The Great Twentieth-Century Crisis

Two Successful Revolutions Distinctive Culture of the 20th Century The Great Depression Nazi Germany and USSR Democracies Weak Response

The Russian Revolution

Background to Revolution
Russia was unprepared both military and technologically for the total war of World War I Lacking guns, soldiers using broomsticks to train and sent to the front without ries The Russian army suffered incredible lossestwo million soldiers were killed, and another four to six million wounded or six million wounded or captured

Beginnings of Upheaval
Czar Nicholas II was an autocratic ruler whose wife, Alexandra was German born *Grigori Rasputin, an uneducated Siberian peasant who claimed to be a holy man his inuence made him an important power behind the throne Assassinated in 1916, poisoned, shot, beat, and drowned

The March Revolution A series of strikes led by working-class women broke out in the capital city of *Petrograd The government had started bread rationing after the price of bread had skyrocketed Strikes shut down factories demanding Peace and Bread

The czar tried to dissolve the Duma, or legislative body. A provisional government was established which urged the czar to step down, eventually doing so *Alexander Kerensky, now head of provisional government, continued the war *The Soviets challenged this government and its policies the *Bolsheviks came to power

The Rise of Lenin

The *Bolsheviks began as a small faction of Marxist party called the Russian Social Democrats led by *V. I. Lenin He believed that only a violent revolution could destroy the capitalist system

German military leaders, hoping to create disorder in Russia, shipped Lenin to Russia ushering in a new stage of the Revolution They promised an end to the war the redistribution of all land, etc. Peace, Land, Bread

The Bolsheviks Seize Power Lenin and Leon Trotsky took over the government The Bolsheviks renamed themselves the Communists and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovskthey gave up eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland, and the Baltic Real peace did not come, however, because the country soon sank into civil war

Civil War in Russia

Many people were opposed to the new Communist regime Liberals and antiLeninist socialists The Allies sent thousands of troops to various parts of Russia in the hope of bringing Russia back into the war

The Red Army was forced to ght on many fronts against these opponents Members of the local soviet murdered the czar and his family and burned their bodies in a nearby mine shaft

Triumph of the Communists

A policy of *war communism was used to ensure regular supplies for the Red Army A new Red secret police (Cheka) began a Red Terror aimed at the destruction of all those who opposed the new regime Communism transformed Russia into a centralized state and was largely hostile toward the Allied powers

The Great Depression

The peace settlement created new boundaries and new states The settlement left nations unhappy and Germans vowed to revise the terms of the Treaty of Versailles

Uneasy Peace, Uncertain Security

A Weak League of Nations The peace settlement included unwise provisions that could serve as new causes for conict The League of Nations was not very effective in maintaining the peace Failure of the united States to join the league was one serious problem with the organization

French Demands
Desire for security led the French government to demand strict enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles Reparations to be paid by Germany peaked at 132 billion German marks (33 billion dollars)almost a Trillion dollars today The German government could not afford this and France occupied the Ruhr Valley and mine the region

10,000 dollars

1 Billion Dollars 100 Million dollars

1 Trillion Dollars 15.5 Trillion Dollars in debt

Double Stacked

Ination in Germany German workers went in strike due to loss of nancesthe government printed money as a solution to this The deutsche mark soon became worthless: 19144.2 marks to 1 dollar 19234.2 trillion marks to 1 dollar

*The Dawes Plan was an American attempt to balance Germany by loaning them 200 million dollars, leading to a heavy American investment in Europe

A spirit of cooperation was fostered by the foreign ministers of Germany and France *The Treaty of Locarno, guaranteed Germanys new western borders with France and Belgiumleading to an era of European peace The Kellogg-Briand pact led nations to renounce war as an instrument of national policy but such promises proved worthless without a way to enforce these promises

The Treaty of Locarno

The Great Depression Economic collapse and Great Depression emerged in 1924 *Depression is a period of low economic activity and rising unemployment

Causes of the Depression

Two factors played a major role in the start of the Great Depression: (1) A series of economic downturnsprinces for farm products, especially wheat (2) International nancial crisis involving the US stock market During the 1920s, the US stock market was booming but by 1929, the stock market crashed; Germanys market in reaction completely collapsed

Responses to the Depression One British worker in every four was unemployed 40 percent of the German labor force was out of work and homeless These desperate time led to increased government activity in the economy and led to renewed interests in Marxist doctrines and Communism

Democratic States after the War

Germany A German democratic state known as the *Weimar Republic was created but faced serious economic problems Savings disappeared and pushed the middle class toward more radical political parties as Germany was struck by the Great Depression

France became the strongest power on the European continent In June 1936, a coalition of leftist partiesCommunists, Socialists, and Radicalsformed the Popular Front government The French New Deal gave workers the right to *collective bargainingthe right of unions to negotiate with employers over wages and hours The Popular Fronts policies failed to solve the problems of the depression

Great Britain

Coal, Steel, and Textile manufacturing after the war declined dramatically, leading to a rise in unemployment The Labour Party failed to solve the nations economic problems *John Maynard Keynes General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money condemning free economies and that governments should nance labor projects, even through *decit spending

