1919–1939 The West Between the Wars

458

The WestBetween the Wars

1919–1939

.The Big Ideas,SECTION 1: The Futile Search for Stability

War causes immeasurable devastation. Peace and prosperity were short-lived after WorldWar I as a global depression weakened Western democracies.

SECTION 2: The Rise of Dictatorial RegimesA totalitarian system violated human rights in pursuit of political power. By 1939,many European countries had adopted dictatorial regimes that aimed to control every aspectof their citizens’ lives for state goals.

SECTION 3: Hitler and Nazi GermanyA totalitarian system violated human rights in pursuit of political power. Hitler’s total-itarian state was widely accepted, but German Jews and minorities were persecuted.

SECTION 4: Cultural and Intellectual TrendsNew technologies can revolutionize the way people live, work, interact, and govern.The destruction of the highly mechanized First World War and the turmoil of the GreatDepression profoundly affected the work of artists and intellectuals.

World History—Modern Times Video The Chapter 9 video,“The Rise of Dictators,” chronicles dictatorial regimes in Europe after 1918.

1929The GreatDepressionbegins

1924Hitler writes first volume of MeinKampf

1920 1922 1924 1926 1928

1922Communists create the Union of Soviet SocialistRepublics

1926Mussolini creates a Fascist dictatorshipin Italy

1929Stalinestablishesdictatorshipin SovietUnion

Dorothea Lange’s famous photograph, Migrant Mother,

1936, captured the humanhardship and suffering resulting

from the Great Depression.

Hulton/Archive by Getty Images

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HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit the Glencoe WorldHistory—Modern Times Web site at

and click on Chapter 9–Chapter Overview topreview chapter information.

wh.mt.glencoe.com

1932Franklin Delano Rooseveltis elected president of theUnited States

1933Hitler becomeschancellor ofGermany

1936Spanish CivilWar begins

1936John Maynard Keynes publishes General Theory of Employment,Interest, and Money

1930 1932 1934 1936 1938

Hitler and the Nazi Party used rallies, such as this one at Nuremberg in 1937, to create support for their policies.

Flags of the Hitler Youth

Franklin D. Roosevelt

(t)National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/Art Resource, NY, (b)AKG London

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http://wh.mt.glencoe.com

All authors structure what they write to get their message across. Thestructure they choose is like the frame of a house—it holds the

information together so it “works.” For historians, a favorite structure iscause-and-effect. They use it a lot because they are often explaining whyan event or development came about—why a new president was elected,or why rap music came about.

In real life, few events are isolated from the surrounding world: Some-thing you do might affect another person, who then takes an action whichhas other results. The historian might have to explain a chain reaction likethis. When you notice that the historian is listing a series of events or

developments, you might suspect that a chain reaction is at work.To help you understand this kind of discussion, use a

focus question based on the main idea in the passage.

Read the following passage from the chapter and use the focusquestion to find the cause-and-effect chain.

CHAIN OF EFFECTS

The chain of effects is pre-sented in order: the price ofstocks plunged, more fundswere withdrawn, banks wereweakened and collapsed,production declined, andunemployment rose.

As you get practice at seeing howhistorians use cause-and-effect struc-tures, it will be easier to rememberwhat they are saying about events.You will also gain a better under-standing of how multiple effects canflow from a major event like theGreat Depression.

460 CHAPTER 9 The West Between the Wars

FOCUS QUESTIONYour focus question might be:What were the effects of theAmerican stock market crash of 1929?

. . . By 1928, American investors had begun topull money out of Germany to invest it in thestock market. Then, in October 1929, the Americanstock market crashed and the prices of stocksplunged.

In a panic, investors throughout the UnitedStates withdrew even more funds from Germanyand other European markets. This withdrawalweakened the banks of Germany and other Euro-pean states. The Credit-Anstalt, Vienna’s mostfamous bank, collapsed in May 1931. Other bankssoon followed, industrial production declined,and unemployment rose.

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Write a paragraph listing the sourcesyou would look for if you were goingto do further research on the subjectsin the excerpt. Be as specific as possi-ble, indicating why you’d use them,and include whether they are primaryor secondary sources. Then compareand discuss your list with a partner.

461

Historical Interpretation: Standard HR 4 Students construct and testhypotheses; collect, evaluate, and employ information from multiple primaryand secondary sources; and apply it in oral and written presentations.

When historians write an account of a historical event, or interpret a politicaldecision, they aren’t basing their conclusions on information from one book

or letter. They could begin their research with one conclusion in mind, but afterlooking at a variety of sources they could come to an entirely different conclusion.It’s their job to look at history from every angle possible, using every source theycan find.

Sources used for studying history are broken down into two types: primary andsecondary sources. Primary sources include anything that gives you a firsthandaccount of events, such as a newspaper, diary, song, or book written during theperiod you’re studying. Even objects like a piece of pottery or a guitar tell yousomething about how things were made, or what people thought was beautiful or useful.

Secondary sources are accounts that are not firsthand, but are based on primarysources. They are written by collecting and synthesizing information. Encyclope-dias or this history textbook are examples of secondary sources.

Read this excerpt from Chapter 9 describing Germany immediately before World War II.

Radio and movies could also be used for political purposes. “Without motor-cars, soundfilms, and wireless,” Hitler once said, “[there would be] no victory of Nazism.” Radio offered great opportunities for reaching the masses.

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430

Why It MattersIn the 1920s, many people assumedthat Europe and the world wereabout to enter a new era of interna-tional peace, economic growth, andpolitical democracy. These hopeswere not realized, however. Mostpeople wanted peace but wereunsure how to maintain it. Plans for economic revival gave way toinflation and then to the GreatDepression. Making matters worse,economic hard times gave rise todictatorial regimes across much ofEurope. The world was filled withuncertainty.

History and You Make a dia-gram listing the problems faced bythe United States, Germany, andFrance during the Great Depression.Indicate how the problems wereinterrelated. Using what you learnfrom your diagram, explain howrecovery would also have a chaineffect.

During the GreatDepression, many

people had to resort to desperate measures

to find food.

The Great Depressionfter World War I, Europe was faced with severe eco-nomic problems. Most devastating of all was the Great

Depression that began at the end of 1929. The Great Depres-sion brought misery to millions of people. Begging for foodon the streets became widespread, especially when soupkitchens were unable to keep up with the demand.

More and more people were homeless and moved aroundlooking for work and shelter. One observer in Germanyreported, “An almost unbroken chain of homeless menextends the whole length of the great Hamburg-Berlin high-way . . . [w]hole families had piled all their goods into babycarriages and wheelbarrows that they were pushing along asthey plodded forward in dumb despair.” In the United States,the homeless set up shantytowns they named “Hoovervilles”after President Herbert Hoover.

In their misery, some people saw suicide as the only solu-tion. One unemployed person said, “Today, when I am experi-encing this for the first time, I think that I should prefer to doaway with myself, to take gas, to jump into the river, or leapfrom some high place. . . . Would I really come to such a deci-sion? I do not know.”

Social unrest spread rapidly. Some of the unemployedstaged hunger marches to get attention. In democratic coun-tries, people began to listen to, and vote for, radical voicescalling for extreme measures.

A

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The Futile Search for Stability

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

Section PreviewPeace and prosperity were short-livedafter World War I as a global depressionweakened Western democracies.

• Discontent with the peace treaty and aweak League of Nations opened thedoor to new problems in the interwaryears. (p. 464)

• Underlying economic problems and anAmerican stock market crisis triggeredthe Great Depression. (p. 466)

• Although new democracies were estab-lished in Europe after World War I, thedepression shook people’s confidencein political democracy. (p. 467)

Content Vocabularydepression, collective bargaining, deficitspending

Academic Vocabularyminimum, circumstance

People and Events to IdentifyDawes Plan, Treaty of Locarno, WeimarRepublic, John Maynard Keynes, FranklinDelano Roosevelt, New Deal

Places to LocateRuhr Valley, Switzerland

Reading Objectives1. Evaluate the significance of the Dawes

Plan and the Treaty of Locarno.2. Explain how Germany was affected by

the Great Depression.

Reading StrategyCompare and Contrast Use a table likethe one below to compare France’sPopular Front with the New Deal in theUnited States.

California Standards in This Section

Reading this section will help you master these California History–Social Science standards.

10.6.1: Analyze the aims and negotiating roles of worldleaders, the terms and influence of the Treaty ofVersailles and Woodrow Wilson’s FourteenPoints, and the causes and effects of the UnitedStates’s rejection of the League of Nations onworld politics.

10.6.2: Describe the effects of the war and resulting peacetreaties on population movement, the interna-tional economy, and shifts in the geographic andpolitical borders of Europe and the Middle East.

10.6.3: Understand the widespread disillusionment withprewar institutions, authorities, and values that resulted in a void that was later filled bytotalitarians.

10.8.2: Understand the role of appeasement, noninter-vention (isolationism), and the domestic distrac-tions in Europe and the United States prior tothe outbreak of World War II.

463CHAPTER 9 The West Between the Wars

Popular Front New Deal

1921German debtdetermined

1924German debtrestructured

1925Treaty ofLocarno

1929U.S. stock market crashes

1936Popular Front isformed in France

✦1920 ✦1925 ✦1930 ✦1935 ✦1940

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Uneasy Peace, Uncertain Security

Discontent with the peace treaty and a weakLeague of Nations opened the door to new problems inthe interwar years.

Reading Connection Why have Israel and the Palestini-ans been unable to settle their dispute over territory? Read tolearn why the League of Nations was too weak to preventaggression and war.

The peace settlement at the end of World War Ihad tried to fulfill nineteenth-century dreams ofnationalism by creating new boundaries and newstates. From the beginning, however, the settlementleft nations unhappy. Border disputes poisoned rela-tions in eastern Europe for years. Many Germansvowed to revise the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

Resentment of the treaty was only one of the prob-lems Europeans faced. The economy in Europe wasunder tremendous stress.

A Weak League of Nations American presidentWoodrow Wilson knew very well that the peace set-tlement had provisions that might be a source fornew conflicts. For this reason, he placed his hopes forpeace in the world in the League of Nations. Thisorganization was not able to maintain peace,however.

A major problem was that the United Statesdecided not to join the League. Most Americans didnot want to be involved in European affairs. The U.S.Senate reflected this sentiment when it refused to rat-ify the Treaty of Versailles despite the urging of Pres-ident Wilson. This meant the United States was not amember of the League of Nations. Since the UnitedStates was one of the most powerful countries in theworld, the League was seriously weakened.

The League of Nations was weak for another rea-son, too. As time would prove, when a crisis arose,members of the League would not agree to use forceagainst nations that violated international law.

French Demands Between 1919 and 1924, theFrench government worked to ensure that it wouldbe secure against future attacks. Thus, it demandedthat Germany be strictly held to the provisions of theTreaty of Versailles. This tough policy toward Ger-many began with the levying of reparations, the pay-ments Germany was required to make for wardamages.

In April 1921, the Allied Reparations Commissiondetermined that Germany owed 132 billion Germanmarks (33 billion U.S. dollars) for reparations, payablein annual installments of 2.5 billion marks. In 1921,the new German republic made its first payment.

By the following year, however, the German gov-ernment faced a financial crisis and announced that it could not pay any more reparations. France wasoutraged and sent troops to occupy the Ruhr Valley,Germany’s chief industrial and mining center. Franceplanned to collect reparations by operating and usingthe Ruhr mines and factories.


On October 27, 1932, a group of workers marchedin London to protest government policies. Oneobserver reported:

“By mid-day approximately 100,000 Londonworkers were moving towards Hyde Park from allparts of London, to give the greatest welcome tothe hunger marchers that had ever been seen inHyde Park. . . . As the last contingent of marchersentered the park gates, trouble broke out with thepolice. It started with the special constables[police officers]; not being used to their task, theylost their heads, and, as the crowds swept for-ward on to the space where the meetings were tobe held, the specials drew their truncheons [billyclubs] in an effort to control the sea of surginghumanity. This incensed the workers, who turnedon the constables and put them to flight.”

