Download The Collapse and Recovery of Europe

WWI, Great Depression, WWII
Path to WWI – A Powder Keg
 By 1900, Europeans, controlled most other peoples of the
world.
 An Accident Waiting to Happen
- modernization made European rivalries greater
- both Italy and Germany unified ca. 1870
- rise of a powerful new Germany was a disruptive new
element
 By around 1900, Europe was shaped by two rival alliances
- Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy)
- Triple Entente (Russia, France, Britain)
- These alliances turned a minor incident into WWI
Path to The Great War
 June 28, 1914: a Serbian nationalist assassinated
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne
- Austria was determined to crush the nationalism
movement
- Serbia had Russia (and Russia’s allies) behind it
- war broke out by August 1914
Frans Ferdinand Assassinated
Factors Contributing to
“The Great War”
 Popular nationalism
- freedom movements like that of Serbia
- intense nationalist competition between countries
- assured widespread popular support for starting war
More Causes of WWI
 Industrialized militarism
- military men had great prestige
- all states had standing armies, conscription
- arms race, especially in warships
- all states had elaborate plans for what to do if war
broke out
- large number of new weapons had been invented
(tanks, submarines, airplanes, poison gas, machine
guns, barbed wire)
- result: some 10 million people died in WWI, perhaps
20 million wounded
Factors Contributing to
“The Great War”
 Europe’s colonial empires
- funneled colonial troops and laborers into the war
effort
- battles in Africa and South Pacific
- Japan (allied with Britain) took German possessions
- Ottoman Empire (allied with Germany) suffered
intense military operations and an Arab revolt
(Lawrence of Arabia)
 United States joined the war in 1917 when German
submarines sunk the Lusitania
Foreshadowing War
Zimmerman Telegram
Zimmerman Telegram
Lusitania
The Great War
 Most expected WWI to be a quick war
- Germany was finally defeated November 1918
 Became a war of attrition (“trench warfare”)
- some battles lasted months and generated massive
casualties (war of attrition)
 Became “total war”—each country’s whole population
was mobilized
- enormous expansion of government authority
- massive propaganda campaigns to arouse citizens
- women replaced men in factories
- labor unions accepted sacrifices
Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare
The Great War
 The war left widespread disillusionment among
intellectuals in its wake
- led to questioning of Enlightenment values
- led to questioning of the superiority of the West and
its science
 Rearrangement of the map of Central Europe
- creation of independent Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia
- created new problems of ethnic minorities
- triggered the Russian Bolshevik revolution (1917)
Christmas Day Armistice
The Aftermath of War
 The Treaty of Versailles (1919) made the conditions
that caused WWII
- Germany lost its colonial empire and 15 percent of its
European territory
- Germany was required to pay heavy reparations
- Germany suffered restriction of its military forces
- Germany had to accept sole responsibility for the
outbreak of the war
- Germans resented the treaty immensely
Fall of The Ottoman Empire
 Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire
- the Armenian genocide
- creation of new Arab states
- British promises to both Arabs and Jews created a
new problem in Palestine
Aftermath of The Great War
 In Asia and Africa, many gained military skills and
political awareness
- Britain promised to start the process of creating selfgovernment in India in return for war help
- Japan was strengthened by the war
- Japan’s assumption of German privileges and
territory in China inspired some Chinese to adopt
Soviet-style communism
The US After the War
 The United States appeared as a global power
- U.S. manpower had been important in the defeat of
Germany
- the United States became Europe’s creditor
 Woodrow Wilson’s ideas
- Fourteen Points
- League of Nations
- U.S. Senate refused to join the league
Treaty of Versailles
The Roaring Twenties
 The war loosened traditional values in Europe
- enormous casualties promoted social mobility
- women increasingly won the right to vote
- flouting of sexual conventions
- flappers
- rise of a new consumerism
- buying on credit
- speculation of land and equities
Flappers doing the Charleston
The Great Depression
 Suggested that Europe’s economy was failing
 Worries about industrial capitalism
- it had generated individualist materialism
- it had created enormous social inequalities
- its instability caused great anxiety
 The Great Depression hit in 1929
- contracting stock prices wiped out paper fortunes
- many lost their life’s savings
- world trade dropped 62 percent within a few years
- unemployment soared
The Great Depression
The Great Depression
Causes of The Great Depression
 American economy boomed in the 1920s
- factories and farms produced too much
- Europe was impoverished by WWI and didn’t
purchase many American products
 Speculative stock market
- prices artificially high
Democracy? Socialism?
