The Futile Search For Stability: Europe

Between Wars
Germany grudgingly accepted the Treaty of Versailles; they viewed as
a gratuitously harsh settlement. The United States felt the treaty was
too harsh as well; they never ratified it and continued their policy of
isolationism. France had bore the brunt of the war effort and was
determined to make sure Germany fulfilled all of its reparation
payments.
The Weimar Republic
Germanys immense reparation payments were a albatross on the
economy. When they were unable to pay, France sent troops to occupy
the industrial Ruhr Valley and use the mines and factories to
compensate themselves. To finance the passive resistance, Germany
printed more money, but this only worsened the inflation problems
facing the country; by 1923 the German Mark was essentially
worthless. This hyperinflation especially hurt those on fixed salaries;
the savings of the middle class were mostly destroyed.

The Hopeful Years (1924-1929)

The occupation of the Ruhr Valley was not advantageous to the French;
under pressure from Britain and the U.S. France to leave the Rhineland
and adopt a more conciliatory tone towards Germany.
A. The Dawes Plan
I. Germany was now led by Gustav Stresemann; he agreed to
carry out most of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, but
sought to reach a new settlement of reparations.
II.
Charles Dawes, an American Banker, devised a plan in which
the United States would loan money to Germany. Germany
could then use that money to pay their reparations debt.
III. The Dawes Plan stabilized the German Economy and stopped
the inflationary spiral.
B. The Treaty of Locarno
I. The pact finalized Germanys borders with France, it was
signed by Germany, France, Britain, and Belgium
II.
The pact was a watershed moment in German-Franco
relations. It provided a glimmer of hope in an otherwise
unstable world
A. The Kellogg-Briand Pact

I.

II.

Engineered by U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and

French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand, the pact was signed
by sixty-three countries that promised to renounce war as an
instrument of national policy.
The Kellogg-Briand pact continued the feeling of optimism,
despite the fact that it carried little weight in reality.

The Great Depression

The seeds of the great Depression were sown by the Treaty of
Versailles and World War I. The economy became globalized; meaning
problems in one place reverberated in others. The factors mentioned
below are the main reasons behind the Great Depression.
Causes of the Great Depression
Increased CompetitionDuring the war, Australia, India, and the
U.S. had become producers of many once exclusively European
commodities. This led to a decreased demand for European
products, and changed the longstanding trade relationships.
Credit FinancingConsumers were allowed to by stocks on
margin, sometimes up to ninety percent. This meant any
downward fluctuations in markets could burst the fragile bubble.
ReparationsThe Dawes plan had made the United States the
unnatural center of the global economy. Money flowed from the
U.S. to Germany and then to France and Britain. This made the
world economy too dependent on the United States.
Agricultural InstabilityA surplus of grain led to plummeting
prices, which left many farmers bankrupt and impoverished.
Economic NationalismTo protect domestic markets many
country instituted high tariffs. The United States in particular
enacted some of the highest economic tariffs.

Effects of the Great Depression

The effects of the depression were quite severe. Trade plummeted
and unemployment skyrocketed. The United States and Germany
were the two hardest hit countries; France was the best off, and Britain
was somewhere in between. In 1931 the leading bank in Vienna, the
Creditanslat, collapsed furthering the crisis. Also in 1931 Great Britain
was forced off of the gold standard. Trade in some cases even was on
a barter system.

Democratic Responses
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) in his General Theory of
Unemployment, Interest, and Money wrote that the way to get of a
depression was for the government to inject money into the economy
to spur growth; not to enact austerity measures and raise tariffs.
Great Britain: The government at this time was alternating control
between the Labour and Conservative Parties. Ramsay McDonald
was the first Labour premier, he only lasted ten month after the
Conservatives successfully charged that he was too close to
Communism. He was replaced by the Conservative Stanley Baldwin,
who guided Britain through a period of prosperity from 1925 to 1929.
The 1929 stock market crash led to a national government with both
the Labour and Conservative Parties sharing power. They used the
standard policies of higher tariffs and balanced budgets to bring
Britain out of the worst of the depression by 1936. This left Britain in
weakened state to deal with the impending threat of the Nazis.
France: The French Republic was not immediately affected by the
depression they way her neighbors were, as her economy was not
heavily reliant on trade. However, by 1932 its economic problems were
mounting to the point where extremists were marching through the
streets of Paris. Under this threat the leftist parties finally united under
the leadership of Leon Blum. They formed the Popular Front, a
government that instituted major reformsa minimum wage, 40-hour
workweeks, paid vacations, and collective bargaining rights.
The United States: The U.S. was perhaps most affected by the
depression. Its stock market collapsed, people lost their savings and
starved, and unemployment skyrocketed. These economic hardships
led to Franklin Delano Roosevelt winning the Presidency in 1932. He
initiated a period of recovery with the New Deal in 1936. It provided
for farming subsidies, created the FDIC, which insured bank deposits,
and regulated the market. He also signed the Social Security Act,
which provided money to for unemployment, disability, and old age.
Despite this, it would take the United States until after World War II to
fully recover.

