Transcript Document
Years of Crisis
Chapter 15
1919-1939
I. Post-War Uncertainty
After Word War I
Many people were uncertain of the future
Also a time of great invention, creativity
and new ideas that transformed society
Changes in Science and Literature
Science
Albert Einstein – offered radically
different views in the field of physics
Sigmund Freud – new ideas about the
mind
Literature
Suffering caused by WWI leads many
people to doubt old beliefs
Uneasiness of postwar years
No universal meaning of life
Revolution in the Arts
Traditional Art
Changes
Introduction to cubism
and surrealism
Cubism – natural
shapes into
geometric forms
Surrealism – links
dreams with real life
Music
Introduction to Jazz
Pablo Picasso –
Cubism
“Guernica”
“Three Musicians”
Salvador Dali – Surrealism
“Geopoliticus Child”
“The Persistence of Memory”
Salvador Dali Painting - Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumble
bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening
The Role of Women
Women’s Rights Movement
Women win the right to vote
US, UK, Germany, and others
Adopt freer clothing and hair styles
“Bobbed” hair
Began to smoke in public
More career opportunities as well
Medicine, education, and journalism
Technology Improves Life
The Automobile
Cars improve and become cheaper
Development of suburbs and travel for pleasure
Airplanes
Long-distance air travel available to the rich
Amelia Earhart – first women to fly solo across
the Atlantic Ocean (1932)
Radio and Movies
Broadcast news, entertainment, etc.
Created a sense of community and collective art
Amelia Earhart
II. World Wide Depression
Post-war Germany
New government was the Weimar
Republic
It was a coalition government
Temporary, multi-party alliance
Had serious weaknesses
Inflation due to reparations
Signs the Kellogg-Briand Pact with France
Pledging no more war
The Stock Market Crash
Post-war United States
Economy booms in the 1920s
Wealth is distributed unevenly
Factories cut back on production and workers
Farmers produce too much food and cannot
pay mortgages
Stocks bought on credit (now illegal)
Investors sell stock – lowers the price
October 29, 1929 – Market collapses as prices
fall very low
Post-War England & France
Great Britain
Coalition governments
Avoid political extremes
Slow and steady economic recovery
France
Establishes a self-sufficient economy
Preserves democracy despite problems
III. Fascism Rises in Europe
What is Fascism?
Describes any authoritarian government
that is not communist
Basic Fundamentals of Fascism
Rooted in extreme nationalism
Glorified action, violence, and discipline
Blind loyalty to the state
Glorified warfare as a necessary and
noble struggle for survival
What is Fascism? (Cont)
Fascism can be described as totalitarian
rule
Single party dictatorship
State control of the economy
Use of police, spies & terror to enforce the will of
the state
Strict censorship & government monopoly of the
media
Use of schools & the media to indoctrinate &
mobilize citizens
Unquestioning obedience to a single leader
Why did it appeal to Italians?
Promised a strong
stable government
End to political
feuding
Sense of power and
confidence at a time
of disorder and
despair
Fascism vs. Communism
Fascists were sworn enemies of
socialists and communists
Communists had hopes for international
change
Fascists pursued nationalist goals
Fascism in Italy
Italy’s democratic government
seemed helpless after WWI
Plagued by many problems
Politician Benito Mussolini promised to
rescue Italy
Promised strong leadership
King Victor Emmanuel III put Mussolini
in charge in 1922
Benito
Mussolini
Fascism in Italy
Mussolini as “Il Duce”
Abolished democracy
and political parties
Took control of the
economy
Workers were
forbidden to strike
Government became
a “corporate state”
Fascist Party controlled
industry, agriculture &
transportation
Fascism in Germany
German government had many problems
Very weak coalitions
Many small parties
Blamed republic for Versailles Treaty
Inflation was out of control
Great Depression in Germany led to the
rise of the National Socialist German
Workers' Party
The Nazi Party
Ideas of the Nazi Party
Stressed the failures of
Communism
Democracy
Stressed the "racial purity
of the German people“
Used the Jews as
scapegoats
The Nazi Party
Adolf Hitler was an
excellent organizer
and speaker
Allowing him to gain
power in the Nazi
Party
Allowing him to gain
popularity with the
German people
Rise of the Nazi Party in Germany
Federal election results
Date
Votes
% of vote
Seats in
Reichstag
Background
May 1924
1,918,300
6.5
32 Hitler in prison
December
1924
907,300
3.0
14 Hitler is released from prison
May 1928
810,100
2.6
12
September
1930
6,409,600
18.3
107 After the financial crisis
July 1932
13,745,80
0
37.4
230
November
1932
11,737,00
0
33.1
196
March 1933
17,277,00
0
43.9
288 After Hitler had become
Chancellor
Nazi Political Propaganda
"We demand
freedom
and bread"
“The people are voting for list 1,
the Nazis, at the Reichstag election.”
