The InterWar Years The Roaring Twenties 1920 s

The Inter-War Years

The Roaring Twenties • 1920 s- Period of economic recovery and boom – Superficial prosperity • People invested in stocks – Bought on margin/credit • (Buy now, pay later) • Germany has trouble paying off reparations

The Great Depression • Stock Market Crash (1929) • Banks failed Businesses closed jobs lost – Life savings disappeared • Affects almost all countries in the world – United in trade, etc. especially after WWI • Soviet Union unaffected (not capitalist)

Solving the Depression • Unemployment skyrocketed – Reached 30% + in Germany • Government aid programs – Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA) creates the New Deal • Job creation • Insurance for bank deposits • Social security – Only moderately successful

The Rise of Fascism • Fascism – A political philosophy that promotes nation [and often race] above the individual – Stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader – Severe economic and social regulation – Forcible suppression of opposition • Nazism – Fascism in Germany

Nazi Germany • Adolf Hitler rises to power – Built support based on • Treaty of Versailles • Anti-Semitism • Poor economy – Used Propaganda heavily • Becomes Chancellor in 1933

The Holocaust • Germans begin systematic oppression of Jews in Germany, Europe • Hitler sent Jews to concentration camps – Final Solution – the extermination of European Jews in death camps

Fascist Italy/Military Japan • Benito Mussolini & ‘Black Shirts’ – Support from military & upper class – Seize control of Rome (1922) • Japanese military takes control – Combat depression by creating empire in Asia • Need for natural resources – Invasion of China (1931)

Stalinist Russia • Lenin dies in 1924 • Joseph Stalin comes to power – Focused on industrialization & modernization • Five Year Plans – (1928 -1933, 1933 -1938) – Collectivized farms – Brutally put down opposition

World War II

Starting the War • Hitler violates Treaty of Versailles – Allies do nothing to stop him • Appeasement • Germany, Italy, and Japan form Axis Powers • 1939 Germany invades Poland • 1941 Japan attacks the USA

Fighting in World War II • Unlike the first war, World War II is not a stalemate • Advanced mechanization – Sophisticated tanks, planes, bombs, ships – Quick moving fronts • Swift defeats

The End of the War • Germany defeated in May, 1945 – Britain, France, Russia, United States • Japan defeated in August, 1945 – USA drops two atomic bombs • Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Role of Women in WWII • Like the first world war, women replaced men in factories – Produced war materials – Supported rationing efforts – Nurses/medical care