European Struggles

Europe was the center of tremendous growth but they were not impervious to hardship. Early 1900s was a hard time for Europe. World War I, Great Depression, World War II and other conflicts within and outside Europe. World War I caused discourse because there Europeans were split on the decision. Not everyone was willing to volunteer themselves or be drafted into a war especially one they may not agree with. The army men were not allowed to return home until four years of service. From this lack of support, Europe authorities learned to use propaganda to lure people into agreeing and supporting war later on in World War I. But for the second World War, propaganda did not as easily win supporters. Before getting World War I, there was the Great Depression. This was a big hit on capitalism. Many were going bankrupt, left homeless, unemployed and struggling to just survive. The Depression spread from America to European countries with a capitalist based economy. This discouraged other countries, Italy, Germany and Japan (Strayer 1006),  from adopting the western way of democracy. Then the second world war emerged. Genocide, gross acts of injustice, radical changes of social and economic infrastructure took place. Asia was the first place where war arose. It started with an dissatisfied super power, Japan but when war rose in Europe, the dissatisfied power was Nazi Germany (Strayer 1006). The famous attempted genocide of the Jews took place in Germany but other events were occurring as well. There were revolutions in the colonies Europe held. Europe had to deal with their own people they conquered rebelling as well as in fighting of Germany. To deal with this many documents and artworks arose to promote the importance of these wars. Hitler wrote an authentic autobiography and his plan to restore Germany after their devastation in World War I (Strayer 1018). Japanese authority wrote principles to keep during World War II regarding rulers, loyalty and fighting  (Strayer 1021). Beside documents, to get points across to support or discourage war, images were produced and spread. Some were in support and used to raise nationalism within the countries (Strayer 1026-1027,1029). They depicted bright colors, empowerment of minorities i.e. African-Americans and women to lure people into agreeing with war. However there were others that were in opposition of war. These depicted blood, gore, sadness, and chaos (Strayer 1030, 1032). Despite the great progress Europe made, this time period was steps of regression with war and Great Depression.