Download unit 5—reason and the french revolution

UNIT 8
TOTALITARIANISM
AND WWII
1920s/1930s-Ch 19
III. In the interwar period, fascism, extreme nationalism, racist ideologies, and the failure of
appeasement resulted in the catastrophe of World War II, presenting a grave challenge to
European civilization.
• Remilitarization of the Rhineland
A. French and British fears of another war, American
• Italian invasion of Ethiopia
isolationism, and deep distrust between Western
democratic, capitalist nations and the communist Soviet • Annexation of Austria
• Munich Agreement and its
Union allowed fascist states to rearm and expand their
violation
territory.
D. Fueled by racism and anti-Semitism, German Nazism
sought to establish a “new racial order” in Europe,
which culminated with the Holocaust.
• Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
• Nuremburg Laws
• Wannsee Conference
• Auschwitz and other death camps
VII. The process of decolonization occurred over the course of the century with varying
degrees of cooperation, interference, or resistance from European imperialist states.
A. At the end of World War I, President Woodrow
Wilson’s principle of national self-determination raised
expectations in the non-European world for freedom
from colonial domination, expectations that led to
international instability.
• Lebanon and Syria
B. The League of Nations distributed former German
• Iraq
and Ottoman possessions to France and Great Britain
• Palestine
through the mandate system, thereby altering the
imperial balance of power, and creating a strategic
interest in the Middle East and its oil.
SP-6 Explain how new ideas of political authority and the
failure of diplomacy led to world wars, political revolutions,
and the establishment of totalitarian regimes in the 20th
century.
SP-8 Explain how and why various groups, including
communists and fascists, undermined parliamentary
democracy through the establishment of regimes that
maintained dictatorial control while manipulating
democratic forms.
SP-14 Analyze the role of warfare in remaking the political
map of Europe and in shifting the global balance of power in
the 19th and 20th centuries.
SP-17 Explain the role of nationalism in altering the
European balance of power, and explain attempts made to
limit nationalism as a means to ensure continental stability.
IS-7 Evaluate how identities such as ethnicity, race, and
class have defined the individual in relationship to society.
IS-10 Analyze how and why Europeans have marginalized
certain populations (defined as “other”) over the course of
their history.
INT-1 Assess the relative influence of economic, religious,
and political motives in promoting exploration and
colonization.
INT-2 Analyze the cultural beliefs that justified European
conquest of overseas territories and how they changed over
time.
INT-3 Analyze how European states established and
administered overseas commercial and territorial empires.
INT-7 Analyze how contact with non-European peoples
increased European social and cultural diversity, and
affected attitudes toward race.
INT-9 Assess the role of European contact on overseas
territories through the introduction of disease, participation
in the slave trade and slavery, effects on agricultural and
manufacturing patterns, and global conflict.
INT-10 Explain the extent of and causes for non-Europeans’
adoption of or resistance to European cultural, political, or
economic values and institutions, and explain the causes of
their reactions.
INT-11 Explain how European expansion and colonization
brought non-European societies into global economic,
diplomatic, military, and cultural networks.
SP-14 Analyze the role of warfare in remaking the political
map of Europe and in shifting the global balance of power in
the 19th and 20th centuries.
SP-17 Explain the role of nationalism in altering the
European balance of power, and explain attempts made to
limit nationalism as a means to ensure continental stability.
IS-10 Analyze how and why Europeans have marginalized
certain populations (defined as “other”) over the course of
their history.
Key Concept 4.2
The stresses of economic collapse and total war engendered internal conflicts within European states and created
conflicting conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the state, as demonstrated in the ideological
battle among liberal democracy, communism, and fascism.
I. The Russian Revolution created a regime based on Marxist–Leninist theory.
C. The Bolshevik takeover prompted a protracted civil
war between communist forces and their opponents,
who were aided by foreign powers.
D. In order to improve economic performance, Lenin
compromised with freemarket principles under the New
Economic Policy, but after his death Stalin undertook a
centralized program of rapid economic modernization.
E. Stalin’s economic modernization of the Soviet Union
came at a high price, including the liquidation of the
kulaks, famine in the Ukraine, purges of political rivals,
unequal burdens placed on women, and the
establishment of
an oppressive political system.
• Collectivization
• Five-Year Plans
• Great Purges
• Gulags
• Secret police
PP-3 Explain how geographic, economic, social, and
political factors affected the pace, nature, and timing of
industrialization in western and eastern Europe.
PP-8 Analyze socialist, communist, and fascist efforts to
develop responses to capitalism and why these efforts
gained support during times of economic crisis.
PP-10 Explain the role of social inequality in contributing to
and affecting the nature of the French Revolution and
subsequent revolutions throughout the 19th and 20th
centuries.
PP-15 Analyze efforts of government and nongovernmental
reform movements to respond to poverty and other social
problems in the 19th and 20th centuries.
