Stock Market, Economic Issues, and Nationalism

Stock Market and Economic Issues

Details from a presentation on stock market and economic issues, including causes and global consequences of economic events.

Wall Street and Black Tuesday

The presentation starts with a graph illustrating the stock market decline, referencing:

  • WALL ST: An indicator or reference point.

  • BLACK TUESDAY: A significant crash point, with the value shown as 386.10386.10.

  • Dates and stock market values are plotted to show the market's decline over time.

  • BROADS: Another reference point on the graph.

  • CRASH BEGIN'S: Indicates the start of a market crash.

  • DOW's WORST DAYS: Lists the worst days in the stock market history, the percentage loss, and corresponding dates:

    • 1st: October 19, 1987, −22.61%-22.61\%
    • 2nd: October 28, 1929, −13.47%-13.47\%
    • 3rd: October 29, 1929, −11.73%-11.73\%
    • 4th: October 5, 1931, −10.73%-10.73\%
    • 10th: October 26, 1987, −8.04%-8.04\%

Causes of the Depression

The causes of the depression are listed as:

  • Reparations
  • Expansion of production capacities and dominance of USA in global economics.
  • Excessive expansion of credit
  • Stock Market Crash in 1929

How the Stock Market Crashed

The stock market crash occurred due to several factors:

  1. No regulations on the Stock Market
  2. Companies bought on margin
    • Borrowing money from a bank for a certain percentage (loan).
  3. Stocks were over-inflated
    • People were not actually buying the products.
    • Stock brokers were saying the stocks were worth more than they really were.
    • Banks knew the real worth of the stocks.
  4. Banks wanted their money
  5. Companies could not pay the banks
  6. Crash and burn

Worldwide Effects of Crash

  • USA placed high tariffs on imports and exports to make money.
  • The world responded to tariffs by not buying/selling things to USA.
  • This created even more of a worldwide depression.

Effects and Global Consequences of Depression

The global consequences of the depression included:

  • High unemployment of industrial countries
  • Bank failures/collapse of credit
  • Collapse of world trade
  • Nazi party’s growing importance in Germany and blame of European Jews for economic collapse

Imperial China Collapses

After the fall of the Qing dynasty, nationalist and Communist movements struggled for power.

Nationalists Overthrow Qing Dynasty

  • The Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) pushed for modernization and nationalization.
  • Their first great leader was Sun Yixian
  • In 1911, the Revolutionary Alliance (forerunner of Kuomintang) overthrew the last emperor of the Qing dynasty.

Nationalists Overthrow Qing Dynasty - Shaky Start for the New Republic

  • 1912 Sun became president of the Republic of China
  • “Three Principles of the People”
    • nationalism—an end to foreign control
    • people’s rights—democracy
    • people’s livelihood—economic security for all Chinese

General Yuan Shikai Takes Over Presidency

  • General Yuan Shikai takes over presidency.
  • Shikai betrays democratic ideals.
  • Local revolts break out.
  • In 1916 civil war breaks out after Shikai’s death.
  • Provincial warlords held real authority

World War I Spells More Problems

  • In 1917, the Beijing government declared war against Germany.
  • They believed the Allies would return Chinese territories controlled by Germany to China.
  • Allies gave Japan those territories under Treaty of Versailles.
  • Treaty of Versailles outrages Chinese.
  • 3,000 angry students gather in Beijing May 4, 1919.
  • “May Fourth Movement” spreads to other cities in China.
  • Sun Yixian and Kuomintang share aims of the movement.
  • Many Chinese intellectuals reject Sun Yixian’s belief in western democracy in favor of Soviet communism.

The Communist Party in China

  • In 1921 a group in Shanghai (including Mao Zedong) organizes the Chinese Communist Party.
  • Mao Zedong develops his own brand of communism
    • Lenin based his in the organization of Russia’s cities.
    • Mao brought the revolution to the rural country.

Lenin Befriends China

  • Sun Yixian’s government is in south China.
  • He becomes disillusioned with Western democracies.
  • The Kuomantang ally with the Communist Party.
  • Lenin seized the opportunity and sends military advisors and equipment to China in 1923.

Peasants Align with the Communists

  • Sun Yixian died in 1925, and Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) heads the Kuomantang.
  • Jaing (son of a middle-class merchant) feared communist goal of forming a socialist government.
  • Jaing promised democracy, but his government became corrupt.
  • As a result peasants threw their support toward the Chinese Communist Party.

Nationalists and Communists Clash

  • Briefly Jaing set aside differences and fought warlords alongside the Communists, but later turned against the Communists.
  • April 1927 Nationalists groups moved on Shanghai and killed many Communists
  • In 1928 Jiang became president of the Nationalist Republic of China
  • Great Britain and the United States recognized this government.
  • The Soviet Union did NOT recognize this government
  • Civil War breaks out which lasts until 1949.

Civil War Rages in China

  • In 1930 a bloody civil war was raging.
  • Mao and Communists established themselves in south-central China.
  • Taking his revolution to the countryside was called “swimming in the peasant sea.”
  • Mao recruited peasants into the Red Army and trained them in guerilla warfare.
  • Nationalists attacked communists but failed to drive them out.

The Long March

  • 1933 Jiang gathered an army of 700,000 to surround the Communist stronghold.
  • In a daring move, 100,000 Communist forces fled 6,000 miles on the Long March to northern China between 1934 and 1935.
  • Mao and survivors settle in caves in northern China.
  • During this civil war, Japan invades China.

