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    Interwar Period Between World Wars

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    Saeed Memon
    The document provides background information on the interwar period from 1919 to 1939. It discusses key events such as the Paris Peace Conference, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of fascism in Italy under Mussolini, economic struggles and the rise of Hitler in Germany, and the global spread of authoritarian regimes under Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and Tojo in Japan. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles led to economic instability in Germany, while the stock market crash of 1929 plunged the world into the Great Depression. These events weakened democracies and allowed authoritarian leaders who promised national restoration to rise to power.

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    Interwar Period Between World Wars

    Uploaded by

    Saeed Memon
    176 views33 pages
    The document provides background information on the interwar period from 1919 to 1939. It discusses key events such as the Paris Peace Conference, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of fascism in Italy under Mussolini, economic struggles and the rise of Hitler in Germany, and the global spread of authoritarian regimes under Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and Tojo in Japan. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles led to economic instability in Germany, while the stock market crash of 1929 plunged the world into the Great Depression. These events weakened democracies and allowed authoritarian leaders who promised national restoration to rise to power.

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    The policies of major powers during the interwar period 1919 to 1939.

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    Interwar Period between world wars

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    The document provides background information on the interwar period from 1919 to 1939. It discusses key events such as the Paris Peace Conference, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of fascism in Italy under Mussolini, economic struggles and the rise of Hitler in Germany, and the global spread of authoritarian regimes under Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and Tojo in Japan. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles led to economic instability in Germany, while the stock market crash of 1929 plunged the world into the Great Depression. These events weakened democracies and allowed authoritarian leaders who promised national restoration to rise to power.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    176 views33 pages

    Interwar Period Between World Wars

    Uploaded by

    Saeed Memon
    The document provides background information on the interwar period from 1919 to 1939. It discusses key events such as the Paris Peace Conference, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of fascism in Italy under Mussolini, economic struggles and the rise of Hitler in Germany, and the global spread of authoritarian regimes under Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and Tojo in Japan. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles led to economic instability in Germany, while the stock market crash of 1929 plunged the world into the Great Depression. These events weakened democracies and allowed authoritarian leaders who promised national restoration to rise to power.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 33

    The Interwar Years

    1919 - 1939
    Saeed Memon
    Madam Shaista Zafar
    Area Study Centre for Europe

    Paris Peace Conference (1919)


    The Big Four
    David Lloyd
    George
    of Britain
    Vittorio Orlando
    of Italy
    Georges
    Clemenseau
    of France
    Woodrow Wilson
    of the United
    States
    Public optimism based on Wilsons 14 Points, among them: selfdetermination of nationalities; open diplomacy; general
    disarmament; and a League of Nations
    Importance of The National Question & its complications
    Specter of Communism: Soviet Union & Hungary (Bela Kun)

    Treaty of Versailles
    Extremely harsh conditions
    Significant territorial concessions
    Huge reparations
    Severe limitations on military
    German admission of responsibility for war
    Reparations
    269 billion gold marks ($64 B then, $834 B today)*
    Later reduced to 112 B gold marks ( $26.6 B) (1929)
    Equivalent to $360 B today *
    Many feel this led to the economic collapse of the
    1920s that sewed the seeds of Fascism

    Treaty of Versailles
    Military Provisions

    German army restricted to 100,000 men (long term


    contract)
    No conscription or training
    No tanks or heavy artillery
    Navy limited to 15,000 men
    6 small battleships, 6 cruisers, 12 destroyers, no Uboats
    No air force

    Realities of the Paris Peace


    Conference
    Decisions usually made by Big Four & their
    experts lead to resentment among the losers
    Conflicting concerns of the victors
    France need security, England needs reparations, USA
    needs influence

    Features of the Peace Treaties (June 1919)


    Harsh treatment of Germany: demilitarized;
    occupied; huge reparations; war guilt (Clause
    231)
    League of Nations set up (1920) with key
    states missing & without sharp teeth
    Map of Europe redrawn, creating new countries
    at Austrias & Russias expense