PP-16 Analyze how democratic, authoritarian, and
totalitarian governments of the left and right attempted to
overcome the financial crises of the 1920s and 1930s.
SP-5 Assess the role of colonization, the Industrial
Revolution, total warfare, and economic depressions in
altering the government’s relationship to the economy, both
in overseeing economic activity and in addressing its social
impact.
SP-6 Explain how new ideas of political authority and the
failure of diplomacy led to world wars, political revolutions,
and the establishment of totalitarian regimes in the 20th
century.
SP-8 Explain how and why various groups, including
communists and fascists, undermined parliamentary
democracy through the establishment of regimes that
maintained dictatorial control while manipulating
democratic forms.
IS-8 Evaluate how the impact of war on civilians has
affected loyalty to and respect for the nation-state.
IS-10 Analyze how and why Europeans have marginalized
certain populations (defined as “other”) over the course of
their history.
II. The ideology of fascism, with roots in the pre–World War I era, gained popularity in
an environment of postwar bitterness, the rise of communism, uncertain transitions
to democracy, and economic instability.
A. Fascist dictatorships used modern technology and
propaganda that rejected democratic institutions,
promoted charismatic leaders, and glorified war and
nationalism to lure the disillusioned.
B. Mussolini and Hitler rose to power by exploiting
postwar bitterness and economic instability, using
terror and manipulating the fledgling and unpopular
democracies in their countries.
C. Franco’s alliance with Italian and German fascists in
the Spanish Civil War —in which the Western
democracies did not intervene — represented a testing
ground for World War II and resulted in authoritarian
rule in Spain from 1936 to the mid-1970s.
• Poland
D. After failures to establish functioning democracies,
• Hungary
authoritarian dictatorships took power in Central and
• Romania
Eastern Europe during the interwar period.
III. The Great Depression, caused by weaknesses in international trade and monetary
theories and practices, undermined Western European democracies and fomented
radical political responses throughout Europe.
A. World War I debt, nationalistic tariff policies,
overproduction, depreciated currencies, disrupted
trade patterns, and speculation created weaknesses
in economies worldwide.
B. Dependence on post–World War I American
investment capital led to financial collapse when,
following the 1929 stock market crash, the United
States cut off capital flows to Europe.
PP-8 Analyze socialist, communist, and fascist efforts to develop
responses to capitalism and why these efforts gained support
during times of economic crisis.
PP-11 Analyze the social and economic causes and consequences
of the Great Depression in Europe.
OS-9 Explain how new theories of government and political
ideologies attempted to provide a coherent
explanation for human behavior and the extent to which they
adhered to or diverged from traditional explanations
based on religious beliefs.
OS-12 Analyze how artists used strong emotions to express
individuality and political theorists encouraged emotional
identification with the nation.
SP-6 Explain how new ideas of political authority and the failure
of diplomacy led to world wars, political revolutions, and the
establishment of totalitarian regimes in the 20th century.
SP-8 Explain how and why various groups, including communists
and fascists, undermined parliamentary democracy through the
establishment of regimes that maintained dictatorial control while
manipulating democratic forms.
SP-10 Trace the ways in which new technologies, from the
printing press to the Internet, have shaped the development of
civil society and enhanced the role of public opinion.
SP-14 Analyze the role of warfare in remaking the political map of
Europe and in shifting the global balance of power in the 19th and
20th centuries.
SP-17 Explain the role of nationalism in altering the European
balance of power, and explain attempts made to limit nationalism
as a means to ensure continental stability.
IS-8 Evaluate how the impact of war on civilians has affected
loyalty to and respect for the nation-state.
IS-10 Analyze how and why Europeans have marginalized certain
populations (defined as “other”) over the course of their history.
INT-8 Evaluate the United States’ economic and cultural influence
on Europe and responses to this influence in Europe.
PP-8 Analyze socialist, communist, and fascist efforts to develop
responses to capitalism and why these efforts gained support
during times of economic crisis.
PP-11 Analyze the social and economic causes and consequences
of the Great Depression in Europe.
PP-16 Analyze how democratic, authoritarian, and totalitarian
governments of the left and right attempted to overcome the
financial crises of the 1920s and 1930s.
SP-5 Assess the role of colonization, the Industrial
Revolution, total warfare, and economic depressions in altering
the government’s relationship to the economy, both in overseeing
economic activity and in addressing its social impact.
C. Despite attempts to rethink economic theories and
policies and forge political alliances, Western
democracies failed to overcome the Great Depression
and were weakened by extremist movements.
new economic theories
and policies such as the
following:
• Keynesianism in Britain
• Cooperative social action in
Scandinavia
• Popular Front policies in France
political alliances such as
the following:
• National government in Britain
• Popular Fronts in France and
Spain
Key Concept 4.3
During the 20th century, diverse intellectual and cultural movements questioned the existence of objective knowledge,
the ability of reason to arrive at truth, and the role of religion in determining moral standards.
