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The Time Between the Wars (WWI to WW2-2 nd 30yr War?). IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid te guns below.
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IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid te guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. WWI Ends
Europe recovered from World War I Society faced rapid change Depression Changes in government Stage is set for World War II
Recovery • Full scale war, -> economies devoted entirely to the war effort • The Allied and Central Powers spent $200 billion fighting the war • Nearly every major European country was bankrupt by 1918
Recovery, Part 2 • 15 to 20 million dead, (civilians and military) • Locations of battles left heavy destruction and unusable land->Belgium/France
Aftermath of World War I • 1920s and 30s time of reexamination • Lost Generation • Exhausted Europe reflected -> devastating War • New Authoritarian Governments, Fascist and Communist, spread through Europe
Surrealism- “The Face of War” by Salvador Dali New Art forms such as Surrealism and Dadaism examined the ideas brought forth by Sigmund Freud, the Unconscious (Jung too!) The Art also reflected the insanity of War Dadaism
Dada (Degenerate Art ?/ This is what Hitler called it)- otto dix Note this is a triptych (3 piece art) which is commonly placed by an altar
Treaties • Germans -> peace according to Wilson’s Fourteen Points • Actual treaty was harsh towards Germany • Lost land (Alsace/Czech/Poland) • All territories Africa and Pacific German military power extremely limited • War guilt clause • $31 billion in war reparations • BUT NOT AS HARSH AS THE GERMAN’S IMPOSED ON RUSSIA –BREST-LITOVSK
League of Nations • Other treaties based on agreements among the Allied powers • End of Empires! Ottoman Empire , Austro-Hungarian empire split up->New Balance of Power- • Brest-Litovsk btw Germany and Russia cancelled and Russia recovered land, new countries formed- Poland, Baltic States, Finland
Unstable Governments • ->economic and war recovery problems, • Eastern and Central. Europe- figuring out democracy ->shaky situation (little liberal history, strong conservative elements) • By mid 1920s->Dictatorships- Authoritarian Government- (except Czechoslovakia) • Coalition governments • Dependent on American economy and investment
Weak Governments lead to Extremism in East- Vacillating Govts in West • By the end of the 1920s most of Eastern Europe was dominated by the military • Some countries (eg Hungary) had short experiences w/Communist Government that was quickly overrun-> long term “red” fear • Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary all became effectively military governments, only Czechoslovakia -> democracy • England and France weak coalition governments
ARTICLE 48!-DICTATORIAL POWERS Germany ->Weimar Republic ARTICLE 48!-DICTATORIAL POWERS • Proportional Government -> weak coalitions • Weimar- City in Germany where Constitution was created • Social Democratic Party ruled • Later Conservatives (Von Hindenburg) • SDP initially most powerful • Strong Communist party ARTICLE 48!-DICTATORIAL POWERS
Weimar • Liberal Constitution-borrowed from UK Cabinet, from US-> President • Free Speech, 20 yr voting age- both genders! • Voting methods->likelihood of splinter groups • Federal system-> less centralized • Failures of Weimar Republic • Military and Justice rife w/conservatives, monarchists- Rightists treated leniently, Leftists Harshly