    Europe, post-1919

    Mussolini and the Blackshirts

    Fascism in
    Italy

    The Fascists :
    Tended to be veterans who opposed Versailles settlement
    Organized into armed bands; wore distinctive black shirts
    Tended to be anti-union, violently breaking up meetings
    Led by Benito Mussolini: opportunist, self-promoter,
    nationalist
    Gained support as centrist parties unable to halt economic
    downturn: 1919-21

    actors for Mussolinis Rise to Power


    Feelings of betrayal after the 1919 peace
    settlement.
    Italians felt they had been
    deprived of territory they had been promised
    to them by the other Allies.
    Italian government experiencing parliamentary
    chaos and had no clear political program.
    Fascism seemed to promise a way out of these
    economic and political troubles Italy was
    facing in the post-World War I era.
    Played on middle and upper classes' fears
    about inflation and concerns about their
    property rights.

    Components of Fascism
    The State is paramount
    Fascism is for liberty the liberty of the
    State and of the individual within the State.
    The keystone of Fascist doctrine is the
    conception of the State, or its essence, of its
    tasks, of its ends. For Fascism the State is
    an absolute before which individuals and
    groups are relative.
    The Fascist State has a consciousness of its
    own, a will of its own, on this account is
    called and ethical state.
    Corporatism
    Nationalism
    War as the natural state of society
    Promotes foreign expansion: Ethiopia, Albania

    Seeking Stability in Weimar Germany

    Weimars built-in instability


    Constitution: President and
    Reichstag with Proportional
    Representation & Article 48
    Attempted revolutions from
    Left and Right
    Anger at Versailles Treaty
    Clauses: reparations bill and guilt
    French under Poincare invade the
    Ruhr Valley, 1923-25
    Germans hold general strike
    Hyperinflation
    Stability comes via the Dawes
    Plan, Gustav Stresemann, the
    Locarno Pact (1925), & KelloggBriand Pact (1929)
    The Mask Falls

    The Demise of Weimar


    Cabaret to Beauty by Otto Dix (1922)

    Berlin a culturally decadent,


    vibrant, lonely city
    American money and culture
    flowing in until 1929
    Impact of Great Depression
    Party coalitions unable to
    deal with crisis
    Unemployment grows
    from 2.25m (1930) to 6m
    (1932)
    President, Field Marshall Paul
    von Hindenburg started to
    rule by decree and to rely on
    a small circle of advisors
    In early 1933, Hindenburg
    calls on Adolf Hitler to
    become new Chancellor

    Problems in Germany
    The punishment of Germany goes too far
    and cripples their post-war economy in
    1923
    Hyperinflation occurs
    German money is worthless (when the general
    price level rises, each unit of currency
    buys fewer goods and services)

    Hitlers rise in
    Nazi

    The Nazi
    Party

    The Nazis & Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

    National Socialist German Workers Party (f. 1919): sought


    repudiation of Versailles; unification of Austria and Germany;
    exclusion of Jews from German citizenship; land reforms and
    encouragement of small businesses
    Party had paramilitary component: the S.A. under Ernst
    Roehm
    Beerhall Putsch (1923)
    Hitler had joined in 1920 & rose to leadership

    What was the Nazi Vision?


    Restructure Europe to benefit the
    racial hierarchy
    Mein Kampf places Aryans at top:
    He furnishes the gigantic buildingstones and also the plans for all
    human progress.
    Unite ethnic Germans
    (Volksdeutsch) in a Greater
    Germany
    Lebensraum or Living Space: Must
    move eastward and push out those
    already living there.

    What was the Nazi Vision?


    Nazi Racial
    Ideas

    Aryans/Germans
    Semi-Aryans (Scandinavians)

    Himmler spoke of
    the war in the east
    as a war of
    extermination.

    Anglo-Saxons & other Europeans


    Untermenschen

    Vermin: Jews, Gypsies, Gays

    Emergence of a Global
    Economy
    Germanys hyperinflation means it cannot
    pay war reparations to the winners of WWI
    What effect will this have on those economies?

    The U.S. had a very strong economy after


    WWI, so they began to lend money to
    Germany, which helps end Germanys
    hyperinflation
    Now, who will start getting their reparation
    payments again?

