History 4314b: Europe since 1945 Instructor: Stan M. Landry SMLandry@email.arizona.edu www.u.arizona.edu/~smlandry (a.pdf version of this syllabus and reading list, including stable links to internet readings, can be found at this site). This course will survey the reconstruction, division, and reintegration of European economies and societies after the Second World War. In particular, we will focus on social and demographic change, the Cold War, the loss of European empire, the rise and fall of Communism, the transition to democracy and capitalism in the former Soviet states, and the origins and development of the European Union. In addition to instilling a broad cultural and historical literacy of modern Europe, I hope that this course will instruct students how to read, critically analyze, interpret, and write about historical sources. You will have three, one-hour exams that correspond to the three units of the course; Unit 1: Postwar Europe; Unit 2: Cold War Europe; and Unit 3: Post-Communist Europe. The exams are not cumulative. Each exam will be worth 1/3 of your final grade. These exams will contain identifications and essay questions. An identification should be a concise and specific description of a term that addresses the term s significance to European history (i.e., why was it important? What difference did it make?). Identifications typically answer 5-7 basic questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? (And most importantly) Significance? Essays should be clearly written, logically organized, and thorough. It is imperative that you include specific supporting evidence to reinforce your general claims. The key terms and study questions that occur in each unit and section are intended to prepare you for the exams. Please review these terms and questions before you begin reading. Several questions will require a synthesis of the information from each section in order to answer. I strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with all of the key terms and to answer all of the study questions for a unit before you take an exam. Please contact me at SMLandry@email.arizona.edu if you have any questions about the content of the course or the exams. 1
BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FROM U of A BOOKSTORE: Ash, Timothy Garton. The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of 89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. Drakulic, Slavenka. Café Europa: Life after Communism. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. Drakulic, Slavenka. How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. Finlan, Alastair. The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991-1999. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2004. Wakeman, Rosemary, ed. Themes in European History since 1945. London: Routledge, 2003. Winks, Robin W. and John E. Talbott. Europe, 1945 to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. OTHER SELECTED READINGS AVAILABLE ONLINE AND ON E-RESERVE: Bessel, Richard. European Society in the Twentieth Century in T.C.W. Blanning, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. (E-RESERVE) Charles de Gaulle, President of France: Europe and Its Role In World Affairs, July 23, 1964 at Internet Modern History Sourcebook (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1964-degaulle-europe1.html French Students and Workers Unite in Protest in James M. Brophy, ed. Perspectives From the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilization, Volume 2: From the Early Modern Era through Contemporary Times. New York: W.W. Norton, 2002. (E-RESERVE) Hungary 1956 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1956hungary.html Joseph Stalin: Reply to Churchill, 1946 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1946stalin.html Maurice Couve de Murville, Foreign Minister: France's View of the Atlantic Alliance and NATO, 1966 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1966-france-non-nato.html 2
Nikita S. Krushchev: On the Cult of Personality, 1956 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/krushchev-secret.html Sixteen Political, Economic, and Ideological Points, Budapest, 1956 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1956hungary-16points.html The Brezhnev Doctrine, 1968 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1968brezhnev.html The Truman Doctrine, 1947 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1947truman.html The United Nations: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1948humright.html The Warsaw Pact, 1955 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1955warsawpact.html Winston S. Churchill: Iron Curtain Speech, 1946 (IMHS) URL: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html Readings placed on E-Reserve can be found at this site: http://eres.library.arizona.edu/ The E-Reserves are password protected. The password is: europe I strongly encourage you to read outside of the assigned texts. You will not be penalized if you include information from outside readings in your exam answers. Needless to say, outside reading can help to fill in gaps in the course content or elucidate concepts that you don t completely understand. A word of caution, however: while the internet can be a valuable historical resource, you must be cautious of open-source sites (such as Wikipedia) that anyone can edit. They sometimes contain factual errors, omissions, incomplete entries, and bias. 3
