Interwar Period
1917-1939
The Years between WWI and WWII
Characterized by political, and economic
instability and rise of dictators
The League of Nations
Essential Question:
What was the League of Nations and
why did it fail?
League of Nations
The idea of US President
Woodrow Wilson
International cooperative
organization
Established to prevent future wars
United States not a member
League fails because it did not
have power to enforce its
decisions
Essential Knowledge
The Great Depression
Essential Questions
Why did the world experience depression in the
1930s?
What political changes resulted from the worldwide
depression?
Post-WWI
After World War I, international organizations and
agreements were established to avoid future
conflicts.
A period of uneven prosperity in the1920s.
Worldwide depression in the1930s.
Depression weakened Western democracies, making
it difficult for them to challenge the threat of
totalitarianism.
Essential Understandings
Post-WWI Conditions
Provided opportunities for the rise of dictators in the
Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
The Treaty of Versailles worsened economic and
political conditions in Europe and led to the rise of
totalitarian regimes in Italy and Germany.
In Russia communist dictatorship was established by
Vladimir Lenin. The government in the form of a
dictatorship was continued by Joseph Stalin and the
name Russia was changed to the Soviet Union.
Japan emerged as a world power after World War I and
conducted aggressive imperialistic policies in Asia.
Essential Understandings
Causes of Worldwide depression
German reparations
Inflation
High protective tariffs
Excessive expansion of credit
Stock Market Crash (1929)
Expansion of production capacities and dominance
of the United States in the global economy
Essential Knowledge
Impact of World Depression
High unemployment in industrial countries
Bank failures and collapse of credit
Collapse of prices in world trade
Nazi Party’s growing importance and popularity in
Germany
Nazi Party’s blame of European Jews for economic
collapse
Essential Knowledge
Rise of Dictators
Essential Questions
Why did dictatorial governments emerge in
Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.S.S.R. after
World War I?
How did these regimes affect the world following
World War I?
Vocabulary
Totalitarianism- operating a centralized
government system in which a single party
without opposition rules over political, economic,
social, and cultural life
Fascism- ideology that favors dictatorial
government, centralized control of private
enterprise, repression of all opposition, and
extreme nationalism. Loyalty is to the state.
Vocabulary
Marxist-Leninist Communism version of a classless
society in which capitalism is overthrown by a
working-class revolution that gives ownership and
control of wealth and property to the state
Communism (beginning with Stalin): any system of
government in which a single, usually totalitarian,
party holds power, and the state controls the
economy
Not the Utopia Marx Envisioned
Why was the communist revolution in Russia not
what Karl Marx predicted?
Russia was not industrialized and the factory
workers (proletariat) did not lead the revolution.
Italy during the Interwar Period
Benito Mussolini- il Ducedictator of Italy
The founder and leader of the
Italian Fascist Party.
Fascism- political philosophy
based on nationalism and
an all powerful state
Ambition to restore the glory
of Rome was his goal.
Germany: Interwar Period
The Weimar Republic was a democratic
government but weak and riddled with
inflation which led to economic depression.
National Socialist Worker’s Party (Nazis) gained
power in the 1930s
Nazi Party blamed European Jews for economic
collapse
Anti-Semitism was on the rise
Hitler Begins His Rise to Power
Beer Hall Putsch
Hitler's attempt, in 1923, to overthrow the Weimar
Republic when he fired his pistol in the ceiling of
a Munich beer hall.
Mein Kampf
My Struggle. Work written by Hitler while in prison
in 1923; the book outlines his policies for German
expansion, war, and elimination of non Aryans.
National Socialist Party
Hitler was a rising star in
the Nazi Party.
In 1932 he campaigned for
president against
Hindenburg and used the
slogan "Freedom and
Bread"
Hitler lost this election.
Hitler: Chancellor to Fuhrer
January 30, 1933 Hindenburg, the
Germany president, under duress,
named Hitler Chancellor of the
German Nation.
Within weeks, Hitler was absolute
dictator of Germany A decree
was signed "for the Protection of
the people and the State."
The killing of communists and
citizens against the new
chancellor began immediately.
