Upload
others
View
5
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Chapters 30 and 31: The Interwar Period (1919-1938)
Postwar Germany
• Unstable democracies • Weimar Republic in
Germany – Democratic
government formed after WWI
• Was blamed for signing Treaty of Versailles
Cost of a Loaf of Bread in Germany
• 1918—Less than 1 mark • 1922—160 marks • 1923—200 billion marks • Hyperinflation • The value of a nation’s money decreases
dramatically over a short period of time
The Great Depression
Causes • New York Stock Market
Crash in 1929 • Overproduction of factory
goods • Farming technology • Loans from banks and
stockbrokers • High tariffs on American
imports • War debts
Effects • Unemployment rates rise
dramatically • Factory production declines • Prices and wages decline • When banks went bankrupt,
people lost their life savings • Farmers lose land because
they are unable to pay their mortgage
The Russian Revolution
• Bolsheviks • Radical group, led by
Vladimir Lenin • Marxism gains support
– Goal? • “Dictatorship of the
proletariat”
The Revolutionaries Get Their Wish
• Czar Nicholas II provided weak leadership during World War I – He abdicates power
• Alexander Kerensky takes over provisional government (March 1917)
The Bolsheviks Take Over
• Karensky decided to keep Russia in the war
• Lenin comes back to Russia from exile and gains support through failed war effort
• “Peace, Land, and Bread”
• “All power to the Soviets”
• Councils of workers, peasants, and soldiers revolt in November 1917
• Lenin takes control – Peasants get land
• Lenin signs peace treaty with Germany
Lenin Fights for Power • Russians lose territory
and powerful army • Some Russians were
angry over the peace treaty and murder of the royal family
• 14 million die during the 1918-1920 civil war in which the Bolsheviks keep power under Lenin
• What were Marx’s views?
• Lenin thought the proletariat needed the guidance of professional revolutionaries
• He created a strong central government
Lenin’s Reforms
Political • Bolsheviks rename their
party the Communist Party – Why is this ironic?
• Country renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922 – To honor “soviets” that helped
launch the Bolshevik Revolution
Economic • Lenin begins his New
Economic Policy (NEP) • The NEP allows peasants to
sell surplus crops – Why is this significant?
• Encourage foreign investment
• Some small businesses , farms, and factories become privately owned
Stalin Takes Over
• Lenin dies of a stroke in 1922
• Stalin believed in the ideas of totalitarianism
• By 1929, Stalin was able to take complete power as a dictator
• “Man of Steel”
Key Ideas of Totalitarianism
• Indoctrination • Secret police • Propaganda • Persecution • Dynamic leader • Denial of basic
liberties
Key Parts of Stalin’s Control
• Command economy • Government makes all
economic decisions • Five-Year Plans • Set high goals to
increase output of steel, coal, electricity – Russian industrial
revolution
• Great Purge • Campaign of terror
directed at eliminating anyone who threatened his power
• Collective farms • Small privately owned
farms are combined and controlled by the government
Fascism Rises in Europe
• Fascism • A militant political
movement that emphasized loyalty to the state and obedience to the leader
• Symbol = Roman fascis
• Characteristics of Fascism (Textbook)
Benito Mussolini in Italy
• Mussolini takes control due to Italian disappointment in Versailles Treaty – Creates fascist party
• Italians wanted a leader who would take action
Adolf Hitler in Germany
• War hero in WWI – 2 Iron Crosses
• Failed attempt to seize power in 1923 – Writes Mein Kampf
while in prison • Racist views • Treaty of Versailles • Germans need
lebensraum
• Nazism was a German brand of fascism
• During the Great Depression, the Nazis become the largest political party
• Parliamentary election gives Hitler leadership power in 1933 after Communist scare
A Grim Prediction
• “By naming Hitler as Reich chancellor, you have delivered up our holy Fatherland to one of the greatest rabble-rousers of all time. I solemnly predict that this accursed man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation into inconceivable misery” –Erich Ludendorff, German general and former Hitler supporter, February 1, 1933
Hitler Takes Control
• SS (Schutzstaffel) – Hitler’s protection
• Command economy • Propaganda
– Hitler Youth • Censorship • Anti-Semitism
– Scapegoats • How many Jews were
there in Germany?