Notes Chapters 31 & 32 April 8-12, 2013. Causes of the Great Depression Industry producing more than...
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Transcript of Notes Chapters 31 & 32 April 8-12, 2013. Causes of the Great Depression Industry producing more than...
Causes of the Great Depression
• Industry producing more than they were selling (overproduction)– Leads to reduced production, which leads to
layoffs, which hurts demand
• Wealth unevenly distributed (top 5% of people gained 33% of the wealth)
• Buying stocks “on margin” (on credit), without the ability to pay back the loan
Causes of the Great Depression
• Stock market prices hit “unnaturally high” prices in late September, 1929.
• People begin to sell off, fearing a drop in prices
• Turns into a panic, and on Tuesday, October 29, a record 16 million stocks are sold and the market collapses
Background
• Harshness of the Versailles Treaty (especially for Germany)
• Great Depression: mass unemployment and inflation.
• Democracy is new, especially in Germany under the so-called “Weimar Republic”
• People start turning to political extremes
What is Fascism?
• New, militant political movement that emphasized loyalty to the government and obedience to the Leader
• Incorporated Nationalism• Incorporated Militarism• Right-wing, opposite of communism
Birth of Fascism in ITALY• Benito Mussolini – newspaper editor.
Promised to revive economy and armed forces
• Established the Fascist Party in 1919• Blackshirts: supporters of Mussolini.
Attacked opposition political groups (Communists, Socialists)
• March on Rome: October 1922. 30,000 Blackshirts
• King appoints Mussolini as Il Duce (leader)
German Fascism: NAZISM• Adolf Hitler: WWI veteran. Joins the National
Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis) in 1919• Hitler quickly takes over party, known as der
Führer (the Leader)• Attempts to overthrow the Weimar Republic in
1923. Fails, spends nearly two years in prison.• Writes “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle)– Germans are the Master Race (Aryans)– Non-Aryans (Jews, Gypsies, Slavs) are inferior– Germany needed more space (Lebensraum)…needed
to take it from Eastern Europe and Russia
German Fascism: NAZISM
• The Nazis remain a minor party until the Great Depression
• After the 1932 elections, the Nazis are the largest party in the German Parliament.
• Hitler appointed Chancellor in January 1933• Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act • Hitler begins to turn Germany into a
totalitarian state.
Background
• Hitler and the Nazis believe that Jews and other groups are inferior because they are “non-Aryan”
• European anti-Semitism • The Nazis blame Germany’s defeat, the Treaty
of Versailles, and the economic problems on the Jews
• Hitler takes power in Germany in January 1933
Early Persecution
• Nuremburg Laws, 1935. Jews are no longer German citizens, Jews cannot marry non-Jews, Jews cannot do certain jobs
• Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938• Nazis try to deport the Jews, but no other
country wanted to take them.• Isolation: Jews are rounded up and sent to
“ghettos”, walled off sections of cities where they were forced to live
The Final Solution
• Hitler orders the SS (security force) to round up Jews and other “inferior groups” into concentration camps– Concentration camps were Work Camps, used
the Jews slave labor
• SS go into some areas and kill the Jews• “The Final Solution”, 1942: Hitler approves
mass extermination.
The Final Solution• Will use vital materials and manpower to carry
out mass murder, hurts Germany’s war effort• Concentration camps converted into
Extermination Camps– Built gas chambers disguised as showers– Built “crematoriums” (ovens) to burn the bodies– Dachau, Auschwitz, Treblinka
• Victims:– 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis– 9-10 million other groups (Gypsies, Slavs, Mentally
Handicapped) also killed
Background
• By 1941: 127,000 Japanese Living in the United States, nearly 90% in California
• Led to high anti-Japanese sentiment. • Japanese immigration barred in the 1920s• Laws segregated Japanese in some cities
Pearl Harbor and Response
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941• Racist attitude towards Japanese Americans
increase• Roosevelt Issues Executive Order 9066 – Feb
1942– Secretary of War can create “military zones from
which any or all persons may be excluded”– Creates “Military Area No. 1”: Pacific Coast to 100
miles inland.
Internment
• Starting in March “Civilian Exclusion Orders” are issued restricting rights of Japanese in Military Area No. 1
• May 3, 1942 - Civilian Exclusion Order 33:– All persons of Japanese ancestry to be
relocated from Military Area No. 1
Internment
• Given a week or less to “evacuate”• Moved first to Civilian Assembly Centers
in California, then to Relocation Camps outside Military Area No. 1
• Camps were built quickly, poorly heated, minimum rations, guarded by military sentries and barbed wire fences
• Held until January 1945. Given $25 and a train ticket home.