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) and Fascist Italy

The Italian were technically victors in WWI, but not in actuality. They
failed to gain land in Austria and Yugoslavia like they wanted. Adding to
this was an economy in turmoil; Italy was best with high
unemployment, budget deficits, and inflation. Italys already unpopular
democracy was in danger.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) capitalized on this instability.
Originally the editor of a socialist newspaper, Mussolini moved towards
fascism during the war. He used the paramilitary group, the
squadristi (Blackshirts), as his method of gaining power. Initially, the
fascists won few seats in the parliament, and Mussolini felt the time
was right to forcibly take power by marching on Rome. However,
before he could do that King Victor Emmanuel III named him prime
minister. Mussolini and the squadristi then marched on Rome
unopposed.
Now, parliament passes the Acerbo Law, which automatically
grants two thirds of the parliaments seats to the largest party. With an
iron tight majority in place, Mussolini goes about implementing his
plans. Mussolini, or Il Duce, implemented a corporate economy, in
which the economy is run by twenty-two separate companies.
Mussolini also signed the Lateran Accords, which recognized papal
sovereignty over the Vatican, in exchange for the pope not interfering
in governmental matters. Mussolini also encourage large families to
help reverse Italys fertility rate decline.
Mussolini kept a stranglehold on Italy by censoring the press and
using a secret police to silence political dissidents. Mussolini, in
keeping with fascist ideology deplored communism and laissez-faire
economics. Despite this, Mussolini will never achieve the degree of
authoritarianism that Hitler did in Germany.

Hitlers Rise to Power and the Third Reich

Hitler joined the German Workers Party after WWI. He quickly rose
up its ranks, after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, he was sentenced to
five years in prison, but only served nine months. While in prison he
wrote Mein Kampf, which laid out his views on race, as well as
Germanys need for Lebensraum in the east. Hitler decided the best
way to gain power was legally through the Reichstag. After initially
winning few seats, the Nazis had a majority in the Reichstag by 1932.
Despite, this President Paul von Hindenburg was reluctant to
appoint Hitler chancellor out of personal distrust. Eventually he is

forced to, and Hitler has the Enabling Act passed; this makes him in
essence a dictator as he can rule by decree without the legislature.
By 1933 the only real threat to Hitler lay in Ernst Rhm and the
SA. Hitler then orders the execution of the leaders of the SA, in what
becomes known as the Night of the Long Knives. Hindenburg dies in
August, and Hitler becomes sole ruler of Germany. Hitler formed the
Gestapo and the Schutzstaffel (SS) acted as the elite guard of
Germany and the operators of the concentration camps. Hitler also
held mass rallies as a show of strength for Nazi Germany; these rallies
had a profound effect in promoting a crowd mentality. The Hitler
Youth for boys and German League of Maidens were formed to
indoctrinate the youth in Nazi ideology as a well as to reassert
traditional gender roles.
Germany then passed the Nuremberg Laws, which stripped
Jews of citizenship and prohibited them from having sex with Aryans.
The policy then turned violent with Kristallnacht in 1938. The Nazis also
sterilized the mentally disabled and engaged in euthanasia for the
physically deformed and terminally ill.

The Soviet Union Under Joseph Stalin

Russia was a backwards and undeveloped country, but under Stalin it
underwent perhaps the most rapid industrializations ever. Stalin
wanted to focus on socialism in one country before looking for a
global revolution. He ended the NEP, and instated several Five-Year
Plans. These plans promoted the development of heavy industry and a
modern national infrastructure. He also executed millions of kulaks
who resisted forced collectivization of their farms. The USSR was in a
short span a major industrial power. I Stalin also cultivated a cult of
personality around him. He then initiated the Great Purge, in which
he executed the Old Bolsheviks who could oppose him.

Arts: Dadaism, Surrealism, and Abstract

Impressionism
See arts packet pages 12-13

Functionalism
In the mid-1900s an architectural style began to emerge,
functionalism. The basis of the movement was that form should fit
function. In the United States Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis H.

