1920s characterized by...
-Superficial Prosperity -Democracy seems to spread -Thriving and optimistic Mid 20s- Economic prosperity and International peace
1930s characterized by...
-Dictatorship spreads -Great Depression -Everything crumbling down
Demobilization
Readapting all the industry back to civilian causes from full war production mode resulting in a sharp temporary recession
Political Gains of the era
-Women get right to vote -Universal suffrage and constitutions
Gains for socialists in the time
-Gain strength in Euro. Govt -People are joining unions -8 Hour workdays becoming common -Social services/state insurance
Italy
one place Democracy doesn't progress
Struggles of new states
-boundary adjustments -Too new for any loyalty to the state to be there -made by war -Submerged people groups everywhere (Germans in poland and Czechoslovakia)
Were at least all democracies (until 1930s)
Economic Problems of E. Euro
-Mainly ag. , Lagging behind W. Euro industrially and in every other way, try to modernize -No middle class (besides Austria and Bohemia) -Serfdom was ended but not quite capitalist yet
Result of land ownership reforms in E. Euro
-Least successful in Poland and Hungary (nobles too strong) -Doesn't solve basic problems +Productivity doesn't rise +Don't have knowledge of market, differences form between those who figure it out and those who don't that usually become wage earners
Chief Democratic Force in E. Euro
Parties made of peasants, they usually leaned to socialism
Problems with the Democratic experiments in the E.
-Poverty -Strained relations with peasants -lots of tariffs -no tradition of having self govt.
social democracy
revisionist Marxists; Essentially conservative socialists, no social experiments; In the middle - more scared of left than right
Kapp Putsch
Army officers try to overthrow the new Weimar Republic but are stopped by workers in Berlin turning off the public works (Hitler, who is imprisoned for 7 years for revolt but let out early)
Successes of Weimar Republic
-Universal suffrage -Proportional representation in parliament -8 hour work day -no industries are nationalized -try to keep army infrastructure strong so if they need to make a big army fast they can (not good in general but good for country)
Although no land reforms
The countries who promised to protect them (US and Britain) are going isolationist and the League of Nations is useless
Why does France make a big alliance of Countries against Germany (Poland and others)
132 billion gold marks from Germany, more than they or anyone could ever pay
Frances reparation demands from germany
Treaty of Rapallo
between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1922; normalized diplomatic relations and ensured economic cooperation between the two
Benefits of USSR + German alliance
Economic -USSR needs someone to manufacture and Germany needs stuff to manufacture Military -Red army benefits from best army officers training them -German Officers will still know how to command big armies even tho theirs is small
French+Belgian occupation of Ruhr Valley
want to seize all the industrial stuff there to make their money from reparations. Germans don't like it and go on strike, so Weimar Republic start printing off lots more money making big inflation. Ended by the dawes plan
Big effects of Inflation by the Weimar republic printing off lots of money
-Debtors can pay off all their debts with tons of worthless money -Creditors lose money by getting useless money in return for theirs -Salary fall behind cost of living -middle class destroyed -moral loss, middle class lose all hope
Dawes Plan
Plan to revive German economy: US loans Germany money to pay reparations to England and France, who can then pay back their loans from the US; French leave the Ruhr and reparations are cut down to be more reasonable.
League of Nations
Supposed to prevent war (it doesn't) by placing sanctions on potential aggressors. HQ is in geneva
Treaties of Locarno
Germany promises to respect both France and Belgium's borders, leading to other countries to do the same
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Agreement signed in 1928 in which 65 nations agreed not to pose the threat of war against one another
Asia in WW1
-Ottomans ally with Germans and repudiate capitulations -Persia worked to maintain neutrality and tried to remove Russians and British -China allies with Allies hoping to get some of their land back but the German concessions in China are given to Japan -Dependent regions are economically stimulated and get minor forms of self govt
Very fluid situation in Asia
-Non-communists supported communism as a liberating force -Anti-Westerners pushing westernization
Why does Lenin refer to Asia as the future of socialism
They were against imperialism and being exploited and were shading off towards socialism.
Lenin wasn't right but he wasn't wrong
Aid from USSR
How does Turkey defend itself from power against it (Greek invasions, Italy+France+Britain trying to take constantinople)
Kemal
Overthrow the sultanate and became the first ruler of the republic of Turkey. He made great reforms and made Turkey a secular country.
