Chapter 17 Test Topics: Great Depression, Rise of Fascism, and WWII

Great Depression

• Causes:
  • Overproduction: Especially in agriculture, like wheat.
    • Most countries were agricultural, leading to a surplus.
    • The industrial revolution led to many machines, causing more wheat to be produced than demanded, rapidly decreasing prices. Also, government restricted the amount you were allowed to produce.
    • It was not legal to grow your own wheat for your own consumption.
  • Overspeculation:
    • People took out loans to invest in stocks.
    • Stocks started to fall, and people pulled out their money, causing the entire market to crash.

League of Nations

Rise of Fascism

Lenin’s NEP (New Economic Policy)

5-Year Plan

Hitler and Nazi Germany

Ideologies

• Fascism:
  • Simplified policies for complex solutions, uses propaganda and censorship for indoctrination.
  • Controls press/media & military.
  • Uses secret police to control citizens.
  • Controls institutions (schools) [especially religious institutions].
  • Controls political parties (create one-party rule) and develops bureaucracy.
  • Government controls social, political, economic, intellectual, and cultural aspects of the state.
  • Government controls means of production (MOP), meaning the economy.
  • Rigid social classes benefit the government elite (government officials + bureaucrats).
  • Middle class (bourgeoisie) supports.
  • Leaders pretended to be communist, actually fascism
• Totalitarian States: Government has complete control (S, P, E, I, C).
• Communism:
  • Economic system to distribute wealth from the rich to the poor.
  • Government controls MOP (economy).
  • Working class supports.
  • Social Mobility.
• Socialism
• philosophy: People want to give up their powers to the government.
• Populism: People and government check government (two checks).
  • Take away two checks on government $\rightarrow$ government becomes one entity.

Germany Post-WWI

• End of Treaty of Versailles (TOV):
  • Germany had to pay reparations, based on Article 231 (war guilt clause).
  • Demilitarized Rhineland: French occupied Ruhr Valley $\rightarrow$ took mines and factories.
  • Germany feels imperialized.
  • Germany limited Army Navy and eliminated Air Force.
  • Germany begins to struggle economically $\rightarrow$ have no money.
  • Hitler helps blame US, France, Great Britain, and Jewish people.
• International Accords to help Germany:
  • Dawes Plan (1924-1925):
    • Bankers pool investments to give GER loans for infrastructure and business.
    • Invested $200$ million.
    • Germany will repay based on their means and ability to do so annually.
  • Treaty of Locarno (1925):
    • Guarantee that Rhineland was German territory.
    • France sent troops to Ruhr Valley in Rhineland to get coal/mine $\rightarrow$ Allied powers supported France.
    • Established borders from Germany, France, and Belgium.
  • Kellogg-Briand Act (1927):
    • Will do everything to prevent war; renounce war as an instrument of national policy.
• OVERALL EFFECT: Germany enters League of Nations (to prevent future conflict).
• Economy improving, “Roaring 20s”.
• Great Depression hits 1929:
  • Government will become more socialist/communist $\rightarrow$ Give up ideas of capitalism.
  • Starts developing totalitarian state.
  • People wanted to pull money from Banks $\rightarrow$ worried banks will crash.

Italy Post-WWI

• Italy angry - Promised more land but didn't get anything from allied powers
• GER, A-H, Italy were part of the Triple Alliance
• Italy switched to Allied Powers
• Italy felt as if they deserve to see at Paris peace conference $\rightarrow$no negotiating power
• Given very small piece of land.
• Mussolini controls media + press.

Russia Post-WWI

• Russian Revolution + Civil War + WWI.
• Lenin promised peace, land, and bread $\rightarrow$ not solved.

Steps to Populism $\rightarrow$ Totalitarian States

• Propaganda $\rightarrow$ indoctrination.
• Control military.
• Control political party $\rightarrow$ developed to win elections.
• One party rule $\rightarrow$ get other party to quit, no more checks.
• Rewrite constitution $\rightarrow$ give power to bureaucrats (not government officials); take away freedom of expression.
• Support dictatorship: seize power by fear and force.

Italy $\rightarrow$ Fascism

1. Indoctrination campaign: censorship + propaganda
   • Eliminates people check $\rightarrow$ populism out of control $\rightarrow$ fascism develops.
2. Government elites benefit: high ranking military officers, secret police, advisors to dictator.
3. Mussolini threatened Victor Emmanuel III with a “March on Rome”.
   • Mussolini demanded Victor Emmanuel make him Prime Minister.
   • Emmanuel agreed.

