Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Between the Wars: An Anxious Generation

A Challenge to Peace

Relations b/w France and Germany center of Euro affairs
France wanted to make Germ pay and feel secure from Germ power
1922 Germ signed Rapallo Agreement with Soviet Union – promise of support
Germ failed to deliver coal to France and France went in mines and did it themselves
Jan 11, 1923 France/Belgium military occupation of Ruhr Valley – resistance by Ruhr workers

The Search for Peaceful Co-existence

More criticism for Versailles settlement
Ruhr occupation showed Germ would not pay at gunpoint and won’t pay cause they’re poor
John Maynard Keynes The Economic Consequences of Peace warned reparations would impoverish
1923 Chancellor Stresemann in Berlin called end to Ruhr resistance and restored Germ life
Dawes Plan – reparations payments and foreign loans for reconstruction of Germ industry

Democratic Governments

3 men made “appeasement” a word of humour in foreign relations: Stresemann (Berlin); Briand (Paris); Chamberlain (London) – honoured in press for bringing new era of peace
Locarno Pact 1925 – Germ accept new boundaries in West, respect demilitarization of Rhineland; England agreed to act against any violations
3 men received the Nobel Peace Prize
1926 Germany admitted to League of Nations
Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928 – outlawed wars of aggression; 60 nations agreed
1929 Young Plan reduced total amount of and extended payments far into the future to 1988

Economic Ruin: The Great Depression

Oct 29, 1929 “Black Tuesday” New York stock market crashed “roaring 30s” to “dirty 30s”
Euro industry was propped up by American money and Euro nations slid toward bankruptcy
Falling production, prices, profits, wages; increase in unemployment
Depression hit bottom 1932; bread lines and soup kitchens
1931 temp moratorium by President Hoover left America with the bill
Roosevelt introduced “New Deal” = eco recovery
1936 Keynes spokesperson for “the new economics” – pub management of private-enterprise eco

Depression and Dictatorships

Eastern Euro nations turned from democracy to dictatorship, usually right-wing
Horthy in Hungary, Mussolini in Italy, Pilsudski in Poland, King Alexander in Yugoslavia…
Hitler ended Weimar democracy in 1933

The Rise of Fascism

Fascism: hypernationalism, anti-Marxism, anti-liberalism, anti-conservatism, a Fuhrer concept, cult of youth/male dominance paramilitary group, fixation/flag rituals, Roman salutes/shirts
In Euro fascism was tale b/w two cities: Rome with Mussolini, and Berlin with Hitler
Italian Fascist Party; “red years” 1919-20 Black Shirts fought socialists and labor unions
King Victor Emmanuel 3^rd made fascist revolution (“the march on Rome”) legal b making Mussolini the new prime minister
1924 opinion turned when Matteotti was murdered after speaking against Mussolini; declared himself dictator
Italian fascist saying: “Mussolini is always right”

The Rise of Stalin

15 million deaths 1912-1914: war, civil war, revolution, famine
After attempted assassination of Lenin, Bolsheviks overwhelmed opposition; ppl/state separation
Czarist Russia became Bolshevik Russia, the first Marxist state
Civil war 1918-1921, Reds against “Whites”
Bolsheviks slowly gained the country, killed family/staff of czar Nicholas 2^nd on July 17, 1918
Bolsheviks taken hold of economy by 1918 and had plan called “war communism”
1921 Lenin announced New Eco Policy – more free-market method → eco recovery
The people sought a new leader: Joseph Djugashwili aka Stalin was the “man of steel”
Stalin’s first Five-Year Plan 1929-32 – eco transformation; agri/cultural/indus/social revolution

The First Five-Year Plan, 1929-1932

Collectivization brought industry, commerce, agriculture under state control = command eco
While the West was paralyzed by Great Depression, Soviet Union made advances & no unemp.
Stalin went to countryside and took everything: land, livestock, farm equipment
25 million peasant farms turned into common farms
1929-1932 peasants reacted by burning crops and slaughtering livestock
kulaks was used by the communists to describe any peasant who opposed them

Life Under Stalin

Incentives under Stalin: social health care, education/day care, old-age pensions
1920s women proclaimed to have equal rights, benefits & downfalls
1929 campaign for women’s emancipation was abolished

The Great Purge, 1935-1938

1939 Soviet Union entered industrial age, but system under strain due to years of crisis
5-Year Plan made totalitarian society and state now controlled almost all aspects of life
NKVD secret police discovered “terrorist centre” and Stalin killed off these people and replaced them with young obedient people who – Great Purge of 1935-38
Before the purge 1 mill dead and 4-6 mil in forced-labour camps
Stalin forced people to testify links to “traitor” Trotsky
By 1938 there were 8 million prisoners in the gulags

