Transcript ARMISTICE: A Failed Peace

ARMISTICE: A Failed Peace
The Post WWI World
1
By the early summer of 1918, fresh American troops and tanks turned
the tide against Germany.
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After four years of fighting,
Germany was exhausted of men and materials
and could no longer continue to fight.
3
German workers and soldiers revolted against the German
imperial government. On November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm
II fled Germany.
4
A new democratic German government signed an armistice
with the Allies.
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At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh
month of 1918, the guns fell silent.
Today, this is celebrated as Veteran’s Day.
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In January 1919, representatives of the Allied nations met in
Paris to make a final settlement of the war.
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The victorious Allies - the United States, Britain, and France,
known as the Big Three, made most of the important
decisions at the Paris Peace Conference.
Germany was not included.
Russia was in the midst of a civil war and could not attend.
Italy was given a minor role.
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The final and most famous peace settlement was the Treaty
of Versailles.
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United States President
Woodrow Wilson proposed a
peace plan based on
democracy and cooperation
among nations.
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Wilson proposed his plan of “Fourteen Points” which
included:
• open, rather than secret, treaty negotiations between
nations
• freedom of the seas and free trade
• a massive reduction in military strength of all nations
• ensuring self-determination, or the right of each people to
have its own nation
• the creation of a League of Nations to be an international
peacekeeping force
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The British and French, however, who had suffered the most
among the allied victors, wanted revenge on the Germans.
They wanted to:
• strip Germany of all weapons
• have the Germans pay massive reparations
• strip Germany of territory to create a neutral buffer state
between Germany and France in the German Rhineland
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The final Treaty of Versailles began by declaring that the
Germans were guilty of starting the war.
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The treaty required Germany:
• to pay massive reparations for all damages
• to reduce its military forces to just 100,000 man peacekeeping force
• demilitarize German land near the Rhine River to prevent future
aggression toward France
• eliminate its airforce altogether and greatly reduce the size and power
of the German navy
• rebuild the British and French merchant navy
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The treaty also required
Germany to lose large parts of its
territory by:
• returning the borderlands of
Alsace and Lorraine, which had
been captured by Germany
during the Franco-Prussian war
of the 1870s, to French control
• surrendering territory in
eastern Germany to create a new
Polish state
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The German government
accepted the peace terms
because it had no choice. To
refuse would invoke an Allied
invasion of Germany.
However the treaty outraged
and angered the German
people, who felt the Treaty of
Versailles was a harsh and
unfair peace.
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Five new nation-states
emerged from lost
Russian territory:
• Poland
• Finland
• Latvia
• Estonia
• Lithuania
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Almost every new eastern European state included ethnic
minorities. For example, there were Germans in Poland and
Czechoslovakia and Hungarians in Romania.
National and ethnic rivalries in the region have continued to
plague eastern Europe to the present and have led to many
conflicts.
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The devastation of the war and the failure to satisfy all
stakeholders in the peace process opened the door to
revolution, further instability …
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… and laid the foundations for the even more destructive
Second World War a generation later.
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In 1914, although Russia had the second-largest army in Europe, a lack of
experienced military leaders and outdated weaponry left the Russian
Empire ill prepared for the Great War.
The poorly trained and equipped Russian army suffered terrible losses on
the Eastern Front against the Central Powers.
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By 1917, the Russian will to continue fighting in the war had disappeared.
In March 1917, working-class women in St. Petersburg called for a
massive strike to shut down the factories.
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Czar Nicholas II responded by ordering his troops to break up
the crowds with force. However, many soldiers refused their
orders to fire and instead joined the demonstrators.
26
On March 12, 1917, the Duma
urged the czar to abdicate his
throne, which he did.
Liberals in government tried to
establish a Russian Republic.
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The provisional government decided to continue fighting
the Great War. This was a grave mistake; workers and
peasants wanted to end the terrible years of fighting.
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The government was challenged by
the power of the soviets — councils
representing workers and soldiers —
which came to play an important
role in Russian politics.
Soviets sprang up around Russia.
Most were made up of socialists.
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The Bolsheviks were a radical
Marxist political party whose
influence was on the rise.
They were led by V.I. Lenin, and
were dedicated to beginning a
violent revolution to overthrow
the capitalist system.
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Three slogans summed up the Bolshevik program:
1. “Peace, Land, Bread”
2. “Worker Control of Production”
3. “All Power to the Soviets”
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By the end of October, 1917, the Bolsheviks held
majorities in the St. Petersburg and Moscow soviets.
On November 6, the Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace
and the provisional government collapsed.
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The Bolsheviks renamed
themselves the Communists.
In March of 1918, Lenin
ended the war with
Germany.
By the terms of the BrestLitovsk treaty, Lenin
surrendered vast amounts of
Russian territory to end the
fighting.
