The Great Depression and
the Causes of World War II
1929-1939
Objective
 To understand the causes of the Great Depression
 To understand the effects of the Great Depression
 To understand how each country reacted to the
Great Depression
 To understand how Adolf Hitler came to power
 To understand the causes of World War II
The Great Depression
 The 1920s were a period of economic
prosperity

In Europe and the United States

Role of US

Fragile prosperity
“Dude, where’s my car?”
American Economic Expansion
during the 1920s
Consumer Debt in the 1920s
The Crash of 1929
 Major selling of stocks in Wall Street
 Stock Market crash in Wall Street
October 29, 1929
The Great Depression
 Massive shutdown of businesses
 Massive global unemployment in US,
Europe, and elsewhere
 Economic collapse threatened payments of
reparations
The Great Depression
 Britain

Coalition government formed

2.5 million unemployed by 1931

Abandons the gold standard

Raises tariffs
The Great Depression
 France

Affected France in 1931

Social and Political Paralysis
The Great Depression
 The United States

Expanded role of federal government

The New Deal under Franklin Roosevelt
The Great Depression in the US
and Europe
The Great Depression
Germany
 Depression weakened support for the
Weimar Republic
 Torn between Communists and Nazis
Germany
 1932 Elections held in 1932
 Hitler appointed Chancellor on January 30,
1933
Germany
 Hitler consolidates his power in 1933

Reichstag fire, February 27, 1933

Enabling Act passed March 23, 1933
Nazi Rally
Germany
 Hitler eliminates internal competition


“Night of the Long Knives”
Hitler becomes both President and Chancellor on
August 2, 1934
Germany
 Hitler and Anti-Semitism

“Stab in the Back Theory”

Nuremberg laws (1935)
Germany
 Hitler’s Economic Policies

Tax breaks for families

Heavy government spending on public works to
eliminate unemployment
Italy
 Mussolini and Fascists take over Italy in 1922

One-party state

Fascists made deal with big business

Signs agreement with the Vatican in 1929
Soviet Union
 Centralized Planning

Stalin takes over Soviet Union after Lenin’s Death

New Economic Policy discarded

Heavy industrialization begins

Collectivization of agriculture
“Let’s all get to work, Comrades!”
Soviet Union
 Stalin’s Purges (1936-38)

Stalin eliminates potential rivals

Millions of people arrested, deported, executed,
or disappeared
Causes of World War II
 Hitler begins to scrap Versailles after 1933

Rearms Germany past limits permitted by
Versailles

Hitler remilitarizes the Rhineland in 1935
Critics of Appeasement
Causes of World War II
 Appeasement

British came to the conclusion that Treaty of
Versailles was unfair

France goes along with Britain
Causes of World War II
 Hitler redraws Germany’s borders

Austria (1938)

Czechoslovakia
German Takeover of Austria
Causes of World War II
 Munich Conference

Sudetenland Question

British Prime Minister Chamberlain agrees to let
Hitler have Sudetenland
“I have brought
peace for our time.”
 British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain
returning from the
Munich Conference in
1938
Causes of World War II
 Hitler breaks his promise
 Hitler sets his sights on Poland
Hitler and Mussolini
Conclusion
 The Great Depression affects Europe and the
United States
 The Great Depression causes countries to look at
other alternatives
 The Great Depression leads to rise of Hitler and the
Nazis
 Hitler scrapped the Treaty of Versailles
 British appease Hitler in hopes of getting him to
cooperate
 Hitler breaks his promises and begins World War II