Chapters 30-31: The Great
Depression, World War II, and
Decolonization
AP World History
Mr. Bartula
The 1920s: Temporary
Prosperity
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Optimism and prosperity in the 1920s
led many to hope that large scale
conflict could be avoided.
This hope ended abruptly in October,
1929, with the onset of the Great
Depression.
The Great Depression’s
Causes
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After effects of World War I
Overproduction
Tariffs and other trade barriers
Stock market crash
Bank failures in the US and other
countries
The Great Depression (1929-1941)
The New York Stock Exchange in
October, 1929
Bank Failures
The Dust Bowl
Responses to the Great
Depression
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The enormous economic decline led
many western governments to take
greater control over their nation’s
economies.
Many saw the Depression as evidence
that democratic governments and
capitalism were incapable of solving
problems or meeting the needs of
modern society.
US reaction to the Depression
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Under President Franklin D.
Roosevelt the US enacted a
reform program known as
the New Deal.
The New Deal expanded
government powers and
regulated the US economy
more closely than ever
before.
Programs such as Social
Security were designed to
help Americans through the
worst effects of the Great
Depression and, it was
hoped, prevent another.
Western European Reactions
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Social Democratic
governments were elected in
Scandinavia. They were
socialist but democratic.
In England, the Labour Party
took power
France’s government was led
by the Popular Front, a
mixture of socialist and
moderate parties.
These governments attempted
to help end the Depression by
taking more power over their
economies
The Soviet Union
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Because its economy was
independent and did not
depend on external trade,
the Soviet Union had few
economic troubles during
the 1930s.
Joseph Stalin boasted that
this demonstrated the
superiority of socialism over
capitalism, and some
Westerners agreed.
Stalin’s Five Year Plans and
focus on heavy industry and
militarization made the
Soviet Union a powerful
force.
Japan
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Japan had fought on
the Allied side during
World War I, but was
disappointed with its
treatment by the other
powers afterwards.
By the 1930s, military
leaders or warlords had
taken power.
Japan began to
construct the Greater
East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere, promising “Asia
for the Asiatics.”
Germany
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After World War I
Germany’s economy
was devastated, its
territory shrunken, and
its military force
depleted.
Many Germans felt their
country had been badly
treated by the Treaty of
Versailles, and were
eager for revenge.
The Great Depression
made Germany’s
situation worse, and
many Germans looked
to new leadership.
The German Mark
The German Mark
The “Stabbed-in-the-Back” Theory
Disgruntled German WWI veterans
Adolf Hitler
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Born 1889, Austria
Obsessed with German racial
superiority
Anti-Semitic
World War I veteran, took
leadership of the National
Socialist German Workers’
Party (Nazi) in early 1920s
Attempted to seize power in
1923, but was imprisoned.
Wrote Mein Kampf
Appointed Chancellor after
Nazis won the German
elections in January, 1933.
The Third Reich
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By 1934 Hitler had taken total power and
become Der Fuhrer, or “The Leader” of
Germany
He began to remilitarize Germany in defiance
of the Versailles Treaty.
Anti-Semitic Decrees first separated the Jews
from the Germans, then began to limit their
rights, eventually leading to the Holocaust.
Nazi Propaganda
Anti-Semitism
The Road to World War II
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Many point to the Japanese invasion of
Manchuria in Northern China in 1931 as the
true beginning of World War II.
During the 1930s, Mussolini’s Italy invaded
and conquered Ethiopia, Japan continued to
invade and conquer China, and Germany
made aggressive moves towards war
The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1938 was
another omen of greater conflicts to come.
“Guernica”
by Pablo Picasso
Germany Invades the
Rhineland
March 7, 1936
The Austrian Anschluss, 1938
The Japanese Invasion
of China, 1937
The “Problem” of the
Sudetenland
Appeasement: The Munich
Agreement, 1938
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr
Hitler is a man we can do business with.
Rome-Berlin Axis, 1939
The “Pact of Steel”
The Nazi-Soviet
Non-Aggression Pact, 1939
Foreign Ministers
von Ribbentrop & Molotov
Poland Attacked: Sept. 1, 1939
Blitzkrieg [“Lightning War”]
The “Phony War” Ends:
Spring, 1940
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis:
The Tripartite Pact
September, 1940
Lend-Lease
Battle of Britain:
The “Blitz”
British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Operation Barbarossa:
Hitler’s Biggest Mistake
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941
A date which will live in infamy!
