European imperialism gathered new strength in the late 19th century when European powers brought much of Africa and Asia under direct imperial rule. However, after World War II they lost the vast majority of their colonies less than twenty years after the war. Why did Europeans establish these vast empires in the late 19th century and why did they lose them after World War II? What effect did decolonization have on European society in the decades after the war, politically, socially, culturally, and/or economically?
Why did World War I start and what were its major effects on European society? Could an argument be made that the War indirectly influenced the rise of multiple authoritarian movements in the postwar period? A complete answer will consider political, economic, cultural, and social developments.
The second half of the twentieth century in Europe was dominated by the Cold War, when Europe was divided politically and ideologically into an East and a West. How was communism imposed in the East and how did the Soviet Union plan to help those countries to achieve socialism? Were there attempts to reform communism, and do you think that failures to do so might have led to the rapid collapse of communism all over the Eastern bloc in the period from 1989-91?
