Transcription
A hearty welcome to Unit 8, y'all!
Really, there are only two developments that we're going to consider in this unit: the Cold War and decolonization. Both are massive and ridiculously complicated, but don't worry, in this video we're just setting the stage for these two developments. So, if you're ready to get those brain cells milked, let's get to it!
Okay, first, as is proper, let's start with a definition. A cold war describes a state of hostility that exists between two states, chiefly characterized by an ideological struggle rather than open warfare. But that's just a cold war in general. The Cold War was a standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union that transformed global politics for about four decades after World War II.
So, let me get this straight. World War I was called the war to end all wars, but then we got the even more devastating and deadly World War II, which definitely should have ended all wars. And then, before the ink was dry on the peace treaty, we've got the Cold War. What in the fresh heck is going on?
Well, the Allied Powers won World War II, but as it turns out, the enormous cost and destruction of that war meant that they weren't as much leaping in victory as limping away from victory and trying not to bleed out everywhere. However, in the wake of that devastation, two global superpowers emerged from the war, namely the United States and the Soviet Union, and they were ready to flex their post-war pectorals on the world stage.
But says you, why did those two states emerge as superpowers while the other victorious powers were the equivalent of a damp ham sandwich? An excellent question, and there are two reasons: their economic and technological advantages.
Before I tell you what those were, let me just mention that if you want to flex your superpower pectorals on the AP exam, then you might want to grab my AP World History review guide, which has everything you need to study as fast as possible. It's got whole unit review videos that you won't see here on YouTube, practice questions, practice exams, and answer keys for every dang bit of it. So, if you know that's something you're into, check the link in the description.
Okay, so let's start with the economic advantages that led to the rise of these two superpowers. And just for poops and giggles, let's consider the United States first.
Although the United States suffered profoundly during the Great Depression in the 1930s, mobilization for World War II created the occasion for a complete economic turnaround as much of their industrial sector ramped up to meet wartime production demand. Additionally, aside from the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. experienced almost none of the destructive consequences of the war, unlike European countries whose cities lay in ruins and who now had to face the monumental and expensive task of rebuilding.
So, put all that in a pot, and baby, you got a stew going! And that stew smells like the United States becoming the most prosperous nation in the world, which of course means it's time to pause and high five a bald eagle.
Anyway, one of the most momentous results of the U.S.'s post-war prosperity was their ability to help pay for the rebuilding of Western European nations through programs like the Marshall Plan. Through this plan, the U.S. sent over $13 billion in aid for economic recovery in war-torn nations. On the whole, the nations that received those funds experienced their own economic revival.
Now that Americans became the geopolitical equivalent of a Fortnite loot llama for much of the world, that meant that the global balance of power shifted decisively toward the United States.
But over in the Soviet Union, it was kind of a different story. Now recall what we learned back in Unit 7, namely that since the 1920s, the Soviet economy was heavily directed by the state. Although that kind of command economy drew all sorts of skepticism from more free-market-minded folks in the years leading up to World War II, the Soviet economy did grow pretty rapidly, even if that growth led to the suffering and death of millions of Soviet citizens.
But unlike the United States, the Soviet Union was hit hard by World War II, not least by Hitler's attempted invasion and siege of Leningrad. Even so, after the war, the centralized command economy of the Soviet Union had the benefit of drawing natural resources from its enormous territory, not to mention a comparatively large population to work towards economic recovery.
Thanks to the government's large-scale investment in heavy industry before World War II, much of the infrastructure they needed for recovery was already in place. It wasn't long before the Soviet Union was economically powerful again, although later in the century, their emphasis on coal extraction and steel production at the expense of the production of consumer goods would contribute to a weakening economy. But for now, they were doing just fine.
So yeah, economics played a big role in these two states becoming superpowers in this period, but so did their technological advantages. The United States developed the most advanced and devastating technology of the war, namely the atomic bomb. Their deployment of two of those bombs on Japan effectively ended the war in the Pacific Theater.
The effect of this display of new technology made it clear to the rest of the world that the United States was the technological king on the global map. But the Soviet Union, not content to stand in the technological shadow of the stupid Americans, reacted quickly and developed their own atomic weapons, the first of which was tested in 1949, just four years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That led to one of the most defining characteristics of the Cold War, namely an arms race in which both powers spent stupid amounts of money to develop bigger and more destructive bombs. Now that both powers had enough nuclear and hydrogen bombs to reduce the Earth to a charred pile of space ash in a moment, it was clear who was in charge on the global stage.
Okay, now let's set the stage for the second major development of this period, namely decolonization. For a good chunk of this course, we've been talking about how various imperial states had built up empires all over the world. In this period, we're going to witness a complete reversal of that trend.
In truth, it was the two world wars that created the conditions for decolonization. Recall that the imperial powers that fought in World War I called up millions of troops from their colonial holdings to help them win the war. Though they really had no choice in the matter, many colonial troops fought for their imperial parents' cause, hoping that their sacrifices would be honored with a greater degree of self-rule or even independence.
Adding to this desire was Woodrow Wilson's insistence in the peace conference that self-determination for all nations should be the guiding principle after the war. However, after the war, many colonies of the defeated powers simply changed hands to the victorious powers. Through the mandate system, the victorious powers claimed that they were organizing colonies around the world into a hierarchical system with varying degrees of self-rule based on their ability to sustain themselves.
However, in practice, the mandate system essentially continued the colonial system unchanged, and that made colonial peoples more than a little saucy. But it was World War II that really set the process of decolonization in motion. Again, colonial troops fought for their imperial parents' cause, but this time, after the war was over, and there appeared to be no clear intention of the imperial countries to grant independence to their colonies, massive anti-imperial movements broke out across the world.
The difference this time was that imperial states like Britain and France had almost no resources to resist these movements. The war had devastated their economies, and their militaries were severely weakened on account of World War II. Therefore, after 1945, these developments would lead to a worldwide process of decolonization, which broke apart colonial empires and created something like 80 new states on the world map.
Okay, click here to keep reviewing for Unit 8, and click here to grab my AP World History review guide, which has everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your exam in May. I'm glad we got to hang out! Now catch you on the flip-flop! Hler out!