European History 101
Renaissance
Background
Before the Renaissance, people in Europe thought that people were not very important compared to God. Then, a couple of things happened that helped changed the way people believed. First, many people began reading important books by ancient Greeks and Romans. Since these books were not written by Christians, people began thinking that maybe God and the Catholic Church were not the answer to every question. Second, the Black Death had spread throughout Europe and killed a third of the population. Many areas were finally recovering from such a huge blow to their societies and economies.
Summary
Beginning in the 1350’s, writers and thinkers in Italy came up with a new idea called humanism. Humanism is the idea that people are important. This idea, combined with all the new ideas people learned about in the Greek and Roman classics, caused people to begin celebrating humans in art and sculpture. Wealthy citizens of Italian cities wanted to show everyone how cultured and rich they were so they became patrons of artists and paid them to create beautiful pieces of art. Some famous artists of the Renaissance are Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. Soon, because Italian cities were the centers of trade in Europe, these ideas began spreading all over Europe.
Impact
The Renaissance is important because of the way it allowed people to think about the world in a way that included ideas from non-Christians. They also had to think harder about things because there was no longer the easy answer of “Because God wanted it” to every question. The artwork of the Renaissance creates a European culture whose achievements many Europeans are proud.
Reformation
Background
Before the Reformation, there was only one church in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church. The Church was very powerful. Sometimes, the people who ran the Church were more interested in money and power than in telling people about God. Sometimes people had problems with this, but the Church did not listen to them.
Summary
One of the people who had a problem with some things the Church did was a Catholic monk named Martin Luther. In 1517, he wrote down what he thought the Church was doing wrong and nailed it on the door of a monastery in the part of Europe that would become Germany. This list was called the 95 Theses. Some of the things he thought was wrong with the Church was the practice of letting people buy their way into heaven and having Church services in a language the people who went to church did not understand. When the Church read his list, they threw him out of the church, or excommunicated him. Martin Luther decided to start his own Christian Church and this church is now called the Lutheran Church.
Impact
Because Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church, several important things happened. The first thing is that a lot of other people decided to break away and start their own churches. These churches are together known as Protestant churches and these different churches have a lot of members. Another important thing that happens will be a big increase in Europe of religious wars and violence. When there was one church, there was not a lot to argue about: with a lot of churches, there is now a lot of fighting. Europe will divide into Protestant and Catholic areas.
Scientific Revolution
Background
Before the Scientific Revolution, people thought that anything that happened was because God wanted it to be that way. They did not understand that there were rules, or laws, that the world follows.
Summary
Beginning in the 1600s, a lot of people began thing that there was a better way to figure out why the world was the way that it was. They developed a way of investigating the world, using the scientific method, which did a really good job of explaining the rules the world follows. Some important scientists included Robert Hooke, who developed a microscope. Galileo and Copernicus were physicists and astronomers that came up with important ideas about gravity and the sun as the center of the universe. Isaac Newton was probably the most important; his observations about physics continue to be important.
Impact
By believing that God was not the only explanation, many Europeans become convinced there were other explanations for why things were the way they were and how things worked. Their use of the scientific method becomes the basic way people investigate the world up to this day. Finally, by understanding how things work, they are able to build things that use those ideas. Technology improves and leads quickly to the industrial revolution.
Exploration and Colonialism
Background
Before the 1500s, very few Europeans were interested in exploring the world. Eventually, Europeans decided that they needed things from other parts of the world, like spices. Europeans held the belief, for a centuries, that Christians and Europeans were better than anyone else.
Summary
They began using exploring farther and farther until they eventually figured out what and where was on the globe. Spain and Portugal were the first countries to get really involved in exploration. Later, Great Britain and France will begin exploring, as well. Magellan was the first person to sail around the globe. Christopher Columbus explored the Western hemisphere. Hernan Cortez explored and conquered the Aztec empire. Many explorers became conquerors. The Europeans had many things the native populations they discovered did not: immunity to diseases that killed millions of natives, horses, armor, and guns. In most places Europeans went, they took over and demanded that the native population give them gold and land, work for them, and change to a Christian religion.
Impact
The Europeans’ conquering of large parts of the rest of the world made Europe very important. Languages, customs, and religions that come from Europe are found in many other parts of the world. New technologies and ways of doing things came from Europe to the Western hemisphere and Asia. News foods and ways of doing things brought from the colonized areas changed Europe, as well. The way the Europeans treated the colonial people was often brutal and based on racist ideas; because of this, it was very hard for people to believe there was anything wrong with racism until World War2.