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Civil war soon broke out in Russia. Many people were opposed to the
Communists, including czarists, liberals, and anti-Leninist socialists. They
were aided by the Allies, who gave them troops and supplies, hoping
Russia would rejoin the war.
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But, by 1920,
the Communist
Red Army
emerged as the
victor.
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By 1921, the Communists had
complete control of Russia.
The country had become a
centralized state dominated by a
single party.
However, the country and
government were both on the
verge of collapse.
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Due to the long years of war,
Russia’s industrial output was
only 20 percent of its 1913
capacity.
Then, in the early 1920s,
millions in Russia died during
a great famine caused by
drought.
37
In 1921, Lenin created the New Economic Policy (NEP) to cope with the
extreme problems. This was a modified version of capitalism.
Peasants could sell produce and small businesses could be privately
owned but the government still controlled heavy industries and banking.
38
In 1922, the Communists created the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR), or Soviet Union.
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The NEP saved the Soviet Union from economic ruin,
but the Communists saw it only as a temporary
measure on the path to true communism.
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In 1924, Lenin died and a bitter struggle for power in the Politburo, the
committee that controlled the policies of the Communist Party, ensued.
41
One faction, led by
Leon Trotsky, wanted to
end the NEP and
rapidly industrialize the
nation at the expense of
the peasants.
They also wanted to
spread communism to
other countries.
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Trotsky’s main rival in the
Politburo was Joseph Stalin.
He had been born as Iosif
Dzhugashvili but adopted
the name “Stalin” which
means “Man of Steel.”
Stalin was not a great
philosopher but was a great
bureaucrat and organizer.
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Stalin held the job of
general secretary, and as
such had appointed
thousands of officials
throughout Russia.
These officials helped Stalin
gain complete control over
the Communist Party.
44
By 1929, Stalin had removed Trotsky, the original
Bolsheviks, and anyone who threatened his personal power
and made himself the powerful dictator of the Soviet Union.
45
Trotsky fled to Mexico, where he was tracked down and assassinated in
1940, on Stalin’s orders.
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The Stalinist Era began a time of radical changes in the Soviet Union.
In 1928, Stalin ended the NEP and instituted the First Five-Year Plan.
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The Five-Year Plans set clear
economic goals for five-year
periods. The plans emphasized
rapid industrialization and
production of capital goods
and greatly increased the
output of heavy machinery and
production of oil and steel.
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The Five-Year Plans, however, took a heavy toll
on the Russian people.
Urban housing for millions of workers was
terrible. Wages declined.
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The government dealt with these problems by using propaganda to boost
morale.
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Stalin also collectivized
agriculture.
Collectivization was a
system in which the
government took over
ownership of private farms
and had the peasants work
them.
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Many peasants resisted by hoarding food and killing livestock.
Stalin responded by increasing the number of farms in the program.
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Those who resisted Stalin’s
programs were sent to
Siberian forced labor camps.
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During the early 1930s, millions of Russians starved
to death due to food shortages from collectivization.
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Stalin conducted Great Purges of Old Bolsheviks, Red Army officers,
and others, most of whom were executed. The purges spared no one.
55
Stalin had people killed by
the secret police removed
from history books and
photographs as if they never
existed.
Gradually, the official history
of revolution was rewritten to
be a story about just two men:
Lenin and Stalin.
The true history of Stalin’s
reign will always remain
shrouded in mystery and
doubt.
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Stalin’s harsh policies
transformed the Soviet
Union from a backwards,
agricultural nation to an
industrial powerhouse
prepared to fight the
Fascist forces in the
Second World War.
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However, Stalin’s
policies and purges may
have killed as many as
25 million Soviet
citizens.
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Between 1919 and
1939, all the major
countries of Europe
except France and
Great Britain had
adopted some form
of dictatorial
government.
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A dictatorship is a
government in which
a person or group has
absolute power.
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A new form of dictatorship was the
modern totalitarian state.
Totalitarian governments aimed to
control all aspects of their citizens’ lives.
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Totalitarian governments wanted to control the hearts and minds of
everyone and used mass propaganda and modern communication to
achieve their goals.
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A single leader and a single party led the new totalitarian states.
There were no individual freedoms or limits to government power.
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Individuals were considered subservient to the collective will of the
masses. The state demanded that citizens actively support its goals.
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Benito Mussolini in Italy
established the first European
Fascist government in the early
1920s.
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Fascism glorifies the state above the individual.
A strong central government led by a single dictator runs the state.
Any opposition to the government is brutally crushed.
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Italy suffered severe economic
problems after World War I.
There was a great deal of social
upheaval. Middle-class Italians
feared the possibility of a
Communist revolution such as the
one in Russia.
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Mussolini formed groups of armed Fascists called Blackshirts, who
attacked socialists and striking workers. Mussolini gained the political
support of middle-class industrialists and large landowners.
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In 1922, Mussolini had enough
followers that he forced the
Italian king to make him his
prime minister.
