INSTABILITY AFTER WWI Unit 7: Interwar Period

DISCUSSION

With your table groups, discuss:

Why would the economic crisis of the 1920s lead to extremism like Nazism, fascism, and extreme racism?

MAIN POINT

• Economic hardship often leads to scapegoating and authoritarianismoPeople look to blame somebody for the problem (scapegoating)

oPeople look to leaders promising simple solutions (authoritarianism)

UNEASY PEACE

League of Nations proved ineffectiveU.S. did not join

Germany forced to pay reparations$33b – after 1st year of payment, unable to continue payments

France occupied German industry to collect payments

Germany paid worker salaries by printing more money; enter hyperinflation crisis Inflation: rise in prices

Hyperinflation: extreme rise in prices

Loans from U.S. critical to saving damaged European economies

(1914) $1 = 4 German marks

(1923) $1 = 4.2 trillion German marks

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Depression: period of low economic activity and rising unemployment

Causes:

Weak European economies post-WWI

U.S. stock market crash; financial crisisAmericans withdraw funds from Germany and other European markets

RESPONSES TO THE DEPRESSION

*Great Depression led masses of people to follow politicians who promised simple solutions in return for dictatorial power*

Germany Depression paved way for extremist parties

France Push for collective bargaining (right of unions to negotiate with employers over wages and hours)

Great Britain Push for deficit spending (situation in which a gov’t spends more than it earns, thus going into debt)

U.S. President Roosevelt pushes for New Deal programs

Provide for poor, elderly, unemployed

ACTIVITY

Half sheet, partner work, answer the following:

1. What was the highest rate of unemployment in the U.S. during the Great Depression?

2. What about in Germany?

3. What was the highest rate of unemployment in the U.S. during the Great Recession (2008)?

4. How many bank failures in the U.S. during the Great Depression?

5. How many bank failures in the U.S. during the Great Recession?

6. What was the rate of inflation in the U.S. during the Great Depression?

7. What was the rate of inflation in Germany during the Great Depression?

8. What was the rate of inflation in the U.S. during the Great Recession?

ACTIVITY

Half sheet, partner work, answer the following:

1. 25%

2. 24-30%

3. 8.5%

4. ~9,000

5. ~60

6. -10%

7. 1:1,000,000,000,000

8. ~1-2%