Age of Enlightenment
Background
Before the 1700s, most people in Europe believed that people were unequal. They believed that it was all right for there to be classes in society. These classes included the nobles, the religious people, and the peasants. The nobles did not have to work. The nobles and the religious people lived off the work of the peasants. The peasants had to pay all the taxes, do all the work, and do whatever the upper classes told them to do. Many people also believed that it was all right if the king and his government did not follow any rules.
Summary
During the 1700s, a group of people who thought a lot about politics began changing their minds about what was right. These people were called philosophes (fill-o-sohfs). John Locke said that by creating societies people give up freedom to have security; this idea was called the social contract. Montesquieu thought that governments should follow rules and should have different branches. Rosseau said that education was very important. Other ideas that begin being really important are the ideas of democracy, equality, and freedom. Another really important idea is that governments should have to follow constitutions, rules that the government has to follow.
Impact
These ideas lead to the American and French Revolution. These revolutions change the world. Look around: are there a bunch of kings and nobles in power in the world? ‘Nuff said.
French Revolution
Background
Before the French Revolution, France was run by a king who had absolute power. Unfortunately for the king, he was having money problems because he helped pay for the American Revolution. In order to figure out how to pay those debts, he called together a group of nobles, religious people, and peasants called the Estates-General.
Summary
In 1789, the king (Louis 16) told the Estates-General to come up with ideas on how to pay the debts. They instead came up with ideas on how to change the government. The king did not like their ideas, so he tried to get rid of them but they would not quit. Eventually, after a lot of stuff happens, they overthrow the king, behead him, and set up a government that tries to put in place all those Enlightenment ideas of liberty, freedom, and equality. They make constitutions. The overthrow and execution of a king really frightens the rest of the kings in Europe, so they want to get rid of the new French government. France goes to war with basically the rest of Europe and they win. Where they are able to, the French spread their ideas about how governments should work. Meanwhile, in France, the people running the government are worried that the people who hate the new government will start their own revolution and turn things back the way they were before. These two sides begin fighting each other and eventually the government becomes weak. A very strong military man, Napoleon, notices that the government is weak. He takes over the government and makes himself emperor but he keeps a lot of the ideas of the Revolution.
Impact
The French Revolution is the death of old Europe, with its powerful kings, privileged nobles and religious people, and governments that do not have to follow any rules. The way people think about governments and society changes very quickly.
Napoleon
Background
The French Revolution was going on and France was at war with the rest of Europe. Napoleon is a very successful general in the French Army and leads his army to a lot of victories. The government in France is weak because of fighting between different groups in France. Napoleon, who thinks he is really great, goes to France.
Summary
Napoleon eventually convinces France to allow him to become Emperor of France (1799), which really is not what the Revolution was all about. He becomes a very powerful leader, so in a way, he makes France more like it used to be under kings. But he also keeps a lot of the rules and ideas of the French Revolution, so in that way, he keeps the Revolution going. Then Napoleon decides he hates Great Britain and the way to destroy Great Britain is by taking over the rest of Europe. So he goes to war against the rest of Europe and almost takes it all over. He is stopped by a very cold winter in Russia right before he takes over Russia. Then the militaries of the other countries fight him back into France and make him give up being an emperor. They send him to an island, where he escapes, and goes back to France to go to war again. He loses, and they send him to a different island much further away.
Impact
While Napoleon had control of continental Europe, he spread even more ideas and rules of the French Revolution. He made the countries pass laws called the Napoleonic Code that makes many of the ideas of the French Revolution the basic law in much of Europe. Napoleon’s skill at war makes other countries very nervous and they make a lot of agreements and treaties with each other in case other countries attack.
Industrial Revolution
Background
From the time of the fall of the Roman Empire to the 1700s, life stayed the same for most people: they were subsistence farmers and their lives revolved around agriculture. Most of the things a family needed were made by the family. Most things were made one at a time and by hand. This is difficult and expensive; so few people had a lot of material objects.
Summary
Beginning in the early 1800s, in Great Britain and some other countries people began using power-driven machines and factories to make a lot of the same products quickly and cheaply. Other inventors figure out how to improve communications with the telegraph and transportation with the railroad and steamships. In order to run these factories, a lot of people have to move from the farm to the cities. These jobs were often poorly paid and very dangerous. The cities become dangerous places for people with a lot of problems that comes from having a lot of very poor people living very closely to each other. These factories eventually run on fossil fuels like coal.
