AP EUROPEAN HISTORY

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“EUROPE AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930S”

England: Ramsay MacDonald and the Depression, 1929-1931

n Required by law to hold elections in 1929, the May 30th contest saw the Conservatives drop to 260 seats, Labour rise to 287, and the Liberals 59.

n Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour government that would last until 1931.

n The most serious problem facing the country was the Depression, which caused unemployment to reach 1.7 million by 1930 and over 3 million by 1932.

England: Ramsay MacDonald and the Depression, 1929-1931

n To meet growing budget deficits caused by heavy subsidies to the unemployed, a special government commission recommended budget cuts and tax increases.

n Cabinet and labor union opposition helped reduce the total for the cuts from 78 million to 22 million.

n This however did not restore confidence in the government, which fell on August 24, 1931.

The “National Government,”
1931-1935

n The following day, King George VI helped convince MacDonald to return to office as head of a National Coalition cabinet made up of 4 Conservatives, 4 Laborites, and 2 Liberals.

n The Labour Party refused to recognize the new government and ejected MacDonald and Snowden from the Party.

n MacDonald’s coalition swept the November 1931 general elections winning 554 of 615 seats.

The “National Government,”
1931-1935

n The British government abandoned the gold standard on September 21, 1931 and adopted a series of high tariffs on imports.

n Unemployment peaked at 3 million in 1932 and dropped to 2 million two years later.

n In 1931, the British government implemented the Statue of Westminster, which created the British Commonwealth of Nations, granted its members political equality, and freedom to reject any act passed by parliament that related to a Dominion state.

The Election of 1935

n MacDonald resigned his position in June, 1935 because of ill health and was succeeded by Stanley Baldwin, whose conservative coalition won 428 seats in new elections in November.

n Baldwin’s coalition government will continue the economic gains made by MacDonald’s coalition.

France During the
Depression Years

France Under Andre Tardieu, 1929-1932

n On July 27, 1929, Poincare resigned as Premier because of ill health.

n Over the next three years, the dominant figure in French politics was Andre Tardieu, who headed or played a role in Moderate cabinets.

n Tardieu tried to initiate political changes along American or British lines to create a stable two party system that would help France deal with the world economic crisis.

n He convinced the Laval government and the Chamber to accept electing its members by a plurality vote, though the Senate rejected it.

Social Welfare Programs and the Depression

n In 1930, the government passed France’s most important social welfare legislation, the National Workingman's Insurance Law.

n It provided various forms of financial aid for illness, retirement, and death.

n The Depression did not hit France until late 1931, and it took it four years to begin to recover from it.

n At first, however, the country seemed immune to the Depression and the economy boomed.

n Its manufacturing indices reached a peak in 1929, but began gradually to slide through 1932.

n The economy recovered the following year and dropped again through 1935.

Return of the Cartel des Gauches, 1932-1934

n The defeat of the Moderates and the return of the leftists in the elections of May 1, 1932 reflected growing concern over the economy and failed efforts of the government to respond to the country’s problems.

n France remained plagued by differences over economic reform between the Radicals and Socialists.

n The latter advocated nationalization of major factories, expanded social reforms, and public works programs for the unemployed, while the Radicals sought a reduction in government spending.

n This instability was also reflected in the fact that there were six Cabinets between June 1932 and February 1934.

The Emergence of
Radical Groups

n The government's inability to deal with the country's economic and political problems saw the emergence of a number of radical groups from across the political spectrum.

n Some of the more prominent were the Fascist Francistes. The Solidarite Francaise, the “Cagoulards,” the Parti Populaire Francaise and the Jeunesses Patriotes.

n Not as radical, through still on the right were the Croix de Feu and the Action Francaise.

n At the other extreme were the French Communist Party.