Steps to Rise - Mussolini

1. Propaganda + censorship = indoctrination
2. United people under nationalism and patriotism $\rightarrow$ angry over no land given post war
3. Pretended to be socialist & supports lower class (80% of people)
4. Eliminate political party (one party rule)
5. Gets seats in Parliament: control all laws/policies
   • Censorship: arrest those who disagree.
   • Blackshirts - Squadristi: shut down socialist strikes before they can pressure Mussolini.
   • Violated freedom of Association (groups) and expression
   • Join OVRA (secret police with mission to ensure people don't join political parties)
6. One party $\rightarrow$ one belief $\rightarrow$ one government (no check)
7. Lateran Accords:
   • Catholic church becomes propaganda spreader.

Communism in Russia

1. Coup d’etat in winter palace
   • Lenin overtakes Kerensky $\rightarrow$ Lenin becomes dictator.
   • Kerensky = democracy.
   • Populism rises.
2. Russia Civil war 1918-21
   • Red army (pro-communism) wins $\rightarrow$ Lenin makes USSR.
3. War communism replaced by NEP by Lenin
   • War communism - economics created by Trotsky in prep for war.
   • NEP - stabilize Russian economy after civil war - socialist idea.
4. Death of Lenin (1924)
   • Politburo struggle for power
     • Trotsky: Commissioner of War
       1. End NEP; war communism
       2. Rapid industrialization + militarize
       3. Spread communism
     • Stalin: General Secretary $\rightarrow$ can appoint government + officers $\rightarrow$ start one party rule
       1. Continue NEP (socialist)
       2. Against rapid industrialization in that moment - Russia needs to recover and help peasants
       3. Build social state within Russia - strengthen Russia
5. Pursuit to rapidly industrialize USSR (1928)
   • Stalin Policy
     • 5 year plan (communist) $\rightarrow$ rapidly industrialize in 5 years (abandons NEP)
       1. Agricultural $\rightarrow$ on peasants (farmers) land
     • Collectivization (communism) = government takes over farmland
       1. Farms become factories
       2. Famine, double oil production, housing investment declines
   • Stalin - starts socialist, becomes communist, finally fascist
   • Checka $\rightarrow$ Stalin’s secret police
     • Killed academics (professors) and other educated professionals.
     • Could easily figure out what he was doing (propaganda).
     • Killed all Bolsheviks (old socialists).
     • Bolsheviks called out Stalin for not following Lenin's wishes.
     • Used concentration camps.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

1. Propaganda $\rightarrow$ extreme nationalism (during Great Depression, following TOV)
2. Nazi party needs to win elections
3. Create one-party rule
4. Rewrites Constitution $\rightarrow$ creates Enabling Act

• Opposed TOV in Germany
• Forced Germany to combine with Austria–Anschluss
• Took Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) & Bohemia and Moravia ()
• Went for Western Poland
• NATIONALISM: wants countries that Germany briefly had
• Takes over workers union party and makes it Nazi party
• Coup: Beer Hall Putsch (1923)
• Secret police Brownshirts (storm troopers) [AKA: SA]
• Sent to prison by parliament: Reichstag
• Wrote Mein Kampf (propaganda)
• Threatened by women - believed in traditional values of women
• Social Darwinist, Racist
• Blamed everyone except aryans

Hilter $\rightarrow$ Gain Power by Legal Means

• Get more propaganda to control Reichstag.
• Says he is socialist (socially liberal).
• Grow political (nazi) party $\rightarrow$ vote Nazi members into Reichstag $\rightarrow$ one party rule.
• Appoint high-ranking officials $\rightarrow$ write enabling act.
• Ignore Constitution $\rightarrow$ has 4 years to make decisions

