HIS 31 CHAPTER 23 POWER POINT

Dictators and Depression

KEY TERMS

Weimar Republic – German government set up after the war ; it modeled liberal democracy but its officials were not dedicated to the new republic

Maginot Line – string of defensive fortresses on the French/German border

Fascism – governmental ideology that incorporates a set of anti-democratic, anti-individualistic, and anti-communist attitudes and beliefs; fascists governments were led by “charismatic” dictators

New Economic Plan – Lenin set up this economic policy as a temporary compromise with capitalism; it allowed peasants to manage and sell their own crops; small-scale businesses could operate under private ownership

Five-Year Plan – Stalin’s (dictator of the Soviet Union) plan that called for the rapid, massive industrialization of Russia; the State Planning Commission regulated all aspects of production

KEY TERMS

Collectivization – state took agriculture out of the control of individual peasants by consolidating their lands into huge collective farms that used modern machinery

Great Purges – Stalin and the Communist Party blamed engineers, technocrats, army officers, older party members, etc. for the difficulties during the Five-Year Plans; by 1939, he had over a million people killed and over 7 million died in forced labor camps and prisons (gulags); many of his perceived enemies were tortured and/or imprisoned

Great Depression – global financial crisis during the 1930s that resulted from the stock market crash in NYC in October 1929

Nazi Party – Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party; it was a nationalistic, anti-Semitic, and racist organization

Lebensraum – “living space”; Nazi goal to conquer the Slavic peoples of the east, take their land, and follow policies to rid Germany of all opponents; wanted Russia since its large size would accommodate the mythical Aryan race

KEY TERMS

SS – Hitler’s handpicked secret police led by Heinrich Himmler; he used them to purge his own paramilitary organization, the SA, because he viewed them as potential rivals to his power

Nuremberg Laws – German laws that took citizenship and rights away from Jews and forbade marriage or sexual relationships between Jews and non-Jews

Kristallnacht – “Night of Broken Glass/Crystal”; Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels blamed Jews for an assassination of German diplomat in Paris, so as a result, Nazi stormtroopers vandalized Jewish residences, synagogues, and places of business on November 9-10, 1938; troops killed dozens of Jews and imprisoned thousands in concentration camps

ANALYZING QUESTION 2Analyze the main qualities of German Nazism. How do you explain its

rise and the acquisition of power by Hitler?

Adolf Hitler took advantage of a weakened Germany that resulted from the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the worldwide depression

He offered extreme solutions to Germany’s problems that threatened the Weimar Republic Nazism offered unity, certainty, and nationalism to many people, especially to veterans and the lower-

middle class, during a time of anxiety Hitler promised to get rid of reparations, economic hardship, incompetent leadership, threats from the

Left (communists), and parliamentary government In 1932, the Nazi Party became the largest political organization in Europe The lack of unity among communists, socialists, and moderates allowed Hitler to be elected

Chancellor of Germany Nazism assaulted the traditions of the West, such as liberal democracy Political order should be dominated by a single party headed by a dictatorial leader who appealed to

the masses Nazism was anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) Nazis glorified the mythical German “Aryan race” as superior and destined to conquer all peoples in

the struggle for racial superiority Hitler condemned Jews as corrupt and landless parasites who created Marxist communism Nazis also accused Jews of causing Germany’s humiliating defeat during WWI

ANALYZING QUESTION 3Why do you think Stalin initiated the Five-Year Plans? What were the

purposes of those plans?

Joseph Stalin was tired of the Soviet Union being technologically and industrially behind other modernized nations of the world

The main goal was the rapid, massive industrialization of the nation He wanted to double industrial output, increase electrical power, and build

1,500 new factories within five years The Gosplan regulated all aspects of production His plan targeted the steel industry and also hired foreign engineers to build the

factories Stalin wanted the Soviet Union to be able to compete with the forces of

capitalism and religion on an industrial scale The entire society of the USSR was mobilizing for industrialization

ANALYZING QUESTION 4In what ways was the Great Depression much more than an economic

downturn?

Many European countries depended on the U.S. for loans and trade, so the stock market crash in NYC caused worldwide economic upheaval

The U.S. was the world’s leading industrial nation and creditor (and still is) Unemployment in the West rose to 22 percent; 30 million people were out of work in

Western Europe People lost their jobs, savings, farms, and homes Masses of people sank into poverty and malnutrition Families suffered new tensions as men lost their traditional role as breadwinners Many people in central and Eastern Europe blamed Jews, whom they saw as controlling

banks, bureaucracy, jobs, and economic policies (added to the anti-Semitism spreading throughout Europe)

People also blamed socialists, communists, big business, and modernization