WW Sandwich Part II

Retreat from Democracy: The Authoritarian and Totalitarian States

• Democratic success in 1919 seemed to have tapered off and by 1939 only France and GB along with small Scandinavian states, Low Countries and Switzerland remained democratic. Italy and Germany became fascist and Soviet Union was a totalitarian state under Stalin.
• Eastern Europe adopted authoritarian states.
• Totalitarian states were new to history although dictatorships were not. Stalin and Hitler pushed things beyond historical limits in the central government control.
• The root of totalitarianism was the total war system that governments used to exercise control over the liberties of people in order to win the war.
• Modern totalitarianism possessed the traditional dictatorial ideals but began to force active obedience rather than passive obedience. They force citizens to commit to the goal of the regime.
• The totalitarian state also controlled intellectual and cultural aspects (think 1984 by George Orwell with the Two Minutes’ Hate and Hate Week, then also the concept of doublethink)
• Modern Totalitarian State- One leader, one party, no freedoms
• Well not exactly no freedoms but usually the leader would not want to give up an ounce of power. Modern technology gave police controls to enforce wishes on their subjects (remember the Telescreen, although it is fake but it’s the same idea)
• However there wasn’t an implementation of total totalitarianism as there were some significant differences in the Nazism and Fascist regimes. Fascism and Nazism was based on right wing extreme nationalism and Communism was extreme left wing socialism. Hence the ruling of either extreme left or extreme right parties.

Fascist Italy

• Key Person: Benito Mussolini.
• Italy had problems. More problems came during WWI. 700000 Soldiers lost, cost of war at 148 billion lire (twice what government had). Italy gained some territory but her demands for Fiume and Dalmatia were rejected and this gave the myth that Italy had been cheated of their rewards by others.
• Inflation caused insecurity for the middle class. Pulling out of the war caused job losses and disappointed veterans. The government failed to do anything.
• Mussolini misbehaved as a child and received a diploma as an elementary school teacher. He failed miserably and became a socialist and was a important editor of the Avanti (Forward) newspaper of the socialists. But he wrote that he wanted intervention in WWI which was not the socialist view of neutrality. He was then expelled from the Socialist Party. Fascism came to rise when Mussolini published the Fascio di Combattimento (League of Combat). At first there was no attention received but then a political stalemate and strong nationalistic views saved fascism.
• New parliament elected in November 1919 was unable to govern Italy. Three Major parties Socialists, Liberals, Democrats and Popolari (Christian Democrats) could not see eye to eye and form a coalition. Socialists now wanted a revolution which caused people to fear a Bolshevik takeover.
• Strikes led to class warfare leading to violence. Mussolini went to right wing politics and gained support from Middle class indust. who feared working class violence and the landowners who hated the agricultural strikes.
• Italians were probably angry at the failure to receive reward for the victory and he realized anticommunism, antistrikes, and nationalism would be able to achieve what free elections did not.
• Bands of Fascists called squadristi were formed and attacked Socialist offices. Strikes were forced to be broken up. Mussolini formed an alliance with the liberals under PM Giovanni Giolitti. The liberals believed they could dump the fascists after they crushed socialism which was not the case as Mussolini was more clever. His squadristi (from now on referred to as “squad” since I’m lazy) were now respectable and soon fascists won 35 parliamentary seats.
• Mussolini achieved his ways through terrorism using it to create disorder knowing fascism would prevail in such an environment. They did things like administer large doses of castor oil (stuff that tastes like crap but is sometimes used to calm an upset stomach). The middle and upper class supported the fascists.
• The fascists then planned a march to Rome to seize power. Mussolini said in a speech to the blackshirt squads: Either we are allowed to govern or we will seize power by marching on Rome. Actually Mussolini was just bluffing and well the bluff worked and the government surrendered. King Victor Emmanuel III made Mussolini PM of Italy. Fascist blackshirts then marched to Rome to create the illusion that they encountered a civil war and the blackshirts were victorious.

