We'll cover a variety of topics today and focus on the Great Depression
from a worldwide perspective next time. After that, most of our
attention for the rest of the unit will be focused on the causes
leading up to World War II and the war itself.
Here's a digital copy of the handout for the
VIP Preliminary Bibliography and Timeline assignments that are coming up. Lesson #10 is the due date for the Preliminary Bibliography, and Lesson #14 is when the "Timeline" is due.
Nationalism in India and Southwest Asia - You
read about these events for the quiz. Basically, the section
centered around nationalist and independence movements that led to the
creation of four modern nations: India, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Let's touch base on the
India story, which won't actually be finished for a couple chapters...
- Indian National Congress (Congress Party)
- Rowlatt Acts
- Mohandas Gandhi
- Government of India Act (1935)
Next, we'll look at the cases of
Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
You'll be asked to choose one of these three "stories." Take a couple
minutes and review the information from your textbook. (I'll list
specifics below that you should be sure to cover.) Then, think about
answers to the questions below.
- Turkey - Mustafa Kemal, Ataturk
- Iran - Persia, Riza Shah Pahlavi
- Saudi Arabia - Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud
Questions:- In your opinion, was this an example of successful nationalism? Why or why not?
- How important did an individual personality seem in your situation?
- What role did religion play in either the old or new society?
- Looking back, was this a positive transition for the nation? Why or why not?
- From the United States perspective of today, how should we view these events?
The Mandate System in the Middle East -
Next, we'll take a look at a specific agreement that affected the
development of the map of the Middle East - the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
This was an example of the "mandate" system, where Britain and France
were given the authority to "oversee" the development of lands in the
former Ottoman Empire after the war.
You'll get a copy of several documents, and they'll help you consider the following questions:
Here's a
map of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
- Who wrote each document?
- What was the purpose of each document?
- Which documents were not meant to be public? Why?
- Why was the release of the Sykes-Picot Agreement to the public by the Bolsheviks an embarrassment to Britain and France?
- Was the agreement consistent with the Fourteen Points? Why or why not?
- What
would President Wilson have thought of the Sykes-Picot Agreement? What
would he have thought of the Mandate System in Article 22 of the
Covenant of the League of Nations?
- How would the agreement have been viewed by those living in the "zones" shown on the map?
Between the Wars -
As you can probably imagine, there was a good deal of uncertainty and
confusion in Europe, and much of the rest of the world, at the
completion of World War I. Nations lay in ruins, an entire generation
had been "lost," and very little of it made sense. The "Enlightenment
Project," which is a term used to describe the European view that
reason, liberalism and objective truth would guide the world under
their leadership, was in shambles. This uneasiness was expressed in a
variety or literary and artistic forms. Let's take a quick look at some
of them.
First, take a second and remember what you
read about the contributions of people like Sigmund Freud and Friedrich
Nietzsche, each of whom had challenged that pre-war view of man's
rationality and reason.
The poem, "The Second Coming," by William Butler Yeats (1919)
is an effective summary of much of this uncertainty and fear. We'll
have you take a look at the poem and see what you think of it.
Here
are some representative examples of emerging art forms during this
period. Look at the examples and consider how they represent the
feelings of the inter-war period.
- expressionism -
- dadaism -
- cubism -
- surrealism -
"Between the Wars" Assignment - You
get some choices here. Whatever you choose, I should get this from you
by Monday, February 6th. Basically, I want you to take a crack at expressing some of
these feelings that you think were being felt between the wars.
Clearly, rising nationalism, the coming of fascism and totalitarianism,
the spread of communism and economic troubles made for an unsettling
time.
You can choose from among these options:
- In
the spirit of Yeats' "The Second Coming," compose a poem that you feel
is representative of the times. (There should be a minimum of twelve
lines.) You should post your poem here.
- Draw (or sketch or
paint or whatever) a picture that you feel is representative of the
time and one of the schools of art we looked at.
- Assume that it
is ten years after the end of World War I. You need to "create" a
person and write a "letter" (400 or more words) from their perspective.
It should look back both at their role in the World War I years (as a
soldier, peasant, wife, child, whatever) and some major events since
then. You can be from wherever you'd like: Europe, Russia, China,
India, the United States or another location. You'd post the letter
here as a comment.
HOMEWORK for tomorrow - Monday, February 30th
If you haven't yet, please be prepared to turn in the take-how quiz for reading in Chapter 31, Section 1,
"Postwar Uncertainty." (pp. 897 - 901)
Please
continue your reading in Chapter 31 with Section 2,
"A Worldwide Depression." (pp. 904 - 909) The quiz will be fill-in-the-blank. This is another of those
topics that you will spend much more time with next year in Modern US
History.
Your VIP Preliminary Bibliography is due to me on Monday, January 30th. (At least five sources, correctly formatted (NoodleBib). No more than one source can be Wikipedia, and at least one source should be from one of the MPA Library databases.)
Your "Between the Wars" activity is due on Monday, February 6th.
Recent Comments