I. The widely held belief in progress characteristic of much of 19th-century thought began to
break down before World War I; the experience of war intensified a sense of anxiety that
permeated many facets of thought and culture, giving way by the century’s end to a
plurality of intellectual frameworks.
B. The effects of world war and economic depression
undermined this confidence in science and human
reason, giving impetus to existentialism and producing
postmodernism in the post-1945 period.
II. Science and technology yielded impressive material benefits but also caused immense
destruction and posed challenges to objective knowledge.
• Eugenics
B. Medical theories and technologies extended life but
• Birth control
posed social and moral questions that eluded consensus
• Abortion
and crossed religious, political, and philosophical
• Fertility treatments
perspectives.
• Genetic engineering
PP-11 Analyze the social and economic causes and
consequences of the Great Depression in Europe.
PP-14 Explain how industrialization elicited critiques from
artists, socialists, workers’ movements, and feminist
organizations.
OS-8 Explain the emergence, spread, and questioning of
scientific, technological, and positivist approaches to
addressing social problems.
OS-10 Analyze the means by which individualism,
subjectivity, and emotion came to be considered a valid
source of knowledge.
IS-8 Evaluate how the impact of war on civilians has
affected loyalty to and respect for the nation-state.
PP-4 Explain how the development of new technologies and
industries — as well as new means of communication,
marketing, and transportation — contributed to expansion
of consumerism and increased
standards of living and quality of life in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
OS-8 Explain the emergence, spread, and questioning of
scientific, technological, and positivist approaches to
addressing social problems.
SP-1 Explain the emergence of civic humanism and new
conceptions of political authority during the Renaissance, as
well as subsequent theories and practices that stressed the
political importance and rights of the individual.
SP-13 Evaluate how the emergence of new weapons, tactics,
and methods of military organization changed the scale and
cost of warfare, required the centralization of power, and
shifted the balance of power.
III. Organized religion continued to play a role in European social and cultural life, despite
the challenges of military and ideological conflict, modern secularism, and rapid social
changes.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A. The challenges of totalitarianism and communism in
• Martin Niemöller
Central and Eastern Europe brought mixed responses
• Pope John Paul II
from the Christian churches.
• Solidarity
IV. During the 20th century, the arts were defined by experimentation, self-expression,
subjectivity, and the increasing influence of the United States in both elite and popular
culture.
new movements in the
A. New movements in the visual arts, architecture and
music demolished existing aesthetic standards, explored visual arts such as the following:
• Cubism
subconscious and subjective states, and satirized
• Futurism
Western society and its values.
• Dadaism
• Surrealism
• Abstract expressionism
• Pop Art
new architectural
movements such as the following:
• Bauhaus
• Modernism
• Postmodernism
B. Throughout the century, a number of writers
challenged traditional literary conventions, questioned
Western values, and addressed controversial social and
political issues.
new movements in music
such as the following:
• Compositions of Igor Stravinsky
• Compositions of Arnold
Schoenberg
• Compositions of Richard Strauss
• Franz Kafka
• James Joyce
• Erich Maria Remarque
• Virginia Woolf
• Jean-Paul Sartre
OS-3 Explain how political revolution and war from the
17th century on altered the role of the church in political
and intellectual life and the response of religious authorities
and intellectuals to such challenges.
OS-11 Explain how and why religion increasingly shifted
from a matter of public concern to one of private belief
over the course of European history.
SP-3 Trace the changing relationship between states and
ecclesiastical authority and the emergence of the principle
of religious toleration.
INT-8 Evaluate the United States’ economic and cultural
influence on Europe and responses to this influence in
Europe.
PP-1 Explain how and why wealth generated from new
trading, financial, and manufacturing practices and
institutions created a market and then a consumer
economy.
PP-12 Evaluate how the expansion of a global consumer
economy after World War II served as a catalyst to
opposition movements in Eastern and Western Europe.
PP-14 Explain how industrialization elicited critiques from
artists, socialists, workers’ movements, and feminist
organizations.
OS-10 Analyze the means by which individualism,
subjectivity, and emotion came to be considered a valid
source of knowledge.
OS-13 Explain how and why modern artists began to move
away from realism and toward abstraction and
the nonrational, rejecting traditional aesthetics.
Key Concept 4.4
Demographic changes, economic growth, total war, disruptions of traditional social patterns, and
competing definitions of freedom and justice altered the experiences of everyday life.
I. The 20th century was characterized by large-scale suffering brought on by warfare
and genocide as well as tremendous improvements in the standard of living.
A. World War I created a “lost generation,” fostered
disillusionment and cynicism, transformed the lives of
women, and democratized societies..
C. Mass production, new food technologies, and
industrial efficiency increased disposable income and
created a consumer culture in which greater domestic
comforts, such as electricity, indoor plumbing, plastics,
and synthetic fibers
became available.