Hunger marchers in London, 1932

CORBIS

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The Great Flu EpidemicA flu epidemic at the end of World War I proved dis-

astrous to people all over the world. Some observersbelieve that it began among American soldiers inKansas. When they were sent abroad to fight, they car-ried the virus to Europe. By the end of 1918, many sol-diers in European armies had been stricken with the flu.

The disease spread quickly throughout Europe. Thethree chief statesmen at the peace conference—

the American presidentWoodrow Wilson, theBritish prime ministerDavid Lloyd George, and the French premierGeorges Clemenceau—all were sick with the fluduring the negotiationsthat led to the Treaty ofVersailles.

The Spanish flu, as this strain of influenza was called,was known for its swift and deadly action. Many peopledied within a day of being infected. Complications alsoarose from bacterial infections in the lungs, whichcaused a deadly form of pneumonia.

In 1918 and 1919, the Spanish flu spread around theworld with devastating results. Death tolls were enor-mous: in Russia, 450,000; in India, at least 6,000,000;in the United States, 550,000. It has been estimatedthat 22 million people, or more than twice the number of people killed in World War I, died from the great flu epidemic between 1918 and 1919.

Flu victim

Using outside sources, research the medicaladvancements made since 1919 in treating and pre-venting influenza viruses. Could another flu epi-demic occur today? Has the flu danger beenreplaced by other medical concerns?

�

Inflation in Germany The German governmentadopted a policy of passive resistance to French occu-pation. German workers went on strike, and the gov-ernment mainly paid their salaries by printing morepaper money. This only added to the inflation (rise inprices) that had already begun in Germany by theend of the war.

The German mark soon became worthless. In 1914, 4.2 marks equaled 1 U.S. dollar. As Germany’s financial situation weakened, the mark began its slide. In 1919, 9 marks were worth 1 dollar. By1922, it took 500 marks to purchase 1 American dol-lar. The mark’s fall in value then accelerated. By 1923, 1 dollar was worth 18,000 marks in January;350,000 marks in July; nearly 5,000,000 marks inAugust; and an incredible 4.2 trillion marks at theend of November.

The German government responded by printingnew money as fast as possible. Old notes with addi-tional zeros printed on them were rushed to thebanks before they, too, became virtually worthless.

Evidence of runaway inflation was everywhere.Workers used wheelbarrows to carry home theirweekly pay. One woman left a basket of money out-side while she went into a store. When she came out,the money was there, but the basket had been stolen.

Office workers made sure to buy a newspaper on theirway to work, knowing the price would be double ortriple if they waited until later in the day.

Economic adversity led to political upheavals, andboth France and Germany began to seek a way out ofthe disaster. In August 1924, an international com-mission produced a new plan for reparations. TheDawes Plan, named after the American banker whochaired the commission, first reduced reparations. Itthen coordinated Germany’s annual payments withits ability to pay.

The Dawes Plan also granted an initial $200 mil-lion loan for German recovery. This loan soonopened the door to heavy American investment inEurope. A brief period of European prosperity fol-lowed, but it only lasted from 1924 to 1929.

The Treaty of Locarno With prosperity came a newEuropean diplomacy. A spirit of cooperation was fos-tered by the foreign ministers of Germany andFrance, Gustav Stresemann and Aristide Briand. In1925, they signed the Treaty of Locarno, which guar-anteed Germany’s new western borders.

The Locarno pact was viewed by many as thebeginning of a new era of European peace. On the dayafter the pact was concluded, enthusiastic headlines

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The Great Depression

Underlying economic problems and an Ameri-can stock market crisis triggered the Great Depression.

Reading Connection The U.S. stock market plunged in2001 after terrorist attacks, but what would have happened if ithad collapsed? Read to find out the consequences of the 1929stock market crash.

The brief period of prosperity that began inEurope in 1924 ended in an economic collapse thatcame to be known as the Great Depression. A depres-sion is a period of low economic activity and risingunemployment.

Causes of the Depression Two factors played amajor role in the start of the Great Depression. Oneimportant factor was a series of downturns in theeconomies of individual nations in the second half ofthe 1920s. By the mid-1920s, for example, prices forfarm products, especially wheat, were falling rapidlybecause of overproduction.

The second factor in the coming of the GreatDepression was an international financial crisis


in The New York Times read “France and Germany BanWar Forever,” while the London Times declared“Peace at Last.”

The new spirit of cooperation grew even strongerwhen Germany joined the League of Nations in March1926. Two years later, the Kellogg-Briand pact broughteven more hope. Sixty-three nations signed this accordwritten by U.S. secretary of state Frank B. Kellogg andFrench foreign minister Aristide Briand. These nationspledged “to renounce war as an instrument of nationalpolicy.” Nothing was said, however, about whatwould be done if anyone violated the pact.

Unfortunately, the spirit of Locarno was based onlittle real substance. Promises not to go to war wereworthless without a way to enforce these promises.Furthermore, not even the spirit of Locarno couldconvince nations to cut back on their weapons. TheLeague of Nations Covenant had suggested thatnations reduce their military forces to make war lessprobable. Germany, of course, had been forced toreduce its military forces. At the time, it was thoughtthat other states would later do the same. However,states were simply unwilling to trust their security toanyone but their own military forces.

Explaining Why was the League ofNations unable to maintain peace?

Reading Check

Economic downturns led to labor unrest in many countries.

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involving the U.S. stock market. We have seen thatmuch of the European prosperity between 1924 and1929 was built on U.S. bank loans to Germany. Ger-many needed the U.S. loans to pay reparations toFrance and Great Britain.

During the 1920s, the United States stock marketwas booming. By 1928, American investors hadbegun to pull money out of Germany to invest it inthe stock market. Then, in October 1929, the Ameri-can stock market crashed, and the prices of stocksplunged.

In a panic, investors throughout the United Stateswithdrew even more funds from Germany and otherEuropean markets. This withdrawal weakened thebanks of Germany and other European states. TheCredit-Anstalt, Vienna’s most famous bank, collapsedin May 1931. Other banks soon followed, industrialproduction declined, and unemployment rose.

Responses to the Depression Economic depres-sion was by no means new to Europe. However, theextent of the economic downturn after 1929 trulymade this the Great Depression. During 1932, theworst year of the depression, one British worker inevery four was unemployed. Six million Germans, or40 percent of the German labor force, were out ofwork at the same time. The unemployed and home-less filled the streets.

Governments did not know how to deal with thecrisis. They tried a traditional solution of cuttingcosts by lowering wages and raising protective tariffsto exclude foreign goods from home markets. Thesemeasures made the economic crisis worse, however,and had serious political effects.

One effect of the economic crisis was increasedgovernment activity in the economy. This occurredeven in countries that, like the United States, had astrong laissez-faire tradition—a belief that the gov-ernment should not interfere in the economy.

Another effect of the crisis was a renewed inter-est in Marxist doctrines. Marx’s prediction thatcapitalism would destroy itself through overproduc-tion seemed to be coming true. Communism thusbecame more popular, especially among workers andintellectuals.

Finally, the Great Depression led masses of peopleto follow political leaders who offered simple solu-tions in return for dictatorial power. Everywhere,democracy seemed on the defensive in the 1930s.

Summarizing What were the resultsof the Great Depression?

Reading Check

Democratic States after the War

Although new democracies were establishedin Europe after World War I, the depression shook peo-ple’s confidence in political democracy.

Reading Connection Can you imagine circumstancesthat would lead you to believe your country would be betteroff under a military dictator? Read to learn about how hopelessmany Europeans felt during the 1930s.

President Woodrow Wilson had claimed that thewar had been fought to make the world safe fordemocracy. In 1919, his claim seemed justified. Mostmajor European states and many minor ones haddemocratic governments.

In a number of states, women could now vote.Male political leaders had rewarded women for theircontributions to the war effort by granting them vot-ing rights. (Exceptions were France, Italy, andSwitzerland. Women gained the right to vote in 1944in France, 1945 in Italy, and 1971 in Switzerland.)


This German woman is using her worthless money to start afire in her kitchen stove.

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In the 1920s, Europeseemed to be returning tothe political trends of theprewar era—parliamentaryregimes and the growth ofindividual liberties. Thiswas not, however, an easyprocess. Four years of totalwar and four years of post-war turmoil made a “returnto normalcy” difficult.

Germany The ImperialGermany of William II hadcome to an end in 1918 withGermany’s defeat in thewar. A German democraticstate known as the Weimar(VY•MAHR) Republic wasthen created. The WeimarRepublic was plagued byproblems.

For one thing, the repub-lic had no truly outstand-ing political leaders. In1925, Paul von Hindenburg, a World War I militaryhero, was elected president at the age of 77. Hinden-burg was a traditional military man who did notfully endorse the republic he had been elected toserve.

The Weimar Republic also faced serious economicproblems. As we have seen, Germany experiencedrunaway inflation in 1922 and 1923. With it cameserious social problems. Widows, teachers, civil ser-vants, and others who lived on fixed incomes allwatched their monthly incomes become worthless,or their life savings disappear. These losses increas-ingly pushed the middle class toward political par-ties that were hostile to the republic.

To make matters worse, after a period of relativeprosperity from 1924 to 1929, Germany was struck bythe Great Depression. In 1930, unemployment hadgrown to 3 million people by March and to 4.38 mil-lion by December. The depression paved the way forfear and the rise of extremist parties.

France After the war, France was the strongest Euro-pean power. Its greatest need was to rebuild the areasthat had been devastated in the war. However,France, too, suffered financial problems after the war.

Because it had a more balanced economy thanother nations, France did not begin to feel the full


Territory administeredby the League of Nations

Territories administeredby the League of Nations

Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Areaprojection

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500 miles0

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40°N

0° 10°E 20°E 30°E

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SPAIN

GibraltarU.K.

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GREECE TURKEY

AUSTRIAHUNGARY

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YUGOSLAVIACorsica

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AmsterdamHamburg

Copenhagen

ChristianiaStockholm

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Warsaw Kiev

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ViennaBudapest

BucharestBelgrade

Sofia

MunichNuremberg

Bern

Rome

TiranaConstantinople

Athens

LondonBrighton

Dublin

Europe, 1923

As seen in this 1920s map, the new nationalism did notsolve Europe’s postwar problems.

1. Interpreting Maps Compare the map above to themap on page 423. List all the countries on this map notshown on the earlier map. What can you conclude aboutthe results of World War I?

2. Applying Geography Skills Create a table with twocolumns, Changed Boundaries and Unchanged Bound-aries. Use the map above and the one on page 423 to fillout the table, listing countries in the proper columns.

effects of the Great Depression until 1932. The eco-nomic instability it then suffered soon had politicaleffects. During a nineteen-month period in 1932 and1933, six different cabinets were formed as Francefaced political chaos. Finally, in June 1936, a coalitionof leftist parties—Communists, Socialists, and Radi-cals—formed the Popular Front government.

The Popular Front started a program for workersthat some have called the French New Deal. This pro-gram was named after the New Deal in the UnitedStates (discussed later in this section). The FrenchNew Deal gave workers the right to collective bargaining, or the right of unions to negotiate withemployers over wages and hours. It also gave indus-

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trial workers a 40-hour workweek, a paid vacationfor two weeks every year, and a minimum wage.

The Popular Front’s policies, however, failed tosolve the problems of the depression. By 1938, theFrench had little confidence in their political system.

