Political Experiments of the 1920’s - Mr. Champion's History...

Political Experiments of

the 1920’s

Unit I

Political and Economic Factors After the

Paris Settlement

I. New Governments

Soviet Union – Bolsheviks –

Authoritarian rule

Germany & Austria Hungary –

Democratically elected parliamentary

governments


Paris Settlement

Wilsonian vision of democratic, self-determined

nations flounders

• Harsh realities of economics, aggressive

nationalism, revived political conservatism and

lack of experience in democratic parliamentary

government.

• Also, important sectors of citizens believed

parliamentary gov’t was naturally corrupt or

unequal to great nationalistic enterprise


Paris Settlement

II. Demands for Revision of Versailles

Resentment and discontent among numerous

countries

Germany humiliated – endless haggling over

reparations payments

Various Eastern European states felt injustice

in the case of self-determination

Calls for border adjustments


Paris Settlement

France believed the treaty was being

inadequately enforced

Calls for enforcement of change contributed

to domestic political turmoil

Political figures take advantage of this turmoil

to capture domestic votes


Paris Settlement

III. Postwar Economic Problems

Desire to return to prewar economic

prosperity would prove impossible

Millions of people had been killed = loss of

talent, producers and consumers

Widespread destruction of transport facilities,

mines, and industry


Paris Settlement

European financial dominance and independence disappears with war

European nations deeply in debt to the US and each other

Bolsheviks repudiate tsarist debt – mostly owed to France

US asks for no payment from Germany, but demands payment from allies

Nations compelled to pursue selfish nationalistic economic aims


Paris Settlement

Market and trade conditions change radically

Russia withdraws from European economic

order

New states had weak, uncompetitive

economies

New states and new borders separate factories

from raw materials

Railway systems were controlled by multiple

nations

New customs barriers were raised


Paris Settlement

US no longer reliant on European production

– becomes a major competitor

Postwar economic growth in colonies or

former colonies lowered demand for European

goods

US and Japan began to penetrate markets in

Latin America and Asia


Paris Settlement

IV. New Roles for Government and Labor

Large gov’t bureaucracies planned the course

of production and distribution of goods during

wartime

Governments realized the large productive

and employment power of an economy placed

under state control

This would be carried over to peacetime

operations


Paris Settlement

Through cooperation during the war, labor achieved new prominence and their demands could not be ignored by the gov’t

Collective bargaining and union recognition could not be abandoned

Middle class was suspicious of the new role of labor and socialist political parties

Middle perpetuates the status quo to fend off the further social and economic advances of the working classes


Paris Settlement

The turn to liberal democracy and the

extension of franchise to women & previously

disenfranchised males = gov’t must now

answer to a large electorate

Joyless Victors

I. France: The Search for Security

French elect a doggedly conservative Chamber of Deputies

Many military officers in Chamber

Clemenceau loses bid for presidency

Deputies want to achieve future security against Germany and Russian Communism

Make few concessions to domestic social reform

France governed by 27 different cabinets between 1920 & 1933

Joyless Victors

New Alliances

• 1920 & 1921 – Czechoslovakia, Romania, and

Yugoslavia form the Little Entente

• France forms alliance with entente and Poland

• Little Entente was no match for Russia nor were they

reliable

• Poland and Romania more concerned about Russia

• Feeling isolated and in danger, Russia and Germany

sign an treaty in 1922

• Diplomatic and economic treaty proves useful for both

• Germans helped train Russian army which helped

Germans gain experience with tanks and planes

Joyless Victors

Quest for Reparations

• France declares Germany in default of reparations

• Sends troops to occupy Ruhr mining and manufacturing

region

• Germans go on strike

• France send civilians to run mines and railroads

• Germans pay

• England stayed out of issue, became suspicious of

France and sympathetic toward Germany

• France & Germany suffer increased inflation and

• France’s economy damaged

Joyless Victors

• France 1924 – conservatives out, coalition of leftist

parties in (Edouard Herriot leader)

• Recognition of Soviet Union and more conciliatory

policy toward Germany

• Aristide Briand becomes foreign minister – champion

of the League, did not believe French military power

gave it unlimited power over foreign affairs in Europe

• Inflation intensifies in 1925 – Poincare returns to office

in 1926 – inflation cools an the Franc recovers

• Conservatives remain power for the rest of the 1920’s –

France enjoys general prosperity until 1931

Joyless Victors

II. Great Britain

1918 – Parliament expanded the electorate to all men aged 21 and women aged 30 (age lowered to 21 for women in 1928)

