The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

You are listening to “Rock Around the Clock”by Bill Haley & The Comets. Although it was recorded in 1954, it didn’t become a hit in the U.S. until 1955.

“Rock Around the Clock" was the first record ever to sell over one million copies in both Britain and Germany and, in 1957, Haley became the first major American rock singer to tour Europe.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Aftermath of World War II-Approx. 72 million dead worldwide

-Approx. 42 million civilians-Approx. 25 million military (8.5 million in WWI)

-Approx. 38 million in Europe -More than 22 million in the USSR

- Three quarters of all German forces were engaged on the Eastern front fighting Russian troops.

-Approx. 418,000 Americans

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sDuring World War II, 85% of the buildings in Warsaw, Poland were

destroyed.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Children Playing in Warsaw, Poland

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Dresden, Germany after World War II

Dresden, Germany prior to World War II

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

In this Soviet photograph from 2 May 1945, Red Army soldiers are raising the Soviet flag on the roof of the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sTeufelsberg “Devil’s Mountain” in Berlin, Germany…This 262 foot tall mountain was created by the removal of rubble from the city after World War II.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sTrials for War Crimes

-1945 – 49: Nuremberg Trials in Nuremberg, Germany-177 Germans and Austrians on trial-142 found guilty; many Nazi leaders received death sentences.

From now on, leaders will be held responsiblefor actions duringwar!

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sIssues Raised by the Nuremberg Trials

1. The United Nations didn’t define genocide until1948, so… were the trials legal?

2. Did bringing captured Nazi leaders to justice reallywipe the slate clean?

a. Remember: It’s not just the organizers and murderers who were guilty of Holocaust crimes.

b. Research continues today to find the businesses and individuals who profited through stealing

victims’ property and cashing in their insurancepolicies.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

War Crimes Trial in Japan

General HidekiTojo

•Japan will be occupied by the United States from 1945 – 1952•The U.S. writes the new Japanese constitution, including Article 9 (Japan can only have a military force for self-defense).

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sOct. 1945: A New and Improved League of Nations:

The United Nations

The Soviet Union (Now Russia), France, China, Great Britain, and the U.S.have permanentseats on the security Council

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

The United States and the Soviet Union willemerge as the two superpowers of the second half of the 20th century.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sThe Bi-Polarization of Europe: The Beginning of the Cold War

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Origins of the Cold WarStalin distrustful of the West. He has two goalsIn Eastern Europe:

1) Spread communism2) Create a buffer zone of friendly govts. as a defense against Germany, which invaded Russia in WWI and WWII.

Stalin: “Whoever occupies a territory also imposes his own social system.”

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Origins of the Cold War

-By 1948, the Soviet Red Army and local communists in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria had destroyed political rivals and even assassinated democratic leaders.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

1946: While visiting Westminster College in Fulton, MO, formerPrime Minister Winston Churchillgives his famous “Iron Curtain”speech.

“A shadow has fallenupon the scenes so lately lighted by Alliedvictory… From Stettinin the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

Origins of the Cold War

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Origins of the Cold War

– Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947• Civil war in Greece and Turkey• Money to countries threatened by

communist expansion• Policy of Containment: limiting

communism to areas already under Soviet control.

– Marshall Plan, June 1947 • $13 billion for the economic recovery of

war-torn Europe• Soviet view, “capitalist imperialism”• Russia dismantled and moved to the

Soviet Union 380 German factories before transferring control to the Western powers

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Origins of the Cold War

The Marshall Plan

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sA young girl at a spring fair in Vienna, Austria, in 1951, holds a bouquet of balloons advertising the Marshall Plan. Reading "Peace, Freedom, Welfare" in German, the balloons were one of many ways America and its allies strived to counter negative Soviet propaganda against the reconstruction and economic development plan.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sMarketing the United States to Europe

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sOrigins of the Cold War

The Division of Germany

The Allies’ abandoned plan of De-Nazification

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sOrigins of the Cold War

The Division of Germany

-Germany was divided into four occupation zones: American, British, French, and Soviet.-The city of Berlin was also divided into four zones: the Americans, British and French have West Berlin, the Soviets have East Berlin.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sOrigins of the Cold War

The Berlin Airlift

•1948: Stalin tries to force the Allies out of West Berlin by sealing off every railroad and highway.•The Allies respond to the blockade with a round-the-clock airlift for more than one year, dropping food and other supplies to the people of West Berlin.•Stalin eventually ends the blockade.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sOrigins of the Cold War

Germany Divided-May 1949: The Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") is created from the zones occupied by France, the United States and United Kingdom.

-October 1949: The German Democratic Republic (“East Germany”) is created in the zone occupied by the Soviet Union.