Great Britain During the war, Britain had lost manyof the markets for its industrial products to the UnitedStates and Japan. Such industries as coal, steel, andtextiles declined after the war, leading to a rise inunemployment. In 1921, 2 million Britons were out ofwork. Britain soon rebounded, however, and experi-enced limited prosperity from 1925 to 1929.

By 1929, Britain faced the growing effects of theGreat Depression. The Labour Party, which hadbecome the largest party in Britain, failed to solve thenation’s economic problems and fell from power in1931. A new government, led by the Conservatives,claimed credit for bringing Britain out of the worststages of the depression. It did so by using the tradi-tional policies of balanced budgets and protectivetariffs.

Political leaders in Britain largely ignored the newideas of a British economist, John Maynard Keynes,who published his General Theory of Employment, Inter-est, and Money in 1936. He condemned the old theorythat, in a free economy, depressions should be left toresolve themselves without governmental interference.

Keynes argued that unemployment came not fromoverproduction, but from a decline in demand.Demand, in turn, could be increased by putting peo-ple back to work building highways and publicbuildings. The government should finance such proj-

ects even if it had to engage in deficit spending, orhad to go into debt.

The United States Germany suffered tremendouslyduring the Great Depression, but no Western nationwas more affected than the United States. By 1932, itsindustrial production had fallen almost 50 percentfrom its 1929 level. By 1933, there were more than 12million unemployed.

Under these circumstances, the DemocratFranklin Delano Roosevelt was able to win a land-slide victory in the 1932 presidential election. Abeliever in free enterprise, Roosevelt realized thatcapitalism had to be reformed if it was to be “saved.”He pursued a policy of active government interven-tion in the economy known as the New Deal.

The New Deal included an increased program ofpublic works. It also included new social legislationthat began the U.S. welfare system. In 1935, the SocialSecurity Act created a system of old-age pensions andunemployment insurance.

The New Deal provided reforms that perhaps pre-vented a social revolution in the United States. It didnot solve the unemployment problem, however. In1938, U.S. unemployment still stood at more than 10million. Only World War II and an expanded weaponsindustry brought back full employment.

Explaining What did John MaynardKeynes think would resolve the Great Depression?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: depression, collec-

tive bargaining, minimum, deficitspending, circumstance.

2. People and Events Identify: DawesPlan, Treaty of Locarno, Weimar Repub-lic, John Maynard Keynes, FranklinDelano Roosevelt, New Deal.

3. Places Locate: Ruhr Valley, Switzerland.

Reviewing Big Ideas4. Summarize the intent of the Roosevelt

administration’s New Deal.

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating Deter-

mine the validity of the following state-ment: “Promises not to go to war wereworthless without a way to enforcethese promises.”

6. Cause and Effect Use a diagram likethe one below to list the causes of theGreat Depression.

Analyzing Visuals7. Examine the photograph on page 467.

How would you survive if currencybecame worthless? Who would be atan advantage?

CA HR 3

8. Informative Writing Research andwrite an essay that explains how theGreat Depression caused extremistpolitical parties to emerge through-out the world. Identify which partiesare still active in the United States.

CA 10WA2.3a

Great Depression

For help with the concepts in this section of Glencoe WorldHistory—Modern Times, go to andclick on Study Central.

wh.mt.glencoe.com

Study CentralHISTORY

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The Rise of Dictatorial Regimes

Guide to Reading

Section PreviewBy 1939, many European countries hadadopted dictatorial regimes that aimed tocontrol every aspect of their citizens’ livesfor state goals.

• The totalitarian states did away withindividual freedoms. (p. 471)

• In Italy, the Fascist leader Mussoliniestablished a totalitarian state. (p. 471)

• In the Soviet Union, Stalin maintainedtotal power by murdering his politicalopponents. (p. 473)

• Authoritarian governments in the Westworked to preserve the existing socialorder. (p. 476)

Content Vocabularytotalitarian state, fascism, New EconomicPolicy (NEP), Politburo, Five-Year Plans, collectivization

Academic Vocabulary widespread, unrestricted

People to Identify Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, FranciscoFranco

Places to Locate Russia, Madrid

Reading Objectives1. Determine the extent of Fascist Italy as

a totalitarian state.

2. Explain the methods Stalin used toestablish a totalitarian regime in theSoviet Union.

Reading StrategyCategorizing Information Use a webdiagram like the one below to list meth-ods Mussolini used to create a Fascist dictatorship.



10.6.3: Understand the widespread disillusionment with prewar institutions, authorities, and valuesthat resulted in a void that was later filled bytotalitarians.

10.7.1: Understand the causes and consequences of theRussian Revolution, including Lenin’s use oftotalitarian means to seize and maintain control(e.g., the Gulag).

10.7.2: Trace Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Unionand the connection between economic policies,political policies, the absence of a free press, andsystematic violations of human rights (e.g., theTerror Famine in Ukraine).

10.7.3: Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs oftotalitarian regimes (Fascist and Communist) inGermany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, notingespecially their common and dissimilar traits.


Methods usedby Mussolini

Preview of Events

1919Mussolini creates the Fascio di Combattimento

1924Lenin dies

1928Stalin launches hisFirst Five-Year Plan

1929Mussolini recognizes independence of Vatican City

1939The SpanishCivil War ends

✦1920 ✦1925 ✦1930 ✦1935 ✦1940

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The Rise of Dictators

The totalitarian states did away with individ-ual freedoms.

Reading Connection What would be your reaction ifyou could listen only to government-sponsored programs?Read to learn about a form of government that controls allaspects of people’s lives.

The apparent triumph of democracy in Europe in1919 was extremely short-lived. By 1939, only twomajor European states—France and Great Britain—remained democratic. Italy, the Soviet Union, Ger-many, and many other European states adopteddictatorial regimes. These regimes took both old andnew forms. The new form was first seen in Italy inthe Fascist Party led by Benito Mussolini.

Fascism was a new kind of dictatorship, the mod-ern totalitarian state. A totalitarian state is a govern-ment that aims to control the political, economic,social, intellectual, and cultural lives of its citizens.New totalitarian regimes pushed the power of thecentral state far beyond what it had been in the past.

These totalitarian states wanted more than passiveobedience. They wanted to conquer the minds andhearts of their subjects. They achieved this goalthrough mass propaganda techniques and high-speedmodern communication. Modern technology also

provided totalitarian states with an unprecedentedability to impose their wishes on their subjects.

The totalitarian states that emerged were led by asingle leader and a single party. They rejected the idealof limited government power and the guarantee ofindividual freedoms. Instead, individual freedom wassubordinated to the collective will of the masses. Thiscollective will of the masses, however, was organizedand determined by the leader. The totalitarian stateexpected the active involvement of the masses in theachievement of its goals, whether those goals includedwar, a socialist state, or a thousand-year empire likethe one Adolf Hitler wanted to establish.

Contrasting How does a totalitarianstate differ from a democracy?

Fascism in Italy

In Italy, the Fascist leader Mussolini estab-lished a totalitarian state.

Reading Connection Do you sometimes read newspa-per articles criticizing political leaders or policies? Read to learnhow Mussolini reacted to criticism of his government.

In the early 1920s, Benito Mussolini (MOO•suh•LEE•nee) established the first European Fascistmovement in Italy. Mussolini began his politicalcareer as a Socialist. In 1919, he created a new politi-cal group, the Fascio di Combattimento, or League ofCombat. The term fascist is derived from that name.

As a political philosophy, fascism (FA•SHIH•zuhm) glorifies the state above the individual byemphasizing the need for a strong central govern-ment led by a dictatorial ruler. In a fascist state, peo-ple are controlled by the government, and anyopposition is suppressed.

Reading Check

In 1932, Mussolini, now the dictator of Italy, pub-lished a statement of Fascist principles:

“Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception oflife stresses the importance of the State andaccepts the individual only in so far as his interestscoincide with those of the State. . . . The Fascistconception of the State is all-embracing; outside ofit no human or spiritual values can exist. Thusunderstood, fascism is totalitarian, and the FascistState . . . interprets, develops, and potentiates[makes effective] the whole life of a people. . . .fascism does not, generally speaking, believe inthe possibility or utility of perpetual peace. . . .War alone keys up all human energies to theirmaximum tension and sets the seal of nobility onthose people who have the courage to face it.”

“War alonekeys up all humanenergies . . .”

—Benito Mussolini

471Hulton/Archive by Getty Images

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Politics ofEurope, 1930s

Many European countries adopted dictatorial regimes tosolve their problems in the 1920s and 1930s.

1. Interpreting Maps Which countries shown on themap above are Fascist? Which are authoritarian? Whichare democratic states?

2. Applying Geography Skills Pose and answer a question that creates a comparison between a country’spolitical status as shown on this map and the side thatcountry fought on in World War I.

AuthoritarianDemocraticFascist

nism, and disorder made the Fascists increasinglyattractive to many people. In addition, Mussolinirealized that the Italian people were angry overItaly’s failure to receive more land in the peace settle-ment that followed the war. He understood thatnationalism was a powerful force. Thus, hedemanded more land for Italy and won thousands of converts to fascism with his patriotic and nationalistic appeals.

In 1922, Mussolini and the Fascists threatened tomarch on Rome if they were not given power. Mus-solini exclaimed, “Either we are allowed to govern, orwe will seize power.” Victor Emmanuel III, the king ofItaly, gave in and made Mussolini prime minister.

Mussolini used his position as prime minister tocreate a Fascist dictatorship. New laws gave the gov-ernment the right to suspend any publications thatcriticized the Catholic Church, the monarchy, or thestate. The prime minister was made head of the gov-ernment with the power to make laws by decree. Thepolice were given unrestricted authority to arrest andjail anyone for either nonpolitical or political crimes.

In 1926, the Fascists outlawed all other politicalparties in Italy and established a secret police, knownas the OVRA. By the end of the year, Mussolini ruledItaly as Il Duce (eel DOO•chay), “The Leader.”

The Fascist State To establish his totalitarian state,Mussolini used a number of methods. As we haveseen, he created a secret police force, the OVRA,whose purpose was to monitor the political activitiesof individuals and organizations, and also to enforcegovernment policies. The OVRA was never as repres-sive and brutal as the secret police force in Nazi Ger-many, however. (See discussion of Nazi Germany inSection 3.)

The Fascists also tried to exercise control over allforms of mass media, including newspapers, radio,and film. The government wanted to use the mediato spread the Fascist message. This propaganda wassupposed to mold Italians into a single communitydevoted to Fascist goals. Most of the propaganda,however, was rather clumsy. Often it boiled down tosimple slogans, such as, “Mussolini Is AlwaysRight.”

To promote their goals, the Fascists also workedthrough organizations. Prime examples were youthgroups. By 1939, for example, Fascist youth groupsincluded about 66 percent of the population betweenthe ages of 8 and 18. Members of such groups woremilitary-style uniforms and practiced military drills.Mussolini hoped that the youth groups would create

Rise of Fascism Like other European countries,Italy experienced severe economic problems afterWorld War I. Inflation grew, and both industrial andagricultural workers staged strikes. Socialists spokeof revolution. The middle class began to fear a Com-munist takeover like the one that had recentlyoccurred in Russia. Industrial and agriculturalstrikes created more division. Mussolini emergedfrom this background of widespread unrest.

In 1920 and 1921, Mussolini formed bands ofblack-shirted, armed Fascists called squadristi orBlackshirts. These bands attacked socialist officesand newspapers. They also used violence to break upstrikes. Both middle-class industrialists who fearedworking-class strikes and large landowners whoobjected to agricultural strikes began to supportMussolini’s Fascist movement.

By 1922, Mussolini’s movement was growingquickly. The middle-class fear of socialism, commu-

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A New Era in the Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, Stalin maintained totalpower by murdering his political opponents.

Reading Connection If a United States president dies inoffice, how is he or she replaced? Read to find out the difficul-ties for succession when Lenin died.

