Chapter 29 Collapse of the

Old Order 1929-1949

The Stalin Revolution: Five Year Plans• humble origins• visionary• ruthless • skillful administrator • rose within Communist

Party • eliminated Leon Trotsky &

all rivals• Ruthlessly Industrialized the

Soviet Union

The Stalin Revolution: Five Year Plans

• Oct 1928, Stalin devised series of Five-Year Plans

• Centralized state- control over economy

• Extremely rapid Industrialization

• No concern for people or environment

Collectivism of Agriculture • Peasants squeezed to pay for massive investments required by Five-Year Plans

• Provided labor & food for new industrial workers

• Small farms consolidated into large collectives

• Supplied government with fixed amount of food & distributed what was left among their members

Collectivism of Agriculture • Collectivism organized peasants into industrial life & to bring them firmly under control of government

• violently suppressed better-off peasants (the kulaks)

• disrupted agricultural production

• caused famine-killed 5 million after bad harvests (1933-34)

Collectivism of Agriculture• Second Five-Year

Plan (1933-1937)- intended to increase output of consumer goods

• Fear of Nazi regime caused Stalin to shift emphasis to heavy industries & armaments

• Consumer goods became scarce -food rationed

Terror & Opportunities• industrialization &

collectivization carried out w/ threats & force

• NKVD (secret police) created terror

• USSR industrialized faster than any other country

• Stalinism created new opportunities– women joined work

force– obedient unquestioning

people rose in ranks of Communist Party, military, government, or their professions

One of the goals of collectivization was to introduce modern farm machinery. This poster shows delighted farmers operating new tractors and threshers.

• In late 1930’s, contrast between economic strength of Soviet Union & Depression troubles of capitalist nations gave many the impression that Stalin’s planned economy was successful

The Depression:Economic Crisis • consumers cut purchases

• companies laid off workers• small farms failed• N.Y. banks recalled loans to

Germany & Austria – couldn’t pay reparations to

France & Britain– France & Britain couldn’t

repay war loans to US • US passed Smoot-Hawley

tariff act – Other countries followed suit

• world trade declined by 62% between 1929 & 1932

Depression in Industrial Nations

• France & Britain escaped worst-forced colonies to purchase their products

• Japan & Germany suffered more-relied on exports to pay for imports of food & fuel

• In US, Britain, France, governments tried to stimulate economies w/ Programs like New Deal

• Germany & Japan devoted their economies to military build-up

• hoped to acquire empires large enough to support self-sufficient economies

Depression: Non-industrialized Regions

• Spread to Asia, Africa, Latin America unevenly

• India & China not dependent on foreign trade- thus little affected

• Countries that depended on exports of raw materials or tourism devastated

• Latin America- led to military dictatorships-tried to solve economic problems by imposing authoritarian control over their economies

• Southern Africa boomed during 1930’s

• increasing value of gold & relatively cheaper copper deposits of Northern Rhodesia & Belgian Congo led to mining boom that benefited European & South African mine owners

Rise of Fascism:Mussolini’s Italy

• In post WWI Italy, thousands of unemployed veterans & violent youths banded

• demanded action, intimidate politicians, & serve as strong-arm men for factory & property owners

• Benito Mussolini, former socialist, became leader of Fascist Party-forced government to appoint him prime minister

Facism: Ultra-Nationalism, Glorifies military values

Rise of Fascism:Mussolini’s Italy

• Mussolini installed Fascists to all government jobs-crushed all opposition– excelled at propaganda-

glorified war – foreign policy cautious

• Italian Fascist movement imitated in most of Europe, Latin America, China, & Japan

Hitler’s Germany • Germany was hard-hit by:– defeat in WWI– hyperinflation in 1923– Depression

• blamed socialists, Jews, foreigners

• became leader of National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis)

• led unsuccessful uprising in 1924

• In 1925, published Mein Kampf – racial theories– aspirations for

Germany – proposal to eliminate

all Jews from Europe

Hitler’s Germany

• Nazis gained support from unemployed & from property owners• Hitler assumed post of chancellor in March 1933- assumed

dictatorial power• declared himself Fuhrer of “Third Reich” - August 1934• economic & social policies were effective • economic boom, low unemployment, & rising standards of living

– Public Works Contracts– Military Build-up– Women encouraged to give up jobs to men

The Road to War, 1933-1939

• Hitler’s goal = territorial conquest

• Build up military• Tested reactions of other

powers by:– withdrew from League

of Nations – introduced conscription – established air force– Italy invaded Ethiopia in

1935 – Hitler sent ground

troops into Rhineland in 1936

The Road to War 1933-1939

• No serious objections from France, Britain, or US • Hitler invaded Austria-1938-demanded German-speaking

regions of Czechoslovakia

Why was response to Hitler so weak?

• Appeasement– Fear of war– Feared

communism more than Germany

– Believed Hitler could be trusted

Munich Agreement: Neville Chamberlain, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Edouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Galeazzo Ciano

After Munich?