Kemal's reforms
-Universal suffrage -Parliament -Move capital from constantinople (Istanbul) to Ankara as its actually in the center of the country -separate church and state -high tariff wall -5 year plan
Reza Khan
Overthrew the old Persian dynasty and became the first shah, lead the modernization of Persia renamed iran
Ghandi
He became a leader in India against British rule. He had a movement of passive resistance against Britain. He lived a spiritual life. He started boycotts and encouraged Indians to refuse to obey unjust laws.
India in period between WWI and WWII
-Repeated disturbance, rioting, sporadic violence etc -Few indians into help control indian empire -After WW2 get independence
Sun Yat-sen
Chinese nationalist revolutionary, founder and leader of the Kuomintang until his death. Later made the 3 People's Principles. Dislikes capitalism and likes Lenin but isn't a marxist
Kuomintang
The Chinese Nationalist Party, formed after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912.
General Yuan
Sun yet sen gave power to this man willingly believing he'd lock down the parliament, and he becomes a military ruler. After his death a fight for power ensues.
3 people's principles
-Democracy: sovereignty of the people (Governance by the able) -Nationalism: clans and families → nation and state -Livelihood: social welfare and economic reform
May Fourth Movement
A 1919 protest in China against the Treaty of Versailles and foreign influence and Treaty system
Where does China turn when the W. ignores the May 4th Movement
The USSR, who give them all their extra territorial rights resulting in the Chinese Communist Party founding. The USSR then sends military stuff
This relationship scares the W. so Br. tries to get them apart by giving China some of their extra territorial rights but not all
Chiang Kai-shek
General and leader of Nationalist China after 1925. He succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Kuomintang and got rid of all the warlords. The outside powers "allow" his govt to run itself and some promise to eventually give back the land
Chiang's Purges
Communists and russian supporters kicked out of Kuomintang and parliament, causing them to go south to make the Chinese Red Army under Mao
Problems for the Kuomintang (around Chiangs time)
-Japanese growing aggression -Communist Republic declared, move to dislodge it
Long March (6000 miles)
The Chinese Red Army retreat from the Kuomintang to get supplies from the USSR in the North, 1/2 of them die on it
the Japanese invasion
What causes the Communists and Kuomintang to make a short alliance
Japan's economy
-Reliant on trade that is being blocked by high tariffs from the Turks and chinese -Controlled by four family trusts (Zaibatsu)
Massive Red Flags leading up to the Great Depression
-Investments financed on credit (trading on margin) -Everyone could get loans -Wages were lagging behind profits -The europe market was weakening going into '29
all caused by easy credit falsely pushing up the prices of stock bought with loans
What lead to the Chronic Ag. Depression
When WWI destroys 1/5 of Europe's farmland and takes its farmers into the war, American and Canadian farmers buy as much land as possible and through mechanization produce huge yields. After the war when the farmers in Euro are back the market has a superabundance of wheat with the same demand, so prices drop incredibly low
Creditanstalt
Threading bank in Vienna that failed in 1931 due to the depression and sent a wave of shivers, bankruptcies, and business calamities over Europe.
Two main reactionary views of Depression
-Part of the economic cycle -A sign of the breakdown of capitalism
Reaction of govts to the depression
-Public works projects to employ people -Try to free themselves from world market -Engage in protectionist economic policies
Protectionist practices
-Abandon gold standard to debase their currency enabling others to buy more from them -control currency exchange, money is no longer equal so need to do business in one or another currency making trade bilateral -High tariff walls -Quotas on imports
Ulysses by James Joyce
Book about the life and thoughts of Dublin
Remembrance of things past by Marcel Proust
First book to really deal with personal and emotional experiences
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolfe
Book that shows the passage of time throughout its characters
1930s Culture/Reaction to Depression
Realism in Literature and Art. Many literature people thought the depression was a result of the flaws of capitalism
The Grapes of Wrath by James Steinback
Really depressing book about a family who is starving
High tariffs
How does the US react to the Allies not paying their loans
Spartacists
Left wing Marxists who attempted control in Weimar Republic; Attempted proletarian revolt in Germany; Aid from Lenin; Widens the gap between Social Democrats and Communism