Chapter 30: The Great Depression and the Authoritarian Response

AP World History

The Great Depression• Causes:

– War-induced inflation in Germany– Farmers around the world face

overproduction• Many industries faced overproduction obstacles in

the post-WWI world

– Increased competition on the world market– Increased urbanization– Loans to repay loans…– Production exceeded demand in many

colonial economies

The Great Depression

• Governments were unable to quell the tide of economic mismanagement– Protectionism worsens crises

• October, 1929: New York Stock Market Crash– Turns worldwide…quickly– Economies were based on speculation– Banks, creditors FAIL

The Great Depression

• Investment recedes– Industrial production falls

• Capital goods, then consumer goods– Falling employment

– Lower wages

• Underemployed and underpaid workers couldn’t buy goods whose production would stimulate job creation!

• The depression…FED ITSELF!

The Great Depression• Soviet Union is

untouched due to its developing SOCIALISM.– Soviet workers are

put under tremendous hardship as they industrialize without foreign capital.

The Great Depression

• Latin America

– Stimulate new kinds of political action

• Unable to stop depression, but set forth new stage of political evolution

• Japan

– Increased western suspicion

– Promoted expansionism to Asian markets

– Radical social and political experiments

The Great Depression• Western Governments fumble the

political/economic response– Increased protectionism

• Rising tariffs

– Governments CUT spending– Confidence in governments/political

processes deteriorates• People turn to radical ideals• Communism support increases worldwide• Increased class conflicts, political battles between

left and right.

The Great Depression

• TWO political choices…– An incapacitated parliamentary system

Or

– The overturning of a parliamentary system

• French politics is thrown into disarray with the election of the POPULAR FRONT in 1936 (coalition of liberal, socialist, communists).– Conservatives stonewall radical social change

The Great Depression• US History reminder: The

New Deal– Franklin Delano

Roosevelt’s plan to bring rapid growth to the American Government.

• Didn’t solve the depression, but restored faith in the political process.

• America doesn’t fall into political paralysis

Nazism/Fascism• Post WWI Germany…a breeding ground

for fascism– The Weimar Republic (German Govn’t after

WWI) was unable to deal with Versailles Treaty terms

– Parliamentary democracy was seen as weak, corrupt, and full of class conflict

– Germans wanted a strong state ruled by a powerful leader who could revive Germany

– The National Socialist, or NAZI party under Adolf Hitler would answer those needs.

Nazism/Fascism• Hitler

– Need for unity– Weakness of parliamentary politics– The state was greater than the sum of

individual interests• The leader guides the state

– Promises a return to traditional ways– Firm stance against socialism and

communism– Glorious foreign policy to undo Versailles

Treaty– Constructed a TOTALITARIANTOTALITARIAN State

Nazism/Fascism• Hitler

– Eliminated all opposition parties

– Purged the government and military

– Secret police: The Gestapo

– Trade unions were replaced by government bodies

Nazism/Fascism• Hitler

– Propaganda

– Nationalism

– Attack on Jewish minority

• Anti-Semitism acts as a scapegoat for all of Germany’s problems

• Blames them for personal issues ,and for excessive capitalism, causing the rise of socialism

Hitler

• Goal: to recoup Germany’s losses from WWI and create an empire that would extend across Europe. – Suspended reparation payments– Withdrew from League of Nations– Brought military forces to the Rhineland in

1936– 1938: Anschluss…union with Austria

Hitler• Western region of

Czechoslovakia was turned over to Germany (Sudetenland).

• Neville Chamberlain claims that his appeasement had won “peace in our time.”

• Hitler takes over the rest of Czech…

• September 1, 1939…Attack on Poland

Fascist Success• Fascism quickly spreads to

– Hungary, Romania, and Austria

– Italy and Mussolini are emboldened• 1935: Italy attacks Ethiopia

– Spain• Spanish civil war

– Parliamentary Republic vs. Authoritarian military state

– Authoritarians were under command of General Francisco Franco

• German and Italian forces use Spain as a dress rehearsal for bombing civilians…Britain/France/US…vague support.

• Franco’s forces won, and remain for 25 years

Latin America• Cash crops from late 19th century boom:

– Coffee from Colombia, Brazil, and Costa Rica– Minerals from Bolivia, Chile, and Peru– Bananas from Ecuador and Central America– Sugar from Cuba.

• Import Substitution Industrialization: WWI causes many Latin American countries to produce for themselves

• Continued to suffer from lack of capital

Latin America

• Liberal policies had failed to address growing class struggles, and poverty.

• Growing conservative movement after WWI.

• President of Mexico: Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940)-Redistributed 40 million acres of land, and ran a state sponsored Oil monopoly

Brazil• Getulio Vargas-President of Brazil after 1929

– Brazilian economy had collapsed– Centralized Federal govn’t programs– Authoritarian regime within the context of

nationalism and economic reforms. Elimination of parties and groups who would oppose the new government

• Vargas runs a corporatist government• Even though, he joins the allies in WWII, but

gets arms• Opposition builds by 1945

Argentina - Please don’t cry for me!• Juan D. Peron and Eva Duarte (Evita)

emerged as the power in the Argentinean government – Forged alliance between workers,

industrialists, and the military.– Supported the AXIS powers, and had

many fascist sympathies.– Nationalized railroads, telephone

companies– Populism (hard to manage all the

interests!)– Peron turns more radical (attacking

Catholic Church)…driven from power in 1955, then comes back in 1973!!!