THE BETWEEN YEARS 1920s & 1930s

Politics of the 1920s League of Nations – failed to maintain European peace as expected. The U.S. failed to join, because most Americans did not want to get involved in European affairs The Dawes Plan – coordinated Germany’s reparations with its ability to pay The Treaty of Locarno – guaranteed Germany’s new western borders with France and Belgium

The Great Flu Epidemic Some believe it began among American soldiers who spread it to Europe during WWI Was known for spreading quickly and being deadly In 1918 and 1919, The Spanish flu spread around the world killing an estimated 22 million people (more than twice the number of people killed in WWI)

THE GREAT DEPRESSION Causes:  Downturns in the economies of individual nations Declining industrial production Decreased trade  An international financial crisis involving the U.S. stock market Responses to the Depression  Widespread unemployment  Increased government activity in economic affairs  Renewed interest in Marxist doctrines  Masses of people were willing to follow political leaders who offered simple solutions in return for dictatorial power

THE RISE OF DICTATORIAL REGIMES (TOTALITARIANISM)

FASCISM IN ITALY Benito Mussolini ( ) Became Prime Minister in 1922 Created a fascist government through his Fascist Party Supported by Middle-class industrialists and large land owners Controlled opposition through his secret police, imprisonment, outlawing other parties, propaganda, and censorship of the press Supported the Catholic Church, nationalism, antisocialism, and anticommunism

A NEW ERA IN THE SOVIET UNION Joseph Stalin ( ) Came to power as General Secretary in 1929 Implemented a communist government through his Communist Party Supported by communist officials Controlled opposition through purges, prison camps, secret police, state-run press, forced labor camps, and executions Created a Five-Year Plan for rapid industrialization, and created collectivization of farms

NAZI GERMANY Adolf Hitler ( ) Came to power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 Began a fascist government through his National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazis) Supported by industrial leaders, landed aristocrats, military, and bureaucracy Controlled opposition through his police force, propaganda, state-run press, terror, repression, racial laws, concentration and death camps Implemented the Enabling Act, rearmament, public work projects, anti-Semitism, racism, social Darwinism, and extreme nationalism

KEY TERMS/EVENTS OF THE FASCIST YEARS (1930s) Totalitarian state – a government that aims to control the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural lives of its citizens Fascism – a political philosophy that glorifies the state above the individual by emphasizing the need for a strong central government led by a dictator Politburo – a committee that had become the leading policy-making body of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union The Five-Year Plans – set economic goals for five- year periods to transform Russia from and agricultural to an industrial country

Cont… Collectivization – a system in which private farms were eliminated when the government took over ownership of all land while peasants worked it Reichstag – German parliament Nuremberg Laws – excluded Jews from German citizenship and forbade marriages between Jews and German citizens Kristallnacht – a destructive rampage against Jews in November, 1938 in which Nazis burned synagogues, destroyed Jewish businesses, and sent Jewish males to concentration camps