Chapters 30 and 31: The Interwar Period (1919-1939)

Postwar Germany

• Unstable democracies

• Weimar Republic in Germany – Democratic

government formed after WWI

• Was blamed for signing Treaty of Versailles

Cost of a Loaf of Bread in Germany

• 1918—Less than 1 mark

• 1922—160 marks

• 1923—200 billion marks

• Hyperinflation

• The value of a nation’s money decreases dramatically over a short period of time

The Great Depression

Causes

• New York Stock Market Crash in 1929

• Overproduction of factory goods

• Farming technology

• Loans from banks and stockbrokers

• High tariffs on American imports

• War debts

Effects

• Unemployment rates rise dramatically

• Factory production declines

• Prices and wages decline

• When banks went bankrupt, people lost their life savings

• Farmers lose land because they are unable to pay their mortgage

The Russian Revolution

• Czar Nicholas II provided weak leadership during World War I– He abdicates power

• Alexander Kerensky takes over provisional government (March 1917)

Lenin Organizes Power

• Bolsheviks

• Radical group, led by Vladimir Lenin

• Marxism gains support– What is Marxism?

• Goal: “Dictatorship of the proletariat”

The Bolsheviks Take Over

• Kerensky decided to keep Russia in the war

• Lenin comes back to Russia from exile and gains support through failed war effort

• “Peace, Land, and Bread”

• “All power to the Soviets”

• Councils of workers, peasants, and soldiers revolt in November 1917

• Lenin takes control– Peasants get land

• Lenin signs peace treaty with Germany

Lenin Fights for Power

• Some Russians were angry over the peace treaty and murder of the royal family

• 14 million die during the 1918-1920 civil war in which the Bolsheviks keep power under Lenin

• Recall: What were Marx’s views?

• However, Lenin thought the proletariat needed the guidance of professional revolutionaries

• He created a strong central government

Lenin’s Reforms

Political

• Bolsheviks rename their party the Communist Party

• Country renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922– To honor “soviets” that

helped launch the Bolshevik Revolution

Economic

• Lenin begins his New Economic Policy (NEP)

• The NEP allows peasants to sell surplus crops – Why is this significant?

• Encourage foreign investment

• Some small businesses, farms, and factories become privately owned

Stalin Takes Over

• Lenin dies of a stroke in 1922

• Stalin believed in the ideas of totalitarianism

• By 1929, Stalin was able to take complete power as a dictator

• “Man of Steel”

Key Ideas of Totalitarianism

• Indoctrination

• Secret police

• Propaganda

• Persecution

• Dynamic leader

• Denial of basic liberties

Key Parts of Stalin’s Control

• Command economy

• Government makes all economic decisions

• Five-Year Plans

• Set high goals to increase output of steel, coal, electricity– Russian industrial

revolution

• Great Purge

• Campaign of terror directed at eliminating anyone who threatened his power

• Collective farms

• Small privately owned farms are combined and controlled by the government

Fascism Rises in Europe

• Fascism

• A militant political movement that emphasized loyalty to the state and obedience to the leader

• Symbol = Roman fascis

• Characteristics of Fascism (Textbook)

Benito Mussolini in Italy

• Mussolini takes control due to Italian disappointment in Versailles Treaty– Creates fascist party

• Italians wanted a leader who would take action

Adolf Hitler in Germany

• War hero in WWI– 2 Iron Crosses

• Failed attempt to seize power in 1923– Writes Mein Kampf while

in prison

• Racist views

• Treaty of Versailles

• Germans need lebensraum

• Nazism was a German brand of fascism

• During the Great Depression, the Nazis become the largest political party

• Parliamentary election gives Hitler leadership power in 1933 after Communist scare

A Grim Prediction

• “By naming Hitler as Reich chancellor, you have delivered up our holy Fatherland to one of the greatest rabble-rousers of all time. I solemnly predict that this accursed man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation into inconceivable misery” –Erich Ludendorff, German general and former Hitler supporter, February 1, 1933

Hitler Takes Control

• SS (Schutzstaffel)– Hitler’s protection

• Command economy

• Propaganda– Hitler Youth

• Censorship

• Anti-Semitism– Scapegoats

• How many Jews were there in Germany?