Scheda di revisione: Global Historical Developments

📋 Course Outline

1. Great Depression Origins and Spread
2. New Deal and State Intervention
3. Maritime Globalization and Containerization
4. Maritime Routes and Sea Law
5. Global Cities and Core-Periphery
6. Totalitarian Expansion and War
7. Appeasement and Democratic Weakness
8. Occupation, Genocide, and Resistance
9. Special Economic Zones in China
10. Liberation and the Fourth Republic
11. Fifth Republic and Algerian War
12. Thatcherism and Neoliberal Reform

📖 1. Great Depression Origins and Spread

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Great Depression : The Great Depression was a worldwide, severe, prolonged downturn in economic activity that began in 1929 and reshaped international relations in the 1930s.
• Wall Street crash : The Wall Street crash was the October 1929 collapse of the US stock market that triggered the wider economic crisis.
• Stock margin : Stock margin is a practice where investors buy shares by borrowing money, which increases risk when stock prices fall.
• Gold standard : The gold standard is a monetary system that restricts how freely governments can adjust policy by anchoring currency value to gold reserves.
• Hawley-Smoot tariff act : The Hawley-Smoot tariff act is a US move to raise tariffs on imported goods, especially agricultural imports, to protect domestic producers.

📝 Essential Points

• The Great Depression began in 1929 after the Wall Street crash and lasted until the beginning of World War II.
• Overproduction and falling prices contributed to deflation, which then triggered layoffs, lower consumer spending, and declining inventory values.
• Bank failures in 1930 froze credit, deepening deflation and worsening economic instability across sectors.
• The US withdrew substantial loans in 1929, reducing financial support Europe relied on for stability through imports and exports.
• US unemployment reached about 10 million (≈20% of the population), and worldwide unemployment in 1932 reached about 40 million (12 million in the US).

💡 Memory Hook

1929 crash + margin buying → bank failures → credit freezing → deflation → layoffs and collapsing demand.

📖 2. New Deal and State Intervention

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• New Deal : The New Deal was a set of reforms led by FDR from 1933 to 1939 that used government action to restore confidence and stimulate recovery.
• Gold standard abandonment : Gold standard abandonment was the decision to stop fixing currency value to gold so the government could expand money supply to fight the depression.
• Social Security Act of 1939 : The Social Security Act of 1939 was a welfare measure providing insurance against unemployment, old age, and disability.
• Popular Front : The Popular Front was a 1936 French left-wing alliance that won elections and introduced policies inspired by the American New Deal.

📝 Essential Points

• The New Deal devalued the dollar by 40% and aimed to boost export competitiveness through currency adjustment.
• The National Industry Recovery Act promoted an 8-hour day and increased union power to negotiate with employers.
• The Popular Front’s June 11, 1936 law set a 40-hour working week and 2 weeks of paid vacation per year.
• The Popular Front faced an abysmal budget deficit, then shifted to austerity despite social reforms.
• Keynesianism supported higher government spending and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the economy out of depression.

💡 Memory Hook

FDR’s New Deal = Devalue $ (40%) + drop gold + build jobs + insure risks (unemployment/age/disability).

📖 3. Maritime Globalization and Containerization

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• 10-Dash Line : A maritime map claim of ambiguous legal status that overlaps with other states’ maritime entitlements, especially EEZs.
• Exclusive Economic Zone : A coastal-state maritime zone where another state’s activities are limited, while specific economic rights belong to the coastal state.
• RECAAP initiative : A government-to-government cooperation initiative that targets piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia through multilateral coordination.
• Malacca dilemma : A strategic vulnerability faced by China due to heavy reliance on the Malacca Strait for oil, gas imports, and access to goods.
• Container port : A cargo-handling node where standardized containers enable loading, unloading, and transfers between transport modes across global supply chains.

📝 Essential Points

• In 2016, a UN Convention on the Law of the Sea tribunal found that certain maritime features fall within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
• Around 100,000 ships pass through the Malacca Strait each year and it connects Middle East oil and gas reserves to Asian markets.
• The RECAAP initiative reduced reported piracy and armed robbery attacks from 38 in 2014 to 10 in 2025.
• Arctic shipping increased by 25% between 2013 and 2019, reducing congestion and distance but raising navigation and ecological-crisis risks.
• Containerization expanded global trade by enabling faster standardized handling, reinforcing global supply-chain dependence on coastal nodes.

💡 Memory Hook

Malacca = China’s “energy lifeline”: choke-point risk (imports) meets piracy-control cooperation (RECAAP).

📖 4. Maritime Routes and Sea Law

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Dunkirk evacuation : A major wartime evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk by sea after Blitzkrieg broke through northern France in June 1940.
• German invasion of Denmark and Norway : A Nazi invasion in 1940 aimed at securing an iron supply route threatened by Allied pressure.
• Sea-based strategic logistics : A strategy that treats control of routes over water as essential to moving critical resources and enabling military operations.