Lost Territory Anschluss - Germany was not allowed to unite with Austria. Land - Germany lost land to a number of other countries. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, Eupen and Malmedy were given to Belgium, North Schleswig was given to Denmark. Land was also taken from Germany and given to Czechoslovakia and Poland. The League of Nations took control of Germany's colonies
German Disarmament • Military Clauses • Army - was to be reduced to 100,000 men and no tanks were allowed Navy - Germany was only allowed 6 ships and no submarines Air force - Germany was not allowed an airforce Rhineland - The Rhineland area was to be kept free of German military personnel and weapons
Early Crisis- Saar Basin- Ruhr Valley • Germany fails to pay full Reparations (1922)- France Occupies mines- upsets Britain- Germans unite! -Constant issue of Reparations US doesn’t demand Reparations but does demand repayment of War Debt- Heavy Burden
Germany 1920s • Economic Problems- Hyperinflation • Weak and unstable “Weimar Republic” -> breeding ground for radicals • Govt. failed to raise taxes in WWI>solve debt>print $$$$
Treaties/Agreements 1920s • Refinancing the Debt->Dawes plan and subsequent Young Plan- Stabilized SPD and Germany! • Trappau 1922 Berlin Treaty 1926 Russia • Locarno Pact 1925- reasserting borders but not Poland! (Stressemen) • Kellogg-Briand Pact • Little Entente- Czech, Yugoslavia, Romania
Great Britain- The sun begins to Set? Sort of • Reliance on British countries in WWI -> Commonwealth • Irish Question- Irish independence? 21+6? • Ghandi in India, Egypt Protectorate • Slow Economy throughout 1920s • A last gasp before dominance begins to Fade (had its’ own Iraq problem)
France 1920 and 30s • Highly dependent upon Reparations • Paid them in 1815 and 1871 • Some felt that not enough Retribution • Conservative Governments dominated in the 20s, more liberal Governments in 1930s • Sizeable followings of both socialism and fascism • Anti-Semitism lingered under the surface, however in the 1930s Leon Blum, a Jew was Prime Minister • Institutes 5 day 40hr workweek
Rise of Extremism • Fear/Anxiety->lose faith in democratic government • Turn to extremism (communism, fascism) • Subordination of the individual to the State • Fascism – “born of the need for action” • Extreme nationalism • Authoritarian leaders- • Absolute loyalty • Censorship • Dictatorial one party rule • Denied individual rights • Each class has a function
Rise of Extremism • Economic and Social Problems lead to extremism (communism, fascism) • Fascism – “born of the need for action” • Extreme nationalism • Authoritarian leaders-Dictators • One Party Government • Censorship • Limited Civil Rights
Appeal • What groups of people are attracted to • Fascism? • Communism? Each involves SUBORDINATION of the person to the STATE
Italy • Believed sacrifices during WWI were in vain- • Versailles didn’t properly compensate Italy • Severe economic crisis, didn’t want communism • “red” fear (Bolsheviks) • Weak Coalition Governments- Proportional Representation • Benito Mussolini – promised rescue Italy • Takes over government in 1922-bloodless • King Victor Emmanuel • Fascists- reconstitute Italian Parliament (25% rule) • Model of fascism- • MADE THE TRAINS RUN ON TIME
Cultural Change Life for Europeans changes at an unheard of pace Travel and Mass Media become commonplace
Depression • Worldwide Economic Depression • October 24, 1929, stock market fell • Germany/Austria particularly hard hit • Depression v. Recession, what’s the Difference?
Depression, cont. • Businesses, banks, and factories closed • American economy collapses! Reverbates->European economies • Unemployment skyrockets->Deflation • Austrian Bank fails 1930-> German bank failure-econ. Collapse (sound familiar?)