Liberal, David Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister

British economy depressed throughout the 1920’s

High unemployment and expanded gov’t entitlement programs

Joyless Victors

The First Labor Government

• 1922 – Lloyd George is replaced by Conservative,

Bonar Law – a Liberal would never be prime minister

again

• Law is replaced by Stanley Baldwin

• 1923 – conservatives lose their majority in the House of

Commons

• Labor Party has the 2nd largest group of members in

House of Commons

• Labor Party was socialistic, but not revolutionary

• Ramsay MacDonald faced with proving that the Labor

Party is respectable and responsible

Joyless Victors

The General Strike

• 1924 – Conservatives regain power – Stanley

Baldwin returns to office

• Gov’t attempts to restore prewar conditions of

trade

• Britain returns to the gold standard

• Gov’t sets conversion rate too high against other

currencies – British goods become too

expensive

• Management tries to lower prices by cutting

wages – coal industry most affected

Joyless Victors

• Coal workers go on strike – other sympathetic

workers commence a general strike lasting 9

days

• Ultimately the miners and other unions would

capitulate – gov’t reconcile with labor

• Standard of living improves somewhat during

this time

Joyless Victors

Empire

• Canada and Australia begin to demonstrate new

independence

• India – Congress Party led by Mohandis Ghandi

was drawing widespread attention

• India can now impose tariffs to protect its own

industry

Joyless Victors

Ireland

• 1914 – Irish Home Rule bill passed Parliament

but not implemented during the war

• Irish nationalists tired of waiting foment a

nationalist uprising on Easter Monday, 1916 –

suppressed in les than one week

• Leaders executed, become martyrs

• Leadership shifts from Irish Party in Parliament

to the extremist Sinn Fein movement

(“Ourselves Alone”)

Joyless Victors

• Sinn Fein Party wins all but four of the Irish seas in Parliament

• Convene their own Irish Parliament in January 1919 and declare Irish independence

• Military wing of Sinn Fein becomes the Irish Republican Army (IRA)

• Guerilla war breaks out between IRA and British army

• Treaty signed in December 1921 – Irish Free State declared – Northern Ireland remains with GB

• Civil war between Irish moderates and diehards

• Moderates support treaty – diehards want complete independence

Break for Study Questions

The Beginning of the

Soviet Experiment

IntroductionBolsheviks seize power through revolution rather than

through political means

Early membership was less than 1%

Marxist-Leninist ideology was far more encompassing than the nationalism of the Fascists and the racism of the nazis

Communists regarded their gov’t as an epoch-making event in the history of the world and the development of humanity

The Beginning of the Soviet Experiment

I. The Third International

Founded in 1919 – better known as the Comintern

Imposed Twenty-one Conditions on any other socialist party wishing to become a member

Wished to make the Russian model of socialism the rule for all socialist parties outside of the Soviet Union

Emerging communist parties modeled themselves after the Soviet party and pursued policies dictated by Moscow


Emerging social democratic parties attempted to

pursue both social reform and liberal parliamentary

politics

These two groups tended to fight each other

Right-wing political movements rarely had to

confront a united opposition on the left


II. War Communism

The Red Army under Trotsky’s organization

suppressed internal and foreign military opposition

Secret police was known as Cheka

War Communism = economy policy

Gov’t confiscates and operates banks, transport

facilities, and heavy industry

Seized grain from peasants in countryside to feed

the army and workers in the city


The revolution triumphed, but rebellion remained

The Navy at Kronstadt mutinied, but Red Army

continued to suppress opposition


III. The New Economic Policy (NEP)

The NEP included some private economic

enterprise

Peasant were permitted to farm for a profit

They would pay taxes, but were allowed to sell

their surplus grain on the open market

Lenin saw the peasantry as the key to the success

of the revolution


Free enterprise flourished within light industry and

domestic retail trade

Industrial production reached 1913 levels

Russia was becoming a land of small farms and

privately owned shops and businesses

The Beginning of the

Soviet Experiment

IV. Stalin Versus Trotsky

Politburo – highest governing committee of the

Communist Party

Some people not happy with the return of

capitalism

Lenin has stroke in 1922; dies in 1924

Two faction emerge – Trotsky v. Stalin

Stalin was the general secretary of the party in

1922


Lenin criticized both men before his death, but

Stalin more so than Trotsky

Stalin’s political ties and daily operating power

gave him the upper hand

Trotsky’s Left Wing Position

• Expropriation of farm production – peasants should pay

for industrialization

• Success in Russia depended on revolutions elsewhere in

the world – need for skills on wealth of other nations


Stalin’s Position

• Nikolai Bukharin – right-wing faction

• Manipulated by Stalin, they wanted to retain the NEP

and slow industrialization

• Doctrine of socialism in one country – Russia could do

it on her own

Stalin is not an intellectual & his tactics could be

brutal

Stalin eventually pushes Trotsky out of Russia

Stalin nor firmly in control of the Soviet state

Political Experiments of the 1920’s - Mr. Champion's History...

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