MUSSOLINI and THE ITALIAN FASCIST STATE

• Fascists were minority so Mussolini moved slowly preparing for a national election that would consolidate the power of the Fascist government.
• July 1923- Acerbo Law by parliament- any party winning at least 25 percent of votes in the next nat’l election will gain automatically 2/3rds of the seats in parliament. April 6, 1924 was when the fascists won 65 percent of votes and held 374 out of 535 parliamentary seats. The elections were rigged with fear but they still showed popularity.
• However his campaign of terrorism was a roadblock as the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, a socialist, occurred on  June 1924. He was slowed by the fact that the murder was blamed on him at first. The public had an outcry and many thought Mussolini would resign but instead he saved himself by making himself dictator.
• Freedom of press abolished, also protected Catholic church and abolished any outcries against church.
• Mussolini, head of government.
• Secret police created. (OVRA)
• However, police surveillance was attempted but machinery was not efficient and police activities were not as oppressive as in Nazi Germany.
• Media was controlled though it didn’t achieve much. The slogans were usually “Mussolini is always right”.
• Fascists wanted also to mold Italians into a community of one mind by creating a fascist edu. system and organizations for Fascism. (Like Junior Spies and Junior Anti-Sex League in 1984). In fascism, the secondary schools were not controlled much so the Young Fascists was created. 66 percent of population 8-18 were in some Fascist youth organization. There were Saturday morning drills and summer camps.
• Males received military training but those who didn’t like it simply ditched.
• Organizations’ Goal- To create a new italian- hard working, fit disciplined, fit, smart and martially inclined.
• Women were back to being the people that did household chores as it was unfascist for them to work outside the home.
• More men were employed because of this ideal.
• Fascists also enacted by law encouragement to have larger families giving money to those that had more children.
• Quotas were set on women employment but were unsuccessful.
• Mussolini still failed to achieve total totalitarianism unlike Hitler or Stalin. The monarchy was still present and independent in Italy and broke his promise to help peasants and workers.
• He tried to ally with the Catholic church. His Lateran Accords established the independent Vatican City if the papacy accepted the fascist state. The papacy accepted.
• The fascist movement wasn’t very successful and was overshadowed by Hitler’s Nazism.

Hitler and Nazi Germany

• The Nazi party led by Austrian Adolf Hitler tried to copy the March to Rome by Mussolini but failed. However, in this process they gained prominence in politics and had control within 10 years.

WEIMAR GERMANY

• German Democratic state established after WWI.
• They had no strong leader after Stresemann. Paul von Hindenburg was a military man that disliked the republic. Attacks from both left and right plagued the republic.
• Serious econ. prob. of inflation. Unemploy. Depression
• Good environment for Hitler to rise.

THE RISE OF THE NAZIS

• Hitler lived in Vienna under an orphan pension after failing at life earlier. He wrote an autobiography about his struggles, Mein Kampf.
• Hitler’s 4 main influences
• Georg von Schonerer = leader of Aust. Pan-German movement
• Karl Lueger– Mayor of Vienna leader of Anti-Semitic Christian Social Party. “greatest German mayor of all time”
• Adolf Lanz- Catholic monk who Hitler based his anti-Semitism on. Published Ostara where he said German Aryans were the best race.
• Richard Wagner– wrote operas  that spoke of the need to dominate.
• Basic Ideologies
• Racism/Anti-Semitism– hatred of Jews even when he died.
• Nationalism– political parties could effectively use fear
• need for struggle
• WWI saved Hitler by giving him a purpose. He returned from his brave acts on the Western front and went into politics.
• Joined German Workers Party and took control and renamed it to National Socialist German Workers Party. (Nazi)
• He wanted to merge nationalism with worker support.
• Mass political movement and creation of Police force Sturmabteilung or Storm Troops. 
• Weimar Republic on verge of collapse in fall 1923 while the Nazi power became the strongest.
• Hitler staged uprising in Munich called Beer Hall Putsch and was arrested and given 5 year sentence.

