Download Notes Chapters 31 & 32

Notes
Chapters 31 & 32
April 8-12, 2013
Causes of the Great Depression
• Industry producing more than they were
selling (overproduction)
– Leads to reduced production, which leads to
layoffs, which hurts demand
• Wealth unevenly distributed (top 5% of
people gained 33% of the wealth)
• Buying stocks “on margin” (on credit), without
the ability to pay back the loan
Causes of the Great Depression
• Stock market prices hit “unnaturally high”
prices in late September, 1929.
• People begin to sell off, fearing a drop in
prices
• Turns into a panic, and on Tuesday, October
29, a record 16 million stocks are sold and the
market collapses
The Rise of
Fascism in Europe
Mussolini, Hitler,
and the turbulent 1930s
Background
• Harshness of the Versailles Treaty (especially
for Germany)
• Great Depression: mass unemployment and
inflation.
• Democracy is new, especially in Germany
under the so-called “Weimar Republic”
• People start turning to political extremes
What is Fascism?
• New, militant political movement that
emphasized loyalty to the government and
obedience to the Leader
• Incorporated Nationalism
• Incorporated Militarism
• Right-wing, opposite of communism
Birth of Fascism in ITALY
• Benito Mussolini – newspaper editor.
Promised to revive economy and armed
forces
• Established the Fascist Party in 1919
• Blackshirts: supporters of Mussolini.
Attacked opposition political groups
(Communists, Socialists)
• March on Rome: October 1922. 30,000
Blackshirts
• King appoints Mussolini as Il Duce (leader)
German Fascism: NAZISM
• Adolf Hitler: WWI veteran. Joins the National
Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis) in 1919
• Hitler quickly takes over party, known as der
Führer (the Leader)
• Attempts to overthrow the Weimar Republic in
1923. Fails, spends nearly two years in prison.
• Writes “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle)
– Germans are the Master Race (Aryans)
– Non-Aryans (Jews, Gypsies, Slavs) are inferior
– Germany needed more space (Lebensraum)…needed
to take it from Eastern Europe and Russia
German Fascism: NAZISM
• The Nazis remain a minor party until the Great
Depression
• After the 1932 elections, the Nazis are the
largest party in the German Parliament.
• Hitler appointed Chancellor in January 1933
• Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act
• Hitler begins to turn Germany into a
totalitarian state.
Persecution and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany
The Holocaust
Background
• Hitler and the Nazis believe that Jews and
other groups are inferior because they are
“non-Aryan”
• European anti-Semitism
• The Nazis blame Germany’s defeat, the Treaty
of Versailles, and the economic problems on
the Jews
• Hitler takes power in Germany in January
1933
Early Persecution
• Nuremburg Laws, 1935. Jews are no longer
German citizens, Jews cannot marry non-Jews,
Jews cannot do certain jobs
• Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938
• Nazis try to deport the Jews, but no other
country wanted to take them.
• Isolation: Jews are rounded up and sent to
“ghettos”, walled off sections of cities where
they were forced to live
The Final Solution
• Hitler orders the SS (security force) to round
up Jews and other “inferior groups” into
concentration camps
– Concentration camps were Work Camps, used the
Jews slave labor
• SS go into some areas and kill the Jews
• “The Final Solution”, 1942: Hitler approves
mass extermination.
The Final Solution
• Will use vital materials and manpower to carry
out mass murder, hurts Germany’s war effort
• Concentration camps converted into
Extermination Camps
– Built gas chambers disguised as showers
– Built “crematoriums” (ovens) to burn the bodies
– Dachau, Auschwitz, Treblinka
• Victims:
– 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis
– 9-10 million other groups (Gypsies, Slavs, Mentally
Handicapped) also killed
Japanese Internment
Camps
Background
• By 1941: 127,000 Japanese Living in the
United States, nearly 90% in California
• Led to high anti-Japanese sentiment.
• Japanese immigration barred in the 1920s
• Laws segregated Japanese in some cities
Pearl Harbor and
Response
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
• Racist attitude towards Japanese Americans
increase
• Roosevelt Issues Executive Order 9066 – Feb
1942
– Secretary of War can create “military zones from
which any or all persons may be excluded”
– Creates “Military Area No. 1”: Pacific Coast to 100
miles inland.
Internment
• Starting in March “Civilian Exclusion
Orders” are issued restricting rights of
Japanese in Military Area No. 1
• May 3, 1942 - Civilian Exclusion Order
33:
– All persons of Japanese ancestry to be
relocated from Military Area No. 1
Internment
• Given a week or less to “evacuate”
• Moved first to Civilian Assembly Centers
in California, then to Relocation Camps
outside Military Area No. 1
• Camps were built quickly, poorly heated,
minimum rations, guarded by military
sentries and barbed wire fences
• Held until January 1945. Given $25 and a
train ticket home.