chapter 15 – years of crisis

Chapter 15 – Years of Crisis

Mrs. TuckerWorld History

Victor Valley High School

Main Points Postwar Uncertainty Worldwide Depression Fascism Rising in Europe Aggressors Invade Nations

California Standards

• 10.6.4 – Discuss the influence of World War I on literature, art, and intellectual life in the West (e.g. Pablo Picasso, the “lost generation” of Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway).

Postwar Uncertainty• New Revolutions in

Science

• Albert Einstein – German Born – Theory of Relativity;

• Sigmund Freud – psychology; believed human behavior is irrational – beyond reason -- this was the “unconsciousness;”

Literature in the 1920s• Devastation of World War I

caused writers to question accepted ideas of reason and doubt of traditional religious values

• T.S. Eliot, 1922, American poet living in England – Western society lost its spiritual values; Postwar world a “barren wasteland” drained of faith and hope;

• William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, wrote about a sense of dark times - “The Second Coming” (1921);

Existentialism• Jean Paul Sartre• Belief that there is no universal meaning to life.

Perople create their own mean in life through their choices and actions;

• Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher, was influenced by Existentialism; • Western ideas like reason, democracy, and

progress stifled creativity. He urged return to ancient heroic values – pride, assertiveness, and strength;

Existentialism

Literature in the 1920s

• Czech-born author, Franz Kafka, The Trial, (1925), The Castle, (1926) – people caught in threatening situations they cannot understand nor escape;

• James Joyce, Irish author, stream of consciousness novel, Ulysses (1922);

Kafka and Joyce

Revolution in the Arts

• Artists Rebel against Tradition;• Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky – used bold

colors and distorted or exaggerated forms;

Surrealism

• Surreal – means “beyond or above reality” Used unconscious part of their minds – had an eerie, dreamlike quality to depict objects in unrealistic ways;

• Movement that tried to link the world of dreams with real life – inspired by Freud’s ideas.

• Salvador Dali, Spanish painter, “The Persistence of Memory,” (1931);

The Persistence of Memory

Cubism

• Transformed natural shapes into geometric forms;

• Objects broken down into differnet parts with sharp angles and edges;

• Creator of Cubism; Pablo Picasso, Spanish Painter, Guernica; and

• Georges Braque, French painter, The Violin and the Candlestick;

Cubism – Guernica and Violin of Candlesticks

Music

• Classical• Movement away from traditional styles;• Russian Composer - Igor Stravinsky, “The Rite

of Spring,”—irregular rhythms and dissonances; harsh combinations of sound;

• Austrian composer, Arnold Schoenberg – rejected traditional harmonies and musical scales;

Jazz

• Emerged from the United States, from most African American artists in New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago.

• Lively, loose beat captured the new freedom of the age;

Jazz

New Orleans Jazz

Society Challenges Convention

• Change in Women’s Roles• Women worked in men’s jobs and in war

effort, and wanted the right to vote;• Many countries granted women’s suffrage into

law such as the US, Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Austria.

• Women abandoned restrictive clothing and hairstyles; shorter looser garments and short “bobbed” hair;

Women’s Changes in Fashion

Women’s Roles Change• Women wore make up, drove cars, drank and

smoked in public;• Most women followed traditional paths of

marriage and family;• Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman risked

arrest, speaking out in support of birth control;• Women began to seek careers in medicine,

education, journalism, and clerical fields;

Margaret Sanger/1920s women

Technological Advances Improve Life

• Automobiles – after war were more affordable; people traveled for pleasure;

• People moved to suburbs and commuted to work in cities;

• Airplanes transform travel; International air travel;• Charles Lindbergh – 33-hour solo flight from New

York to Paris – Spirit of St. Louis;• Passenger airlines established during 1920s.• Amelia Earhart, American – in 1932 was first

woman to fly solo across the Atlantic;

Aviation Advances

Radio and Movies Dominate Popular

Entertainment• Guglielmo Marconi – first successful experiments

with radio in 1895;• Radio developed mostly through World War I;• By 1920 the first commercial radio station --- KDKA

in Pittsburgh was broadcasting;• Radio swept the nation and soon every major city

had stations broadcasting news, plays and live sporting events;

• Soon most families would own a radio;

Radios

Hollywood• Motion pictures began with Nickelodeons in

working-class, immigrant neighborhoods;• Movie makers were charged with corrupting the

youth, movie makers tried to make their movies more respectable.

