Chapter 30
The Great Depression and the Authoritarian Response
- Introduction
- What in the world is this chapter about?
- The Great Depression only worsened existing issues
- Decline of globalization, flaws in Western democracies
- New reactions to the Great Depression – and they’re not democracies
- Nazi Germany
- Semifascist Japan
- Stalinist Russia
- China
- Authoritarian regimes in Latin America
- The Global Great Depression
- Causation
- 1929 Stock Market Crash + new problems w/ industrialized + weak econ.
- Inflation – prices of items go up, but value doesn’t
- Overproduction of farm goods – cheap prices
- Farmers buy more equipment, but…that’s bad
- Market dies and then you have supply and demand issues
- Third world countries push up production levels – prices drop again
- So…they can’t buy industrial goods either
- Reliance on US loans to Europe
- Pays off debts, helps buy new products
- Inability to look at the big picture, outside own country
- Protectionism - High tariffs to protect home industry
- Insist on repayment of debts
- The Debacle
- Stock Market Crash effects
- Banks – lose money they had invested
- Call in loans from Europe
- Can’t pay loans, where’d they get the money from
- Creditors have no money to invest
- Investors lose money
- No money to invest, no money to keep industry going
- Employment falls, lower wages
- Low wages > can’t buy goods…do you see the spiral
- Unprecedented depression/recession
- Global impact
- Length – not until World War II pulled out
- Social effects
- Suicides
- Educated can’t get jobs
- Family roles disrupted – husbands can’t get jobs – kids/mom work
- Popular culture
- Women’s fashions more sedate
- Escapist entertainment – Superman can save the day
- So is Europe falling apart? Two crises in two decades
- Economic system not the best
- Parliamentary democracies can’t solve problems
- And what about Russia?
- Stays out of Depression – socialism in one country
- Not a huge part of global trading world – doesn’t effect them
- Other countries aren’t buying nations primary exports
- Japanese silk industry
- Latin American natural resources
- And then things get worse?
- Drought, poor harvest
- How do nations solve the problem?
- Latin American gov’t get more involved in economic decisions
- Japan conquers region – West can’t be trusted
- West – new welfare programs
- Italy/Germany fascism
- Responses to the Depression in Western Europe
- Bad ideas – just protect self
- High tariffs bad – other nations respond, stop buying
- Gov’t cuts off funding of programs
- Solutions – useless parliament or overturning of parliament
- Struggling parliaments
- Communist/socialist parties became more popular
- France – they unite create Popular Front – wins 1936
- But…conservative Republicans hesitant to change
- So…how about a welfare state
- Scandinavian countries pump $ into social welfare programs
- The New Deal
- Hoover’s ideas failed – tariffs + debt repayment
- Roosevelt’s New Deal
- Provided jobs, unemployment insurance, social security
- Economic planning – control rate of supply to regulate demand
- Change for U.S. – government grows – later military grows
- Doesn’t go as far as Scandinavia, but not revolution either
- Nazism and Fascism
- Why was life worse in Germany?
- Shock of loss
- Treaty arrangements – blame
- Veterans of war attacked weak parliament
- Need strong nation with strong leader
- Why are Fascists/Nazis a solution
- Appeal to landlords/business groups – anti-communist
- Preach need for unity
- Return to traditional past
- Guilds for artisans – yeah right
- No department stores
- No new woman – feminism
- Foreign policy to right the wrongs of Versailles
- Scapegoat in the Jews
- So many parties in parliament – don’t need a majority
- Totalitarian state – control all elements of society
- eliminated political parties
- purged bureaucratic/military – put in Nazis
- secret police – Gestapo – arrested anti-Nazis
- Got rid of trade unions – gave jobs/welfare to everyone
- Propaganda department – constant
- Nationalism
- Attacks on Jewish minority
- Blamed for socialism, capitalism
- Jewish policy – gradually more restrictive
- wear stars > seized property > sent to concentration camps
- Elimination of Jews
- Hitler’s foreign policy
- Lebensraum – land empire
- Ignored elements of Versailles – but appeased
- ignored disarmament
- Anschluss with Austria
- Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia – Munich Conference
- Appeasement – “peace in our time”
- If you give in now, psycho guy will keep taking
- Made secret deal with USSR
- Divide Poland, don’t fight each other
- The Spread of Fascism and the Spanish Civil War
- Nazi success inspires neighbors
- Eastern Europe takes fascist/authoritarian shift
- Italy inspired to actually spread empire – dreaded Ethiopia
- Spreads to Spain – Spanish Civil War
- Parliamentary republic vs. military backed authoritarian state
- General Francisco Franco supported by Nazis
- Republicans supported by US, USSR, and W. Europe
- Franco wins – next 25 years authoritarian
- Ruled by landlords, church, and army
- Economic and Political Changes in Latin America
- Introduction
- Social and cultural tension
- Growing middle class threatens old oligarchy
- Increased urban population
- Immigration + urbanization
- New political parties – nationalist and populist – push for change
- How did World War I affect L. America economies?