NAZI SEIZURE OF POWER

• Hitler realized he needed to gain his power constitutionally first.
• Extreme German nationalism virulent anti-semetism- and vicious anticommunism = social Darwinism stressing the right of superior nations to living space and right of superior people to rule authoritatively.
• Nobody took Hitler seriously.
• Hitler then took over the Nazi party again and used a leadership principle that there would be one party under one leader.
• Hitler structured the party and reorganized it to expand it to all parts of Germany. The party grew and was also filled with younger people.
• They were fiercely committed to Hitler.
• Nazis wanted to win workers away from the Socialist arena.
• However, they failed in the 1928 elections . Hilter wanted to change and persued middle and lower class votes in smaller towns and rural.
• Nazis’ rise to power due to economic difficulties. Radical solutions were more attractive and the Nazis gained 107 seats in the Reichstag in the 1930 elections.
• Chancellor Heinrich Bruning relied on use of emergency degrees by President Hindenburg to rule. The Democracy was already dying.
• 1930-1933- even stronger growth in Nazi power.
• “Hitler over Germany” propaganda by car, train, and airplane.
• Party members told each class what they wanted to hear in order to gain more power.
• Nationalism was what appealed the most and the party got 230 seats making them the largest in the Reichstag…however they dropped to 196 later. Hilter again changed his plan.
• The Aristocrats thought they could control Hitler so the let Hindenburg put him in the position of chancellor but limiting number of Nazis in cabinet to 3.
• Hitler laid foundation for takeover. Hermann Goring became minister and head of police. All non-Nazi police were purged and the police was filled with SA or Storm Troops.
• Nazi Terror; martial law, all rights suspended.
• Enabling Act- suspended constitution for 4 years while the Nazis “Passed” laws that would help Germany
• Hitler was now a dictator and the Social Democrats were even beaten down.
• They coordinated all institutions under Nazi control
• Jews and democrats were kicked out of civil service and opposition would be sent to concentration camps. Unions dissolved an autonomy of states removed.
• Reasons power seizure was so quick
• Nazis used force and were ready to seize power
• Depression weakened economy so Germans looked to the Nazis
• “Germany Awake” lifted spirits of the losers of WWI
• Nazis prevented strong image of dynamic New Germany
• Two dangers to Hitler
• SA, Ernst Rohm was the leader the openly criticized Hitler asking for a new revolution to replace military with SA.
• Armed Forces
• SA leaders were killed  in return for the army’s support.
• Hindenburg died and office of president abolished and Hitler was now true dictator.
• Hitler held plebiscite where 85 percent of Germans approved new order.

THE NAZI STATE

• Hitler now wanted to create a dominant Aryan state but he needed the German people to be actively involved.
• Ways of Totalitarianism
• Mass Demonstrations (Annual) combining religious service with amusement.
• Nazi Germany involved admin. disorder and internal struggles. Because of this rivalry, Hitler got to make all the decisions.
• Hitler didn’t care about who owned means of productions as long as they realized he was the head hancho.
• Public works was established to help the econ but really it was the rearmament that got people back to work.
• Nazis claimed full credit for helping Germany out of the Depression.
• Germany Labor Front-Robert Ley– reg. labor.
• State controlled union; used workbook to control; every paid worker had to have a workbook to hold a job; submission to Nazi party would earn and retain a person a workbook.
• Labor front also sponsored activities to keep workers happy.
• Instrument of terror was the SS under the control of Heinrich Himmler, the Secret Police.
• SS: terror and ideology, terror such as: murder, secret police, criminal police, concentration camps, execution squads, and death camps for extermination of Jews
• SS was tool to further Aryan race.
• All churches came under Nazi control. Professional organizations went Nazi.
• Boycott on Jewish businesses for two days and laws restricting all non-Aryans from jobs, entertainment, and civil service.
• “Nuremburg laws” excluded German Jews from German citizenship and forbade marriages between Jews and Germans to purify the Aryan race.
• Kristallnacht where the assassination of third secretary of Germany embassy in Paris gave Nazis a reason to go on a rampage on anything Jewish. 30000 Jewish men sent off to concentration camps and 100 killed.
• Jews were barred from all public places and could not own or work in any retail store.
• Jews were encouraged to leave Germany. The emigration policy was replaced with a gruesome one when WWII broke out.
• Womens’ role was to bear children to keep the Aryan race alive. Men = warriors or political leaders Women = wives and mothers
• Aug. 12 was Hitler’s mother’s B-day and awards of the German Mother’s Cross to women that had more children.
• Nazis determined the employment of women barring them from industry because it hurt the chance of a healthy child and professions such as teaching, medicine, and law. Nazis encouraged nursing or social work as it was related to child care.
• Nazi propaganda for women: Get hold of pats and pans and broom and you’ll sooner find a groom!
• But the rearmament and the war undid the policies for women that Nazis previously enacted.

World War Sandwich Part I 739-746 – Spielvogel Ed. 5

POST WAR COUNTRIES FORMED:

-Poland

-Czechoslovakia

-Yugoslavia

-Finland

-Latvia

-Lithuania

-Austria

-Hungary

-Estonia

An Uncertain Peace: The Search for Security

• The treaties at the end of World War I tried to accomplish the fulfillment of nationalism, however, this resulted in the dispute of boundaries in Eastern Europe as nations were unhappy with the redrawn boundaries. The Germans also believed the treaty of Versailles should be revised.
• Woodrow Wilson had hoped that the League of Nations would right the wrongs of the Treaty.
• The League of Nations did not succeed in maintaining any sort of peace. It all started when the United States pulled out of the League and promised that they would not become involved in European affairs. The League’s only weapon against aggression was economic sanction
• France was all alone when Britain and the U.S. pulled out of their promises.
• Communist Russia looked very threatening and France built a network of alliances in Eastern Europe with Poland and the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania). Sure these countries looked real good on paper in guarding against Germany but they were weak and no substitutes for Russia.

