GLOBAL DEPRESSION
The impact of WWI on Europe:
Governments:
- Many countries in Europe have democracies for the first time including:
France
Austria-Hungary
Italy
Germany
(Russia)
- New democracies have many political parties and must form weak coalition governments
- Weak democracies/weak leadership
Economics:
European economies are war torn and rebuilding after WWi
U.S. economy was strong- loans to European nations
Surviving the Great Depression
The crisis makes it hard for democratic governments to survive...
Britain
Forms a coalition national government that preserves democracy
France
-Socialist coalition called the "Popular Front" helps, workers, but democracy is preserved.
Scandanavian countries
--Socialiast Democratic governments meet the challenge of economic crisis successfully
The United States
_President Franklin D. Roosevelt begins government programs which provide jobs, and help banks and businesses
These programs are called the New Deal
Democracy in America survives
Germany after WWI
Callled the Weimar Republic
This government is blamed for the Versailles Treaty and Germany's economic problems
Too many Political Parties
No strong leader
Economic Problems:
Germany prints money to pay off debts
Inflation becomes severe:
1 loaf of bread:
1918= 1 mark
1922=160 marks
1923=200 billion marks
U.S. provides the Dawes Plan to aid Germany
-$200 million in loans to strengthen Germany's economy
Agression and Reaction
Japan Invades CHina (1931)
League of Nations protests
Japan ignores protests and withdraws from the League of Nations
League of Nations has no power to do anything
Mussolini attacks Ethiopia (1935)
Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie appeals to League of Nations for help
League of Nations condemns the attack
League of Nations does nothing!
Hitler's Military Agression
Hitler defies the Versailles Treaty and rebuild's Germnay's military
League of Nations- condemns Germnay but does nothing
Hitler- signs Rome-Berlin Axis Pact with Mussolini and Italy
1936- German troops move into Rhineland
British urge appeasement
U.S. follows policy of isolationism
March 1938- Hitler marches into Austria and annexes it (France and Britain ignore their pledge to protect Austria)
Hitler demands Sudetenland from Czechoslovokia
Czech's ask France and Britain for help
Britain allows Hitler to take Sudetenland at the Munich Conference
1939- Hitler's troops take all of Czechoslovokia
The German Offensive
March 15, 1939- Hitler's troops take over Czechoslovokia
Aug. 23, 1939- Soviet Union and Germany sign a nonagression pact
Poland using blitzkrieg tactic
Sept. 1, 1939- Germany invade
Sept. 3, 1939- Britain and France declare war on Germany
Sept. 1939- April 1940- sitzkrieg, "phony war"- an eerie period of calm when neither side does anything
April 9, 1940- Germany invades and takes over Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg
April 9, 1940- France surrenders to Germany
Germany Vs. France and Britain
British Pilots use radar to stop German bombing and invasion of Britain
The Nazi Holocaust
Jews blamed for Germany's problems
Nuremburg Laws- Jews segregated
Kristallnacht- first open violence against Jews in Germany
Ghettos- Jews closed off and die through starvation and disease
Over 1 million Jews and Slavic civilians shot to death in Russia
Jewish Refugees not accepted in other countries
FINAL SOLUTION- six million Jews systematically gassed to death in concentration camps
Jewish Refugees and the U.S.
Jewish Refugees
-U.S. accepts 60,000 Jewish refugees per year from Germany and Eutope, including physicist Albert Einstein
Immigration Quotas
U.S. maintains strict immigration quotas during WWII
St. Louis
U.S. government refuses to allow Refugees to land in the U.S. -(a ship full of Jewish refugees who are pleading for a place to find safety) Many become victims of the holocaust when the ship is forced to return to Europe
Deaths
-6,000,000 Jews die in German death camps because the U.S. and other countries will not take in more refugees
Hate
-Prejudice against Jewish people (anti-Semitism) still existed in the U.S.
Fear
-Fear that refugees would take jobs from American workers during the depression
-Fear that the "enemy agents" might come into the country as refugees
U.S. Policy before WWII
Isolationism
-U.S. policy to take care of its own problems at home and not get involved in wars with other countries
Kellog-Briand pact (1928)
- U.S. and 61 other nations pledge never to go to war again.
"Merchants of death"
-many people believe the U.S. was led into WWI by wealthy bankers and weapons manufacturers who made a lot of money off the war
Neutrality Acts (1935)
-Congress passed laws saying the U.S. shall not sell arms or give loans to nations involved in wars or civil wars
Neutrality breaks down
-U.S. sends food and clothing to anti-fascist forces in Spain
U.S. sends arms and supplies to China
Quarantine Speech (1937)
-FDR says the U.S. should take action to contain the 10% of the world that is destroying all peace and security
America Moves Toward War
U.S. moves away from neutrality
Cash and Carry
-this allowed nations to buy the U.S. weapons if they paid cash and carry them on their own ships.
1940
U.S. greatly increases defense spending
1940 The Selective Service Act
-16 million young men registered- first peacetime military draft
1941 Lend-Lease Act
U.S. will lend or lease arms to any country whose defense was vital to the U.S. --> Britain (Ran out of cash to pay for weapons)
June 1941
Roosevelt orders U.S. Navy to protect shipments of weapons to Britain. German U-boats begin firing on U.S. navy ships. Roosevelt orders the U.S. navy to return fire when fired on by...
Germans= "Rattlesnakes of the Atlantic"
