THE WORLD OF THE 1930s: RESPONSES TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION

1. THE WORLD OF THE 1930s:RESPONSES TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION

2. THE GLOBAL GREAT DEPRESSION • The Impact of the Great Depression • Intensified the decline in globalization • Intensified the shakiness of Western democracy • Authoritarian regimes arose in Europe, Asia, and Latin America • Global framework established by Western nations seemed to collapse • Immediate Causes • The Kreditanstalt in Austria, German banks failed • Former Central Powers unable to pay reparations to Allies • Allies unable to repay loans to the USA • Crash of the US Stock Market in 1929 • There were numerous economic problems in the aftermath of World War I • In order to repay the US, Allies needed German reparations • Germany suffered from massive inflation, which was difficult to control • Britain, dependent on exports, found a global market with much stiffer competition. • Agricultural overproduction sent prices for food products plummeting in all nations. • In Europe, falling farm prices made it more difficult to repay war loans. • Economic recovery in Germany and France in the 1920s was fragile. • Overproduction was a problem in dependent countries of the world trade system. • Inability of colonies, dependent regions to purchase European-manufactured goods • Weakened demand for Western goods • Nationalism frustrated international attempts to deal with these problems. • Tariffs barriers, which further reduced trade, were erected in many nations.

3. THE GREAT DEPRESSIONIn Images

4. THE DEBACLE • The economic collapse first occurred in the United States in 1929 • American banks closed their doors • Europe, which remained dependent on American credit, drawn into the crisis. • Investment funds were withdrawn when creditors went bankrupt. • Without capitalization, industrial production, demand for labor fell • Massive unemployment meant less money to consume goods produced • The social devastation of the Depression was evident at all levels. • This slump was deeper and more prolonged than previous ones. • It brought widespread unemployment and increased suicide rates • Popular culture turned towards escapism • The Depression confounded 19th century optimism • Depression led to extreme experiments and paralysis in government around world • The USSR • Resisted the general trend to depression because it was a centralized, command economy • Without ties to most of the West, the Soviets were unaffected by the drop in worldwide demand. • Colonial nations • Depended on exports of raw materials suffered enormously • Nations raised tariffs, trade barriers to protect themselves against competition • Colonies had replaced agriculture with export industries, crops suffered horribly • Latin America. Japan • Industries were heavily dependent on exports • Countries suffered typically high unemployment figures • The Depression increased Japanese paranoia about the West • Promoted more aggressive imperialism in Asia • In Latin America, it inspired greater state involvement in the economy • In the West • The Depression prompted new government-led welfare schemes and political radicalism • Rise of Keynesian economics where government used fiscal economics to remedy situation • State spent its way out of depression • State raised, lowered interest rates to benefit society • States taxed richer populations, industry to achieve end • World Trade Collapsed as nations protected domestic economies from competition

5. THE DEPRESSION IN ART Days of Wrath Frozen Assets

6. COLLAPSE OF WORLD TRADE AND THE GOLD STANDARD

7. WESTERN EUROPE & USA • Responses to the Depression in Western Europe • Depression showed that the achievements of the 1920s had been fragile • Weak governments responded counterproductively to the crisis • Old style economic policies often made things worse • Confidence in normal politics declined • Radical political parties gained new support. • In most cases, however, parliamentary forms of government were weakened. • In France • Popular Front government dominated by socialist groups won election in 1936. • Opposed by conservatives, Popular Front was unable to enact effective policy • In Scandinavia, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand • First Socialist (or Labor in UK) Governments come to power • Governments intervened more actively in economy with positive results • In Britain, new industrial sectors emerged under creative business leadership. • Labor parties become influential in English speaking world • In the United States: The New Deal • After floundering for a few years, the USA initiated a new economic program • Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President, started the New Deal • Based on social welfare and government intervention • New Deal greatly increased size of government and restored public confidence • Western Europe all relied heavily on Keynesian Economics

