Download Between the Wars

Upheaval in the West
After the War
People assumed that Europe and the
world were going to have a new era of
peace, economy growth and democracy.
 Hopes were not realized
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 People wanted peace but didn’t know how to
maintain it
 Economic security was rocked by rampant
inflation and then the Great Depression
 Hard times and uncertainty led to
dictatorships across Europe
Time of Rebuilding
After the war the European countries
had to overcome the fact that millions
had died and infrastructure and
productive capacity had been destroyed.
 Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to
pay reparations to the winners. They
only place Germany could get money
was take loans from the US. US
required allies to pay back their loans of
food and materiel in cash. Cycle caused
a financial crisis.
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Dawes Plan
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1923 Germany is unable to make payments
France occupies the industrial heartland, the
Ruhr Valley. Workers go on strike.
Government attempts to solve the crisis by
printing more money leading to runaway
inflation. It cost a months wages for a loaf of
bread and a wheelbarrow full of money for a
pair of shoes.
International commission meets in 1924 to
solve the problem.
 Reparations are reduced and tied to the ability of
Germany to pay them.
 US gives an initial $200 million loan for the
rebuilding.
Boom and Bust
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1920s was a time of prosperity
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Trade and production returned
Wages rose leading to higher standard of living
Commercial goods like radios and cars
US was loaning money and investing in
Europe’s recovery.
Weaknesses
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Overproduction
Protective tariffs
Easy credit
Eventually goods couldn’t be sold at home or
abroad.
 Speculation in US Stock Market
Boom and Bust
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1929 Crash of the Market led to
worldwide Depression
 People withdrawing money from US banks
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caused the banks to recall money that had
been loaned to European banks. That
caused European banks to fail as well.
People stopped investing in business and
industry.
Production and trade fell.
Tariffs further closed market.
Lower need for production leads to more lost
jobs.
Response to the Depression
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Increased government activity in the economy,
even in the US where laissez faire capitalism
had reigned strongest.
Democracy seemed on the defensive in the
1930s
Renewed interest in Communism. It appeared
Marx’s prediction that capitalism would destroy
itself through overproduction was coming true.
Masses of people were ready to follow a
political leader that offered simple solutions to
the problems. In Europe that looked like
dictatorships.
“Peace at Last”
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Treaty of Locarno signed in 1925 between
France and Germany guaranteeing the new
western borders of Germany with France and
Belgium.
Germany joins the League of Nations in 1926
Kellogg-Briand Pact signed by 63 nations in
1928 renounced war as instrument of national
policy. Didn’t say anything about what would
happen if anyone violated it however.
Spirit of cooperation was illusion. No one was
disarming.
France After the War
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Most directly affected by the war
Northern France was completely ruined
To make up for it France took back AlsaceLorraine, an industrial area, from Germany
Reparations payments made it possible for
France to rebuild
Government was unstable. Many parties had
to form coalitions to form a government.
Scandals frequently brought down
governments. French had no confidence in
their political system.
Fear of German aggression led to the
formation of the Maginot Line, a series of
fortifications along the border.
Great Britain After the War
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Deeply in debt
Production lagged
Shipping was destroyed by u-boats in the
war.
Unemployment high, wages low.
Angry, sometimes violent, workers strikes.
Began to lose territory
 Irish Home Rule
 Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and
Australia form Commonwealth of Nations after
gaining independence.
Germany After the War
Massive Economic Disaster
 Weimar Republic
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 No outstanding political leaders
 President Paul von Hindenburg
○ Military hero
○ Age 77
○ Didn’t fully believe in the democracy he was
elected to lead.
 Rise of extremist parties with support of
middle class
Unrest in the East
Breakdown in China
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Country fell into chaos after the republic was
formed in 1911
Powerless government
War devastated the country
Foreign countries established spheres of
influence in China. Treaty of Versailles gave
Japan control over Germany’s sphere of
influence in China.
May 4th movement-student protest of Japan’s
takeover of Chinese land led to a reform
movement that wanted China to learn from the
West.
Communists created a political party and
gained favor with factory workers.
Chinese Civil War
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Sun Yat-sen and Nationalists (Kuomintang) vs.
Mao Zedong and the Communists.
Mao was from a wealthy peasant family who
believed the Communists should look for
support among the peasants. Played on their
hatred of the landowners.
Peasant revolt in Hunan Province in 1927 fails
and Mao and his followers flee to the
mountains.
In the land Mao controlled peasants had a
better life with land and schooling.
Crisis leads to an invasion by Japanese forces
in 1931 and 1937.
The Long March
Nationalists began to wipe out communists.
Mao led them north through rugged terrain
under constant attack from the nationalists.
He insisted his people pay for what they
needed and was careful not to ruin the land
they passed through.
