Unit 14: Imperialism, World Wars, and the Modern World
How a scramble for colonies, an assassination, and a decade of economic collapse triggered the century's great conflicts, and what came after them.
10 topics · 39 questions
Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.
New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
- How it worksShow me Africa in 1870 and Africa in 1914 as two frames of the same map filling in with colonial color.
- How it worksHow does the Berlin Conference divide an entire continent among European powers without a single African representative in the room?
- Going furtherWhat happens generations later to African states whose borders were drawn to suit European convenience rather than existing ethnic boundaries?
Your turn1 of 2
In 1870, Europeans directly controlled only about 10 percent of Africa. By 1914, they controlled almost the entire continent. What changed in those decades?The Alliance System and the Causes of World War One
- How it worksShow me Europe's alliance system as a web of treaties where pulling one thread tightens every other line.
- How it worksHow does a strict mobilization timetable turn a diplomatic crisis into a war nobody can stop once it starts?
- Ties togetherHow does the same rigid alliance logic dragging Europe into war in 1914 reappear in the opposing blocs of the Cold War?
Your turn1 of 2
In June 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Within weeks, more than thirty countries were at war. Why did one assassination pull in so many countries so fast?The Russian Revolution
- How it worksHow does Lenin's slogan of peace, land, and bread win over soldiers and peasants exhausted by war and famine?
- Worked exampleShow me power shifting from the tsar to the provisional government to the Bolsheviks across 1917.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the October Revolution accurately described as a mass popular uprising rather than a small organized coup?
- Going furtherWhat happens to Russia's economy and territory during the civil war that follows the Bolshevik seizure of power?
Your turn1 of 2
The Romanov dynasty had ruled Russia for roughly 300 years. Within a few months of 1917, it was gone. Why did a war Russia was already losing bring down a dynasty that old so fast?Totalitarian States Between the Wars
- How it worksShow me hyperinflation and depression eroding trust in democracy just as fascist and totalitarian movements gain support.
- How it worksHow does a totalitarian state use propaganda, secret police, and a single party to control nearly every part of daily life?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany identical movements just because both are far-right and authoritarian?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the Great Depression alone a sufficient explanation for why totalitarian movements seized power in the 1930s?
- Going furtherWhat happens to political opposition and free press once a totalitarian party consolidates complete control of the state?
Your turn1 of 2
The economic collapse of the 1930s hit country after country hard. In several of them, people turned to dictators promising strong, decisive leadership. Why did economic collapse push people that direction?The Causes of World War Two
- How it worksShow me Germany, Italy, and Japan each expanding through the 1930s while other powers respond with appeasement.
- Worked exampleHow does the policy of appeasement at Munich in 1938 fail to stop further German expansion into Czechoslovakia and Poland?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't the invasion of Poland in 1939 mean German territorial expansion started only at that moment?
- Going furtherWhat happens to the balance of the war once Germany invades the Soviet Union and the United States enters after Pearl Harbor?
Your turn1 of 2
The Treaty of Versailles was designed to prevent another major war after World War One. Instead, many historians see it as helping cause the next one. Why did a peace treaty feed the resentment that caused World War Two?The Holocaust
- How it worksShow me Nazi policy escalating step by step from legal discrimination to ghettos to mass deportation and murder.
- Worked exampleFind what share of Europe's roughly nine million Jewish population the Holocaust killed by the war's end in 1945.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the Holocaust accurately described as a spontaneous outburst of violence rather than a planned state policy?
- Going furtherWhat happens to survivors and to global politics once the full scale of the Holocaust becomes known after the war?
Your turn1 of 2
The Nazi regime murdered six million Jewish people using railroads, careful recordkeeping, and purpose-built facilities across occupied Europe. Why did a modern industrial state organize genocide this way, as a bureaucratic project?The Cold War and Competing Blocs
- How it worksShow me Europe splitting into NATO and Warsaw Pact blocs as countries align with the United States or the Soviet Union.
- How it worksHow does the doctrine of mutually assured destruction keep two nuclear superpowers from ever fighting each other directly?
- Worked exampleFind how many years pass between the Truman Doctrine in 1947 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the Cold War accurately described as a war with no actual fighting anywhere in the world?
- Going furtherWhat happens to a country like Korea or Vietnam once it becomes a battleground for a proxy war between the two blocs?
Your turn1 of 2
The United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies to defeat Nazi Germany. Within just a few years, they had become each other's greatest rival. Why did wartime allies turn into rivals so fast?Decolonization After 1945
- How it worksShow me the map of European colonial control draining away across Africa and Asia between 1945 and 1975.
- How it worksHow does a colonial power weakened by war and facing growing independence movements decide holding colonies costs more than it's worth?
- Going furtherWhat happens to a newly independent country's internal politics when its borders were drawn by a departing colonial power?
Your turn1 of 2
European empires had ruled colonies across Africa and Asia for centuries. Within about three decades after World War Two, most of those empires had dissolved. Why so fast?The Demographic Transition and World Population Growth
- How it worksShow me world population climbing from under 1 billion in 1800 to over 8 billion today on one chart.
- How it worksHow does the demographic transition move a population from high births and high deaths to low births and low deaths in stages?
- Worked exampleTrace a country's birth rate and death rate through the four stages of the demographic transition model.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't it true that a country's death rate falls only after its birth rate falls, rather than the other way around?
- Going furtherWhat happens to a country's average age and workforce once its birth rate drops below its death rate?
Your turn1 of 2
World population grew very slowly for most of human history, then exploded from under 1 billion in 1800 to over 8 billion today. Why the sudden change?Globalization and the Modern World Economy
- How it worksShow me a global supply chain moving raw materials, parts, and finished goods across several countries before a product reaches a store.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't globalization a process that benefits every country and every worker inside those countries equally?
- Going furtherWhat happens to manufacturing jobs in a wealthy country once companies can produce the same goods for less somewhere else?
Your turn1 of 2
A shirt today might be designed in Italy, sewn in Bangladesh, and sold in the United States, and still turn a profit at every step. How is that possible?