9.1 - Interwar: The West

Postwar Politics

  • 3 Powerful Democracies are France, Great Britain, and United States
  • Most pressing issues following war:
      * Finding jobs for the veterans
        * when the veterans leave, industries hired minorities, immigrants, women
        * they needed people to fill the spots, and when they come back they cannot get their old job back right away
      * Rebuilding countries from war (excluding US)
        * France had to physically rebuild the trench warfare, since most fighting happened there
        * Great Britain was on the brink of bankruptcy.
      * Rise in communism and socialism
        * very minimal before world war I
      * Difficult international situation with Germany
        * Do not want to cause another conflict
        * Germany was stripped away from their army, their infrastructure, and the reparation costs. ALL BLAME WAS ON GERMANY

Postwar Economics

  • Europe’s economic is extremely shaky
      * Rebuilding from war
      * Dealing with money (especially Britain)

  • BRITAIN
      * General Strike in 1926 and the 3 million participants do not work because they are not happy
      * Deep in debt, high unemployment

  • FRANCE
      * recovers rapidly (reparation payments)

  • UNITED STATES
      * Economic boom in 1920s (Roaring 20s)
      * Loans and investments in Europe
      * Dawns Plan - European economy relied on the US because the US is giving out loans so that they can rebuild and pay for reparations

The Great Depression

  • Longest, most severe economic downturn in West
      * 13 to 15 million are unemployed
      * Half of the banks are closed
  • CAUSES:
      * Overproduction of goods and financial management
  • This also affected Europe because of the Dawns Plan
  • This led to countries moving away from laissez-faire economic as well as loss of faith in democracy.
      * Laissez-faire - Less government interference
      * The government did not do anything to help, so people lost faith
        * this causes communism to start to become more prevalent
  • US Stock Market crashes in October 1929
      * People are rushing to banks and expecting to get all the money out of their account, but it not there
      * Everyone is going in debt because they are buying everything with credit

Social Changes

  • WWI shatters global sense of optimism and led to split reactions
      * Return to normalcy (way life was before the war)
      * Hopelessness or #YOLO, which caused the Lost Generation
        * Lost Generation - writers who write about things like how there is no hope in life and seem like they are lost
      * Influenza Pandemic (1918), which caused 50 million died
        * this also caused people to have split reactions

Roaring Twenties

  • New technologies, which allowed people to connect with people around the world (shared mass culture)
      * Cars, telephones, movies, radios, etc
  • Change in culture
      * Younger generation rejects moral values - flappers
        * they believed in the YOLO beliefs
      * Jazz music became popular
      * Prohibition and Speakeasies
        * Older generations want to go back to the old times and do not like how people are going out and spending their on alcohol
        * Prohibition - the banning of the buying, selling, and consumption of alcohol
        * Speakeasies - secret underground clubs
      * Women gain the right to vote