 The Depression was a major challenge to governments
- capitalist governments had thought that the
economy would regulate itself
- the Soviet Union’s economy had grown throughout
the 1930s
- in response, some states turned to “democratic
socialism,”
- greater regulation of the economy
- more equal distribution of wealth
Herbert Hoover
 Herbert Hoover was old school
- Adam Smith – laissez faire
- Americans become impatient… FDR is elected
FDR’s New Deal
 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Follows John Maynard Keynes’ economic ideology
- deficit spending to stimulate the economy
 FDR’s “New Deal” – alphabet soup
- efforts to “prime the pump” of the economy
- Social Security, minimum wage, and welfare for poor
- many new government agencies to supervise the
economy
 FDR’s policies did not fix the economy. They added to
the scale and duration of the economic crisis.
(according to most economists)
FDR’s New Deal
Democracy Denied: Comparing
Italy, Germany, and Japan
 Democracy questioned in the wake of World War I
- the challenge of communism
- authoritarian (submit to authority, limit freedom,
oppose democracy)
- nationalist
- anti-Communist regimes
 Authoritarian states of Italy, Germany, and Japan allied
with each other by 1936–1937
 1940: formal military alliance (the Axis powers)
The Fascist Alternative in Europe
 Fascism became popular in Europe post-WWI
- intensely nationalistic
- exalted action over reflection
- looked to charismatic leadership
- against individualism, liberalism, feminism,
parliamentary democracy, and communism
- determined to overthrow existing regimes
 Fascism appealed to dissatisfied people in all social
classes
- achieved major power in Italy and Germany
Fascism first developed in Italy
 Social tensions exacerbated by economic crisis
 Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) put together a private
army, the Black Shirts
- use violence as a political tool
- won power in 1922
- big business supported him - feared communism and
wanted social order
Mussolini in Power
 Once in power, Mussolini built state power
- clamped down on opponents
- created a “corporate state” economically
- reached an accord with the papacy (1929)
- women as domestic baby-factories
- invasion of Ethiopia (1935) to avenge defeat of 1896
Benito Mussolini
Hitler and the Nazis
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German fascism was more important than that of Italy
Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
Many similarities to Italian fascism
Grew out of the collapse of the German imperial state
after WWI
- Weimar Republic, negotiated peace
- traditional elites were disgraced
- myth - Germany didn’t lose war but had been
betrayed by civilians
(socialists, Communists, and Jews) i.e. Elders of Zion
The Nazi Party
 - gradually won support from middle class and
landowners
- widespread economic suffering: massive inflation in
1923
- everyone wanted decisive government action
- the National Socialist (Nazi) Party won growing
public support
Nazi Party’s 25 Points
Hitler and the Nazis
 The Nazis had only 2.6 percent of the vote in 1928; 37
percent in 1932
- Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933
(democratically elected)
 As chancellor, Hitler suppressed all other political
parties, arrested opponents, censured the press, and
assumed police power
- successfully brought Germany out of the Depression
(questionable)
- by the late 1930s, had majority support
- invoked rural and traditional values
Hitler and The Jews
 Used Jews as the ultimate scapegoat for the ills of
society (devolution)
- emphasis on a racial revolution
- Jews were increasingly excluded from public life
 Nuremberg Laws (1935) forbade racial mixing of Jews
with other Germans and forced Jews to wear the Star of
David as identifier
 Kristallnacht (Nov. 9, 1938): massive destruction and
looting of Jewish-owned shops
Japanese Authoritarianism
 Japan was also a newcomer to “great power” status
- like Germany and Italy, moved to authoritarian
government and territorial expansion
 Important differences:
- Japan played only a minimal role in WWI
- at Versailles, Japan was an equal participant on the
winning side
Japan Becomes Powerful
 1920s: Japan was apparently moving toward democracy
- expansion of education
- creation of an urban consumer society
- greater individual freedoms, including for women
- lower-class movements worked for greater equality
Japanese Authoritarianism
 Elite reaction
- Peace Preservation Law (1925): prison or death for
anyone who organized against the imperial
government or private property
 The Great Depression hit Japan hard
- doubted democracy and capitalism
- extreme nationalism
- hostility to parliamentary democracy
- commitment to leadership focused around the
emperor
- dedication to foreign expansion
Restrictions in Japan
 Shift in Japanese public life in the 1930s
- government jobs - bureaucrats or military figures,
not to party leaders
- the military became more dominant
- free expression was increasingly limited
 Japan was less repressive than Germany or Italy
The Road to War in Asia
 Japanese imperial ambitions rose in the 1920s and 1930s
- 1931: Japanese military units seized control of Manchuria
- established the puppet state of Manchukuo
 Western criticism led Japan to withdraw from League of Nations
- by 1936, Japan was more closely aligned with Germany/Italy
- 1937: major attack on the Chinese heartland started WWII in
Asia
 International opinion was against Japan; Japan felt threatened
- growing belief that Western racism was in the way of Japan
being accepted as an equal power
- Japan was heavily dependent on foreign goods
- imperialist powers controlled the resources of Southeast Asia
The Road to War in Asia
 1940–1941: Japan launched conquest of European
colonies
- wanted to “liberate” their fellow Asians
- the reality was highly brutal rule by the Japanese
 December 1941: attack on Pearl Harbor
- after the USA imposed an oil embargo on Japan
- Japanese authorities couldn’t see a way around U.S.