During the Russian civil war, Lenin followed a policy called war communism. The governmenthad extensive control of the economy. It directedmost industries and even seized grain from peasantswhen it wanted in order to ensure supplies for thearmy.

Once the war was over, peasants began to sabo-tage the communist program by hoarding food. Thesituation worsened when drought caused a faminebetween 1920 and 1922. As many as 5 million liveswere lost. With agricultural disaster came industrialcollapse. By 1921, industrial output was only 20 per-cent of its 1913 level.

Russia was exhausted. A peasant banner pro-claimed, “Down with Lenin and horseflesh. Bringback the czar and pork.” As Leon Trotsky said, “Thecountry, and the government with it, were at the veryedge of the abyss.”

Lenin’s New Economic Policy In March 1921,Lenin pulled Russia back from the abyss. He aban-doned war communism in favor of his New Eco-nomic Policy (NEP). The NEP was a modifiedversion of the old capitalist system. Peasants wereallowed to sell their produce openly. Retail stores, aswell as small industries that employed fewer than 20workers, could be privately owned and operated.Heavy industry, banking, and mines, however,remained in the hands of the government.

In 1922, Lenin and the Communists formally cre-ated a new state called the Union of Soviet SocialistRepublics, which is also known as the USSR (by itsinitials), or as the Soviet Union (by its shortenedform). By that time, a revived market and a good har-vest had brought an end to famine. Soviet agricul-tural production climbed to 75 percent of its prewarlevel.

Lenin’s New Economic Policy saved the SovietUnion from complete economic disaster. Lenin andother leading Communists, however, only intendedthe NEP to be a temporary retreat from the goals ofcommunism.


HISTORY

Web Activity Visit the Glencoe World History—Modern Times Web site at

and click on Chapter 9–Student Web Activity to learn more about the rise of fascism.

wh.mt.glencoe.com

a nation of Italians who were fit, disciplined, andwar-loving. Meanwhile, school textbooks were alsorewritten to reflect Fascist propaganda.

Despite all the Fascist rhetoric, the new state wasnot so different from the old. In most cases, the Fascistsmaintained traditional attitudes. This is especially evi-dent in policies toward women. For the Fascists, thefamily was the pillar of the state and women were atthe heart of family life. Women were to be homemak-ers and mothers. This was “their natural and funda-mental mission in life,” according to Mussolini.

Despite his attempts, Mussolini never achieved thetotal control that Hitler did in Germany or that Stalindid in the Soviet Union. Unlike those leaders, Mus-solini did not completely destroy the country’s oldpower structure. Some institutions, including thearmed forces, were not absorbed into the Fascist statebut managed to keep most of their independence. Vic-tor Emmanuel was also retained as king.

Mussolini’s compromise with the traditional insti-tutions of Italy was also clear in his relationship to theCatholic Church. In the Lateran Accords of February1929, Mussolini’s regime recognized the sovereigntyof the small area within Rome known as Vatican City.The Catholic Church had claimed this area ever sinceItaly was united in 1870—in fact, the Church hadnever recognized the legitimacy of the Italian state.When Mussolini formally recognized the Church’sclaim, the pope recognized the Italian state.

Mussolini’s regime also gave the Church a large grant of money and recognized Catholicism as the “sole religion of the state.” In return, theCatholic Church urged Italians to support the Fascistregime.

In all areas of life under the Fascists, there was alarge gap between ideals and practices. The ItalianFascists promised much but delivered considerablyless. They would soon be overshadowed by a muchmore powerful fascist movement to the north—that ofAdolf Hitler, a student and admirer of Mussolini.

Examining How did Mussolini gainpower in Italy?

Reading Check

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The Rise of Stalin Lenin died in 1924. Immediately,a power struggle began among the seven members ofthe Politburo (PAH•luht•BYOOR•OH)—the commit-tee that made Communist Party policy. The Politburowas split into two on what policy the Soviet Unionshould follow to create a socialist state.

One group was led by Leon Trotsky. It wanted toend the NEP and launch Russia on a path of rapidindustrialization, chiefly at the expense of the peas-ants. This group also wanted to spread communismabroad and believed that the revolution in Russiawould not survive unless other nations adoptedcommunism.

The other group in the Politburo rejected Trotsky’sleadership and his ideas for worldwide communistrevolution. It wanted to focus on building a socialiststate at home and to continue Lenin’s NEP. Thisgroup believed rapid industrialization was too radi-cal and that such a plan would lower the peasants’standard of living.

This division over policy was underscored by anintense personal rivalry between Leon Trotsky andanother Politburo member, Joseph Stalin. In 1924,Trotsky held the post of commissar of war, whileStalin was the general secretary for the party. The

general secretary appointed the party officials for allregions, districts, cities, and towns. Because of thispower of appointment, the general secretary becamethe most important position in the party.

Stalin used this position to gain complete controlof the Communist Party. The thousands of officialsStalin appointed supported him when he made hisbid for power. By 1929, Stalin was able to eliminateany Bolsheviks from the revolutionary era from thePolitburo and create a dictatorship. Only people loyalto him survived. Trotsky, who was once Lenin’sright-hand man, was expelled from the party in 1927.Later he lived in exile in Mexico, but in 1940 he wasmurdered, probably on Stalin’s orders.

Five-Year Plans The Stalinist era marked the begin-ning of an economic, social, and political revolu-tion that was more sweeping in its results than were the revolutions of 1917. Stalin made a signifi-cant shift in economic policy in 1928 when he endedthe NEP and launched his First Five-Year Plan. TheFive-Year Plans set economic goals for five-year peri-ods. Their purpose was to transform Russia virtuallyovernight from an agricultural into an industrialcountry.


Benito Mussolini 1883–1945—Italian dictator

Benito Mussolini was the founder ofthe first Fascist movement. He was anunruly and rebellious child who wasexpelled from school once for stabbing afellow pupil. Ultimately, he received adiploma and worked for a short time as anelementary school teacher.

Mussolini became a Socialist and grad-ually became well known in Italian Social-ist circles. In 1912, he obtained theimportant position of editor of Avanti(Forward), the official Socialist dailynewspaper.

After being expelled from the SocialistParty, he formed his own political movement, the Fas-cist movement. When the Fascists did poorly in theItalian election of November 1919, Mussolini said thatfascism had “come to a dead end.” He then toyed withthe idea of emigrating to the United States to becomea journalist.

Joseph Stalin 1879–1953—Soviet dictator

Joseph Stalin established a strongpersonal dictatorship over theSoviet Union. He joined the Bol-sheviks in 1903 and came toLenin’s attention after staging adaring bank robbery to get fundsfor the Bolshevik cause. His reallast name was Dzhugashvili, but headopted the name Stalin, whichmeans “man of steel.”

Stalin was neither a dynamic speakernor a forceful writer. He was a good organizer, how-ever. His fellow Bolsheviks called him “ComradeIndex-Card.”

Like Hitler, Stalin was one of the greatest massmurderers in human history. It is estimated that hispolicies and his deliberate executions led to thedeath of as many as 25 million people. At the timeof his death in 1953, he was planning yet anotherpurge of party members.

(l)L’Illustration/Sygma, (r)SuperStock

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The First Five-Year Plan emphasized the maxi-mum production of armaments and capital goods—goods, such as heavy machines, that are made toproduce other goods. The plan quadrupled the pro-duction of heavy machinery and doubled oil produc-tion. Between 1928 and 1937, during the first twoFive-Year Plans, steel production in Russia increasedfrom 4 million to 18 million tons (3.6 to 16.3 million t)per year.

The social and political costs of industrializationwere enormous. Little provision was made to care forthe new workers now living in the cities. For exam-ple, the number of workers increased by millionsbetween 1932 and 1940, but the total investment inhousing actually declined after 1929. The result wasthat millions of workers and their families lived inpitiful conditions. Real wages in the industrial sectoralso declined by 43 percent between 1928 and 1940.Strict laws even limited where workers could move.To keep workers content, government propagandastressed the need for sacrifice to create the newsocialist state.


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The period from the beginning of World War I to the begin-ning of World War II was one of dramatic change in Russia.

1. Interpreting Maps From Moscow, in which directionwould you go to find the Soviet Union’s most produc-tive farming area: northeast, southwest, northwest, orsoutheast?

2. Applying Geography Skills Identify a particular areaof the Soviet Union as shown on the map and explainwhy that area would have been of particular interest toStalin during his First Five-Year Plan.

Soviet Union, 1914–1938

Western border of Russia, 1914Bolshevik-controlled area, 1919Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(USSR), 1938Main area of collective farmsIron and steel productionLabor camp

With rapid industrialization came an equallyrapid collectivization of agriculture. Collectivizationwas a system in which private farms were elimi-nated. Instead, the government owned all of the landwhile the peasants worked it.

Many peasants actively resisted collectivization.Rather than have their crops and animals seized, theyhoarded crops or killed livestock. Their resistanceonly led Stalin to step up his collectivization pro-gram. By 1930, 10 million peasant households hadbeen collectivized. Four years later, roughly 26 mil-lion family farms had been collectivized into 250,000units.

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Costs of Stalin’s Programs Collectivization cameat a tremendous cost. The hoarding of food and theslaughter of livestock produced famine. Stalin him-self is supposed to have acknowledged that 10 mil-lion peasants died in the famines of 1932 and 1933.

Stalin’s programs had other costs, too. To achievehis goals, Stalin strengthened his control over theparty. Anyone who resisted was sent to forced laborcamps in Siberia.

In the 1930s, Stalin’s mania for power also led himto purge, or remove, all opponents—or imaginedopponents—from Soviet life. His actions are referredto as the Great Purge. First to be removed were theOld Bolsheviks, anyone who had been active in theearly years of the movement. Between 1936 and 1938,most of the Old Bolsheviks were put on trial and con-demned to death.

During this same time, Stalin purged army offi-cers, diplomats, union officials, party members, intel-lectuals, and numerous ordinary citizens. Anestimated eight million Russians were arrested. Mil-lions were sent to forced labor camps in Siberia, fromwhich they never returned. Others were executed.

The Stalinist era also overturned much of the per-missive social legislation enacted in the early 1920s.To promote equal rights for women, the Communistshad made the divorce process easier and encouragedwomen to work outside the home. Once Stalin cameto power, divorce became more difficult. The family

was praised as a small collective in which parentswere supposed to teach their children the value ofhard work and duty.

Summarizing What was Lenin’sNew Economic Policy?

Authoritarian States in the West

Authoritarian governments in the Westworked to preserve the existing social order.

Reading Connection If you were living in a new nation,what kind of government would you want? Read to learn aboutthe types of governments adopted by new states in easternEurope after World War I.

Some governments in the West were not totalitar-ian but authoritarian. These states adopted some fea-tures of totalitarian states, in particular, their use ofpolice powers. In totalitarian states, the major goalwas to create a new kind of mass society. This wasnot the goal of authoritarian states, however, whichfocused on preserving the existing social order.

Eastern Europe Authoritarian governments devel-oped in some of the new nations in eastern Europe.At first, it seemed that political democracy would bethe pattern in these states. Parliamentary systemswere adopted in Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia,Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia (knownuntil 1929 as the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, andSlovenes). In most of these countries, however,authoritarian regimes soon took power.

Why did parliamentary systems so often fail tosucceed in eastern Europe? First, most of these coun-tries had little or no experience with political democ-racy. Their populations were also largely rural anduneducated. Large landowners still dominated thesocial and political system, and they did not want togive up power. Finally, eastern European states wereusually made up of multiple ethnic groups, whichoften were at odds or even wanted their own nations.

