T
he first half of the 20th century was a period of significant upheaval worldwide. Between 1900 and
1945, the major industrial powers expanded their colonial empires, fought two global wars, wit-
nessed the rise of Communism, Fascism, and Nazism, and suffered the Great Depression. These decades
were also a time of radical change in the arts when painters and sculptors challenged some of the most
basic assumptions about the purpose of art and what form an artwork should take.
During the 19th century, the development of modern nation-states and advanced industrial soci-
eties in Europe and America had led to frenzied imperialist expansion. By the beginning of the 20th cen-
tury (MAP35-1), Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal all had footholds in
Africa. In Asia, Britain ruled India, the Dutch controlled Indonesia’s vast archipelago, the French held
power in Indochina, and the Russians ruled Central Asia and Siberia. Japan began rising as a new and
formidable Pacific power that would stake its claims to empire in the 1930s. This imperialism was capi-
talist and expansionist, establishing colonies as raw-material sources, as manufacturing markets, and as
territorial acquisitions. Early-20th-century colonialism also often had the missionary dimension of
bringing the “light” of Christianity and civilization to “backward peoples” and educating “inferior races.”
Nationalism and rampant imperialism also led to competition. Eventually, countries negotiated al-
liances to protect their individual state interests. The conflicts between the two major blocs—the Triple
Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) and the Triple Entente (Russia, France, and Great
Britain)—led to World War I, which began in 1914.The slaughter and devastation of the Great War
lasted until 1918. Not only were more than nine million soldiers killed in battle, but the introduction of
poison gas in 1915 added to the horror of humankind’s inhumanity to itself. Although the United States
tried to remain neutral, it finally felt compelled to enter the war in 1917. In 1919, the 27 Allied nations
negotiated the official end of World War I, whose legacy was widespread misery, social disruption, and
economic collapse—the ultimate effects of nationalism, imperialism, and expansionist goals.
The Russian Revolution exacerbated the global chaos when it erupted in 1917. Dissatisfaction with
the regime of Tsar Nicholas II (r. 1894–1917) had led workers to stage a general strike, and the monarchy’s
rule ended with the tsar’s abdication in March. In late 1917 the Bolsheviks wrested control of the country
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