Impact
The industrial revolution changes the way a large number of people live. Most people live in cities, most people do not grow their own food, and most people work to make money to buy things made in factories. All of this is because of the industrial revolution. Another problem of the industrial revolution is the pollution created by the use of fossil fuels. The industrial revolution created global warming.
World War 1
Background
The way countries avoided going to war had stayed the same since the time of Napoleon. All the European countries either sided with Great Britain or France, because those countries were so evenly matched that they were not going to go to war. These countries agreed that if one of the countries was attacked, then the countries who sided together, or allied, would fight for each other. This plan had worked for a long time, but what it now meant was that if one country went to war in Europe, every country was going to go to war. Germany, a new and powerful country, made a lot of the countries in Europe and upset the old balance of Great Britain versus France.
Summary
In 1914, Serbia was angry with the Austro-Hungarian empire (this place took up the middle of Europe). A Serbian assassinated the leader of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Serbia was allied with Russia who was allied with France who had a secret alliance with Great Britain who was allied to protect Belgium. Austria-Hungary was allied to Germany. They all went to war with each other. Very quickly, this war, because of the industrial revolution, was fought through a style of warfare called trench warfare. Trench warfare is fighting from holes in the ground to avoid getting shot by the other side. Being stuck in holes makes it hard to move around a lot, so it just means a lot of people die. One country might lose 50,000 soldiers in one battle during this war. From 1914-1917, all of the countries fighting kept sending more and more men to go fight. By 1917, they were running out of money and people willing to die a senseless, pointless death. The people of Russia overthrew their government and dropped out of the war. The United States entered the war the same year because they were mad at Germany for attacking United States ships selling materials to Great Britain and France. The entry of the United States and the beginning of the Spanish Flu pandemic in the German Army caused the Germans to lose and give up on November 11, 1918. There was a peace treaty created called the Treaty of Versailles where the winners rubbed in that they won. They made Germany admit they were completely to blame for the war and they were forced to pay the entire cost of the war. This made the Germans very angry. The Americans tried to come up with a new way to keep the peace with the creation of the League of Nations.
Impact
The League of Nations, which is similar to the United Nations, worked well for little problems but could not deal with the problems of the Great Depression and the rise of dictators bent on making World War 2 happen. Many people believe World War 2 happened because of how the countries acted after World War 1. Germany was so humiliated that they were just waiting for the chance to get back at the people who had humiliated them. The Austro-Hungarian Empire ended and a lot of countries took its place. Russia became the USSR and that was a big problem for the United States. Eleven million people died.
World War 2
Background
A terrible economic disaster occurred in 1930 and sent much of Europe into a major economic crisis. This problem, along with the desire for glory in Germany and Italy, led to the people of those countries electing leaders who took control of the government and became dictators. Both dictators, Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy, wanted to prove they were superior to other countries. They went to war to prove it.
Summary
World War 2 began as an attempt to stop Germany from taking over all of Europe. In the early part of the war, Germany was very successful. Great Britain, the United States, The Soviet Union, and China fought together to beat Germany, Italy, and Japan. This was a conflict that covered the entire globe, with battles in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Atlantic, and Europe. The Allies, or those fighting Germany, Japan, and Italy, will win in Europe in May 1945 and in the Pacific in August 1945.
Impact
Two important discoveries during World War 2 make a huge impact on the world. The Holocaust, or the killing of over 6 million Jews by the Germans, make World War 2 a lesson in the evils of racism. The explosion of the first atomic weapon over Hiroshima, Japan makes massive killing so easy that it actually makes leaders work hard to avoid war. World War 2 is very important in how our world works today and what we think is right and wrong.
European Union
Background
When World War 2 ended in Europe, many people noticed that they had to rebuild their economies. They also noticed that they were going to have to compete with two huge, successful economies in the United States and the Soviet Union.
Summary
After World War 2, leaders in Europe begin discussing cooperating on economic issues. They try little things at first, like combing different countries’ coal and steel industries. Once the countries had some success with this, they decide to expand the number of countries working together and the number of things they cooperate on. In 1967, the name of this cooperation becomes the Common Market and 12 countries become members. In 1991, they become the European Union and worked together more closely. They also create a new kind of money called the Euro, which becomes the official money of many European Union countries. As they work together on economic issues, they discovered they had to agree on other things, too. There are now 27 countries in the European Union and it is the largest economy in the world.
Impact
This is the first time this kind of cooperation has been tried by different countries. The countries involved have created a very successful economy and are experimenting with other types of cooperation never before tried between different countries. The European Union is becoming kind of a super government.