Powerful landowners, the churches, and evensome members of the middle class feared landreform, communist upheaval, and ethnic conflict. For this reason, these groups looked to authoritar-ian governments to maintain the old system. Only Czechoslovakia, which had a large middleclass, a liberal tradition, and a strong industrial base,maintained its political democracy.

Reading Check


Trotsky had succeeded Lenin?Lenin’s death in 1924 caused a bitter political

struggle to determine his successor. Although hehad no influence over the final outcome, Lenin’stestament, written in December 1922, predicted asplit between Trotsky and Stalin. In his testament,read to delegates at the Thirteenth Congress, Leninadvised removing Stalin from his post as generalsecretary to prevent a power struggle.

Consider the Consequences Consider whatwould have happened if Stalin had not main-tained his position of influence and had lost toTrotsky. Research Trotsky’s beliefs, then write ashort essay describing the direction the SovietUnion would have taken under his leadership.

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History through Art

Guernica by Pablo Picasso, 1937 This famous paint-ing is a strong antiwar statement. What do the imagessay about the realities of war?

Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: totalitarian state,

fascism, widespread, unrestricted, NewEconomic Policy (NEP), Politburo, Five-Year Plans, collectivization.

2. People and Events Identify: BenitoMussolini, Joseph Stalin, FranciscoFranco.

3. Places Locate: Russia, Madrid.

Reviewing Big Ideas4. Explain how Stalin gained control of

the Communist Party after Lenin died.

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating What

was the major purpose of the Five-YearPlans during the 1920s and 1930s in theSoviet Union?

6. Organizing Information Use a dia-gram like the one below to identifyways in which Stalin changed the SovietUnion. Include the economic, social,and political results of his programs.

Analyzing Visuals7. Contrast the above painting with the

rally photo on page 459. How do theirpolitical messages about war compare?Is one stronger than the other? Why?CA HR 3

8. Persuasive Writing Imagine youare a Communist Party boss who ispreparing a short speech. It shouldconvince peasants that they mustjoin a collective farm so that indus-trialization can succeed. Conductresearch to make your speechrealistic. CA 10WA2.4a,c

How Stalin Changed the Soviet Union

Spain In Spain, too, political democracy failed tosurvive. Led by General Francisco Franco, Spanishmilitary forces revolted against the democratic gov-ernment in 1936. A bloody civil war began.

Foreign intervention complicated the SpanishCivil War. The Spanish republican government wasaided by about 40,000 foreign volunteers and bytrucks, planes, tanks, and military advisers from theSoviet Union. The Fascist regimes of Italy and Ger-many aided Franco’s forces with arms, money, andmen. Hitler used the Spanish Civil War as an oppor-tunity to test the new weapons of his revived airforce. The horrible destruction of Guernica by Ger-man bombers in April 1937 was immortalized in apainting by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.

The Spanish Civil War came to an end whenFranco’s forces captured Madrid in 1939. Franco For help with the concepts in this section of Glencoe World

History—Modern Times, go to andclick on Study Central.

wh.mt.glencoe.com


established a dictatorship that favored largelandowners, businesspeople, and the Catholic clergy.Because it favored traditional groups and did not tryto control every aspect of people’s lives, Franco’s dic-tatorship is an example of a regime that was authori-tarian rather than totalitarian.

Explaining How did Czechoslovakiamaintain its political democracy?

Reading Check

Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain/Giraudon, Paris/Superstock

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Hitler and Nazi Germany

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

Section PreviewHitler’s totalitarian state was widelyaccepted, but German Jews and minori-ties were persecuted.

• Adolf Hitler’s ideas were based onracism and German nationalism. (p. 479)

• Hitler used anti-Semitism, economicpolicy, and propaganda in an effort tobuild a Nazi empire. (p. 481)

Content VocabularyNazi, Reichstag, concentration camp

Academic Vocabulary academy, ideology

People and Events to Identify Adolf Hitler, Enabling Act, HeinrichHimmler, Nuremberg laws, Kristallnacht

Places to Locate Munich, Nuremberg

Reading Objectives1. Explain how Hitler rose to power.2. Enumerate the chief features of the

Nazi totalitarian state.

3. Discuss how the rise of Nazismaffected Germany.

Reading Strategy Categorizing Information Use a chartlike the one below to list anti-Semiticpolicies enforced by the Nazi Party.


Anti-Semitic Policies

1889Hitler is born

1921Hitler takes control of the NationalSocialist German Workers’ Party

1933Reichstag passesEnabling Act

1935Nazis enactNuremberg laws

1938Kristallnachtoccurs

✦1880 ✦1890 ✦1900 ✦1910 ✦1920 ✦1930 ✦1940



10.7.3: Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of totalitarian regimes (Fascistand Communist) in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, noting especially theircommon and dissimilar traits.

10.8.5: Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, especially against the Euro-pean Jews; its transformation into the Final Solution; and the Holocaust thatresulted in the murder of six million Jewish civilians.

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Hitler and His Views

Adolf Hitler’s ideas were based on racism andGerman nationalism.

Reading Connection What would you say if you wereasked to explain your basic ideas about life? Read on to learnabout Hitler’s ideology.

Adolf Hitler was born in Austria on April 20,1889. A failure in secondary school, he eventuallytraveled to Vienna to become an artist but wasrejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Hestayed in the city, supported at first by an inheritance.It was during these years that Hitler developed theideas which guided him for the rest of his life. One ofthe cornerstones of his ideology was an almost mys-tical belief in the German nation.

Racism, especially anti-Semitism, was just as basicto Hitler’s ideas, and in his view no Jew could be agood German. Finally, at this period of his life, Hitlercame to believe in the need for struggle, which hesaw as the “granite foundation of the world.”

Hitler had a talent for knowing how to use politi-cal parties, propaganda, and terror. This talentallowed him to spread his message and his move-ment very effectively.

At the end of World War I, after four years of serviceon the Western Front, Hitler remained in Germany anddecided to enter politics. In 1919, he joined the little-

Hitler also believed that he personally embodied thefeelings of a united Germany. In September 1936, AdolfHitler spoke to a mass rally in the city of Nuremberg:

“Do we not feel once again in this hour themiracle that brought us together? Once you heardthe voice of a man, and it struck deep into yourhearts; it awakened you, and you followed thisvoice. . . . When we meet each other here, thewonder of our coming together fills us all. Noteveryone of you sees me, and I do not see every-one of you. But I feel you, and you feel me. It isthe belief in our people that has made us smallmen great, that has made brave and courageousmen out of us wavering, timid folk; this belief . . .joined us together into one whole!”

Adolf Hitler

known German Workers’ Party, one of several right-wing extreme nationalist parties in Munich.

By the summer of 1921, Hitler had taken total con-trol of the party, which by then had been renamed theNational Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP),or Nazi for short. Within two years, party member-ship had grown to 55,000 people, with 15,000 in theparty militia. The militia was variously known as theSA, the Storm Troops, or the Brownshirts, after thecolor of their uniforms.

An overconfident Hitler staged an uprising againstthe government in Munich in November 1923. Thisso-called Beer Hall Putsch was quickly crushed, andHitler was sentenced to prison. During his brief stayin jail, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, or My Struggle, anaccount of his movement and its basic ideas.

In Mein Kampf, extreme German nationalism,strong anti-Semitism, and anticommunism are linkedtogether by a Social Darwinian theory of struggle.This theory emphasizes the right of superior nationsto lebensraum (LAY•buhnz•ROWM)—living space—through expansion. It also upholds the right of supe-rior individuals to gain authoritarian leadership.

Rise of Nazism While he was in prison, Hitler real-ized that the Nazis would have to attain power bylegal means, and not by a violent overthrow of theWeimar Republic. This meant that the Nazi Partywould have to be a mass political party that couldcompete for votes with the other political parties.

After his release from prison, Hitler expanded theNazi Party to all parts of Germany. By 1929, it had anational party organization. Three years later, it had800,000 members and had become the largest partyin the Reichstag—the German parliament.

CO

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In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that mass meetings wereimportant because individuals who feel weak anduncertain become intoxicated with the power of thegroup. How do you think Hitler viewed the averageperson?

History

No doubt, Germany’s economic difficulties were acrucial factor in the Nazi rise to power. Unemploy-ment had risen dramatically, growing from 4.35 mil-lion in 1931 to 6 million by the winter of 1932. Theeconomic and psychological impact of the GreatDepression made extremist parties more attractive.

Hitler promised to create a new Germany. Hisappeals to national pride, national honor, and tradi-tional militarism struck an emotional chord in his lis-teners. After attending one of Hitler’s rallies, aschoolteacher in Hamburg said, “When the speechwas over, there was roaring enthusiasm andapplause. . . . —How many look up to him withtouching faith as their helper, their saviour, theirdeliverer from unbearable distress.”

After 1930, the German government ruled bydecree with the support of President Hindenburg.The Reichstag had little power, and thus Hitler clearlysaw that controlling the parliament was not veryimportant.

More and more, the right-wing elites of Germany—the industrial leaders, landed aristocrats, militaryofficers, and higher bureaucrats—looked to Hitler forleadership. He had the mass support to create a right-wing, authoritarian regime that would save Ger-many and people in privileged positions from aCommunist takeover. In 1933, Hindenburg, underpressure, agreed to allow Hitler to become chancellorand create a new government.

Within two months, Hitler had laid the foundationfor the Nazis’ complete control over Germany. Thecrowning step of Hitler’s “legal seizure” of powercame on March 23, 1933, when a two-thirds vote ofthe Reichstag passed the Enabling Act. This law gavethe government the power to ignore the constitutionfor four years to deal with the country’s problems.

The Enabling Act gave Hitler’s later actions a legalbasis. He no longer needed the Reichstag or PresidentHindenburg. In effect, Hitler became a dictatorappointed by the parliamentary body itself.

With their new source of power, the Nazis actedquickly to bring all institutions under Nazi control.The civil service was purged of Jews and democraticelements. Large prison camps called concentrationcamps were set up for people who opposed the newregime. Trade unions were dissolved. All politicalparties except the Nazis were abolished.

By the end of the summer of 1933, only sevenmonths after being appointed chancellor, Hitler hadestablished the basis for a totalitarian state. WhenHindenburg died in 1934, the office of president wasabolished. Hitler became sole ruler of Germany. Pub-lic officials and soldiers were all required to take apersonal oath of loyalty to Hitler as their Führer(FYUR•uhr), or “Leader.”

Examining Why was the EnablingAct important to Hitler’s control of Germany?

Reading Check

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The “SS,” or Schutzstaffeln, were elite Nazi troops who brutally repressed all opposition to Hitler. Their standard reads Deutschland Erwache—Germany Forever.

The Nazi State, 1933–1939

Hitler used anti-Semitism, economic policy,and propaganda in an effort to build a Nazi empire.

Reading Connection How would you react if the U.S.president declared, “The time of personal happiness is over”?Read to learn how the German people reacted to a similarstatement by Hitler.

Hitler wanted to develop a totalitarian state inorder to meet his larger goal—the development of hisAryan racial state to dominate Europe and possiblythe world for generations.

Aryan is a linguistic term used to identify peoplespeaking Indo-European languages. The Nazis mis-used the term and identified the Aryans with theancient Greeks and Romans and twentieth-centuryGermans and Scandinavians. Nazis argued that Ger-mans were the true descendants and leaders of theAryans and would create another empire like the oneruled by the ancient Romans. The Nazis believed thatthe world had already seen two German empires, orReichs: the Holy Roman Empire and the German

Empire of 1871 to 1918. It was Hitler’s objective tocreate a Third Reich, the empire of Nazi Germany.

To achieve his goal, Hitler needed the activeinvolvement of the German people. Hitler stated:

“We must develop organizations in which an indi-vidual’s entire life can take place. Then every activityand every need of every individual will be regulatedby the collectivity represented by the party. There isno longer any arbitrary will, there are no longer anyfree realms in which the individual belongs to him-self. . . . The time of personal happiness is over.”

