Chapter 27The Tortured Decade, 1930-1939

The stock market in the United States crashed on 29 October 1929

Through loans and international trade networks, it spread around the world to major nations and their colonies

The depression that ensued caused economic, political, and social disruptions in many nations

These nations tried varying ways to get back on their feet and stabilize

In industry and in agriculture, too much was being produced and not enough was being sold

Prices dropped, and people lost jobs There was no more need of raw materials

from colonies People couldn’t pay their rent, mortgages,

and bills Countries couldn’t pay what they owed to

other nations: German reparations from World War I

Credit was restricted, interest rates were raised, and buying power was low

In the U.S., President Herbert Hoover got his Hawley-Smoot Act passed in 1930◦ This raised tariffs on imports 50-100%◦ This forced other nations to do the same◦ Trade declined

Socially:◦ Loss of jobs◦ Loss of self-respect◦ Malnutrition◦ T.B.◦ Scarlet Fever◦ Ricketts◦ Backlash against newly emancipated women◦ Women accused of taking jobs away from men◦ Page 917, Read

Politically:◦ British economist, John Maynard Keynes,

recommended deficit spending to stimulate the economy

◦ President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1945) did just that

◦ Many others tried deficit spending because “laissez-faire” of Adam Smith wasn’t working

Germany – sealed off the German mark from international fluctuations, stimulated public spending through rearmament

Scandinavia – Norway, Sweden, and Denmark moved toward becoming a “welfare state” providing health care, unemployment insurance, and allowances to its citizens

They also cut back on military expenses and raised taxes

Britain – started to recover in the mid-1930s due to deficit spending and rearmament

India – Gandhi advocated non-cooperation with the British because he wanted Indians to rely on themselves

Japan – was dependent on international trade and hard hit by high tariffs◦ Japan was moving toward a more aggressive

stance with the West and imperialism of their own to get what was needed: took Manchuria in 1931 and extended their conquest of China in 1937

In reaction to the Japanese conquests, the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, under Mao Tse-tung began to spread their idea of Marxism and land reform

Mao wished to create an alternative to Western liberal capitalism

Politically, those disillusioned with capitalism began looking at the systems found in the USSR, Italy, and Germany

1930s – decade of upheaval◦ Stalin used brutality, terror, collectivization of

farms, and execution to move the USSR towards industrialization

◦ Peasants with land (Kulaks) were sent to labor camps in Siberia while their land was taken over by the state, collectivized farms

◦ In reaction to that, peasants killed their livestock and destroyed farm equipment January – February 1930, 14 million head of cattle

were slaughtered They had quite a feast

Stalin wanted to squeeze all he could from the peasants to finance industry

Agricultural exports did increase after 1930 at the expense of the peasants◦ Peasants starved to death, 1932-1933

5-6 million starved to death in USSR and half that number starved in the Ukraine

Restrictions on private plots of land and livestock eased after 1933. Agriculture rebounded and industrial output increased.

Anyone speaking out against Stalin was eventually executed

There were arbitrary arrests, trumped up charges, show trials, forced confessions, and forced labor camps called gulags

There were periodic purges of those both in and out of the communist party

The deaths resulting from Stalin’s policies of the 1930s have been estimated at 20 million

Obviously, Stalin was not a charismatic leader

1933 – During Hitler’s first year as Chancellor of Germany, he declared all Jews the enemy of Germany◦ He first made it difficult for them to stay and then

proceeded to systematically remove those Jews who remained in Germany

◦ This early nationalistic goal and subsequent World War led to the destruction of 6 million Jews

◦ The official German racial policy began with the dismissal of all Jews from their civil service jobs

1935 – Hitler stripped Jews of their citizenship and attacks on them by the Nazi Party’s brown-shirted, paramilitary group, the Sturmabteilung or S.A. , increased

1938 - These assaults on Jews and their property reached their early zenith on November 9, 1938 with a massive pogrom against Jews all over Germany, known as Kristallnacht or “night of shattered glass”◦ Display windows of Jewish businesses were

smashed

During this period from 1933 until Hitler declared war in 1939, the Nazis actively encouraged Jews to leave Germany – without their possessions

There were 150,000 Jews who chose this option and had difficulty in finding another country that would admit more refugees than their quotas would allow

Read p. 931 on Hitler’s view on the role of women

France, 1930s:◦ had nationalists, anti-communists, and anti-

Semitic groups growing stronger in the 1930s◦ They seemed to threaten French democracy◦ Communists were promoting Popular Fronts, a

term for anti-fascist electoral alliances and governing coalitions that communists promoted from 1934 to 1939 to resist the further spread of fascism

Anti-fascist governments took hold in France and Spain in 1930s

Spain:◦ They started 1930s with a new parliamentary

democracy (1931)◦ 1936, civil war broke out◦ By 1939, there was a repressive authoritarian

regime in place◦ Spain had had a constitutional monarchy that

died out in 1923◦ It was replaced by a military dictatorship◦ 1930, the dictator resigned◦ 1931, the monarchy fell and Spain was

proclaimed a republic

◦ Various groups vied for power◦ By 1936, the government couldn’t keep order◦ By July, civil war broke out led by General

Francisco Franco◦ It was a brutal war◦ Nazis and Fascists intervened on Franco’s side so

they could test their new weapons on the public: Guernica was bombed by Germans

◦ Nationalists under Franco won in 1939◦ Many saw Franco as a Fascist◦ Franco said he was a military man and an

authoritarian◦ He was in power until his death in 1975

The next thing Hitler concentrated on was the dismantling of the Treaty of Versailles

He did so without any resistence from the democracies

Their isolationism, their fear of another bloody, destructive war allowed Hitler to proceed without check

To be fair the democracies were concentrating on problems at home caused by the Depression

Initially, Hitler proceeded very cautiously and he took advantage of opportunities as they came

He kept telling his people that he only wanted what was fair

1933 – he withdrew Germany from international disarmament talks and the League of Nations

1935 – he announced the creation of a German air force, the Luftwaffe

1935 – he also expanded the army to 5 times its permitted size of 100,000

1936 – he re-militarized the Rhineland thus strengthening their western defenses

France did verbally protest but feared another war

Britain saw nothing wrong with Germany moving troops into German territory

Spring, 1938 – Hitler annexed Austria without resistance, the Anschluss

September, 1938 – Hitler wanted Czechoslovakia because of its large German population in the Sudetenland – 3 million

France and Russia were committed to protect Czechoslovakia

So the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made 3 trips to Germany to settle the matter and avoid war

The result was the Munich Agreement and Appeasement

The Sudetenland was handed over to Hitler as a result

Spring, 1939 – Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia

Britain then declared it would protect Poland, the next likely victim

August, 1939 – Hitler signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact that guaranteed Stalin a part of Poland and immunity from German attack

Actually, Hitler did not want a 2-front war

On September 1, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland

On September 3, 1939 the British and French declared war on Germany ( a defensive war)

The European war had begun