Post WWI Tensions
Post WWI Europe
• New smaller countries had many ethnic
minorities
• EX Czechoslovakia=Germans, Poles, Ukrainians,
Hungarians, etc.
• Russia-Communist State
• Germany-Kaiser Wilhelm forced to quite
• Weimer Republic replaced Kaiser and was
forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles
• Printed off tremendous amounts of money to
pay reparations=hyperinflation
• Nazi propaganda said treaty was unfair-Adolf
Hitler=1st national politician to speak out
against treaty’s conditions.
Post WWI Europe
• United Kingdom-funded war at a severe
economic cost.=biggest debtor
• United States-Helped rebuild Europe, Allied
powers first and then Central powers
• When US goes into Great Depression, she pulls
Europe in as well due to Europe's economic
dependency on US.
• France- Annexed Alsace-Lorraine-territory
Fr. And Germany were in competition in for
the last 50 yrs.
• Fr. Had suspicions Germany would rebuild.
US Post WWI Tensions
• Communism-socioeconomic system
• Common ownership of means of
production
• No social classes
• Red Scare-Fear of Communism
taking over in the US
• Discrimination of immigrants,
outsiders, political radical liberals
• Effects=Harsher immigration laws
and an emphases on the
‘American Dream’ conformity
US Propaganda towards Communism
US Post WWI Tensions
• Ku Klux Klan- White
supremacist group
wanting to purify
American society.
• WavesReconstruction(1860),
Post WWI, Post WWII
• Cross burnings and
mass parades
US Post WWI Tensions
• Scopes Monkey Trial- 1925
• John Scopes-High school teacher
who was taken to court for
teaching evolution to students
• Sparked national debate
between Fundamentalist vs
Modernist Controversy over
religion and evolution.
• Case seen as a theological
contest
Charles Lindbergh
• May 20, 1927
• First non-stop flight across the
Atlantic Ocean (NY to Paris)
• 33 ½ hours
• http://youtu.be/md0E-F_zLWo
3min
RADIO
Lifestyle: Flappers • Women’s inhibitions lessened
in the 1920’s
• Men returning from the war
• Independent feeling fulfilled
by wartime duties
• New fashions, music, night
life
• 19th Amendments
• New birth control remedies
• New household appliances
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=15X
qYErtEfc
Lifestyle: Games
FLAGPOLE SITTING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNAOHt
my4j0 (dancing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=684n8F
O68LU (living in the 20’s)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4
yhYc
DANCE MARATHONS!
Prohibition
• Alcohol increases:
Domestic violence,
rape, murder, child
abuse, suicide,
divorce
• Prohibition-Banning
of Alcohol
•Bootlegging-Selling
alcohol illegally
•Speakeasies-Place that
sells illegal alcohol
Immigration and Prohibition: 1920’s
• 18th Amendment gave organized crime
an opportunity to make a name for
themselves by making, selling and
transporting liquor
• Sicilian Mafia in Italy was under attack by
Benito Mussolini
• Some escaped to the U.S.
• Sicilian Mafia / U.S. Mafia: 2 separate
entities
• U.S. mob families did adopt oldcountry practices: Omerta
Rituals
• Becoming a “made man:”
• Ritual of cutting the hand
and holding it over a
burning picture of a Saint
• Must be Italian
• Some crime families only
required lineage from the
father’s side.
• Lifetime commitment
• Obey Omerta
Mafia’s
th
20
Century Dominance
• Prohibition repealed in 1933
• Mafia moved beyond
bootlegging to illegal
gambling, loan-sharking,
prostitution rings, and drug
trafficking
• Mid 20th Century: 24 crime
families w/5,000 members
• FBI was naive to the Mob: very
little government intrusion
Harlem Renaissance
• African Americans flourish in art,
music, and literature.
• Music= JAZZ
• Louis Armstrong
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrzOzgYL1-o (free jazz)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgD-PBNyFrY (swing- Glenn Miller)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaz4Ziw_CfQ (blues)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg&feature=fvsr (Duke
Ellington BeBop jazz)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM (Louis Armstrong)