Key Terms

• Roaring Twenties • Facism

• The Great Depression • Authoritarianism
• New Deal
• Mexican Revolution
• February Revolution
• October Revolution
• Communism
• May Fourth Movement
INTERWAR PERIOD
 THE ROARING TWENTIES
• Period of stability and optimism
• Postwar inflation occurred as governments printed new money instead of raising
taxes
• The United States’ and Japan’s economy and culture boomed in the 1920’s.
• In US, art and science benefited from new ideas after the war.
• In US, new mass consumerism and popular culture was important (flappers;
radio; films; jazz)
• Western Europe does not regain its position of global economic dominance.
• The United States entered a period of isolation after refusing to enter the League of
Nations.
• 1919: Germany’s new democratic government (Weimar Republic) replaces the
imperial government originally put in place.
• Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928: renounced the use of war and called for the peaceful
settlement of disputes
 THE GLOBAL GREAT DEPRESSION
(1929-1933)
• WWI devastated European economies; Germany unable to make reparations
payments 🡪 Britain and France unable to repay war debts to US.
• Employment in key sectors (coal, iron, textiles) began to decline; less demand
postwar.
• October 1929: The New York Stock Market crashed. Investors were building up
high debt because of easy credit; when stock market crashed, people pulled their
money; banks collapsed.
 THE GLOBAL GREAT DEPRESSION
(1929-1933)

• International collapses
• Unemployment and lower wages in US, Germany, Britain,
Latin Am.
• Western luxury purchases collapsed; hurt Japanese and
Chinese economies.
• People stopped buying goods to save money, which hurt
production levels and employment.
• Dust Bowl of 1930s: period of severe dust storms and
droughts in US prairies
 FDR’S NEW DEAL (1933-1938)

• Most governments tried to cut spending and many raised tariffs;

worsened Depression.
• Governments saw an incapacitated parliamentary system or the
overturning of parliamentary systems.
• Turn to fascism
 The New Deal

• Franklin D. Roosevelt offered “New Deal.”

• Rapid government growth
• Offered more direct aid to Americans through
increased unemployment benefits and jobs on
public works projects
• Social Security created: provide protection in
unemployment and old age
• Stimulates American economy and restored
faith in gov.
 MEXICAN REVOLUTION (1910-1920)

• President Porfirio Diaz (1876-1910) encouraged economic growth; did not benefit
peasants.
• Mexico was not self-sufficient, relying too much on foreign investments and
exports.
• 1910: Rebellion occurred over election reform led by Francisco Madero.
• Land reform, financial reform, political reform, education
 MEXICAN REVOLUTION (1910-1920)

• Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata led rebellions that drove Diaz from power.
• Essentially functioned as caudillos of their territories (Villa: north; Zapata:
south
• Villa and Zapata fought over the nature of the new regime, while they each
remained in control of their home territories.
• The Mexico Constitution of 1917 attempted to change social problems in
Mexico.
• Land reform and public education
• 1920-1924: Alvaro Obrégon elected president; civil war ended.
• 1920s and 30s: The Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI) developed.
 POLITICAL CHANGES IN LATIN AMERICA

• Limitations of liberalism became apparent as Corporatism rose

• Aimed at curbing capitalism while avoiding Marxism by making the state a
mediator that adjusted to the interests of different social groups.
• Both Brazil and Mexico had governments that enjoyed strong popular support
• Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas (PRI) was a corporatist.
• Distributed 40 million acres to peasants; communal farms created; created a
state monopoly of oil; expanded rural education programs.
 POLITICAL CHANGES IN LATIN AMERICA

• Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas

• Promised liberal reforms after the crash of Brazil’s
coffee market in the 1929 Depression.
• New constitution in 1937: imposed an authoritarian
regime, limited immigration, and eliminated political
opposition.
• Brazil joined the Allies in WWII.
• Becomes a corporatist government
 • What event most directly
causes the Global Great
Depression?
Sectional Question
 COMMUNIST RUSSIA

• February Revolution of 1917: Russia saw strikes and rioting in St.

Petersburg and tsar Nicholas II abdicated.
• Protested early industrialization set against incomplete rural reform, and an
unresponsive political system
• Russia was ruled by a provisional government for eight months led
by Alexander Kerensky.
• Reforms were slow
 Communist Russia

• October Revolution of 1917: Lenin and Communist party

took over.
• The Council of People’s Commissars was created to govern Russia.
• Lenin shut down parliament and replaced it with the Congress of
Soviets.
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk led to early exit from WWI
• 1918-1922: Russian Civil War (tsarist generals vs.
Communist Red Army [led by Leon Trotsky])
• July 16/17, 1918: Tsar Nicholas II and family executed by
Bolsheviks
 LENIN’S RUSSIA (1917-1924)

• Lenin’s initial plans to redistribute land to the peasantry and have the state take over
basic industry led to agricultural and industrial decline.
• To solve this, Lenin instituted the New Economic Policy (NEP), which resulted in an
increase of production.
• Mixture of Communism and capitalism
• Small amounts of private land ownership and small businesses still allowed
• Food production increased
 LENIN’S RUSSIA (1917-1924)

• 1923: Moscow became new capital.

