Exam help

Very briefly:

1. The so-called "Green Revolution": aboundant use of plaguicides, chemical nutrients and mechanization led to a massive increas in prodution (both per worker and globally). This meant also more pollution derived from agricultural practices and an increased reduction of the agrarian population. The most extreme case may be the USA, a net exporter of food but with a tiny agrarian sector of less than 2% of the population.

2. The Russian revolution was inmediately followed by other failed revolutions in other regions of Europe (most important being Germany and Hungary). The ascension of Stalin and ousting of Trotski in the 20s limited the internationalism of the USSR but still it remained a reference for revolutionary movements. The Komintern promoted Communist Parties and "Popular Fronts" (coalitions of progressive parties). These Popular Fronts achieved electoral success in France and Spain prior to WWII. As reaction, western powers promoted or tolerated authoritarian governments, such as the fascists and even the German nazis, who promised hard hand against any sort of socialist activity.

In WWII, Soviet military resistence was central to German defeat.

After WWII the USSR became the 2nd global power, competing with the USA for World hegemony. The Komintern (sometimes too unruly) was dissolved and replaced by the Kominform a bureau. While it's often attributed to USSR infleunce the success of communist guerrillas, in most cases they acted independently and against the will of this Kominform (Mao and Tito are the best examples). Nevertheless the influence of the model is quite clear.

The Cold War meant that the world was permanently in the brink of mass destruction, something that never came closer than in 1962, when the Cuban missiles crisis. It also meant that playing between the two great powers the former colonies could get some sort of independence. This was countered in many places the same way than before WWII: with the promotion of hard-line dictatorships, specially in Latin America, and sometimes with direct military intervention by either side.

The 60s and 70s marked an inflexion point. On one hand Capitalism was evolving to a new model (Toyotism) and that produced sociological changes best expressed in the revolutions of 1968. The Stalinist disciplinary model was plainly unable to adapt and eventually fell in te 1990s, not before having brought Russia and other nations into industrial modernity.

3. First reference: the European Community of Coal and Steel. This was largely the seed of the EEC (now EU). It aimed to resolve specially the Franco-German exonomic tensions, allowing both countries, as well as the other associates to benefit from economic integration instead of envying each other. Also it draws inspiration from the economic unions that preluded German unification, specially from the viewpoint of the most federalist elements.

After British accession (largely delayed by the French Gaullists, who feared that the UK would sabotage the European integration process), the EEC/EU has grown both is side and integration but specially in economic and law enforcement matters but only very limitedly in the political facet, so "federalists" (normally called "Europeists") are rather disappointed, as they dream to create a unified (while plural) European power with world projection of its own.