The Age of Revolution

A series of great revolutions overthrow the leadership in Europe 1763 – 1786 The American Revolution 1789 – 1815 The French Revolution 1804 – 1815 Napoleonic Europe

New Cultural Ideas in the Age of Revolution Capitalism - minimal government interference with business (supply and demand determine the market) Republicanism - (freedom, brotherly love, and equality) favored constitutions parliaments (congresses) and democracies Liberalism - free trade no violence constitutions Conservatism - tradition anti-revolution anti- enlightenment gradual reform Socialism - ownership by the government or by the collective (everyone) opposed most capitalist ideas

The Wars

The Great Powers and the First World War ( ) By the late 19th century, the world was dominated by a few great powers, including Britain, the United States, and Germany. France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were also great powers. Western inventors and industrialists transformed the West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Thomas Edison, Wright brothers, Alexander Graham Bell.)

World War One leaves Germany completed devastated. This leads to the rise to power of the extremist Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler attempts to take over the entire world. World War II is know in the Western world as a battle of the Allies (US, Great Britain, Russia) vs. The Axis of Evil (Germany, Italy, and Japan).

Economies of the previous world superpowers (Britain, France, and Germany) are severely injured leaving two countries as the worlds new and only Superpowers The US (with the exception of Pearl Harbor there was no fighting on American land) And The USSR (only the East was damaged from the war)

Result of World War II for U.S. 1. Greatly expanded government power 2. U.S. is only atomic superpower 3. U.S. is leading the international community 4. Renewed efforts by women and blacks to achieve equality 5. A great need for consumer goods 6. The beginning of the baby boom 7. The G.I. Bill promotes education 8. Beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union

The Cold War 1645 – 1991 Communist nation of the Soviet Union and Democratic nation of United States are the two supreme super powers

December 14 th, 1988 Britton is born

Effects of the Cold War Soviet Union Collapses The United States become the only world super power Massive storage of military weaponry (in particular nuclear bombs) Communism weakens greatly world wide

Western Society since 1991 The Western World becomes more and more interconnected with the rest of the world as globalization becomes a dominant force in all aspects of culture Wars and recession have weakened the power of the United States government, while an economic boom in China has led many to believe it is the next Superpower of the world. Whether the US will remain the world’s only superpower, China and American will share this power, Chinese culture alone will become the dominant culture, or another culture will leap forward still remains to be seen.

Will there always be a “western culture”?...

The outcome of the undertaking will in turn affect the answers to still broader questions concerning the destiny of global civilization as a whole. Will it fulfill its yearning for harmonious diversity, or collapse under the pressure of its internal conflicts? Will it become a single worldwide entity, or will new individual civilizations arise, or updated versions of old ones, for which global civilization will provide no more than a common basic pattern? Will Western civilization preserve its individuality and its dominance, or will it be submerged by other civilizations that learn from it and then surpass it? All these questions are suggested by humanity’s experience of the past. Only the future can answer them.

Britton’s recommendations for further study – Classical Philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, Socrates) Julius Caesar’s rule The Ottoman Empire The Great Kingdoms of the Medieval Ages (Spain, France, England, Portugal) Famous thinkers of the Renaissance (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Rafael) The Revolutionary Wars (The French Revolution, The Glorious Revolution) Effects on Germany of World War I Causes of World War II The Cold War (Communism vs Capitalism) September 11 th, 2001/Al Qaeda War in Iraq Postmodernism