UNIT 1: POSTWAR EUROPE Read: Wakeman Introduction ; Morewood Divided Europe: The Long Postwar, 1945-1989 in Wakeman. (Please Note: The Morewood reading is an excellent introduction to the course and may be referred to throughout as a general survey of Europe from 1945-1989). The Germans refer to 1945 as Stunde Null, or zero hour, both a beginning to a new era of European history and an end to a past that most Europeans hoped never to relive. The old order had crumbled just as Europe s cities had, and wartime allies the United States and the Soviet Union became the bitterest of rivals. Their rivalry, the Cold War, led to a division of Europe that dominated European society, politics, and culture until 1989. The reconstruction of European economies and societies and the corresponding social and cultural changes took place within the context of the Cold War. In the following unit, we will recount European rebuilding after the war, the origins of the Cold War, and the social and cultural changes that followed in the wake of reconstruction. Questions to consider as you proceed through this unit: How did Europe rebuild after World War II? How was the reconstruction of Europe politicized by the United States and the Soviet Union? What were the causes of the Cold War? How and why were the Soviet Eastern European satellite states essential to the economy and security of the USSR? How did the policies of Joseph Stalin differ from those of Nikita Khrushchev? Describe the formation of the postwar European welfare state. How and why did postwar social welfare programs and mass consumption undermine national cultures, class distinctions, and postwar identities? Describe the evolution of art, architecture, and literary theory from modernism to postmodernism. Contrast prewar European culture and postwar European mass culture. How did enthusiasm for and fears of Americanization contribute to the formation of postwar cultural forms? What role did youth and women play in the production and consumption of postwar mass culture? 4
What were the dominant media of postwar mass culture? How were those media used as instruments of social and political criticism? What is the difference between avant-garde and modernist art? Describe the decline of the postwar avant-garde in the face of mass culture and commodification of art. 5
UNIT 1: POSTWAR EUROPE Section 1: Rebuilding after the War Read: Winks, 1-34; The Truman Doctrine, 1947 (IMHS); The United Nations: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 (IMHS) The Second World War left Europe broken. Refugees returned home to find their cities in shambles and food and resources scarce. National economies were shattered. Citizens were forced to resort to crime and the black market to fulfill even their most basic needs. Incredibly, Europe rebounded relatively quickly from the devastation caused by the war. Europeans optimism, creativity, and dedication, coupled with the aid of the Marshall Plan, led to the economic miracle of postwar prosperity that lasted from the mid 1950s until the mid 1970s. This singular focus on national recovery was not without significant consequences, however. Questions of war guilt, collaboration, and how to come to terms with the past were left unanswered for a generation. Berlin Airlift Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) Council for Mutual Economic Aid (Comecon) European Economic Community (EEC or Common Market) Josip Tito Marshall Plan Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Truman Doctrine United Nations Year Zero 6
UNIT 1: POSTWAR EUROPE Section 2: The Origins of the Cold War and a Divided Europe Read: Winston S. Churchill: Iron Curtain Speech, 1946 (IMHS); Joseph Stalin: Reply to Churchill, 1946 (IMHS); The Warsaw Pact, 1955 (IMHS); Nikita S. Khrushchev: On the Cult of Personality, 1956 (IMHS) The postwar political geography of Europe left an imbalance of power on the continent. The two strongest Allied powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, immediately positioned themselves to fill the vacuum. The result was the Cold War and the division of Europe. The United States maintained its military presence and exercised economic and cultural influence over Western Europe. The Soviet Union dominated life and politics in Eastern Europe. With the ascension of Nikita S. Khrushchev to the Soviet premiership in 1956, Cold War relations with the West became less tense as Khrushchev pursued policies of de-stalinization within the USSR and diplomatic reconciliation with the West. Iron Curtain Joseph Stalin Nikita Khrushchev Warsaw Pact 7
