Unit 7: Economic Crisis and War in the 20th Century
While the Industrial Revolution brought great prosperity to many parts of the world, it also ushered in many new challenges. In 1914, tensions between capitalist powers spilled over into war, and the new weapons of the industrial age produced a horrific slaughter in Europe. After the war, industrial powers struggled to recover in a decade of economic highs and lows. The weak global economy collapsed in 1929, causing widespread unemployment in industrialized societies. The failure of the international community to maintain prosperity and peace led to the Second World War, which devastated Europe and Asia. After the war, the United States and its allies devised a new system for managing the international economy. In contrast, the Soviet Union and its allies pulled new satellite states into a socialist economic system.
In this unit, we examine the effects of industrialization on war and the effects of war on industrialization. We will also study the economic crises of the 1920s and 1930s and compare different recovery strategies.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 11 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- discuss how industrialization promoted imperialism;
- interpret the effect of industrialization on warfare to contextualize World War I as an industrial war;
- identify the main events of the Great Depression;
- describe the methods governments used to recover from the Great Depression;
- explain how the Marshall Plan shaped global politics and economics;
analyze the importance of the Bretton Woods Conference to the - restructuring of the world economy on U.S. terms; and
- critique the impact of the Bretton Woods on global industrial development.