Germany $\rightarrow$ Hitler

• GD begins 1929
• Hitler's policies reduced unemployment.
• Treaty of Brest Litovsk
  • Only between Russia and Germany
  • Russia can leave the WWI
  • Germany briefly obtained Finland, Eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus
• TOV
  • Germany loses Alsace and Lorraine
  • Germany loses eastern and western Poland
  • WP: part of Prussia; Prussia is Germany
  • German unification: Germany got Prussia (w/ poland)
  • EP: Germany got briefly in Treaty of Brest Litovsk
  • Russia used to have Eastern Poland
• Hitler signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (NSNAP)
  • Hitler and Stalin will not fight.
  • Eastern Poland: Russia gets & Western Poland: Germany gets.
  • Impact: Hitler doesn’t have to fight a two front war.
  • Impact: Delays USSR from getting involved in war.
• TOV
  • Austria-Hungary separate
  • Bosnia separates $\rightarrow$ goes to Yugoslavia
  • Czechoslovakia taken from A-H.
  • Czecho = germanic & Slovakia = slavics
• Hitler $\rightarrow$ grow political party
  • Restore german pride and nationalism
  • Get back german land taken in TOV
  • Gets back both parts of Poland
  • Enabling act $\rightarrow$ suspended constitution for 4 years.
    • Reichstag = german parliament
      • Legislative branch: Hitler = chancellor $\rightarrow$ highest level
      • Judicial: Nazi control courts
      • Executive: President Hindenburg dies $\rightarrow$ no VP.
    • Hitler appoints all his members with no president $\rightarrow$ everyone looking up to Hitler
    • Government unchecked (Hitler = populism; populism unchecked = fascism)

Hitler + Secret Police

• SA = brownshirts (other secret police) $\rightarrow$ challenged Hitler
• SS = secret police
• Hitler: The “night of long knives”
  • Murdered non-loyal SA members (top lieutenants) and non-loyal government members.
  • Hitler wants to build new secret police: Schutzstaffeln (the SS).
  • SA=Socialist and SS=Fascists and bitter conflict ensues

Hitler + Civil Service & Restrictions

• Eliminates unions
  • His own party is a union $\rightarrow$ fascism.
• Eliminates parties (except his own)
• Nuremberg Laws (1935)
  • Restrict basic fundamental rights of citizens.
  • Had to wear yellow I.D. patch and carry passport.
  • Questioned german citizenship $\rightarrow$ non-aryans were second class citizens.
  • Jews couldn’t get loans, medical treatment, jobs, travel, go to school, use public transportation, own businesses.
  • FOR ANYONE WHO OPPOSED GERMANY, NOT JUST JEWS.
  • Based on social Darwinism and eugenics $\rightarrow$ explained in Mein Kampf.
• Created jobs in factories, infrastructure, civil service, government jobs, and military draft (conscription).
• Helped boost economy

Enabling Act

• Suspended constitution for 4 years
• Allowed for Nuremberg Laws to pass
• Makes Hitler above the law $\rightarrow$ can make any laws
• Prevents freedom of Association (only one political party)
• Prevents press and assembly
• Hitler can do anything $\rightarrow$ takes away freedoms

Nuremberg Rally

• Form of propaganda $\rightarrow$ used youth groups
• Hitler $\rightarrow$ can't murder until enabling act passed
• SA $\rightarrow$ Used to support Hitler
  • Didn't think he was a socialist $\rightarrow$ turned against him
  • Hitler threw support to SS $\rightarrow$ killed SA
    The Night of Shattered Glass $\rightarrow$ started Holocaust
• SS burned Jewish synagogues and homes

Policy of Appeasement

• 1935; New Air Force and army 100k-550k (against TOV)
• 1936; Hitler sent troops to Rhineland (France did not react)
• 1937; Anschluss - Union with Austria - made Nazis and exit
• 1938; Munich conference - GB, FR, IT, and GER representatives met to discuss the Sudetenland (part of Austria - Austria was german)
  • Hitler in Sudetenland and promised not to invade anywhere else
  • Other countries said it's okay
• 1939; Hitler takes over Czechoslovakia: Bohemia and Moravia
• 1939; Hitler demands and invades Poland (impacts GB and FR)
  • Made GB and FR declare war

WW2

• Appeasement: Satisfy countries' demands to prevent going into war
  • Does not lead to peace $\rightarrow$ creates more conflict

Hitler Alliances

• NSNAP - Germany and Russia
• Rome-Berlin Axis - Germany and Italy (Musollini)
  • Italy would join the Axis powers, and fight against the Grand Alliance (unlike WWI)
• Anti-Comintern Pact - Germany and Japan
• Three fronts: Pacific (Japan), Western European (France), and Eastern European (Russia)
• Western front: War starts here
  • Hitler invades Poland
  • Hitler signs NSNAP with USSR $\rightarrow$gets Western Poland
  • Avoids a two front War $\rightarrow$ does not have to worry about Russia $\rightarrow$ can devote time to France
  • No eastern/no Pacific front yet $\rightarrow$ no attack on Pearl Harbor/ no US in war