• 1923: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was created
after the creation of a new constitution.
• In reality, an authoritarian system
• Supreme Soviet was created, and was elected by universal suffrage
• Provided public education
• Remember: because communism relies on governmental control of
resources, communist countries always utilize authoritarian rulers
who can manage that extreme level of control
 Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP)

War Communism New Economic

Policy
Peasant 10 tons of Peasant 10 tons of
grows: wheat grows: wheat

Gov takes: 9 tons of Gov takes: 5 tons of

wheat (all wheat
surplus) (50%)

Peasant left 1 ton of Peasant left 5 tons of

with: wheat with: wheat

Peasant Sell 4 tons

can: and keep 1
ton
 STALINISM
1924 - 1953

• 1924: Lenin died; Joseph Stalin now leader.

• Stalin represented staunch anti-Western, Russian tradition and Communism.
• Stalin wanted to make the USSR a fully industrial society under the control of
the state.
• Terror tactics and labor camps
• Under Stalin, Russia fully industrializes
 STALINISM
1924 - 1953

• Stalin’s economic policy:

• 1928: Collectivization of agriculture (large, state-run farms rather than
individual holdings); farmers share proceeds and give portion to gov.
• Kulaks (wealthy peasants) resist 🡪 purges (expulsion of rivals)
• Five Year Plans: government constructed massive factories for mining,
electrical power and metallurgy.
• From 1927-1937, Soviet output of machinery and metal products grew
14-fold
 UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE IN THE USSR

• USSR enacted systemic and intentional violence against the Ukrainians

• Deportations; internment in Gulag camps (work camps); shootings
• Holodomor (1932-1933) is the clearest example of attempted Ukrainian
destruction
• Man made famine in USSR Ukraine, caused by the Soviet government
• Began with shrinking ration sizes
• Reports of cannibalism were widespread
• Estimates vary – highest is 12 million Ukrainians perished
• Likely planned by Joseph Stalin to prevent a Ukrainian independence
movement
• Soviets were shown films of Ukrainians being counterrevolutionaries who
hid food from the Soviets
 CHINA’S MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT (1919)

• 1911: Sun Yat-sen (western-educated) headed the Revolutionary Alliance and was
elected president in 1911.
• Sun Yat-sen resigned when warlord Yuan Shikai replaced him as president in 1912.
• 1912: Puyi, last Qing emperor, abdicated.
• 1919: At Treaty of Versailles, Japan was granted holdings in northern China; China upset
they did not get that territory, as they were allies with Entente too.
• May 4, 1919: The May Fourth Movement
• Resistance to Japanese encroachments in China
• Attempt to create a liberal democracy in China and institute liberal reforms
• Ineffective against powerful warlords
 SEIZURE OF POWER BY CHINA’S
KUOMINTANG

• China’s Nationalist party (Kuomintang) was formed

• Will be biggest rival for communism
• Organized by Sun Yat-sen and followers
• 1925: Yat-sen dies; led by Chiang Kai-shek
• The Nationalists began creating alliances with key social groups in China.
• Superior, U.S.-supplied forces will also try to rid nation of warlords
• The Nationalists focused on political issues; ignored famine, disease, and domestic programs.
• Communist Party poses a threat.
• 1924: Nationalists form alliance with Chinese Communists, who serve as link to peasants and urban workers
• 1924: Whampoa Military Academy opened; led by Kai-shek.
 MARXIST ALTERNATIVES IN CHINA
• Li Dazhao, Chinese intellectual, reworked Marxist ideology to fit China.
• Li was convinced that China’s small urban working class was unable to carry out the
revolution by itself.
• Because of these views, he disregarded or played down the doctrine of proletarian
class struggle presented in Marxism-Leninism.
• Li altered Marx’s two-class system by extending it to a two-region system
(bourgeoisie, oppressive West and proletariat China).
• Believed in social reform, an authoritarian state (to intervene constructively in
people’s lives), and social welfare.
• 1921: Communist Party of China created.
• Young Mao Zedong a member.
• Li’s ideas formed the core of Mao’s thinking
 China Bourgeoisie
1st Estate
(The oppressive,
(Church) has not
capitalist West)
industrialized
2nd Estate
(royalty and aristocracy) Proletariat
3rd Estate (The peasants and
(bourgeoisie and peasants) working class in
China)

