Table of contents
1. The World in 1914: outbreak of the First World War
- Prologue
- The world in 1914
- Events leading up to the outbreak of war
- What caused the war, and who was to blame?
- Further reading
- Questions
2. The First World War and its aftermath
- 1914
- 1915
- 1916
- The war at sea
- 1917
- The Central Powers defeated
- The problems of making a peace settlement
- The Treaty of Versailles with Germany
- The peace treaties with Austria-Hungary
- The settlement with Turkey and Bulgaria
- Verdict on the peace settlement
- Further reading
- Questions
3. The League of Nations
- What were the origins of the League?
- How was the League organised?
- The successes of the League
- Why did the League fail to preserve peace?
- Further reading
- Questions
4. International relations, 1919-1933
- What attempts were made to improve international relations, and how successful were they?
- How did France try to deal with the problem of Germany between 1919 and 1933?
- How did relations between the USSR and Britain, Germany and France develop between 1919 and 1933?
- The ‘successor’ states
- United States foreign policy 1919-33
- Further reading
- Questions
5. International relations, 1933-1939
- Relations between Japan and China
- Mussolini's foreign policy
- What were Hitler's aims in foreign policy and how successful had he been by the end of 1938?
- What is meant by the term 'appeasement'? How could such a policy be justified, and what part did it play in international affairs between 1935 and 1939?
- Munich to the outbreak of war: September1938 to September 1939
- Why did war break out? Were Hitler or the appeasers to blame?
- Further reading
- Questions
6. The Second World War, 1939-1945
- Opening moves: September 1939 to December 1940
- The Axis offensive widens: 1941 to the summer of 1942
- The offensives held in check: summer 1942 to summer 1943
- What part was played in the war by Allied naval forces?
- What contribution did air power make to the defeat of the Axis?
- The Axis powers defeated: July 1943 to August 1945
- Why did the Axis powers lose the war?
- The Holocaust
- What were the effects of the war?
- Further reading
- Questions
7. The Cold War: problems of international relations after the Second World War
- What caused the Cold War?
- How did the Cold War develop between 1945 and 1953?
- To what extent was there a thaw after 1953
- The nuclear arms race and the Cuban missiles crisis (1962)
- Further reading
- Questions
8. The spread of communism outside Europe and its effects on international relations
- War in Korea and its effects on international relations
- Cuba: why did Castro come to power and how were Cuba's foreign relations affected?
- The wars in Vietnam, 1946-54 and 1961- 75
- Chile under Salvador Allende 1970-3
- More United States interventions
- Detente: international relations from the1970s to the 1990s
- The collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War: international relations transformed
- Further reading
- Questions
9. The United Nations Organization
- The structure of the United Nations Organization
- How different is the United Nations from the League of Nations?
- How successful has the UN been as a peacekeeping organization?
- UN peacekeeping since the end of the Cold War
- What other work is the UN responsible for?
- Verdict on the United Nations Organization
- What about the future of the UN?
- Further reading
- Questions
10. The Two Europes, East and West since 1945
- The states of western Europe
- The growth of unity in western Europe
- The early days of the European Community
- The European Community from 1972 to Maastricht (1991)
- Communist unity in eastern Europe
- Why and how did communism collapse in eastern Europe?
- Civil war in Yugoslavia
- Europe since Maastricht
- The European Union in Crisis
- Further reading
- Questions
11. Conflict in the Middle East
- Arab unity and interference from the outside world
- The creation of Israel and the Arab-Israeli war 1948-9
- The Suez War of 1956
- The Six Day War of 1967
- The Yom Kippur War of 1973
- Camp David and the Egyptian-Israeli peace, 1978-9
- Peace between Israel and the PLO
- Conflict in the Lebanon
- The Iran-Iraq War, 1980-8
- The Gulf War, 1990-1
- Israelis and Palestinians fight again
- Further reading
- Questions
12. The new world order and the war against global terrorism
- The new world order
- The rise of global terrorism
- 11 September 2001 and the ‘war on terrorism’
- The downfall of Saddam Hussein
- The continuing war in Afghanistan
- The problem of Iran
- The Arab Spring
- Further reading
- Questions
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13. Italy 1918-45: the first appearance of Fascism
- Why was Mussolini able to come to power?
