Between the Wars
The Age of Anxiety
1920s and 1930s
England, France, Germany, Italy,
and Spain
After the War to End All Wars…these are the
attempts to make sure it ended all wars…
•
•
Kellogg-Briand Pact
– “renounced war as an act of instrument of national policy”
– Aka…it outlawed war
– Nearly every nation in the world signs it – even the Soviet Union
– Problem? Can’t be enforced…
League of Nations
– Not successful
– Wide variety of membership
– Collective Security
• If any member state were attacked, others would provide financial
aid
• Violates US isolationist policies/tendencies
– No enforcement power
• But would issue disapproval for acts of aggression
– Germany and Japan frustrated that League is strictly pro-allies
France
•Was more damaged and more in debt after WW I than
most
•Horizon of Blue 1920
•Chamber of Deputies all military guys
•Show down for Reparations…
•Attempted Ruhr Strike
•Causes Severe inflation
•After 1924 will be steadily receiving $ from Germany,
•1931 – Depression will hit France
•Not as bad as elsewhere, some, but not
devastating unemployment
•Support farmers
•July 1935 – Leon Blum and the Popular Front
•Preserve republic
•Press for social reform
•Will win majority in Chamber of Deputies in 1936,
socialists will have weight
•Seek programs like FDR’s New Deal
•Matignon Accords – 7-15%; 40hr wk; 2 wk vacay
•Maginot Line becomes priority
Left in Shambles
• British cities suffered from German air raids
• Economically struggling
• 1920’s Labour v. Liberal party
– Lloyd George (C); 1922 Bonar Law (C)
– Stanley Baldwin 1923 (C)
– Labour party – Ramsey MacDonald
– Standley Baldwin
• Conservatives return govt to gold standard
• Makes conversion rate too high, raises price of British goods
to foreign countries
• Management needs to lower expenses, cuts wages
• Coal miners strike
• Other workers inspired to strike
• Miners and unions have to capitulate to keep their jobs
because of high unemployment
• Conservative gov’t does grant some housing and welfare
reform
• Status Check on British Empire
• National Government – 1931
– Coalition of Liberal, Labour, and Conservative Parties
– Raises taxes
– Cut ins benefits to unemployed and elderly
– Lower govt salaries
– Argue that falling prices in Britain mean salaries
haven’t “really” changed b/c cost of living is lower too
– Went off the gold standard
– Value of pound falls by 30%
– 10%tariff on all imports except from within empire
• Civil War erupts
• Secret negotiations – 1921 treaty that produces a status
similar to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Northern
Ireland
• Civil War between Irish diehards v. Irish moderates
– Diehards want totally independent republic with no
oath to the Br monarch
• Da Valera resigns as President, organizes resistance to
the treaty
• Reelected in 1932, abolishes oath to monarchy
• Ireland = fully independent in 1949
Mussolini
•
•
•
•
•
•
Forms Fascist party in
1919
“Il Duce” – the leader
Blackshirts terrorize and
control opposition
1922 appointed Prime
Minister when he
threatens to march on
Rome
“The Country is Nothing
Without Conquest”
– Roman Empire
Wannabe
– Wants Mediterranean
to be Mare Nostrum
again
– Wants lands on the
Adriatic back from
Yugoslavia
(irredenta)
1935 – gets Ethiopia
(revenge at last)
Il Duce’s Italy
• Suppressed rival parties, muzzled the
press, rigged elections and replaced
elected officials with Fascist support
• Critics thrown into prison, exiled or
murdered
• Secret police and propaganda bolster the
regime
• Preserved capitalism, but workers
forbidden to strike, wages very low
• “Believe! Obey! Fight!”
• Youth groups toughen kids and teach them
strict military discipline
– Taught about glories of ancient Rome
– March in parades, sing hymns and chants,
“Mussolini is always right”
• Women asked to “win the battle of
motherhood”
– 14 kids and you get a medal!
Fascism
• An authoritarian (non-communism) government that
emphasizes extreme nationalism and glorifies violence,
discipline and blind loyalty to the state
• Bundle of sticks around an axe - “fasces”
• Antidemocratic – democracy leads to corruption and
weakness, allows individual or class interests to rise
above national goals
• Aggressive foreign expansion
– “survival of the fittest”, dominance and war are necessary for
survival
• Sworn enemies of communists
– Fascism – support comes from business leaders, wealthy
landowners, and lower middle class
– Communism – support comes from urban and agricultural
workers
Appeal of fascism?
• Promises a strong, stable government and
end to political feuding that had paralyzed
democracy
• National pride
Totalitarian Rule
• Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin:
– Single party dictatorship
– State control of economy
– Use of police spies and terror to
enforce the will of the state
– Strict censorship and government
monopoly of the media
– Use of schools and media to
indoctrinate and mobilize citizens
– Unquestioning obedience to a
single leader
1920’s Inflation in Germany
• Weimar Republic
• Print money to
solve economic
problems
• Desire for stronger
leaders
Hitler
• Adolf
• 1919 National Socialist German
Workers Party (aka Nazi Party)
– Nazism – fascism shaped with
fanatical German nationalism
and racial superiority
• Mein Kampf and Aryan race
• 1932 – Nazi’s gain majority in
Reichstag
• 1933 -- Hindenburg appoints Hitler
chancellor
– Suspends freedom of speech
and press
– Brownshirts/stormtroopers
silence opposition
• 1934 – Hindenburg dead, Hitler
“Der Fuhrer”
Der Fuhrer
• Begins rearming
• Hires unemployed workers for public works projects
– Massive public buildings
– Autobahn
• 1936 – Depression ends in Germany
• Germany needs more living space
– Militarize Rhineland in 1936
• Axis powers agreed between Berlin and Rome
• 1938 Anschluss realigned (most Austrians welcome
them) – Sound of Music!
• Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain, and Appeasements
“peace in our time!”
Spanish Civil War
• Nationalism group rises to
power led by Franco
• Nationalists v. Republicans
• Nationalists – supported by
Germany and Italy
• Republicans supported by
Soviets and International
Brigade
• Nationalists take Madrid,
Franco rules from 1939-1975
Guernica – Pablo Picasso
On to war!
• March 1939 – Br and Fr agree to help Poland if
invaded
• Aug 1939 – Hitler and Stalin agree to a ten year
Non-Aggression Pact (secret document attached
about how to divide up E. Europe)
• Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland
– Blitzkrieg, Poland down in a month, Holocaust begins
in Poland
– Stalin seizes E. half of Poland
• Sept. 3, 1939, Br and Fr declare war on
Germany
• April 9, 1940 – Hitler takes Denmark and
Norway
• May 10 – Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, France to British Channel
• June 10 – Fr govt flees
• June 14 – Germans take over Paris
• Aug 1940 – Luftwaffe hits London hard
– British Royal Airforce, Chamberlain – “Never
in the field of human conflict was so much
owed by so many to so few”