    The End of Prosperity:


    1929

    In October 1929, the U.S. Stock


    Market crashed What does this
    mean?
    Speculation:
    When a potential buyer
    of stock buys it in expectation of it
    reaching a higher price per share.
    Margin: The buyer does not pay full
    value for the stock; the balance (what
    is not paid for) is borrowed. If the
    stock price goes up, this benefits the
    buyer who completely owns the stock
    and has potential for profit (without
    paying completely for it). However, if
    the stock price falls, the buyer not
    only suffers a loss, he/she still must
    pay the money borrowed for the
    balance. This can be RISKY and it
    was this practice that contributed to

    Causes of Worldwide
    Depression
    German reparations
    Expansion of production capacities and
    dominance of the United States in the global
    economy
    Britain and France owed huge war debts to the U.S.
    Better technologies allowed factories to make more
    products faster, leading to overproduction

    Excessive expansion of credit (people spending


    money they dont have)
    Stock Market Crash of 1929
    Buying stock on margin
    A crisis in finance that led the Federal Reserve to
    raise interest rates
    Panic set in when stock prices crashed

    Inability of the League of Nations to stop

    The Soviet Union: From Lenin to Stalin


    Limits to control, even after Civil War
    600,000 Bolsheviks out of 160 million population
    Use of army & secret police (the Cheka, later
    NKVD, much later KGB)
    New Economic Policy (1921)
    Allowed for some private ownership in small
    shops
    Kulaks: peasants farming for profit
    Results: more stable food supply & industrial
    capacity back to pre-war level by 1927
    Lenin dies (1924), sets up leadership struggle
    Trotsky vs. Stalin

    rowing Relationship between Italy and German


    Hitler in Rome, 8 May 1938

    Benito Mussolini
    1922

    Country: Italy
    Type of Government: Fascism
    (dictatorship)
    Goals and Ideas:
    Centralized all power in himself as
    leader (total control of social,
    economic, and political life)
    Ambition to restore the glory of Rome
    and create a vast Italian empire
    Invasion of Ethiopia
    Alliance with Hitlers Germany

    Il Duce

    Joseph Stalin
    1924

    Country: Soviet Union


    Type of Government: Communism
    (dictatorship)
    Goals and Ideas:
    Crushed opponents and took control
    after Lenins death
    Held absolute authority; suppressed
    resistance
    Brought his country to world power
    status but imposed upon it one of the
    most ruthless regimes in history
    New Economic Policies (NEP)
    Collectivization: exported seized goods
    and gained enough capital to finance a
    massive industrialization drive
    Rapid industrialization: three 5-year
    plans

    The Great Purges: KGB = secret


    police killed thousands of army officers
    and prominent Bolsheviks who opposed
    Stalin
    Feared the growing power of Nazi
    Germany

    Adolf Hitler
    1933

    Country: Germany
    Type of Government: Nazism
    (dictatorship)
    Goals and Ideas:
    Inflation and depression weakened
    the democratic government in
    Germany and allowed an opportunity
    for Hitler to rise to power
    Believed the western powers had no
    intention of using force to maintain
    the Treaty of Versailles
    Anti-Semitism: persecution of Jews
    Extreme nationalism: National
    Socialism (aka Nazism)
    Aggression: German occupation of
    nearby countries
    Lebensraum: unite all German
    speaking nations
    Anschluss: German union with
    Austria

    Hideki Tojo
    Country: Japan
    Type of Government: Militarism
    Goals and Ideas:
    Though Japan had an emperor, the
    military had taken control of the
    government
    Emperor Hirohito could not stand up
    to the powerful generals, but he was
    worshipped by the people, who often
    fought in his name
    Industrialization of Japan, lending to
    a drive for raw materials how do
    you get raw materials? IMPERIALISM
    Japan conducted aggressive
    imperialistic policies in Asia: invasion
    of Korea, Manchuria, and the rest of
    China (the League of Nations did
    nothing)

    Hideki Tojo, Military Leader of


    Japan
    Hirohito, Emperor of
    Japan

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