- What did the term 'fascism' stand for?
- Mussolini introduces the fascist state
- What benefits did fascism bring for the Italian people?
- Opposition and downfall
- Further reading
- Questions
14. Germany 1918-45: the Weimar Republic and Hitler
- Why did the Weimar Republic collapse?
- What did National Socialism stand for?
- Hitler consolidates his power
- How was Hitler able to stay in power?
- Nazism and Fascism
- How successful was Hitler in domestic affairs?
- Further reading
- Questions
15. Japan and Spain
- Japan before the Second World War
- Japan recovers
- Spain
- Further reading
- Questions
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16. Russia and the revolutions, 1900-24
- After 1905: were the 1917 revolutions inevitable?
- The two revolutions: March and November 1917
- How successfully did Lenin and the Bolsheviks deal with their problems (1917–24)?
- Lenin - evil genius?
- Further reading
- Questions
17. The USSR and Stalin, 1924-53
- How did Stalin get to supreme power?
- How successful was Stalin in solving the USSR’s economic problems?
- Politics and the Purges
- Everyday life and culture under Stalin
- Stalin’s final years, 1945-53
- Further reading
- Questions
18. Continuing communism, collapse and aftermath,1953 to the present
- The Khrushchev era, 1953-64
- The USSR stagnates, 1964-86
- Gorbachev and the end of communist rule
- The aftermath of communism: Yeltsin, Putin and Medvedev
- Further reading
- Questions
19. China 1900-49
- Revolution and the warlord era
- The Kuomintang, Dr Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek
- Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party
- The communist victory, 1949
- Further reading
- Questions
20. China since 1949: the communists in control
- How successful was Mao Zedong in dealing with China’s problems?
- Life after Mao
- Tiananmen Square, 1989 and the crisis of communism
- The changing face of communism in China
- Further reading
- Questions
21. Communism in Korea and South East Asia
- North Korea
- Vietnam
- Cambodia/Kampuchea
- Laos
- Further reading
- Questions
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22. The USA before the Second World War
- The American system of government
- Into the melting pot: the era of immigration
- The USA becomes economic leader of the world
- Socialists, trades unions, and the impact of war and the Russian revolutions
- Racial discrimination and the Civil Rights Movement
- The Great Depression arrives: October 1929
- Roosevelt and the New Deal
- Further reading
- Questions
23. The USA since 1945
- Poverty and social policies
- Racial problems and the Civil Rights Movement
- Anti-communism and Senator McCarthy
- Nixon and Watergate
- The Carter-Reagan-Bush era, 1977-93
- Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama
- Further reading
- Questions
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PART V: DE-COLONIZATION AND AFTER
24. The end of the European Empires
- Why did the European powers give up their Empires?
- Indian independence and partition
- The West Indies, Malaya and Cyprus
- The British leave Africa
- The end of the French Empire
- Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Italy
- Verdict on decolonization
- Further reading
- Questions
25. Problems in Africa
- Problems common to the African states
- Democracy, dictatorship and military government in Ghana
- Civil wars and corruption in Nigeria
- Poverty in Tanzania
- The Congo/Zaire
- Angola: a Cold War tragedy
- Genocide in Burundi and Rwanda
- Apartheid and black majority rule in South Africa
- Socialism and civil war in Ethiopia
- Liberia – a unique experiment
- Stability and chaos in Sierra Leone
- Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe
- Confusion and civil war in Somalia
- The Sudan
- Africa and its problems in the twenty-first century
- Further reading
- Questions
26. Latin America
- The era of US domination
- South America: Brazil and Venezuela
- Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua
- The challenge to US domination
- Further reading
- Questions
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27. The changing world economy since 1900
- Changes in the world economy in the twentieth century
- The Third World and the North-South divide
- The split in the Third World economy
- The world economy and its effects on the environment
- Global warming
- The world economy at the turn of the millennium
- Capitalism in crisis
- The world economies in 2012
- Further reading
- Questions
28. The world's population
- The increasing world population since 1900
- Consequences of the population explosion
- Attempts at population control
- The population increase and Islamism
- The HIV/Aids epidemic
- Further reading
- Questions
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