CHAPTER 31

1. CHAPTER 31 The Collapse of the Old Order 1929-1949

2. THE SOVIET UNION & THE STALIN REVOLUTION • Joseph Stalin rose to power in the Communist (Bolshevik) Party in Russia by eliminating all other challengers after Lenin’s death in 1924 (like Trotsky) • Main Goal: industrialization to “catch up” with the western, strong nations (Germany, England, U.S.) • Five Year Plans were designed to industrialize rapidly

3. collectivization • Stalin forced people to live and work on collective farms in the USSR • Wheat sold internationally would bring money to the Soviets; factories built with the money • Agriculture to Industry • Small family farms were taken over and consolidated (collectivized) into mega farms so that more profit could be made for the government • 5 million peasants (Kulaks) died as a result of starvation (what Stalin called “liquidation”) because they dared to oppose Stalin’s plan

4. TERROR IN RUSSIA • Stalin was a paranoid delusional who constantly felt he was going to be killed, so he frequently ordered “purges” of the Party to ensure loyalty to himself and the Party line • The secret police (NKVD) were used to enforce Stalin’s purges • Millions (20) were executed directly or died in labor camps in Siberia as a result of the Purges • Stalin’s plans, although brutal, did bring the Soviet Union into the industrial age quickly

5. GLOBAL DEPRESSION • 1929 – the stock market crash in USA leads the world into depression • Nations began to place tariffs on imports which further hurt trade and the economy • Governments had to bail out their citizens (ex. FDR’s New Deal) in many nations • Core states suffered more than periphery states comparatively (much to lose…)

6. THE RISE OF FASCISM • Benito Mussolini (Italy) rose to power, promising to make Italy strong and rich • Adolf Hitler (Germany )becomes Chancellor by promising to return Germany to pre-WW I greatness • Fascism = Strong Nationalism (the State is the most important thing in society and civil rights and freedoms are not valued) • Highly militaristic (war glorified… “You were born to die for Germany.”) • Opposition crushed, no dissent allowed

7. GERMANY UNDER HITLER • Hitler’s Nazi Party (National Socialist Worker’s Party) rose to power in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s by crushing all opposition and promising a return to greatness • Hitler preached racial purity as the most important aspect of the building of the Third Reich • This meant the extermination of “inferior” people such as Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, etc. • Hitler made his views known in Mein Kampf (My Struggle)

8. Hitler’s Germany • The global depression, plus the bitterness over the Treaty of Versailles, made Germans want to believe that Hitler was right for the job • Hitler takes over officially as Chancellor in 1933 and declares himself Fuhrer in 1934 • The economy and conditions improved greatly under Hitler…

9. THE ROAD TO WAR, 1933-1939 • Hitler wanted to reclaim land in Europe he considered “German” so he began to build up the military, violating the Treaty of Versailles • Hitler took the Rhineland and then invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 • Leaders of Britain, France, and Italy agreed at the Munich Conference of 1938 that this was okay…thinking that was all Hitler would take • The strategy of appeasement will backfire on the world • After World War I, most nations were terrified to engage in another brutal war, and Hitler recognized this and exploited it for his own gain • Hitler negotiates with the Soviets to divide up Poland for themselves after Germany invades them

10. EAST ASIA, 1931-1945 • Japan becomes very aggressive and takes over Manchuria and northern China…brutality ensued • Japan’s military essentially took over the government in Japan during the 1930’s and began to prepare the nation for conquest of the Pacific region • Japanese atrocities became known as the “Rape of Nanking”

11. CHINA • Chiang Kai-Shek and his Nationalist Party were challenged by Mao Zedong and the Communists; they fight throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s; the Long March is pictured below • Mao was a dedicated student of Marxism and Lenin’s work and he sought the redistribution of land in China for the peasants • Russia had a revolution centered on helping the industrial workers, while China’s Communist efforts were focused on helping the peasants (comparison/contrast!)

12. THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR, 1937-1945 • Japan’s invasion of China was brutal with atrocities committed • Policy of “kill all, burn all, loot all” in 1940 • Communists under Mao began to win over the population of China, promising to be the ones who could actually end the Japanese occupation of China

13. It Begins… • Hitler invades Poland in 1939 and Germany next conquers France and takes on Russia and Britain (much harder to accomplish) • Fighting takes place in Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific Ocean (islands) • After the U.S. cuts off oil and other resources, Japan attacks the U.S. in 1941 at the naval base in Hawaii (a U.S. territory) thinking the Americans would not be willing to fight an enemy so far from home • The U.S. joins the Allied cause (Britain, France, Soviet Union, facing off against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan

14. WORLD WAR II • Very different from “the Great War” in that technology had improved greatly and war would be much deadlier as a result • Planes, tanks, machine guns, incendiary bombs, aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines, and eventually atomic bombs • Civilians and non-military cities are seen as legitimate targets in war now

15. Victory in Europe • Italy is defeated quickly in 1943 and the Allies are then able to surround Germany from all sides • The D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France was crucial in getting Allied troops into northern Europe to fight the Nazis there • By 1945, Germany is defeated and Hitler commits suicide in his bunker

16. The Struggle to End the War with Japan • Japan was not so easy to get to surrender • Japanese citizens refused to accept defeat due to their belief in their emperor as a descendant of the sun god (as a divine figure there was no way defeat was possible…and they preferred death to dishonor) • The U.S. was faced with an agonizing decision…to use nuclear weapons to end the war or risk hundreds of thousands of troops in a land invasion of Japan • The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, finally getting Japan to surrender and officially ending World War II

17. Hiroshima and NagasakiThe world enters the atomic age…

18. Back in China… • With the Japanese defeated, the Chinese Civil War heated up between the Nationalists and the Communists () • The Nationalists lost support by mistreating the peasants in the countryside, while Mao and the Communists gained support by doing the exact opposite and promising land reform • Mao’s forces win in 1949 and force the Nationalists to flee to Taiwan • China became a Communist nation in 1949 (the People’s Republic of China) with Mao Zedong as their leader

19. THE HOLOCAUST • Nazi killings of civilians was part of a calculated policy of racially purifying Germany for world domination • At first, Jews were harassed and placed in ghettoes, had land and businesses seized, and were subject to brutality at the hands of the police and Hitler’s Brown Shirts (thugs used to intimidate opponents) • Then, beginning in 1942 Hitler began his “final solution” which meant the extermination of the Jewish population of Europe • At least 6 million Jewish lives were lost during the Holocaust in death camps like Auschwitz and Dachau

20. HOLOCAUST

21. TECHNOLOGY CHANGES WARFARE • Warfare became more deadly because of technology (atomic bombs, napalm, incendiary devices, planes, machine guns) • But technology also saved many lives (radar, antibiotics to stave off infection) • World War II was more mobile than World War I, with fighting taking place in Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific (also helping to increase the death toll (65 million)