ASIAN CONFLICT: HOW DID GANDHI FIGHT FOR FREEDOM? WHEN DID JAPAN BECOME POWERFUL? The first half of the 20th century saw Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands being challenged by the peoples they ruled in south and southeast Asia. At the same time, Japan was trying to take the place of the Europeans and create its own Asian empire. Table 58. ASIA 1920–1942 1920–1922Gandhi leads Indian National Congress Campaign 1926–1942Nationalist agitation in Indochina 1940Japan occupies French Indochina 1942The Vietminh founded HOW DID GANDHI FIGHT FOR FREEDOM? When Indian nationalists were demanding self-rule, one of the leading campaigners against the British was Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948). Instead of calling for an uprising, Gandhi used nonviolent methods of protest. He lived very simply and called for India to return to the traditional values of village life. He became known as Mahatma or “great soul.” This man of peace was assassinated in 1948. WHEN DID JAPAN BECOME POWERFUL? After 1868, Japan turned itself into an industrial nation. It defeated Russia in 1904–1905 and annexed Korea in 1910. In 1919, it gained former German territories in the Far East. During the 1930s, extreme nationalists and the military planned Japan’s invasion of China. In the 1940s, during World War II, Japanese armies finally swept through southeast Asia.

THE DEPRESSION: WHAT WAS THE WALL STREET CRASH? HOW WIDESPREAD WAS THE DEPRESSION? An economic depression is a period of falling prices, low production of goods, and high unemployment. The Great Depression of 1929–1934 caused hardship in the United States, in the countries of Europe, and in their overseas empires. Banks closed and firms went out of business. WHAT WAS THE WALL STREET CRASH? In 1929, US investors found that their shares of stock had become worthless. All trading ceased on Wall Street, New York City’s financial district, as the New York Stock Exchange crashed. Fortunes were lost overnight and factories laid off workers. HOW WIDESPREAD WAS THE DEPRESSION? The 1920s and 1930s were already desperate times in Australia and New Zealand, in Great Britain, and across Europe. When an Austrian bank collapsed, chaos spread to central Europe. Germany was struggling, too, as it tried to recover from World War I and pay money to France as reparation for the war.

REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA: WHEN WAS BLOODY SUNDAY IN ST. PETERSBURG? WHO OVERTHREW THE CZAR? WHEN WAS THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION? COMMUNISM By the 1890s, many European nations were bringing in democratic reforms, but not Russia. Angry about social injustice, many Russians looked to socialism, anarchism, or COMMUNISMfor an answer. WHEN WAS BLOODY SUNDAY IN ST. PETERSBURG? In 1905, troops in St. Petersburg gunned down workers who wished to present a petition to the czar. This action resulted in strikes, mutinies, and uprisings all over Russia. As a result, a Duma, or parliament, was set up. However, the reforms it demanded were rejected by the czar. WHO OVERTHREW THE CZAR? In March 1917, strikes, mutinies, and protests brought Russia to a standstill. Russian troops fighting in World War I deserted the Eastern Front. The czar was forced from power and Russia became a republic. This became known as the February Revolution (Russia followed a different calendar than Western countries). WHEN WAS THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION? The republican Duma failed to bring the chaos in Russia under control. A communist group known as the “Bolsheviks” rejected attempts at liberal reform. They appealed directly to workers to rise up in a communist revolution. The Bolsheviks seized power in “October” (that is, November) 1917. LENIN’S CALL Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924) returned from exile in 1917. He called for power to be handed over to soviets (councils of revolutionary workers). After the October Revolution, he led the governing Communist Party. COMMUNISM Communists around the world were inspired by the writings of Karl Marx (1818–1883). Marx believed history was driven by economic forces and that a just and progressive society could only be created if the workers took control of the economic system. WHEN WAS THE SOVIET UNION FOUNDED? In 1918–1920, civil war raged through Russia as the communist Red Army fought opponents of the revolution (“the Whites”). The communists won, and a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (“Soviet Union”) was founded in 1922. Only the Communist Party held power. Most industries came under state ownership, and the economy was centrally controlled. WHO WAS STALIN? Lenin’s successor was Joseph Stalin (1879–1953). His secret police murdered many of his opponents and millions were sent to forced labor camps. Stalin was criticized after his death, but the Soviet system failed to reform and collapsed in 1991.

