Chapter 15 – Years of
Crisis
Mrs. Tucker
World History
Victor Valley High School
Main Points
 Postwar Uncertainty
 Worldwide Depression
 Fascism Rising in Europe
 Aggressors Invade Nations
California Standards
• 10.6.4 – Discuss the influence of World War I on
literature, art, and intellectual life in the West (e.g.
Pablo Picasso, the “lost generation” of Gertrude
Stein, Ernest Hemingway).
Postwar Uncertainty
• New Revolutions in Science
• Albert Einstein – German
Born – Theory of
Relativity;
• Sigmund Freud –
psychology; believed
human behavior is
irrational – beyond reason - this was the
“unconsciousness;”
Literature in the 1920s
•
Devastation of World War I
caused writers to question
accepted ideas of reason and
doubt of traditional religious
values
•
T.S. Eliot, 1922, American poet
living in England – Western
society lost its spiritual values;
Postwar world a “barren
wasteland” drained of faith and
hope;
•
William Butler Yeats, Irish poet,
wrote about a sense of dark
times - “The Second Coming”
(1921);
Existentialism
• Jean Paul Sartre
• Belief that there is no universal meaning to life.
Perople create their own mean in life through their
choices and actions;
• Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher, was
influenced by Existentialism;
• Western ideas like reason, democracy, and progress
stifled creativity. He urged return to ancient heroic
values – pride, assertiveness, and strength;
Existentialism
Literature in the 1920s
• Czech-born author, Franz Kafka, The Trial, (1925),
The Castle, (1926) – people caught in threatening
situations they cannot understand nor escape;
• James Joyce, Irish author, stream of consciousness
novel, Ulysses (1922);
Kafka and Joyce
Revolution in the Arts
• Artists Rebel against Tradition;
• Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky – used bold colors
and distorted or exaggerated forms;
Surrealism
• Surreal – means “beyond or above reality” Used
unconscious part of their minds – had an eerie,
dreamlike quality to depict objects in unrealistic
ways;
• Movement that tried to link the world of dreams
with real life – inspired by Freud’s ideas.
• Salvador Dali, Spanish painter, “The Persistence of
Memory,” (1931);
The Persistence of Memory
Cubism
• Transformed natural shapes into geometric forms;
• Objects broken down into differnet parts with sharp
angles and edges;
• Creator of Cubism; Pablo Picasso, Spanish Painter,
Guernica; and
• Georges Braque, French painter, The Violin and the
Candlestick;
Cubism – Guernica and Violin of
Candlesticks
Music
• Classical
• Movement away from traditional styles;
• Russian Composer - Igor Stravinsky, “The Rite of
Spring,”—irregular rhythms and dissonances; harsh
combinations of sound;
• Austrian composer, Arnold Schoenberg – rejected
traditional harmonies and musical scales;
Jazz
• Emerged from the United States, from most African
American artists in New Orleans, Memphis, and
Chicago.
• Lively, loose beat captured the new freedom of the
age;
Jazz
New Orleans Jazz
Society Challenges
Convention
• Change in Women’s Roles
• Women worked in men’s jobs and in war effort, and
wanted the right to vote;
• Many countries granted women’s suffrage into law such
as the US, Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Austria.
• Women abandoned restrictive clothing and hairstyles;
shorter looser garments and short “bobbed” hair;
Women’s Changes in Fashion
Women’s Roles Change
• Women wore make up, drove cars, drank and smoked
in public;
• Most women followed traditional paths of marriage
and family;
• Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman risked arrest,
speaking out in support of birth control;
• Women began to seek careers in medicine, education,
journalism, and clerical fields;
Margaret Sanger/1920s women
Technological Advances
Improve Life
• Automobiles – after war were more affordable; people
traveled for pleasure;
• People moved to suburbs and commuted to work in
cities;
• Airplanes transform travel; International air travel;
• Charles Lindbergh – 33-hour solo flight from New York
to Paris – Spirit of St. Louis;
• Passenger airlines established during 1920s.