As prime minister, Mussolini
created a Fascist dictatorship.
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By 1926, the Fascists eliminated all opposition. They banned other
political parties and created a secret police to enforce their will.
The police were given authority to arrest anyone for any reason.
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As ruler of Italy, Mussolini
became known as Il Duce,
“the Leader”.
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Two-thirds of Italian youth
participated in Fascist youth
groups that focused on
military activities. The
Italian Fascists were trying
to create a new nation of fit,
disciplined, and war-loving
people.
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Adolf Hitler was born in
Austria on April 20, 1889.
He failed secondary school
but later rose to rule Germany
and much of Europe during
the Second World War.
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In his youth, Hitler
aspired to be a great
artist but he was
rejected by the Vienna
Academy of Fine Arts.
It was in Vienna that he
developed his ideas.
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Racism, particularly against the
Jewish people, was at the core of
Hitler’s ideas.
Hitler was an extreme
nationalist and understood the
use of propaganda and terror.
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Hitler served on the Western
Front for four years during the
Great War.
Angered by Germany’s defeat,
the harsh terms of peace, and
collapse of the German economy,
he entered politics upon his
return to Germany.
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In 1919, he joined an extreme right-wing nationalist party in Munich.
By 1921, Hitler controlled the party and renamed it the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party for short.
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Germany’s economic problems helped the rise of the Nazi Party. Many
people were in desperate situations, which made extreme political parties
far more attractive.
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Germany’s economic problems helped the rise of the Nazi Party.
Many people were in desperate situations,
which made extreme political parties far more attractive.
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Germany’s economic problems helped the rise of the Nazi Party.
Many people were in desperate situations,
which made extreme political parties far more attractive.
81
Germany’s economic problems helped the rise of the Nazi Party.
Many people were in desperate situations,
which made extreme political parties far more attractive.
82
Germany’s economic problems helped the rise of the Nazi Party.
Many people were in desperate situations,
which made extreme political parties far more attractive.
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Within two years, the Nazi Party had grown to 55,000 people with 15,000
in the militia. In 1923, Hitler staged an uprising in Munich — called the
Beer Hall Putsch — which was quickly crushed. Hitler was sent to prison.
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In prison,
Hitler wrote
Mein Kampf,
in which he outlined
his basic ideas
and plans.
His ideas combined
German nationalism,
anti-Semitism,
and anti-communism.
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He also embraced the
notion that stronger
nations should expand to
obtain living space, called
Lebensraum, and that
superior leaders should
rule over the masses.
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With the failure of the Beer
Hall Putsch, Hitler realized
that the way to power was
through legal means, not
through violent overthrow of
the government.
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When he got out
of prison, he
worked to expand
the Nazi Party
throughout
Germany.
By 1929, the Nazis
had a national
party organization,
and by 1931 it was
the largest political
party in the
Reichstag, or
parliament.
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Hitler also appealed to national
pride and militarism to gain the
support of the German people.
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In March 1933, the Reichstag
passed the Enabling Act,
which gave the government
the power to ignore the
constitution and pass laws to
deal with the nation’s
problems.
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The act gave Hitler a legal basis for his actions.
The Nazis had complete control.
Hitler had become Germany’s dictator.
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The Nazis established control over all aspects of government.
Jews were purged from the civil service and trade unions were dissolved.
Concentration camps were set up for Nazi opponents.
All political parties except the Nazis were abolished.
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Hitler wanted to develop an Aryan racial state to dominate Europe and
possibly the world. Nazis wanted the Germans to create a new empire as
the Romans had done. Hitler called his empire the Third Reich.
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The Nazis used economic policies, mass rallies, organizations, and terror
to control the country and further their goals.
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Hitler put people back to work
through public works projects and
grants to private construction
companies.
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Hitler put people back to work
through public works projects
and grants to private
construction companies.
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Unemployment dropped and the Great
Depression seemed to be ending.
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The Nazis staged mass demonstrations and spectacles.
Some of the largest were held in the city of Nuremberg.
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Art was considered to be one of the most important elements to
strengthening the Third Reich and purifying the nation.
Political aims and artistic expression became one.
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True art as defined by Hitler was linked with the
country life, with health, and with the Aryan race.
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Once in power, the Nazi
Party enacted programs
against Jewish people. In
1935, the Nazis passed the
“Nuremberg laws.”
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These laws stripped Jews of German citizenship, forbade marriage
between Jews and German citizens, and required Jews to wear
yellow Stars of David and to carry special identification cards.
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On the night of November 9, 1938, Nazis burned Jewish
synagogues and destroyed thousands of Jewish businesses.
They killed at least 100 people and sent
30,000 Jews to concentration camps.
This event is known as Kristallnacht,
the “Night of Shattered Glass”.
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After Kristallnacht, Jews were barred from all
public transportation, schools, and hospitals.
They could not own, manage, or work in a retail
store. Jews were urged to leave Germany.
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