Struggle for Stability

n The accession of Gaston Doumergue with his “National Union” cabinet, stabilized the public crisis.

n The new premier tried to use radio to convince the public of the need to increase the power of the President, Albert Lebrum and to enable the Premier to dissolve the legislature.

n Discontent with Doumergue’s tactics resulted in resignations from his Cabinet and its fall in November, 1934.

n France would have four more governments between Nov. 1934 and early 1936.

Germany

The Young Plan

n One of the last accomplishments of Stresemann before his death on October 3 was the Young Plan.

n An altered reparations proposal that required Germany to make yearly payments for 59 years that varied from 1.6 to 2.4 billion Reichsmarks.

n In return the Allies removed all foreign controls on Germany’s economy and agreed to leave the Rhineland the following year.

n Efforts by the conservative extremists to stop Reichstag adoption failed, while a national referendum on the reactionary bill suffered the same fate.

Germany and the Depression

n The Depression had a dramatic effect on the German economy and politics.

n German exports which had peaked at 13.5 billion marks in 1929, fell to 12 billion marks in 1930 and to 5.7 billion in 1932.

n Imports suffered the same fate, going from 14 billion marks in 1928 to 4.7 billion in 1932.

n The country’s national income dropped 20% during this period, while unemployment rose fro 1.3 million in 1929 to 6 million (43% of the workforce).

The Rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism

n The history of Nazism and Hitler go together.

n Austrian born in 1889, grew up in a middle class household.

n A frustrated artist, he moved to Vienna where he unsuccessfully tried to become a student in the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

n He then became an itinerant artist, living a life of destitution.

n Joining the German army at the beginning of the war, Hitler emerged as a decorated corporal, with a mission to go into politics and restore his country’s bruised honor.

Hitler Meets Nazism

n In 1919, Hitler joined the German Workers Party (DAP), which he soon took over and renamed the National Socialist Workers party (NAZI).

n In 1920, the Party adopted a 25-point program that included treaty revision, anti-Semitism, economic and other social changes.

n They also created a defense cadre of the Sturmabteilung (SA). “Storm Troopers” or “Brown Shirts.”

n Other early Nazi leaders were:

n Ernst Rohm, Dietrich Eckart, Alfred Rosenberg, Hermann Goering, and Rudolf Hess.

The Beer Hall Putsch

n In the midst of the country’s severe economic crisis in 1923, the Party, which now had 55,000 members tried to seize power.

n First marched on Berlin

n When that attempt failed they marched on Munich.

n The march was topped by police and Hitler and his supporters were arrested.

n Hitler’s trial gave him national recognition.

n Hitler was sentenced for five years but only spent 8 months in prison.

n While there he dictated Mein Kampf, (My Struggle) to Rudolf Hess

The Nazi Movement

n Hitler’s failed coup and imprisonment convinced him to seek power through legitimate political channels.

n Hitler took singular control of the party.

n Est. Party districts throughout Germany.

n A court system, the Uschla, oversaw the Party structure.

n The Party grew from 27,000 members in 1925 to 108,000 in 1929.

n Several new leaders also emerged in the Party reorganization.

n Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler

Weimar Politics

n Germany’s economic woes and the government’s seeming inability to deal with them, underlined the weaknesses of the country’s political system and provided the Nazis with new opportunities.

n In March, 1930, a new coalition government headed by Heinrich Bruenig, tried to promote a policy of government economic retrenchment and deflation.

n Rejected by the Reichstag

n President Hindenburg invoked Article 48 of the constitution, which enabled him to order the implementation of Breunig’s program.

n Vetoed by the Reichstag for the fall of the government and new elections to be held.

Reichstag Elections of September 14, 1930

n The Nazis saw their 1928 vote jump from 800,000 to 6.5 million (18.3% of the vote).

n Gave them 107 seats in the Reichstag, second only to the Social Democrats with143 seats.

n Bruenig continued to serve as Chancellor of a weak coalition with the support of Hindenburg and rule by presidential decree.

n His policies failed to resolve the country's growing economic dilemmas.