Renaissance
Background
Before the Renaissance, people in Europe thought that people were not very important compared to God. Then, a couple of things happened that helped changed the way people believed. First, many people began reading important books by ancient Greeks and Romans. Since these books were not written by Christians, people began thinking that maybe God and the Catholic Church were not the answer to every question. Second, the Black Death had spread throughout Europe and killed a third of the population. Many areas were finally recovering from such a huge blow to their societies and economies.
Summary
Beginning in the 1350’s, writers and thinkers in Italy came up with a new idea called humanism. Humanism is the idea that people are important. This idea, combined with all the new ideas people learned about in the Greek and Roman classics, caused people to begin celebrating humans in art and sculpture. Wealthy citizens of Italian cities wanted to show everyone how cultured and rich they were so they became patrons of artists and paid them to create beautiful pieces of art. Some famous artists of the Renaissance are Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. Soon, because Italian cities were the centers of trade in Europe, these ideas began spreading all over Europe.
Impact
The Renaissance is important because of the way it allowed people to think about the world in a way that included ideas from non-Christians. They also had to think harder about things because there was no longer the easy answer of “Because God wanted it” to every question. The artwork of the Renaissance creates a European culture whose achievements many Europeans are proud.
Reformation
Background
Before the Reformation, there was only one church in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church. The Church was very powerful. Sometimes, the people who ran the Church were more interested in money and power than in telling people about God. Sometimes people had problems with this, but the Church did not listen to them.
Summary
One of the people who had a problem with some things the Church did was a Catholic monk named Martin Luther. In 1517, he wrote down what he thought the Church was doing wrong and nailed it on the door of a monastery in the part of Europe that would become Germany. This list was called the 95 Theses. Some of the things he thought was wrong with the Church was the practice of letting people buy their way into heaven and having Church services in a language the people who went to church did not understand. When the Church read his list, they threw him out of the church, or excommunicated him. Martin Luther decided to start his own Christian Church and this church is now called the Lutheran Church.
Impact
Because Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church, several important things happened. The first thing is that a lot of other people decided to break away and start their own churches. These churches are together known as Protestant churches and these different churches have a lot of members. Another important thing that happens will be a big increase in Europe of religious wars and violence. When there was one church, there was not a lot to argue about: with a lot of churches, there is now a lot of fighting. Europe will divide into Protestant and Catholic areas.
Scientific Revolution
Background
Before the Scientific Revolution, people thought that anything that happened was because God wanted it to be that way. They did not understand that there were rules, or laws, that the world follows.
Summary
Beginning in the 1600s, a lot of people began thing that there was a better way to figure out why the world was the way that it was. They developed a way of investigating the world, using the scientific method, which did a really good job of explaining the rules the world follows. Some important scientists included Robert Hooke, who developed a microscope. Galileo and Copernicus were physicists and astronomers that came up with important ideas about gravity and the sun as the center of the universe. Isaac Newton was probably the most important; his observations about physics continue to be important.
Impact
By believing that God was not the only explanation, many Europeans become convinced there were other explanations for why things were the way they were and how things worked. Their use of the scientific method becomes the basic way people investigate the world up to this day. Finally, by understanding how things work, they are able to build things that use those ideas. Technology improves and leads quickly to the industrial revolution.
Exploration and Colonialism
Background
Before the 1500s, very few Europeans were interested in exploring the world. Eventually, Europeans decided that they needed things from other parts of the world, like spices. Europeans held the belief, for a centuries, that Christians and Europeans were better than anyone else.
Summary
They began using exploring farther and farther until they eventually figured out what and where was on the globe. Spain and Portugal were the first countries to get really involved in exploration. Later, Great Britain and France will begin exploring, as well. Magellan was the first person to sail around the globe. Christopher Columbus explored the Western hemisphere. Hernan Cortez explored and conquered the Aztec empire. Many explorers became conquerors. The Europeans had many things the native populations they discovered did not: immunity to diseases that killed millions of natives, horses, armor, and guns. In most places Europeans went, they took over and demanded that the native population give them gold and land, work for them, and change to a Christian religion.
Impact
The Europeans’ conquering of large parts of the rest of the world made Europe very important. Languages, customs, and religions that come from Europe are found in many other parts of the world. New technologies and ways of doing things came from Europe to the Western hemisphere and Asia. News foods and ways of doing things brought from the colonized areas changed Europe, as well. The way the Europeans treated the colonial people was often brutal and based on racist ideas; because of this, it was very hard for people to believe there was anything wrong with racism until World War2.