The French Policy of Coercion (1919-1924)

• France believed the only way to be secure was to enforce the Treaty of Versailles first forcing Germany to pay reparations to compensate for the damage done. The reparations were $33 Billion and payable in $2.5 Billion a year in gold.
• The Allies threatened to occupy the Ruhr valley, the mining and indust. center of Germany.
• Germany made the first payment but after econ. troubles, they said they could not pay anymore. The French went into the Ruhr valley to control the operations as a way to force reparations
• Germany ended up printing more money causing severe inflation. The German mark was worthless, now just 4.2 Trillion marks for a single dollar.
• The unstable economy led to Communist uprisings in October 1923 and Adolf Hitler’s Nazis tried to seize power in November.
• The French were hurt too. It was expensive to pay for the military occupation of France in Germany and the reparations offset. The U.S. and G.B. forced France to hold another conference to solve the reparation problem. The conference did it’s work in 1924 and France and Germany looked like the were on agreeable terms.

The Hopeful Years (1924-1939)

• New governments in G.B. and France led to more agreeable approaches to the reparation prob. The Germany gov’t led by Gustav Stresemann committed Germany to keep all terms of the Treaty of Versailles but seek a new settlement for the reparation problem.
• August 1924- International commission produced new plan for reparations called the Dawes Plan granting Germany a $200 million loan for recovery leading up to American investments that helped the economy prosper.
• There were also new efforts at diplomacy. Spirit of international cooperation was driven by the foreign ministers of Germany and France, Gustav Stressemann and Aristide Briand. They concluded the treaty of Locarno. Germany had new Western borders with France and Belgium that were guaranteed. As the treaty did not have anything to do with the eastern borders, Germany assumed they were temporary and the treaty appeared to carry on a new era of peace.
• Germany then entered the League of Nations in March 1926. Two years later, Americans and French signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact promising to renounce war as a proper instrument of diplomacy but no punishment was stated in the treaty if violated.
• The Locarno treaty lacked any substance, it was all words. Germany was in no way shape or form ready to alter its western borders when it had a small military. No country wanted to cut back on weapons. The League of Nations Covenant suggested to reduce the weapons to an amount useful for only self defense. Germany disarmed thinking everyone else would but nothing was achieved in the numerous disarmament conferences and when one was finally successful in 1932, the issue was dead.
• Between 1924 and 1929, another hopeful sign was the coexistence of the west with Soviet Russia. Soviets did not have any high hopes that communism would take over the west. The west also knew that the Bolsheviks could not be ousted so they formed diplomatic relations instead. However, they were still suspicious of the soviets.

The Great Depression

• WWI ended and everyone hoped the economy would be back to the free enterprise system with liberal ideals.
• However, labor unions had grown too strong and governments felt that they had to be controlled.
• Protectionism, trade barriers and reparations and war debts led to a tanking economy.
• After that dash of hope during the period after 1924, the world was plunged into the darkness of the Great Depression.
• The domestic economies already sucked and on top of that the crash of the U.S. stock market amplified the problem.
• Mid-1929…Factor 1:Prices for agricultural goods had tanked because of overproduction. States in central/eastern Europe introduced protective tariffs closing their markets.
• The coal industry slumped as hydroelectric and oil power took over.
• Factor 2: Europe’s prosperity was because of bank loans to Germany provided by the U.S. Americans pulled money out of the German bonds they had previously invested in and put it into the NYSE which was booming.
• The depression led to the money being pulled out even faster for Americans were panicking in October 1929.
• The banks in Germany and Europe were weakened. The Credit-Anstalt bank in Vienna collapsed on May 13, 1931. The economy was overall slowing down.
• In 1932, the unemployment rate in Britain was 1/4 British worker was unemployed. 6 million Germans or 40 percent of the working force lost jobs. 1929 – 1932 showed that production had plummeted 50 percent in the U.S. and nearly as much in Germany.
• Unemployed became the homeless.
• Unexpected social changes occurred. Women were able to get low paying jobs as servants or maids. Men remained unemployed either begging or staying home doing housework.
• The men resented this role reversal and sought the cries of politicians that promised ways to end this.
• Gangs that hung out in the park because there was nothing else to do scared the residents.
• Governments couldn’t do anything. The standard procedure of reducing inflation by cutting wages and raising tariffs worsened the condition.
• The government tried to be more active in economics. Marx’s doctrines seemed to come true too, as he predicted that the capitalism would crash itself because of overproduction. Communism was once again popular. But then simplistic dictatorial solutions were also attractive and this lead to fascism.

