Chapter 30 – Crisis of Democracy in the West. - The Bronx High ...

Chapter 30 – Crisis of Democracy in the West. (1919-1939).
(1) The Western Democracies.
(2) A Culture in Conflict.
(3) Fascism In Italy.
(4) Hitler and the Rise of Nazi Germany.
Mussolini in power. Great Depression. Hitler in power.
_____________________________________________________________________________
1922. 1929. 1933.
(1) The Western Democracies.
Setting the Scene.
Despair grips survivors of WWI. Economic and political crises add to growing pessimism.
Postwar Issues.
1919. Three western democracies – Britain, France, USA – emerge as peacetime powers.
Problems: Jobs for vets. Rebuilding war-ravaged lands. Huge debts from loans.
1925. Locarno Pact. Germans and Allies agree to respect borders and seek peace.
1926. Germany is allowed to join League of Nations (based on collective security).
1928. Kellogg-Briand Pact. 62 nations. Renounce war. Endorse disarmament (weapons).
Recovery and Depression.
USA emerges as world’s leading economic power. USA loans back Europe’s recovery.
1929. Stock market crash. Much margin buying – paying for stock with borrowed funds.
Crash triggers Great Depression of 1930s in USA and, consequently, around world.
American banks stop making loans abroad. Demand repayment of foreign loans.
In USA (and world) banks fail. Businesses close. Millions get thrown out of work.
USA unemployment goes from 3.2% in 1929 to 23.6% in 1932.
1932. FDR introduces New Deal. Government spending. Americans expect intervention.
Britain in Postwar Era.
1926. Britain is in debt. Outdated factories. General strike – many different industries.
1930s. Britain uses coalition governments – mix Conservative, Labour, Liberal parties.
Irish Independence.
1914. Parliament passes home-rule bill. Shelved when WWI begins.
1916. Easter Rising is suppressed. But Brits kill 15 rebels. Sympathy goes to Irish.
1919. Revolution erupts when Parliament fails to grant home-rule.
1922. Most of Ireland (Catholic south) becomes Irish Free State (self-governing).
Largely Protestant northern counties (Ulster) remain under British rule.
Ireland later becomes a fully independent republic called Eire.
Commonwealth.
1931. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa become self-governing dominions.
Four former colonies are now in newly formed British Commonwealth of Nations.
Foreign Policy.
Britain opposes France. Britain wants to relax harsh treatment of Germany since it fears
that a weak Germany means Soviet Union will expand and France will control continent.
France in Postwar Era.
France survives Depression. Reparations help. Small businesses are not affected globally.
France stresses security. Installs Maginot Line (defensive wall) against Germany invasion.
France insists on complete payment of reparations, hoping to keep German economy weak.

(2) A Culture in Conflict.
Setting the Scene.
Western culture experiences great changes in years following World War I.
New Views of the Universe.
Ancient Greek view of atom accepted for centuries. Scientists show atom is more complex.
Radioactivity.
1900s. Marie Curie (1867-1934). Polish-French. She experiments with radioactivity.
Finds atoms of radium and uranium spontaneously release charged particles.
Discovers atoms of one element could change into atoms of another element.
Wins two Nobel prizes: Physics (1903) with husband; Chemistry (1911) alone.
Relativity.
1905. Albert Einstein (1879-1955). German-American. Advances ‘Theory of Relativity.’
Argues that measurements of time and space are not absolute, some unknown.
Challenges Newton who compared universe to a machine running on absolutes.
Einstein ideas are unsettling in that universe whirls beyond human reason.
Probing the Mind.
1885. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Austrian. Neurologist. Pioneers psychoanalysis.
Suggests subconscious mind drives much human behavior.
Indicates people learn morality and reason that help repress powerful urges.
Tension between urges and reason causes psychological illness, physical symptoms.
Uses ‘free association’ in lieu of hypnosis in vogue. Also challenges faith in reason.