Age of Enlightenment
Background
Before the 1700s, most people in Europe believed that people were unequal. They believed that it was all right for there to be classes in society. These classes included the nobles, the religious people, and the peasants. The nobles did not have to work. The nobles and the religious people lived off the work of the peasants. The peasants had to pay all the taxes, do all the work, and do whatever the upper classes told them to do. Many people also believed that it was all right if the king and his government did not follow any rules.
Summary
During the 1700s, a group of people who thought a lot about politics began changing their minds about what was right. These people were called philosophes (fill-o-sohfs). John Locke said that by creating societies people give up freedom to have security; this idea was called the social contract. Montesquieu thought that governments should follow rules and should have different branches. Rosseau said that education was very important. Other ideas that begin being really important are the ideas of democracy, equality, and freedom. Another really important idea is that governments should have to follow constitutions, rules that the government has to follow.
Impact
These ideas lead to the American and French Revolution. These revolutions change the world. Look around: are there a bunch of kings and nobles in power in the world? ‘Nuff said.
French Revolution
Background
Before the French Revolution, France was run by a king who had absolute power. Unfortunately for the king, he was having money problems because he helped pay for the American Revolution. In order to figure out how to pay those debts, he called together a group of nobles, religious people, and peasants called the Estates-General.
Summary
In 1789, the king (Louis 16) told the Estates-General to come up with ideas on how to pay the debts. They instead came up with ideas on how to change the government. The king did not like their ideas, so he tried to get rid of them but they would not quit. Eventually, after a lot of stuff happens, they overthrow the king, behead him, and set up a government that tries to put in place all those Enlightenment ideas of liberty, freedom, and equality. They make constitutions. The overthrow and execution of a king really frightens the rest of the kings in Europe, so they want to get rid of the new French government. France goes to war with basically the rest of Europe and they win. Where they are able to, the French spread their ideas about how governments should work. Meanwhile, in France, the people running the government are worried that the people who hate the new government will start their own revolution and turn things back the way they were before. These two sides begin fighting each other and eventually the government becomes weak. A very strong military man, Napoleon, notices that the government is weak. He takes over the government and makes himself emperor but he keeps a lot of the ideas of the Revolution.
Impact
The French Revolution is the death of old Europe, with its powerful kings, privileged nobles and religious people, and governments that do not have to follow any rules. The way people think about governments and society changes very quickly.
Napoleon
Background
The French Revolution was going on and France was at war with the rest of Europe. Napoleon is a very successful general in the French Army and leads his army to a lot of victories. The government in France is weak because of fighting between different groups in France. Napoleon, who thinks he is really great, goes to France.
Summary
Napoleon eventually convinces France to allow him to become Emperor of France (1799), which really is not what the Revolution was all about. He becomes a very powerful leader, so in a way, he makes France more like it used to be under kings. But he also keeps a lot of the rules and ideas of the French Revolution, so in that way, he keeps the Revolution going. Then Napoleon decides he hates Great Britain and the way to destroy Great Britain is by taking over the rest of Europe. So he goes to war against the rest of Europe and almost takes it all over. He is stopped by a very cold winter in Russia right before he takes over Russia. Then the militaries of the other countries fight him back into France and make him give up being an emperor. They send him to an island, where he escapes, and goes back to France to go to war again. He loses, and they send him to a different island much further away.
Impact
While Napoleon had control of continental Europe, he spread even more ideas and rules of the French Revolution. He made the countries pass laws called the Napoleonic Code that makes many of the ideas of the French Revolution the basic law in much of Europe. Napoleon’s skill at war makes other countries very nervous and they make a lot of agreements and treaties with each other in case other countries attack.
Industrial Revolution
Background
From the time of the fall of the Roman Empire to the 1700s, life stayed the same for most people: they were subsistence farmers and their lives revolved around agriculture. Most of the things a family needed were made by the family. Most things were made one at a time and by hand. This is difficult and expensive; so few people had a lot of material objects.
Summary
Beginning in the early 1800s, in Great Britain and some other countries people began using power-driven machines and factories to make a lot of the same products quickly and cheaply. Other inventors figure out how to improve communications with the telegraph and transportation with the railroad and steamships. In order to run these factories, a lot of people have to move from the farm to the cities. These jobs were often poorly paid and very dangerous. The cities become dangerous places for people with a lot of problems that comes from having a lot of very poor people living very closely to each other. These factories eventually run on fossil fuels like coal.