Sullivan were the most famous functionalists. In Germany the

Bauhaus School of Architecture, led to the movements popularity
in Europe. Many of the Bauhauss building were unornamented steel
boxes.

Appeasement Strategy and the Road to World War II

Adolf Hitler continually provoked the Western Allies; he militarized the
Rhineland, withdraws from the League of Nations, expands the
military and rebuilds the air force and navy. Hitler took it one step
further when he invaded the mostly German speaking Sudetenland;
Czechoslovakia had the opportunity to stop them, but British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain forced the hand of the Czechs to give
Hitler the land. Hitler had already signed the Rome-Berlin Axis with
Mussolini. In 1939, Hitler signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression
Pact that shocked all of Europe.
Also at this time Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria for
natural resources, after being condemned by the League of Nations
Japan resigns from the body. Mussolini reinvades Ethiopia to avenge
the 1896 loss. Britain and France weakly condemn and sanction them,
but not enough to change anything.

Spanish Civil War

After the abolishment of the Spanish Monarchy in 1931 Spain was a
republic. In the 1936 elections the Popular Front took power. They
were anti-monarchists, anti-church, and anti-military. This was
unacceptable to the military; led by General Francisco Franco the
army attempted to overthrow the Popular Front leading to a civil war in
which Franco prevailed. He ruled Spain until his death in 1975.

World War II
Hitler begins the war by invading Poland of September 1, 1939. The
Germans defeat the Poles in a matter of weeks; this begins a period of
relative calm known a the phony war. Then, in the spring of 1940
Hitler invades the Low Countries, defeating them and then moving
into France. German forces overrun two-thirds of the country, but the
Miracle at Dunkirk saved many British and French soldiers. Hitler
then turns his attention to defeating Britain. After initially weakening
the British by bombing military sites, Hitler begins bombing British
cities in retaliation for British bombing of German cities. Hitler hopes to

crush the morale of the British, but under the leadership of Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and his stirring speeches, Britain defeats
the Germans in the Battle of Britain. The bombing of British cities
only steeled their resolve to fight.
Hitler then soon invades the Soviet Union. He overruns a broad
area of territory before stalling. Concurrently, the Japanese launch a
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which draws the United States into
the war. Hitler then begins to suffer heavy losses particularly in the
Battle of Stalingrad in which millions perished. Then at the Battle
of Kursk the Soviets turn the tide of war with a decisive victory. Also in
North Africa the Allies have stopped the Germans in their tracks at El
Alamein. In 1943, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill meet at the Tehran
Conference; they agree that they will demand an unconditional
surrender from Germany.
By 1943 the tide of battle has turned against the Axis Powers.
Allied forces capture Sicily and begin to advance up the Italian
Peninsula. And in the Pacific Theatre of War the American win a
decisive victory at the Battle of Midway. Germanys fate is sealed
after D-Day, when Allied forces land on the beaches of Normandy and
begin to advance towards Berlin. The Soviets reach Berlin, and the war
in Europe is over by mid-1945. In the Pacific the U.S. would have to
drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war
with Japan in August 1945.
The Holocaust
(I know this, read about it somewhere else if you want a
review)

The Yalta Conference

The AlliesChurchill, Stalin and Roosevelt met at Yalta to discuss the
layout of post-war Europe. They agreed on a course of free elections
and self-determination for the previously Nazi-controlled countries.
They agreed to de-Nazify Germany and establish the United Nations
(UN). Many consider Roosevelt to have sold out Eastern Europe in order
so that the USSR would help the US defeat Japan. This would be the
last meeting between Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt.

The Potsdam Conference

By the time the Allies met at Potsdam in 1945 Harry S. Truman has
replaced Roosevelt, and Clement Atlee has replaced Churchill. At the
conference the Allies agree to divide Germany into four occupation
zones, hold trials at Nuremberg for Nazi leaders, and provide
reparations for rebuilding the USSR.
However, suspicious of Soviet intentions in Poland the US suspended
aid, which led to a fracturing of relations between the countries.

Development of the Cold War

After World War II the two superpowers of the worldthe United States
and USSRwere locked in an ideological battle. The fight began after
the USSR had liberated all of Eastern Europe; fearful of anti-Soviet
governments coming to power Stalin appointed cronies of the Soviets
to lead these countries, this did not sit well with the US or UK who had
both championed self rule and determination.

