THE WORLDWIDE GREAT DEPRESSION

THE WORLDWIDE

GREAT DEPRESSION

I. Legacy of WWI & Peace

A.  By 1922, Germany unable to pay reparations 1.  France occupied the heavily industrialized Ruhr

valley, using mine and factories to collect money in place of reparations

2.  Germany responded by printing more money, lowering the value and increasing inflation

3.  Germany plagued with political unrest by those unhappy that Germany agreed to the Versailles Treaty

Map: Ruhr Valley


B.  1924, the U.S. Dawes Plan reduced German reparation payments and based payments on the ability of Germany to pay

1.  Included a loan of $200 million 2.  Heavy U.S. investment in Europe

C.  1925, Treaty of Locarno 1.  Allowed Germany into the League of Nations


2.  Alsace-Lorraine returned to France 3.  Rhineland a neutral zone

D.  Disarmament weak – League said to disarm “to the lowest point consistent with national safety” – nations not quick to disarm due to mutual lingering mistrust

II. The Great Depression

A.  Domestic economies weak and increasingly controlled by governments

1.  Countries plagued by war debts and reparation payments

2.  Prices for agricultural goods declining due to over production

3.  To protect economies, central and eastern Europeans countries closed borders off to trade and imposed tariffs


B.  Economies were international 1.  U.S. invested heavily in German bonds and

industries, which brought prosperity to all of Europe between 1924-1929

2.  American economy booming, so investors pulled out of Germany to invest at home

a.  Buying on margin (only paying 10% of cost at the time) led to a lot of buying and selling for profit – stock prices rose – when people lost confidence in the market, they sold in mass numbers


3.  October, 1929, crash of the stock market led to panicked withdrawal of money from German and European markets

4.  Withdrawal of money weakened Germany and other European states

Primary Source: Newspaper


C.  Women’s roles and the family 1.  Women able to secure low paying jobs in

housekeeping or servants while men were unemployed – men resentful of this

2.  Young men with nothing to do joined gangs

D.  Government inability to fix bad conditions led some countries to be taken easily by Marxist doctrine and dictatorial (fascist) rhetoric and solutions

Primary Source: Women Serving Soup

III. The World in Depression

A.  Britain 1.  Suffering after WWI from a decline in the steel,

coal, and textile industry – led to unemployment 2.  Labour Party replaced by Conservatives who

provided low interest loans, devalued the pound, balanced the budget, and used protective tariffs


3.  Cambridge economist, John Maynard Keynes said that unemployment could be brought to an end by putting people back to work even if the government went into debt so that demand would go back up

4.  Britain alleviated when it began its armament industries again


B.  France 1.  Not hit hard until 1932 due to its balanced

economy 2.  Depression led to political chaos – leftist communist,

socialist, and radicals formed Popular Front party a.  Instituted collective bargaining, 40-hour work week, two

week paid vacations, and minimum wages b.  Did not solve conditions of depression


C.  Germany 1.  Weimar Republic established in 1918 2.  Economic troubles led the German people to dislike

the Weimar government, which gave rise to extremist parties


D.  U.S. 1.  Franklin D. Roosevelt brought in the New Deal, a

program of government intervention in the economy 2.  Public works projects put people back to work 3.  Beginning of the welfare state and Social Security 4.  U.S. alleviated by the growth of the armaments

industry

IV. Culture and Intellectual Trends

A.  WWI supported beliefs that humans were violent animals incapable of rationality

B.  Women- shorter skirts, more makeup, short hair, and more exposed body – sexual issues more out in the open

C.  Popularity of nihilism – being does not have purpose, value, or truth – morality or higher power does not exist

IV. Culture and Intellectual Trends

D.  Dadaism 1.  “Everything happens in a completely idiotic

way. . . . Like everything in life, Dada is useless.” 2.  Anti-art to reflect the insanity of life 3.  Hannah Hoch- Cut With The Kitchen Knife criticized

the German Weimar Republic – popular for feminist themes

Primary Source: Cut With The Kitchen Knife

V. Culture and Intellectual Trends

E.  Surrealism 1.  Reality outside of the material – dreamlike – the

unconscious – nightmares and fantasies 2.  Salvador Dali- The Persistence of Memory – objects

outside of their rightful context and place stress irrationality

Primary Source: Persistence of Memory


F.  Functionalism in architecture spread by German Bauhaus school

G.  Arnold Schoenberg created atonal music without recognizable harmony – twelve-tone music

H.  “Stream of Consciousness” writing popular – stressed internal dialogue such as James Joyce’s Ulysses; other writers like Hermann Hesse wrote about the spiritual loneliness of modern life

V. Culture and Intellectual Trends A stopwatch and an Ordnance Map

A stopwatch and an ordnance map.

At five a man fell to the ground And the watch flew off his wrist

Like a moon struck from the earth Marking a blank time that stares On the tides of change beneath.

All under the olive trees. A stopwatch and an ordnance map.

He stayed faithfully in that place From his living comrade split

By dividers of the bullet Opening wide the distances

Of his final loneliness. All under the olive trees.

A stopwatch and an ordnance map. And the bones are fixed at five

Under the moon's timelessness; But another who lives on

Wears within his heart forever Space split open by the bullet.

All under the olive trees.


I.  Mass entertainment popular 1.  Hollywood, radio shows, sports, and soap operas

popular 2.  Amos ‘n’ Andy

Steamboat Willie! (1928)

Shirley Temple

¨  The girl who fought the depression ¨  http://www.thecalifornian.com/usatoday/article/

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THE WORLDWIDE GREAT DEPRESSION