8. NAZISM • In Germany • The Depression led to Nazism, the German variant of Fascism • German Fascists attacked parliamentary democracy as corrupt and weak • Proposed a strong leader with a vigorous foreign and military policy • Supported by business leaders as they attacked unions and socialists • Adolf Hitler called for the state to guide society • The state was greater than the sum of individual interests • He criticized much of modern life • Promised to end the humiliation of Versailles • Railed against Jews. • Nazis in power • Built a totalitarian state • Exercised direct control over many aspects of German life • Eliminated opposition groups through terror, secret police, concentration camps • Jews were made the scapegoats for all modern problems and persecuted • In foreign policy • Hitler prepared for war: looked to rebuild a German empire • He withdrew Germany from the League of Nations • Broke Treaty of Versailles by suspending reparations, rearming • Remilitarized the Rhineland • Germany declared a union with Austria in 1938 • Threatened to invade Czechoslovakia in 1938: European nations demand a conference • France and Britain acceded to Hitler's demands in return for the hope of continued peace. • Appeasement failed when Hitler's forces swallowed all of Czechoslovakia in 1939. • The Soviet Union and Germany signed a peace treaty in the same year. • Finally, when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war

9. RISE OF THE 3RD REICH

10. THE SPREAD OF FASCISM • 1935 Ethiopia • Italy also wanted an empire • Started a war with, annexed Ethiopia • Western Allies, League of Nations did nothing to halt war • Spanish Civil War • 1931 Radicals oust Spanish king, declare Spain a republic • Military, Church, elite hate republic • 1936: Spanish Army launches a coup, leftists resist • Francisco Franco assumes leadership, creates fascist organization • Civil War 1936 – 1939 saw world involvement • UK, France refused to become involved • USSR sent aid, volunteers to Republicans • Italy, Germany sent aid, volunteers to Falangists (Nationalists) • Germany tested out its new weapons, tactics on SpanishFa • Fascists Elsewhere • Strong Fascist movements in France, Belgium, Eastern Europe • Groups often cooperated: many had great influence in society • Most fascists saw liberals, democrats, communists, socialists as enemies

11. MAPPING FASCIST AGGRESSION

12. Early 20th c. Changes in Latin America • World War I • Latin American trade boomed, some growth of new industries • End of war brought sudden end to prosperity • Postwar inflation, declining standard of living hurt region • Labor and the Middle Class • Growing importance of labor and urban middle class • Forced traditional landowning elite to make changes • Opened up the political structure to new groups, ideas • Argentina and Brazil • 1916, middle-class Radical party won election in Argentina, forged ties with elites • Brazilian middle class allied with traditional landed interests in Republican party • Labor groups composed of European immigrants exerted some influence on politics • Strikes and other labor movements were often suppressed violently. • Despite government opposition, strikes, labor unrest common between 1914, 1930 • Ideology and Social Reform In Latin America • Older liberalism seemed out of place • Middle-class political movements so often allied with traditional landed elites • Disillusioned intellectuals began to attack concepts of liberalism during 1920s • Movements for social reform spread rapidly in many countries • Both socialism and Communism appeared in Latin America • The Roman Catholic Church also contributed to the assault on liberalism.

13. THE DEPRESSION & REGIONAL RESPONSES • The Impact of the Great Depression • Foreign investment, exports collapsed as nations restricted trade • Infrastructure collapsed as groups associated with both became unemployed • Both the demand for Latin American exports and foreign investment in Latin • Their failure led to the complete bankruptcy of the liberal agenda. • Responses • Corporatism won growing support • New regimes started social reform, mobilized mass support from poor, out of work • President Cárdenas in Mexico nationalized petroleum industry, made land reforms • In Brazil • Getúlio Vargas became president of Brazil • Estado Novo (New State) • Defeated both Communist and Fascist insurrections • With support of military, imposed new constitution based on Mussolini's corporatist state • Allied himself with the United States during World War II; received arms and economic aid • Opposition to the strongly centralized state grew toward the end of the war • Vargas turned to labor groups and Communists for support • Vargas nationalized the petroleum industry as a means of limiting foreign capital in Brazil. • Argentine Populism and Peron • Military insurrection brought the Nationalists to power in 1943 • Leader Juan D. Perón, sought to create a broad base of support among workers, lower classes • His wife, Evita, became a popular figure and spokesperson for Perón • A New Argentina • Don’t Cry for Me Argentina • Using a coalition of workers, industrialists, military, Perón pursued a populist program • Nationalization of resources, industries, exclusion of foreign capital, political repression