D. New communication and transportation technologies • Telephone
• Radio
multiplied the connections across space and time,
• Television
transforming daily life and contributing to the
• Computer
proliferation of ideas and to globalization.
INT-6 Assess the role of overseas trade, labor, and
technology in making Europe part of a global economic
network and in encouraging the development of new
economic theories and state policies.
PP-1 Explain how and why wealth generated from new
trading, financial, and manufacturing practices and
institutions created a market and then a consumer
economy.
PP-4 Explain how the development of new technologies and
industries — as well as new means of communication,
marketing, and transportation — contributed to expansion
of consumerism and increased
standards of living and quality of life in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
SP-10 Trace the ways in which new technologies, from the
printing press to the Internet, have shaped the development
of civil society and enhanced the role of public opinion.
IS-3 Evaluate the role of technology, from the printing press
to modern transportation and telecommunications, in
forming and transforming society.
II. The lives of women were defined by family and work responsibilities, economic
changes, and feminism.
• Simone de Beauvoir
B. In Western Europe through the efforts of feminists,
• Second Wave Feminism
and in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union through
government policy, women finally gained the vote,
greater educational opportunities, and access to
professional careers, even while continuing to face
social inequalities.
OS-4 Explain how a worldview based on science and reason
challenged and preserved social order and roles,
especially the roles of women.
SP-1 Explain the emergence of civic humanism and new
conceptions of political authority during the Renaissance, as
well as subsequent theories and practices that stressed the
political importance and rights of the individual.
SP-9 Analyze how various movements for political and
social equality — such as feminism, anticolonialism, and
campaigns for immigrants’ rights — pressured
governments and redefined citizenship.
SP-12 Assess the role of civic institutions in shaping the
development of representative and democratic forms of
government.
IS-4 Analyze how and why the nature and role of the family
has changed over time.
IS-6 Evaluate the causes and consequences of persistent
tensions between women’s role and status in the private
versus the public sphere.
IS-9 Assess the extent to which women participated in and
benefited from the shifting values of European society from
the 15th century onwards.
• Cell phone
• Internet
Chapter 19—The Interwar Years:
The Challenge of Dictators and Depression
Key Topics
European Problems After the War
Both among vanquished and victors, there was much discontent with the Versailles Treaty; calls for
revision were heard everywhere. In economic terms, the tremendous casualties of the Great War meant the
loss of producers and consumers. European market and trade conditions were damaged by the withdrawal of
Bolshevik Russia, the mosaic of successor states, and American competition. Within individual nations, the
war had increased the economic power both of government and of labor unions. Finally, the widespread
extension of the franchise meant that more people than ever before could articulate their economic desires in
politics. Eventually, economic and social anxieties would overcome political scruples.
The Great Depression
Europe during the 1920s was attempting to recover from World War I. Not only were countries
physically devastated but economically as well. Germany’s reparations were finally ended in 1932, but not
before she was economically crushed. Other nations struggled as the reparations were thinly paid to them, as
they attempted to repay debts to each other. On top of this distress, demand for goods shrank from within
Europe and without. Farms also suffered as farmers had difficulty borrowing money to plant, and land-reform
programs in Eastern Europe did not lead to increased production. Protective tariffs, as countries tried to
insulate themselves from further problems, hurt many.
The Changing Worlds of Britain and France
Britain and France were hurt by World War I. Although they were the victors, they had to deal with
the repercussions of alliances, reparations, economic difficulties, and struggling empire. Britain tried Labour
and Conservative answers to its stagnant economy. She also allowed a new level of independence among her
colonies, even permitting the creation of the Irish Free State in 1921. France, needing to keep the defeated
Germany a weak image of her former self, used a two-edged sword. One edge looked to new alliances for
help; the other pushed an economically devastated Germany to pay her reparations. Both of these actions
would hurt France by alienating her from not only her allies, but from the Germans and Russians, who forged
an alliance in response to French machinations.
Responses to the Depression
Britain attempted radical changes, especially in leaving the gold standard behind, and increased taxes
and lowered spending. France gave workers better pay and working conditions, while increasing government
spending through salaries to civil servants and public works programs. Germany destroyed political and civil
liberties, ended trade unions, ignored consumer satisfaction, and instituted massive government spending
through public works and the rebuilding of the German military. Italy created corporatism, a type of planned
economy, that was not highly effective because of the large amount of bureaucracy. Because of her attack on
Ethiopia, Italy was hurt further as other nations followed League of Nations’ sanctions against her. Russia
through Stalin’s Five-Year Plans took on massive, rapid industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.
Russia’s industrial output during the 1930s grew approximately fourfold.
Developing Totalitarianism
Growing from discontent with the Versailles settlement of 1919, Russia, Germany, and Italy saw the
development of totalitarian governments. Although based on quite different beliefs, Marxism and fascism,
these governments used their authority to essentially control all aspects of the people’s lives. Lenin and Stalin,
Hitler, and Mussolini especially offered their peoples economic and nationalistic answers to their post-World
War I problems.
