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