Presidential Elections of 1932

n Hindenburg’s seven year term of office ended in 1932, and felt he had to run for president again to stop Hitler from gaining the presidency.

n Hindenburg received 49% of the vote while Hitler gained 30%.

n Since Hindenburg did not receive a majority of the votes a run-off election was held.

n Hindenburg 53% / Hitler 37%

The von Papen Chancellorship

n On June 1, Bruenig was replaced by Franz von Papen, who headed up an conservative government with the support of Hindenburg in an attempt to keep Hitler from gaining power.

n New elections were held in July and the Nazis gained 230 Reichstag seats.

n Hitler was offered a Vice Chancellorship and an opportunity to join a coalition government but he refused.

n New elections were again held in November, in which the Nazis lost 34 seats while the Communists went from 89 to 120 seats.

n Von Papen resigned and Kurt von Scheicher, was named Chancellor.

Hitler Becomes Chancellor

n Von Papen joined with Hitler to undermine Schleicher and convinced Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Chancellor and head of a new coalition government.

n Hitler dissolved the Reichstag and called for new elections in March, 1933.

n Initiated an anti-Communist campaign

n On Feb. 7, 1933, the Reichstag burned down and Hitler got Hindenburg to issue the “Ordinance for the Protection of the German State and Nation.”

n Removed all civil and press liberties.

n When elections were held in March, the Nazis controlled 288 seats.

Hitler’s New Government

n Within a few weeks, Hitler had complete legislative power and began a policy of Gleichschltung or “coordination.”

n An attempt to bring all independent organizations and agencies under his control.

n All political parties were outlawed or forced to dissolve.

n July 14^th, the Nazi Party was the only legal party in Germany.

n Non-Aryan and anti-Nazis were removed from civil service.

n Strikes were declared illegal and labor unions were dissolved.

n Finally, the GESTAPO was created on April 24, 1933.

Italy and Economic Reforms

Fascist Economic Reforms

n Increased economic well-being and growth were the promised results of Mussolini’s restructuring of the economic system, while the general goals of the regime were to increase production through more efficient methods and land reclamation, with less dependency upon outside resources.

Land Reclamation

n Efforts to increase the land under cultivation through reclamation projects was successful except for the small farmer.

n By 1938, 12 million acres had been reclaimed.

n Large landowners (.5% of the pop.) owned 42% of the land while small farmers (87.3% of the pop.) owned 13.2% of the land.

n Regardless, grain production increased from 4,479 metric tons in 1924 to 8,184 metric tons in 1938.

n Cut grain imports by 75%.

Italy and the Depression

n To aid firms affected by the Depression, the government created the I.R.I.

n Provided support for most large companies while smaller ones were allowed to fail.

n The result was that the vast majority of Italy’s major industry came under some form of government oversight.

n Italian production figures are unimpressive during this period.

n Steel production dropped.

n Other industries saw modest gains.

Overall Impact of Mussolini’s Economic Programs

n The overall impact of Mussolini’s economic programs saw the country’s national income rise 15% from 1925 to 1935.

n However, there was only a 10% per capita increase during this period.

n The value of exports dropped from 44,370 million lira in 1925 to 21,750 in 1938.

Church and State

n Until Mussolini’s accession to power, the pope had considered himself a prisoner in the Vatican.

n In 1926, Mussolini’s government began talks to resolve this issue, which included the Lateran Accords.

n Italy recognized the Vatican as an independent state, with the pope as its head, while the papacy recognized Italian independence.

n Catholicism was made the official state religion of Italy, and religious teaching was required in all secondary schools.

n Church marriages were now fully legal while the state could veto papal appointments of bishops.

Conflict Over Youth Education

n A conflict soon broke out over youth education and in May 1931, Mussolini dissolved the Catholic Action’s youth groups.

n The pope responded with an encyclical, Non abbianio bisogno, which defended these groups, and criticized the Fascist deification of the state.

n Mussolini agreed later that year to allow Catholic Action to resume limited youth work.