Nazi support came mainly from the lower-middle class, the farmers, and the young. Big business did
not play an important role. Hitler promised his followers security against the left, effective government, and a
nationalist revival. Although he took power by legal means, his plans called for a dictatorship. He quickly
moved to gain full legal authority to govern by decree, crushed all opposing parties, and purged his enemies in
the Nazi party itself. The key to Hitler’s policies was force. The government instituted a massive program of
public works and spending, mostly related to rearmament. The state guided the decisions of private industry
and crushed trade unions. Despite its destruction of personal liberty, the regime’s attainment of economic
security won it prestige at home and abroad.
Many Italians were dissatisfied with Italy’s territorial gains at Versailles. Moreover, the period 1919–
1921 saw considerable social turmoil over which a deadlocked parliament could not prevail. The fascists
formed local terrorist squads, whose intimidation of socialists pleased many conservatives. In 1922, the king
asked Mussolini to form a new government. In the following years, he completed a legal revolution that left
Italy a one-party state. Continued fascist terror, the promise of security, effective propaganda, and a pact with
the Catholic Church kept the regime in power.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
New political and economic conditions existed in Europe after the Treaty of Versailles. The map was full of new
regimes, most of which attempted to establish parliamentary democracy. For most, however, the lack of a democratic
tradition, popular apathy, economic problems, aggressive nationalism, and revived conservatism proved insuperable
obstacles. Europe was wracked by postwar economic problems: wages fell, industrial facilities were in shambles, and
European dominance over the world economy was severely weakened.
The Depression, which arose from such factors as reparations, war debts, inflation, and a decline in production and
trade, engendered such frustrations and anxieties in Europe’s voters that they pressured their governments to interfere with
the economy as never before. Politicians began with the orthodox approach of cutting government spending to avoid
inflation, but, quickly proceeded to more radical steps. Britain, for example, abandoned the previously sacrosanct policies of
the gold standard and free trade. Although unemployment and poverty remained dismal problems in Britain, the
government’s relative success gave the nation new confidence in its democracy.
France was not as fortunate. Although the Depression did not arrive until 1931, it lasted longer than in Britain. The
economic crisis disrupted normal parliamentary and political life. The old divisions between right and left hardened. In
1936, the socialist Léon Blum became premier. Blum succeeded in establishing some bold reforms, most notably, the
Matignon Accords, which were very favorable to labor. But France was not able to overcome its internal divisions and by
1939, the Third Republic faced a deep crisis of confidence.
The consolidation of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and its formation of the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics
was the single most transforming element on the post-World War I European international scene. In Communist Russia,
democracy had not even a brief period of success. The Bolsheviks frankly intended to impose their plans on the population.
They likewise hoped to dominate the international socialist movement. At home, the Communists first followed a policy of
economic centralization and confiscation (War Communism). This enabled them to win a civil war, but raised great popular
opposition. Upon formation of the Third International (Comintern) in 1919, the Bolsheviks demanded that all European
socialists give up reformism for revolution; in this they were only partially successful but they split the socialists, which
benefited the Right. In 1921, Lenin retreated to a policy allowing considerable private enterprise (NEP). After his death in
1924, the party was split at first between two factions. Trotsky’s followers called for a rapid industrialization at the expense
of the peasantry. The followers of Stalin wanted to continue the NEP, conduct industrialization slowly, and concentrate on
“socialism in one country.” By 1927, the superb bureaucrat, Stalin, had won and had succeeded in evicting Trotsky from
the party.
The text then provides an overview of the fascist experiment in Italy. Fascism, as it was called, was anti-democratic,
anti-Marxist, anti-parliamentary, and frequently anti-Semitic. It spoke in the name of the middle classes and was led by the
clever opportunist Benito Mussolini.
Democracy’s most important test, and one that would be crucial to its future in the West, came in Germany. The
democratic Weimar Constitution was adopted in 1919. The new regime faced several problems, however: the disgrace of
having signed the Versailles Treaty, structural flaws in the constitution, lack of loyalty on the part of many Germans, and a
rash of extremism. In Germany, the Depression not only weakened the republic, but allowed it to be destroyed. Even before
Hitler’s accession to power in 1933, the chancellors had to govern through emergency presidential decrees as authorized by
the Weimar Constitution. Germany’s unprecedented unemployment aided extreme political parties such as the Nazis. Yet,
in spite of Hitler’s growing power, President Hindenburg and his advisors did not wish to make him chancellor. It was only
the prospect of a governing coalition of the left that frightened Hindenburg into turning to the Nazis.
Hitler’s power depended on his police and terrorist organization, the SS. This instrument was used, above all,
against the German Jews, who suffered increasing persecution. But Hitler’s actions were not all negative. In economics, he
achieved an astonishing degree of success, having banished unemployment and industrial stagnation by 1936.