UNIT 1: POSTWAR EUROPE Section 3: European Society since 1945 Read: Kalb Social Class and Social Change in Postwar Europe in Wakeman; Hanagan Changing Margins in Postwar European Politics in Wakeman; Bessel, European Society in the Twentieth Century (E-Res) The postwar economic boom was partially sustained by guest workers imported from abroad. Political refugees, immigration, and decolonization led to massive socioeconomic and demographic changes in postwar Europe. They also helped to revive nationalist and xenophobic politics as the margins of European politics shifted. Postwar economic prosperity and the increasing power of labor parties led to the creation of modern European welfare states. A corollary of this prosperity was an increase in the European standard of living and the rise of mass consumption. The welfare state and the experience of living in a mass society blurred class and national distinctions, creating the possibility of new identities based on consumption. No longer defined by what one produced, postwar identity became a function of what one consumed. Affordable to more Europeans than ever before, goods such as refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and automobiles became symbols of middle-class status and identity. Gastarbeiter Fordism May Day 8
UNIT 1: POSTWAR EUROPE Section 4: European Culture since 1945 Read: Winks, 89-117; Wakeman European Mass Culture in the Media Age in Wakeman; Sadler The Boundaries of the Avant-Garde in Wakeman Postwar artists and writers reacted to the bleakness, impossible choices, and amorality of the war. During the process of decolonization Europe was decentered as artists and writers took up the themes of otherness and difference. Art and literature that were used as media of social and political criticism primarily of bourgeois consumer society were institutionalized and themselves became categories of middle-class consumption. New media emerged; new producers and consumers of culture emerged; and Americaninfluenced media created both excitement and fear that European culture would become overly Americanized. Americanization Avant-Garde Bauhaus Existentialism Francis Crick and James Watson General Theory of Relativity International Style Manhattan Project Simone de Beauvoir Situationist International Special Theory of Relativity 9
UNIT 2: COLD WAR EUROPE Read: Drakulic: How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed The Cold War left Europe a divided continent. The United States and Soviet Union fought each other indirectly through proxy wars. Decolonization led to further conflict as former colonies aligned themselves with the US or USSR for strength and stability. Meanwhile, on the continent, popular resistance led to brutal Soviet repression in Eastern Europe while Western Europe enjoyed unprecedented economic prosperity. Questions to consider as you proceed through this unit: How did the European loss of empire in Africa, Asia, India, and the Middle East affect internal conflicts in those regions? How did the West attempt to retain its influence over its former colonies? In what ways did those colonies resist? How did immigration and decolonization affect postwar European demography? How did British, French, Belgian, and Portuguese forms of decolonization differ? What factors led to the revolutions in Poland and Hungary in 1956? How did the USSR react to these revolutions to stabilize their Eastern European satellite states? Compare and contrast the revolutions of 1956, 1968, and 1980. Why did de Gaulle oppose British membership in the European Economic Community (Common Market)? Why was he opposed to France joining supranational organizations such as the Common Market and NATO? According to Drakulic, how did Communist and totalitarian states deprive citizens of their privacy and individuality? According to Drakulic, how did Communist states fail to provide for their citizens? How did Communism fail to provide for women, in particular? 10
UNIT 2: COLD WAR EUROPE Section 1: Proxy Wars and Postcolonial Europe Read: Winks, 25-47; Jordi The Collapse of World Dominion: The Dismantling of the European Colonial Empires and its Impact on Europe in Wakeman The doctrine of mutually assured destruction deterred direct war between the nucleararmed United States and Soviet Union. Accordingly, the two superpowers fought indirectly through proxy wars aimed at maintaining and enlarging their influence. Former colonies that sought to stabilize their own regimes could appeal to the world s two superpowers for support. But alignment was a dangerous business. Aligning with one power earned the distrust and hostility of the other. Thus decolonization served as a site of Cold War political contestation. Algerian War of Independence FLN Gamal Abdel Nasser Ho Chi Minh Mohandas Gandhi Muhammad Ali Jinnah Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Scramble for Africa Suez Crisis 11
