EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E 
The Modern World: Global History since 1760
Prof. Philip Zelikow, University of Virginia
https://www.coursera.org/course/modernworld
C O U R S E   L E C T U R E 
The World of 1930
Notes taken on September 6, 2013 by Edward Tanguay
a common term for the time around 1930 was the "inter-war period"
we're so conscious of WWII coming, that we tend to look at the time of history around 1930 almost like a brief interval between wars, some historians even write of it as a truce period
the reality is that life and society during the 20s and 30s was not so linear and destined for another World War as we might think, yet it was a time in history in which the world economic and international relations were thoroughly reorganizing themselves and could have gone many way. The world of 1930 was a broken world that that was being reconstructed on almost every corner. Unfortunately, with the cement not dry yet, and it was about to be buffeted by a terrific storm.
the state of the Great Powers
America
very involved commercially, financially in east Asia
however, the Great Powers were generally still considered as centered in Europe with America sometimes playing a role
Europe
late 1920s: cautious optimism since some of the differences between the major countries had been reconciled
Locarno Treaties (1925)
seven agreements
First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, and return normalizing relations with defeated Germany (which was, by this time, the Weimar Republic)
led to German renewed claims to the Free City of Danzig and Polish territories approved by the League of Nations including the Polish Corridor, and Upper Silesia, Pilsudski: "every honest Pole spits when he hears this word Locarno"
Chamberlain: "Britain's defensive frontier was no longer the English Channel but the Rhine"
Gustav Streseman (1878-1929)
1923-1929 German foreign minister in Weimar Republic
1926 Nobel Peace Prize with Aristide Briand for reconciliation between Germany and France
nationalist, wants to hold the republic together
his premature death is one of the tragedies of German politics of this era
League of Nations
up and running, creating some international organizations
United States is not a member
becoming increasingly important, in the 1920s the ideas promoted by the League of Nations was getting a lot of attention by universities at least
The Spirit of Locarno
1922: treaty to regulate size fo navies, signed, reasonably successful
regulating armies was more difficult
Return to Gold Standard
with a lot of help from United States private firms working in cooperation with the U.S. government to provide loans to help countries that didn't have enough gold
The Young Plan (1929)
a program for settlement of German reparations debts after World War I
reduced further payments to 112 billion Gold Marks, US $8 billion in 1929 (US$ 107 billion in 2013) over a period of 59 years (1988)
other countries
many countries were becoming mixed groups with strongly differing ideas of how to run the country
many more Eastern European states
the Arabs have been given states
Prince Faisal I of Iraq (1885-1933)
1916: with the help of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia), Faisal sided with the British army and organised the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire
1920: King of Greater Syria
1921-1933: King of Iraq
member of Hashemite dynasty
fostered unity between Sunni and Shiite to foster common loyalty and promote pan-Arabism in the goal of creating an Arab state that would include Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Fertile Crescent
France received the mandate over Syria
Britain received the mandate over Iraq, Jordan and Palestine
found itself becoming the umpire in growing disputes
Qajar [KAH-jar] dynasty (1785-1925)
Iranian royal family of Turkic origin,[4][5][6][7][8] which ruled Persia (Iran) from 1785 to 1925
the Qajar family took full control of Iran in 1794, deposing Lotf 'Ali Khan, the last of the Zand dynasty
Pahlavi [PAH-lah-vee] dynasty (1925-1979)
the Pahlavis came to power after Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty, proved unable to stop British and Soviet encroachment on Iranian sovereignty, and was consequently overthrown in a military coup, abdicated and ultimately exiled to France
Indonesia
active communist party looked toward the Soviet Union
Turkey
remade itself into a new nation-state
Atatürk (1881-1938)
1919: led the Turkish national movement in the Turkish War of Independence
defeated the forces sent by the Allies
1923-1938 first president
sought to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern, secular, and democratic nation-state
1924: invited American educational reformer John Dewey to Ankara to advise him on how to reform Turkish education
1925: encouraged the Turks to wear modern European attire
Italy
through fascism Mussolini "got Italian trains to run on time"
Spain
1929: Barcelona: Primo de Rivera's International Exhibition
Miguel Primo de Rivera (1870-1930)
an inept dictator who lacked clear ideas and political acumen, and who alienated his potential supporters such as the Army
served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during Spain's Restoration era
shows off neo-classical architecture
German Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, modern architecture, was torn down a year later, rebuilt in 1980s
deeply believed that it was the politicians who had ruined Spain and that governing without them he could restore the nation
his actions discredited the king and ruined the monarchy, while heightening social tensions that led in 1936 to a full-scale Spanish Civil War
Germany
painting: The Pillars of Society, George Grosz, 1926
the army with sword covered with blood
church represented not very attractively
businessmen crowding up to the bar
China
Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975)
1919: organizes the non-communists against the communists
till 1925: influential member of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, and was a close ally of Sun Yat-sen
1925: took Sun's place as leader of the KMT when Sun died
1949: retreated his government to Taiwan, ruled till his death in 1975
Chicago
corporatism
businesses trying to heal the divide between business and laborer
given workers better wage and better services