HIS-3000 Twentieth Century Europe
The objective of this course is to explore in depth the events of the tumultuous twentieth century in Europe. At the century's dawn Europe was in a position of unprecedented world dominance. The heavily industrialized economies of Western Europe had captured much of international trade. A half- dozen European states ruled most of Asia and Africa, the British Empire alone covered one quarter of the earth's surface. Progress in economic, social and technological terms had generated a sense of confidence and in many cases arrogance amongst the peoples of the continent. Democracy was on the rise and it appeared that the future held infinite promise. Yet in August of 1914, the underlying tensions of economic and political competition, and ultimately nationalism brought this world crashing down. World War I in turn led to the Russian revolution, the corresponding appearance of Communism and a short time later Fascism. The Great Depression gave Adolph Hitler the opportunity to rise to power and by 1939 much of the planet was again engulfed in war. In the aftermath of WWII the continent was split into two, ideologically, hostile armed camps and the presence of nuclear weapons made the forty year Cold War a time of constant tension. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism it appeared that peace was finally guaranteed in Europe for the first time in its history. Yet again, the closing decade of the century proved this hope chimerical, as events in the Balkans once more put the name Sarajevo in the news and gave us the term "ethnic cleansing."