UNIT 2: COLD WAR EUROPE Section 2: Western Europe Read: Winks, 48-71; Charles de Gaulle, President of France: Europe and Its Role In World Affairs, July 23, 1964 (IMHS); Maurice Couve de Murville, Foreign Minister: France's View of the Atlantic Alliance and NATO, 1966 (IMHS); Wakeman The Golden Age of Prosperity, 1953-1973 in Wakeman During the Cold War, West European democracies debated how best to contain the Soviet threat and to restore Europe to its prewar prominence. Moderate governments were elected in Great Britain and West Germany to maintain Europe s postwar economic prosperity. In France, Charles de Gaulle strengthened the power of the French executive branch to overcome the extremism of that country s parliamentary politics. De Gaulle was also opposed to the increasing influence of the United States in European affairs. Charles de Gaulle Erich Honecker Federal Republic of Germany (BRD) Fifth Republic Francois Mitterand German Democratic Republic (DDR) Helmut Kohl Irish Republican Army (IRA) Jacques Chirac Juan Carlos of Spain Konrad Adenauer Margaret Thatcher Second Vatican Council Sonderweg ( Special Path ) The German Question Willy Brandt 12
UNIT 2: COLD WAR EUROPE Section 3: Resistance and Suppression: 1956, 1968, 1980 Read: Hungary 1956 (IMHS); Sixteen Political, Economic, and Ideological Points, Budapest, 1956 (IMHS); French Students and Workers Unite in Protest (E-Res); (Review Winks 15-20) Since the postwar era, Soviet-controlled Eastern European nations had sought greater independence from Moscow and autonomy in their domestic affairs. The Soviet Union typically acted with hostility toward such insurgence, in fact suppressing rebellions in Yugoslavia and East Germany during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Events in 1956 in Poland and Hungary followed this pattern. A series of strikes in Poland led to Soviet repression, ending with the promise of limited reforms in exchange for Polish loyalty to the USSR. Anti-Communist and nationalist protests in Hungary were brutally suppressed as Soviet troops occupied Budapest, arresting and executing dissenters. And in Prague, a liberal Communist government was suppressed by the Soviets in 1968. At the same time in France, students took to the streets demanding reforms to the French university system. They were joined by ten million French workers who struck in support of the students. The French government promised limited reforms to the students and wage increases to the workers, quashing the revolution relatively peacefully. And finally, the Polish trade union Solidarity was repressed in 1980 when it organized strikes that shut down the Polish economy. Eastern Europeans would have to wait until 1989 before a truly successful revolution would take place. Alexander Dubcek Hungarian Revolution Imry Nage Lech Walesa May 1968 Revolution (France) Prague Spring Solidarity 13
UNIT 3: POST-COMMUNIST EUROPE Economic stagnation, the inability of Communist states to provide even the basic necessities of life to their citizens Forty years of socialism and still no toilet paper, one Polish worker remarked growing calls for independence, autonomy, reform, and free elections contributed to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and finally the Soviet Union. The collapse of Communism in Yugoslavia led to a resurgence of nationalism and violence in that country. Since Tito, Communist ideology had unified Yugoslavia and distracted its citizens from their ethnic rivalries. With little to hold them together, the states that formerly composed Yugoslavia plunged into civil war. Sadly, as Yugoslavia disintegrated the rest of Europe moved closer toward economic and political integration. Questions to consider as you proceed through this unit: How did the policies of Leonid Brezhnev differ from those of Mikhail Gorbachev? How did Gorbachev s policies contribute to the breakdown of Communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR? How did the revolutions of 1989 play out in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague? Discuss the similarities and differences of the revolutions in each nation. Why did the collapse of Communism result in nationalism, xenophobia, and violence in some of the former Soviet satellite states? What role did nationalism, xenophobia, and violence play in the Yugoslav Wars? What roles did NATO and the United Nations play in the Yugoslav Wars? What new problems did the collapse of the Soviet empire create for Europe? How did Eastern Europeans experience the new social, economic, and political forms created by the collapse of Communism and the arrival democracy and capitalism? How did Eastern European forms of democracy and capitalism differ from those of Western Europe? Describe European policies toward and reactions to 9/11, the War in Afghanistan, and the War in Iraq. What were the precursors of the European Union? How will the proposed enlargement of the European Union to include former Soviet satellite states affect the composition of the EU? How and why might this compel us to rethink our concept of Europe? 14