Hitler and the Rise of National Socialism

Hitler had hatred of Marxists, Slavs, Jews
1919 Hitler joined German Workers’ Party which soon became National Socialist German Workers’ Party and made himself leader; flags, uniforms, marching, salute
1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler lead protest march through Munich – failure
Joseph Goebbels became Nazi propaganda chief
1932 Nazis had 450 000 members and 400 000 SA Brown Shirts
Won 12 million votes in Nov. election, didn’t win, but handed power in political deal
January 30, 1933 Hitler was made Chancellor of Germany

Fascism in Power: The Third Reich

Compromise with conservatives important in shaping Third Reich (name of Nazi rule 1933-45)
1938 Germany became “the Hitler state” – dictatorship more totalitarian that fascist Italy
Election on March 5, 44% + conservative allies gave govn’t majority in Reichstag
May 10, 1933 “The Burning of the Books” – youth burned books of Western culture and works of Jewish writers
Hermann Goring became Minister of the Interior for Prussia – formed secret state police Gestapo
June 30, 1934 “The Night of the Long Knives” Nazis murderedd Brown Shirts and their leader
1934 the SS took over the role of political police from the SA
First concentration camp March 1933 in Dachau, near Munich

Hitler’s War Against the Jews

April 1933 shops and businesses owned by Jews boycotted
Legal Jew was someone who had at least one grandparent who was Jewish
September 15, 1935 Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race passed – citizen was Germ blood
November 9, 1938 “night of the broken glass” – 30 000 male Jews sent to camps

More Victims of the Third Reich

Targets of the Nazi regime can be broken into three main groups

Ideological enemies such as communists
Those who didn’t follow traditional social norms (i.e. homosexuals, gypsies, Romans)
Biological outsiders who were considered a threat to the continuation of the German race

From 1934-45 nearly 350 000 men and women were legally sterilized
50 000 people and children murdered on grounds of mental illness

Family Life Under Nazism

Young people unable to see connection b/w land and power and became attracted to Nazism
Young children targeted by propaganda; paramilitary exercises, survival techniques
Hitler encouraged large families and supplied better health care, abortions outlawed for Aryans

Postwar North America, 1920-1939

The Roaring Twenties

Canada and United States benefited from Euros rebuilding
Decade of rampant materialism; new fads and trends to forget horrors of war

Consumerism

Thomas Edison invented light bulb, phonograph…
1790-1860 United States Patent Office issued 36 000 patents; 1860-1900 676 000 patents
Hydro-electric power, refrigeration, better packaging, radios, theatres = ↑ advertising
Emerging mass media: newspapers, radio stations, billboards, national magazines
Buying on credit; assembly line by Henry Ford 1908

A Revolution in Leisure

Movie theatres – extremely popular, radios, sports, blues/jazz music

Changes in the Family

Families moved from cities to suburbs because of new tech. they could live farther from work
Young single women often worked outside home – low wages
Single women became “flappers”; young men followed trends/clubs/sports

Family Life in the Great Depression

Families moved in search of employment; some families supported by two wage earners
Marriage rate decreased/divorce increased, govn’t provided subsidies to encourage marriage

Daily Life in Europe 1900-1939

Life Among the Working Class

Homes in Euro pre-1950 were crowded with at least two to a room – little privacy

Children

Had no right to private life – monitored/controlled
Parents decided playmates and making friends in public places was not allowed
Parents chose university/trade for their child; marriage a common concern

Marriage and Divorce

Professional prospects, wealth, morality very important
Couples would enter marriage in hopes of growing into love
Divorce rare in Euro
By 1930s/40s marriage and divorce became more liberal

Visual Art of the Early Twentieth Century

Symbolism

Carry over from romantic period and used themes related to dreams and emotion experience
In paintings objects decorate flat surface, often with no perspective
Sigmund Freud The Interpretation of Dreams

Fauvism and Expressionism

Les Fauves – wild/rebellious and defied traditions and aesthetics of previous century
Used bold colour to express deep emotion through bright colour/strong imagery
Lasted from 1900-1910; proponent Henri Matisse
Expressionism was important German style; Cubism was inspiration from Paul Cezanne
Picasso, Dali, Joan Miro

Early Twentieth-Century Music

Japanese and Chinese instruments incorporated into Western works
Impressionist composers allowed themes and melodies to flow – used short lyric forms; emphasis on mood and atmosphere
French painters dominated art scene; French composers dominated music scene
Debussy and Maurice Ravel

Early Twentieth-Century Literature

Writers isolated themselves and lived as a “bohemian”
Novelist Thomas Hardy; playwright George Bernard Shaw; James Joyce and William Yeats

Poetry

Imagist poetry based on clear imagery; used modes like haiku

The Novel

Wanted a technique that captured a sense of human condition
Many novels used multiple points of view; human relationships