Marshal Law Takes Effect
The Emergency Decree stated: "Restrictions on personal
liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion,
including freedom of the press; on the rights of
assembly and association; and violations of the
privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic
communications and warrants for house searches,
orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on
property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits
otherwise prescribed."
The Jews between the Wars
Nuremberg Race Laws
1935-Measures that excluded
Jews from German citizenship,
from white-collar professions
and forbade marriages
between Jews and from
marriage non-Jews.
The Nazis settled on defining a
"full Jew" as a person with
three Jewish grandparents.
Violence Against Jews
Kristallnacht
Crystal Night or Night of Broken
Glass.
November 9th,1938: anti-Jewish
mobs attacked Jewish shops,
homes, and synagogues.
The goal was to totally remove
Jews from German public life.
Russia during the Interwar Period
Bolshevik Revolution
Russia was ready for revolution
Spring 1917- Czar Nicholas II
abdicated.
Lenin, a communist agitator,
returned from exile in western
Europe at an opportune time
Lenin promised ‘peace, land
and bread’ to desperate
people
Russia becomes the USSR
The Soviet government was formed on
November 7th, 1917 with Lenin as Chairman
Lenin signs Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, on March 3,
1918 and ends Russian involvement in WWI
Russia was renamed the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics in 1922
Lenin died (of a stroke) in 1924
Economic Plans
New Economic Policy
NEP introduced by Lenin after the Russian civil
war that allowed some private ownership
among the peasants to stimulate agrarian
production.
Joseph Stalin announced the abolition of the
NEP in January, 1929 and replaced it with the
first of his Five Year Plans.
Joseph Stalin
Stalin firmly entrenched the USSR as a
communist state and maintains
complete control over Soviet domestic
and international policy until his death
in 1953
Stalin’s policies: five-year plans,
collectivization (effort to control all
the agriculture) of farms, state
industrialization
The secret police created terror and
obedience
Great Purge killed thousands of
unwanted citizens
The Collective-Farm Team Leader
Gregory Ryazhsky, 1932
Japan During the Interwar Period
Hirohito—Emperor of Japan
Hideki Tojo—Japanese general
Militarism- this glorification of the
military was the philosophy that
guided Japanese politics before
WWII
Industrialization of Japan led to
drive for raw materials
Invasion of Korea, Manchuria, and
the rest of China in 1935
End
Genocide
Essential Questions
Why did the Holocaust occur?
What are other examples of genocides in the
twentieth century?
Genocide vs Ethnic Cleansing
Genocide
The systematic killing of all the people from a national,
ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do this
Ethnic Cleansing
The removal of people of a specific ethnic group by
means of genocide, terror, or forced expulsion.
Genocide
There had been a climate of hatred against Jews in
Europe and Russia for centuries.
Various instances of genocide have occurred throughout
the twentieth century.
Essential Knowledge
Elements of the Holocaust
Totalitarianism combined with nationalism
History of anti-Semitism
Defeat in World War I and economic depression
blamed on German Jews
Hitler’s belief in the master race
Final solution—Extermination camps, gas chambers
Essential Knowledge
Examples of other genocides
Armenians by leaders of the Ottoman Empire
(Turkey)
Peasants, government and military leaders, and
members of the elite in the Soviet Union by
Joseph Stalin
The educated, artists, technicians, former
government officials, monks, and minorities by
Pol Pot in Cambodia
Tutsi minority by Hutu in Rwanda
Causes of WWII
Essential Questions
What were the causes of World War II?
What were the major events of World War II?
Who were the major leaders of World War II?
WWII
Many economic and political causes led toward World
War II.
Major theaters of war included Africa, Europe, Asia,
and the Pacific Islands.
Leadership was essential to the Allied victory.
