Collapse at the Center

World War I began a revolution in our modern world. Nineteenth century  Europe contributed to some of its causes. The intense nationalism of Europe encouraged thoughts of war, as then it was considered manly to fight. Women were to present a white feather representing cowardice to men not fighting, so the competitive mentality of Europe brought on much of the war. The war changed the course of history in many ways. The war denounced Enlightenment values. Many Europeans did feel as though the war was a waste. The war made numerous changes to the ways of the world.

The war brought on many changes, as well, to the United States. One such change is the Great Depression. It was brought on by a major crash in the stock market after a booming economy in the 1920s. It escalated so much that Americans could no longer afford American goods. Everybody was affected by this time in some way.

Unfortunately, this was also the time that democracy was denied to many people based on race. The rise of fascism denounced ideas of early democracy. An idea of materialism came about that disgusted many. Independence was taken as big business took over. Of course, with fascism came the rise of the Nazis. Previously, German imperial government had collapsed and the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Many Germans blamed Jews for this defeat by claiming they had betrayed them. Japan found themselves in a somewhat similar situation. They too had adopted an authoritarian way of government. However, Japan had barely participated in the first World War, and their economy had flourished as they had avoided British rule. Overall, fascism quickly found its way into the world, damaging millions of lives.

The Second World War proved equally as damaging. Europe and Asia were in similar situations heading into the war. In many ways, both continents had been heavily involved with these alliances and struggles. However, what fueled Japan was the thought the racism kept them from being an equal power. Although similar, World War II was very different from the first. The war was very harsh, with a want to wipe out entire races. Also this time, they had the means to carry this out. It was a brutal war, with an extreme number of lives lost.

These struggles eventually took their toll on Europe. However, they did recover. An imperialistic government is strong, once it is built, and that helped restore the prosperity of Europe quite a bit. Europe was also finally able to calm the nationalism in order to restore peace and tranquility. Europe underwent many changes over this period.