REVOLUTIONARY CHINA: WHO CONTROLLED CHINA AFTER THE REVOLUTION? WHO WON THE STRUGGLE? WHAT WAS “NEW CHINA”? CULTURAL REVOLUTION By the late 19th century, the Chinese Empire was growing weak, and foreign nations were controlling its trade. In 1911 the last emperor, Puyi, was overthrown in a nationalist revolution. Many years of turmoil followed. Table 57. CHINA 1912–1949 1912Chinese republic founded 1919Japan gains Shandong 1931Japan occupies Manchuria 1934–1935The Long March 1937–1945Japan invades China 1949Communist victory WHO CONTROLLED CHINA AFTER THE REVOLUTION? Many forces fought to control China. First there were the nationalists, who founded a republic in 1912. Then there were the generals and regional warlords and, in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party. Finally, there was Japan, which gained Chinese territory in 1919. WHO WON THE STRUGGLE? After 1925, Chiang Kai-Shek became nationalist leader. Nationalists and communists became rivals but were forced into alliances as Japan overran China. Japan’s defeat in 1945 was followed by civil war. By 1949, the communists had defeated the nationalists. WHAT WAS “NEW CHINA”? The nationalists fled to Taiwan, and the communist leader Mao Zedong proclaimed a people’s republic. Its successes in the 1950s included better education, literacy, and health. However, unrealistic agricultural and industrial reforms caused hardship, leading to political chaos during the CULTURAL REVOLUTION. CULTURAL REVOLUTION Economic failures caused dispute within the Chinese Communist Party. Fearing that the ideals of the revolution would be lost, Mao Zedong called for a “cultural revolution,” a change in public attitudes. WHO WERE THE RED GUARDS? Students and young people took up Mao’s ideas with fervor. They declared themselves “Red Guards,” dedicated to never-ending revolution. They tore down temples, denounced their teachers, and rooted out “traitors.” The suffering was immense. By 1967, the regular army was clashing with the Red Guards, and Mao had little choice but to disband them in 1968. DID CHINA REMAIN COMMUNIST? When Mao died in 1976 there was a struggle for power. In the years that followed, China was still governed by the Communist Party, but it started to adopt some capitalist economic policies.

WORLD WAR I: WHY DID WAR BREAK OUT? WHAT NEW WEAPONS WERE USED IN ACTION? WHAT WAS TOTAL WAR? BIOGRAPHY: WILFRED OWEN 1893–1918 TRENCH WARFARE ARMISTICE World War I (1914–1918) was the first war in history to be fought by many different nations around the world. About eight million men were killed, many in horrific TRENCH WARFARE, before the ARMISTICEin 1918. Table 56. WAR AND PEACE 1914Germany invades Belgium in order to attack France 1915Gallipoli offensive in Turkey; Italy joins the Entente 1916Naval battle off Jutland, Denmark 1917US enters the war on the side of the Entente; Russia leaves the war; Italy defeated by the Austrians; Arabs revolt against Turks 1918Armistice ends the war WHY DID WAR BREAK OUT? In the 20th century, European nations formed competing military alliances. War finally broke out in 1914 when a Serbian nationalist assassinated the heir to the throne of Austria. Austria went to war against Serbia, and many other countries joined in. On one side were the British, the French and Russian empires, Italy, and Japan (the Entente Powers). On the other side were the Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Turks (the Central Powers). WHAT NEW WEAPONS WERE USED IN ACTION? Various new technologies were available. In 1915, the German army used poison gas for the first time in warfare, and it was soon in general use. The British were the first to introduce the battle tank. Submarines were now able to torpedo enemy shipping, forcing ships to travel across the ocean in convoys. Aircraft and airships were used to drop bombs, spy on enemy positions, and attack enemy pilots. Tanks were a British invention. They first appeared in 1916 and were used in battle at Cambrai, France, in 1917. Tanks were armor-plated. Their treads could cross muddy trenches and crash through barbed wire. WHAT WAS TOTAL WAR? This was war on a scale never experienced before. It was not just fought by professional soldiers. Most of the troops were civilian conscripts, called up to serve in the armed forces. Ordinary homes in cities such as London were bombed from the air. Even ocean liners carrying passengers from neutral countries came under attack. Entire national economies were geared to the war effort. BIOGRAPHY: WILFRED OWEN 1893–1918 Many young men on both sides of the conflict, who had been idealists in 1914, became horrified by the war and its cruelty. One of them was the English war poet Wilfred Owen, killed just a week before the Armistice. TRENCH WARFARE In World War I, both sides dug long trenches as lines of defense, which stretched across Western Europe. These trenches filled up with stinking mud. Any order to go “over the top” and attack the enemy resulted in thousands of deaths. DEATH IN GALLIPOLI The Gallipoli campaign between the Entente Powers and Turkey in 1915 included some of the worst trench fighting of the war. The campaign was a failure and cost the lives of many Australians and New Zealanders. WHERE WAS NO MAN’S LAND? The territory between the two front lines was called “no man’s land.” It was a sea of mud, with broken stumps of trees and barbed wire entanglements. The area was raked by machine gun fire and pounded by heavy artillery, leaving craters big enough for soldiers to drown in. ARMISTICE An armistice is a laying down of weapons. The guns of World War I finally fell silent at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. DID PEACE FOLLOW WAR? No; in Germany there was street fighting and starvation. In 1919, the terms of the peace were agreed upon at Versailles, in France. The settlement was harsh on Germany, and this resulted in a sense of grievance that undermined any lasting peace.