• Amelia Earhart, American – in 1932 was first woman to
fly solo across the Atlantic;
Aviation Advances
Radio and Movies Dominate
Popular Entertainment
• Guglielmo Marconi – first successful experiments with
radio in 1895;
• Radio developed mostly through World War I;
• By 1920 the first commercial radio station --- KDKA in
Pittsburgh was broadcasting;
• Radio swept the nation and soon every major city had
stations broadcasting news, plays and live sporting events;
• Soon most families would own a radio;
Radios
Hollywood
• Motion pictures began with Nickelodeons in workingclass, immigrant neighborhoods;
• Movie makers were charged with corrupting the youth,
movie makers tried to make their movies more
respectable.
• Movie makers had to find a way to make their product
more in line with the dominant culture of a more
conservative middle class society. They did that and in
doing that they would broaden the appeal and removing
the movies;
Hollywood
Hollywood
“Big Eight Movie Companies”
•
Paramount studies was the first of the studios at this time.
•
The “Big Eight”
•
Paramount
•
Fox
•
MGM
•
Universal
•
Warner Brothers
•
Columbia
•
United Artists
•
RKO
Worldwide Depression
• California Standard 10.6. 2. Describe the effects of
the war and resulting peace treaties on population
movement, the international economy, and shifts in
the geographic and political borders of Europe and
the Middle East.
Postwar Europe
• Unstable New Democracies
• With the end of WWI, the last of Europe’s absolute
rulers were overthrown;
• Provisional Government – Russia’s brief democratic
government;
• Weimar Republic – Germany’s new democratic
government;
Weimar Republic
• Set up in 1919;
• Named for the city where the national assembly met;
• Weak from the start;
• Germany lacked a strong democratic tradition;
• Germany had several major political parties and
many minor ones;
• Millions of Germans blamed the Weimar
government for the defeat and postwar humiliation
by signing Treaty of Versailles
Weimar Republic
Inflation Caused Crisis in
Germany
• Germany did not increase wartime taxes -- Germans
just printed more money;
• After the war, Germany printed even more money to
pay war reparations;
• Paper money lost its value and the German mark’s
value fell sharply.
• Severe inflation set in;
• In 1918, a loaf of bread cost less than a mark; In 1922
it was over 160 marks, and in 1923, more than 200
billion marks;
• As a result – many Germans questioned the value of
the Weimar Republic;
Hyperinflation
Dawes Plan
• In 1924, International Committee headed by
American banker, Charles Dawes, provided for a
$200 million loan from US banks to stabilize
German currency and strengthen its economy;
• Plan set more realistic schedule for payment of
Germany’s reparations;
• The plan helped slow inflation, the German
Economy began to recover, and factories were at
prewar production by 1929;
The Dawes Plan
Lasting Peace
• With German prosperity, Germany’s foreign
minister, Gustav Stresemann and France’s foreign
minister, Aristide Briand met to sign a treaty
promising France and Germany would never go to
war against each other;
• Germany agreed to respect the existing borders of
France and Belgium;
• Germany was then admitted to League of Nations;
Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact
• US Secretary of State, Frank Kellogg, and France’s
Aristide Briand arranged an agreement to “renounce
war as an instrument of national policy.”
• Almost all nations signed this agreement;
• The League of Nations – the obvious group to
enforce this treaty, had no armed forces ;
Kellogg Briand Pact
Financial Collapse
• The US economic prosperity largely sustained the
world economy;
• In 1929, US factories turned out nearly half the
world’s industrial goods;
• This productivity led to enormous profits but the
new wealth was not evenly distributed;
• The richest 5% of the population, received 33% of
all personal income in 1929;
Financial Collapse
• 60% of all American families earned less than
$2,000 a year;
• Most families were too poor to buy the goods being
produced;
• Unable to sell all their goods, store owners would cut
back their orders from factories;
• Factories reduced production and laid-off workers;
• This began a downward economic spiral;
Bank Failures
Financial Collapse
• Overproduction affected US farmers also;
• Scientific farming methods and new farm machinery
dramatically increased crop yields;
• US farmers were producing more food, but faced
new competition from farmers in Australia, Latin
America, and Europe;
• There was a worldwide surplus of agricultural
products which drove prices and profits down;
Financial Collapse
• Unable to sell their crops at a profit, many farmers
could not pay off their bank loans;
• These unpaid debts weakened banks and forced
some to close;
• This overproduction by factories and farms should
have been a warning to those gambling on the stock
market -- but no one heeded the warning;
The Stock Market Crashes
• 1929 – New York City’s Wall Street – financial
capital of the world;
• Investors were optimistic about the booming
economy;
• In order to invest in the boom economy – many
middle-income people bought stocks on “margin”
(on credit).
