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

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