Years of Crisis
Chapter 15
1919-1939
I. Post-War Uncertainty
 After World War I
 Many people were uncertain of the future
 Also a time of great invention, creativity
and new ideas that transformed society
Changes in Science and Literature
 Science
 Albert Einstein – offered radically
different views in the field of physics
 Sigmund Freud – new ideas about the
mind
 Literature
 Suffering caused by WWI leads many
people to doubt old beliefs
 Uneasiness of postwar years
 No universal meaning of life
Revolution in the Arts
 Traditional Art
Changes
 Introduction to cubism
and surrealism
 Cubism – natural
shapes into
geometric forms
 Surrealism – links
dreams with real life
 Music
 Introduction to Jazz
Pablo Picasso –
Cubism
“Guernica”
“Three Musicians”
Salvador Dali – Surrealism
“Geopoliticus Child”
“The Persistence of Memory”
The Role of Women
 Women’s Rights Movement
 Women win the right to vote
 US, UK, Germany, and others
 Adopt freer clothing and hair styles
 “Bobbed” hair
 Began to smoke in public
 More career opportunities as well
 Medicine, education, and journalism
Technology Improves Life
 The Automobile
 Cars improve and become cheaper
 Development of suburbs and travel for pleasure
 Airplanes
 Long-distance air travel available to the rich
 Amelia Earhart – first women to fly solo across
the Atlantic Ocean (1932)
 Charles Lindbergh
 Radio and Movies
 Broadcast news, entertainment, etc.
 Created a sense of community and collective art
Amelia Earhart
Lucky Lindy
II. World Wide Depression
 See graph on page 474
 Post-war Germany
 New government was the Weimar
Republic
 It was a coalition government
 Temporary alliance of several parties
 Had serious weaknesses
 Inflation due to reparations
 Signs the Kellogg-Briand Pact with France
 Pledging no more war
The Stock Market Crash
 Post-war United States
Economy booms in the 1920s
Wealth is distributed unevenly
Factories cut back on production and workers
Farmers produce too much food and cannot
pay mortgages
 Stocks bought on credit (now illegal)
 Investors sell stock – lowers the price
 October 29, 1929 – Market collapses as prices
fall very low
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Post-War England & France
 Great Britain
 Multi-Party Coalition governments
 Avoid political extremes & preserved
democarcy
 Slow and steady economic recovery
 France
 Establishes a self-sufficient economy
 Preserves democracy despite problems
III. Fascism Rises in Europe
 What is Fascism?
 Describes any authoritarian government
that is not communist
 Basic Fundamentals of Fascism

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Rooted in extreme nationalism
Glorified action, violence, and discipline
Blind loyalty to the state
Glorified warfare as a necessary and
noble struggle for survival
What is Fascism? (Cont)
 Fascism can be described as totalitarian
rule
 Single party dictatorship
 State control of the economy
 Use of police, spies & terror to enforce the will of
the state
 Strict censorship & government monopoly of the
media
 Use of schools & the media to indoctrinate &
mobilize citizens
 Unquestioning obedience to a single leader
Why did it appeal to Italians?
