The decline of international cooperation in the 1930s

• The economic state in America

  • In 1920s were a time of excess for many in the USA. Many new and exciting industries and businesses created lots of jobs
  • But in 1929, a financial crisis - known as the Wall Street Crash - hit America hard
  • Thousands of businesses went bankrupt and banks collapsed
  • By 1933, around 15 million Americans were unemployed, and many had lost their homes
  • This time in American history is known as the Great Depression, and it lasted throughout the 1930s
  • It left people desperate and afraid.
• The rise of extremist political parties

  • With their families starving, people started to search for answers to their problems
  • Hitler was very skilled at offering solutions using simple slogans like 'Freedom, bread, work'. Compared to the complex solutions that other parties offered, these ideas were very pleasing
  • They promised to take land by force so that their populations would have space, food and resources
  • They used the promise of victories in wars overseas to distract people from their problems at home. Such victories would restore national pride and the population would support its government more. This meant that dictators such as Mussolini and Hitler started to look at expanding their borders
  • Dictators found victims to blame their problems on. For example, Hitler said that Germany's problems were caused by Jews and the Treaty of Versailles. This encouraged racism, so countries were more likely to turn against other nations
• Events leading to the Great Depression

  • 1914: Outbreak of the First World War; America did not join until 1917
  • Countries borrowed money from America to fund their armies
  • 1918: Germany and its allies lost the war
  • The losing countries were forced to pay huge reparations
  • America loaned money to other countries to help them rebuild
  • 1929: The Wall Street Crash; the American economy collapsed
  • American industries went bankrupt and the people could not afford to buy luxuries
  • Industries all over the world lost a valuable market for trade and their profits dropped; they had to fire workers; people became more and more desperate
  • People lost faith in their governments and looked for strong leaders who could help their countries recover
  • Political parties with extreme ideas came to power, promising to make their countries strong agian
  • Countries were too busy dealing with their own problems to support the League of Nations
• How did the Great Depression affect the League of Nations?

  • Hitler and Mussolini were not afraid to use violence to get what they wanted
  • They were not interested in collective security and they weren't scared by moral condemnation
  • To fight aggressive dictators the League would need an army
  • Since it didn't have its own, it would have to ask its members to use their armies, but countries didn't want the expense of a war during the Depression
  • The only sanctions the League could impose were economic
  • However, in a time of economic crisis countries weren't willing to stop trading with others, as this would create more unemployment and hurt their own people