Solutions • In U.S. – the New Deal • In Europe – democratic groups failed, and anti-democratic leaders step in • France – Popular Front (Communists and Socialists) • Britain – National Government (all party coalition)- cuts???anti-keynsian
John Maynard Keynes • Spend $$$$$$$out of a Recession-STIMULATE • British Economist • Theorized ->deep recession->Paradox of Thrift- Consumers->Save instead of Spend, compounding the Recessionary Problems • Government MUSTspend • Book General Theory on Employment, Interest and Money (1936) • Short Run Matters->Long Run we’re all dead • Major effect on Post WW II Economics--Also argued against Protectionist Trade Policies • Along w/Smith, Malthus and Ricardo- One of the most important Economists in World History!!! • Member of the Bloomsbury Group- w/Virginia Woolf, EM Forster
American Isolationism • Most Americans -> avoid political ties to other countries • Rejected Treaty of Versailles and didn’t join League of Nations • Economically (banks and industry), heavily connected to Europe (Dawes and Young Plans)
Fascism v. Communists and RepublicansSpanish Civil War Conservatives and Fascists fought Socialists and Liberals (Republicans) -Republicans won elections but military unaccepting. Germany and Italy will provide military support for the Fascists • Soviet Union (Russia) will provide support for the Communists • Fascists Win, led by Francisco Franco
Painting by Pablo Picasso Guernica was the site of the 1st aerial bombing of a city- 1000s indiscriminately killed Saturation Bombing- precursor to Dresden (WW2) Spain - civil war- Guernica
Germany • Harsh deal? from Versailles Treaty- Conservatives remained in Power- • Late 1920s recovery until->Great Depression ->unemployment • Left/Right split • Nazis gain power 1933 • Adolf Hitler – promised the people what they wanted elected Chancellor
One Theory • From Luther and sell out of Peasant’s Revolt->30yr War and increased Serfdom->Prussia (militarism)>Volksculture-Reaction to Napoleonism? >Burschenschafen-> Hegel (Subordination of the indiv. To State->Nietzche (Uberman)->Wagner (German Myth)->Chamberlain (virulent Anti-semitism)->Wilhelm II-> Hilter
From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich • The Peace of Westphalia (1648) was almost as disastrous to the future of Germany as the war had been. The German princes, who had sided with France and Sweden, were confirmed as absolute rulers of their little domains, some 350 of them, the Emperor remaining merely as a figurehead so far as the German lands were concerned. The surge of reform and enlightenment which had swept Germany at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries was smothered. In that period the great free cities had enjoyed virtual independence; feudalism was gone in them, the arts and commerce thrived. Even in the countryside the German peasant had secured liberties far greater than those enjoyed in England and France. Indeed, at the beginning of the sixteenth century Germany could be said to be one of the fountains of European civilization…. • Now, after the Peace of Westphalia, it was reduced to the barbarism of Muscovy. Serfdom was reimposed, even introduced in areas where it had been unknown. The towns lost their self-government. The peasants, the laborers, even the middle-class burghers, were exploited to the limit by the princes, who held them down in a degrading state of servitude. The pursuit of learning and the arts all but ceased. The greedy rulers had no feeling for German nationalism and patriotism and stamped out any manifestations of them in their subjects. Civilization came to a standstill in Germany. The Reich, as one historian has put it, ”was artificially stabilized at a medieval level of confusion and weakness.”
Weimar Instability • Freikorps • Kapp Putsch • Communist revolts • Establishment National Socialist Party
Early US Report on Adolf Hitler • Captain Smith wrote a lengthy report which the embassy dispatched to Washington on November 25, 1922. • “The most active political force in Bavaria at the present time is the National Socialist Labor Party. Less a political party than a popular movement, it must be considered as the Bavarian counterpart to the Italian fascist! . . . It has recently acquired a political influence quite disproportionate to its actual numerical strength. . .Adolf Hitler from the very first has been the dominating force in the movement, and the personality of this man has undoubtedly been one of the most important factors contributing to its success... His ability to influence a popular assembly is uncanny. In private conversation he disclosed himself as a forceful and logical speaker, which, when tempered with a fanatical earnestness, made a very deep impression on a neutral listener.” • Colonel Smith, who later served as American military attache in Berlin during the early years of the Nazi regime • From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
National Socialist German Workers Party • 1923 Beer Hall Putsch- involved Ludendorf • 1924- Mein Kampf- while in luxury Prison? • Mid 20s Roehm’s stormtroopers (Brownshirts-SA)-Later SS too! (others had their thugs)
Beer Hall Putsch • ”The National Revolution has begun!” Hitler shouted. ’This building is occupied by six hundred heavily armed men. No one may leave the hall. Unless there is immediate quiet 1 shall have a machine gun posted in the gallery. The Bavarian and Reich governments have been removed and a provisional national government formed. The barracks of the Reichswehr and police are occupied. The Army and the police are marching on the city under the swastika banner.” • …At any rate a shot was fired and in the next instant a volley of shots rang out from both sides, spelling in that instant the doom of Hitler’s hopes. Scheubner- Richter fell, mortally wounded. Goering went down with a serious wound in his thigh. Within sixty seconds the firing stopped, but the street was already littered with fallen bodies – sixteen Nazis and three police dead or dying, many more wounded and the rest, including Hitler, clutching the pavement to save their lives. • Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Mein Kampf- • Not a Bestseller- • 9,473 copies (1925),. 6,913 (1926), 5,607 (1927), 3,015 (1928), 7,664 (1929), rose with the fortunes of the Nazi Party in 1930, when an inexpensive one-volume edition at eight marks appeared, to 54,086, 50,808 (1931), 90,351 (1932) • From Mein Kampf • “All the human culture, all the results of art, science and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan … he alone was the founder of all higher humanity, there- fore representing the prototype of all that we understand by the word ”man.” He is the Prometheus of mankind from whose shining brow the divine spark of genius has sprung at all times, forever kindling anew that fire of knowledge which illumined the night of silent mys- teries and thus caused man to climb the path to mastery over the other beings of this earth ... It was he who laid the foundations and erected the walls of every great structure in human culture.”