 More than 100,000 people began the
march, only a few thousand survived.
 Made Mao a Communist hero and earned
the Communists a lot of new followers from
the peasant class.
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Nationalism in Southeast Asia
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French Indochina
 Kings of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were allowed
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to rule locally but the real authority was the French
governor-general.
French used the colony to make money on rice and
rubber. Workers were paid little
France did provide education to some. They wanted
to train officials for the their government and spread
French culture.
Educated classes were influenced by western ideas
like civil rights and self determination.
Ho Chi Minh demands self rule and is ignored.
He forms a revolutionary Communist party in
Vietnam.
Nationalist revolts occur as early as the 1930s.
French suppress them brutally.
Nationalism in Southeast Asia
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India
 Indian troops had contributed 1.5 million troops
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for Britain in WW1. The soldiers came home
with ideas about liberty, civil rights and self
determination.
Violent protests break out
Soldiers fire on unarmed demonstrators killing
400. They are not disciplined.
Nationalists call for full independence, not self
rule in the British Empire.
1920 – Mohandas Gandhi becomes leader of
Indian National Congress.
Gandhi leads Congress in civil disobedience.
Nationalism in Southeast Asia
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Salt Marches: Gandhi led people to break
the British salt monopoly by picking up salt
at the shore, evaporating salt water
themselves, selling salt in the street.
Became a symbol of the movement.
Cloth boycott
1930s British grant more self rule but
Gandhi continues to call for independence.
Muslim League forms under Muhammad
Ali Jinnah.
Pakistan is formed under Jinnah’s
leadership when India is finally granted
independence
Rise of Hitler and Mussolini
Rise of Mussolini
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Italy after the war
 Weak economy
 Thousands unemployed, factories closed, food prices
high
 Labor strikes
 Middle class fear of socialism, communism and disorder
 Lack of faith in the government
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National Fascist Party formed in 1919
 Nationalist party
 Determined to keep Italy from falling to the communists.
 Believe nation state must be all powerful, rights of
individuals are secondary to the needs of the state.
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Mussolini named prime minister by the king in
1922 after threatening “either we are allowed to
govern or we will seize power”.
Mussolini’s Italy
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Still a parliamentary monarchy, but all the real
power was with Mussolini. Never achieved the
total degree of control that Hitler or Stalin had.
Promised to restore the “glory of Caesar”
1925 outlawed all political parties except
Fascist Party
Civil liberties were ended, anyone who
criticized Mussolini was arrested and killed.
Media controlled by the state
People accepted loss of freedom because
there was prosperity and order in Italy again.
Men were encouraged to sacrifice for the
state, women were called upon to stay home
and have as many children as possible.
Children were taught strict military discipline.
Fascism in Germany
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Hitler takes control
 Austrian
 War veteran
 Joined National Socialist German Workers Party
(that became the Nazis in 1920) in 1919
 Hated democracy. Despised communists but
admired some of their methods.
 Obsessed with nationalism and racism.
Considers Germans the “Master race” and
explains in Mein Kampf that the Germans must
conquer inferior peoples like Slavs. Jew are the
enemy of all Germans.
Fascism in Germany
Hitler is elected to the Reichstag promising
to restore German pride and protect
Germany from the communists.
 In 1933 President von Hindenberg
appointed Hitler chancellor.
 Enabling Act:
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 passes the Reichstag with a 2/3 vote
 enables the government to ignore the
Constitution for 4 years while it dealt with the
problems.
 “legal seizure” of power complete. Hitler no
longer had to deal with the Reichstag or
President Hindenburg.
Life in the Third Reich
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Pride in Germany
New life to the economy through public works and
military spending
Trade unions were banned. Business and labor were
under government control
Concentration camps formed for those who oppose
the state
All parties but the Nazis were banned
Propaganda and mass rallies
Terror/SS
1938 Kristallnacht; Night of Broken Glass. Jewish
shops were looted and destroyed, synagogues
burned, Jews were pulled from their homes to be
beaten and murdered in the street. Began the Nazi’s
campaign to rid Germany of Jewish population.
Spain
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Spanish Civil War
Francisco Franco leads a military coup in
1936.
Italy and Germany aid Franco
Soviet Union and volunteers from all over
aid republican government
Franco captures Madrid in 1939 and
establishes a dictatorship that favored
traditional groups of large landowners,
Catholic church, and business people.
Eastern Europe Struggles
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New democracies in Eastern Europe struggle
to cope.
Border disputes and ethnic conflict will poison
relations for decades.
Most are poor, agrarian countries with a very
small middle class. Peasants were illiterate,
large landowners feared the peasants.
Fear of communism.
Unstable governments, no tradition of political
democracy
Economic chaos
Only Czechoslovakia retains its political
democracy.