Mastering Modern World History

719 Pages·5·5.367 MB·English

by  Norman Lowe, John Traynor

Mastering
Modern World History
Norman Lowe
Fifth edition
Mastering
Modern World History
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Mastering
Modern World History
Fifth edition
Norman Lowe
© Norman Lowe 1982, 1988, 1997, 2005, 2013
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First edition published 1982
Second edition published 1988
Third edition published 1997
Fourth edition published 2005
Fifth edition published 2013
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Contents
List of figures xiv
List of maps xv
List of tables xvii
List of illustrations xviii
Acknowledgements xix
Preface to the fifth edition xx
PART I WAR AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1 The world in 1914: outbreak of the First World War 3
1.1 Prologue 3
1.2 The world in 1914 3
1.3 Events leading up to the outbreak of war 7
1.4 What caused the war, and who was to blame? 11
Further reading 17
Questions 17
2 The First World War and its aftermath 18
Summary of events 18
2.1 1914 19
2.2 1915 21
2.3 1916 23
2.4 The war at sea 25
2.5 1917 27
2.6 The Central Powers defeated 28
2.7 The problems of making a peace settlement 32
2.8 The Treaty of Versailles with Germany 34
2.9 The peace treaties with Austria-Hungary 38
2.10 The settlement with Turkey and Bulgaria 39
2.11 Verdict on the peace settlement 41
Further reading 41
Questions 42
3 The League of Nations 43
Summary of events 43
3.1 What were the origins of the League? 43
3.2 How was the League organised? 44
3.3 The successes of the League 45
3.4 Why did the League fail to preserve peace? 46
Further reading 50
Questions 50
4 International relations, 1919–33 51
Summary of events 51
4.1 What attempts were made to improve international relations, and how
successful were they? 52
CONTENTS vii
4.2 How did France try to deal with the problem of Germany between
1919 and 1933? 55
4.3 How did relations between the USSR and Britain, Germany and
France develop between 1919 and 1933? 57
4.4 The ‘successor’ states 60
4.5 United States foreign policy, 1919–33 66
Further reading 68
Questions 68
5 International relations, 1933–39 69
Summary of events 69
5.1 Relations between Japan and China 70
5.2 Mussolini’s foreign policy 72
5.3 What were Hitler’s aims in foreign policyand how successful had he
been by the end of 1938? 75
5.4 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? 78
5.5 Munich to the outbreak of war: September1938 to September 1939 81
5.6 Why did war break out? Were Hitler or the appeasers to blame? 83
Further reading 87
Questions 88
6 The Second World War, 1939–45 89
Summary of events 89
6.1 Opening moves: September 1939 to December 1940 90
6.2 The Axis offensive widens: 1941 to the summer of 1942 94
6.3 The offensives held in check: summer 1942 to summer 1943 99
6.4 What part was played in the war by Allied naval forces? 101
6.5 What contribution did air power make to the defeat of the Axis? 102
6.6 The Axis powers defeated: July 1943 to August 1945 104
6.7 Why did the Axis powers lose the war? 109
6.8 The Holocaust 110
6.9 What were the effects of the war? 117
Further reading 120
Questions 121
7 The Cold War: problems of international relations after the Second
World War 122
Summary of events 122
7.1 What caused the Cold War? 123
7.2 How did the Cold War develop between1945 and 1953? 125
7.3 To what extent was there a thaw after 1953 133
7.4 The nuclear arms race and the Cuban missiles crisis (1962) 136
Further reading 140
Questions 140
8 The spread of communism outside Europe and its effects on
international relations 142
Summary of events 142
8.1 The war in Korea and itseffects oninternational relations 143
8.2 Cuba: why did Castro come to powerand how were Cuba’s foreign
relationsaffected? 147
viii CONTENTS
8.3 The wars in Vietnam, 1946–54 and 1961–75 149
8.4 Chile under Salvador Allende 1970–3 155
8.5 More United States interventions 157
8.6 Detente: international relations from the1970s to the 1990s 160
8.7 The collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the end of the
Cold War: international relations transformed 163
Further reading 165
Questions 166
9 The United Nations Organization 167
Summary of events 167
9.1 The structure of the United Nations Organization 167
9.2 How different is the United Nations from the League of Nations? 170
9.3 How successful has the UN been as a peacekeeping organization? 171
9.4 UN peacekeeping since the end of the Cold War 175
9.5 What other work is the UN responsible for? 177
9.6 Verdict on the United Nations Organization 181
9.7 What about the future of the UN? 184
Further reading 185
Questions 185
10 The Two Europes, East and West since 1945 186
Summary of events 186
10.1 The states of western Europe 187
10.2 The growth of unity in western Europe 191
10.3 The early days of the European Community 192
10.4 The European Community from 1972 to Maastricht (1991) 197
10.5 Communist unity in eastern Europe 202
10.6 Why and how did communism collapse in eastern Europe? 207
10.7 Civil war in Yugoslavia 212
10.8 Europe since Maastricht 217
10.9 The European Union in Crisis 221
Further reading 223
Questions 223
11 Conflict in the Middle East 225
Summary of events 225
11.1 Arab unity and interference from the outside world 227
11.2 The creation of Israel and the Arab-Israeli war 1948–9 230
11.3 The Suez War of 1956 232
11.4 The Six Day War of 1967 234
11.5 The Yom Kippur War of 1973 236
11.6 Camp David and the Egyptian-Israeli peace, 1978–9 237
11.7 Peace between Israel and the PLO 238
11.8 Conflict in the Lebanon 240
11.9 The Iran-Iraq War, 1980–8 244
11.10 The Gulf War, 1990–1 246
11.11 Israelis and Palestinians fight again 247
Further reading 255
Questions 256
CONTENTS ix