The Nazis worked to create a totalitarian state in avariety of ways. Economic policies, mass spectacles,and organizations were employed to further Nazigoals. Terror was freely used. Policies toward womenand, in particular, Jews reflected Nazi aims.

The State and Terror Nazi Germany was the sceneof almost constant personal and institutional conflict.This resulted in administrative chaos. Struggle was abasic feature of relationships within the party, withinthe state, and between party and state. Hitler, of course,was the ultimate decision maker and absolute ruler.

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For those who needed coercion, the Nazi totalitar-ian state used terror and repression. The Schutz-staffeln (“Guard Squadrons”), known simply as theSS, were an important force for maintaining order.The SS was originally created as Hitler’s personalbodyguard. Under the strict direction of HeinrichHimmler, the SS came to control not only the secretpolice forces that Himmler had set up, but also theregular police forces.

The SS was based on two principles: terror andideology. Terror included the instruments of repres-sion and murder—secret police, criminal police, con-centration camps, and later, execution squads anddeath camps (concentration camps where prisoners


Benito Mussolini(1883–1945)

Joseph Stalin(1879–1953)

Adolf Hitler(1889–1945)

Italy

Prime Minister

1922

Fascist Party

Fascist

Middle-class industrialists and large landowners

Secret police (OVRA), imprisonment, outlawing other parties, propaganda, censorship of the press

Support for Catholic Church, nationalism, antisocialism, anticommunism

USSR

General Secretary

1929

Communist Party

Communist

Party officials

Purges, prison camps, secret police, state-run press, forced labor camps, executions

Five-Year Plans for rapid industrialization, collectivization of farms

Germany

Chancellor

1933

National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP, or Nazi)

Fascist

Industrial leaders, landed aristo-crats, military, and bureaucracy

Schutzstaffeln (SS) police force, propaganda, state-run press, terror, repression, racial laws, concentration and death camps

Rearmament, public projects to put people to work, anti-Semitism, racism, Social Darwinism, extreme nationalism

Country

Political Title

Date in Power

Political Party

Type ofGovernment

Source(s) ofSupport

Methods ofControllingOpposition

Policies

Three Dictators: Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler

Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler all came to powerafter World War I.

1. Making Comparisons Compare the gov-ernments of Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler. Howwere they similar?

2. Identifying What methods do people in ademocracy use to express their opposition togovernment policies? Why would these meth-ods not have worked under these dictators?

are killed). For Himmler, the chief goal of the SS wasto further the group they saw as the German masterrace.

Economic Policies In the economic sphere, Hitlerused public works projects and grants to private con-struction firms to put people back to work and end thedepression. A massive rearmament program, however,was the key to solving the unemployment problem.

Unemployment, which had reached 6 million in1932, dropped to 2.6 million in 1934 and fewer than500,000 in 1937. The regime claimed full credit for this. Its part in bringing an end to the depression wasan important reason why many Germans were willingto accept Hitler and the Nazis.

Spectacles and Organizations Mass demonstra-tions and spectacles were also used to make the Ger-man people an instrument of Hitler’s policies. Thesemeetings, especially the Nuremberg party rallies thatwere held every September, had great appeal. Theyusually evoked mass enthusiasm and excitement.

Institutions, such as the Catholic and ProtestantChurches, primary and secondary schools, and

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universities, were also brought under the control ofthe Nazi totalitarian state. Nazi professional organi-zations and leagues were formed for civil servants,teachers, women, farmers, doctors, and lawyers. Inaddition, youth organizations taught Nazi ideals.

Women and Nazism Women played a crucial rolein the Aryan state as bearers of the children who, itwas believed, would bring about the triumph of theAryan race. The Nazis believed men were destined tobe warriors and political leaders, while womenshould be wives and mothers devoted to domesticpursuits. By preserving this clear distinction, eachcould best serve to “maintain the whole community.”

Nazi ideas determined employment opportunitiesfor women. Jobs in heavy industry, it was thought,might hinder women from bearing healthy children.Certain professions, including university teaching,medicine, and law, were also considered unsuitable forwomen, especially married women. The Nazis insteadencouraged women to pursue other occupations, suchas social work and nursing. The Nazi regime activelycampaigned against working women. It put outposters with slogans like: “Get ahold of pots and pansand broom and you’ll sooner find a groom!”

Anti-Semitic Policies From its beginning, the NaziParty reflected the anti-Semitic beliefs of Hitler. Forcenturies, Jews had suffered discrimination in Europe.Although many laws against Jews had been reformedin the 1800s, anti-Semitism surfaced again during thedifficult years after World War I. Once in power, theNazis translated anti-Semitic ideas into action.

In September 1935, the Nazis announced newracial laws at the annual party rally in Nuremberg.These Nuremberg laws excluded Jews from Germancitizenship. A Jew was defined not by religion but bywhether he or she had a Jewish grandparent. Mar-riage between Jews and German citizens was forbid-den. Jews were also required to wear yellow Stars ofDavid and to carry identification cards saying theywere Jewish.

A more violent phase of anti-Jewish activity beganon the night of November 9, 1938—Kristallnacht, orthe “night of shattered glass.” In a destructive ram-page against the Jews, Nazis burned synagogues and destroyed some seven thousand Jewish busi-nesses. At least a hundred Jews were killed. Thirtythousand Jewish males were rounded up and sent toconcentration camps.

Kristallnacht led to further drastic steps. Jews werebarred from all public transportation and all publicbuildings, including schools and hospitals. Theywere prohibited from owning, managing, or workingin any retail store. The Jews were forced to clean upall the debris and damage due to Kristallnacht.Finally, under the direction of the SS, Jews wereencouraged to “emigrate from Germany.”

Summarizing What steps did Hitlertake to establish a Nazi totalitarian state in Germany?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: academy, Nazi,

Reichstag, concentration camp, ideology.

2. People and Events Identify: AdolfHitler, Enabling Act, Heinrich Himmler,Nuremberg laws, Kristallnacht.

3. Places Locate: Munich, Nuremberg.

Reviewing Big Ideas4. List the rights taken from the Jews by

the Nazi government.

Critical Thinking5. Cause and Effect

How did mass demonstrations andmeetings contribute to the success ofthe Nazi Party?

6. Organizing Information Use a tableto describe the policies and programsused by the Nazis to create a ThirdReich. Identify the goals for each policyor program.

Analyzing Visuals7. Examine any two photos from this sec-

tion. Compare and contrast the twophotos. How do you think they relateto Hitler’s vision of Nazi Germany?CA HI 2

8. Expository Writing Find a librarybook by a German who lived underNazism. Read several chapters thattell about the author’s life. In areport, give your opinion aboutwhether that person could haveresisted the government and why.

CA 10WA2.3a,b

Policy/Program Goals


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Nazi Germany

In setting up a totalitarian state, the Nazisrecognized the importance of winning

young people over to their ideas. TheHitler Youth, an organization for youngpeople between the ages of 10 and 18,was formed in 1926 for that purpose.

By 1939, all German young people wereexpected to join the Hitler Youth. Uponentering, each took an oath: “In the pres-ence of this blood banner [Nazi flag],which represents our Führer, I swear todevote all my energies and my strength tothe savior of our country, Adolf Hitler. I amwilling and ready to give up my life forhim, so help me God.”

Members of the Hitler Youth had theirown uniforms and took part in a numberof activities. For males, these includedcamping and hiking trips, sports activities,and evenings together in special youth“homes.” Almost all activities were compet-itive and meant to encourage fighting andheroic deeds.

Above all, the Hitler Youth organizationworked to foster military values andvirtues, such as duty, obedience, strength,and ruthlessness. Uniforms and drillingbecame a way of life. By 1938, training inthe military arts was also part of the rou-tine. Even boys 10 to 14 years old weregiven small-arms drill and practice withdummy hand grenades. Those who were14 to 18 years old bore army packs andrifles while on camping trips in thecountryside.

The Hitler Youth had a female division,known as the League of German Girls, forgirls aged 10 to 18. They, too, had uni-forms: white blouses, blue ankle-lengthskirts, and sturdy hiking shoes. Campingand hiking were also part of the girls’ activi-ties. More important, however, girls weretaught domestic skills—how to cook, cleanhouses, and take care of children. In NaziGermany, women were expected to befaithful wives and dutiful mothers.


Young people were verysusceptible to the blinddevotion demanded byNazism. These young girlswere probably membersof the Bund DeutscherMadel, or League ofGerman Girls. Girls andwomen were amongHitler’s most fanaticaladmirers. Hitler could be sentimental andfatherly, but instantly turn ruthless.

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CONNECTING TO THE PAST

1. Explaining What ideals and values did theHitler Youth promote?

2. Analyzing How did the Hitler Youth helpsupport the Nazi totalitarian state?

3. Writing about History Write an essay com-paring the youth organizations you knowwith those of Nazi Germany.

CHAPTER 9 The West Between the Wars 485

Nazi values were reinforced at mass rallies where thousands of people, including young boys, gatheredtogether for torchlight parades and emotional speechesabout German honor and the need to fight and die for the Fatherland.

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Many Germans who were angry about theoutcome of World War I were eager tohear Hitler’s message. Public displays ofthe swastika—a cross with its arms bent90 degrees to either right or left—wereeverywhere.

➤

“A young German must be asswift as a greyhound, as tough asleather, and as hard as Krupp’ssteel.” This saying, like many oth-ers attributed to Hitler, wasquoted to inspire young Germanswith the spirit of militarism.

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Cultural and Intellectual Trends

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

Section PreviewThe destruction of the highly mechanizedFirst World War and the turmoil of theGreat Depression profoundly affected thework of artists and intellectuals.

• Hitler used radio and movies aspropaganda tools to promote Nazism.(p. 487)

• Hitler extended his control over theGerman people to how they spent theirleisure time. (p. 488)

• Art and literature produced after WorldWar I reflected the horrors of the warand the uncertainty of the future. (p. 488)

• New discoveries in physics after WorldWar I challenged the certainties of theolder Newtonian physics. (p. 491)

Content Vocabularyphotomontage, surrealism, modernism,uncertainty principle

Academic Vocabulary incapable, abstract, classical

People and Events to Identify The Triumph of the Will, Salvador Dalí,James Joyce, Hermann Hesse

Places to Locate Berlin, Dublin

Reading Objectives1. Describe the trends that dominated

arts and popular culture after 1918.2. Explain how the new movements in

arts and literature reflect the changesafter World War I.

Reading Strategy Categorizing Information Use a tablelike the one below to list literary works byHesse and Joyce. Describe the techniquesused in each work.



10.3.2: Examine how scientific and technologicalchanges and new forms of energy brought aboutmassive social, economic, and cultural change(e.g., the inventions and discoveries of JamesWatt, Eli Whitney, Henry Bessemer, Louis Pas-teur, Thomas Edison).

10.6.3: Understand the widespread disillusionment withprewar institutions, authorities, and values that resulted in a void that was later filled bytotalitarians.

10.6.4: Discuss the influence of World War I on litera-ture, art, and intellectual life in the West (e.g.,Pablo Picasso, the “lost generation” of GertrudeStein, Ernest Hemingway).


Literary Works Techniques

1920First Dada showin Berlin

1922James Joyce’s Ulyssesis published

1927Werner Heisenberg explainsthe uncertainty principle

✦1915 ✦1920 ✦1925 ✦1930

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Mass Culture: Radio and Movies

Hitler used radio and movies as propagandatools to promote Nazism.

Reading Connection How would you compare advertis-ing in a democracy to propaganda in a totalitarian state? Readto find out how Hitler used movies to promote his beliefs andideas.