The Rise of Hitler
Hitler and the Nazis planned to
overthrow the government in 1923
Arrested and put in jail for less than one
year
In jail, he wrote “Mein Kampf”
It became a handbook for Nazism
Discussed racial purity
Declared the need for more German “living
space”
Lebensraum
Hitler Becomes Chancellor
Conservative
members of the Nazi
Party urged President
Paul von Hindenburg
to name Hitler
chancellor in 1933
Thought they would
be able to “control” him
Hitler Becomes Chancellor
Once in power, Hitler
quickly established a
totalitarian regime
Used the Gestapo –
secret police
Use the SS – elite
protection squad
Used propaganda
Nazi
Propaganda
Hitler Achieves Totalitarianism
Hitler gains control by:
Targeting young people
Hitler Youth programs
Numerous speeches
Limits the roles of women
Launched large scale public works programs
Helps the economy
Began to rearm the German military
Controlled all mass media and educational
institutions
Hitler’s Campaign Against the Jews
Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for
Germany’s problems
Led to a huge wave of anti-Semitism
Laws were passed to limit Jews rights beginning
in 1933
Hitler’s Campaign Against the Jews
Kristallnacht – “Night
of the Broken Glass”
November 9th, 1938
Nazi-led mobs
attacked Jewish
stores, synagogues,
and communities
Jewish Emigration in Germany
IV. Aggressors Invade Nations
Japanese Aggression
Japan seeks to solve its economic problems
thru foreign expansion
Takes over Manchuria, China in 1931
League of Nations protests
Japan withdraws from the League
Japan invades the rest of China in 1937
Aggressors Invade Nations
Italian Aggression
Mussolini invades
Ethiopia in 1935
Ethiopian Leader Haile
Salassie appeals to the
League of Nations
League of Nations
does not stop
aggression
Aggressors Invade Nations
Civil War in Spain
General Francisco
Franco leads a
rebellion in 1936
Receives aid from
Hitler and Mussolini
Wins the war in
1939 – becomes
Fascist leader
Leads to the
massacre at
Guernica
“Guernica”
http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/gue
rnica/glevel_1/1_bombing.html
Aggressors Invade Nations
German Aggression
Hitler plans to expand the Third Reich –
German Empire
Hitler begins a series of steps that would lead
to war
Built German military against the Versailles
Treaty
People of Germany hated the Treaty
The West gave into his demands =
appeasement – giving in to demands to
keep peace
Why Appeasement?
Many nations did not want another
World War
Many thought Communism was the
bigger threat
Great Depression “sapped” energy of
western democracies
US neutrality acts; the average
American agrees with Isolationism
Steps Towards War
1936-German troops in the Rhineland
1936-Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis (Axis Powers)
Agreed to
Fight communism
Not interfere with each other’s expansion
1938-Invasion of Austria
1938-Invasion of Sudetenland area of
Czechoslovakia
Munich Pact – Hitler promises no further
expansion
Nazis in the Rhineland
Steps Towards War
1939–Hitler takes the
rest of Czechoslovakia
1939-Hitler demands port
city of Danzig from
Poland
1939-The Nazi – Soviet
Pact
Hitler & Stalin agree
Not to fight each other
Split up Poland
The Beginning of World War II
1939- Germans
invade Poland (9/1)
Britain & France
declare war on
Germany
Promised to protect
Poland
World War II Begins
THE END