Unit 4.
Inter-
War Years
1. The economy
between 1919
and 1929
1. The European crisis
Economic crisis:
Lack of demand,
Production
problems= price increase;
Most affected==>
Germany, because the war
reparations,
High circulation of
paper money= hyperinflation,
1923: France invades the Ruhr
because Germany wasn't paying;
1924: Dawes Plan:
Loans and investment in
Germany;
1929: Young Plan:
Reduced war reparations .
The rise of the United
States
Most important economic power:
Great industrial development,
Major exporter to Europe;
New lifestyle:
Consumerism,
Installment plans,
Consumer credits;
Development of the stock market;
Mass immigration;
Presence of white supremacist
groups;
1920s: Prohibition of alcohol.
2. The Great
Depression of
the 1930s
Causes of the Great
Depression and Wall
Street Crash of 1929
Agricultural and industrial
overproduction;
Speculation on the stock market;
Bought shares didn't represent their
actual value;
Eventually lead to bankruptcy or
financial crisis;
October 24th: thirteen million
shares on sale==> oversupply==>
price decrease;
Banks didn't have liquidity (were
not able to share the shares);
23.000 banks collapsed, 5.000
closed.
The Great Depression of the 1930s
Protectionist policies motivated a
migration fall and decreased world
trade;
Deflation= fall in prices,
Companies closed,
Wages fell,
Decrease in life standards,
Affected world economy==> general
crisis.
Source:
Roosevelt's New Deal
Social and economic measures to
stimulate the demand:
Relief for the poor,
Recovery for the economy,
Reform of the banking system;
Subsidies to agricultural producers,
Public works,
Limit production,
Minimum wage and unemployment
compensations,;
Banking system reforms:
Governmental control of the stock
market,
Recovery by 1938. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
US industrial production (1928-1960)
3. The rise of totalitarism
Governments gained more power, restraining individual
freedom and interveninng the economy;
Repression: secret police- labour camps or executions;
Democracies were thought as weak systems;
Power belongs to a supreme, charismatic
leader/unique party;
Nationalistic: rejection of foreigners;
Foreign policy: expansionist policy;
Economy: interventionism, nationalisation, public work;
Propaganda: promotion and censorship;
Violence: indoctrination and physical coertion:
army and paramilitary groups.
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Evolution of
Democracy
Upper and middle class:
Believed that they could restore
order,
Feared leftist revolutions;
Individualism:
Loss of community;
Former soldiers:
Normalisation of the military
life; (WWI);
Young people:
Vulnerable to the propaganda.
How did they become
so influential?
Rise of worker's parties,
Support of communist parties,
Higher representation of left-
wing parties,
Will motivate:
Fear of conservative middle
class,
Rise of authoritarian parties.
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Authoritarianism and
Totalitarianism
Examples:
Italy: Fascism,
Germany: National-Socialism,
Spain: Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista,
Falange,
Belgium: Christus Rex,
Hungary: The Cross and the Arrow,
Austria: Heimwehr,
Croatia: Ustacha,
France,
Great Britain: Union of British Fascists,
Holland.
Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism
Dictatorships since 1922:
Albania,
Portugal,
Poland,
Lithuania,
Estonia,
Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia,
Austria,
Latvia,
Greece,
Romania.
4. Italian Fascism
First European country with a
totalitarian government;
Italy was disappointed with the
Treaty of Versailles;
1919: Mussolini founds the
Blackshirst:
Paramilitary group that attacked
the enemies of the state;
1921: Mussolini founds the
National Fascist Party:
Aimed for a single-party system;
1922: March on Rome:
Demonstration that threatened to
take the government,
Victor Emmanuel III hands
power over to Mussolini.
4. Italian Fascism
Mussolini obtained full powers;
The National Fascist Party
becomes the only official party;
Censorship to control the
population:
The Organisation for Vigilance
and Repression of Anti-Fascism
persecutes political enemies;
Expansionism towards Abyssinia
and Ethiopia;
Economic interventionism:
nationalisation of companies;
Propaganda: self-glorification of
Mussolini, called Il Duce;
Education to indoctrinate society.
5. Stalinism in the USSR
Lenin's successor in 1924;
Held all political power:
Control of the CPSU,
Persecution of his enemies (Trotsky);
Constitution of 1936 (universal suffrage),
CPSU- only political party,
Komintern: spread the Revolution.
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Stalin's planned
economy
1928: five-year plan:
Collectivisation of the land in order to
modernise it:
Sovkhoz (state-owned),
Kolkhoz (collective),
Farmers struggled to cover losses,
Declined living standards (famines);
Nationalisation and investment in
industries:
Heavy industry,
Under-developed light industry.
Stalin's political
policies
Healthcare, education and
housing policies were
maintained;
Differences between ruling elite
and rest of society;
1936's Constitution granted
many rights;
Purges: repressive campaigns;
Prisoners are sent to the Gulag.
6. Nazi
Germany
Weimar republic is
established in Germany;
Dealt with the problems
of the pos-war era;
Due to the economic
crisis, extreme parties
became popular.
The National
Socialist German
Workers' Party
Founded in 1919;
1921: Adolf Hitler becomes
the leader of the NSGWP;
Pan-Germanism, anti-Marxist
and Anti-Semitism;
SA: paramilitary group,
known as brownshirts:
Later became the SS;
1923: Beer Hall Putsch, a
failed coup d'etat.
Hitler's rise to power
1930: collapsing of the German
democracy;
Unstable governments;
Hindenburg appoints Hitler as chancellor;
1933: Reichstag's fire:
State of emergency,
Limited freedom,
Banned political parties,
Use of Gestapo (secret police);
1934: Night of the Long Knives:
Purge of the SA,
Hitler's consolidation;
August 1934: Hindenburg died:
Hitler becomes the Fuhrer.
The Third Reich
Improve the economy and reduce
unemployment:
1935: broke with Treaty of Versailles,
Rearming of Germany,
Revived industry and funded public works;
Expansionism:
Great German Empire,
Annexed different European regions;
Anti-Semitism:
1935: Nuremberg laws,
Jews are not able to marry and lost
citizenship,
1938: Night of Broken Glass;
Indoctrination:
Hitler Youth and League of German Girls;
Women's role: Kinder, Kuch, Kirche;
Eugenics based on "racial hygiene".
7. Comparing
totalitarian regimes
Despite the big similarities between Stalin
and Hitler, there are big differences too;
Rise to power:
o Stalin struggled with Trotsky,
o Hitler rose using democracy and repression;
Economic intervention:
o Communist collectivisation,
o Nazist support on capitalism;
Leadership:
o Stalin needed the party,
o Hitler was the party;
Violence:
o Anti-revolutionaries,
o Non-Aryans, Jewish, homosexuals, diabled,
etc.
