Democracy, Depression, Dictatorship, Aggression (1919-1939) Flashcards
The Irish Question
the granting of eventual independence to Southern Ireland
Statute of Westminster
formally recognized the equality of British Dominions, set up a Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
enjoyed special trading privileges
Raymond Poincaré
- prime minister of France
- sent French troops to occupy the mineral rich Ruhr Valley when Germany didn’t pay the whole reparations bill
- his tax and spending reforms led to a temporary resurgence in prosperity until the Great Depression
Dawes/Young Plan
diminished German reparations and French ability to collect them
tariffs
taxes on imports, contributed to the Great Depression by diminishing foreign markets and limiting the ability of Europeans to pay off their war debts to the US
age of anxiety
after WWI, the disruption and carnage of WWI, collapse of the “old order,” new ways to portray humanity
Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher who attributed the decline of Western Civilization to the slave morality of Christian ethics; God is dead, morality is outworn.
Sigmund Freud
unconscious forces, balancing the id, ego, and superego
Max Planck
atoms are not the basic building blocks of the universe
stream of consciousness
the portrayal of an individual’s random thoughts and feelings, used to emphasize the irrational aspects of the human condition
James Joyce
an Irish novelist, used the stream of consciousness
Virginia Woolf
English fictional writer, used the stream of consciousness
Werner Heisenberg
uncertainty principle
uncertainty principle
a particle’s velocity or position- but not both- could be calculated; fundamental anxiety about the nature of matter
expressionism
abstract and nonrepresentational, van Gogh, used bold colors and images to focus on emotions and imagination
impressionism
Monet, impression of the scene infused with the painter’s emotion
cubism
Pablo Picasso, the depiction of mood through the use of geometric angles, planes, and clashing lines
surrealsim
An artistic movement that displayed vivid dream worlds and fantastic unreal images
functionalism
buildings designed with practicality and clean lines rather than ornamentation
cult of celebrity
the ironic glorification of the personalities who portrayed people other than themselves, born with the advent of movies
The Great Depression
-1929-1939
IN THE US:
-Roaring Twenties hid problems
-Stock market crash
-causes: buying stocks on margins, stock bubble, wartime economy ==> peaceful economy, changes in international patterns of trade, declines in consumption as a result of WWI
-American and European economies were interdependent ==> global breakdown
IN ENGLAND
- the National Party (coalition of Labourites and Conservatives)
- reorganized industry, abandoned free trade, reformed finances, cut government spending
- came out of depression through rearmament
IN FRANCE
- increased class tensions
- ==> radical right wing movement: pro-Fascist riots, the Popular Front (coalition of socialists, republicans, labor unionists, and Communists - opposed fascism, supported reform and upholding the republic)
- Leon Blum became prime minister under the Popular Front banner, instituted the French New Deal
John Maynard Keynes
- had predicted the Great Depression
- deficit spending theories
- government involvement
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
protected individual depositors against bank failures (US)
The New Deal
- FDR
- involvement of government in the economy, series of acts
- based of Keynes’ ideas
- helped preserve capitalism
French New Deal
offered labor and agricultural reforms similar to those in the US, but ineffective at ending the depression
Benito Mussolini
- editor of a socialist newspaper
- organized the Fascist party, a combination of socialism and nationalism
- his blackshirts attacked the Communists (got support from people who were afraid of communism)
- promised to protect private property, won support of conservative classes, and abandoned socialist programs
ITALIAN FASCISM: the corporate state as the economic core; labor unions manage and control industry, unions set up political agenda, workers don’t make political decisions, authority flowed from the top
Creation of the totalitarian state: rigged elections, terrorizing opponents, independent labor unions ==> government controlled syndicates, right to vote limited, organization of corporations replaced parliamentary government
Fascist accomplishments: internal improvements, suppression of the Mafia and improvement of the justice system, Lateran Pact (1929) reconciled issues with the papacy, trains on schedule
Failures: suppression of democracy, terrorism, poor industrial growth, attempt to recapture imperialistic glories of ancient Rome ==> disastrous involvements in war
Fascist
revolutionaries determined to create a new totalitarian state based on extreme nationalism and militarism
March on Rome
- Oct 1922
- Fascists marched
- the gov collapsed and Mussolini organized the new government
- Victor Emmanuel III granted him dictatorial powers
Weimar Constitution
- drafted 1919
- directly elected president and parliament (Reichstag), set up senate (Reichsrat), a chancellor who represented majority party in Reichstag, and a cabinet
- printed paper currency to pay workers that went on strike in Ruhr Valley because of French occupation
Adolf Hitler
- leader of the Nazi (National Socialist German Workers Party) Party
- failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch coup ==> sentenced to jail
- came to power by legal means; von Hindenburg invited him to form a government as chancellor
- Reichstag building fire ==> Hitler declared emergency powers from his government
- outlawed all political parties but Nazis
- use of secret police force
- labor unions outlawed
- full employment with arms production
- wanted autarchy- economic self-sufficiency
Mein Kampf
- Hitler wrote this blueprint for domination of Germany and eventually Europe while in prison
- Germany was never defeated in WWI, it was betrayed by Jews and socialists
- Treaty of Versailles was a humiliation
- Germans were a master race, needed lesbensraum
Dachau
first concentration camp
Nuremberg Laws
1935
stripped Jews of their rights as citizens
Kristallnacht
Night of Broken Glass
Nazi mobs wrecked Jewish temples
Holocaust
systematic extermination of Jews throughout Germany and eventually Europe
began in 1938
Anti-Comintern Pact
signed by Germany and Japan, promised a common front against communism