hostility; saw no choice but war
 Pearl Harbor joined the Asian and European theaters
of war into a single global struggle
December
th
7
1941
The Road to War in Europe
 Nazis promised to rectify the injustices of Versailles
 At first, Britain, France, and the USSR were unwilling
to confront German aggression
 War was perhaps actually desired by the Nazi
leadership
- Hitler stressed the need for “living space” in Eastern
Europe
- began rearmament in 1935
- 1938: annexation of Austria and Western
Czechoslovakia
- 1939: attack on Poland—triggered WWII in Europe
Germany at War
 Germany quickly gained control of most of Europe
- rapid defeat of France
- air war against Britain
- invasion of the USSR
 Germany’s new tactic of blitzkrieg was initially very
successful
- but was stopped by Soviet counterattack in 1942
- Germans were finally defeated in May 1945
The Outcomes of Global Conflict
 Estimated 60 million people died in WWII
- more than half the casualties were civilians
- the line between civilian and military targets was
blurred
 The USSR suffered more than 40 percent of the total
number of deaths
- massive destruction
Post-War
 China also suffered massive attacks against civilians
- in many villages, every person and animal was killed
- the Rape of Nanjing (1937–1938): 200,000–300,000
Chinese civilians were killed; countless women were
raped
 Bombing raids on Britain, Japan, and Germany showed
the new attitude toward “total war”
 Governments’ mobilization of economies, people, and
propaganda reached further than ever before
 Large numbers of women were drawn into industry
and the military
Rape of Nanjing
The Outcomes of Global Conflict
 The Holocaust: over 6 million Jews were killed in
genocide
- millions of others considered undesirable were also
killed by the Nazis
 WWII left Europe impoverished, with its industrial
infrastructure in ruins and millions of people
homeless or displaced
- Europe soon was divided into U.S. and Soviet spheres
of influence
Outcomes of War
 Weakened Europe could not hold onto its Asian and
African colonies
 WWII consolidated and expanded the communist world
- Soviet victory over Germany gave credibility to the
communist regime
- communist parties took power across Eastern Europe
 Growing internationalism
- creation of the United Nations (1945)
- establishment of the World Bank and IMF (1945)
 The new dominance of the United States as a global
superpower
The Recovery of Europe
 How Europe recovered:
- industrial societies are very resilient
- Western Europe integrated their recovering
economies
- USA was a reservoir of resources for the whole West
- USA - only country not physically touched by WWII
- by 1945, the United States accounted for 50 percent
of all world production
Marshall Plan
 USA rebuilt Europe: the Marshall Plan
- magnificently successful
- required the European recipients to cooperate with each
other
- 1951: creation of the European Coal and Steel Community
- 1957: creation of the European Economic Community
(Common Market)
- 1994: transformation of EEC into the European Union
- 2002: twelve member states adopted a common currency
- political and military security against the Soviet threat
 Created - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Marshall Plan
Recovery in Japan
 U.S. occupation between 1945 and 1952
 Remarkable economic growth for two decades after
WWII
- Assisted by U.S. economic aid
 Japan depended on the United States for security, since
it was forbidden to maintain military forces