The chapter ends with a discussion of the successor states in eastern Europe. In state after state, the desire of ethnic
minorities for self-determination and the creation of ethnically defined states undermined political stability and led to the
rise of authoritarian regimes. The sole exception to this pattern was Czechoslovakia.
ID’s
People
Aryans
Bolsheviks
Central Committee
Chamber of Deputies
Christian Socialists
Comintern
Corporations
Dail Eireann
Hitler
Irish Republican Army
Countries/ Land
Kulaks
Labour Party
Mussolini
National Socialists
Nazis
Politburo
Popular Front
Red Russians
Reichstag
Sinn Fein
Social Democrats
Irish Free State
League of Nations
Successor States
Time Periods/
Events
Black Shirt March
Five-Year Plans
Great Depression
Great Purges
Kristallnacht
Lausanne
Conference
Russian Civil War
Third International
Third Republic
Weimar Republic
Terms
Collectivization
Dawes Plan
Fascism
Gosplan
Irish Home Rule Bill
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Keynesian theory
Lateran Accord
March Enabling Act
Mein Kampf
Munich putsch
New Economic Policy
Nuremberg Laws
Revisionist socialism
Socialism in One Country
Spirit of Locarno
Treaty of Rapallo
Young Plan
WWII--Ch 20
III. In the interwar period, fascism, extreme nationalism, racist ideologies, and the failure of
appeasement resulted in the catastrophe of World War II, presenting a grave challenge to
European civilization.
D. Fueled by racism and anti-Semitism, German Nazism • Nuremburg Laws
• Wannsee Conference
sought to establish a “new racial order” in Europe,
• Auschwitz and other death camps
which culminated with the Holocaust.
SP-6 Explain how new ideas of political authority and the
failure of diplomacy led to world wars, political revolutions,
and the establishment of totalitarian regimes in the 20th
century.
SP-13 Evaluate how the emergence of new weapons, tactics,
and methods of military organization changed the scale and
cost of warfare, required the centralization of power, and
shifted the balance of power.
SP-14 Analyze the role of warfare in remaking the political
map of Europe and in shifting the global balance of power in
the 19th and 20th centuries.
SP-17 Explain the role of nationalism in altering the
European balance of power, and explain attempts made to
limit nationalism as a means to ensure continental stability.
IS-7 Evaluate how identities such as ethnicity, race, and
class have defined the individual in relationship to society.
IS-10 Analyze how and why Europeans have marginalized
certain populations (defined as “other”) over the course of
their history.
Key Concept 4.2
The stresses of economic collapse and total war engendered internal conflicts within European states and created
conflicting conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the state, as demonstrated in the ideological
battle among liberal democracy, communism, and fascism.
I. The Russian Revolution created a regime based on Marxist–Leninist theory.
E. Stalin’s economic modernization of the Soviet Union
• Great Purges
came at a high price, including the liquidation of the
• Gulags
kulaks, famine in the Ukraine, purges of political rivals,
• Secret police
unequal burdens placed on women, and the
establishment of an oppressive political system.
SP-5 Assess the role of colonization, the Industrial
Revolution, total warfare, and economic depressions in
altering the government’s relationship to the economy, both
in overseeing economic activity and in addressing its social
impact.
SP-6 Explain how new ideas of political authority and the
failure of diplomacy led to world wars, political revolutions,
and the establishment of totalitarian regimes in the 20th
century.
IS-8 Evaluate how the impact of war on civilians has
affected loyalty to and respect for the nation-state.
IS-10 Analyze how and why Europeans have marginalized
certain populations (defined as “other”) over the course of
their history.
II. The ideology of fascism, with roots in the pre–World War I era, gained popularity in
an environment of postwar bitterness, the rise of communism, uncertain transitions
to democracy, and economic instability.
A. Fascist dictatorships used modern technology and
propaganda that rejected democratic institutions,
promoted charismatic leaders, and glorified war and
nationalism to lure the disillusioned.
B. Mussolini and Hitler rose to power by exploiting
postwar bitterness and economic instability, using
terror and manipulating the fledgling and unpopular
democracies in their countries.
C. Franco’s alliance with Italian and German fascists in
the Spanish Civil War —in which the Western
democracies did not intervene — represented a testing
ground for World War II and resulted in authoritarian
rule in Spain from 1936 to the mid-1970s.
OS-9 Explain how new theories of government and political
ideologies attempted to provide a coherent
explanation for human behavior and the extent to which
they adhered to or diverged from traditional explanations
based on religious beliefs.
OS-12 Analyze how artists used strong emotions to express
individuality and political theorists encouraged emotional
identification with the nation.
SP-6 Explain how new ideas of political authority and the
failure of diplomacy led to world wars, political revolutions,
and the establishment of totalitarian regimes in the 20th
century.
