1920’s Culture, Great Depression & Rise of Totalitarianism Review

World History Final Exam Review

1920s

The Lost Generation

• Expressed anxiety about the future and criticized the brutality of WWI and the shallowness of consumerism
• Examples include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc.
• Many Lost Generation writers spent a great deal of time out of the US

Philosophy and Science

• Nietzsche - Led the existentialism moment which held that there was no universal meaning to life
• Freud - Stated that humans driven by their own desires
• Einstein - Scientist who was known for his theory of relativity

1920s Art, Music, Movies

• Surrealism, a new art movement that showed the inner world of emotion and imagination, reflected postwar uncertainty
• Jazz music became popular
• Radios and phonographs connected people through shared entertainment
• Silent films were popular in the 1920s. Charlie Chaplin was a major star.
• Talkies replaced silent films in the late 1920s when synchronized sound was introduced.

Cultural Trends

• After their involvement in WWI, more women were granted suffrage
• Though most women weren’t flappers, women’s fashion and lifestyles became less restrictive
• Increasing accessibility of automobiles connected people and made it easier to travel
• Labor-saving devices transformed housework and increased consumerism

Causes of the Great Depression

Germany’s Challenges

• Weimar Republic was blamed for Germany’s defeat in WWI
• Germany’s economy suffered due to war reparations set by the Treaty of Versailles
• Inflation became a major problem
• Dawes Plan was created to help Germany pay back her war debts

Long-Term Causes of the Worldwide Depression

• Economies were connected as Europe relied on US loans and investments — bad news if anything happens to the US economy!
• Many countries had war debts
• People bought what they couldn’t afford — consumers bought goods on credit, and investors bought stocks on margin, making it easy to get into debt
• Wealth was unequally distributed among classes of people

Short-Term Cause:

Stock Market Crash

• After a series of minor crashes, the US stock market had a severe crash on Black Tuesday — October 29, 1929
• People lost fortunes within minutes, banks shut down due to running out of cash when panicked consumers rushed to pull out their savings, and businesses and factories closed
• Global Depression began when the US reduced loans and foreign trade

The Great Depression

Immediate Impact

• Banks closed, businesses went bankrupt, and there was high unemployment
• Some people lost faith in capitalism and democracy and turned to communism
• Some nations turned to authoritarian leaders

Solutions

• World gov’ts created jobs and welfare programs
• In the US, Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the New Deal, a series of programs for public works, welfare, and regulations of the banking system and stock market
• Many historians say that US involvement in WWII helped pull the US officially out of the Depression

Lasting Impact

• Helped lead to the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, and other totalitarian dictators
• The Great Depression is often cited as one of the causes of World War II

TOTALITARIANISM

Characteristics of Totalitarianism

• Police terror and violence - used to crush opposition and force obedience
• Indoctrination - gets unconditional loyalty by glorifying the leader (works on kids!)
• Propaganda - spreading biased information
• Censorship - suppressing free speech and press
• Religious or ethnic persecution - blame “enemies of the state” or create scapegoats

Stalin - Soviet Union

• Succeeded Lenin
• Created a police state and eliminated threats in the Great Purge, making him responsible for the death of millions (mostly his own people)
• Used propaganda, censorship, and indoctrination in schools to glorify communism and himself
• Created a command economy and set up gov’t-owned collective farms
• Five-Year Plans were aimed at increasing industrial production
• WWII: Allies and part of Big Three
• Major leader during Cold War

Mussolini - Italy

• Mussolini was known as Il Duce (the leader)
• Founded the Fascist Party, which promoted extreme nationalism, denial of individual rights, and dictatorial one-party rule
• His “black shirts” acted as his militia
• Coerced King Victor Emmanuel III to step down and give him power legally
• Joined the Axis Powers in WWII alongside Germany and Japan

Hitler - Germany

• Wrote Mein Kampf in prison, outlining his major beliefs (Aryan race+, Versailles Treaty-, lebensraum+)
• Rose to power largely due to Germany’s WWI loss and the depression
• Led the Nazi party
• Severely anti-Semitic and responsible for the Nuremberg laws and the Holocaust
• Part of the Axis Powers
• Blamed for starting WWII with his invasion of Poland and violation of both the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the Munich Conference

AGGRESSION LEADING TO WORLD WAR II

Aggressors

• Japan under Emperor Hirohito
• Focused on creating a Pacific Empire in the Asian Pacific
• Italy under Mussolini
• Wanted to make gains in Africa
• Germany under Hitler
• Sought to gain territory in Europe, particularly in areas with people of German descent, and create a Third Reich (German Empire)
• Basically, just think of the Axis Powers as the aggressors leading up to WWII

Acts of Aggression (Pre-WWII)

• Japan’s invasion of Manchuria and eventually a good portion of China during the Chinese Civil War
• Japan’s Rape of Nanking (Nanjing)
• Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia
• Germany’s violation of the Treaty of Versailles by building their military and taking the Rhineland back
• Germany’s annexation of Austria (Anschluss)
• Germany’s violation of the agreement at the Munich Conference by taking all of Czechoslovakia anyway

Attempts to Avoid War

• Kellogg-Briand Pact denounced war
• League of Nations - meant to keep peace but had no ability to stop aggressors
• Isolationism - US didn’t join the League and passed Neutrality Acts before WWII
• Appeasement - Other allies gave in to the aggressors to avoid even bigger problems
• Munich Conference: GB PM Chamberlain agreed to let Hitler take the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia if he promised that was all he would take — this backfires!