The Democratic States

• WWI was claimed to be the war that was fought to create a safe harbor for democracy.
• Many nations had universal suffrage to reward women for WWI efforts. (except France, Italy, and Spain)
• Women were also part of the parliamentary process.

Great Britain

• G.B. in period of readjustment and economic difficulties.
• Lost markets of industrial products to U.S. and Japan.
• Decline of coal, steel, etc. led to decline of employment. David Lloyd George could do nothing to change this.
• Labor Party was now the second largest party.
• Labor-Liberal Coalition allowed Ramsay MacDonald to become the first labor prime minister. He was supported by liberals so no radical or socialist experiments would be tolerated. But his ruling time was short, the Conservatives scared the people into voting against the labor party because it was friendly to communism.
• Stanley Baldwin became the prime minister and guided Britain into a brief prosperity in 1925-1929.
• The unemployment rate was still at 10 percent and British exports were far from par.
• Coal industry declined and the attempt to lower coal miners’ wages led the a national strike (General Strike of 1926) my minors and some trade unions.
• Although a compromise was settled, the miners rejected the agreement forcing them back to work for lower wages.
• The depression was beginning in 1929 and a new labor government came to power but did not solve anything and lost power in 1931.
• National Government, a coalition of all three parties, claimed to have brought the British out of the worst part of the depression in 1936 through the use of protective tariffs and budgeting.
• Politicians also ignored the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and his book General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.
• Keynes disagreed that a free market depression should be left alone to work itself out and that instead public works and deficit spending would simulate production.

France

• France was now the strongest power in Europe. Her goals were to rebuild northern and eastern Europe.
• Conservative National Bloc gov’t led by Raymond Poincare wished to use German reparations for this purpose.
• Poincare eventually had to raise taxes to pay for the Ruhr Valley debacle and the National Bloc was voted out and the Cartel of the Left came into power. Two French lefty parties combined (Rads and Socialists). The Radicals were more geared toward democracy and the Socialists were geared toward Marxist socialism.
• They joined together to win the election but failed to unite under one party with the same goals and Raymond Poincare came back to power, this time stabilizing economy from 1926-29.
• 1932 again was the worst year for France as well. 1932-33, six different cabinets formed as France faced political chaos.
• French Fascist groups formed adhering to far right policies of Fascists in Germany (Nazi) and Italy.
• Feb Riots of 1934 by French fascist leagues caused fright among the people. They believed that the fascists wanted to take over and leftist parties joined together despite differences to form the Popular Front.
• The Popular Front formed in June 1936 and coalition of communists, socialists and radicals led by Leon Blum initiated a new program called the French New Deal.
• New Deal established rights of collective bargaining, 40 hr work week, and two week paid vacations and minimum wage.
• These policies still failed and the French were in no position to deal with the rising aggression of the Nazis in the east.

Scandinavian Example

• Scandinavian states were successful in dealing with the depression.
• Socialist parties grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and headed the governments of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.
• Social Democratic gov’ts encouraged development of rural and industrial co-op enterprises.
• 90 percent of Danish milk industry was organized on a cooperative basis by 1933. Scandinavian co-op avoided the pitfalls of communist or pure capitalism.
• Social Democrats also gave social services: old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, subsidized housing, free prenatal care, maternity allowances, and annual paid vacations
• Sure people paid higher taxes and bureaucracies but private and co-op enterprises prospered and Sweden experienced a greater rise in real wages compared to other European countries.

The United States

• The U.S was affected the most obviously because of the stock market. Franklin Roosevelt won the pres. elect. by landslide.
• His policies for intervention in the economy became known as the New Deal.
• The first New Deal consisted of relief organizations. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insured safety of bank deposits up to $5000.
• The Federal Emergency Relief Administration provided money to help states and local communities help the homeless. Civilian Conservation Corps employed 2 million people in reforestation projects.
• Initially the efforts of the New Deal produced slow recovery. People said he wasn’t doing enough so he initiated the Second New Deal. A new program of public works, Works Progress Admin (WPA), which gave jobs to workers building bridges, roads, post offices, airports, etc.
• Social Security Act created a system of old age pensions and unemployment insurance. National Labor Relations Act encouraged growth of labor unions.
• New Deal did not solve the unemployment problems and the economy went down again in 1937-1938 winter.
• Only WWII would save the economy and restore it back to normal.