The Great War Legacy Tracy Rosselle, M.A.T. Newsome High School, Lithia, FL The Interwar Years: 1919 – 1930s.

The Great War LegacyTracy Rosselle, M.A.T.

Newsome High School, Lithia, FL

The Interwar Years: 1919 – 1930s

Outcomes of the war: a regional look

The fallout in

Britain France Italy Germany Russia

the United States Japan China India the Middle East

Britain

Greatly affected economically and demographically

Debts were high An entire generation

reduced by heavy casualties Vast empire now becoming

a liability, especially as nationalist movements for independence gain momentum in Africa and Asia

France

Devastated infrastructure

The Allied power that had born the biggest brunt of the war

War widows and amputees in every city

Italy

Among the Allied leaders that had been promised large tracts of land from Austrian empire

Dissatisfied with the amount of land it actually received in return for abandoning the Triple Alliance and joining the Allies

This continued to be a political issue after the war, and Italy pressed for more territory along the Adriatic coast

Germany

Utterly wrecked – politically, economically and socially

Millions of men dead from the fighting Its landmass reduced, its overseas colonies lost With the war-guilt clause, on the hook for massive

reparations payments The Kaiser abdicated and fled the country, leaving

Germany where a weak democratic government (with a president and chancellor) was assembled in Weimar in 1919

Russia

Also in shambles as revolution turned into civil war Not a party to Versailles, having signed a treaty with

Germany in 1917 Bolsheviks (Reds) and supporters of the Czar

(Whites) fought for control of Russia for two years … a struggle that left a million more Russians dead

Bolsheviks won, establishing Union of Soviet Socialist Republics … and shot the Czar and his family to ensure an end to the Romanov Dynasty

The United States

Emerged from The Great War as a true world power … but still reluctant to play that role internationally

Having entered the war late and fought on European soil, relatively unscathed by the conflict – in contrast to Britain and France

Isolationist impulse returns as U.S. retreats from European affairs

Japan

Fought on Allied side during the war

Like Italy, dissatisfied with the results of Versailles because it didn’t help them expand their empire as much as they’d have liked

Postwar economy led to hard times

China

Riots erupted in Beijing to protest provisions of Versailles that gave concessions in China to Japan

Had entered the war late, hoping for support as a large nation aspiring to democracy

May Fourth Movement arose as nationalist fervor peaked: Chinese reformers began criticizing Confucian traditions and looking to Western ideas for inspiration

India

Made a significant contribution to the war effort on the side of Britain and Allies

Promised self-government after the war … only to see little change after fighting ended

Nationalism surged under the leadership of Gandhi and his policy of nonviolent resistance and protest

Eventually gained independence in 1947 following World War II

The Middle East

The Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1918 with only Turkey remaining as it declared itself a republic

Turkey, under Mustafa Kemal – who eventually took the title of Ataturk (“father of the Turks”) – began to modernize, secularize and westernize

Other Arab lands placed under mandates of French and British control, disappointing those Arabs who’d fought against the Ottomans, expecting freedom in return for their military assistance

Further tension over British control of Palestine

The Middle East (cont.)

In Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain agreed in principle to creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine

To avoid antagonizing Arabs throughout the Middle East, however, Britain put the Zionist question on the back burner (Israel would be created in 1948 following World War II)

Adding insult to injury

The Great War killed 10 million soldiers and perhaps half that many civilians, wounding upwards of 30 million more. But an even bigger worldwide killer emerged in 1918: the Spanish flu epidemic.

The Great Influenza

Origins in U.S. army camps

The world’s deadliest ever epidemic of influenza hit worldwide in the final year of The Great War.

Estimates of the dead vary from 20-100 million worldwide.

Epidemiologists now believe it began in U.S. army camps and spread to Europe and then Asia after infected troops arrived there.

In the postwar years …

The new nations of Eastern Europe, with weak democratic traditions, experienced difficulties politically (ethnic tensions were high) and economically. Through the 1920s and 1930s, only Czechoslovakia remained democratic and avoided authoritarianism.

WWI completed the transformation that saw European aristocracy decline and the power of lower and middle classes ascend.

Women’s suffrage

The drive to get women the right to vote was long in coming, but their role in the war economy gained women respect in the workplace and public life.

In most Western nations during or after WWI, women were given the right to vote.

France and Italy were alone in resisting the trend, not granting women’s suffrage until the 1940s.

Europe in decline

The great powers of Europe were severely drained by WWI, now struggling to maintain their overseas empires and rebuild following the war.

France, Britain, Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands found it increasingly difficult to maintain their colonies.

Angst, anyone?

Intellectuals led the way in questioning the belief in progress and the certainty of Truth with a capital T.

