Question

How did conflict affect the political climate in nineteenth-century Europe and the United States?

Answer 1

Early in the twentieth century, rapid economic and technological change, increasing competition among powerful states, and resistance to European domination worked together to destabilize the world system. Underlying tensions and weaknesses led to a series of crises that altered the world in several important ways:

Rapid economic growth put increasing pressure on the natural environment.A return to economic protectionism expressed chiefly in high tariffs for imports undermined global economic integration.Two world wars, which unleashed terrible weapons such as the atomic bomb backed by the power of industrial production, devastated Europe, Japan, and other combat zones, and helped undermine European wealth and power.Countries with rising economies, notably the United States, Japan, and the Soviet Union, began to challenge Europe�s economic power.Anti-colonial and nationalist movements began to weaken Europe�s grip on its colonies and spheres of influence.In the sciences and arts, new theories, attitudes, and insights eroded the confidence of late nineteenth-century European thinkers. The horrors of global war provoked new ways of looking at the world and a search for new ideas beyond Europe. At the same time, new technologies of mass communication brought to prominence a modern mass culture that was no longer the preserve of elites.