Chapter 17 Video, “The Rise of Dictators,” Chronicles the Growth of Dictatorial Regimes in Europe After 1918
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The West Between the Wars 1919–1939 Key Events As you read this chapter, look for the key events in the history of the Western countries between the wars. • Europe faced severe economic problems after World War I, including inflation and the Great Depression. • Dictatorial regimes began to spread into Italy, Germany, and across eastern Europe. • The uncertainties and disillusionment of the times were reflected in the art and literature of the 1920s and 1930s. The Impact Today The events that occurred during this time period still impact our lives today. • The current debate over the federal government’s role in local affairs and social problems developed in part from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s solution to the Great Depression. • Automobiles, motion pictures, and radios transformed the ways in which people lived during the 1920s and 1930s and still impact how we live our lives today. World History—Modern Times Video The Chapter 17 video, “The Rise of Dictators,” chronicles the growth of dictatorial regimes in Europe after 1918. Dorothea Lange’s famous photograph, Migrant Mother, 1936, captured the human hardship and suffering resulting from the Great Depression. 1929 The Great Depression begins 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1922 1924 1926 1929 Communists Hitler writes Mussolini Stalin create the first volume creates a establishes Union of of Mein Fascist dictatorship Soviet Socialist Kampf dictatorship in Soviet Republics in Italy Union 530 Hitler and the Nazi Party used rallies, such as this one at Nuremberg in 1937, to create support for their policies. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1936 1932 John Maynard Keynes HISTORY Franklin Delano Roosevelt publishes General is elected president of the Theory of Employment, United States Interest, and Money Chapter Overview Visit the Glencoe World History—Modern 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 Times Web site at wh.mt.glencoe.com and click on Chapter 17– Chapter Overview to 1933 1936 preview chapter information. Hitler becomes Spanish Civil chancellor of War begins Germany Flags of the Hitler Youth organization 531 During the Great Depression, many people had to resort to desperate measures to find food. The Great Depression Why It Matters fter World War I, Europe was faced with severe eco- nomic problems. Most devastating of all was the Great In the 1920s, many people assumed ADepression that began at the end of 1929. The Great Depres- that Europe and the world were sion brought misery to millions of people. Begging for food about to enter a new era of interna- tional peace, economic growth, and on the streets became widespread, especially when soup political democracy. These hopes kitchens were unable to keep up with the demand. were not realized, however. Most More and more people were homeless and moved around people wanted peace but were looking for work and shelter. One observer in Germany unsure how to maintain it. Plans reported, “An almost unbroken chain of homeless men for economic revival gave way to extends the whole length of the great Hamburg-Berlin high- inflation and then to the Great way . [w]hole families had piled all their goods into baby Depression. Making matters worse, carriages and wheelbarrows that they were pushing along as economic hard times gave rise to they plodded forward in dumb despair.” In the United States, dictatorial regimes across much of the homeless set up shantytowns they named “Hoovervilles” Europe. The world was filled with after President Herbert Hoover. uncertainty. In their misery, some people saw suicide as the only solu- History and You Make a dia- tion. One unemployed person said, “Today, when I am experi- gram listing the problems faced by encing this for the first time, I think that I should prefer to do the United States, Germany, and away with myself, to take gas, to jump into the river, or leap France during the Great Depression. from some high place.... Would I really come to such a deci- Indicate how the problems were sion? I do not know.” interrelated. Using what you learn Social unrest spread rapidly. Some of the unemployed from your diagram, explain how staged hunger marches to get attention. In democratic coun- recovery would also have a chain tries, people began to listen to, and vote for, radical voices effect. calling for extreme measures. 532 The Futile Search for Stability Guide to Reading Main Ideas People to Identify Reading Strategy • Peace and prosperity were short-lived John Maynard Keynes, Compare and Contrast Use a table like after World War I. Franklin Delano Roosevelt the one below to compare France’s Popu- • After 1929, a global economic lar Front with the New Deal in the United depression weakened the Western Places to Locate States. democracies. Ruhr Valley, Switzerland Popular Front New Deal Key Terms Preview Questions depression, collective bargaining, 1. What was the significance of the deficit spending Dawes Plan and the Treaty of Locarno? 