Chapter 30 The Global Great Depression and authoritarian response

The Great Depression was not just a United States thing, it greatly affected the whole world and worsened the existing problems.

Internal problems (depression) → questioning the new government who is doing little to help → rise of strong authoritarian leaders

Long-Term causes of the Great Dep. ● WWI led to war-induced inflation ● over production of farm goods o new equipment, cheap prices o developing countries pushed production → prices drop ● Reliance of US loans in Europe ● Protectionism → high tariffs o insistence of repayment of debts

The Great Depression → SPARK ● Oct NY Stock market crashed ● Depression spiraled o This is called a death spiral ● social ills led to questioning liberal demo. ● US has to call in loans from Europe o they can’t pay

How the GD affected others ● Soviet Union o largely untouched because it was cut off from the global market ● Japan o severely affected because of exports ● LA o led to new state involvement in the economy

Social and Cultural effects of the GD ● Educated people can’t get work o that doesn’t make sense ● family roles disrupted o men can’t work so women and children did ● Popular cultural became more sedate ● Escapist entertainment

And it gets worse

Responses in Western Europe ● First reaction → close and protect o exacerbated the situation o High tariffs other nations stop buying o government cut spending programs ● Political polarization o communist/socialists began to gain popularity o conservatives don’t want to change

Responses in the US ● Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal o offered more direct aid and established systems like Social Security ● As a result, the US did not experience extreme political movements ● Scandinavia will become a welfare state but the US won’t go that far

Germany ● Treaty of Versailles → it is that big of a problem ● Fascists promised a strong leader and military policy ● Hitler led the National Socialist Party

Nazism and Fascism ● Preached unity (nationalism) o too many groups in parliament for unity ● Return to traditional past ● fix the wrongs of Versailles ● Blame others not Germans o Jews o Communists

Totalitarian state ● eliminated political parties ● purged bureaucracy and military ● secret police ● no more trade unions ● propaganda ● wanted a land empire ● made secret deal with USSR

Spread of Fascism and Spanish Civil War ● Nazies were an inspiration to other struggling nations ● Benito Mussolini in Italy o 1935 attack on Ethiopia to avenge colonial loss earlier ● civil war in Spain o Parliamentary republic vs military state o General Franco emerged as leader

Latin America ● New political parties attacked liberalism and capitalism ● import substitution industrialization ● population growth ● dependent economies ● rise of middle class

Great Crash in Latin America ● Dependent economies crashed ● Vargas regime in Brazil o sets up an authoritarian government  does become more liberal over time  supports allies in WWII ● Peron in Argentina o strange combo o supported by the people/labor o went against the catholic church (oops)

Militarization in Japan ● Authoritarian military rule ● 1931 depression but actively responded to the Depression → suffered less ● mass patriotism and new policies ● 1936 attempted coup led to series of militaristic prime ministers ● 1938 Japan ready for wider conquest

STALIN ● HE controls everything o collectivization: put all land into mass holdings by government o everyone should share equipment ● Kulaks (wealthy landowners) o lose their stuff ● 5 year plan o massive factories