• Movie makers had to find a way to make their product more in line with the dominant culture of a more conservative middle class society. They did that and in doing that they would broaden the appeal and removing the movies;

Hollywood

Hollywood “Big Eight Movie

Companies”• Paramount studies was the first of the studios at this time.

• The “Big Eight”

• Paramount

• Fox

• MGM

• Universal

• Warner Brothers

• Columbia

• United Artists

• RKO

Worldwide Depression

• California Standard 10.6. 2. Describe the effects of the war and resulting peace treaties on population movement, the international economy, and shifts in the geographic and political borders of Europe and the Middle East.

Postwar Europe

• Unstable New Democracies• With the end of WWI, the last of Europe’s

absolute rulers were overthrown;• Provisional Government – Russia’s brief

democratic government;• Weimar Republic – Germany’s new democratic

government;

Weimar Republic• Set up in 1919;• Named for the city where the national assembly met;• Weak from the start;• Germany lacked a strong democratic tradition;• Germany had several major political parties and

many minor ones;• Millions of Germans blamed the Weimar government

for the defeat and postwar humiliation by signing Treaty of Versailles

Weimar Republic

Inflation Caused Crisis in Germany

• Germany did not increase wartime taxes -- Germans just printed more money;

• After the war, Germany printed even more money to pay war reparations;

• Paper money lost its value and the German mark’s value fell sharply.

• Severe inflation set in;• In 1918, a loaf of bread cost less than a mark; In

1922 it was over 160 marks, and in 1923, more than 200 billion marks;

• As a result – many Germans questioned the value of the Weimar Republic;

Hyperinflation

Dawes Plan

• In 1924, International Committee headed by American banker, Charles Dawes, provided for a $200 million loan from US banks to stabilize German currency and strengthen its economy;

• Plan set more realistic schedule for payment of Germany’s reparations;

• The plan helped slow inflation, the German Economy began to recover, and factories were at prewar production by 1929;

The Dawes Plan

Lasting Peace

• With German prosperity, Germany’s foreign minister, Gustav Stresemann and France’s foreign minister, Aristide Briand met to sign a treaty promising France and Germany would never go to war against each other;

• Germany agreed to respect the existing borders of France and Belgium;

• Germany was then admitted to League of Nations;

Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact

• US Secretary of State, Frank Kellogg, and France’s Aristide Briand arranged an agreement to “renounce war as an instrument of national policy.”

• Almost all nations signed this agreement;• The League of Nations – the obvious group

to enforce this treaty, had no armed forces ;

Kellogg Briand Pact

Financial Collapse

• The US economic prosperity largely sustained the world economy;

• In 1929, US factories turned out nearly half the world’s industrial goods;

• This productivity led to enormous profits but the new wealth was not evenly distributed;

• The richest 5% of the population, received 33% of all personal income in 1929;

Financial Collapse• 60% of all American families earned less than

$2,000 a year;• Most families were too poor to buy the goods

being produced;• Unable to sell all their goods, store owners would

cut back their orders from factories;• Factories reduced production and laid-off workers;• This began a downward economic spiral;

Bank Failures

Financial Collapse

• Overproduction affected US farmers also;• Scientific farming methods and new farm

machinery dramatically increased crop yields;• US farmers were producing more food, but

faced new competition from farmers in Australia, Latin America, and Europe;

• There was a worldwide surplus of agricultural products which drove prices and profits down;

Financial Collapse

• Unable to sell their crops at a profit, many farmers could not pay off their bank loans;

• These unpaid debts weakened banks and forced some to close;

• This overproduction by factories and farms should have been a warning to those gambling on the stock market -- but no one heeded the warning;

The Stock Market Crashes

• 1929 – New York City’s Wall Street – financial capital of the world;

• Investors were optimistic about the booming economy;

• In order to invest in the boom economy – many middle-income people bought stocks on “margin” (on credit).

