Interwar Period

1917-1939

The Years between WWI and WWII

Characterized by political, and economic instability and rise of dictators

The League of Nations

Essential Question:

What was the League of Nations and why did it fail?

League of Nations

The idea of US President Woodrow Wilson

International cooperative organization

Established to prevent future wars

United States not a member

League fails because it did not have power to enforce its decisions

Essential Knowledge

The Great Depression

Essential Questions

Why did the world experience depression in the 1930s?

 What political changes resulted from the worldwide depression?

Post-WWI

After World War I, international organizations and agreements were established to avoid future conflicts.

A period of uneven prosperity in the1920s.

Worldwide depression in the1930s.

Depression weakened Western democracies, making it difficult for them to challenge the threat of totalitarianism.

Essential Understandings

Post-WWI Conditions

Provided opportunities for the rise of dictators in the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

The Treaty of Versailles worsened economic and political conditions in Europe and led to the rise of totalitarian regimes in Italy and Germany.

In Russia communist dictatorship was established by Vladimir Lenin. The government in the form of a dictatorship was continued by Joseph Stalin and the name Russia was changed to the Soviet Union.

Japan emerged as a world power after World War I and conducted aggressive imperialistic policies in Asia.

Essential Understandings

Causes of Worldwide depression

German reparations

Inflation

High protective tariffs

Excessive expansion of credit

Stock Market Crash (1929)

Expansion of production capacities and dominance of the United States in the global economy

Essential Knowledge

Impact of World Depression

High unemployment in industrial countries

Bank failures and collapse of credit

Collapse of prices in world trade

Nazi Party’s growing importance and popularity in Germany

Nazi Party’s blame of European Jews for economic collapse

Essential Knowledge

Rise of Dictators

Essential Questions

Why did dictatorial governments emerge in Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.S.S.R. after World War I?

How did these regimes affect the world following World War I?

Vocabulary

Totalitarianism- operating a centralized government system in which a single party without opposition rules over political, economic, social, and cultural life

Fascism- ideology that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism. Loyalty is to the state.

Vocabulary

Marxist-Leninist Communism version of a classless society in which capitalism is overthrown by a working-class revolution that gives ownership and control of wealth and property to the state

Communism (beginning with Stalin): any system of government in which a single, usually totalitarian, party holds power, and the state controls the economy

Not the Utopia Marx Envisioned

Why was the communist revolution in Russia not what Karl Marx predicted?

Russia was not industrialized and the factory workers (proletariat) did not lead the revolution.

Italy during the Interwar Period

Benito Mussolini- il Duce- dictator of Italy

The founder and leader of the Italian Fascist Party.

Fascism- political philosophy based on nationalism and an all powerful state

Ambition to restore the glory of Rome was his goal.

Germany: Interwar Period

The Weimar Republic was a democratic government but weak and riddled with inflation which led to economic depression.

National Socialist Worker’s Party (Nazis) gained power in the 1930s

Nazi Party blamed European Jews for economic collapse

Anti-Semitism was on the rise

Hitler Begins His Rise to Power

Beer Hall Putsch

Hitler's attempt, in 1923, to overthrow the Weimar Republic when he fired his pistol in the ceiling of a Munich beer hall.

Mein Kampf

My Struggle. Work written by Hitler while in prison in 1923; the book outlines his policies for German expansion, war, and elimination of non Aryans.

National Socialist Party

Hitler was a rising star in the Nazi Party.

In 1932 he campaigned for president against Hindenburg and used the slogan "Freedom and Bread"

Hitler lost this election.

Hitler: Chancellor to Fuhrer  January 30, 1933 Hindenburg, the

Germany president, under duress, named Hitler Chancellor of the German Nation.

Within weeks, Hitler was absolute dictator of Germany A decree was signed "for the Protection of the people and the State."

The killing of communists and citizens against the new chancellor began immediately.

Marshal Law Takes Effect

The Emergency Decree stated: "Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed."

The Jews between the Wars

Nuremberg Race Laws

1935-Measures that excluded Jews from German citizenship, from white-collar professions and forbade marriages between Jews and from marriage non-Jews.

The Nazis settled on defining a "full Jew" as a person with three Jewish grandparents.

Violence Against Jews

Kristallnacht

Crystal Night or Night of Broken Glass.

November 9th,1938: anti-Jewish mobs attacked Jewish shops, homes, and synagogues.

The goal was to totally remove Jews from German public life.

Russia during the Interwar Period

Bolshevik Revolution

Russia was ready for revolution

Spring 1917- Czar Nicholas II abdicated.

Lenin, a communist agitator, returned from exile in western Europe at an opportune time

Lenin promised ‘peace, land and bread’ to desperate people

Russia becomes the USSR

The Soviet government was formed on November 7th, 1917 with Lenin as Chairman

Lenin signs Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, on March 3, 1918 and ends Russian involvement in WWI

Russia was renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922

Lenin died (of a stroke) in 1924

Economic Plans

New Economic Policy

NEP introduced by Lenin after the Russian civil war that allowed some private ownership among the peasants to stimulate agrarian production.

Joseph Stalin announced the abolition of the NEP in January, 1929 and replaced it with the first of his Five Year Plans.

Joseph Stalin

Stalin firmly entrenched the USSR as a communist state and maintains complete control over Soviet domestic and international policy until his death in 1953

Stalin’s policies: five-year plans, collectivization (effort to control all the agriculture) of farms, state industrialization

The secret police created terror and obedience

Great Purge killed thousands of unwanted citizens

The Collective-Farm Team Leader

Gregory Ryazhsky, 1932

Japan During the Interwar Period

Hirohito—Emperor of Japan

Hideki Tojo—Japanese general

Militarism- this glorification of the military was the philosophy that guided Japanese politics before WWII

Industrialization of Japan led to drive for raw materials

Invasion of Korea, Manchuria, and the rest of China in 1935

End

Genocide

Essential Questions

Why did the Holocaust occur?