Writers of the “Lost Generation” and existentialists (Nietzche) struggled to find meaning of life.

Dali and surrealism (“The Persistence of Memory”)

The Great Depression

A global phenomenon, not just a U.S. matter American stock market drew capital throughout the

“Roaring” 1920s, but after the Crash of ’29 the reaction was felt worldwide

Europeans depended on American loans to recover from WWI

Wave of U.S. bank failures crashed through other financial capitals in London, Berlin and Tokyo

The Great Depression (cont.)

Unemployment rose to double digits globally, topping 25% in the U.S.

Personal bankruptcies ran high.

The United States exacerbated the problem by passing the highest tariff in its history, further blocking international trade.

Depression debacle

Main causes: Overdependence on American loans and buying Increase in protectionism (use of import tariffs) Industrial and farming surpluses, leading to deflation of

prices Poor banking management

Major outcomes: Hardships opened door to political instability and rise of

extremism in many nations Communists criticized failure of capitalism, while fascists

used authoritarian means to protect private enterprise

Depression’s end

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Despite FDR’s “New Deal” – an unprecedented federal effort to help the economy – the Great Depression didn’t end until the massive deficit spending associated with WWII.

Dictatorial rule

Ruthless dictators emerged in the postwar climate of economic strife, using variations on a totalitarian theme:

Benito Mussolini in Italy Adolf Hitler in Germany Francisco Franco in Spain Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union

Mussolini: the first fascist

Mussolini (“Il Duce,” the leader) led a march on Rome in 1922 demanding to be put in charge of the government.

King Victor Emmanuel III, fearing widespread violence and an uprising, saw Mussolini as his dynasty’s best hope for survival.

More Mussolini

Mussolini quickly abolished democracy and outlawed all political parties except Fascists.

He and the fascist movement generally feared the spread of the Marxist revolution in Russia.

Fascism fundamentals: Opposition to communism. Glorification of the traditional state (“ultra-nationalism”) Militarism and the glorification of war A friend of big business and the destruction of labor unions Rejection of liberal democracy as ineffective

Hitler hysteria

Germany rebuilt after WWI as a parliamentary democracy, but fear of communism, war debts and hyperinflation left it susceptible to political extremism.

Hitler emerged as the charismatic leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the Nazi Party).

Hitler hysteria (cont.)

Hitler used anti-Semitic racism to argue that Jews were leading a worldwide conspiracy toward communism.

He was appointed chancellor after using ultra-national, anti-communist propaganda.

He banned other parties and had opponents arrested, eventually becoming dictator, or fuhrer.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War

In July 1936, Spanish army leaders – led by General Francisco Franco – rose up against the Socialist government of Spain (which had been a monarchy until 1931, when it changed to a republic).

Franco favored a Fascist-style government. Nationalists (Franco’s forces) vs. Republicans (Spain’s elected

government) Only the Soviet Union sent nominal aid to Spain’s liberal

government during the ensuing civil war, but Hitler and Mussolini armed Franco with troops, tanks and aircraft.

Nationalists won and Franco became Spain’s Fascist dictator, ruling until his death in 1975.

Stalin and the Soviets

Seven years after the Russian Revolution, Lenin died of a stroke … and Joseph Stalin emerged in 1927 from the Bolshevik Party’s ensuing power struggle as the leader of Soviet communism.

His style of leadership (“Stalinism”) was absolutely ruthless, as he had his rivals murdered opponents and millions of dissenters were “purged” through execution or imprisonment in gulags.

The strictures of Stalinism

Centralized control of the economy Five-Year Plans state-run industrialization

World leadership of the international communist movement

Forced collectivization of all farming Collectivization led to Great Famine, which killed 4-6 million people

in southern Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan

Promotion of atheism and control of organized religion

Totalitarianism

Stalin, Franco, Mussolini and Hitler exemplified political dictatorships in the 20th century. The modern totalitarian regime featured:

A single leader with almost unquestioned authority Government by one party only Secret police to terrorize and control the populace Aggressive, brutal elimination of rivals to power and leaders

of dissent

Meanwhile in the East …

In the 1930s, military leaders in Japan replaced civilian politicians in the highest posts of government.

With limited natural resources it had already turned imperial by gaining Taiwan and Korea … but now Japan had plans for Northeast China.

Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, ignoring protests from the League of Nations.

Next up: another world war

Japan kept Manchuria, walking out of the League of Nations.

Mussolini noted the fecklessness of the League’s response to Japan’s aggression and decided to invade Ethiopia in 1935.

The war of conquest in the East would soon merge with hostilities in Europe – instigated primarily by Hitler – to form one big nasty fight: World War II.