HSC Modern History: Power and Authority in the Modern World

End of WWI

1918

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

1918 treaty between Russia and Germany that ended Russia's involvement in World War I. Meant that Soviet Union suffered heavy losses.

Treaty of Versailles

1919 treaty that ended WWI. It blamed Germany for WW I and handed down harsh punishment.

Article 232 of the Treaty of Versailles

Meant that Germany had to pay 132 billion gold marks in reparations

Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles

War Guilt Clause -- placed complete blame for the war on Germany

Treaty of Saint-German-en-Laye

A 1919 treaty that punished Austria

Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine

A 1919 treaty that punished Bulgaria

Treaty of Trianon

A 1920 treaty that established Hungary's borders

Treaty of Sèvres

A 1920 treaty that dismantled the Ottoman Empire

US-German Peace Treaty

A 1921 treaty that ended WWI for US and Germany because US didn't sign the Treaty of Versailles. Meant US helped Germany pay war reparations.

Treaty of Rapallo

Between Germany and Soviet Union in 1922. Established normal diplomatic relations with each other.

Treaty of Lausanne

The 1923 treaty that ended the Turkish war and recognised the territorial integrity of a truly independent Turkey.

League of Nations

An association by nations established in 1920 to promote international cooperation and peace.

Corfu Incident

In 1923 the Mussolini occupied the Greek island Corfu in after the murder of an Italian diplomat. The League could not stop him, they were weak.

International Labour Organisation

Set up by LofN to improve worker's right. One of its successes.

Mosul, 1924 Dispute

Turkey and Iraq fought over this oil rich area. The League decided in favour of Iraq. One of the League's successes.

Russo-Polish War

War in which Russian forces easily took over Poland. One of the League's failures.

Power

capacity or ability to direct or influence the conduct or behaviour of others or certain events

Authority

Linked to power and the right to make decisions and to determine, adjudicate or settle issues and disputes in society. Authority is best understood as the legitimate use of power.

Dictatorship

Authoritarian form of government in which an absolute, imperious or overbearing power is concentrated in one or more people, who hold little to no tolerance for political pluralism or independent programs or media.

Fascism

Far-right, authoritarian ideology characterised by extreme nationalism and a dictatorship which exercises totalitarian control of the government.

Totalitarianism

Political system where the state has total centralised authority and controls every aspect of citizens' lives, both public and private.

Authoritarianism

A form of government characterised by absolute obedience to authority, as opposed to individual freedom of thought and action.

Russia - Great Purge

A period of time in which Stalin was in control, where he killed anyone who was his enemy or anyone who he suspected was his enemy.

Russia - NKVD

Secret police had become a permanent part of the regime.

Russia - Moscow Trials

Show Trials with defendants who were top ranking Communists.

Russia - Socialist Realism

The official aesthetic that promoted communism.

Italy - Cult of personality

Mussolini portrayed as a powerful, macho leader.

Italy - OVRA and Black Shirts

Italy's secret police

Italy - Centralisation

Created a corporate state

Italy - Official Aesthetic

Neoclassicism

Italy - Language

Everything was Italian. German and Slavic organisations were closed.

Japan - State

Military Oligarchy

Japan - Nationalism

Promoted ultra-nationalism

Japan - Centralisation

Used monopolies to fund the state

Japan - Irredentism

Hakko Ichiu - bring all of the world under Japan. Wanted to expand for more resources.

Kellog-Briand Pact

1928, trying to prevent war
50 countries signed

Hyperinflation in Germany

1921-1923

Dawes Plan

A 1924 plan to revive the German economy, the United States loans Germany money which then can pay reparations to England and France, who can then pay back their loans from the U.S. This circular flow of money was a success.

Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution

Allowed the President, under certain circumstances, to take emergency measures without the prior consent of the Reichstag. Hitler used it to become dictator.

Kapp Putsch

1920, Armed conservative insurrection that temporarily caused the German government to flee and resulted in workers' strikes.

Nazis

Hitler's National Socialist Party

Austerity Measures

Heinrich Bruning (chancellor from 1930-32) inputs austerity measures to combat the depression.