Rise to Power • 1928 Election- Nazi Party wins 12 Seats • Late 20s Coalition Govt formed -> fails 3/30 • 1930 Election Nazi->107 Seats • SA 1 Million members • 5/32 Hitler v. Von Hindenburg for President-> Hindenburg’s wins • 7/32 Nazi party wins 230 seats 37% • 11/32 party 196 seats 33%- • Attempt at Coalition govt alienates conservatives • 1/30/33 Hitler named Chancellor • 2/27/33 Reichstag Fire->Communists blamed art 48 imposed • 3/33 Nazi party wins 288 seats 43.9% • 3/23/33 Enabling Act • 5/33 Nazi Party seizes offices, banks, newspapers and free trade unions • 7/33 Nazi Party sole legal party • 6/34 SA leader Roehm and prior chancellor killed (Night of Long Knives) • 8/34 Hindenburg dies, Hitler- President and Chancellor
Rise of German Nazism Nuremburg Rallies • Nazi Party elected 1933 • Stages fire? in Reichstag- blames Communists-outlaws other parties • Creates Dictatorship (48) • Use of Propaganda to build support http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rmTiC0nJSw&skipcontrinter=1 Lebensraum
Anti-Semitic Laws Passed • Mein Kampf, (written while in prison-after Beer Hall Putsch) overt->Jews were a plague on Germany • 1933 Jews excluded from Civil Service (including teaching) • 1933 Dachau established Beginning NOT JEWS- political prisoners! • 1935 Nuremberg Laws passed limiting Jewish Employment and citizenship • November 1938->Kristallnacht
Americans and Nazi ideals • Henry Ford- The Dearborn IndependentMay 22, 1920, "The International Jew: The World's Problem." "There is a race, a part of humanity which has never yet been received as a welcome part." This people, … has ever been fouling the earth and plotting to dominate it. In order to eventually rule the Gentiles, the Jews have long been conspiring to form an "international super-capitalist government." (This racial problem).. "prime" question confronting all society.-Ford frequently accused the Jews of causing a decline in American culture, values, products, entertainment, and even worse, of being the instigators of World War I.Who Financed Hitler; The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power • Charles Lindberg- Jews were trying, partly through their ownership of the media, to draw America into the war. Lindbergh represented America First • Eugenics- Forced Sterilizations 1920s • Jim Crow, Chinese Exclusion Act etc… • Resettlement- (true in many other countries too…Trail of Tears, Indian Bureau)
Foreign PolicyAxis Power Disarmament talks ended, Rearmament upsurge Austrian Nazis kill Austrian Chancellor 1933 Naval Agreement w/Britain 1935 Removes League of Nations 1936 Germany and Italy form alliance- Rome-Berlin Axis Italy in 1935 invaded Ethiopia Japan Joins Axis as well