals opposed and promoted alternatives to the existing economic, political, and social orders.
C. Militaries and militarized states often responded to the proliferation of conflicts in ways that further intensified conflict.
D. More movements used violence against civilians to achieve political aims.
E. Global conflicts had a profound influence on popular culture.
Key Concept 6.3 New Conceptualizations of Global Economy, Society, and Culture
The twentieth century witnessed a great deal of warfare and the collapse of the global economy in the 1930s. In response to these challenges, the role of state in the domestic economy fluctuated, and new institutions of global governance emerged and continued to develop throughout the century. Scientific breakthroughs, new technologies, increasing levels of integration, changing relationships between humans and the environment, and the frequency of political conflict all contributed to global developments in which people crafted new understandings of society, culture, and historical interpretations. These new understandings often manifested themselves in, and were reinforced by, new forms of cultural production. Institutions of global governance both shaped and adapted to these social conditions.
I. States responded in a variety of ways to the economic challenges of the twentieth century.
A. In the Communist states of the Soviet Union and China, governments controlled their national economies.
B. At the beginning of the century in the United States and parts of Europe, governments played a minimal role in their national economies. With the onset of the Great Depression, governments began to take a more active role in economic life.
C. In newly independent states after World War II, governments often took on a strong role in guiding economic life to promote development.
D. At the end of the twentieth century, many governments encouraged free market economic policies and promoted economic liberalization.
II. States, communities, and individuals became increasingly interdependent, a process facilitated by the growth of institutions of global governance.
A. New international organizations formed to maintain world peace and to facilitate international cooperation.
B. New economic institutions sought to spread the principles and practices associated with free market economics throughout the world.
C. Humanitarian organizations developed to respond to humanitarian crises throughout the world.
D. Regional trade agreements created regional trading blocs designed to promote the movement of capital and goods across national borders.
E. Multinational corporations began to challenge state authority and autonomy.
F. Movements throughout the world protested the inequality of environmental and economic consequences of global integration.
III. People conceptualized society and culture in new ways; some challenged old assumptions about race, class, gender, and religion, often using new technologies to spread reconfigured traditions.
A. The notion of human rights gained traction throughout the world.
B. Increased interactions among diverse peoples sometimes led to the formation of new cultural identities and exclusionary reactions.
C. Believers developed new forms of spirituality and chose to emphasize particular aspects of practice within existing faiths and apply them to political issues.
IV. Popular and consumer culture became global.
A. Sports were more widely practiced and reflected national and social aspirations.
B. Changes in communication and transportation technology enabled the widespread diffusion of music and film.