Chapter 27: The European Search for Stability, 1920-1939

The Eastern European Empires fell

• Finland gained independence from Russia

• Poland was rebuilt in order to weaken Germany and Russia

• Czechoslovakia was taken out of German and Austrian lands

• Yugoslavia encompassed most of the Balkan region

After the war, the German civilian population, domestic infrastructure, and industrial power remained mostly intact

• Stayed the industrial power of Europe

• There was an increased sense that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair

Treaty of Rapallo (1922)

• Tried to create economic cooperation between Germany and Russia

Germany secretly started to rebuild its military to regain the Polish Corridor

The World Economy collapsed

• War debt

• Bonds (inflation increased leading to loss of wealth and destruction of savings)

• Inter-government loans

• Increased printing of currency

• Slowed demand for goods

Dawes Plan

• United States would provide Germany with loans and the allies would schedule payments over time

U.S. protectionist policies stopped European access to large U.S. markets and stable currency

• European and U.S. trade declined as U.S. goods were too expensive

• U.S. and German financial institutions became tied together as trade declined

Depression hit Germany due to the 1929 Stock Market crash

Great Purge (1934-1938)

Communism rose to popularity in the 1920s

Fascism: nationalistic, anti-liberal, authoritarian regime which based its ideology in irrational rhetoric

Corporate State: corporations sponsored by the state became the foundation for Italian Fascism

• Lateran Treaty

1939 Pact of Steel

• Bound Italian military to Germany

Treaty of Versailles’ effects on Germany

• Democratic government (Weimar Republic) was implemented in Germany

• German sovereignty was limited

Hitler

• Leader of the National Socialist Party (Nazis)

• Attempted to lead a revolt in 1923

• Hitler’s popularity grew as the rates of unemployment dropped

The Popular Front (1936)

Great Britain failed to deal with the depression

Spain became a democratic republic in 1931

• Elected radical popular front in 1936

Hitler declared the Treaty of Versailles as null-in-void

• Began World War II