A series of inventions in the late nineteenth centuryhad led the way for a revolution in mass communica-tions. Especially important was Marconi’s discoveryof wireless radio waves. A musical concert transmit-ted in June 1920 had a major impact on radio broad-casting. Broadcasting facilities were built in theUnited States, Europe, and Japan during 1921 and1922. At the same time, the mass production of radiosbegan. In 1926, there were 2.2 million radios in GreatBritain. By the end of the 1930s, there were 9 million.

Radio was only one part of the Western culturethat was rapidly changing. The insanity of WorldWar I, new forms of entertainment, and new inven-tions all gave a sense that the modern world wascrazy, and sometimes absurd.

One new form of mass culture was destined todominate the twentieth century: movies, or motionpictures as they were called in the early decades.Although they emerged in the 1890s, full-length fea-tures did not appear until right before World War I.

The Italian film Quo Vadis and the American filmBirth of a Nation made it clear movies would be animportant form of mass entertainment. By 1939,about 40 percent of adults in the more industrializedcountries went to the movies once a week. By the endof World War II, it was 60 percent who did so.

Radio and movies could also be used for politicalpurposes. “Without motor-cars, sound films, andwireless,” Hitler once said, “[there would be] no vic-tory of Nazism.” Radio offered great opportunitiesfor reaching the masses. This became obvious whenpeople seemed to respond as excitedly to Hitler’sradio broadcasts as they did when they heard him inperson. The Nazis encouraged radio listening by urg-ing manufacturers to produce inexpensive radios.That way, the average family could buy a radio on aninstallment plan.

Film, too, had propaganda potential, a fact not loston Joseph Goebbels (GUH[R]•buhlz), Hitler’s prop-aganda minister. Goebbels believed that film was, ashe put it, one of the “most modern and scientificmeans of influencing the masses.” For this reason, hecreated a film division in the Propaganda Ministry.

The Propaganda Ministry supported the making ofboth documentaries, or nonfiction films, and popularfeature films to convey the Nazi message. The Triumphof the Will, for example, was a documentary of the 1934Nuremberg party rally. This movie was filmed by LeniRiefenstahl, an actress-turned-director. It vividly con-veyed the ideas of National Socialism.

Explaining Why was the radio animportant propaganda tool for the Nazis?

Reading Check

CHAPTER 9 The West Between the Wars

One art movement in particular gave expressionto the absurdity of modern life. This was dadaism. In1922, Tristan Tzara, a Romanian-French poet, gave alecture on this new artistic movement:

“I know that you have come here today to hearexplanations. Well, don’t expect to hear any expla-nations about Dada. You explain to me why youexist. You haven’t the faintest idea. . . . Dada is astate of mind. Dada applies itself to everything, andyet it is nothing, it is the point where the yes andthe no and all the opposites meet, not solemnly inthe castles of human philosophies, but very simplyat street corners, like dogs and grasshoppers. Likeeverything in life, Dada is useless. Dada is withoutpretension, as life should be.”

“Dada iswithout pretension, as life should be.”—Tristan Tzara

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Artistic and Literary Trends

Art and literature produced after World War Ireflected the horrors of the war and the uncertainty of thefuture.

Reading Connection Can you think of a song, book, ormovie that reflects the attitudes of your friends? Read to learnabout the style and messages in art and literature in the yearsafter World War I.

Four years of devastating war left many Europeanswith a profound sense of despair. To many people, thehorrors of World War I meant that something wasdreadfully wrong with Western values, that humanbeings were violent animals who were incapable ofcreating a sane and rational world. The Great Depres-sion and the growth of violent fascist movementsonly added to the despair created by the war.

With political, economic, and social uncertaintiescame intellectual uncertainties. These were evident inthe artistic and intellectual achievements of the yearsfollowing World War I.

Art: Nightmares and New Visions After 1918,artistic trends mainly reflected developments madebefore the war. Abstract art, for example, becameever more popular. In addition, a prewar fascinationwith the absurd and the unconscious content of the


This 1920s movie camera (far right) andradio were part of a communications rev-olution. Millions of people could nowhear or see the same entertainment,news, and advertisements. A morehomogeneous, or uniform, cultureresulted. What are the positive andnegative results of a uniform culture?

History

Mass Leisure

Hitler extended his control over the Germanpeople to how they spent their leisure time.

Reading Connection How would you feel if the govern-ment had a say in how you spent your free time? Read to seewhat kind of activities the Nazis set up for the leisure time ofordinary German citizens.

After World War I, new work patterns providedpeople with more free time to take advantage of theleisure activities that had developed at the turn of thecentury. By 1920, the eight-hour day had become thenorm for many office and factory workers in north-ern and Western Europe.

Professional sporting events aimed at large audi-ences were an important aspect of mass leisure.Travel was another favorite activity. Trains, buses,and cars made trips to beaches or holiday resortsincreasingly popular and affordable. Beaches, such asthe one at Brighton in Great Britain, were mobbed bycrowds of people from all social classes.

Mass leisure offered new ways for totalitarianstates to control the people. The Nazi regime, forexample, adopted a program called Kraft durch Freude(“Strength through Joy”). The program offered avariety of leisure activities to fill the free time of theworking class. These activities included concerts,operas, films, guided tours, and sporting events.Especially popular were the program’s inexpensivevacations, which were similar to modern packagetours. A vacation could be a cruise to Scandinavia orthe Mediterranean. More likely for workers, it was ashorter trip within Germany.

Examining How did the “Strengththrough Joy” program help to support the Nazi regime?

Reading Check

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History through Art

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, 1931Surrealism gave everyday objects a dreamlike quality. Dalí,like many surrealist artists, was influenced by SigmundFreud’s theory of the unconscious. Analyze why surreal-ism developed in the period between the wars.

arts. Nowhere was this more evident than in NaziGermany. In the 1920s, Weimar Germany was one ofthe chief European centers for modern arts and sci-ences. Hitler and the Nazis, however, rejected mod-ern art as “degenerate.” In a speech in July 1937,Hitler proclaimed:

“The people regarded this art [modern art] as theoutcome of an impudent and shameless arroganceor of a simply shocking lack of skill; it felt that . . .these achievements which might have been pro-duced by untalented children of from eight to tenyears old—could never be valued as an expression ofour own times or of the German future.”

Hitler and the Nazis believed that they could cre-ate a new and genuine German art. It would glorifythe strong, the healthy, and the heroic—the qualitiesvalued by the Aryan race. The new German artdeveloped by the Nazis, however, was actuallyderived from nineteenth-century folk art, andemphasized realistic scenes of everyday life.

mind seemed even more appropriate in light of thenightmare landscapes of the World War I battlefronts.“The world does not make sense, so why shouldart?” was a common remark. This sentiment gaverise to both the Dada movement and surrealism.

The dadaists were artists who were obsessed withthe idea that life has no purpose. They were revoltedby what they saw as the insanity of life and tried toexpress that feeling in their art. Dada artist HannahHöch, for example, used photomontage (a picturemade of a combination of photographs) to commenton women’s roles in the new mass culture. Her workwas part of the first Dada show in Berlin in 1920.

A more important artistic movement thandadaism was surrealism. This movement sought areality beyond the material world and found it in theworld of the unconscious. By portraying fantasies,dreams, and even nightmares, the surrealists soughtto show the greater reality that exists beyond theworld of physical appearances.

The Spaniard Salvador Dalí was the high priest ofsurrealism. Dalí painted everyday objects but sepa-rated them from their normal contexts. By placingrecognizable objects in unrecognizable relationships,Dalí created a strange world in which the irrationalbecame visible.

Not everybody accepted modern art forms. Manypeople denounced what they saw as decay in the

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Architecture: The Modernist Spirit The architectswho lived through World War I were driven by thedesire to create a new world. They turned their backson monumental facades and heroic statues on horse-back. One man in this generation was WalterGropius. In 1919, he announced a new school forarchitects in Weimar, Germany, the Bauhaus, withthese words: “Architects, sculptors, painters . . . let usdesire, conceive, and create the new structure of thefuture which will . . . one day rise toward heavenfrom the hands of a million workers like a crystalsymbol of a new faith.”

Bauhaus architects wanted to unite function, tech-nology, and craft. Their buildings have clean, hori-zontal lines and a businesslike look. The artistic spiritthat inspired this school and others in the interwarperiod is called modernism. In the United States, afamous modernist structure is the Museum of Mod-ern Art in New York City.

With its faith in technology, America was a naturalhome for modernism. That connection was aided byHitler, who shut down the Bauhaus school in 1933.Hitler did not want rational design, but buildingsthat would glorify the Nazi state. Many Bauhausleaders emigrated to the United States.

Literature: The Search for the Unconscious Theinterest in the unconscious that was evident in artwas also integrated into new literary techniques. Forexample, “stream of consciousness” was a techniqueused by writers to report the innermost thoughts ofeach character. The most famous example of thisapproach is the novel Ulysses, published by the Irishwriter James Joyce in 1922. Ulysses tells the story ofone day in the life of ordinary people in Dublin byfollowing the flow of their inner thoughts.

The German writer Hermann Hesse dealt with theunconscious in a quite different fashion. His novelsreflect the influence of both Freud’s psychology andAsian religions. The works focus on, among otherthings, the spiritual loneliness of modern humanbeings in a mechanized urban society. In both Sid-dhartha and Steppenwolf, Hesse uses Buddhist ideas toshow the psychological confusion of modern exis-tence. Hesse’s novels had a great impact on Germanyouth in the 1920s. He won the Nobel Prize for liter-ature in 1946.

Examining Why were artists andwriters after World War I attracted to Freud’s theory of theunconscious?

Reading Check


The Kornhaus in Dessau, Germany, served as a gathering place and dance hall for students of theBauhaus school of architecture. The river beyond is the Elbe.

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The Heroic Age of Physics

New discoveries in physics after World War Ichallenged the certainties of the older Newtonian physics.

Reading Connection Has the possibility of cloningchanged your idea of the role of science in society? Read tolearn how the observations of a German physicist led to a newpicture of the universe.

The prewar revolution in physics begun by AlbertEinstein continued in the years between the wars. Infact, Ernest Rutherford, one of the physicists whoshowed that the atom could be split, called the 1920sthe “heroic age of physics.”

The new picture of the universe that was unfold-ing in physics undermined the old certainties of theclassical physics of Newton. Newtonian physics hadmade people believe that all phenomena could becompletely defined and predicted. In 1927, this beliefwas shaken when the German physicist WernerHeisenberg explained an observation he called theuncertainty principle.

Physicists knew that atoms were made up ofsmaller parts (subatomic particles). The fact that thebehavior of these subatomic particles is unpre-dictable provides the foundation for the uncertaintyprinciple. Heisenberg’s theory essentially suggeststhat all physical laws are based on uncertainty. Thetheory’s emphasis on randomness challenges New-tonian physics and thus, in a way, represents a new

worldview. It is unlikely that many nonscientistsunderstood the implications of Heisenberg’s work.Nevertheless, the principle of uncertainty fit in wellwith the other uncertainties of the interwar years.

Explaining How did Heisenberg’suncertainty principle challenge the Newtonian worldview?

Reading Check


German physicist Werner Heisenberg

Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: incapable, abstract,

photomontage, surrealism, modernism,classical, uncertainty principle.

2. People and Events Identify: The Tri-umph of the Will, Salvador Dalí, JamesJoyce, Hermann Hesse.

3. Places Locate: Berlin, Dublin.

Reviewing Big Ideas4. Explain how dadaism and surrealism

reflected economic and political devel-opments after World War I. Alsoexplain how the painting on page 489,Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory,supports your explanation.

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating What

impact did technological advances intransportation and communicationhave on Western culture between thewars?

6. Compare and Contrast Use a Venndiagram like the one below to comparethe Dada movement and surrealism.

Analyzing Visuals7. Examine the photographs on page 488.

