TOTALITARIANISMbetween the wars: Communist

Russia, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany

TOTALITARIANISM

FASCISM

GERMANY

(NAZI)

ITALY

(FASCISTS)

COMMUNISM

USSR, etc.

Between the two

world wars 1917-1939

TOTALITARIANISM in

Totalitarianism was NOTforced on Russia, Italy or

Germany by any one person. It was the product of those

societies at that time.

It CAN happen again. The best way to prevent it is to understand how it happened.

WHY DID PEOPLE LET THIS HAPPEN? WWI connection?

• WWI caused people to lose faith in reason & humanity; it made people scared and confused

• WWI caused economic & political crisis in Europe

• GANG-LIKE PARTIES took advantage of the crisis

• The VERSAILLES TREATY made Germans angry and humiliated

• The GREAT DEPRESSION made people hungry & insecure, willing to follow any promise

• CONFORMITY - Many people remained passive and went along with this instead of fighting it.

World War I created the conditions for

World War IIby making Germans poor,

bitter and insecure.

WWI ended with the Treaty of Versailles, which placed all the burden on Germany.

How?

• Germany lost important territories: Alsace/Lorraine & Polish corridor

• Colonies: Germany lost all its colonies• German Army: restricted to a minimum, NO

tanks, air-force or submarines allowed.• REPARATIONS: Germany had to pay a lot of $

- an enormous burden on German economy• “War-guilt” clause humiliated Germany.

GERMANY AFTER WWI – textbook p.471

• National humiliation (war-guilt clause) • Political instability – weak governments -

Germany had no democratic traditions. It became a republic for the first time after WWI – known as the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic was very weak and unstable and Germans felt the need for a stronger government.

• German economy in ruins: unemployment, food shortages; huge inflation: money had become worthless

To pay the expenses of the war, Germans

simply printed more money.

German children used money as building

blocks to play during the German

hyper-inflation in the 1920s.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

1929-1938

Bread Line1932

By 1933, 25% of Americans were unemployed.

Jobless on Edge

of Pea Field

Farmers went bankrupt and lost their land.

Breadline in NY

Unemployed men vying for jobs at the Employment Bureau in LA during the Great Depression.

Children playing in gutter

During and after WWI, throughout the “roaring 20s”,

the US economy was booming.

So – how did it end up suddenly with a long and

catastrophic

GREAT DEPRESSION?

Textbook p. 472-473

 PEOPLE HAVE $ TO BUY GOODS

PRODUCTION GROWS

 PRICES ARE

STABLE

DEMAND FOR GOODS

(masses of people with enough $)

EMPLOYMENT STABLE

 WAGES STABLE

BANKS&

STOCKMARKET

 

10,000,000 $10

$1212,000,000 $50

Caused by “double-fake” investing:

Buying stocks “on margin”: with money borrowed from a bank

Buying at prices much higher than the real value

THE STOCK MARKET “BUBBLE”

The collapse of the US economy sent shockwaves around the world

p. 473 and graphic on p. 486• American investors withdrew their $ from

Europe.• US banks demanded repayment of their

overseas loans.• European businesses started going bankrupt.• Unemployment skyrocketed.• The weak German government did nothing to

improve the situation.

HITLER & his NAZI PARTY came to power in Germany in 1933 legally – elected. How come?

• Weak and unstable government (first steps of democracy) – couldn’t deal with the crisis

• The Great Depression, poverty, unemployment• German people’s bitterness after the Versailles Treaty • German people were afraid that Russian-style

communism may happen in Germany • German people were desperate for strong

leadership to take them out of the depression• The Nazi Party used people’s fears and anger;

manipulated Germans to vote for them.

“. . . Tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government weakness, in desperation people chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat.”

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Stronger democracies found a better way

p. 474• Britain, France, Scandinavian countries• USA – The New Deal