14. MILITARIZATION OF JAPAN • Responses to Depression • 1931 Manchuria • World distracted by domestic problems, • Japan invades China, conquers Manchuria • World reacts lamely and Japan walks out of League of Nations • Authoritarianism appeared earlier in Japan than in the West • Nationalist groups emerged supporting Confucian and Shinto values • Most groups supported increased militarization • 1932, some officers assassinated the prime minister • Military Government • A second attempted military coup in 1936 was blocked by established officers • But the military gained further control over the government • Civilian politics were suspended • Role of Emperor Hirohito confused: did he reign or rule? • After 1936 • Militaristic prime ministers presided over expansion in Asia • Began creation of a regional empire • Army demanded even wider conquests leading to entry into World War II. • Industrialization and Recovery • Massive government spending • Armed the military and pulled Japan out of the Depression quickly • Industrialization grew quickly after 1931. • New policies stabilized the labor force and reduced unrest.

15. JAPAN AND DIPLOMACY

16. STALIN & THE USSR • Joseph Stalin • Was able to gain control of the Communist apparatus, • Stalin wished to accelerate the process of nationalization • Repealed NEP: did not trust private initiative or capitalization • Establish an industrialized society under governmental control • Totalitarian Rule or Stalinism • Stalin forced both artists and scientists to conform to government demands • Created a totalitarian state through creation of state police, the party • Potential rivals were ruthlessly eliminated • Dissemination of information was carefully controlled • Stalin's regime was repressive • A New Reign of Terror – The Purges • To further his control, agenda purged all opposition, real, imagined • Soviet secret police arrested people without warrants, usually on gossip suspicion • System of informers left society in utter terror awaiting the knock on the door • In early 1930s, began region of terror • Purged intellectuals and party officials • Some executed, some sent to prison camps in Siberia called Gulags • Late 1930s • Purged Red Army • Executed more than 60% of all officers above the rank of major • Left Red Army unable to resist Nazi invasion during World War II

17. STALIN’S PURGES Kulaks Intellectuals Journalists Landlords White Russians “Army Officers” Social Misfits Priests “Mensheviks”

18. THE NEW SOVIET SOCIETY • Economic Policies • Stalin ordered the collectivization of agriculture in 1928 • Large state-run farms replaced individual family units. • Collectivization permitted government capitalization • Collectivization permitted firmer control over the peasant population • Wealthier peasants, or kulaks, resisted: Stalin ordered them killed • Communists imposed collectivization by force • Government-run farms produced little incentive for peasantry • Collectivization siphoned capital, labor out of agriculture into industry • To foster industrialization • Stalin created a state planning commission and a series of five-year plans • Government paid for infrastructure and industrialization • The focus was entirely on heavy industry, not consumer production • State planning reduced dependence on markets but created bottlenecks and waste • Despite problems, Russian industrialization under the five-year plans was rapid. • Toward an Industrial Society • Soviet industrialization shared some aspects with early Western developments. • Urbanization rapidly increased • Factory management of labor was strict, and welfare services developed over time. • Standards of living remained low • Industrialization produced few consumer products. • The process was state-directed, and there was no mechanism to air worker grievances.

19. VOCABULARY • Great Depression • Keynesian Economics • Welfare States • Popular Front • New Deal • Totalitarianism • Gestapo • 1936 Spanish Civil War • 1931 Manchurian Incident • 1935 Ethiopia • 1938 Austrian Anschluss • 1938 Munich Conference • Corporatism • Five Year Plans • Socialism Realism

20. IDENTIFICATIONS • Franklin Delano Roosevelt • John Maynard Keynes • Joseph Stalin • Adolf Hitler • Emperor Hirohito • Francisco Franco • Lorenzo Cardenas • Getulio Vargas • Juan Peron