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Postwar Europe:A Worldwide Depression
Unstable New Democracies
• After WWI countries who for centuries had been ruled by kings and emperors attempted democracy.
• However there were so many political parties often times that it was impossible for one party to win a majority.– Coalition government
• Temporary alliance of several governments
Can you save us?
• The weakness of the governments led people to look for answers elsewhere.
• Willing to give up democratic government for authoritarian leadership.– One leader who held all the
power, not elected.Storm Ahead
Weimar Republic
• Inflation– No wartime taxes– Print a bunch of
money!!• Loaf of bread– 1918 = less than one
mark– 1922=160 marks– 1923= 200 billion
marks
Dawes Plan
Peace?
Gustav Stresemann (Germany)
Foreign Minister Aristide Briand (France)
Kellogg- Briand Pact- prohibiting the use of war as "an instrument of national policy" except in matters of self-defense
Stock Market Crash
Germany’s Answer
• Fascism• Adolph Hitler-
promises, promises• Chancellor 1932– Structured economy
toward the military/war
• Everyone had jobs but wages still low
Great Britain
• Hit hard by depression– Economic output fell 25%
• National Government– High tariffs– Increased taxes– Lowered interest rates
• Slow recovery
France
• More self-sufficient• 1935 1 million
unemployed• Popular Front– Coalition
• Series of reforms but unemployment still high
• Democracy remains
Scandinavia• Government –
socialist ideals• “middle way”
between communism or fascism
• Lost of government sponsored public works
United States Hero:FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT- 1932
Roosevelt remained vague on the campaign trail, promising only that under his presidency government would act decisively to end the Depression.
NEW DEAL• New Deal-1(1933-35)
– The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), passed in 1933
– government sought to stimulate increased farm prices by paying farmers to produce less.
– It did little for smaller farmers and led to the eviction and homelessness of tenants and sharecroppers whose landlords hardly needed their services under a system that paid them to grow less
• Aimed at restoring the economy from the bottom up
• The Works Progress Administration was a huge federal jobs program that sought to hire unemployed breadwinners for the purpose strengthening their family's well-being as well as boosting consumer demand.
• National Labour Relations Act of
1935
New Deal (1935-40s)
CCC Mammoth Cave, KY
Soviet Union (Russia)
• Communist -Totalitarianism
• Building an industrial society
• “socialism in one country”
• Five Year Plan– Pure command economy– Exiled millions
• Great Purge
Joseph Stalin
Japan• The Great Depression hit Japan
• The Japanese economy shrank by 8% 1929–31
• Aggressive military• The invasion and subjugation of
Manchuria into a Japanese puppet-state in September 1931, thus providing Japan with raw materials and energy, the Japanese economy was able to recover by 1932 and continued to grow.