Golden 20s in Berlin

Berlin is rapidly becoming a suburbia. The farmland and agricultural land is becoming industrialised. Berlin isn't ready to become a suburbia state with mass politics.

Von Papen and Von Schleicher

Became chancellor in 1932. Dissolved the Reichstag.

Night of the Long Knives

1934 - Purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders, including Ernst Rohm. Allowed Hitler to rise to power.

Joseph Goebbels

Chief minister of the Nazi propaganda, and organizer of Kristallnacht

Stab in the Back Myth

The notion, widely believed in right-wing circles in Germany after 1918, that the German Army did not lose World War I but was instead betrayed by the civilians on the home front, especially the Jews.

Lebensraum

Hitler's expansionist theory based on a drive to acquire "living space" for the German people

Lebensunwertes Leben

Life unworthy of life

Fuhrerprinzip

Nazi leadership principle; entitled a single-minded party under one leader.

Gleichschaltung

The process of Nazification by which Hitler successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society.

Volksgemeinschaft

People's community

Großdeutschland

greater Germany

Autarky

self-sufficiency

main objectives of Nazi ideology

abolishing the Treaty of Versailles
restoring the German economy and achieving economic self-sufficiency
rebuilding military strength
providing employment and security for the German people via autarky

Reichstag Fire

February, 1933; the Reichstag was set on Fire by a secret order of Joesef Goebbels; called a communist plot.

Reichstag Fire Decree

1933, said that Germany was under a state of emergency, started throwing "enemies of the state" (socialists and communists) in jail.

Book Burnings

1933, Massive book burning were held in Germany destroying un-German works

concentration camp opened

March 1933

Nuremberg Laws

1935 laws defining the status of Jews and withdrawing citizenship from persons of non-German blood.

Chancellor and president combined

1934

all non-Nazi parties banned

July 1933

Triumph of the Will

This Nazi propaganda film was created in 1936 by Leni Riefenstahl to show the might of the Nazi party at a rally in Nuremberg.

Volksempfänger

people's radio, over 70% of households had a radio

Reich Association of the German Press

all journalists had to join

Reich Chamber of Culture

1933, All musicians writers and actors in Nazi Germany had to belong to this organization which was run by Goebbels.

Fuhrer Myth

Term used by Goebbels to describe the 'heroic' figure of Hitler that he had created in 1942

SS

Schutzstaffel, special police force in Nazi Germany founded as a personal bodyguard for Adolf Hitler in 1925

Gestapo

German secret police

Degenerate Art

the label Nazis placed on the avant-garde art

Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM)

League of German Girls

Hitler Youth

Compulsory organizations set up under Hitler to train an educate German young people in Nazi beliefs

Reichskonkordat (Reich Concordat)

Treaty negotiated between the Vatican and Nazi Germany. Signed on 20 July 1933. It guaranteed the rights of the Roman Catholic Church.

Kinder, Küche, Kirche

children, kitchen, church

Untermenschen

"subhuman creatures"

T4 Aktion

secret euthanasia program killed more than 140 000 people

Edelweiss Pirates

working class youths who beat up Hitler youths, did anti-nazi graffiti and sang anti-Hitler songs

Kreisau Circle

A group of army officers, university professors and aristocrats who talked often about the possibility of assassinating Hitler and getting rid of the Nazis, but didn't actually do anything.

Germany/Poland Non-aggression Pact (1934)

An example of Nazi dishonesty as this was used by Hitler to exploit Polish resources

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

1939, Russian and German non aggression agreement, not to attack each other, also, divide up Poland

Multilateralism

alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal

International order

creation of rules/norms that all countries follow

Cosmopolitanism

all human beings are, or could or should be, members of a single community

Intergovernmental organisation

organisation composed primarily of sovereign states, or of other intergovernmental organisations

Global governance

movement towards political cooperation among transnational actors, aimed at negotiating responses to problems that affect more than one state or region

Bretten Woods Conference

1944, Restructured global economy

San Francisco Conference

1945, drew up the outline of the UN

United Nations

1945, an international organisation formed after WWII to promote international peace, security, and cooperation.

Kristallnacht

(Night of the Broken Glass) November 9, 1938, when mobs throughout Germany destroyed Jewish property and terrorized Jews.

Proportional Representation

An electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them.