Essential Understandings
Economic and Political Causes of
World War II
Aggression by totalitarian powers: Germany, Italy,
Japan
Nationalism
Failures of the Treaty of Versailles
Weakness of the League of Nations
Appeasement
Tendencies towards isolationism and pacifism in
Europe and the United States
Essential Knowledge
Major Events of the War: 1939-1945
German invasion of Poland
Fall of France
Battle of Britain
German invasion of the Soviet Union
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
D-Day (Allied invasion of Europe)
Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Essential Knowledge
Major Leaders of the War
Franklin D. Roosevelt—U.S. President
Harry Truman—U.S. President after death of
President Roosevelt
Dwight D. Eisenhower—U.S. general
Douglas MacArthur—U.S. general
George Marshall—U.S. general
Winston Churchill—British prime minister
Joseph Stalin—Soviet dictator
Adolf Hitler—Nazi dictator of Germany
Hideki Tojo—Japanese general
Essential Knowledge
Hirohito—Emperor of Japan
Weimar Republic
The republic of Germany that lasted from 1919 to
1933.Characterized by a lack of strong political
leadership, social problems and was hurt by the Great
Depression.
Fascism
The political and economic methods of Mussolini in
Italy. Glorification of the state. Political philosophy
that advocates an aggressive form of nationalism,
single-party system with a strong ruler, glorification
if the state. Dictatorial government, centralized
control of private enterprise, repression of all
opposition, and extreme nationalism
The name comes from the fasces or bundle of rods tied
around an axe, the symbol of authority in ancient
Rome.
Third Reich
Name given to Germany during the Nazi regime,
between 1933 and 1945. The First Reich (or empire)
was from 963 to 1806 (the Holy Roman Empire); the
second was from 1871 to 1917 (the reigns of William
I and William II).
Essential Knowledge
Impact of world depression
High unemployment in industrial countries
Bank failures and collapse of credit
Collapse of prices in world trade
Nazi Party’s growing importance in Germany; Nazi
Party’s blame of European Jews for economic
collapse
http://www.suite101.com/content/collectivisationunder-stalin-history-of-the-soviet-union-a359988
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/bio/timeline.htm
The Mandate System
Essential Question
Why was the mandate system created?
The Mandate System
During World War I, Great Britain and France agreed to
divide large portions of the Ottoman Empire in the
Middle East between themselves.
After the war, the “mandate system” gave Great Britain
and France control over the lands that became Iraq,
Transjordan, and Palestine (British control) and Syria
and Lebanon (French control).
The division of the Ottoman Empire through the
mandate system planted the seeds for future conflicts
in the Middle East.
Essential Knowledge
Mandates in the Middle East
Established by the League of Nations
Nations under the Mandate system were granted
independence after World War II
Resulted in Middle East conflicts created by
religious differences
Essential Knowledge
Essential Knowledge
French Mandates in the Middle East
Syria
Lebanon
British Mandates in the Middle East
Jordan
Palestine (part became independent as the State of
Israel)
Essential Knowledge
Russia during the Interwar Period
Vladimir Il'ic Uljanov ‘Lenin’ Established
communism
Joseph Stalin- Leader of USSR in 1930s
Entrenchment of communism
The official name was changed to USSR/Soviet
Union.
Stalin’s policies: five-year plans, collectivization
(effort to control all the agriculture )of farms, state
industrialization
The secret police created terror and obedience
Great Purge
Essential Knowledge
Stalin
Under Joseph Stalin the Soviet Union developed into a
totalitarian state.
Command economy – government makes most of the
economic decisions.
Stalin
Stalin wanted all peasants to farm on state owned farms or
collectives
In the Soviet Union the idea of collectivization was to use the
massive peasant population to work together on state-owned
farms where all the produce would belong to the state and be
distributed out by the state
Stalin collectivization was brutally forced upon the peasants
Kulaks were regarded as ‘well-off’ peasants who did not fit
into the Communist utopia and were also blamed for the
resistance to collectivization
Purge
To remove opponents or people considered undesirable from a
state or organization
Stalin
Became the Soviet leader after Lenin and a struggle for
power.
Plan was to strengthen communist state and modernize
economy. First Five-Year Plan began 1928.
Stalin’s Five Year Plans
Plan to transform the USSR from an agricultural into an
industrial economy.
Collectivization
System in which the government owns the land and uses
the peasants to farm it.
Effects of Collectivization
Despite the huge demand for food and modernization of
agriculture under collectivization, such as the introduction of
tractors, the amount of grain produced actually fell as did the
numbers of livestock. The massive industrialization program
undertaken in the Soviet Union increased the demand for more
food from the countryside but also took peasants from the
countryside to work in the city, making increased production
less likely