2. How was Germany affected by the Preview of Events Great Depression? ✦1920 ✦1925 ✦1930 ✦1935 ✦1940 1921 1924 1925 1929 1935 1936 German debt German debt Treaty of U.S. stock WPA is established Popular Front is determined restructured Locarno market crashes formed in France Voices from the Past On October 27, 1932, a group of workers marched in London to protest govern- ment policies. One observer reported: By mid-day approximately 100,000 London workers were moving towards Hyde Park“ from all parts of London, to give the greatest welcome to the hunger marchers that had ever been seen in Hyde Park. As the last contingent of marchers entered the park gates, trouble broke out with the police. It started with the special constables [police officers]; not being used to their task, they lost their heads, and, as the crowds swept forward on to the space where the meetings were to be held, the specials drew their truncheons [billy clubs] in an effort to control the sea of surging humanity. This incensed the workers, who turned on the constables and put them to flight.” —Eyewitness to History, John Carey, ed., 1987 Hunger marchers in London, 1932 Worker unrest was but one of the social problems in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Uneasy Peace, Uncertain Security The peace settlement at the end of World War I had tried to fulfill nineteenth- century dreams of nationalism by creating new boundaries and new states. From the beginning, however, the settlement left nations unhappy. Border disputes poi- soned relations in eastern Europe for years. Many Germans vowed to revise the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. CHAPTER 17 The West Between the Wars 533 A Weak League of Nations President Woodrow In April 1921, the Allied Reparations Commis- Wilson had realized that the peace settlement sion determined that Germany owed 132 billion included unwise provisions that could serve as new German marks (33 billion U.S. dollars) for repara- causes for conflict. He had placed many of his hopes tions, payable in annual installments of 2.5 billion for the future in the League of Nations. This organi- marks. The new German republic made its first zation, however, was not very effective in maintain- payment in 1921. ing the peace. By the following year, how- One problem was the failure of the United States ever, the German government, to join the league. Most Americans did not wish to be North faced with financial problems, Sea involved in European affairs. The U.S. Senate, announced that it was unable to Ruhr despite Wilson’s wishes, refused to ratify, or approve, Valley pay any more. France was out- the Treaty of Versailles. That meant the United States Ruhr River raged and sent troops to occupy R h in could not be a member of the League of Nations, e the Ruhr Valley, Germany’s chief R i v e which automatically weakened the organization’s r industrial and mining center. effectiveness. As time would prove, the remaining GERMANY France planned to collect repara- League members could not agree to use force against tions by operating and using the aggression. Ruhr mines and factories. French Demands Between 1919 and 1924, desire Inflation in Germany The German government for security led the French government to demand adopted a policy of passive resistance to French occu- strict enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles. This pation. German workers went on strike, and the gov- tough policy toward Germany began with the issue ernment mainly paid their salaries by printing more of reparations, which were the payments that the paper money. This only added to the inflation (rise in Germans were supposed to make for the damage prices) that had already begun in Germany by the they had done in the war. end of the war. 534 CHAPTER 5 Rome and the Rise of Christianity The Great Flu Epidemic The Spanish flu, as this strain of influenza was called, was known for its swift and deadly action. Many people A flu epidemic at the end of World War I proved dis- died within a day of being infected. Complications also astrous to people all over the world. Some observers arose from bacterial infections in the lungs, which believe that it began among American soldiers in caused a deadly form of pneumonia. Kansas. When they were sent abroad to fight, they car- In 1918 and 1919, the Spanish flu spread around the ried the virus to Europe. By the end of 1918, many sol- world with devastating results. Death tolls were enor- diers in European armies had been stricken with the flu. mous: in Russia, 450,000; in India, at least 6,000,000; The disease spread quickly throughout Europe. The in the United States, 550,000.