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“War-making doesn’t stop war-making. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago.” - Colman McCarthy. Kansas state law requires pedestrians crossing the highway at night to wear tail lights. 1919-1939: Continued. Japan and Germany. Japan During WWI. Japan During WWI.
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“War-making doesn’t stop war-making. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago.”- Colman McCarthy Kansas state law requires pedestrians crossing the highway at night to wear tail lights.
1919-1939: Continued Japan and Germany
Japan During WWI • Fought alongside the Allied Powers: • Aided the European powers (esp. Russia) with weapons supplies. • They expanded their economic and political influence in East Asia. • Korea, Taiwan, and China became protectorates.
Japan After WWI: Problems with the West • When WWI ended, Japan received Germany’s Pacific islands north of the Equator as mandates for the League of Nations. • Created military and economic agreements with the Western Powers. • Participated in a 5-part disarmament agreement with G.B., U.S., Italy, and Fr. in 1922: 3rd largest navy. • However, despite these measures, Japan was bitter toward the West.
Japan After WWI: Problems with the West • Reasons for bitterness: • 1919: Japan felt that the West did not accept is as a racial equal. (L of N did not accept Japan’s statement for racial equality). • 1924: U.S. banned further Japanese immigration. • The Western powers did not support Japan’s policy for China; W. wanted Open Door Policy (Japan was forced to relinquish China as a protectorate).
Japan’s Internal Problems • Japan suffered social and economic problems: • Population explosion: 35 million (1872); 60 million (1925). • With emigration cut off (U.S.) the Japanese government helped to est. heavy industry to provide jobs. • Increased manufacturing, however, stimulated the desire for raw materials. • Japan lacked these materials and was forced to look overseas for them.
Social and Political Changes • Overpopulation = less land; less land = less land for farmers; less need for farmers = (growing) labor force. • Both men and women from rural areas left farms to go work in factories. • With growing numbers of workers, labor unions became more powerful: more than 300,000 members by the end of the 1920s.
Social and Political Changes • The growth of the urban, working-class populations produced movements demanding social changes. • However, efforts to create Socialist groups were stopped by police repression. • The urban, middle-class was expanding as well creating a middle-class culture based on American styles of dress, music, dancing, sports.
Social and Political Changes • With the growth of the working and middle classes, steps were taken toward greater political democracy. • 1925: Japanese parliament grants universal male suffrage (right to vote) • 1947: Japanese women get the right to vote.
Japan’s Weak Government • Despite some limited gains, democracy remained very limited in Japan. • Political power was actually in the hands of nobles and urban industrialists. • Emperor Hirohito was both a constitutional monarch and a powerful symbol of traditional authority. However, behind the emperor was an influential group of military leaders who were opposed to democratic reforms.
Japan’s Weak Government • As the economy went down, anti-democratic nationalist groups grew. • A worldwide fall in prices cased by the Great Depression devastated Japan’s silk factories and other industries. • Millions went unemployed, people starved, and children were begging in the streets. • Many began to look to strong-minded military leaders such as Hashimoto Kingoro and militarism for answers.
Japan’s Military Expansion • Militarism spread throughout Japan during the 1930s: • Anti-Western. • Favored traditional Japanese ways. • In Sept. of 1931, the Japanese Army had grown so powerful that they invaded Manchuria (w/o the government’s approval) and conquered it in 5 months. • The strength and the influence of militarism and the military had grown so much that by 1937 the army and the government had become one and the same.
Germany: Final Thoughts on Versailles • 10% of land lost to Fr., Poland, Belgium, and Netherlands (border w/ Pol. never accepted). • 100,000 man military. • War guilt clause and reparations (disappeared around 1930). • Germs. felt betrayed, esp. by Wilson. • “Stab in the Back Thesis”
The “Stab in the Back Thesis” • Germ. People were not fully informed of the situation on the war. • Victory in E. and still in Fr. - victory? • Military blamed the Socialists for a Rev. (Wilhelm abdicating): Ludendorff claimed the Rev. weakened the military and Germ. • Military was actually defeated and Ludendorff and Hindenburg staged the Rev. for 3 reasons.
The “Stab in the Back Thesis” • 1) By pushing more moderate reforms (constitutional monarchy), they will avert a Russ. style (Bol.) revolution. • 2) H and L know Germ. is going to have to sue for peace – looking to Wilson to settle peace terms. • With more demo., Wilson would be pleased and push for better peace terms. • 3) L and H knew army was near collapse and knew war was lost (push blame on Socialists).
The Weimar Republic:Instability and Civil War, 1919-1923 • Jan. 1919: Spartacist Uprising (Bol.) in Berlin crushed by Freikorps (paramilitary group of retired soldiers). • Moderate L put down the far L: division. • Spring 1919: Council movement crushed by the Freikorps. • Other political parties being crushed: feeling of a civil war.
The Weimar Republic:Instability and Civil War, 1919-1923 • March 1920: Kapp Putsch (coup) from the R. • Weimar gov. defended by the Freikorps and the working class. • June 1920: Elections give big gains to anti-democratic parties. • 1921: Fighting b/w Germs. and Poles in upper Silesia; Am. tries to mediate.
The Kapp Putsch www.bbc.co.uk/.../weimarproblemsrev2.shtml
The Kapp Putsch www.bbc.co.uk/.../weimarproblemsrev2.shtml
The Weimar Republic:Instability and Civil War, 1919-1923 • Aug. 1921: Matthias Erzberger assassinated. • Center party finance minister and a V treaty signer. • June 1922: Walther Rathenau assassinated. • Treaty signer and Jewish. • Individuals of the R that commit crimes or plot coups are punished much more lightly than those who were doing that same on the L (fear of communism); creates more division.
Erzberger and Rathenau www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/96001628/index.html
The Weimar Republic:Instability and Civil War, 1919-1923 • Crisis of hyperinflation and occupation of the Ruhr: • Am. and Belgium go into the valley of Ruhr to force steel production to pay for reparations. • Gov. of Germ tells miners to do passive resistance, however, they still have to pay the miners. • Print more money to pay miners and to pay war bonds. • This triggers hyperinflation. • All of these factors culminate into the crisis year of 1923.