Western Front: Blitzkrieg $\rightarrow$ “lightning warfare”

• Three military tactics: Air Force (Luftwaffe), armor tanks (panzer division), and infantry
• All tactics working together
• Hitler takes over France, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, & Luxembourg (June 1940)
• France signs armistice: ceasefire (not peace treaty)
• GB is still in war $\rightarrow$ Hitler needs to defeat to win WW2
• US policy of isolation and neutrality $\rightarrow$ want to avoid war

Battle of Britain: brings eastern front (USSR) into WW2

• Hitler lost
• Hitler changed strategy to attack civilians (in london and manchester) $\rightarrow$ thinks it's more efficient $\rightarrow$ wanted to break British morale
• British morale went up; had time to rebuild military
• Hitler thinks that they are weak $\rightarrow$ attack eastern front (USSR)

Attack Eastern European Front (USSR)

• Hitler thinks:
  • USSR supports Great Britain
  • wants to have a surprise attack so USSR does not have time to prep to help Great Britain
  • Russian Civil War: big three supported white army and USSR supported red (communism)
  • Stalin wants to get territories (Baltic and Balkin) USSR lost in TOV and TOBL back
  • Stalin thinks if he helps GB, he will get Baltic and Balkan provinces + Stalin knows Hitler = fascist
• Germany also wants territories
• Hitler invades USSR: 3-Prong Attack
• Hitler wanted to go to Leningrad and Stalingrad, which will lead them to Moscow
• Germany has to get Greece and Ethiopia (since Musollini didn't)
  • Delays attack on USSR
• Battle of Stalingrad: Turning point $\rightarrow$ Hitler lost
• Germany stopped because of cold Russia
• Hitler always have to fight a two front war now

Pacific Front (Japan vs. America)

• Japan = imperialized southeast asia
• US not happy about them taking over land - put sanctions/embargo on Japan
• Japan completes a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (December 1941)
• US declares war on Japan
• Anti-Comintern Pact: Japan + Germany declare war on US
• Battle of the Coral Sea (May 7/8, 1942)
  • US won
  • US halted Japanese invasion of Australia
  • Allowed naval partnership between US and Australia in the pacific
• Battle of Midway (June 4th, 1942)
  • US won
  • US destroyed 4 Japanese aircraft carriers and defeated Japanese navy
  • US established naval superiority in the pacific
  • Allows island hopping - only way to capture mainland Japan
  • Didn’t actually happen - just plan

Tehran Conference (November 1943) (western front)

• Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill met to discuss future course of war
• Plan many things:
  • British/US invasion of Germany planned for spring 1944
  • Liberation (release) of Balkans and Baltics by the USSR
  • British/US planned invasion of Normandy Beach France (known as D-Day) - Hitler lost
  • Paris liberated by June 1944
  • Allies planned to partition (divide) postwar Germany
  • Everyone knows the allied powers have won war

Yalta Conference (February 1945) (all fronts)

• Arguments made
• Roosevelt and Stalin work together to defeat Japan
• Stalin wanted the eastern european provinces to become communist
• Roosevelt says no
• Roosevelt allows USSR control over Japanese islands and USSR had to join United Nations

Potsdam Conference (July 1945)

• After Roosevelt's death
• Truman takes over
• Truman - agreed that eastern Europe would not be communist
• Discussion of eastern and western fronts

After conference: Truman allows bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• Conferences: Did not decide what states will be self-determined vs communist

All Secret Police

• Checka
• Blackshirts (Squadristi)
• OVRA
• Brownshirts (SA) - Socialists
• Schutzstaffeln (SS) - Fascists
  • Stalin’s secret police
    • Killed Bolsheviks (called out Stalin for not following Lenin’s ideas)
    • Used Concentration Camps
  • Mussolini’s secret police
    • Shut down socialist strikes before they can pressure Mussolini
  • Mussolini’s secret police
    • Secret police with mission to ensure people don't join political parties
  • Hitler’s police
    • Helped in the Beer Hall Putsch
    • Challenged Hitler’s ideas and killed in “The Night of Long Knives” because they knew Hitler wasn’t really socialist
  • New Hitler police

The Night of Shattered Glass

• SS burned Jewish homes and synagogues