Chapter 29 Collapse of the

Old Order 1929-1949

The Stalin Revolution: Five Year Plans

• humble origins• visionary • skillful administrator • rose within the

Communist Party • eliminated Leon

Trotsky and all rivals• Ruthlessly

Industrialized the Soviet Union

The Stalin Revolution: Five Year Plans

• Oct 1928, Stalin devised series of Five-Year Plans

• Centralized state control over economy

• Industrialization achieved extremely rapidly

• No concern for environment

Collectivism of Agriculture • Peasants forced to pay for the investments required by the Five-Year Plans

• Provided labor & food for new industrial workers

• Small farms became large collectives

• Supplied government with fixed amount of food, then distributed what was left to their members

Collectivism of Agriculture • Collectivism tried to organize peasants into industrial way of life & bring them under government control

• violently suppressed the better-off peasants (the kulaks)

• disrupted agricultural production

• Caused famine-killed 5 million after bad harvests of 1933-34

Collectivism of Agriculture • Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1937) was intended to increase output of consumer goods

• Fear of Nazi regime caused Stalin to shift emphasis to heavy industries & armaments

• Consumer goods became scarce & food rationed

Terror and Opportunities• Industrialization/collectivization

could only be carried out with threats & force

• NKVD (secret police) created climate of terror

• SU industrialized faster than any other country

• Stalinism created new opportunities– for women to join the work

force– for obedient unquestioning

people to rise within the ranks of the Communist Part, the military, the government, or their professions

One of the goals of collectivization was to introduce modern farm machinery. This poster shows delighted farmers operating new tractors and threshers.

• In late 1930’s, the contrast between the economic strength of the Soviet Union and the Depression troubles of the capitalist nations gave many the impression that Stalin’s planned economy was a success

The Depression:Economic Crisis

• consumers cut their purchases

• companies laid off workers• small farms failed• N.Y. banks recalled loans to

Germany & Austria • They couldn’t pay reparations

to France and Britain• France & Britain then couldn’t

repay their war loans to the U.S.

• In 1930, the U.S. passed the Smoot-Hawley tariff act;

• Other countries followed suit• world trade declined by 62 %

between 1929 and 1932

Depression in Industrial Nations

• France and Britain escaped the worst of the Depression by forcing their colonies to purchase their products

• Japan and Germany suffered much more because they relied on exports to pay for imports of food and fuel

• In the U.S., Britain, and France, governments tried to stimulate their economies with Programs like the New Deal

• Germany and Japan devoted their economies to military build-up

• hoped to acquire empires large enough to support self-sufficient economies

Depression in Non-industrialized Regions

• The Depression spread to Asia, Africa, and Latin America unevenly.

• India and China were not dependent on foreign trade and thus were little affected.

• Countries that depended on exports of raw materials or on tourism were devastated.

• In Latin America, the Depression led to the establishment of military dictatorships that tried to solve economic problems by imposing authoritarian control over their economies.

• Southern Africa boomed during the 1930’s.

• The increasing value of gold and the relatively cheaper copper deposits of Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo led to a mining boom that benefited European and South African mine owners.

The Rise of Fascism:Mussolini’s Italy

• In postwar Italy, thousands of unemployed veterans & violent youths demanded action, intimidated politicians, & served as strong-arm men for factory & property owners

• Benito Mussolini, a former socialist, became leader of the Fascist Party

• forced government to appoint him prime minister

The Rise of Fascism:Mussolini’s Italy • Mussolini installed

Fascists to all government jobs & crushed opposition– excelled at propaganda

and glorified war – foreign policy was

cautious

• Italian Fascist movement imitated in most of Europe, Latin America, China, & Japan

Hitler’s Germany • Germany was hard-hit by:– defeat in WWI– hyperinflation of 1923– Depression

• blamed socialists, Jews, & foreigners

• became leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis)

• led unsuccessful uprising in Munich in 1924

• In 1925, published Mein Kampf – his racial theories– his aspirations for Germany – proposal to eliminate all

Jews from Europe

Hitler’s Germany

• Nazis gained support from the unemployed and from property owners• Hitler assumed the post of chancellor in March 1933 and assumed dictatorial power• declared himself Fuhrer of the “Third Reich” in August 1934• Hitler’s economic and social policies were effective • led to an economic boom, low unemployment, and rising standards of living

– Public Works Contracts– Military Build-up– Women encouraged to give up their jobs to men

The Road to War, 1933-1939

• Hitler’s goal was territorial conquest

• Built up military• Tested the reactions

of other powers by:– withdrew from the

League of Nations – introduced

conscription – established an air

force– Italy invaded Ethiopia

in 1935, and Hitler sent ground troops into the Rhineland in 1936

The Road to War, 1933-1939

• No serious objections from France, Britain, or U.S. Hitler invaded Austria in 1938 and demanded German-speaking regions of Czechoslovakia

Why was the response to Hitler so weak?

• Appeasement– Fear of war– Feared

communism more than Germany

– Believed Hitler could be trusted

Munich Agreement: Neville Chamberlain, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Edouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Galeazzo Ciano

After Munich?

• Hitler could not be stopped short of war

• March,1939, invaded Czechoslovakia

• Inspired France and Britain to ask for Soviet help

• Hitler & Stalin were already negotiating the Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Divided Poland between them

Nazi-Soviet Pact

East-Asia, 1931-1945: The Manchurian Incident of 1931

• Ultranationalists believed Japan could end dependence on foreign trade if it had a colonial empire in China

• Junior officers blew up a railway in Manchuria

• Excuse for invasion• Built heavy industries

& railways & sped up rearmament

• At home, government became more authoritarian and militaristic

Chinese Communists and the Long March

• Challenge to Chiang-Kai shek came from Communist Party

• Chiang arrested and executed Communists, forcing those who survived to flee to the remote mountains

• Guerilla warfare & policies that won the support of the peasants

• Forced them to Shaanxi in 1935

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/images/longmarc.gif

Mao Zedong1893-1976

• Farmer’s son• Deviated from traditional

Marxist-Leninists• Redistribute land from the

wealthy to the poor peasants to gain peasant rather than industrial worker support for a social revolution

• Advocate of women’s equality

• Party reserved leadership positions for men, (for warfare)

Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945• July 7, 1937, Japanese

troops attacked Chinese forces near Beijing

• Then they launched a full invasion of China

• U.S and the League of Nations made no efforts to stop the Japanese invasion

• Chinese troops were poorly led and trained

• Unable to prevent Japan from controlling the coastal provinces