THE BETWEEN YEARS1920s & 1930s

Politics of the 1920s League of Nations – failed to maintain

European peace as expected. The U.S. failed to join, because most Americans did not want to get involved in European affairs

The Dawes Plan – coordinated Germany’s reparations with its ability to pay

The Treaty of Locarno – guaranteed Germany’s new western borders with France and Belgium

The Great Flu Epidemic

Some believe it began among American soldiers who spread it to Europe during WWI

Was known for spreading quickly and being deadly

In 1918 and 1919, The Spanish flu spread around the world killing an estimated 22 million people (more than twice the number of people killed in WWI)

THE GREAT DEPRESSION Causes:

Downturns in the economies of individual nations Declining industrial production Decreased trade

An international financial crisis involving the U.S. stock market

Responses to the Depression Widespread unemployment Increased government activity in economic affairs Renewed interest in Marxist doctrines Masses of people were willing to follow political leaders

who offered simple solutions in return for dictatorial power

THE RISE OF DICTATORIAL REGIMES (TOTALITARIANISM)

FASCISM IN ITALY Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) Became Prime Minister in 1922 Created a fascist government through his

Fascist Party Supported by Middle-class industrialists and

large land owners Controlled opposition through his secret

police, imprisonment, outlawing other parties, propaganda, and censorship of the press

Supported the Catholic Church, nationalism, antisocialism, and anticommunism

A NEW ERA IN THE SOVIET UNION Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) Came to power as General Secretary in 1929 Implemented a communist government

through his Communist Party Supported by communist officials Controlled opposition through purges, prison

camps, secret police, state-run press, forced labor camps, and executions

Created a Five-Year Plan for rapid industrialization, and created collectivization of farms

NAZI GERMANY Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) Came to power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 Began a fascist government through his National

Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazis) Supported by industrial leaders, landed aristocrats,

military, and bureaucracy Controlled opposition through his police force,

propaganda, state-run press, terror, repression, racial laws, concentration and death camps

Implemented the Enabling Act, rearmament, public work projects, anti-Semitism, racism, social Darwinism, and extreme nationalism

KEY TERMS/EVENTS OF THE FASCIST YEARS (1930s) Totalitarian state – a government that aims to

control the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural lives of its citizens

Fascism – a political philosophy that glorifies the state above the individual by emphasizing the need for a strong central government led by a dictator

Politburo – a committee that had become the leading policy-making body of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union

The Five-Year Plans – set economic goals for five-year periods to transform Russia from and agricultural to an industrial country

Cont… Collectivization – a system in which private farms

were eliminated when the government took over ownership of all land while peasants worked it

Reichstag – German parliament Nuremberg Laws – excluded Jews from German

citizenship and forbade marriages between Jews and German citizens

Kristallnacht – a destructive rampage against Jews in November, 1938 in which Nazis burned synagogues, destroyed Jewish businesses, and sent Jewish males to concentration camps