- Forced to industrialize quickly – no markets
- Import substitution industrialization
- Same continuities
- Limited markets, low technological skill, low capital
- WWI demand for some goods artificial – led to overproduction
- Labor and the Middle Class
- Political stability through alliance of landlords and urban middle class
- But coalition of frustrated emerge
- Annoyed that import-export capitalism leads to income gap
- Military officers, state politicians, bandits, peasants
- Urban workers wanted to use power to
- Anarchism – destroy state control
- syndicalism – use strikes to break down state
- Gov’t makes sure they repress rebellions
- Violent strikes/repression symbol of class conflict
- Ideology and Social Reform
- L. American middle class can only have power if linked w/ oligarchy/military
- Liberalism not working
- Industrialization, education not helping landless destitute
- By 1920s, looks like liberal reforms going nowhere
- Communists want to get rid of liberal governments
- Roman Catholic Church also annoyed with secular capitalist values
- The Great Crash and Latin American Responses
- Problems facing Latin America w/ Crash
- Export sales drop/liberal democracies look like failures
- Reaction from right – church + military leaders
- Corporatism – state acts as mediator between power groups
- Shared some ideas of fascists
- Mexico – Lazaro Cardenas attempts land reform
- 40 million acres of communal farms + credit system
- State controls oil
- Theme – need a new government – nationalism + new players
- The Vargas Regime in Brazil
- Getulio Vargas tries to set up strong central government
- Has to fight communists on right and fascists on left
- Sets up what kind of gov’t…you guessed it…authoritarian
- Nationalism + economic reforms
- Eliminated immigration
- No opposition to gov’t
- no political parties
- labor unions minimal power
- Later he changes to be more liberal
- Eventually supports allies
- Arms and $ for bases and troops
- Eventually kills self in 1954 – opposition from both sides – becomes martyr
- Argentina: Populism, Peron and the Military
- With failure of depression, tries new gov’t
- Weird coalition of nationalists, fascists and socialists
- Military takes over in 1943
- Juan Peron uses power but supports people – raises to the poor
- Creates coalition of workers, industry, labor
- But hard to hold together in tough times
- Military and Industrialists scared
- Went too far when he went against Catholic Church
- Exiled, but then returns in 1973, wins presidency - dies
- Very popular guy – wife Eva asks as intermediary
- Used press, radio, speeches to get support
- Champion of the poor, labor unions
- The Militarization of Japan
- Introduction
- How was Japan Similar to Europe
- aggressive military – take over Manchuria w/out civilian support
- Political response
- Nationalistic movement – return to Shinto/Confucian past
- Protest against parliament reforms
- Guess who feels left out
- Military leaders want someone to just call the shots
- Actually killed prime minister - 1932
- Moderate military leaders
- More severe military try in 1936
- So…by 1936, if you’re not a militaristic prime minister, you could die
- Conflict w/China
- Feared that China would push for Manchuria/Korea
- Take them out before they can have strong army
- Economy gets tied to newly conquered areas
- Korea, Manchuria, Tawian (Formosa)
- 50% exports go there, 40% imports from there
- Japan keeps expanding – Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
- Need control of resources
- Kick out Europeans
- Japanese culture forced on Koreans
- Industrialization and Recovery
- Japan’s reaction to the Depression
- Government steps in immediately
- Spending to provide jobs
- Created demand for food/manufactured items
- Unemployment over basically by 1936
- Supported military manufacturing
- Recovery more impressive than west
- Iron, steel, chemicals, electricity soar
- Assembly line makes more efficient
- World worried about Japanese export force
- Choices that inspire patriotism
- Lifelong contracts to skilled workers, entertainment
- Foundation of machines and scientific knowledge
- Stalinism in the Soviet Union
- Introduction
- Experimenting with new ideas is cute and all, but the man of steel is in charge
- Stalin – back to the basics – hurt wealthy people so he can benefit
- Take land from kulaks – wealthy landowners
- Industrialize w/out private initiative – he controls everything
- But…he will borrow some Western engineers/science
- Economic Policies
- Collectivization – put all land into mass holdings by government
- Everyone would share equipment and work in harmony…ahhh
- Plus…get to keep eyes on naughty peasants
- And…need to get taxes from peasants to industrialize
- What were the reactions to collectivization?