📝 Essential Points

• Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in 1940 to protect an iron supply route threatened by the Allies.
• Blitzkrieg pushed German forces to the sea, enabling the June 4, 1940 Dunkirk evacuation by sea.

💡 Memory Hook

Denmark–Norway invasion = “Iron route by sea” first, Dunkirk = “troops out by sea” when the front hits the coast.

📖 5. Global Cities and Core-Periphery

📖 6. Totalitarian Expansion and War

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Totalitarian rule in Eastern Europe : Totalitarian rule in Eastern Europe refers to Soviet-backed political control where communist forces expand state power after World War II.
• Soviet sphere of influence : A Soviet sphere of influence is the zone of states Moscow controls indirectly through military presence and political alignment.
• Iron Curtain : The Iron Curtain is the metaphor describing Europe’s division in 1946 between Western states and Soviet-controlled areas.
• Berlin Blockade : The Berlin Blockade was the June 1948 Soviet attempt to restrict access to West Berlin by blocking key transport links.

📝 Essential Points

• The USSR gained influence in Eastern Europe through Red Army occupation and installed pro-Soviet puppet governments in Poland and Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1948.
• Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” framing marked a shift from Allied cooperation to Western suspicion about Soviet expansionism.
• Stalin’s June 1948 blockade targeted roads and rail links to Western zones and West Berlin from the Soviet zone.
• The Western airlift kept West Berlin supplied and the blockade ended in May 1949.

💡 Memory Hook

Iron Curtain = Berlin’s airlift gap: cut the routes, then fly in the essentials.

📖 7. Appeasement and Democratic Weakness

📖 8. Occupation, Genocide, and Resistance

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Liberation purge : A post-war purge is a process of punishing people accused of collaborating, used to restore justice after occupation and defeat.
• Savage purge : A savage purge refers to an initially spontaneous wave of violent retaliation targeting collaborators, traitors, militiamen, and black-market traders.
• Public haircuts : Public haircuts were forced rituals imposed on women to signal a masculine desire to reclaim status after 1940’s defeat.
• Court-ordered trials : Court-ordered trials are legal proceedings used to regularize punishment and reassert state authority after uncontrolled wartime violence.
• Resistance unity narrative : A resistance unity narrative is a political framing that presents France as led by resistance fighters to strengthen national cohesion.

📝 Essential Points

• The savage purge began as largely spontaneous violence and caused around 9,000 victims before threatening the authority of the provisional government.
• About 20,000 women were subjected to public haircuts as part of the violent settling of scores after liberation.
• The new government restored control by supervising the purge through regular courts and trials that set common rules for punishment.
• Regular trials for collaborators were led by De Gaulle, helping legitimize state power after the purge period.
• The liberation context made a purge necessary because collaboration involved arrests, torture, and deportations.

💡 Memory Hook

Purge starts “savage” (violence) → then “courts” (rules), with De Gaulle legitimizing the state.

📖 9. Special Economic Zones in China

📖 10. Liberation and the Fourth Republic

📖 11. Fifth Republic and Algerian War

📖 12. Thatcherism and Neoliberal Reform

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Thatcherism : Thatcherism is a free-market, small-state approach that limits government to core functions like defense and protecting the currency.
• Monetarism : Monetarism is an economic policy focused on controlling the money supply—using tools like high interest rates—to stabilize prices.
• Privatization : Privatization is the transfer of state-owned industries and services into private ownership to expand markets and private ownership.
• Big Bang : The Big Bang is the 1986 deregulation of London’s financial sector, including structural and trading changes for the London Stock Exchange.
• Atlanticism : Atlanticism is Thatcher’s emphasis on close transatlantic ties, especially alignment with U.S. policies and leadership under Reagan.

📝 Essential Points

• Thatcherism rejected post-war consensus ideas by promoting free markets and restricting the state’s role to essential duties like defense and currency stability.
• In the fight against inflation, Thatcher used high interest rates tied to monetarism, accepting mass unemployment as part of the strategy.
• Thatcher cut income tax by lowering the basic rate to 25% and raising the higher-rate range from 83% to 40%, while increasing VAT from 8% to 15%.
• The Big Bang took place on 26 October 1986, deregulating the London Stock Exchange and shifting trading from open-outcry to electronic trading.
• After privatization, the government raised over £7 billion in 1988–1989, supporting Thatcher’s claim that reforms improved Britain’s economy.
• Trade union power fell as strikes required official ballots and some union assets faced risk for unlawful strikes, while membership dropped from over 13 million (1979) to about 5 million by the end of her premiership.

💡 Memory Hook

Monetarism as “brakes”: control money supply with high interest rates to stop inflation, even if unemployment rises.

