Ch. 27 Europe and the Great Depression

Reparations and war debts made international trade, capital investment, and day to day business difficult

Dawes Plans- American money flowed through Europe After Stock Market Crash 1929 U.S money stopped 1931 Hoover put a year long moratorium on payments

of international debt (huge blow to French Economy Lausanne Conferences effectively ended all payment

of reparations Problems in agricultural commodities during this time

also brought about a downturn in production and trade

Towards the Great Depression

Ramsay McDonald formed a coalition ministry, National Government, which consisted of Labour, Conservative, and Liberal ministers

The national government balanced its budget by raising taxes, cut insurance benefits to unemployed and elderly, and lowered government salaries

Went off the gold standard in 1931 and passed Import Duties Bill in 1932

This bill placed a 10% tax on imports except those from British Empire

These policies helped Great Britain avoid Banking crisis other countries experienced

Confronting the Great Depression in the Democracies: Britain

Economic stagnation began later than it did in most countries

Fallout included the election of a Radical Coalition government in 1932

Various Right-wing groups became more active during this period ◦ Some wanted monarchy; others favored military

rule,◦ France was hostile to parliamentary government,

socialism, and communism

Confronting the Great Depression in the Democracies: France

July 1935 the Popular Front of all left wing parties in France was formed as a means of pressing social and political reform.

In 1936 these parties gained control of the cabinet and Leon Blum assumed premiership.

Blum’s pursuit of Socialist reform gave improved rights to workers, but he was replaced the a Radical ministry

The Republic was in dire political and economic straits by the end of the 1930s

Confronting the Great Depression in the Democracies: France continued

Hitler Consolidated his control almost as soon as he took office:◦ By crushing alternative political groups◦ Purging his rivals in the Nazi party, ◦ Capturing full legal authority of Germany

Hitler quickly outlawed other political parties and arrested leaders of offices, banks, and the newspapers of free trade unions

He effectively removed all institutions of opposition

Began moving against the governments of individual federal states in Germany

Germany: The Nazi Seizure of Power

Hitler and key SA leaders murdered to gain support from the German Army corps

After the Death of Hindenburg, Hitler combined the position of Chancellor and president ◦ Became the head of state and head of

government

Germany: The Nazi Seizure of Power

Hitler oversaw the control Germany as a police state Police Surveillance units known as SS (Schutzstaffel)

terrorized much of Germany and focused its hatred against German Jews

The Nazis based their anti-Semitic views on biological and racial theories rather than on religious discrimination

Jews were robbed of their citizenship, their opportunities to earn a living, their civil liberties

They were repeatedly persecuted and harassed The were killed because of Hitler’s efforts to

eliminate Jews (6 million)

Germany: The Nazi Seizure of Power

Hitler effectively handled the German economic problem by subordinated all economic enterprise to the goals of the state

He instituted massive program of spending and public works

Most projects related to rearmament In 1935 Hitler renounced the provisions of

the Treaty of Versailles◦ began open rearmament to prepare for his next

aggression

Germany: The Nazi Seizure of Power

Fascist pursued a policy of corporatism designed to appease socialism and liberal lassiez-faire economies

Major industries were organized into syndicates that represented labor and management

Any disputes were settled by government arbitration

These methods was intended to forces both groups to seek productive for the nation over individual concerns

Italy: Fascist Economies

The Soviet Union under Stalin achieved impressive economic growth in the 1930s at the cost of millions of lives

A drive for rapid industrialization in 1928 marked major departure from the NEP (New Economic Policy) advanced by Lenin

The rapid industrialization was complicated but it generated the first large factory labor force Russia had ever seen

The Soviet Union: Central Economic Planning and Party Purges

Labourers’ working and living conditions were appalling

The government and the Communist party waged a sweeping propaganda campaign that praised the new factories and plants and urged the recruitment of industrial workers from rural areas

Recruitment succeed despite factories failing to undertake new production at promised levels

The Soviet Union: Central Economic Planning and Party Purges

Stalin decided to collectivize agriculture to prevent farmers from holding the government hostage by withholding crops for better prices

Many peasants were killed in the resistance: numbers unknown but most likely well into the millions

In 1928 more than 98% of Russian farmland consisted of peasant holdings

By 1938 more than 90% of Russian land had been collectivized and government controlled the food supply

By 1934 Stalin feared aggression from Nazi Germany and reversed the Comitern policy

The Soviet Union: Central Economic Planning and Party Purges

Stalin initiated the Great Purges in 1933 a series of arrests and party expulsions of Communists leaders

Hundreds of thousands were executed without due process

Interrogations, Imprisonments, and expulsions numbered into the millions

The communists party leadership began to consume oneself as Stalin became distrustful of the central party elite.

These purges created a new party structure completely subservient to Stalin

The Soviet Union: Central Economic Planning and Party Purges