Years of Crisis

Chapter 15

Postwar Problems

Great Britain

Severe Economic Problems

No jobs for soldiers

Relied on trade – dropped – why? 40% fleet destroyed

US/Japan

Increased tariffs

Old technology

Couldn’t pay the US back

Ireland 1916 Easter Rebellion

1921 Divided

Postwar Problems

France

Rebuilding program

Increased debt=inflation & loss of confidence

1926 Poincare government

Reduced expenses, increased taxes, stabilized $

Built Maginot Line

Postwar Problems

Germany

Reparations

Increased debts by borrowing/printing $

Increased inflation

Halt payments

1923 France invades Ruhr Valley

Passive resistance

Withdrew 1925

1924 Dawes Plan

Reduced scale

US loans

League of Nations

Collective Security

Acting together to preserve peace

USA/USSR/Germany (1926)

1925 Locarno Pact

France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy

Guarantee existing frontiers

Refrain from aggression against each other

1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact

Renounce war as policy

No machinery to enforce

Great Depression

Triggered world crisis

Americans cut back – trade/manufacturing decreased = desperation

Great Britain

Terrible suffering

Conservatives

Increased tariffs

Lowered housing interest rates

“the dole”

Economy was actually better by 1937

Great Depression

France

Agriculture first withstood shocks

1932 slump

Political instability=coalition

Eastern Europe

No strong democratic tradition

Increasing economic problems = dictators

A/H/P

Czech – ethnic groups wanted autonomy

Sudetenland Germans

Italy

Political and Economic Problems

Strikes

Seizing land

Popularity of Socialists

Mussolini

Order in a chaotic time

Nationalist

Glory Days

Rise to Power

1919 Fascist Party

Unity & authority

Ancient Rome

Political movement

Glorification of the state

Condemned democracy

Despised socialism/communism

Private property/enterprise regulated by gov

Aggressive nationalism

Rise to Power

Black Shirts

Oct 1922 March on Rome Surrender of government

Prime Minister

Emergency powers

Make laws, controlled elections

Control – censorship

Corporative system

Government sponsored corporations

No labor unions

Controlled wages & prices

Impact of Great Depression

Severe impact

Aggressive foreign policy

Distract

Fiume

Albania

Africa

Ethiopia

Asked League for help

NO – feared pushing Germany

Germany

Weimar Republic

Political unrest

Economic problems

Adolph Hitler

Anti-Semitic

Munich

National Socialist German Worker’s Party

1923 Uprising Arrested

Mein Kampf

Political ideas

Blamed Jews

Attacked USSR

Germany

1924 broadened party ideals

Great Depression helped Nazis

unemployment

1932 largest single party

1933 Chancellor (coalition gov)

Fire destroys Reichstag

Emergency orders Abolished speech/assembly

Elections in March Dictator powers

Within 1 year, all other parties gone

Fascist State

Germany

1934 Hindenburg dies & combined Pres/Chancellor

Fuhrer

Third Reich

Stormtroopers (brown-shirts) paramilitary arm of the Nazi party

Gestapo – Göring

SS (black shirts) – Himmler Body guards

Control of camps

State more important than individual

Goebbels – propoganda Hitler Youth

Jewish Problem

1933

expelled from gov. jobs/teaching, etc.

1935 Nuremburg Laws

Banned marriage

Took away citizenship

1938 assassination – harsher laws

Krystal Nacht

Programs

Hard work, sacrifice, service

Economic recovery

Ignored Versailles Treaty

Rearmed military

Raised taxed, strict controls on prices/wages

Banned unions

Living space

Inferior peoples

Expand eastward League ignored

Japan

1930’s

military leaders restored tradition of honoring the empire

Prosperous economy after WWI

Markets from British

As Middle class grew so did democracy

Diet

Political party chose PM

1925 universal suffrage

Reverence for Emperor dying

Great Depression

Hit hard because dependent on foreign trade

Increased tariffs = loss of markets = increased

unemployment

Government couldn’t solve problems

Turn to military

1931 attacked Manchuria

China protests to League but did nothing

Rise to Power

1932 dictatorship

Didn’t abolish Diet

Civilians kept jobs

Group made policy

Totalitarian state

Arrested critics

Censorship

Dismissed liberals

Glorified War and the Empire

Expanding the Empire

Needed an Empire:

Raw materials

Lacked resources

Markets

Living space

Heavy population

1907 Korea

1931 Manchuria

Manchuko

Puppet state

The Road Continues

1933 W/drew from League

Opposed W. Imperialism

Really E. Imperialists

1936 Military agreement

1937 Japanese Invasion of China

Spanish Civil War

1931 King abdicated

Republican government

Catholic Church/Army reduced

1936 Coalition Government

Moved against army

Confiscated estates

July 1936 Franco = Civil War

Restore power of church

Destroy socialism/communism

Nationalists vs. Republicans/Loyalists

Spanish Civil War to WWII

League of Nations

Stop arms from getting to either side

Mussolini/Hitler October 1936 Rome-Berlin Axis

1939 Nationalist win

Fascist Dictatorship

Failure to stop Axis intervention encouraged H/M

Hitler’s Moves

1936 Rhineland

1938 Anschluss Union of Germany & Austria

“maintain order”

Appeasement

Making concessions to preserve peace

WHY? WWI

Pacifism

Rhineland

US – isolationism 1935/6 Neutrality Acts

Couldn’t sell arms to any country involved in a war nor could ships carry arms

The “Problem” of the Sudetenland

Road to War

Sudetenland

1938 German demand self-gov.

Czech refuse – Germany step in

GB/F – give self-gov

Hitler – new demands

1938 Munich Conference

Troops occupy Sudetenland but leave Czech alone

1939 occupied all of Czech

**False assumption that Hitler could be trusted!

Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr Hitler is a man we can do business with.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

The Munich Agreement, 1938