-East Berlin becomes the capital of East Germany. West Berlin is part of West Germany?!?!?

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sOrigins of the Cold War

Military Alliances

•1949: The U.S., Canada, nine Western European countries form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO.

•1955: The Soviet Union and seven satellite nations (dependent states) form rival Warsaw Pact.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sOrigins of the Cold War

The Arms Race•1949: Soviet Union successfully tests atomic bomb. The U.S. no longer has a technological advantage. Leads to four decades of developing new, more deadly nuclear and conventional weapons.

•Theory of Deterrence: the deployment of strong weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order to prevent the use of the very same weapons.

•This is a military strategy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. Mutual assured destruction (MAD)

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

U.S. and USSR/Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles 1945-2006

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

An estimate of the size of the damage caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A modern hydrogen bomb would be tens of times more powerful and cause similar levels of damage at 2-5 times the distance.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sThe De-Colonization of European Powers

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sChanges Around the World

•1947: India wins independence from Great Britain due to pressure created by MohandasGandhi… Pakistan created as Muslim homeland.

•1948: The nation of Israel is created within Palestine in part because of post-World War IIsympathy for Jews.

•1949: Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedongdefeat Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

• The Korean War– 1950: North Koreans invade

the south– Chinese intervene when

UN troops (including U.S.) approach

the border– 1953: Uneasy truce

Changes Around the World

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sChanges Around the World

•After WWII, France tries to regain control of French Indochina(Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)•Communist Ho Chi Minh leads Vietnamese independence fight against French.•1954: Vietnam divided into communist North and democratic South.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sThe Soviet Union in the 1950s

•1953: Death of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev emerges as leader of Soviet Union.

•1956: Imre Nagy gains power in Hungary; pulls Hungary out of Warsaw Pact, Khrushchev sends tanks to crush rebellion… Nagy executed.

•1957: Soviets launch Sputnik, first artificial satellite into orbit, starting space race between USSR and U.S.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

•1958 – 59: Fidel Castro and communist rebels win revolution in Cuba… Soviets now have ally just 90 miles away from U.S.

Communism in Cuba

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sWestern Europe

The Development of the Welfare State

•After World War II, conservative right-wing parties lost popularity because they had supported fascism.•Communists and socialists enjoyed growing support because they had opposed the Nazis… this would fade.•The main goal of communists and socialists was to extend the welfare state.

•A system in which the government keeps most features of a capitalist economy but take greater responsibility for the social and economic needs of its people.•1942 Report in Great Britain: The biggest obstacles to reconstruction are “Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.”

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Western Europe

The Development of the Welfare State

•The middle class and the poor enjoyed the benefit of national health care, unemployment insurance, and old-age pensions.•The govt. took a larger role in the economy, nationalizing (no competition) industries such as railroads, airlines, banks, steel and energy

British Rail

Bank of England

British Telecom

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

Western Europe

The Development of the Welfare State• The Ultimate Example: Sweden

• The state provides for:1) tax-funded childcare2) free dental care up to 20 years of

age3) retirement pensions 4) free education (all levels up to,

and including college)5) parents are entitled to a total of

480 days partly paid leave between birth and the child's eighth birthday, with 60 days reserved specifically for each parent

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sFinns enjoy more paid statutory vacation every year than anyone else in the rich world, getting an average of 44 days off in which to relax (including annual leave and public holidays). Most European countries allow more than the EU legal minimum of four weeks. American workers have perhaps the most to feel aggrieved about: ours is the only rich-world country that does not give any statutory paid holiday. (In practice, most workers get around 14 days off.) All work and little play does provide some consolation, however—America and Japan are the world's biggest economies.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sWestern Europe Economic Development

•1957: France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy the Netherlands, and Luxembourg form the European Community (EC) to expand free trade.

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s1950s Art Movements

Art Brut: Outsider Art•Art produced by non-professionals, such as children, prisoners, or the mentally ill.

Abstract Impressionism•Energetic, spontaneous, “action painting”

No. 5 by Jackson Pollock (1948)

Portrait of Jean Paulhan by Jean Dubuffet (1947)

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950s

1950s Art Movements

Pop Art•Characterized by themes and techniques drawn from popular mass culture, such as advertising and comic books.•Pop art, like pop music, aimed to employ images of popular as opposed to elitist culture in art, emphasizing the kitschy elements of any given culture.

Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? (1956) is one of the earliest works to be considered pop art

The World in the Late 1940s – 1950sExistentialism

Jean-Paul Sartre

- There is no universal meaning to life.

- Each person makes his / her own meaning through the choices they make.

- Sartre quote: Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

1905 - 1980