Note
Studied by 4 people8.5 & 8.6 - Great Depression & Facism
Topic 8.5 - Global Economic Crisis
WW1 is over, interwar years - Europeans suffered cus a worldwide economic crisis
Causes of the Great Depression
Treaty of Versailles - Germany required to pay reparations for the war = they became broke
They printed a lot of money to help the economy - lead to Hyperinflation - ($1 = 4trill. Marks in 1923), in 1924 Europe realized Germany needs help = made the Dawes Plan
Dawes Plan - get Germany economically stable - Europe had a season of recovery and prosperity
Decreed that Germany pay only the reparations it could afford to pay
Invested a metric buttload of U.S dollars into German recovery
Europe happy = Kellogg Briand Pact - renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy (we are never gonna go to war again)
Economic recovery created the Great Depression
War Debt - all major powers borrowed money for the war
Nationalistic Tariff Policies - put tariffs to protect their domestic industries, cut off flow of free trade = rise in unemployment rates, (Tariffs - tax on imported goods)
Overproduction - states created a lot of resources for WW1 = when the war ended farmers didn’t decrease production = saturated the market cus there were no buyers for goods, prices went down = economic suffering in the farming industry - decrease in economy before economic collapse
Speculation - (ppl borrowed money to buy into the stock market), since the stock market was rising you could pay back the money
U.S Stock Market Crash
Economic prosperity in (1924-1929) - due to monetary investment from U.S
Trouble when American investors began diverting money from European recovery (German recovery) to stock markets
In 1929 the stock market crashed = Great Depression began and spread to Europe cus U.S couldn’t pay for European recovery, unemployment rose = 25% in U.K, 40% in Germany
Women could find more work than male workers = created reversal of domestic gender roles
Response to the Depression
John Maynard Keynes - created the Keyesian system of economics = major economic innovation
Keyesian system - argued that government spending will increase consumer demand = lifting the economy out of depression (gov. Responsible for spending money to correct money = should do it even if they rack up debt) - didn’t happen in U.K but happened in U.S (gov put ppl to work on gov. projects) - historians debate on it rescuing the economy but the point =another way of gov. Involvement in the economy to solve the Great Depression
Cooperative Social Action (happened in Scandinavian states) - Socialists gained influence and gained power in Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland) = created favorable conditions for cooperative enterprises
Was a combo of communism & capitalism = avoid the bad things of both
Scandinavian states increased the welfare state - paid by high taxes & made safety nets for citizens
Political alliances formed to respond to Great Depression
Ex. U.K - national gov. aligned with liberal & conservative parties (aka. Cooperated together to solve unemployment problem & other crises = kinda successful
Popular front (France) - Great Depression hit them, the left parties joined together to make a popular front gov. (mix of socialists & democracy) but they all didn’t want right wing to take over France (promoted facism) = popular front didn’t solve economy and France left for Germanys take over
Topic 8.6 - Facism & Totalitarianism
Wildrow Wilson wanted to make democracy safe but totalitarian gov’s were created a lot
The Rise of Facism
Fascist states - obedience to a single authoritarian leader & uses all their resources to fulfill leaders goals (one person rules all, a king but worse 😞)
Europe thought facism a good option in the interwar years
Causes of Facism
Post WW 1 Bitterness - European societies divided cuz of class separation - working class grew in power cus of the war & middle class power suffered cus of consumer industries
Women started working and they wanted to continue after the men came back
Rise of Communism - fearful situation that would dominate states in Europe
Economic Instability - Great Depression = insane unemployment rates & economic instability - when fascist leaders started blaming other minorities, convincing others that they were the victims = they ate it up
Facism in Italy
Italy included high employment and severe war debt in the 1920's - Italian gov. couldn’t solve it
Benito Mussolini - changed from left wing to extreme right wing fascist = could gain power, spoke against communism and italian nationalism
(1922) - King of Italy made Mussolini prime minister = few years later parliament gave him dictatorial power - never gave up
Mussolini in total control of Italy and created totalitarian fascist state
Totalitarian Tactics
Use of modern technology and propaganda to spread his message to all Italians (glorified war, dangers of democracy & communism, how facism answer to instability after WW1) - made sense especially to the people who lost the war
Use of a secret police which in Italy was known as the Blackshirts - violence was key to getting rid of things in his way, Blackshirts made up of = students & war veterans - who wanted to use violence
To keep ppl in line they gave them large doses of castor oil = caused massive diarrhea - death through dehydration
Mussolini never got full Italian control = Italian monarchy & armed forces had some independence
Fascism in Germany
Germany suffered from WW1, severe punishments from Treaty of Versailles = bad economy,
Weimar gov. couldn’t address these problems = the people easily swayed by Adolf Hilter
Adolf = developed racialist ideals = anti-semitism - hatred of jewish people
(1920’s) - Hitler gained control of National Socialist German Workers Party (aka. Nazi party) = gained more power & in 1930’s Hitler gained dictatorial powers from parliament (never gave up)
Used Mussolini tactics to stay in power & more effective - contained a lot of nationalist & anti-semetic messages to promise the glory of Germany
Joseph Goebbels - Hitler’s propaganda minister to use film Hitlers messages to create fans with his speeches
Created the SS (Shootshaffen) - created violence for any opposition against Hitler, organized by Heinrich Himmler - architect of murder & oppression, organizer of concentration camps & wanted the “purifying” races of Germany
Facism in Spain & Eastern Europe
Great Depression lead to collapse of parliamentary democracy & competing factions fought for dominance
(1936) - leftists (Popular Front) - took control, represented workers & communists, Spanish Army opposed lead by General Francisco Franco = violent uprising against popular front and installed himself as head of state = lead to Spanish Civil War (Franco vs. popular front)
Spanish Civil War was a testing ground for WW2, Hitler & Mussolini gave power to Franco (all dictators), testing ground cuz when fascist states came to power the democracies did nothing = important knowledge
Eastern Europe established as parliamentary democracy after the war but changed to facism cuz the democracy isn't working & was new to them, wanted something to solve their problems with economic crisis = how facism came to power
Communism in Soviet Russia
Russian Revolution was officially over = Lenin turned it into a communist state, though right wing facism didn’t like communism, both were similar (authoritarianism is similar on left & right)
Joseph Stalin rose to power - created forced labor camps (Gulags), allowed torture for false confessions of enemies, created a five year plan = to modernize or industrialize Soviet Union - growth of industrialization caused devastation in Russia with the workers living it terrible conditions & decreasing wages (promised Socialist Utopia) - created immense criticism of Stalin after the fail of the 5 year plan - Communist Party including Lenin’s regime wanted the removal of Stalin
Made the Great Purge - removal of Stalin’s enemies then included Russian citizens, carried out by Secret Police - tortured, executed & imprisoned the opposers of Stalin
Kulaks - were Russian wealthy landowners employed peasants to work their land = Stalin though they were capitalists so took land from landowners by authority of the state = Collectivization, happened mostly in Ukraine = Russia's grain producer, Kulaks pushed back against Stalin = responded with policy that starved & death of 7 million Ukrainian ppl = Holodomor (death by hunger) - cut off food supply, tortured, killed & blocked them from leaving Ukraine to buy food elsewhere