What are other examples of genocides in the twentieth century?

Genocide vs Ethnic Cleansing

Genocide

The systematic killing of all the people from a national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do this

Ethnic Cleansing

The removal of people of a specific ethnic group by means of genocide, terror, or forced expulsion.

Genocide

There had been a climate of hatred against Jews in Europe and Russia for centuries.

Various instances of genocide have occurred throughout the twentieth century.

Essential Knowledge

Elements of the Holocaust

Totalitarianism combined with nationalism

History of anti-Semitism

Defeat in World War I and economic depression blamed on German Jews

Hitler’s belief in the master race

Final solution—Extermination camps, gas chambers

Essential Knowledge

Examples of other genocides

Armenians by leaders of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey)

Peasants, government and military leaders, and members of the elite in the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin

The educated, artists, technicians, former government officials, monks, and minorities by Pol Pot in Cambodia

Tutsi minority by Hutu in Rwanda

Causes of WWII

Essential Questions

What were the causes of World War II?

What were the major events of World War II?

Who were the major leaders of World War II?

WWII

Many economic and political causes led toward World War II.

Major theaters of war included Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

Leadership was essential to the Allied victory.

Essential Understandings

Economic and Political Causes of World War II

Aggression by totalitarian powers: Germany, Italy, Japan

Nationalism

Failures of the Treaty of Versailles

Weakness of the League of Nations

Appeasement

Tendencies towards isolationism and pacifism in Europe and the United States

Essential Knowledge

Major Events of the War: 1939-1945

German invasion of Poland

Fall of France

Battle of Britain

German invasion of the Soviet Union

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

D-Day (Allied invasion of Europe)

Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Essential Knowledge

Major Leaders of the WarFranklin D. Roosevelt—U.S. President

Harry Truman—U.S. President after death of President Roosevelt

Dwight D. Eisenhower—U.S. general

Douglas MacArthur—U.S. general

George Marshall—U.S. general

Winston Churchill—British prime minister

Joseph Stalin—Soviet dictator

Adolf Hitler—Nazi dictator of Germany

Hideki Tojo—Japanese general

Hirohito—Emperor of Japan

Essential Knowledge

Weimar Republic

The republic of Germany that lasted from 1919 to 1933.Characterized by a lack of strong political leadership, social problems and was hurt by the Great Depression.

FascismThe political and economic methods of Mussolini in

Italy. Glorification of the state. Political philosophy that advocates an aggressive form of nationalism, single-party system with a strong ruler, glorification if the state. Dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism

The name comes from the fasces or bundle of rods tied around an axe, the symbol of authority in ancient Rome.

Third Reich

Name given to Germany during the Nazi regime, between 1933 and 1945. The First Reich (or empire) was from 963 to 1806 (the Holy Roman Empire); the second was from 1871 to 1917 (the reigns of William I and William II).

Essential Knowledge

Impact of world depression

High unemployment in industrial countries

Bank failures and collapse of credit

Collapse of prices in world trade

Nazi Party’s growing importance in Germany; Nazi Party’s blame of European Jews for economic collapse

http://www.suite101.com/content/collectivisation-under-stalin-history-of-the-soviet-union-a359988

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/bio/timeline.htm

The Mandate System

Essential Question

Why was the mandate system created?

The Mandate System

During World War I, Great Britain and France agreed to divide large portions of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East between themselves.

After the war, the “mandate system” gave Great Britain and France control over the lands that became Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine (British control) and Syria and Lebanon (French control).

The division of the Ottoman Empire through the mandate system planted the seeds for future conflicts in the Middle East.

Essential Knowledge

Mandates in the Middle East

Established by the League of Nations

Nations under the Mandate system were granted independence after World War II

Resulted in Middle East conflicts created by religious differences

 

Essential Knowledge

Essential Knowledge

French Mandates in the Middle East

Syria

Lebanon

 

British Mandates in the Middle East

Jordan

Palestine (part became independent as the State of Israel)

Essential Knowledge

Russia during the Interwar Period

Vladimir Il'ic Uljanov ‘Lenin’ Established communism

Joseph Stalin- Leader of USSR in 1930sEntrenchment of communismThe official name was changed to USSR/Soviet Union.Stalin’s policies: five-year plans, collectivization

(effort to control all the agriculture )of farms, state industrialization

The secret police created terror and obedience Great Purge

Essential Knowledge

Stalin

Under Joseph Stalin the Soviet Union developed into a totalitarian state.

Command economy – government makes most of the economic decisions.

Stalin

Stalin wanted all peasants to farm on state owned farms or collectives

In the Soviet Union the idea of collectivization was to use the massive peasant population to work together on state-owned farms where all the produce would belong to the state and be distributed out by the state

Stalin collectivization was brutally forced upon the peasantsKulaks were regarded as ‘well-off’ peasants who did not fit into the Communist utopia and were also blamed for the resistance to collectivization

PurgeTo remove opponents or people considered undesirable from a

state or organization

Stalin

Became the Soviet leader after Lenin and a struggle for power.

Plan was to strengthen communist state and modernize economy. First Five-Year Plan began 1928.

Stalin’s Five Year Plans

Plan to transform the USSR from an agricultural into an industrial economy.

Collectivization

System in which the government owns the land and uses the peasants to farm it.

Effects of Collectivization

Despite the huge demand for food and modernization of agriculture under collectivization, such as the introduction of tractors, the amount of grain produced actually fell as did the numbers of livestock. The massive industrialization program undertaken in the Soviet Union increased the demand for more food from the countryside but also took peasants from the countryside to work in the city, making increased production less likely