into the Great Depression.

It wasn't just a depression for the US.

It was a depression for the world.

But I want to back up a little bit,

because I forgot to mention a very important fact that's

hugely important to the rest of US history

into the 20th century.

And that's what happened in 1917, actually during World War

I. And that's the Bolshevik Revolution.

The Russian empire was overthrown by the Bolsheviks.

And it became the Soviet Union, which you probably know

was a communist state, and it became the United States

archenemy over the rest of-- well,

not over the rest of-- but near the, I guess,

the second half of the 20th century.

So with that out of the way, I just

want to make sure you know that Russia is now the Soviet Union.

Let's fast forward back through the Great Depression,

and probably the one point when we're

doing this very high-level overview that's of interest.

And as you can see, even though the focus of this series

of videos is on US interest, what's

happening in the rest of the world

is starting to become much more important, because the US is

starting to become this really serious global actor.

And so in 1933-- so this is right in the middle

of this global depression, and Germany was especially

hit hard because of all the damage done by World War

I and the war reparations and all the rest.

You have Hitler coming to power as chancellor of Germany.

And it's interesting to note that it was actually--

he came to power in a democratic process.

Chancellor of Germany is analogous to prime minister

of other countries, and so essentially he

was ruling a coalition.

The Nazis, his party, did not have the majority.

But they were able to control this coalition.

Although it was a very weak one.

But what they were good at is intimidating and rigging

elections and all the rest.

And so over the course of the rest of the '30s,

essentially the Nazis consolidated power

until we get to 1939.

And the rest of the world would kind of watch Hitler.

He was consolidating power.

He came in democratically, but he was essentially

consolidating power under himself,

turning it into a dictatorship.

He was militarizing Germany.

People started to get concerned, but they all

had the doctrine of appeasement.

Hey, you know, let's just not make him too angry

and maybe he won't start anything too bad.

But in 1939, Germany invades Poland.

And this is kind of viewed as the one event

that kind of-- the straw that breaks the camel's

back, so to speak.

And so it begins World War II.

So this is the beginning of World War II.

And initially it's between-- I guess

if you think about the great powers that initially get

involved, it is the British Empire and the Soviet Union.

France is involved.

It quickly gets overrun by the Nazis.

And what happens is that the US-- it

wasn't like the situation with World War I

where the US was trying to stay neutral.

The US had recognized, especially FDR, Franklin Delano

Roosevelt, he had recognized that Hitler was an aggressor,

that he was, from FDR's point of view, definitely in the wrong

here.

So even from the beginning of World War II,

the US did help support the Allies.

So it would send arms and any other type of assistance.

When Japan and Italy joined on the side of Germany,

the US embargoed oil to Japan.

The US was an exporter of oil to Japan.

And you could imagine Japan did not

produce a lot of its own oil, and oil is super important

when you're trying to run a war machine.

So that didn't make Japan too happy.

So you fast forward to 1941, and you have Japan bombing Pearl

Harbor.

So until this point, US kind of played a non-direct role.

It definitely supported the Allies.

It did what it could economically

and by providing military aid, but it did not actively

participate in the fighting.

But then December 7, 1941, the Japanese

bombed the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor.

And that's a whole interesting debate

because, or discussion, it was lucky for the US

that a lot of the Pacific fleet was not there.

But it was obviously this thing that convinced the US public

that World War II was worth joining.

So in 1941, because of Pearl Harbor, the US enters the war.

And it enters the war in both arenas,

both in Europe and in the Pacific.

And then you fast forward.

It goes against the Italians in North Africa.

And then you fast forward to 1944, it actually

enters into the fight in mainland Europe.

This is the invasion of Normandy.

This is D-Day.

June 6, 1944.

If you have ever seen "Saving Private Ryan,"

it starts with this.

I've never stormed a beach, but I

could imagine that's probably the most realistic reenactment

of what it was like to storm the beach at Normandy.

But you fast forward to 1945.

And eventually, especially between the Soviet and the US,

or I should say all the Allied forces,

they're able to, I guess, win the European front of World War

II.

And then you fast forward to the end of that year.

Japan was still kind of fighting pretty ferociously.

And so the US-- and this is once again--

I could make many videos of this.