SP-8 Explain how and why various groups, including
communists and fascists, undermined parliamentary
democracy through the establishment of regimes that
maintained dictatorial control while manipulating
democratic forms.
SP-10 Trace the ways in which new technologies, from the
printing press to the Internet, have shaped the development
of civil society and enhanced the role of public opinion.
SP-14 Analyze the role of warfare in remaking the political
map of Europe and in shifting the global balance of power in
the 19th and 20th centuries.
SP-17 Explain the role of nationalism in altering the
European balance of power, and explain attempts made to
limit nationalism as a means to ensure continental stability.
IS-8 Evaluate how the impact of war on civilians has
affected loyalty to and respect for the nation-state.
IS-10 Analyze how and why Europeans have marginalized
certain populations (defined as “other”) over the course of
their history.
Key Concept 4.3
During the 20th century, diverse intellectual and cultural movements questioned the existence of objective knowledge,
the ability of reason to arrive at truth, and the role of religion in determining moral standards.
II. Science and technology yielded impressive material benefits but also caused immense
destruction and posed challenges to objective knowledge.
C. Military technologies made possible industrialized
warfare, genocide, nuclear proliferation, and the risk of
global nuclear war.
SP-1 Explain the emergence of civic humanism and new
conceptions of political authority during the Renaissance, as
well as subsequent theories and practices that stressed the
political importance and rights of the individual.
SP-13 Evaluate how the emergence of new weapons, tactics,
and methods of military organization changed the scale and
cost of warfare, required the centralization of power, and
shifted the balance of power.
Key Concept 4.4
Demographic changes, economic growth, total war, disruptions of traditional social patterns, and
competing definitions of freedom and justice altered the experiences of everyday life.
I. The 20th century was characterized by large-scale suffering brought on by warfare
and genocide as well as tremendous improvements in the standard of living.
B. World War II decimated a generation of Russian and
German men, virtually destroyed European Jewry,
forced large-scale ethnic migrations, and undermined
prewar class hierarchies.
II. The lives of women were defined by family and work responsibilities, economic
changes, and feminism.
A. During the world wars, women became increasingly
involved in military and political mobilization, as well as
in economic production.
IS-7 Evaluate how identities such as ethnicity, race, and
class have defined the individual in relationship to society.
IS-8 Evaluate how the impact of war on civilians has
affected loyalty to and respect for the nation-state.
IS-10 Analyze how and why Europeans have marginalized
certain populations (defined as “other”) over the course of
their history.
PP-4 Explain how the development of new technologies and
industries — as well as new means of communication,
marketing, and transportation — contributed to expansion
of consumerism and increased
standards of living and quality of life in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
OS-4 Explain how a worldview based on science and reason
challenged and preserved social order and roles,
especially the roles of women.
SP-1 Explain the emergence of civic humanism and new
conceptions of political authority during the Renaissance, as
well as subsequent theories and practices that stressed the
political importance and rights of the individual.
SP-9 Analyze how various movements for political and
social equality — such as feminism, anticolonialism, and
campaigns for immigrants’ rights — pressured
governments and redefined citizenship.
IS-4 Analyze how and why the nature and role of the family
has changed over time.
IS-6 Evaluate the causes and consequences of persistent
tensions between women’s role and status in the private
versus the public sphere.
IS-9 Assess the extent to which women participated in and
benefited from the shifting values of European society from
the 15th century onwards.
Chapter 20—World War II
Key Topics
Hitler’s Moves Toward World War II
As Hitler’s desire for Lebensraum grew, he rearmed Germany in direct opposition to the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles. When the League of Nations did not attempt to stop him, he saw his chance. His first
step was to take Austria in the creation of Anschluss, moving on to the German area of Czechoslovakia, the
Sudetenland, and eventually, after the Munich Conference, to the whole of Czechoslovakia. With the NaziSoviet Pact in 1939, the door was wide open for Hitler to move Europe into World War II.
German Racism
With Hitler’s belief in the German people as Ubermenschen, came the parallel belief in others, then, as
the Untermenschen. To the Nazis these peoples and their economies were open for plunder. Many policies
were aimed at a variety of Untermenschen, including Slavs, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics,
homosexuals, and the mentally and physically disabled, yet the main focus of Nazi persecution was the Jews.
In all the conquered lands, plunder was the rule of Nazi economics. Far more frightful, however, were
the measures taken in accordance with Nazi racial theories. The Nazis may have killed as many as six million
Russian prisoners of war and civilian employees. An equal number of Jewish men, women, and children, who
held the lowest rank in the Nazi racial hierarchy, were slaughtered. The Nazi death camps still bear testimony
to the inhumanity of human beings.