Foreign Policy

n The appointment of Adolph Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in early 1933 provided Mussolini with his most important thrust of diplomatic action since he came to power.

n Since the late 1920s Mussolini began to support German claims for revision of the Treaty of Versailles to strengthen ties with that country and to counter-balance France, a nation he strongly disliked.

n These goals were current in his Four Power Pact proposal of March 1933 that envisioned a concert of power – England, France, Italy, and Germany.

n French opposition to arms equality and treaty revisions, plus concerns that the new consortium would replace the league of Nations, saw an extremely weakened agreement signed in June that was ultimately only signed by Germany and Italy.

A “Balance of Power”

n In an effort to counter the significance of France’s Little Entente with Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Rumania, Mussolini concluded the Rome Protocols with Austria and Hungary in 1934.

n Created a protective bond of friendship between the three countries.

n The first real test of the new alliance between Italy and Austria came in July 1934 when German-directed Nazis tried to seize control of the Austrian government.

n Mussolini opposed to any Germany Anschluss with Austria, mobilized Italian forces along the northern Renner Pass as a warning to Hitler.

n The coup collapsed from lack of direct German aid.

Response to German Rearmament

n In response to Hitler’s announcement of German rearmament in violation of the Treaty of Versailles on March 16, 1935, France, England and Italy met at Stresa, in northern Italy on April 11-14.

n Concluded agreements that pledged joint military collaboration if Germany moved against Austria or along the Rhine.

n The Three states criticized Germany’s recent decision to remilitarize and appealed to the Council of the League of Nations on the matter.

Ethiopia

n Ethiopia became an area of strong Italian interest in the 1880s.

n The costal region was slowly brought under Italian control until the Italian defeat at Ethiopian hands at Adowa in 1894.

n In 1906, the country’s autonomy was recognized and in 1923 it joined the League of Nations.

n Mussolini driven by a strong patriotic desire to avenge the humiliation at Adowa and to create an empire to thwart domestic concerns over the country’s economic problems, searched for the proper moment to seize the country joining it with Italy’s other two colonies in Africa.

Italy Prepares for Invasion

n Mussolini who had been preparing for war with Ethiopia since 1932, established a military base at Wal Wal in Ethiopian territory.

n Beginning in December 1934, a series of minor conflicts took place between the two countries, which gave Mussolini an excuse to plan for the full takeover of the country in the near future.

Italian Invasion

n Mussolini refused to accept arbitration over Ethiopia and used Europe’s growing concern over Hitler’s moves there to cover his own secret designs in Ethiopia.

n On Oct. 2, 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia, while the League of Nations, which had received four appeals from the Ethiopian leader, Haile Selassie since January about Italian territorial transgressions.

n The League issued economic sanctions against Italy but was unable to enforce them.

n On May 9, 1935, Italy formally annexed Ethiopia, joining it with Somalia and Eritrea creating Italian East Africa.

The Soviet Union

Collectivization of Agriculture

n At the end of 1927, Stalin concerned over problems of grain supply ordered the gradual consolidation of the country’s 25 million small farms, on which 80% of the population lived, into state-run collective farms.

n According to the First Five Year Plan’s goals (1928-1932), agricultural output was to rise 150% over five years, and 20% of the country’s private farms transformed into collectives.

Growth of Collectivities

n In an effort to link agricultural efficiency with heavy industrial developments, Stalin decided by the end of 1929 to rapidly collectivize the country’s entire agricultural system.

n Because of earlier resistance from peasants between 1927 and 1929, Stalin ordered war against the kulak or “middle class” peasant class.

n Some sources claim that as many as 5 million ill-defined kulaks were internally deported during this period.

Kulak Resistance

n The deportations along with forced grain seizures, triggered massive, bloody resistance in the country-side.

n Though half of the nation’s peasants were forced onto collectives during this period, they destroyed a great deal of Russia’s livestock in the process.

n In the spring of 1930, Stalin called a momentary halt to the process, which prompted many peasants to leave the state farms.