Impact
The industrial revolution changes the way a large number of people live. Most people live in cities, most people do not grow their own food, and most people work to make money to buy things made in factories. All of this is because of the industrial revolution. Another problem of the industrial revolution is the pollution created by the use of fossil fuels. The industrial revolution created global warming.
World War 1
Background
The way countries avoided going to war had stayed the same since the time of Napoleon. All the European countries either sided with Great Britain or France, because those countries were so evenly matched that they were not going to go to war. These countries agreed that if one of the countries was attacked, then the countries who sided together, or allied, would fight for each other. This plan had worked for a long time, but what it now meant was that if one country went to war in Europe, every country was going to go to war. Germany, a new and powerful country, made a lot of the countries in Europe and upset the old balance of Great Britain versus France.
Summary
In 1914, Serbia was angry with the Austro-Hungarian empire (this place took up the middle of Europe). A Serbian assassinated the leader of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Serbia was allied with Russia who was allied with France who had a secret alliance with Great Britain who was allied to protect Belgium. Austria-Hungary was allied to Germany. They all went to war with each other. Very quickly, this war, because of the industrial revolution, was fought through a style of warfare called trench warfare. Trench warfare is fighting from holes in the ground to avoid getting shot by the other side. Being stuck in holes makes it hard to move around a lot, so it just means a lot of people die. One country might lose 50,000 soldiers in one battle during this war. From 1914-1917, all of the countries fighting kept sending more and more men to go fight. By 1917, they were running out of money and people willing to die a senseless, pointless death. The people of Russia overthrew their government and dropped out of the war. The United States entered the war the same year because they were mad at Germany for attacking United States ships selling materials to Great Britain and France. The entry of the United States and the beginning of the Spanish Flu pandemic in the German Army caused the Germans to lose and give up on November 11, 1918. There was a peace treaty created called the Treaty of Versailles where the winners rubbed in that they won. They made Germany admit they were completely to blame for the war and they were forced to pay the entire cost of the war. This made the Germans very angry. The Americans tried to come up with a new way to keep the peace with the creation of the League of Nations.
Impact
The League of Nations, which is similar to the United Nations, worked well for little problems but could not deal with the problems of the Great Depression and the rise of dictators bent on making World War 2 happen. Many people believe World War 2 happened because of how the countries acted after World War 1. Germany was so humiliated that they were just waiting for the chance to get back at the people who had humiliated them. The Austro-Hungarian Empire ended and a lot of countries took its place. Russia became the USSR and that was a big problem for the United States. Eleven million people died.
World War 2
Background
A terrible economic disaster occurred in 1930 and sent much of Europe into a major economic crisis. This problem, along with the desire for glory in Germany and Italy, led to the people of those countries electing leaders who took control of the government and became dictators. Both dictators, Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy, wanted to prove they were superior to other countries. They went to war to prove it.
Summary
World War 2 began as an attempt to stop Germany from taking over all of Europe. In the early part of the war, Germany was very successful. Great Britain, the United States, The Soviet Union, and China fought together to beat Germany, Italy, and Japan. This was a conflict that covered the entire globe, with battles in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Atlantic, and Europe. The Allies, or those fighting Germany, Japan, and Italy, will win in Europe in May 1945 and in the Pacific in August 1945.
Impact
Two important discoveries during World War 2 make a huge impact on the world. The Holocaust, or the killing of over 6 million Jews by the Germans, make World War 2 a lesson in the evils of racism. The explosion of the first atomic weapon over Hiroshima, Japan makes massive killing so easy that it actually makes leaders work hard to avoid war. World War 2 is very important in how our world works today and what we think is right and wrong.
European Union
Background
When World War 2 ended in Europe, many people noticed that they had to rebuild their economies. They also noticed that they were going to have to compete with two huge, successful economies in the United States and the Soviet Union.
Summary
After World War 2, leaders in Europe begin discussing cooperating on economic issues. They try little things at first, like combing different countries’ coal and steel industries. Once the countries had some success with this, they decide to expand the number of countries working together and the number of things they cooperate on. In 1967, the name of this cooperation becomes the Common Market and 12 countries become members. In 1991, they become the European Union and worked together more closely. They also create a new kind of money called the Euro, which becomes the official money of many European Union countries. As they work together on economic issues, they discovered they had to agree on other things, too. There are now 27 countries in the European Union and it is the largest economy in the world.
Impact
This is the first time this kind of cooperation has been tried by different countries. The countries involved have created a very successful economy and are experimenting with other types of cooperation never before tried between different countries. The European Union is becoming kind of a super government.