The Stock Market Crashes

• In September, 1929, some investors thought the stock prices were unnaturally high and started selling their stocks;

• By Thursday, October 24, the gradual lowering of stock prices became an all-out slide downward;

• This resulted in a panic! Everyone wanted to sell stocks and no one wanted to buy;

• On Tuesday, October 29, “Black Tuesday,” a record 16 million stocks were sold and the market collapsed.

Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929

The Great Depression • Investors who bought stocks on margin could

not pay what they owed and the stocks were now worthless.

• Within months of the crash, unemployment rates began to rise and industrial production, prices, and wages declined;

• This long business slump would be called the Great Depression;

• The stock market crash alone did not cause the Great Depression but quickened the economy’s collapse;

The Great Depression

The Great Depression• By 1932, factory production was cut in half;• Thousands of businesses failed and banks

closed;• 9 million people lost the money in their savings

accounts from failed banks;• Many farmers lost their lands because they

could not make mortgage payments;• In 1933, one-fourth of all American workers had

no jobs;

Breadlines

The Great Depression

Global Depression• The collapse of the American economy sent shock

waves around the world;• US bankers demanded repayment of their overseas

loans and American investors withdrew their money from Europe;

• The US market for European goods dropped sharply and Congress placed high tariffs (taxes) on imported goods so US dollars would stay in the US;

• This policy backfired – other countries imposed higher tariffs and world trade dropped by 65%!

• Unemployment rates soared!

Depression

The World Confronts Crisis

• Britain takes Steps to Improve its Economy;• Voters elected multiparty coalition known as National

Government;• Passed high protective tariffs;• Increased taxes• Regulated the currency;• Lowered interest rates to encourage industrial growth;These measure brought a slow and steady recovery;By 1937, unemployment was cut in half and production

was above 1929 levels;Britain avoided political extremes and preserved

democracy;

France Responds to Economic Crisis

• France’s economy was more self-sufficient – it was heavily agricultural and less dependent on foreign;

• Still, by 1935, one million French workers were unemployed;

• This contributed to political instability – In 1933, 5 coalition governments formed and fell;

• Political leaders were frightened by the growth of antidemocratic forces in France and other parts of Europe;

France Responds to Economic Crisis

• In 1936, moderates, Socialists, and Communists formed a coalition – The Popular Front;

• The Popular Front passed a series of reforms to help the workers;

• Price increases quickly offset wage gains;• Unemployment remained high;• France also preserved a democratic government;

Socialist Governments Find Solutions

• Socialist governments in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway met the challenge of economic crisis successfully; Their recovery programs on existing tradition of cooperative community action;

• In Sweden government sponsored massive public works projects that kept people employed and producing;

• All Scandinavian countries raised pensions for elderly, increased unemployment insurance, subsides for housing, and other welfare benefits;

• These were paid for by taxes;• Democracy remained intact;

US Recovery• In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected;• His confidence reassured the millions of

Americans who felt bewildered by the Depression;• New Deal – large public works projects to provide

jobs for unemployed;• Government agencies gave financial help to

businesses and farms;• Large amounts of public money spent on welfare

and relief programs;

Franklin D. Roosevelt

US Recovery• The Roosevelt administration believed

government spending would create jobs and start a recovery;

• Regulations were imposed to reform the stock market and banking system;

• The New Deal did eventually reform the US economic system;

• Roosevelt’s leadership preserved the country’s faith in its democratic political system and established him as a leader of democracy in a world threatened by ruthless dictators;

Fascism Rises in Europe

Aggressors Invade Nations