The Truman Doctrine

A civil war in Greece erupted between the Communist Peoples
Liberation Army and anti-Communist forces. The British who had been
the dominate Western force in the Middle East and Mediterranean had
largely withdrawn, beset by domestic economic problems. Fear of the
spread of Communism led United States President Harry S. Truman
established the Truman Doctrine. The essence of the doctrine was
that the US would provide monetary support for countries threatened
by Communist expansion. It was the manifestation of the USs policy of
containment; which said that if Communism can be contained it will
die on its own.

The Marshall Plan

The plan was intended to rebuild the economic prosperity of war-torn
Europe. It included $13 billion in loans for the recovery of Western
Europe. It also provided for the eventual establishment of independent
governments in US controlled areas. Some scholars say that the plan
only made Stalin tighten his grip on Eastern Europe.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

The advent of the Cold War and nuclear arms race led to the formation
of new alliances. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
was formed in 1949 when Britain, the United States, Belgium,
Denmark, Luxembourg, Italy, Iceland, Canada, the Netherlands, and
Portugal. Greece, Turkey and West Germany joined a few years later.
The premise of NATO is that attacking one country is equivalent to
attacking them all, as each country is mandated to assist an attacked
nation.
The Warsaw Pact was Eastern Europes equivalent to NATO. It
included Albania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, USSR, Bulgaria, East
Germany, Hungary and Romania. This essentially split the European
continent in half between two powerful alliances.

The Korean War

After the defeat of Japan, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into
the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea.
The US was in charge of the South and the USSR the north. In 1950,
with apparent approval of Stalin, North Korean troops invaded South
Korea. A combination of Korean and US troops led by General
Douglas MacArthur pushed into North Korea, but the intervention of
the Chinese led to a stalemate that ended with an armistice in 1953.
The Korean War is the archetypal proxy war.

Vietnam War
Just know that is another proxy war between USSR and US, and that
the war was extremely unpopular in the US. The war between
resistance fighters under Ho Chi Minh, and French colonial forces
ends with the split of Vietnam at the 17th parallel.

The Nikita Khrushchev Era

1956: Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) takes power after the death
of Stalin. He gives a secret speech in which he outlines his plan of
de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union; he also talks of coexistence with
the West. Sensing weakness the Hungarians revolt, but are crushed by
Khrushchevs forces.
1957: The USSR launches the first satellite Sputnik into outer space.
This would lead the US to create the National Aeronautic and
Space Administration (NASA) and began the so-called space

race. The race would culminate with Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in
1969.
1959: Fidel Castro leads the Cuban Revolution. He then
establishes strong ties with the USSR.
1961: A US attempt to depose Castro called the Bay of Pigs invasion
fails miserably. Also the Soviet Union constructs the Berlin Wall to
prevent East Germans from escaping.
1962: A Soviet plan to install nuclear missiles on the island of Cubaa
mere 90 miles from the US leads to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
President John F. Kennedy averts disaster by negotiating the removal of
the missile in exchange for removing missiles in Turkey and not
invading Cuba.
1963: In order to avoid the communication problems of the Cuban
Missile Crisis the superpowers create a Hot Line that allows the to
directly communicate. They also agree to the Limited Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty, which prohibited nuclear testing underground,
underwater, or in outer space.
1967: The Six-Day War erupts in Israel with the Soviets backing the
Arab forces and the US supporting Israel.
1968: In response to a Czechoslovakian movement know as the
Prague Spring the Soviets announce the Brezhnev Doctrine,
which stated that an assault on communism in one country is taken as
a threat to communism anywhere.

Dtente
1970: The Treaty of Moscow is signed, which stated the Soviet
Unions recognition of West Germany. Both West and East Germany
enter the UN.
1972: The USSR and US agree to the Strategic Arms Limitation
Talks (SALT I). It recognized the evenness that existed between their
nuclear arsenals and was signed in concert with the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty (ABMT).

1975: The Helsinki Accords are signed. It brings a formal end to

WWII to by finalizing the national boundaries of each country.

Revival and Collapse

1979: The Soviet Union begins in ill-advised invasion of Afghanistan
to help out a Communist regime. The war ties up many resources and
contributes to the unions impending collapse.
1981: President Ronald Reagan comes to power. He takes a
hardline stance of the USSR, denouncing it as an evil empire.
1985: The final Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power.
He gives more freedoms through his Glasnost and Perestroika policies.
1991: All of the Soviet republics begin to secede and in December
1991 after a pro-Communism coup failed the USSR dissolves.
The Maastricht Treaty
The treaty created the European Union. The goal of the union is to
create a single Europe with no trade barriers and a common
currency.
**This is not a comprehensive review; the timeline is mostly
based on the one in AP Achiever. See their entire section as
well as that of the textbook for a full review.**