Week 11- Age of Extremes

What time period is referred to as the 'Age of Extremes'?

The time period between World War I and World War II.

What did the Treaty of Versailles accomplish?

Ended World War I.

What significant event began on January 18th, 1919, related to the Treaty of Versailles?

The peace conference, which implicitly blamed Germany for World War I.

What was the German War Guilt Clause?

A clause that placed blame for World War I on Germany and required it to pay for all damages.

What was Article 233 of the Treaty of Versailles about?

It stated that Germany would pay for all damages done to the civilian population and property of the Allied Governments.

What does 'self-determination' refer to?

The concept that peoples who see themselves as a nation should have their own policies and governance.

Whose Fourteen Points called for self-determination for peoples?

Woodrow Wilson.

What country emerged as a significant beneficiary of self-determination post-World War I?

Czechoslovakia.

What did the Treaty of Versailles prevent Austria from doing?

Joining with Germany.

What do the lecture notes state about self-determination and European colonies?

Self-determination was not granted to overseas European colonies.

What era characterized the cultural developments in Weimar Germany?

A period where architecture, film, and artistic creativity flourished.

What did the New Woman movement during the Weimar Republic advocate for?

Sexual freedom and breaking traditional gender roles.

How were fascism and communism positioned in the political landscape of Europe?

They were competing ideologies rejecting liberal democracy.

What key event brought about hyperinflation in Germany in 1922?

The excessive printing of money.

What was Hitler's strategy during economic crises in Germany?

He effectively used propaganda to channel people's anger towards social changes.

What was significant about the Nazi Party's image in the early 1920s?

They were viewed as rough necks and not taken seriously until later.

What was the Reichstag Fire and its significance in 1933?

An event used by the Nazis to further consolidate power.

• Reichstag building was the German Parliament Building

• Dutch Communist was arrested for it, Hitler's government exploited the fire to claim that it was a communist plot to overthrow the government. Argued it was part of a larger plot of the left-wing people.

• allowed Hitler to weaken the communist party

What were the Nuremberg Laws?

Laws that stripped Jews of their citizenship and prohibited them from marrying Germans.

What was Stalin's 5 Year Plan aimed at?

Ending backwardness through rapid industrialization of the economy

How do the Soviet Union and the Nazi Party compare or are similar:

Similarities:

• celebrated the collective over the individual

• social engineering to change society

Differences:

• Nazi focused on racial changes and purity

• Communist focused on a classless society

Fascism

Fascism was nationalist, and sought to create a community based on ethnicity and race. Exulted violence as a creative force in its own right, anti-globalist, in the beginning, made an alliance with the traditional conservatives right, then discarded those allies when they no longer benefited Fascism 

eg. Nazi Germany and Italy

Communism

Communism was internationalists, looked to utopian community of workers

• Violently oppressed the bourgeoisie and wealthy peasants

• “Kulaks” wealthy Ukrainian peasants deported and demonized as rich peasants who didn’t care about the collective

eg. Soviet Union