Civil War Suspended

  • Japan took advantage of China’s weakened situation during the civil war and invaded Manchuria, an industrial province in northeastern China.
  • In 1937, Japan launched an all-out invasion of China and held large parts of China by 1938.
  • The Japanese threat forced an uneasy truce between the Jiang’s and Mao’s forces, and they united to fight the Japanese.
  • The National Assembly further agreed to promote changes outlined in Sun Yixians’ “Three Principles of the People”

Nationalism in India and Southwest Asia

Overview of nationalism in India and Southwest Asia, specifically referencing the flags of India, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

Indian Nationalism Grows

Two groups sought to rid India of foreign rule:

  • Indian National Congress (Hindus)
  • Muslim League (Muslims)

World War I Increases Nationalist Activity

  • Until WWI, the vast majority of Indians had little interest in independence.
  • The British promised reforms in return for service during WWI, but Britain did not fulfill its promise.
  • Radical nationalists carried out acts of violence.
  • British passed the Rowlatt Act in 1919 allowing the government to jail protestors without trial for as long as two years.

Amritsar Massacre

  • In protest of Rowlett Acts 10,000 Hindus and Muslims flocked to Amritsar in 1919 where they fasted, prayed, and listened to political speeches.
  • The British had banned public meetings. The British commander of Amritsar ordered British troops to fire on the crowd without warning for 10 minutes.
  • 400 Indians were killed and 1,200 were wounded.
  • Almost overnight the Amritsar Massacre changed millions of Indians from loyal British subjects into Indian nationalists.

Gandhi's Tactics of Nonviolence

  • Mohandas K. Gandhi emerged as the leader of the independence movement.
  • Gandhiʼs strategy involved his deeply religious approach to political activity.
  • He blended ideas of all the major worldʼs religions.
  • He came to be called Mahatma (meaning “great soul”).

Non-Cooperation

  • Gandhi urged the Indian National Congress to follow a policy of non-cooperation with the British government.
  • In 1920, the Congress Party endorsed civil disobedience (the deliberate and public refusal to obey an unjust law).
  • Gandhi launched his civil disobedience campaign to weaken British authority and economic power.

Boycotts

  • Gandhi asks Indians to refuse to buy British goods, attend government schools, pay British taxes, or vote in elections.
  • Gandhi also staged a boycott of British cloth
    • He urged all Indians to weave their own cloth
    • He himself spent two hours a day spinning his own yarn.
    • The sale of British cloth in India dropped sharply.

Strikes and Demonstrations

  • Civil disobedience took an economic toll on the British
  • 1920 British arrest thousands of Indians who took part in strikes and demonstrations.
  • In spite of please for nonviolence, protests led to riots.

The Salt March

  • In 1930, Gandhi organized the Salt March in protest of the Salt Acts.
    • Indians could only buy salt from the government which was taxed
    • Gandhi and followers marched 240 miles to the sea where the people made their own salt.
  • Some demonstrators marched to a British salt processing plant but were met with violence.
  • About 60,000 people, including Gandhi, were arrested during demonstrations against the salt tax.

Britain Grants Limited Self-Rule

  • In 1935, the British Parliament passed the Government of India Act.
    • Provisions:
      • local self-government
      • granted limited democratic elections
    • Limits: It did not grant total independence.
  • The Government of India Act fueled tensions between Muslims and Hindus.
    • Two groups had different visions for independence.
    • Indian Muslims feared being outnumbered by Indian Hindus.

Nationalism in Southwest Asia

  • Breakup of the Ottoman Empire and growing Western political and economic interest spurred the rise of nationalism.

Turkey Becomes a Republic

  • Turkey kept its homelands
    • Anatolia
    • small strip of land around Istanbul

Turkey Becomes a Republic

  • 1919 Greek soldiers invade Turkey
    • Turkish sultan powerless to stop the Greeks.
    • 1922 Mustafa Kemal, a nationalist leader
      • successfully fought back the Greeks and their British backers.
      • after winning a peace, overthrew the last Ottoman sultan.

Turkey Becomes a Republic

  • 1923 Kemal became president of the new Republic of Turkey and ushered in reforms.
    • separated laws of Islam from the laws of the nation
    • abolished religious courts and created a new legal system
    • granted women the right to vote
    • launched government-funded programs to industrialize Turkey
  • Kemal died in 1938 but left a legacy of a new national identity. He is called the “father of the Turks.”

Persia Becomes Iran

  • After WWI, when Russia was still reeling from the Bolshevik Revolution, the British tried to take over all of Persia.
  • A nationalist revolt was triggered.

Persia Becomes Iran

  • Reza Shah Pahlavi seized power in 1921, and in 1925 deposed the ruling shah.
    • He set out to modernize the country
      • established public schools
      • built roads and railroads
      • promoted industrial growth
      • extended womenʼs rights
    • He kept all power in his own hands
    • He changed the name of the country from Persia to Iran

Saudi Arabia Keeps Islamic Traditions

  • In 1902, Abd al-Azis Ibn Saud began a successful campaign to unify Arabia
  • In 1932 the new kingdom was called Saudi Arabia
  • Ibn Saud carried on Arab and Islamic traditions. Loyalty was based on custom, religion, and family ties
  • Ibn Saud brought modern technology to the country but limited it to what was religiously acceptable.
  • No democracy was practiced.

Oil Drives Development

  • Rising demand for petroleum products brought new oil explorations to Southwest Asia.
  • European and American companies discovered oil in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait
  • Geologists discovered nearly two-thirds of the worldʼs oil supply was in the Persian Gulf region.
  • Western nations then began to try to dominate this region.