 Promised a strong
stable government
 End to political
feuding
 Sense of power and
confidence at a time
of disorder and
despair
Fascism vs. Communism
 Fascists were sworn enemies of
socialists and communists
 Communists had hopes for international
change
 Fascists pursued nationalist goals
Fascism in Italy
 Italy’s democratic government
seemed helpless after WWI
 Plagued by many problems
 Politician Benito Mussolini promised
to rescue Italy
 Promised strong leadership
 King Victor Emmanuel III put Mussolini
in charge in 1922
Benito
Mussolini
Fascism in Italy
 Mussolini as “Il Duce”
 Abolished democracy
and political parties
 Took control of the
economy
 Workers were
forbidden to strike
 Government became
a “corporate state”
 Fascist Party controlled
industry, agriculture &
transportation
Fascism in Germany
 German government had many problems
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Very weak coalitions
Many small parties
Blamed republic for Versailles Treaty
Inflation was out of control
 Great Depression in Germany led to the
rise of the National Socialist German
Workers' Party
 The Nazi Party
Ideas of the Nazi Party
 Stressed the failures of
 Communism
 Democracy
 Stressed the "racial purity
of the German people“
 Used the Jews as
scapegoats
The Nazi Party
 Adolf Hitler was an
excellent organizer
and speaker
 Allowing him to gain
power in the Nazi
Party
 Allowing him to gain
popularity with the
German people
Rise of the Nazi Party in Germany
Federal election results
Date
Votes
% of vote
Seats in
Reichstag
Background
May 1924
1,918,300
6.5
32 Hitler in prison
December
1924
907,300
3.0
14 Hitler is released from prison
May 1928
810,100
2.6
12
September
1930
6,409,600
18.3
107 After the financial crisis
July 1932
13,745,80
0
37.4
230
November
1932
11,737,00
0
33.1
196
March 1933
17,277,00
0
43.9
288 After Hitler had become
Chancellor
Nazi Political Propaganda
"We demand
freedom
and bread"
“The people are voting for list 1,
the Nazis, at the Reichstag election.”
The Rise of Hitler
 Hitler and the Nazis planned to
overthrow the government in 1923
 Arrested and put in jail for less than one
year
 In jail, he wrote “Mein Kampf”
 It became a handbook for Nazism
 Discussed racial purity
 Declared the need for more German “living
space”
 Lebensraum
Hitler Becomes Chancellor
 Conservative
members of the Nazi
Party urged President
Paul von Hindenburg
to name Hitler
chancellor in 1933
 Thought they would
be able to “control” him
Hitler Becomes Chancellor
 Once in power, Hitler
quickly established a
totalitarian regime
 Used the Gestapo –
secret police
 Use the SS – elite
protection squad
 Used propaganda
Nazi
Propaganda
Hitler Achieves Totalitarianism
 Hitler gains control by:
 Targeting young people
 Hitler Youth programs
 Numerous speeches
 Limits the roles of women
 Launched large scale public works programs
 Helps the economy
 Began to rearm the German military
 Controlled all mass media and educational
institutions
Hitler’s Campaign Against the Jews
 Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for
Germany’s problems
 Led to a huge wave of anti-Semitism
 Laws were passed to limit Jews rights beginning
in 1933
Hitler’s Campaign Against the Jews
 Kristallnacht – “Night
of the Broken Glass”
 November 9th, 1933
 Nazi-led mobs
attacked Jewish
stores, synagogues,
and communities
IV. Aggressors Invade Nations
 Japanese Aggression
 Japan seeks to solve its economic
problems through foreign
expansion
Takes over Manchuria, China in
1931
 Japan invades the rest of China in
1937
Aggressors Invade Nations
 Italian Aggression
 Mussolini invades
Ethiopia in 1935
 Ethiopian Leader Haile
Salassie appeals to the
League of Nations
 League of Nations
does not stop
aggression
Aggressors Invade Nations
 Civil War in Spain
 General Francisco
Franco leads a
rebellion in 1936
 Receives aid from
Hitler and
Mussolini
 Wins the war in
1939 – becomes
Fascist leader
Aggressors Invade Nations
 Germany
 Hitler plans to expand the German Empire
 Hitler begins a series of steps that would lead
to war
 Built German military against the Versailles
Treaty
Steps Towards War
 1936-German troops in the Rhineland
 1936-Germany, Italy & Japan form the Axis
Powers
 1938-Invasion of Sudetenland area of
Czechoslovakia
 Munich Pact – Hitler promises no further
expansion
 The West gave into his demands =
appeasement – giving in to demands to keep
peace
Why Appeasement?
 Many nations did not want another
World War
 Many thought Communism was the
bigger threat
 Great Depression “sapped” energy of
western democracies
 US neutrality acts
Steps Towards War
 1939–Hitler takes
the rest of
Czechoslovakia
 1939-The Nazi –
Soviet Pact
 Hitler & Stalin
agree
 Not to fight
each other
 Split up Poland
The Beginning of World War II
 1939- Germans
invade Poland (9/1)
 Britain & France
declare war on
Germany
 Promised to protect
Poland
 World War II Begins
THE END