AP European HIstory Study Guide 1918-1945
AP European HIstory Study Guide 1918-1945
AP European HIstory Study Guide 1918-1945
European History Outline Glossary Authors Bibliography 00. Background 01. Middle Ages 02. Renaissance 03. Exploration 04. Reformation 05. Religious War 06. Absolutism 07. Enlightenment 08. French Revolution 09. Napoleon 10. Age of Revolutions 11. Imperialism 12. World War I 13. 1918 - 1945 14. 1945+
European History: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
Introduction
The end of World War I saw the European combatant nations exhausted, an entire generation of young men dead on the battlefield, and political conditions vastly changed from those before the war. The German, Austrian and Russian monarchies had been driven from power and replaced with democratic or revolutionary governments, and many European ethnic groups which had been subject to these three states seized the chance to obtain independence. It was against this background that the victorious powers attempted to bring permanent peace to Europe. The victors of the war were quick to blame Germany for starting the war and resolved to punish her, and this is exactly what took place at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. the treaty was so harsh on Germany mostly because France and Italy were angry with them.
At the discussions, many taking part looked to President Wilson for leadership, as the United States was the least damaged and seemingly the most neutral victor, and because the members saw Wilson's 14 Points plan provide an idealistic road map to a new future.
Immediately after the war, the Weimar Republic encountered severe economic problems. Millions of demobilized soldiers arrived home to find little or no work. Hunger was widespread. In addition, France and Britain owed war debts to the United States, and in order to pay them demanded reparation from Germany. Germany was unable to pay, so France seized the industrial towns of the Ruhr valley. The German response was to print money to pay the unemployed workers of the Ruhr, which resulted in massive hyperinflation in Germany. Politically, there was near-chaos for several years, as fringe political groups on both the left and the right openly and violently battled each other and the central government. The Spartacists, or communists, staged uprisings in Berlin and other cities and briefly seized power in Bavaria. The Freikorps, various bands of demobilized soldiers who did not want to lay down their arms, crushed the Bavarian coup d'tat. However, the Freikorps also sought to overthrow the Weimar Republic's government with a coup of their own in 1920, which failed when German workers responded with a general strike. This was the atmosphere in 1919 when a small right-wing party in Munich took in a new member, an army corporal named Adolf Hitler. A skilled orator and politician, Hitler rapidly rose to head the National Socialist German Worker's Party, known as the Nazis.
In 1928, 65 nations signed the Kellogg Briand Pact, rejecting war as a means of policy. In 1934, Russia joined the League of Nations.
Britain
After World War I, Britain faced a number of problems. One of the most serious was unemployment, with approximately 2 million people on the "dole," or Britain's welfare system. This resulted in the rise of the Labour party. The Labour party created a modern welfare state in Britain, creating an old age pension, medical care, public housing, and unemployment relief. The British industries, now antiquated and falling behind, were selling less as the United States stepped up to the industrial plate. Members of British colonies, such as Ireland, Egypt, India, and Palestine, were finding the ideals of the Enlightenment appealing and were beginning to resist British rule. Finally, the Great Depression caused massive problems in Britain. Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, a member of the Labour Party, enacted a policy of "retrenchment," which cut social spending, disallowed employment for women, and installed 100% tariffs on foreign goods. He enacted the ideas of Keynesian Economics, authored by J.M. Keynes, which advocated increased government spending during a depression in order to put money into the economy.
France
The Third Republic of France was the governing body from 1870 until 1940. Although it was widely disliked for its political instability and corruption, it did manage to deliver a golden age, what became known as the belle epoque, for Paris. The city acquired many distinctive new monuments and public buildings, foremost among them the Eiffel Tower, constructed for the World Exhibition of 1889. It was renowned as a centre for the arts, with the Impressionists taking their inspiration from its new vistas. At the same time, Paris acquired a less savoury reputation as the "sin capital of Europe", with hundreds of brothels, revues and risqu cabarets such as the famous Moulin Rouge. The city also acquired its metro system, opened in 1900. In 1877, President MacMahon tried to dissolve parliament out of disgust with the premier and to seize more power. However, the French people elected the same deputies to Parliament. The French people clearly wanted to prevent another dictator from taking power.
