Between war periods

• World War One is finally over but another world war is coming in about 30 years
• During the interwar years, Europeans suffered profoundly because of a worldwide economic crisis
• After World War One, there were a few years when Europe seemed to be recovering from the war and all was well
• Treaty of Versailles


  Germany was made to pay reparations for the damage caused in the war
• Germany paid reparations in the first year after the war


  The next year, they just printed paper money like crazy, leading to severe hyperinflation
• In 1914, one dollar was equal to about four German marks, but by November 1923, one dollar was worth 4.2 trillion marks
• Dawes Plan


  1. Decreed that Germany pay only the reparations it could afford

  2. Invested a large amount of US Dollars into German recovery
• As a result, Europe experienced a season of upward recovery and prosperity
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact essentially renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy
• Reasons for the European economic recovery giving way to the Great Depression


  • War debt
  • Nationalistic tariff policies
  • Overproduction
  • Speculation
• Much of the economic recovery and prosperity in Europe from 1924 to 1929 was due to monetary investment from the United States
• American investors began diverting money from European recovery, especially German recovery, to invest in the US stock market


  The US stock market crashed in October 1929, leading to the Great Depression spreading to Europe
• By 1932, 25% of the labor force in Great Britain was unable to find work, and almost 40% of German workers could find no job
• Women were more able to find low-paying jobs than men during the Great Depression, leading to a reversal of domestic gender roles
• Keynesian system of Economics


  Government spending is the mechanism to increase consumer demand and lift an economy out of a depression
• The Keynesian system was implemented in the United States under President Franklin Roosevelt
• Cooperative social action in Scandinavia, with socialist governments creating favorable conditions for Cooperative Enterprises and expanding the welfare state
• In Great Britain, the conservative and liberal parties formed a national government alliance to cooperate on solving unemployment and other national crises
• In France, the leftist parties joined together to form the Popular Front government to respond to the Great Depression
• The Popular Front government in Spain had similar goals to the one in France
• World War one was fought at least by American President Woodrow Wilson's Reckoning to make the world safe for democracy but that didn't really work out too well
• In the Years between the two World Wars totalitarian government sprang up dang near everywhere in Europe
• Fascism


  A political philosophy that emphasizes obedience to an authoritarian leader and which leverages all the resources of the state to fulfill the leader's ambition
• Fascism was an attractive option for Europeans in the inter-war Years
• Reasons why fascism was attractive in the inter-war Years


  • Proliferation of World War One bitterness
  • Rise of Communism
  • Economic instability
• Benito Mussolini championed fascist ideals to gain power in Italy
• How Mussolini established a totalitarian fascist State in Italy


  1. Used modern technology and propaganda to spread his message

  2. Used a secret police force (the black shirts) to squash dissent

  3. Gained dictatorial powers from the Italian parliament
• Despite Mussolini's tactics, Italy never fully came entirely under his control
• After World War One, Germany suffered greatly due to the Treaty of Versailles, leading many Germans to be receptive to the extremist policies of Adolf Hitler
• How Hitler used tactics to stay in power in Germany


  1. Used radio, film, and television to broadcast nationalist, anti-Semitic messages

  2. Used a secret police force (the SS) to terrorize opponents

  3. Gained dictatorial powers from the German parliament
• The Spanish Civil War represented a testing ground for World War II, as fascist dictators like Franco gained support from Hitler and Mussolini while the Western democracies did little to oppose them
• Totalitarian governments, both fascist and communist, were installed in Eastern European states after World War I due to economic problems and the difficulty of establishing democracy
• Under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet Union implemented a Five-Year Plan to rapidly industrialize, leading to devastating consequences for the Russian people, including the Great Purge and the Holodomor in Ukraine
• Great War


  World War I
• War to end all wars

  World War I
• World War I was known as the Great War or the war to end all wars, but the fact that we know it as World War I makes the spoiler pretty obvious there was in fact a World War II
• Germany was on the losing side of World War I and part of the Treaty of Versailles mandated that Germany demilitarize and have its territory shrunk
• Reversing Germany's demilitarization and territorial losses from World War I was a violation of the Treaty of Versailles
• Under Adolf Hitler, Germany significantly rearmed itself and began conquering territory
• Appeasement


  The policy of allowing Hitler to do whatever he wants because Britain and France did not want to destroy themselves in another cataclysmic battle