The Stock Market Crashes
• In September, 1929, some investors thought the
stock prices were unnaturally high and started selling
their stocks;
• By Thursday, October 24, the gradual lowering of
stock prices became an all-out slide downward;
• This resulted in a panic! Everyone wanted to sell
stocks and no one wanted to buy;
• On Tuesday, October 29, “Black Tuesday,” a record
16 million stocks were sold and the market
collapsed.
Black Tuesday,
October 29, 1929
The Great Depression
• Investors who bought stocks on margin could not
pay what they owed and the stocks were now
worthless.
• Within months of the crash, unemployment rates
began to rise and industrial production, prices, and
wages declined;
• This long business slump would be called the Great
Depression;
• The stock market crash alone did not cause the
Great Depression but quickened the economy’s
collapse;
The Great Depression
The Great Depression
• By 1932, factory production was cut in half;
• Thousands of businesses failed and banks closed;
• 9 million people lost the money in their savings
accounts from failed banks;
• Many farmers lost their lands because they could not
make mortgage payments;
• In 1933, one-fourth of all American workers had no
jobs;
Breadlines
The Great Depression
Global Depression
• The collapse of the American economy sent shock waves
around the world;
• US bankers demanded repayment of their overseas loans
and American investors withdrew their money from
Europe;
• The US market for European goods dropped sharply and
Congress placed high tariffs (taxes) on imported goods so
US dollars would stay in the US;
• This policy backfired – other countries imposed higher
tariffs and world trade dropped by 65%!
• Unemployment rates soared!
Depression
The World Confronts
Crisis
• Britain takes Steps to Improve its Economy;
• Voters elected multiparty coalition known as National
Government;
• Passed high protective tariffs;
• Increased taxes
• Regulated the currency;
• Lowered interest rates to encourage industrial growth;
These measure brought a slow and steady recovery;
By 1937, unemployment was cut in half and production
was above 1929 levels;
Britain avoided political extremes and preserved
democracy;
France Responds to
Economic Crisis
• France’s economy was more self-sufficient – it was
heavily agricultural and less dependent on foreign;
• Still, by 1935, one million French workers were
unemployed;
• This contributed to political instability – In 1933,
5 coalition governments formed and fell;
• Political leaders were frightened by the growth of
antidemocratic forces in France and other parts of
Europe;
France Responds to
Economic Crisis
• In 1936, moderates, Socialists, and Communists
formed a coalition – The Popular Front;
• The Popular Front passed a series of reforms to help
the workers;
• Price increases quickly offset wage gains;
• Unemployment remained high;
• France also preserved a democratic government;
Socialist Governments
Find Solutions
• Socialist governments in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway
met the challenge of economic crisis successfully; Their
recovery programs on existing tradition of cooperative
community action;
• In Sweden government sponsored massive public works
projects that kept people employed and producing;
• All Scandinavian countries raised pensions for elderly,
increased unemployment insurance, subsides for housing,
and other welfare benefits;
• These were paid for by taxes;
• Democracy remained intact;
US Recovery
• In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected;
• His confidence reassured the millions of Americans
who felt bewildered by the Depression;
• New Deal – large public works projects to provide
jobs for unemployed;
• Government agencies gave financial help to
businesses and farms;
• Large amounts of public money spent on welfare
and relief programs;
Franklin D. Roosevelt
US Recovery
• The Roosevelt administration believed government
spending would create jobs and start a recovery;
• Regulations were imposed to reform the stock
market and banking system;
• The New Deal did eventually reform the US
economic system;
• Roosevelt’s leadership preserved the country’s faith
in its democratic political system and established
him as a leader of democracy in a world threatened
by ruthless dictators;
Fascism Rises in Europe
Aggressors Invade Nations