- Laborers – yeayy…we get to take stuff from kulaks
- But…what’s the motivation…life is still just D-
- Why put forth extra effort
- Kulaks…boo…we don’t want to give up stuff
- So…Kulaks introduced to blistery conditions of Siberia
- Was collectivization successful?
- Kulaks killed/exiled, labor not efficient, but industrial workers freed
- Urbanization – unskilled workers to the cities
- Now…the five-year plans for industry
- Massive factories for metallurgy, mining, electric power
- Like Peter the Great – modernize w/ minimal Western help
- Goods produced were heavy industry, not consumer goods
- So…not a lot of cool stuff to buy in the shops
- Not capitalism
- Government decides on resources and supply quantities
- So…supply numbers too low or too high sometimes
- Between 1927 and 1937…industrialization increases 1400%
- US, Germany, USSR – third largest industrial power
- Sure…40 million people died in process, but…end justifies
- Toward an Industrial Society
- What were the effects of industrialization?
- Crowded cities
- Workers help
- publicly rewarded/given bonuses for production
- Welfare services – healthcare, illness/old age protection
- Worker grievances analyzed
- Strikes not allowed
- Totalitarian Rule
- But…like gets pretty boring – Stalin must control everything
- Controls intellectual life
- Western culture, artists, writers exiled/killed
- Instead you get Socialist realism – heroic ideals of worker
- No scientific free inquiry – study only practical science
- Government police
- Punish anyone – real and imagined opponents
- Great purge of party leaders – 1936-1937 – kangaroo court
- Confess to crimes didn’t commit
- News monopolized – let’s just say there was a bit of propaganda
- Congresses + executive committee (Politburo) really have no power
- Foreign policy
- Killed all the good generals – puts a damper on foreign policy
- Pretty much stays isolationist in 1920s
- But…that Germany looks a bit dangerous
- Ally selves w/ US, French and UK in Spanish Civil War
- But…not enough
- USSR signs peace pact w/ Germany – prepares for war
- Gets part of Poland
- Two liars lying to each other
- New Political and Economic Realities
- Introduction
- Thanks Depression – options – weak parliament or fascist state
- Forces new political reactions
- Latin America tries new initiatives
- Japan goes militaristic
- Russia goes totalitarian
- Middle East reaction
- Turkey goes anti-Muslim traditions
- Women can vote, upper class can’t wear fancy hats – fez
- Turkey/Persia try to be self-sufficient – don’t need western imports
- Arab nationalism forces Europeans to grant independence
- Global Connections
- Depression and Retreat
- Western European countries go protectionist – things get worse
- Japan annoyed at Western tariffs – wants to control sphere, not be vulnerable
- Germany wants to be self-sufficient – pulls out of world community
- Soviet Union – yeah, yeah…workers of the world unite, but in reality
- Let’s just protect our own borders – isolationist/nationalist
The world is just falling apart, and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t be humpty together again.