The Interwar Period

Watch the video considering the following: 

• How the US economy got boosted after the Great War because of the war production and trade with Europe. This boosts accelerated not only the economy but also the technological and cultural changes in the US and the Western world in general. This was known as the 'Roaring 20s'.  

• How the massive and abruptly consumption culture developed in those years created a financial bubble that exploded in 1929, making the Great Depression in the US and, not long after that, a Global Depression that fueled radical politics all around the world: on the left, we have the communists revolutions in China and the Soviet Union; on the right, we have the rise of fascist regimes in Italy and Germany.

• The New Deal was the US government's solution to the Great Depression. Most of its improvements (like the Social Security System or the creation of public jobs) still endure.  

• How all these conditions could explain the rise of totalitarian governments, like the Soviet Union or the Fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini. Try to establish the common characteristics of these regimes, recognizing their ideological differences.

Watch the video and consider the following: 

• The end of the imperial dynastic rule in China (the Qing Dynasty): The influence of the Sino-Japanise war at the end of the 19th century. The meddling of the West and the degradation of the imperial rule as modernization becomes imperative for the organization and competence of China with the rest of the world. Finally, the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 as the main cause for the Qing Dynasty's fall and the establishment of the Republic of China. 

• The fallout of the Qing Dynasty in what would be called the 'Warlord Era', after the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916 when he declares himself emperor. It also contributed to the rise of the Chinese Communist Party and ultimately, the Chinese Civil War which began in 1927.

• The Chinese Civil War between the Nationalistic Party (or the Kuomintang) and the Communist Party. The Long March of the Communist Party and the rise of Mao Zedong as the leader of the revolution. 

• The Second Sino-Japanese War in the Interwar period and the establishment of the Communist China in 1949, ending the Chinese Civil War.    

• How the consequences of the Chinese Civil War could explain the problematic situation between the continental and communist China and the island of Taiwan. 

In this video you will find a brief overview of the influence that Mahatma Gandhi exerted towards India's nationalistic process of independence from colonial subjugation. How his philosophy of Satyagraha (literally 'the insistence on truth' - Satya means 'Truth' and Agraha means 'insistence') as a pacifical and non-violent way for dealing with injustice and oppression lead not only to free the India from British control, but also has helped the social movements throughout the world to fight for peace and social justice without violence.