Pacific Theater of Operations
Allied Counter-Offensive:
“Island-Hopping”
“Island-Hopping”: US Troops
on Kwajalien Island
Battle of Midway Island:
June 4-6, 1942
Axis Powers in 1942
Battle of Stalingrad:
Winter of 1942-1943
German Army
Russian Army
1,011,500 men
1,000,500 men
10,290 artillery guns
13,541 artillery guns
675 tanks
894 tanks
1,216 planes
1,115 planes
The Italian Campaign
[“Operation Torch”] :
Europe’s “Soft Underbelly”
 Allies plan
assault on
weakest Axis
area - North
Africa - Nov.
1942-May 1943
 George S.
Patton leads
American troops
 Germans
trapped in
Tunisia surrender over
275,000 troops.
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
Normandy Landing
(June 6, 1944)
German Prisoners
Higgins Landing Crafts
The Liberation of Paris:
August 25, 1944
De Gaulle in
Triumph!
The Battle of the Bulge:
Hitler’s Last Offensive
Dec. 16, 1944
to
Jan. 28, 1945
US & Russian Soldiers Meet at
the Elbe River: April 25, 1945
Horrors
of the Holocaust Exposed
Horrors
of the Holocaust Exposed
Entrance to
Auschwitz
Crematoria
at
Majdanek
Horrors
of the Holocaust Exposed
Slave Labor at Buchenwald
Horrors of the Holocaust Exposed
Mass Graves at Bergen-Belsen
Hitler Commits Suicide
April 30, 1945
Cyanide & Pistols
The Führer’s Bunker
Mr. & Mrs. Hitler
V-E Day (May 8, 1945)
General Keitel
Japanese Kamikaze Planes:
The Scourge of the South Pacific
Kamikaze Pilots
Suicide
Bombers
US Marines on Mt. Suribachi,
Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]
The Manhattan Project:
Los Alamos,
NM
Major General
Lesley R. Groves
Dr. Robert
Oppenheimer
I am become
death,
the shatterer
of worlds!
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
© 70,000 killed
immediately.
© 48,000 buildings.
destroyed.
© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning &
cancer later.
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
© 40,000 killed
immediately.
© 60,000 injured.
© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning
& cancer later.
Japanese A-Bomb Survivors
End of the War (September 2,
1945)
V-J Day in Times Square, NYC
The Bi-Polarization of Europe:
The Beginning of the Cold War
The Division of Germany:
1945 - 1990
The Creation of the U. N.
The Emergence of Third
World Nationalist Movements
The De-Colonization of
European Empires
India Gains Independence
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Between World Wars I and II, agitation
for Indian independence increased.
Mohandas K. Gandhi continued to
advocate satyagraha nonviolent
noncooperation or passive resistance
During World War II the Indian National
Congress led the “Quit India”
movement
The Muslim League advocated
cooperation with the British war effort.
Jawaharlal Nehru: leader
of Congress
1889 - 1964
Mohammed Ali Jinnah:
leader of the Muslim
League
1876 - 1948
Gandhi spinning
cloth
Gandhi and His
Granddaughters, 1947
Pre-Partition
Last Viceroy of India
Lord and Lady Mountbatten
Partition!
Border problems
Kashmir Crisis
Jawarharlal Nehru
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Ally of Gandhi.
1st Prime Minister
of India,
1947-1964.
Advocated
Industrialization.
Promoted “Green
Revolution”.
Mixed Economy.
Nonaligned Movement.
Indira
Gandhi
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Nehru’s daughter.
Prime Minister of
India, 1966-1984.
Continues Nehru’s
policies.
Faced corruption
charges & internal
rebellion.
Assassinated in
1984.
Indira Gandhi with sons
Sanjay and Rajiv
Rajiv Gandhi
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Indira’s son.
Prime Minister of
India, 1984-1989.
Some reform of
economy and
government.
Also faced rebellion.
Assassinated in
1991 while
campaigning.
Sonia, Rahul, and Priyanka
Gandhi: The next generations
Pakistan
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Led briefly by
Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Prime Minister Ayub
Khan.
Dangerous combination
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Was not prepared
to rule in 1948.
Strong Islamic
fundamentalism.
Impoverished.
Pakistan divides in 1972
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W. Pakistan = Pakistan
E. Pakistan = Bangladesh
Benazir Bhutto
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First Woman Prime
Minister, 1988
Ousted in 1990,
1993 on corruption
charges.
