Notes-Class 9-Political Science-Chapter-1-Post World War Political Developments-Maharashtra Board

Features of International system :

(i) Inter-dependence :

• No country, however big or small it may be, is not self-sufficient. They are dependent on each other for one reason or the other.
• Inter-dependence is an important feature of the international system, i.e. today's global system.

(ii) International Relations through Foreign Policy :

• Every nation has policies about its relations with other nations. This policy is called foreign policy.

Impact of First world War :

(1) Economic :

• Tremendous loss of life and property.
• Economic losses for the victors and the vanquished.
• Collapse of the economies of the victors and the vanquished.
• Also affected the countries that did not join the war.

(2) Political :

• Disintegration of German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and the Russian empires.
• Emergence of new nations like Romania, Poland and Bulgaria.
• Movements for independence started in the colonies of the European countries in Asia and Africa.
• Challenge to hegemony of Europe with the emergence of America as the super power.

Features :

• At the end of the First World War, all the nations felt that such a war should not happen again and measures must be taken to avoid it.
• The League of Nations was established in 1920 to solve international disputes by negotiations. Its headquarters was at Geneva in Switzerland.
• The main responsibility of the League of Nations was to avoid war.
• After the war, major changes came about in Europe.
• The earlier empires in Europe collapsed and new nation-states came into existence.
• Movements for independence started in the colonies of the European powers in Asia and Africa.
• The League of Nations could not stop the outbreak of the Second World War as autocratic regimes had emerged in Germany, Italy and Spain.

Impact of Second world War :

(1) Economic :

• More destruction of life and property than the First World War.
• Use of nuclear bombs led to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• Collapse of the world economy.
• Increase in poverty and unemployment all over the

(2) Political :

• Division of Germany
• East Europe came under dominance of the Soviet Union.
• Emergence of the USA and the USSR as the super powers.
• Independence to European colonies in Asia and Africa.
• Super-power rivalry for dominance over the world and Cold War.

Effects of the Cold War :

(1) Creation of Military Organisations : America formed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Soviet Union formed Warsaw Pact. The super powers took up the responsibility of the security of the countries joining their military organisations.

(2) Bipolarisation of the World : Most countries joined either of the two power blocs. Such a division of the nations of the world in two groups is bipolarisation. The scope of the cold war increased and the sphere of tension spread due to bipolarisation.

(3) Arms Race : The super powers started producing destructive weapons on a large scale to outsmart each other. However, they realised that the arms race endangered world peace. This realisation led to efforts in the direction of arms control and disarmament.

(4) Creation of Regional Organisations : Regional organisations were created to ensure mutual cooperation in the context of the super power rivalry Economic development was considered to be more important. European countries formed European Economic Community and South East Asian countries formed Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

(5) (A) Non-alignment : While the world was becoming bipolar, countries like India did not want to join the super power rivalry. Some nations decided to stay out of the cold war rivalry. This policy is known as Non-alignment.

(B) Non-aligned Movement (NAM) : The idea of non-alignment received support from the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa. This led to the emergence of the Non-aligned Movement in 1961.

Leadership of the NAM :

• (1) Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India
• (2) Marshall Tito, President of Yugoslavia
• (3) Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt
• (4) Dr. Sukarno, President of Indonesia
• (5) Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister of Ghana

(C) Evaluation of the Non-aligned Movement :

• The Non-aligned Movement has opposed colonialism, imperialism and racism.
• It has encouraged and supported peaceful resolution of international disputes.
• The Non-aligned movement is based on eternal principles of humanism, global peace and equality.
• It has inspired the less developed countries to come together and put forth the problems of poor, undeveloped countries firmly.
• It had made a demand of a New International Economic Order (NIEO).
• It has taken a firm stand on disarmament and fostering human rights.
• It has brought several new streams of economic and social changes into international politics.
• It gave confidence to developing countries to assert themselves with self-respect in international politics.

Impact on Human welfare due to the Cold War.

• In their quest to attain world supremacy, the super powers established military organisations.
• They indulged in arms race to outsmart each other and spent billions of dollars on the arms and armaments.
• The piling of nuclear armaments created an atmosphere of tension and the people around the world were living under the threat of the ‘war of total annihilation’.
• The money spent on research and development of armaments could have been spent on human welfare activities.

In this way, human welfare was neglected due to the Cold War.

End of the Cold War:

The Cold War came to an end in 1991 due to the following reasons :

• The Soviet Union adopted the policy of opening up the economy and loosened control over the economy.
• Mikhail Gorbachev, the then President of the Soviet Union, implemented the policies of Perestroika (Restructuring) and Glasnost (Openness). Due to these policies, the control over the media was reduced and political and economic spheres were restructured. This gave an impetus to democracy.
• The countries in East Europe overthrew dictatorial regimes and adopted the capitalism and democracy.
• The Soviet Union disintegrated and several new nations emerged out of it. Russia was the biggest country.

Post-Cold War World :

The following changes came about in world politics after the end of the Cold War.

• America remained the only super power in world politics.
• A conducive atmosphere for the growth in trade and economic relations between and among nations prevailed.
• There was free flow of capital, labour, market technology and information and ideas throughout the world.
• As all nations of the world decided to give priority to trade relations, the idea of giving ‘aid’ was replaced by efforts to establish economic relations.
• The description of opposing nations changed from 'enemy nation’ to ‘rival nation’.
• The United Nations now has to take concrete steps to maintain global peace and security.
• The issues like environmental protection, fostering of human rights, gender equality and management of natural calamities have acquired a global dimension.

The benefits of globalisation are :

• There was economic unification. The trade increased. There was availability of quality products in plenty.
• The boundaries of nations no longer remained sacrosanct.
• There was free flow of capital, labour, technology and information. There was free flow of ideas among the people globally.
• Economies of different countries are now linked to each other.

The demerits of globalisation are :

• However, globalisation has failed to close the gap between the poor and rich nations.
• The benefits of free trade have not reached the poor nations.

European Union (EU) :

• The European Union was established under its current name in 1993 following the Maastricht Treaty.
• Initially, it was limited to the West European countries. Along with England, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Greece and Bulgaria. 28 countries became members of the European Union.
• The European Union has brought about political and economic unity among the member nations. ‘Euro’ currency came into force.
• Along with free trade and economic zone, they garnered benefits like common citizenship rights, security, tourism and co-operation.
• The people got special rights of entering the member countries without visa.
• In 2012, the European Union got Nobel Peace Prize. The European Union is part of G-20 group.
• Presently, as per UK's decision on a June 23, 2016 referendum, it had called for exit referred to as (BREXIT) from the European Union.

Multipolar System :

• When many countries emerge as super powers in the international system, such a situation is called a Multipolar System.
• The supremacy of the USA is now being challenged by the European Community, Russia and China.