The United States By 1932, US industrial production had fallen almost 50 percent from its 1929 level The Democrat *Franklin Delano Roosevelt led an active government intervention in the economy known as the *New Dealthe public works and the Works Progress Administration (WPA)

The Social Security Act created a system of oldage pensions and unemployment insurance None of these resolved the US spiraling economyonly the US entry into WWII and weapons industry brought full employment and industry

The Rise of Dictatorial Regimes

The Rise of Dictators By 1939, only two major European states remained democratic France and Great Britain *Totalitarian states emerged to control the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural lives of its citizens

These totalitarian states wanted to conquer the minds and hearts of their subjects inuencing through mass propaganda A single party emerged as the head of the state and all were expected to achieve the goals of the singular vision

Fascism in Italy
*Benito Mussolini established the rst European fascist movement in Italy He organized a new political groupFascio di Combattimento (League of Combat)from which the term *fascism derives This philosophy which glories the state above the individual by emphasizing the need for a strong central government led by a dictatorial ruler

Rise of Fascism Italy experienced severe economic problems after World War I Socialists spoke of revolution and Mussolini formed bands of armed fascists called *Blackshirts whom crushed socialists and would-be communists Either we are allowed to govern, or we will seize power

Mussolini was named prime minister by the King of Italy in 1922, making movements toward a Fascist dictatorship Formed a secret police called the OVRA and created new and more authoritarian laws

The Fascist State

Mussolini used various means to establish complete control over the Italian people, particularly media Fascist youth groups included about 66 percent of the population from 8 to 18, focused on military activities and values

Mussolini never maintained complete control over the Italian state nor did he gain totalitarian control seen in Hitlers Germany Mussolinis regime also gave the Church land and money. In return, the Catholic Church urged all to support the Fascist regime

A New Era in the Soviet Union Once civil war in Russia was over, peasants began to sabotage the communist program by hoarding food Agricultural disaster led to industrial collapse Down with Lenin and horseesh. Bring back the czar and pork.

Lenins New Economic Policy *New Economic Policy (NEP)a modied version of the old capitalist system Once stability returned, the new state was formalized under the name Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR or Soviet Union

The Rise of Stalin

*Politburoa committee responsible for policy-making A faction emerged: One group, led by Leon Trotsky, wanted to end the NEP and launch a rapid industrialization leading to a global exporting of Communism Another group, led by *Joseph Stalin, wanted to continue Lenins NEP and built a stable state internally

Five-Year Plans

Stalin made a signicant shift in economic policy in 1928, ending the NEP *Five-Year Plans are economic goals for ve-year periods They sought to transform Russia virtually overnight from an agricultural into an industrial country

The First emphasized maximum production of capital goods and armaments; The Second focused on steel production in Russia numbers of workers increased by million but housing actually declined *Collectivization was a system in which private farms were eliminatedgovernments owned all of the land while the peasants worked it Resistance from peasants led to hoarding crops and killing livestock

Costs of Stalins Programs

Collectivization was done at tremendous cost 10 million peasants died in the famines of 1932 and 1933 The Old Bolsheviks were put on trial and condemned to death; Millions were sent to forced labor camps in Siberia

Hitler and Nazi Germany

Hitler and His Views

*Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 and wanted to become an artist but was rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts The core of his idea was racist and extreme nationalism He joined the German Workers Party, eventually taking total control and renaming it *National Socialist German Workers Party in short the Nazi party

He formed a militia known as Storm Troops, or Brownshirts; He attempted to lead an uprising against the government but was quickly defeated *Mein KampfMy Struggle It was laced with antiSemitism, anticommunism and liked to Social Darwinian thoughthe and his party sought lebensraum (living space)

Rise of Nazism Hitler expanded the Nazi Party, soon becoming the largest party in the *Reichstag the German parliament Hitler promised to create a new Germany, appealing to national pride, honor, and militarism

Victory of Nazism
Right-wing elites looked to Hitler for leadership which allowed him to become chancellor and create a new government 1933, the Reichstag passed the *Enabling Act, giving the government the power to ignore the constitution for four years while it issued laws to deal with the countrys problems

Hitler became a dictator appointed by the parliamentary body itself The civil service was purged of Jews and democratic elements; *concentration camps were established for such undesirables Hitler soon garnered the title *Fhrer or Leader

The Nazi State, 1933-1939 The development of an *Aryan racial state that would dominate Europe and possibility the world for generations to come Aryansancient Greeks, Romans, Germans, the Holy Roman Empire, German Empire of 1871 *Third Reich

The State and Terror Nazi totalitarian state used used terror and repression Schutzstafen (Guard Squadrons) known as the SS headed by *Heinrich Himmler For Himmler, the goal of the SS was the further the Aryan master race

Economic Policies Hitler used public works projects and grants to private construction rms to put people back to work He undertook a massive rearmament program, leading to economic prosperity

The Nazis announced new racial laws at the annual party rally in Nuremberg *Nuremberg laws excluded Jews from German citizenship and forbade marriages between Jews and German citizens; Yellow Star of David *Kristallnachtnight of shattered glass; Nazis burned synagogues and destroyed some seven thousand Jewish businesses