7.4 Flashcards
Economy in the interwar period
Explain the effect of the Great Depression on European powers and their colonies.
- the Allied powers had already lost workforces and money in WWI, so they struggled through the Great Depression
- Germany printed more and more money in efforts to solve the reparation problem, led to hyperinflation and extreme poverty
- colonial colonies suffered because they were dependent on their Parent economies
What caused the onset of the Great Depression?
The US stock market crash of 1929.
Explain the solutions states tried to alleviate the Great Depression.
- government intervention called for globally
- deficit spending; “priming the pump”
*espoused by British economist John Maynard Keynes
*Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal
Explain the basics of the New Deal.
The New Deal was built on the basis of deficit spending:
- borrowed lots of money
- put people to work on public projects
- built dams, roadways, public buildings
It is generally disputed and unverifiable whether or not the New Deal helped the US to relieve the Great Depression, because the onset of WWII is what pulled us out.
What are war bonds?
They were loans from the people to the government designed to support wartime efforts and their militaries. The government would later pay them back with interest.
Explain the state of Russia’s economy during the interwar period.
The government was run by Bolsheviks.
- struggling economy
- starving population
In 1921, Vladimir Lenin introduced the “New Economic Plan”, which would roll back communist policies and reintroduce private trade into Russia.
Lenin died in 1924, and his New Economic Plan effectively died with him.
Joseph Stalin took power after Lenin and established his Five Year Plans
- more industrialization to catch up with Europe
- collectivized agriculture w/ agricultural quotas
*protest amongst farmers: burned crops and killed livestock = mass starvation and famine
The Holodomor occurred under Stalin.
What was the Holodomor?
The Holodomer was a 1932-1933 man-made famine under Stalin’s Soviet government that targeted Ukrainians under Soviet Ukraine. Between 3-7 million people died as a result.
Caused by collectivization policies, Soviet government’s refusal to offer aid to starving communities, and government decisions to continue exporting food from Ukraine despite the fact that the people inside of it were starving.
Strict censorship made it difficult for foreign powers to learn the full magnitude of the famine and its causes.
Explain the state of Mexico during the interwar period.
After the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) dominated the government. They improved the economy through the nationalization of the oil industry, rather than letting oil and other resources be owned and controlled by foreign investors.
What is fascism?
- authoritarian/nationalistic government and social organization system
- glorification of military and war
- problems often blamed on ethnic minorities
- heavy economic intervention by government
Examples:
Italy under Mussolini, Nazi Germany
What was the first fascist country?
Italy under Benito Mussolini; the economy was reorganized into corporatism, in which each sector of the economy is independently working towards a common economic goal… but in reality these policies were totalitarian and the government controlled EVERYTHING.
How did Hitler model Nazi Germany?
He modeled it after Italian Fascists
How did Nazi Germany deal with the Great Depression?
Nazi Germany addressed the Great Depression by:
- using massive deficit spending to build infrastructure and the military (broke Treaty of Versailles)
- canceling reparation payments (broke Treaty of Versailles)
Explain the state of Brazil’s economy during the interwar period.
Brazil had a slow transition from an agricultural to industrial economy.
Explain the Brazilian Revolution of 1930.
Discontent populations led to rising tensions and culminated in a military coup during 1930 that left Getulio Vargas as president; Vargas appealed to the people because he espoused the introduction of democratic principals to Brazil. Instead, he modeled Mussolini’s government.
Under this new leadership:
- massive industry growth
- removal of individual freedoms
- new state programs
*imprisoned political opponents
*restricted media press’ freedoms