• Hitler could not be stopped short of war

• March,1939, invaded Czechoslovakia

• Inspired France & Britain to ask for Soviet help

• Hitler/ Stalin already negotiating Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Divide Poland between them

Nazi-Soviet Pact

East-Asia, 1931-1945: Manchurian Incident of 1931

• Ultra-nationalists, believed Japan could end its dependence on foreign trade if it had colonial empire in China

• Junior officers blew up railway in Manchuria

• Excuse for invasion• Built heavy industries &

railways-sped up rearmament

• At home, government became more authoritarian & militaristic

Chinese Communists & “The Long March”

• Communist Party challenged Chiang-Kai shek

• Chiang arrested & executed Communists, forced survivors to flee to remote mountains

• Guerilla warfare & policies won support of peasants

• Forced them to Shaanxi in 1935

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/images/longmarc.gif

Mao Zedong1893-1976

• Farmer’s son• Deviated from

traditional Marxist-Leninist ideology

• Redistribute land from wealthy to poor peasants

• Wanted a social revolution

• Advocate of women’s equality

• Party reserved leadership positions for men (for warfare)

Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945

• July 7, 1937, Japanese troops attacked Chinese forces near Beijing

• Launched full invasion of China

• U.S. & League of Nations made no effort to stop Japanese invasion

• Chinese troops poorly led & trained

• Unable to prevent Japan from controlling coastal provinces

World War II: War of Movement• motorized weapons gave

advantage to offensive– Germany’s blitzkrieg

(lightning war)

• American & Japanese aircraft carriers

• fighting ranged over vast theaters of operation

• populations & economies of entire continents mobilized

• civilians legitimate targets

War in Europe & North Africa • By June 1940, Hitler

controlled Europe between Spain & Russia

• Attempt to invade Britain foiled by British Royal Air Force’s victory in Battle of Britain (June–September 1940)

• In 1941, Hitler invaded Soviet Union; successful at first

• stopped by winter weather of 1941–1942

• defeated at Stalingrad in February 1943

Turning Point: El Alamein: 1942• In Africa, Italians turned back by British counterattack• German forces came to assist-defeated at Al Alamein in

northern Egypt by British, who had more weapons, supplies & better intelligence

War: Asia & Pacific • In July 1941, Japan occupied

Indochina • US & Britain stopped shipping

steel, iron, oil• Japanese hoped surprise attack

would force US to accept Japanese control over SE Asia

• Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, occupied all of SE Asia & Dutch East Indies within months

• June 1942, US destroyed 4 of Japan’s 6 largest aircraft carriers; aircraft carriers were key to victory in Pacific

• Japan did not have industrial capacity to replace them, Japan faced long, hopeless war

End of the War • By 1943, Soviet Red Army received supplies from factories in Russia & US

• Soviet offensive in east, combined w/ West invasions of Sicily & Italy in 1943 & France in 1944, defeated Germany in May 1945

• By May 1945, American bombing & submarine warfare devastated Japanese economy & cut Japan off from sources of raw materials

• Asians who initially welcomed Japanese as liberators from white colonialism now eager to see them leave

• A-bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki in August ‘45 forced Japanese surrender

• Controversy-Were the bombings necessary?

• U.S. argued it ended war 1 year earlier & saved hundreds of thousands of American soldiers’ lives

Chinese Civil War & Communist Victory • After Japanese surrender, Guomindang

& Communist forces began civil war-lasted until 1949

• Guomindang had advantage-more troops, weapons & American support

• Brutal, exploitative policies & printing worthless paper money eroded popular support

• Communists built up forces w/ Japanese equipment gained from Soviets & American equipment gained from deserting Guomindang soldiers

• Won popular support, esp. Manchuria, by carrying out radical land reform program

• On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong announced founding of People’s Republic of China

• Chiang Kai-shek’s Guomindang forces driven off mainland to Taiwan

Character of Warfare:Science & Technology• World War II was different from

previous wars-enormous death toll & numbers of refugees

• unprecedented scale of human suffering due to change in moral values & appearance of new technologies

• Science had significant impact on technology of warfare,

• synthetic rubber, radar, cryptanalysis, antibiotics, aircraft & missiles

• U.S. government’s organization of physicists & engineers to produce atomic weapons

Bombing Raids • German war production continued until late 1944-German people obedient

• Brits & US excelled at bombing raids-broke morale

• Massive bombing raids on German cities

• Fire bombs devastated Japanese cities; bombing of Tokyo in March 1945 killed 80,000 people & left a million homeless

The Holocaust • Nazi killing of civilians was state policy• German Jews deprived of citizenship

& legal rights-herded into ghettoes, many died of starvation/disease

• In early 1942, Nazis applied modern industrial methods to slaughter Jews of Europe in concentration camps

• Mass extermination, claimed at least 6 million Jewish lives

• Nazis also killed Polish Catholics, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, & disabled, for “racial purity.”

ZYKLON-B: This was the cyanide-based pesticide used in gas chambers at Auschwitz and other camps.

Home Front in Europe/Asia • Distinction between “the front” & “home front” blurred as rapid military movements & air power carried war into people’s homes

• As armies moved, they confiscated anything of value; bombing raids destroyed entire cities; people deported to die in concentration camps; & millions fled in terror

• War demanded enormous, sustained efforts from all civilians; in Soviet Union & in US, industrial workers turned out tanks, ships, etc.

• In Soviet Union & in other belligerent countries, mobilization of men for military gave women significant roles in industrial & agricultural production

Home Front: U.S. • US flourished-economy

stimulated by war production

• Consumer goods in short supply- American savings rate increased- led to postwar consumer boom

• War weakened traditional ideas; women, African Americans, & Mexican Americans took jobs once reserved for white men

• Migration of African Americans=overcrowding & discrimination in industrial cities

• Japanese Americans rounded up & herded into internment camps