Comparing World Wars (Chapter 20)

Comparing the World Wars

Since this chapter was long and filled with many conflicts, I wanted to organize it a little. I

 picked only a few of the facts mentioned in the chapter about the major wars: causes

 and expectations, how they played out, and effects.

No one expected World War I to happen. Everyone was dragged into it through entangling

 alliances. Some major causes are nationalism, militarism, and the assassination of Franz

 Ferdinand. The first world war was a war of attrition, meaning that each side was waiting

 for the other to wear down and run out of resources. It was characterized by trench 

warfare. This contrasts greatly to how Europeans thought the war would end. They thought

 it would be a short war, and the war efforts were greeted with much enthusiasm at first.

 This war left many lasting effects. There was an unprecedented number of casualties 

compared to the wars before, mostly due to the new war technologies. It also led to 

disillusionment of enlightenment values: progress, tolerance, and nationality. It was difficult

 to accept that so many died, only to gain such little land. In a way, World War I promoted 

social mobility. Since many men were dying, women were taken into the workforce to 

temporarily replace the men. Although many gave up their posts later on, it was more 

acceptable for women to work outside the home. A new map of europe also surfaced; the

 concept of national self-determination helped countries break free from their oppressive 

rulers. Colonies gained new military skills and a sense of political awareness. One of the 

most important outcomes was the blaming of Germany, and ultimately, their resentment

 that led to World War II. Finally, other nations started to see the US as a global power.

World War II was vastly different. The cause of WWII in the east was Japan’s imperialist 

tendencies and their wish to be independent from the west; in the west, the cause was 

German nationalism and resentment from the Treaty of Versailles, which placed the blame

 of WWI entirely on Germany and caused it to lose much land, money, and power. Unlike 

WWI, WWII was deliberate and planned. And it was not welcomed with mass enthusiasm

 like WWI was. The second war was characterized by quick blitzkrieg, or “lightning war”, to

 avoid trench warfare and attrition from WWI. This meant quickly moving military forced over

 large areas of land. WWII is the most destructive conflict in world history with 60 million 

casualties. This resulted from better technology and the brutality of total warfare. There was

 a complete mobilization of the  economy towards war. If you don’t know what this means, 

then an example would be like demolishing your local McDonalds to build a machine gun 

manufacturing facility. Women in WWII were taken in for industry and military purposes. 

They gained more roles in the community. There were genocides, like the Holocaust. 

Because war was taxing on Europeans, they now had weak holds on their colonies. This 

diminished Europe’s power in other parts of the world. After the war, many countries were 

looking to establish peace and US assumed its role as a global superpower.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!