Modern Art and Architecture.
Artists reject tradition of reproducing reality for other dimensions of color, line, shape.
Henri Matisse outrages public with bold color and distortion. Fauves or Wild Beasts.
New Directions in Painting.
Cubism. Spanish Picasso, French Braque break 3-D objects into separate shapes.
Abstract. Russian Kadinsky, German Klee paint no recognizable subject matter.
Dada. French Arp, German Ernst shock, disturb. Revolt against civilization.
Word ‘dada’ means hobby horse in French: movement implies nonsense.
Surrealism. Spanish Dali uses images of melting clocks to suggest Freud dream sate.
Surrealism is outgrowth of cubism and dada to portray unconscious mind.
Architecture.
Architects also reject tradition and develop new styles to match urbanized world.
The Bauhaus school in Germany blends science and technology with design.
American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, reflects Bauhaus: function determines design.
The New Literature.
1929. Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front exposes horrors of modern warfare.
A Loss of Faith.
To many postwar authors WWI symbolizes the moral breakdown of western civilization.
1922. T.S.Eliot. b. American. English poet. The Waste Land says modern world is empty.
1926. Ernest Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises shows rootless wanderings of young people.
Literature of the Inner Mind.
1925. Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway novel experiments with ‘stream of consciousness.’
1939, James Joyce. Finnegans Wake explores mind of hero asleep throughout the novel.
A Changing Society.
Many yearn to return to ‘normalcy’ after WWI but rapid social change makes that hard.
New technologies create mass culture shared by millions in world’s developed countries.
Radios bring news, music, sports. 1920s is Jazz Age. Gertrude Stein cites ‘lost generation.’
Liberated women are flappers: bobbed hair, short skirts, unchaperoned dates. Charleston.

(3) Fascism in Italy.
Setting the Scene.
Many Italians angry with political and economic problems turn to fascism for solutions.
Rise of Mussolini.
1919. Paris Peace Conference does not give Italy territory that ends up as Yugoslavia.
Nationalists are outraged. Veterans face unemployment. Trade down. Taxes up.
The government, split into feuding factions, is powerless to end the crisis.
A Leader Emerges.
1919. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Blacksmith’s son. Was socialist in youth.
During war he rejects socialism for intense nationalism.
Mussolini organizes veterans and discontented Italians into Fascist party.
Latin fasces – bundle of sticks wrapped around an axe – symbol of authority.
Fiery speaker. Promises: end corruption, restore order, revive Roman greatness.
Seizing Power.
1922. Fascists announce in rally at Naples a “march on Rome” of tens of thousands.
King Victor Emmanuel III fears civil war. Asks Mussolini to be prime minister.
Without firing a shot Mussolini gets ‘legal’ appointment. Undermines democracy.
Mussolini’s Italy.
1925. Mussolini assumes more power. Takes title ‘Il Duce’ meaning ‘The Leader.’
Suppresses rival parties. Muzzles the press. Rigs elections with Fascists in.
Italy is in theory a parliamentary democracy but in reality a dictatorship.
Economic Policy.
Economy is under state control to encourage growth and end worker conflicts.
Unlike socialists, Mussolini preserves capitalism in his so-called “corporate state.”
Representatives of business, labor, government and Fascist party control economy.
Social Policy.
Individual is unimportant except as a member of the state. “Believe, Obey, Fight.”
Woman (homemaker) bearing more than 14 children gets medal from Il Duce himself.
What is Fascism?
Mussolini coins term ‘fascism’ but fascists have no single unifying set of beliefs.
Today, fascism is used to describe any authoritarian government not communist.
Fascism has however basic features that start with its extreme nationalism.
Fascism also glorifies action, violence, discipline, and blind loyalty to the state.
Fascism rejects the Enlightenment faith in reason and ideas of equality or liberty.
Fascism accepts Social Darwinist idea of ‘survival of the fittest. Glorifies warfare.
Compared to Communism.
