Page 107 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

this fleeting world / our world: the modern era tfw-47

I am inclined to think that history pays its way largely in the personal
satisfaction of sitting on the fence and enjoying vicariously the trials and
tribulations of men and times now ended. • AVERY O. CRAVEN (1885–1980)

was one of the few traditional societies that managed to from protected markets.The burst of imperialism during
make a transition to a modern industrial economy with- the late nineteenth century was the most obvious expres-
out destroying the fabric of its society. sion of this rivalry; another was the spread of protection-
By 1900 many features of the modern revolution were ism (protection of domestic producers through restrictions
apparent throughout the North Atlantic core region, on foreign competitors),and a third was the emergence of
and, for better or worse, many other parts of the world a system of defensive alliances in Europe, which helped
were also beginning to feel its impact on lifeways, turn a crisis in the Balkans into a global war.Distrust and
economies, governments, and ways of thinking. rivalry among the major industrial powers clogged the
arteries of international exchange that were so crucial as
Twentieth-Century a source of economic growth and political stability.
Crisis: 1914–1945 After the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand,
Between 1913 and 1950 the engine of growth that had the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, on
transformed so much of the world seemed to break 28 June 1914,Austria invaded Serbia, Russia intervened
down. Global rates of growth of GDP slowed from 1.30 to defend Serbia, and Germany declared war on Russia,
percent per annum between 1870 and 1913 to 0.91 per- which dragged Russia’s allies, Britain and France, into the
cent between 1913 and 1950.The slowdown affected all war. The global reach of European colonial and com-
the core regions of the Industrial Revolution but was mercial networks dragged other regions into the war. Ger-
even more pronounced in the former agrarian colossi, man colonies in Africa, the Pacific, and China were
China and India.The apparent exception to the rule was seized by French, British, and Japanese armies; troops
Russia, whose annual growth rate rose from 1.06 percent and supplies came to Europe from present and former
during the late czarist period to 1.76 percent between colonies in India, southeastern Asia, Africa, Australasia,
1913 and 1950. and North America as well as from semicolonies such as
The slowdown was caused in part by a breakdown in Argentina. In 1917 the United States entered the war
the international banking and trading systems that had against Germany.
helped spread the Industrial Revolution. Between 1870 Nineteenth-century military innovations ensured that
and 1950 the proportion of world production that was World War I would be particularly bloody. New weapons
traded internationally actually fell. Part of the problem included machine guns, tanks, airplanes, and chemical
was that the governments of industrializing countries weapons such as mustard gas, which could burn out the
were still learning how best to manage rapid economic internal organs of its victims. Ironically, medical improve-
growth, and all too often, like the great agrarian empires ments kept more troops at the front, only to be slaugh-
of the past, they treated growth as a zero-sum game (a sit- tered in the thousands by machine guns or artillery in
uation in which a gain for one side entails a loss for the often futile raids on enemy positions. Modern industrial
other side) that could be won only by excluding rivals states mobilized for “total war” effectively as they took
control of national economies to supply their armies.The
For more on these topics, please see the following articles:
home fronts—where women replaced men on the farms,
Colonialism p. 381 (v2)
in munitions factories, or on the railways—were as vital
Communism and Socialism p. 401 (v2)
to success as the armies. Indeed, the role of women dur-
Fascism p. 733 (v2)
ing World War I was a major factor in the rapid spread
Genocide p. 815 (v2)
of women’s suffrage during the postwar years.World War
World War I p. 2079 (v5)
I was not the first total war of the industrial era—the U.S.
World War II p. 2085 (v5)
Civil War deserves that title more—but it demonstrated