In 1886-1889, General Boulanger came close to overthrowing the government. He gained large support among monarchists, aristocrats, and workers, pleading to fight Germany. However, he lost his courage at the moment of the coup, and he fled to Belgium and committed suicide. In 1894, a French Jewish army officer named Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of treason in what became known as the "Dreyfus Affair," showing that anti-Semitism was still strong in France, especially in the army and the Catholic Church. mile Zola wrote the famous letter "J'Accuse!" which helped raised support for Dreyfus, who was eventually pardoned and restored to rank. Thus, in 1905 France enacted the separation of church and state. After World War I, France encountered a number of problems. They had difficulty with the cost and burden of rebuilding the nation, and they lost all of their investments in Russia as a result of the Russian Revolution. The reparations were not paid by Germany as expected. Additionally, tax evasion was common in France at the time. By the late 1920s, prosperity had been restored. However, the Great Depression of the 1930s triggered political unrest and social turmoil. In 1934, the socialists and communists fought the fascists in the Chamber of Deputies, one of the houses of parliament, and threw ink at each other. As a result of the unrest, the people elected a "Popular Front," a coalition of socialists, liberals, and communists, to govern. The leader of the Popular Front was Leon Blum, who during his tenure enacted family subsidies, welfare benefits, two weeks of vacation, a forty hour work week, and collective bargaining. Leon Blum was replaced in 1938 by Eduard Daladier.
In 1931, the Statute of Westminister created the "Commonwealth of Nations" consisting of Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the Irish Free State, and South Africa. These nations were given autonomy but were linked to Britain through trade. In the 1930s, India began yearning for autonomy. The Muslim League and the Indian National Congress called for a greater role of Indians in their government. Gandhi's "civil disobedience" led to an end to British rule, and in 1935 the Government of India Act provided India with an internal self-government. In 1947 India gained its independence and split with Pakistan. In 1908, "Young Turks" overthrew Abdul Hamid II of Turkey and ruled the nation until 1918. After World War I, Kemal Atatrk took the leadership of Turkey. In 1923 he moved the capital from Constantinople to Ankara, beginning the Republic of Turkey. Finally, in 1930, he changed the name of Constantinople to Istanbul. Atatrk established western dress, the Latin alphabet, and banned polygamy from Turkey. In 1936, women were given suffrage and were allowed to serve in parliament.
After a succession of unsuccessful cabinets, on January 29, 1933, President von Hindenburg, seeing little alternative and pushed by advisors, appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany. On 27 February, the Reichstag was set on fire. Basic rights were abrogated under an emergency decree. An Enabling Act gave Hitler's government full legislative power. A centralised totalitarian state was established, no longer based on the rule of democratic law, a policy that Hitler had outlined in his biography 'Mein Kampf.' The new regime made Germany a one-party state by outlawing all oppositional parties and repressing the different-minded parts of the public with the party's own organisations SA and SS, as well as the newly founded state security police Gestapo. Industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements in order to shift the economy towards a war production base. Massive public work projects and extensive deficit spending by the state helped to significantly lower the high unemployment rate. This and large welfare programmes are said to be the main factors that kept support of the public even late in the war. In 1936, German troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland in an attempt to rebuild national self-esteem. Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism to establish Greater Germany, that is, one German nation state, starting with the unification with Austria (called "Anschluss") and the annexation of the Sudetes region in Bohemia from Czechoslovakia. The British Prime Minister realized that his policies of appeasement towards Germany were being taken advantage of. To avoid a two-front war, Hitler concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a treaty of non-aggression, with the Soviet Union.
Benito Mussolini
Adolf Hitler
In 1936, Great Britain, France, and the United States signed a non-intervention pact regarding the civil war. In 1937, the town of Guernica, a civilian town, was attacked and bombed by the German airforce. In 1939, nationalists took Barcelona and Madrid, and General Francisco Franco announced the end of the Civil War. From 1939 until 1975 Franco would rule as dictator in Spain.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland with its new war machine using what was called lightning warfare or Blitzkrieg. As a result, on September 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. On September 17, 1939, the U.S.S.R. invaded Poland. In 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Treaty, forming the Axis powers.
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy on what has become known as D-Day. The offensive was successful for the Allies, and the Allies suffered far fewer casualties than expected. This marked the beginning of the end of the war. In December 1944, the Battle of the Bulge, the German's last major offensive in Western Europe, took place in Belgium. The result of this battle was a victory for the Allies and the crushing of much of the remainder of Germany's forces. On May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day occurred as the Russians took Berlin.