Final Collectivization

n Over the next seven years, the entire Soviet system was collectivized and all peasants forced onto state farms.

n The two major types of farms:

n the soukhoz, where peasants were paid for their labor

n the kovkhoz, or collective farms, where the peasants gave the government a percentage of their crops and kept the surplus.

n One of the most important components of the collective and the state farm system was the Machine Tractor Station (MTS) which controlled the tractors and farm equipment for various government run farms.

Results of Collectivization

n Direct and indirect deaths from Stalin’s collectivization efforts totaled 14.5 million.

n Grain production levels did not reach 1928 levels until 1935.

n It did, though, break the back of rural peasant independence and created a totalitarian network of control throughout the countryside.

n It also undercut his own base of political support within the Party.

Industrialization

n Stalin concerned that Russia would fall irreparably behind the West industrially, hoped to achieve industrial parity with the West in a decade.

n At this time, Russia was barely on par with Italy in pig-iron and steel production.

n To stimulate workers, labor unions lost their autonomy and workers, including impressed peasants, were forced to work at locations and under conditions determined by the state.

n A special “Turnover” tax was placed on all goods throughout the country to help pay for industrialization.

Industrialization Goals

n The industrialization goals of the First Five Year Plan, supported hopefully by a flourishing agricultural system, were to increase total industrial production by 236%, heavy industry by 330%, coal, 200%, electrical output, 400%, and pig-iron production, 300%.

n Workers were to increase their efforts over 100%.

n Efficiency was also a hallmark of this program and production costs were to drop by over a third, and prices by a quarter.

Unrealistic Goals

n In most instances, the Plan’s unrealistic goals were hard to meet.

n Regardless, steel production doubled, though it fell short of the Plan’s goals, as did oil, and hard coal output.

n Total industrial production, however, did barely surpass the Plan’s expectations.

The Second Five Year Plan

n The Second Five Year Plan (1933-37) was adopted by the XVII Party Congress in early 1934.

n Its economic and production targets were less severe than the first Plan, and thus more was achieved.

n The model for workers was Alexis Stakhanov, a miner who met 1400% of his quota.

n A Stakhanovite movement arose arose to stimulate workers to greater efforts.

n By the end of the Second Plan, Soviet Russia had emerged as a leading world industrial power, though at great costs.

n Gave up quality for quantity.

n Created tremendous discord with in the USSR

Party Politics and Purges

n The tremendous upheaval caused by forced collectivization, blended with the remnants of the Rightist conflict with Stalin, prompted the Soviet leader to initiate one of the country's periodic purges of the Party.

n Approved by the top leadership, suspected opponents were driven from party ranks while Zinoviev and Kamenev was exiled to Siberia.

n Continued uncertainty over the best policies to follow after the initiation of the Second Five Year Plan ended with the murder at the end of 1934 of Sergei Kirov, Stalin’s supposed heir, and Leningrad Party chief.

n Was liberal and a growing threat to Stalin’s leadership.

Results of the Purges

n In the spring of 1935, the recently renamed and organized secret police, the NKVD, oversaw the beginnings of a new, violent Purge that eradicated 70% of the 1934 Central Committee.

n A large number of powerful military officers were also eliminated.

n Stalin sent 8 to 9 million to camps and prisons, and caused untold deaths before the Purges ended in 1938.

Foreign Policy

n The period from 1929 to 1933 saw the USSR retreat inward as the bulk of its energies were put into domestic economic growth.

n Regardless, Stalin remained sensitive to growing aggression and ideological threats abroad such as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor.

n As a result, Russia left its cocoon in 1934, joined the League of Nations, and became an advocate of “collective security” while the Comintern adopted Popular Front tactics , allying with other parties against fascism and to strengthen the Soviet Union's international posture.

n The USSR also signed a military pact with France.