 Assassinated
Dec.27, 2007
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Nawaz Sharif
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Ousted three times.
Struggle between
modernizers and
fundamentalists.
Gen. Pervez
Musharaff
 Coup d’etat.
 Secular government against Islamic
fundamentalists.
 U.S. ally in the “War on Terror.”
India-Pakistan Border Disputes
1971 India-Pakistan War
2002 Military Statistics
2002 Nuclear
Statistics
Partners in the “War on
Terror?”
What title would you give
this political cartoon?
Decolonization in Africa and
Asia
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After World War II nationalist
demands for independence
increased in the colonies
Western nations were no longer
strong enough to maintain control
of their empires
Some European countries managed
to end their empires peacefully.
The Dutch pulled out of Indonesia in
1948. The British turned their
Empire into the British
Commonwealth of Nations
France struggled to maintain its
empire and fought a series of
conflicts in Algeria and Indochina
before finally pulling out.
By the mid-1960s most of Africa
was independent. The last
European nation to give up its
colonies was Portugal in 1980.
The Four “Worlds”
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First World: industrialized liberal democracies
with market economies
Second World: dictatorships with Marxist
command economies
Third World: non-aligned nations (post- Cold
War: developing nations)
Fourth World: non-self-supporting nations
dependent on the First and Second Worlds
Non-Settler vs Settler Colonies:
Patterns of Decolonization
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Colonies which had few
European settlers were
allowed to gain
independence quickly
Kwame Nkrumah
practiced passive
resistance and
economic boycotts in
Ghana.
By 1960 the British had
pulled out and granted
independence.
Non-Settler vs Settler Colonies:
Patterns of Decolonization
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Kenya was a colony with a
substantial population of
British citizens. During the
1950s and early 1960s, Jomo
Kenyatta led a guerrilla war
style conflict against the
British. The British called
this the Mau Mau Rebelliion,
the Kenyans refer to it as
their war for independence.
In 1965 Britain pulled out of
Kenya. Kenyatta became
President, and Kenya has
had fairly good racial
relations since
White Resistance to African
Independence.
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Rhodesia, ruled by a white
minority, seceded from the
Commonwealth in 1965
rather than accept majority
rule.
In 1980, it returned to the
Commonwealth, accepted
majority rule, and became
Zimbabwe.
Until the late 1990s, it also
had good race relations
President Robert Mugabe
has encouraged confiscation
of white owned land and
businesses and terrorism
against white residents.
White Resistance to African
Independence.
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South Africa’s apartheid
regime remained in power
until the early 1990s.
Brutal laws mandated racial
segregation and other
restrictions.
In 1994, Nelson Mandela, an
anti-apartheid leader, was
elected the first majority-rule
President of South Africa.
Problems of the new African
nations
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Lack of an infrastructure and middle class
Little or no industry and technology
Artificial borders dating from the colonial
period, with no recognition of historic and
cultural differences
Democratic governments were often
overthrown and replaced with military
dictatorships.
Neocolonialism meant continued economic
dependence on the West
Nigeria: Colonial borders
creating conflict
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Oil rich nation with large
population
Former British colonial
borders include many
different hostile ethnic and
tribal groups.
Religious differences: Muslim
north, Christian south.
Worst conflict: Late 1960s,
the Ibo tribe attempted to
form separate nation of
Biafra. This led to a two year
long civil war.
The Middle East after World
War II
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Most Arab nations became
independent during or
shortly after World War II
In 1948, the nation of Israel
was established, supported
by the United Nations, the
United States, and the Soviet
Union.
War broke out as Israel’s
Arab neighbors attempted to
destroy the new country.
Israel defeated the Arabs
and expanded its territory.
Palestinian refugees became
an immediate and lasting
problem
Palestine
Population in
1946
U. N. Partition Plan of 1947
Israel Becomes a Nation:
May 14, 1948
Chaim Weizmann,
1st President
David Ben-Gurion,
1st Prime Minister
War Begins!: May 15, 1948
Arab Refugees, 1948
The Palestinian Diaspora begins!
Armistice Sig n e d, 1949
Israeli-Arab Conflicts Since
1948
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1956 Suez Crisis
1967 Six Day War
1973 Yom Kippur War
1987-Present: Palestinian Intifada
Camp David Accord 1979
Oslo Agreement 1994