Fascists are the sworn enemies of both socialists and communists.
While communists hope for international changes, fascists pursue nationalist goals.
Fascists ally with business leaders, wealthy landowners; Communists with workers.
Despite differences fascism and communism impose totalitarianism in hard times.
Totalitarian Rule.
Mussolini builds the first totalitarian state that becomes a model for others.
Totalitarian states (Italy, Germany, Russia) share basic features: (1) single-party
dictatorship, (2) state control of economy, (3) use of police spies and terror, (4) media
censorship, (5) school indoctrination, (6) unquestioning obedience to a single leader.
Appeal.
Mussolini projects a sense of power and confidence during time of disorder and despair.
Mussolini initially gets good press. Admirers say “he got the trains running on time.”
Only later, when he tries foreign conquests, do the detractors take over.

(4) Hitler and Rise of Nazi Germany.
Setting the Scene.
The Nazis uses terror, repression and one-party rule to establish a totalitarian state.
1923. Adolph Hitler tries to follow Mussolini’s ‘march on Rome’ example.
His coup fails. He is jailed. Yet in a decade his bid for power is successful.
The Weimar Republic.
1919. German leaders draft a constitution in city of Weimar. Establish new government.
New democratic government is known as Weimar Republic.
Parliamentary system is led by a chancellor or prime minister.
Struggles of the Republic.
Government led by moderate democratic socialists has critics on both left and right.
Communists (left) demand radical changes like those Lenin had brought to Russia.
Conservatives (right) attack government as too liberal, weak. Want a Bismarck, Kaiser.
All Germans blame Weimar Republic for hated Versailles treaty: heavy reparations.
Inflation.
1923. Germany falls behind in paying reparations. Government prints paper money.
Inflation spiral. 100 marks (July 1922) equals 944,000 marks (August 1923).
Salaries rise dramatically. But prices rise faster. Savings are wiped out.
Recovery and Collapse.
1924. Dawes Plan. USA gains British and French approval to reduce reparations.
France withdraws from Ruhr, American loans help Germany economy recover.
1929. Great Depression. Miseries of 1923 return.
Adolf Hitler.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) is born in Austria, High school dropout. Moves to Germany.
1919. Hitler (ex-soldier) joins a small group of right-wing extremists.
1920. He becomes leader of group. National Socialist German Workers or Nazi party.
Mein Kampf.
1923. Hitler’s failed coup lands him in jail. He writes Mein Kampf or My Struggle.
Book is basis of Nazi ideology. Extreme Nationalism. Racism. Anti-Semitism.
Germans belong to superior “master race.” Aryans are light-skin Europeans.
Jews (enemies) are not members of a religion but are of a separate race.
Germany WWI loss: betrayal by conspiracy of Marxists, Jews, bad politicians.
Germany must expand to gain Lebenstraum or ‘living space’ for its people.
The Road to Power.
1933. Hitler is elected chancellor. Conservatives (fearing communists) turn to him.
Hitler is master of Germany (the Fuhrer) within a year. One-party rule.
Hitler’s Third Reich.
First Reich (empire) is medieval HRE. Second Reich is empire forged by Bismarck in 1871.
Third Reich is Hitler’s new Germany that he says will dominate Europe for 1,000 years.
Hitler repudiates (rejects) Treaty of Versailles. Schemes to unite Germany and Austria.
Hitler launches large public works (as Britain and USA did). Employment. Rearmament.
Purging German Culture.
Nazis condemn jazz. Glorify old German myths such as in operas of Richard Wagner.
Nazis burn books like All Quiet on Western Front that insults German military.
Nazis close Catholic schools. Muzzle Catholic and Lutheran clergy.
1938. Night of Broken Glass. Two-day riot. Young Jew shoots German diplomat.
Hitler uses incident as excuse to attack Jewish communities all over Germany.
Aftermath.
Jews are sent to concentration camps. Detention centers. ‘Final solution’ follows.