Describe how our culture has beeninfluenced by radio and movies. Whatcommunication technology is mostinfluential today?CA HR 3

8. Informative Writing Prepare aposter that shows the developmentof mass communications from theradio to computers, including photosand illustrations. Write a briefparagraph that summarizes theseinnovations. CA 10WA2.3b

Dadaism Surrealism


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Three speeches from the 1930s highlight the feeling of crisis in that decade: in Britain and Germany, theDepression crisis; in the Soviet Union, the struggle to establish socialism.

ter and man, but that the master would becomeimpersonal, and that powers that have nothing to dowith industry would control industry—the powers ofgambling with credit. That day has come. . . .

So, my friends, we are not on trial; it is the systemunder which we live. It has broken down, not only inthis little island, it has broken down in Europe, in Asia,in America; it has broken down everywhere, as it wasbound to break down. And the cure, the new path,the new idea is organization—organization which willprotect life, not property; organization which may pro-tect property, but protect property in proper relation tolife; organization which will see to it that when sci-ence discovers and inventors invent, the class that willbe crushed down by reason of knowledge shall not bethe working class, but the loafing class. This is the pol-icy that we are going to pursue slowly, steadily, per-sistently, with knowledge and with our minds workingupon a plan.

SOURCE 2: Stalin on IndustrializationIn this 1931 speech, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin says thatit is critical for the new socialist state to industrialize.

It is sometimes asked whether it is not possible toslow down the tempo somewhat, to put a check onthe movement. No, comrades1, it is not possible! Thetempo must not be reduced! On the contrary, wemust increase it as much as is within our powers andpossibilities. This is dictated to us by our obligation tothe workers and peasants of the USSR. This is dictatedto us by our obligations to the working class of thewhole world.

To slacken the tempo would mean falling behind.And those who fall behind get beaten. But we do notwant to be beaten. No, we refuse to be beaten!


1comrades: a term of address used in Soviet Russia to implythat everyone was equal

➤

An out-of-work plumber on the streets of London

SOURCE 1: Ramsay MacDonald on CapitalismRamsay MacDonald was prime minister of Britain’s firsttwo Labour governments. In this 1930 speech, he defendsthe government and argues for reforming capitalism.

It is not the Labour Government that is on trial; it isCapitalism that is being tried. We told you in thosedays that the time would come when finance wouldbe more powerful than industry. That day hascome. . . . We told you in those days that the timewould come when the man who went into the work-shop and into the factory, and his employer as well,would no longer be in the simple relationship of mas-

Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

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. . . In the past we had no fatherland, nor could wehave had one. But now that we have overthrown capi-talism and power is in our hands, in the hands of thepeople, we have a fatherland, and we will uphold itsindependence. Do you want our socialist fatherland tobe beaten and to lose its independence? If you do notwant this, you must put an end to its backwardness inthe shortest possible time and develop a genuine Bol-shevik tempo in building up its socialist economy.There is no other way. That is why Lenin said on theeve of the October Revolution: ‘Either perish, or over-take and outstrip the advanced capitalist countries.’ . . .

We are fifty or a hundred years behind theadvanced countries. We must make good this distancein ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us.

That is what our obligations to the workers andpeasants of the USSR dictate to us.

SOURCE 3: Hitler on German UnityIn 1932, the Nazi Party was concerned about financingits election campaign. Hitler gave this speech to theIndustry Club, outlining his plan to develop economicstrength and unity.

Today we stand at the turning-point of Germany’sdestiny. If the present development continues, Ger-many will one day of necessity land in Bolshevistchaos, but if this development is broken, then ourpeople must be taken into a school of iron disciplineand gradually freed from the prejudices of bothcamps. A hard schooling, but one we cannot escape!

If one thinks that one can preserve for all time theconceptions of ‘bourgeois’ and ‘proletarian’ then onewill either preserve the weakness of Germany—whichmeans our downfall—or one ushers in the victory ofBolshevism. If one refuses to surrender to those con-ceptions, then in my judgment a resurrection of theGerman nation is no longer possible. The chalk linewhich Weltanschauungen2 have drawn for peoples inthe history of the world already more than once hasproved to be the death-line. Either we shall succeed in working out a body-politic hard as iron from this

conglomerate3 of parties, associations, unions, andconceptions of the world, from this pride of rank andmadness of class, or else, lacking this internal consoli-dation, Germany will fall in final ruin. . . .

And so in contrast to our own official Government I cannot see any hope for the resurrection of Germanyif we regard foreign politics of Germany as the primaryfactor: the primary necessity is the restoration of thesound national German body-politic armed to strike.In order to realize this end I founded thirteen yearsago the National Socialist Movement: that Movement I have led during the last twelve years, and I hope thatone day it will accomplish this task and that, as thefairest result of its struggle, it will leave behind it aGerman body-politic completely renewed internally,intolerant of anyone who sins against the nation andits interests, intolerant against anyone who will notacknowledge its vital interests, or who opposes them,intolerant and pitiless against anyone who shallattempt once more to destroy or disintegrate thisbody-politic, and yet ready for friendship and peacewith anyone who has a wish for peace and friendship.

Source 1: What is MacDonald referring to when hesays “the powers of gambling with credit” now con-trol industry?

Source 2: Why does Stalin say that the USSR did notpreviously have a “fatherland”?

Source 3: What does Hitler view as a primary necessityin the “resurrection of Germany”?

Comparing and Contrasting Sources1. In crisis times, political leaders often raise people’s

fears about what will happen if they do not takeaction. Look at each speech. Then explain what spe-cific fear each man calls up in his audience.

2. Hitler and Stalin both worry that their countries willbe overrun if change is not made. What do they wantto do to stop it?

CA 10RW1.1

2Weltanschauungen: particular worldviews➤

3conglomerate: gathering; cluster➤


CA HI 3, HR 2, HI 1

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1. A _____ is a picture made of a combination of photographs.2. A _____ is a period of low economic activity and rising

unemployment.3. The Soviet government followed a policy of _____ when it

took private property after World War I without payments tothe former owners.

4. A _____ exists when almost all power in a nation is held bythe central government.

5. Lenin abandoned war communism in 1921 in favor of his_____ , a modified version of the old capitalist system.

6. The government policy of going into debt to pay for publicworks projects, such as building highways, is called _____.

7. According to the _____ , no one could determine the pathof subatomic particles, meaning all physical laws had ele-ments of unpredictability.

8. The German parliament is known as the _____ .9. The _____ was the leading policy maker of the Communist

Party.10. _____ is the right of unions to negotiate with employers.11. As a political system, _____ glorifies the state above the

individual by emphasizing the need for a strong centralgovernment.

12. The Nazis set up large prisons called _____ for people whoopposed them.

13. _____ sought a reality beyond the material world andfound it in the world of the unconscious.

Reviewing Content Vocabulary

Standards 10.3.2, 10.6.1, 10.6.2, 10.6.3, 10.6.4, 10.7.1, 10.7.2, 10.7.3, 10.8.2, 10.8.5

• In Britain, the Conservative Partyimplements traditional economicpolicies.

• In the United States, PresidentRoosevelt develops the New Deal,a policy of active governmentintervention in the economy.

• In France, the Popular Frontestablishes the French New Deal,which promotes workers’ rights.

• In Italy, Mussolini leads the Fasciststo power.

• Stalin becomes dictator of theSoviet Union and purges theCommunist Party of Old Bolsheviks.

• In Germany, Hitler establishes atotalitarian Nazi regime and startsthe large-scale persecution of Jews.

• The artistic movements of dadaismand surrealism reflect the uncertaintyof life created by World War I.

• Radio and film transformcommunications.

• Literary techniques reflect an interestin the unconscious.

• Heisenberg’s uncertainty principlesuggests that physical laws arebased on uncertainty.

Political andEconomic Changes

Rise ofTotalitarianism

Innovationsand Ideas

Between 1919 and 1939, the West experienced great economic and political challenges.


14. minimum15. circumstance16. widespread

17. unrestricted18. academy19. ideology

20. incapable21. abstract22. classical

Reviewing the Main IdeasSection 123. What did President Roosevelt call the program designed to

fight the depression in the United States?

24. List the provisions of the Dawes Plan.

Section 225. Describe how Stalin defeated Trotsky.

26. The Italian Fascists had a slogan: “Woman into the Home.”How did this support their political ideas?

Section 327. Why did Hitler label modern art as degenerate?

28. Summarize the steps that Hitler took to become the soleruler of Germany.

Section 429. List the qualities that the Nazis wanted German art to glorify.

30. What is “stream of consciousness”?

Reviewing Academic VocabularyOn a sheet of paper, use each of these terms in a sentence thatreflects the term’s meaning in the chapter.

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Critical Thinking31. Cause-and-Effect Chain Why did

the depression help extremist leaders gain power in manynations during the 1930s?

32. Compare and Contrast How was Roosevelt’s New Dealboth similar to and different from Stalin’s Five-Year Plan?

33. Making Generalizations Describe the influence of theNazi regime on a young German in the 1930s.

Writing About History34. Applying Research Write an

essay in which you construct a hypothesis about the leader-ship of Mussolini, Franco, or Stalin. Find and use at least twoprimary and two secondary sources. Then prepare a five-minute presentation for your class, describing your researchprocess and sharing your conclusions.

35. Write an essay in which you relate one of thefollowing to the interwar mood: mass entertainment, massleisure, professional sports, dadaism, surrealism, or the“stream of consciousness” in literature. Research your topicand provide a bibliography for your essay.

Analyzing Sources The crisis of confidence in Western civiliza-tion ran deep. It was well captured in the words of the Frenchpoet Paul Valéry in the early 1920s:

“The storm has died away, and we are still restless,Uneasy, as if the storm were about to break. Almost allthe affairs of men remain in a terrible uncertainty. Wethink of what has disappeared, and we are almostdestroyed by what has been destroyed; we do notknow what will be born, and we fear the future. . . .Doubt and disorder are in us and with us. There is nothinking man, however shrewd or learned he may be,who can hope to dominate this anxiety, to escape fromthis impression of darkness.”

36. If you did not know the poem was written after World War I,how might you guess it?

37. What do the first two lines convey? CA 10WA2.2

CA 10WA2.3

CA HR4

Self-Check QuizVisit the Glencoe World History—Modern Times Website at and click on Chapter 9–Self-Check Quiz to prepare for the Chapter Test.

wh.mt.glencoe.com

HISTORY

N

SE

W

Lambert AzimuthalEqual-Area projection

200 kilometers

200 miles0

0

40°N

45°N

10°W 0°5°W

AtlanticOcean

Mediterranean Sea

FRANCE

POR

TUG

AL

S P A I N

Gijón

BarcelonaMadrid

Salamanca

SantanderLeón

BilbaoGuernica

PamplonaBurgos

Toledo

Valencia

Alicante

CartagenaGranada

CórdobaSeville

MálagaCádiz

Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939

Nationalist-controlled area, February 1939Republican-controlled area, February 1939Area of intense fighting

Directions: Choose the best answer to thefollowing question.

The General Theory of Employment, Interest, andMoney by John Maynard Keynes was published in1936. The book argued for

A mercantilism.

B disarmament.

C deficit spending.

D isolationism.

CA Standard 10.6.2 Describe the effects of the war andresulting peace treaties on population movement, the inter-national economy, and shifts in the geographic and politicalborders of Europe and the Middle East.

41.

Standards Practice

Analyzing Maps and ChartsStudy the map above to answer the following questions.

38. What advantage would the Nationalists seem to have hadover the Republicans in February 1939?

39. How would the geographic location of the Republicans in1939 have affected their supply routes?

40. Where was the most intense fighting concentrated?

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1919–1939 The West Between the Wars

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