We can debate the ethical implications of this.

But the US develops the atomic bomb,

ignites one over Hiroshima and then a few days later one

over Nagasaki.

And that essentially ends World War II.

And so the outcome of World War II

is you have two remaining superpowers.

You have the Soviet Union, and you have the United States.

And what happens after that is that you have the Cold War.

These two huge powers, the Soviet Union

is this communist country.

It's obviously trying to create this communist sphere

of influence.

A lot of Eastern Europe was falling under Soviet sway.

The United States, not a communist country,

a very capitalist country, you can imagine.

And this is something that gets confused a lot.

The Soviet Union was communist, and it was totalitarian.

Communism and Democracy aren't necessarily things

that go against each other.

But the Soviet Union had neither a capitalist system,

nor democracy.

It was both communist and totalitarian.

And when I say communist, I'm talking

about no private wealth.

The state really owned all resources.

The United States, on the other hand, was hugely capitalist.

And you could imagine many people in the United States

did not want any of this communism business

to come to us.

So you have this major battle that never really erupts

into direct conflict between the Soviet Union and the United

States.

It's always done through proxies,

through people who the United States or the Soviet Union

is acting on the behalf-- or who are acting on behalf

of the United States or Soviet Union.

But you have the Cold War beginning.

And it's called the Cold War because it wasn't a hot war.

The United States and the Soviet Union

never really fired bullets at each other.

Instead, they supported other parties

that would fire bullets at the Soviet Union.

Or the Soviet Union would support other parties

that would fire bullets at the United States.

And for the United States, it was all

about stopping communism.

It was all about preventing this domino theory

that if one country in a region would fall to communism,

that other countries would.

So the United States became a bit paranoid,

or maybe it was justified.

Either way, it was very concerned

about the spread of communism.

And the first time that this really gets tested-- and 1950

is an interesting year, because this is the first time--

obviously, the US had nuclear weapons as of 1945.

But in 1950, the Soviet Union tested

its first nuclear weapon.

So now the Cold War is starting to get very serious.

Both of these adversaries can now

nuke each other if they wanted to.

And also in 1950, you have Korea.

And Korea, before World War II-- so that's

a very small depiction of Korea--

it was a Japanese colony.

But obviously, Japan had now lost.

And so after World War II, it was

split between an area, North Korea, which

was influenced by the Russians, and South Korea, which

was influenced by the United States.

And it was split along the 38th parallel,

and I know this is a super small diagram.

We'll go into more detail when we

do detailed videos about the Korean War.

But in 1950, you have the North Koreans invaded the South.

So it started the Korean War.

The US sent troops.

The North Koreans had China on their side, the Chinese army.

The Soviets were also supplying them.

But at the end of the day in 1953,

you fast forward, it ends up being

a little bit of a stalemate, because the end result was is

that the original 38th parallel border gets,

I guess, reinstated.

But that was the first real conflict of the Cold War.

And notice there were never US or Russian--

or I shouldn't say Russian-- US or Soviet troops

directly firing at each other.

The US were at war with the North

Korean and the Chinese troops, but they

were kind of proxies for the Soviet Union.

And at the same time, as you can imagine,

because you have these two adversaries, these two

technically sophisticated adversaries--

they both had nuclear weapons-- it

became very interesting on who can kind of dominate space.

So you have this kind of space race developing in 1957.

The Soviets are able to launch the first artificial satellite

around the earth.

This is Sputnik One over here.

Some people think the first Sputnik

is the one that had the dog in it.

No, that came a few months later.

That was Sputnik Two, actually.

Had the picture of the dog here, but the dog eventually dies.

But it was alive for a little bit in orbit.

So that gets everyone freaked out.

The US responds.

Then in 1961 you have Yuri Gagarin.

He's the first person in space, first human being in space.

He returns safely.

We eventually get up there-- or the United States eventually

gets up there as well.

And you fast forward all the way to 1969, the US

is the first to be on the moon.

So you have this space race.

The two countries are really trying to one up each other.

And at the same time that that's happening,

you have-- and I bring this up just because so much

happened during his presidency.

In 1960, you have John F. Kennedy

being elected kind of in the heart of the Cold War.

And the other interesting thing is

he was the first Catholic president,

which people questioned.