📅 Key Dates

Date	Event
October 1929	Wall Street crash triggers collapse of the US stock market
1929	Great Depression begins
1930	Bank failures lead to credit freezing and deflation
1933	FDR leads the New Deal
June 11, 1936	Popular Front law sets a 40-hour working week and 2 weeks' paid vacation
1939	Social Security Act of 1939 introduced insurance against unemployment, old age and disability
1 October 1949	Mao Zedong proclaims the PRC and signals China’s return to world affairs
December 24, 1979	USSR invades Afghanistan
26 October 1986	Big Bang deregulates London’s financial sector
September 30, 1981	French Parliament passes the bill abolishing the death penalty

📊 Synthesis Tables

New Deal vs Popular Front (France)

Feature	New Deal (US)	Popular Front (France)
Devalued currency	devaluation of the dollar by 40% to encourage export competitiveness	devaluation in 1936 to boost export competitiveness
Work and unions	National Industry Recovery Act: 8h a day + power of trade unions to negotiate	Law of June 11, 1936: 40-hour working week and 2 weeks' paid vacation; state as arbiter between employers and unions
Social welfare	Social Security Act of 1939: insurance against unemployment, old age and disability	social policy aimed at boosting consumption via Matignon agreements and promoted leisure/employee rights
Economic outcome	political and social success consolidating democracy and restoring public confidence	economic failure reflected in an abysmal budget deficit and later austerity policy

Soviet blockade vs Western airlift (West Berlin)

Aspect	Soviet action	Western response
When	June 1948	organized as the blockade runs
What was targeted	roads and rail links to Western zones and West Berlin	food and coal day and night by airlift
Purpose	take control of all Berlin	prevent outright confrontation and keep conflict at bay
End	ended in May 1949	blockade ended in May 1949

⚠️ Common Pitfalls & Confusions

1. Confusing the Wall Street crash as the Great Depression itself: the crash is October 1929, while the Depression is the worldwide downturn beginning in 1929 and lasting until the beginning of WW2.
2. Thinking gold-standard abandonment means “fixing” prosperity immediately: in the course it is a monetary step meant to allow more money printing to stimulate recovery, alongside New Deal work and social measures.
3. Swapping Popular Front dates/measures with New Deal dates: the specific Popular Front labor law is June 11, 1936 (40 hours, 2 weeks paid vacation).
4. Mixing up causes and effects in deflation: deflation is presented as causing layoffs, lower consumer spending, and declining inventory values, not merely as a result.
5. Treating “containerization” as only a technology: the course stresses it as intermodal standardized containers after WW2 reducing costs, congestion, and shipping time, reinforcing supply-chain dependence on coastal nodes.
6. Assuming purges were only “court trials”: the course distinguishes a savage, initially spontaneous purge (violence, ~9,000 victims) from later court-supervised trials led by De Gaulle.
7. Attributing Thatcherism only to privatization: the course frames it around monetarism (high interest rates), low taxation/VAT changes, and the 1986 Big Bang deregulation, with unemployment accepted as part of the strategy.

✅ Exam Checklist

1. Explain how speculative behavior (margin buying) and overproduction/falling prices led from the October 1929 crash to deflation.
2. Describe the role of gold-standard reluctance and the Hawley-Smoot tariff act in worsening the crisis.
3. State the New Deal timeline (1933 to 1939) and link each: devaluation of 40%, gold standard abandonment, work programs (including 8-hour day/union bargaining), and welfare measures.
4. Compare the Popular Front’s 1936 labor law (June 11, 1936) and its social aims with its later economic failure and austerity shift.
5. Identify key maritime concepts: containerization, EEZ rules, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the geostrategic logic of the Malacca Strait and RECAAP.
6. Give the specific maritime-law distinctions the course uses (territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles vs EEZ up to 200 nautical miles) and explain why overlapping claims create disputes.
7. Explain the course’s account of totalitarianism’s link to WWII: ideological goals, differences in violence, and one expansion case (Abyssinia or Manchuria) plus its impact on the League of Nations.
8. Reproduce the Great Purge sequence in France’s liberation: savage purge (violence, public haircuts) then restoration of state authority through courts and De Gaulle’s trial leadership.
9. Outline the Cold War chain in 1945-49: USSR influence in Eastern Europe (1945-1948), Kennan’s Long Telegram (1946), Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan (1947), Berlin blockade (June 1948) and end (May 1949), and NATO (April 1949).
10. Explain Thatcherism using the course triad: monetarism/high interest rates, tax/VAT changes, and privatization plus the 26 October 1986 Big Bang (including electronic trading).
11. Summarize France 1981-1988 by tracking Mitterrand’s 1981 election “alternance,” the 1982-1983 austerity U-turn, the 1986 parliamentary defeat leading to cohabitation, and one major social reform from his presidency.
12. Explain how HIV/AIDS is introduced in the course: early 1980s identification, 1983 Pasteur institute discovery of HIV, and the course’s stated transmission routes and public stigma context.