Totalitarianism in Post-WWI Europe

Relied on reparation payments from Germany.

France

Led by Léon Blum, a socialist.

Popular Front (1934-1937)

Introduced labor reforms: 40-hour workweek, pay raises, etc.

Labor reforms

Suffered from high debt and slow economic recovery.

Great Britain

Massive general strikes (coal, steel, printing industries).

1926

Included Ramsay MacDonald (Labour), Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), Neville Chamberlain (Liberal).

National Government Coalition

Little to no experience with democracy or self-rule.

Eastern Europe

Poor and economically unstable.

Austria

Collapse of Austrian bank Kredit-Anstalt.

1931

Short-lived Communist regime in March 1919.

Hungary

Global impact affecting multiple nations.

The Great Depression

President Warren Harding (Republican) - early 1920s.

United States

Economic boom (e.g., Ford Model T: $850 in 1908 → $310 in 1926).

The Roaring Twenties

Industries raised wages but costs of living rose faster.

President Herbert Hoover

Prices fell due to low European demand.

Agriculture

Global trade decreased.

High tariffs

Led to the 1929 stock market crash.

Speculation boom

Founded Dec 31, 1922: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

The Soviet Union

Survived an assassination attempt (Aug 30, 1918) and died Jan 24, 1924.

Lenin

Allowed limited capitalism (farm trade) while state controlled key industries.

New Economic Policy (NEP) (1921)

Leon Trotsky created Red Army, supported voluntary collectivization.

Power Struggle After Lenin

General Secretary of the Communist Party, promoted 'Socialism in One Country.'

Joseph Stalin

Command Economy: State controlled all production with goals of rapid industrialization and collectivized farming.

Stalin's First Five-Year Plan (1928)

Benito Mussolini founded Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (1919).

Italy

Mussolini becomes Prime Minister by appointment of King Victor Emmanuel III.

March on Rome (Oct 1922)

Fascism is nationalist and has middle-class support, while Communism promotes a classless society and has working-class support.

Fascism vs. Communism

Weak and unstable democratic government with frequent changes in leadership.

Weimar Republic (1918-1933)

Locarno Pact (1925): Germany accepts Versailles border; joins League of Nations.

Stabilization Efforts

NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) aimed to overturn Treaty of Versailles and unite German-speaking people.

Rise of the Nazi Party

Born in Austria, 1889; wrote Mein Kampf in prison after the failed Beer Hall Putsch.

Hitler

1933: Reichstag Fire → Communists blamed, arrested; Hitler becomes dictator after Hindenburg's death.

Nazi Consolidation of Power

German troops enter Rhineland, violating Versailles Treaty with no Allied resistance due to fear of another war.

Rhineland Reoccupation (1936)