1) Early Modern 2) Post-Industrial

European Classes Classes

Classless Society
Socialist
-NO private property Revolution
-Equity of resources
Dazhao claims and production
China can have a
proletarian
revolution without
all peasants
involved
3) Post-Socialist
Revolution
 MAO ZEDONG AND CIVIL WAR
(1927-1949)

• 1927: Kai-Shek turned against communists and attacked them in Shanghai; civil
war breaks out.
• Kai-shek captured areas in the Yangtze River valley, Shanghai, Beijing and
Huanghe River valley.
• 1934: Mao Zedong spearheaded the Long March
• 90,000 communists in the Chinese Red Army marched thousands of miles to
escape Kuomintang.
 MAO ZEDONG AND CIVIL WAR
(1927-1949)

• Used dilapidated wooden rifles— when armed at all—to defend against the
Nationalists’ machine guns and foreign-supplied arsenal.
• During this trek, Mao solidified his position in the Communist Party leadership.
• Communists and Nationalists ally during WWII to fight Japanese invaders
• Civil war between Communists and Kuomintang ends in 1949
• Message of communism (land reform) gained support with peasants
• Kai-Shek and Kuomintang fled to Taiwan
• Mao proclaimed People’s Republic of China
 • How did Mao Zedong
solidify power in the
Communist party and then
China?
Sectional Question
 JAPANESE INTERWAR PERIOD

• Fully industrialized after 1931: expanded factories, shipbuilding,

and agricultural output.
• War and depression present challenges 🡪 aggressive foreign
policy by government controlled by the military.
• Militarization of Japan
• Entered WWI; took German-held islands in Pacific and
China.
• Japan proposed Twenty-One Demands to China 🡪 would
have reduced China to a protectorate.
• Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: term for Japanese
empire; meant to be a realm for pan-Asian ideas and prosperity
 RISE OF FASCISM
• Fascism: authoritarian, nationalist regime
• Attacked the weakness of democracy, the corruption of capitalism, and took control of
the economy to reduce social friction.
• Fascist corporatist economy: organizes the economy through corporations that are
given designated tasks to fulfill under government supervision
• Italy: Benito Mussolini emerged in 1919, formed Fascist Party, and aimed to restore Italy
to height of its past.
• 1922-1945: Ruled as Prime Minister
• Argued a corporate state would replace both capitalism and socialism with a new
national unity.
• Eliminated opponents; directed nationalist propaganda; begins government-directed
economic programs; promoted aggressive foreign policy
• 1935: Mussolini attacked and won Ethiopia; League of Nations condemned this but
did not take action.
• Spain: Francisco Franco brings fascist party (Falange) to power through the Spanish Civil
War (1936-1939)
• Franco, the general of the Spanish military, won after three years of fighting.
 RISE OF NAZISM

• The impact of the Depression and German

humiliation post WWI led to the rise of a new
fascist regime in Germany.
• Hitler wanted to recoup Germany after WWI
 Rise of Nazism

• 1933: The National Socialist, or Nazi, regime in Germany was led by

Adolf Hitler.
• Totalitarianism: government that exercises massive control over virtually all of its
citizens’ actions; state should provide guidance and return to tradition
• Hitler wanted unity, and a strong leader under a centralized state who would attack
what he claimed were Jewish influences in Germany.
• The Gestapo, or secret police, arrested political opponents.
• Hitler blamed Jews for excessive capitalism and for weakening German
spirit (anti-Semitism)
• Post-1940s: pursues literal and complete elimination of Jews.
 TIMELINE OF HITLER’S RISE
• 1933: Hitler set up totalitarian state.
• 1935: Rearms Germany against Treaty of Versailles
• 1938: Anschluss (unification with Austria)
• 1938: Munich Conference leads to policy of
appeasement (GB and Fr have Germany promise not
to take more territory)
• 1939: Hitler annexes Czechoslovakia
• 1939: Nonaggression pact with Soviet Union
• September 1, 1939: Hitler attacked Poland 🡪 begins
WWII
 NEW NATIONS IN CENTRAL EUROPE

• New nations created from Treaty of Versailles

• Many began with Western-style parliaments but could
not maintain them during economic difficulties.
• Tension between leftists who want to emulate Soviet
Union’s communist regime and rightists who sought
authoritarian government to restore national honor.
• Authoritarianism arrived in most eastern European
nations.
• Rivalries between small eastern European nations were
frequent.
• Most remained primarily agricultural with mostly
peasants.
 • What events helped Hitler
gain power in Germany?

Sectional Question