UNIT 3: POST-COMMUNIST EUROPE Section 1: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe Read: Berend, The Central and Eastern European Revolution, 1989-2000 in Wakeman; Ash, The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of 89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague The Brezhnev Doctrine was intended to tighten the Soviet Union s control over its Eastern European satellite states. Paradoxically, this tightening of control, coupled with an economic depression that set in during the 1970s, and a decline in Soviet power, led to greater agitation for national autonomy, liberal reforms, and free elections in the Soviet satellite states. This agitation for reform was realized in the revolutions of 1989. Charter 77 Janos Kadar Malta Summit Nicolae Ceausescu Vaclav Havel Velvet Revolution 15
UNIT 3: POST-COMMUNIST EUROPE Section 2: The Collapse of Communism in the USSR Read: Winks, 72-88; The Brezhnev Doctrine, 1968 (IMHS) After the revolutions of 1989 the USSR found it difficult to maintain its own internal stability. The Brezhnev Doctrine proved to be a failure. New premier Gorbachev had launched a series of reforms intended to restructure the economy and produce transparency in the Soviet government. He had also refused to intervene in or countenance the use of force against the revolutionaries in Eastern Europe. In 1991 the Soviet states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia seceded from the USSR. After a failed conservative coup to oust Gorbachev and reverse his reforms, he resigned from office and the Soviet empire was dissolved. Thereafter, Boris Yeltsin, first elected president of Russia, began the process of implementing democracy and free market capitalism. Boris Yeltsin Brezhnev Doctrine Détente Glasnost Mikhail Gorbachev Perestroika 16
UNIT 3: POST-COMMUNIST EUROPE Section 3: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia Read: Finlan, The Collapse of Yugoslavia Like the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia consisted of ethnically heterogeneous populations that had national and cultural aspirations of their own. Communism and totalitarianism kept these minority aspirations in check. When Communism collapsed the first state to declare its independence from Yugoslavia was Croatia. Civil war resulted between Croatia and a primarily-serbian federal Yugoslav force. When ethnically diverse Bosnia (and later, Kosovo) also sought to secede from Yugoslavia, Serbian forces moved in and began to ethnically cleanse those regions of non-serbs, particularly Bosnian Muslims. Serbian ethnic cleansing invited retribution from Bosnians and Kosovars, as ethnic Serbs were in turn expelled from Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Kosovo. This ethnic cleansing consisted of forced migration, terror, and genocide and caused refugee crises throughout Eastern Europe. In the end, NATO intervened against the Serbs and an uneasy peace was imposed on the Balkans. Bosnian War Croatian War of Independence Dayton Accords Franjo Tudjman Kosovo War Ratko Mladic Slobodan Milosevic Srebrenica Vance-Owen Plan 17
UNIT 3: POST-COMMUNIST EUROPE Section 4: Globalization and the European Union Read: Winks, 118-147; Lieshout The Politics of European Unification 211-233 in Wakeman; Drakulic Café Europa: Life after Communism; (Review Winks, 65-70) After 50 years of division Europe began the slow process of reintegration. The reunification of Germany occurred in October 1990. The economic cost of reunifying Germany and reviving the East German economy was high. Eastern European states adjusted to the shock of immediately implementing democracy and capitalism. The shock of this rapid transition from a planned economy to a free market often brought with it inflation, unemployment, and corruption. Following the collapse of Communism, several Eastern European nations were admitted to NATO and the European Union. Debates continue over if or how well the former Soviet states and Eastern Europe can assimilate into Europe as the EU cautiously considers expansion. Euro European Coal and Steal Community (ECSC) European Economic Community (Common Market) European Union Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) Globalization International Criminal Court (ICC) Maastricht Treaty New Labour Schuman Declaration Treaty of Rome 18