Before World War II, the Jewish community of Poland was the largest in Europe (about 10% of
Poland’s population). About 90% of that Jewish community perished during the war and Holocaust. The
Polish Jewish community was the most distinctive in Europe, being more religiously observant and identified
by their dress and diet. Jews were also among the poorest people in Poland and were economically vulnerable
during the turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s because they tended to be self-employed and few belonged to trade
unions. Legislation in Roman Catholic Poland made it difficult for Jews to observe the Sabbath and the
Catholic Church, which was closely associated with Polish nationalism, supported discriminatory policies.
The Atomic Bomb
By the summer of 1945, the Americans were poised for an invasion of Japan’s home islands, which
appeared necessary to win a Japanese admission of defeat. It was estimated that this difficult campaign might
cost a million American casualties. The decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was based
upon the desire to end the war quickly and save American lives, not by a desire to scare the Russians.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter discusses the origins, course, and consequences of World War II. Shortly after Hitler’s rise to power
in Germany in 1933, Europe’s nations started down the road to general war again. Throughout his career, Hitler based his
actions on the belief that all the Germanic peoples should be united in Europe’s strongest nation. The new Germany should
conquer Poland and the Ukraine and expel the inhabitants to make room for German settlers. Hitler never lost sight of this
goal; he was, nonetheless, an opportunist, willing and able to change tactics to fit a changed situation.
To achieve his goal, which would almost certainly require a major war, Hitler had to free Germany from the
military restrictions of Versailles. In 1935, he formally denounced the treaty’s disarmament provisions, began to create an
army and air force, and allied with Mussolini’s Italy. The next year, Hitler took the important step of remilitarizing the
Rhineland. By failing to react, Britain and France lost an important chance to stop Hitler cheaply. Their policy now became
one of appeasement—that is, of willingness to meet Hitler’s goals on the assumption that they were limited and acceptable.
The chapter then details the German and Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the bloodless
Anschluss (or union of Germany and Austria in 1938) and the annexation of the Sudetenland as a result of the Munich
conference, also in 1938. Hitler claimed that he had no further territorial demands in Europe, and British Prime Minister
Chamberlain thought the agreement would bring “peace for our time.”
Despite Hitler’s pledge to respect Czech sovereignty, he had his troops occupy most of the rest of the country in
1939. Responding to the pressure of public opinion, Chamberlain guaranteed the security of Poland and sought Soviet aid in
so doing. Stalin, however, signed a pact with Hitler, despite their ideological enmity, which secretly offered Stalin a new
partition of Poland. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and general declarations of war quickly followed. By
the end of June 1940, Poland, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, and France had fallen. Only Britain remained an enemy.
The chapter then details Hitler’s air war against Britain, the invasion of Russia, and retreat from Moscow in 1942.
The American government was sympathetic with the plight of Britain, but the isolationism of its people prevented
its entry into the war until the bombing of Pearl Harbor in late 1941 by Japan, an ally of Germany. America declared war on
Japan, and Hitler declared war on the United States. Equally important to the allied cause, the Russians had halted the
German advance at Stalingrad in late 1942 and assumed the offensive the next spring. In 1943, the United States invaded
Italy and ended its cooperation with Germany. After massive aerial bombardment of Germany, the allies invaded northern
France on June 6, 1944, and crossed the Rhine by March. The Germans surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945. The
chapter then details the American victory over the Japanese in the Pacific and the use of the atomic bomb in the destruction
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Special attention is paid to racism and the holocaust. The fate of the Polish Jewish community is examined.
Explanations for the Holocaust are considered in order to encourage further thought.
World War II represented an effort of total war on the part of all belligerents. The home fronts were affected as
well as the battlefields. The chapter now focuses on the shortages, bombings, propaganda campaigns, and political
developments that affected the home fronts of Germany, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Of special importance was
the impact of the “Blitz” on the British population during the winter and spring of 1940–1941. The collaboration of the
Vichy regime and the French resistance are also noted, as is the unifying propaganda stressed by the Soviet Union for “The
Great Patriotic War.” World War II was the most terrible war in history. It caused between 30 and 40 million deaths. As in
1919, the world hoped for a safe and secure peace in 1945, but a bitter split between the Soviet Union and its allies soon
developed. The Soviet Union, not unexpectedly, wanted to install Communist governments in the east that were subordinate
to Moscow. Britain and the United States opposed such expansion in Eastern Europe. The chapter discusses the various
conferences (Atlantic Charter, Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam) that led to a tenuous resolution of World War II and set the
parameters for the Cold War to come.
ID’s
People
Free French
Government-in-exile
Luftwaffe
Countries/ Land
Maginot Line
Nuremberg
Potsdam
Rome-Berlin Axis
Second front
Tehran
Third Reich
Third World
Vichy
Yalta
Time Periods/Events
Battle of Britain
Blitzkrieg
Holocaust
Spanish Civil War
Terms
Anschluss
Appeasement
Atlantic Charter
Collective security
Denazification
Final Solution
Lebensraum
Mein Kampf
Munich Agreement
Nazi-Soviet Pact