An Age of Uncertainty

The War to End All Wars

15 Million dead 20 million wounded religion science art democracy Freud

After World War I, people everywhere questioned old ideas about religion, leadership, and even science. Men like Sigmund Freud developed new ideas about what motivated people. Albert Einstein develops the Theory of Relativity which upsets scientific beliefs held since Isaac Newton. The Uncertainty Principle

Writers look for meaning… Jean Paul Satre Ernest Hemingway and friends in Pamplona

Art between the World Wars

Bauhaus Architecture Walter Gropius Form follows function

After women won the right to vote in Russia, western nations that claimed to be democratic finally were forced to give women the vote.

The Great Depression

European countries borrow money from the USA after WWI In 1928 the USA started calling in debts and collecting investments Overproduction of farm goods and factory goods Stock market allows purchases on margin (3%) Black Thursday in 1929 leads to Great Depression 44% of banks go out of business and production in 1932 was ½ of 1929

Causes of the Great Depression

Black Tuesday

Hoovervilles

International Reactions to the Great Depression Laissez-faire fails Trade barriers (tariffs) planned scarcity govt. destroys crops, livestock John Maynard Keynes, economist Stimulate economy by lowering interest rates encouraging investment, employment The New Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt WWII Spending

Rise of the Totalitarians Communism in the USSR Fascism in Italy and Germany

March 1917 Czar Nicholas II abdicates March 1917 Provisional Government takes over November 1917 Bolsheviks take over the government Civil War between White (loyal to Czar) and Red (Communist) Russians USA, Japan, United Kingdom, and France send soldiers to help Whites

Lenin Takes Over Russia Revolution and Civil War destroyed the economy New Economic Policy (NEP) state kept banks, big industry, etc. allowed peasants to sell their surplus – rise of kulaks allowed small factories and businesses to operate encouraged foreign investment

Joseph Stalin ( ) Man of Steel Leader of USSR by 1928 the Great Leap Forward Socialism in One Country Massive collectivization of agriculture Five-year-plans Terror –Famine in Ukraine – targets kulaks –purges –Gulags (prison colonies)

Rise of Fascist Italy Italians were furious that they were not given more land after World War I. They also feared a Communist Revolution like Russia. Many were attracted to the idea of a strong leader. preached extreme nationalism nations must struggle – peaceful nations were doomed no clearly defined program for improvement citizens lose individual rights state is supreme

Nazis Take Over Germany

Rise of Adolf Hitler

Nazi Party meeting in the Beer Hall

Landsberg Prison, 1923

Unemployment Nazi seats Many historians have claimed that there was a direct link between unemployment in Germany and the rise of the Nazi Party.

Unemployment Nazi seats

Unemployment Nazi seats

Unemployment Nazi seats

Hitlers Rise to Dictator in 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of Germany (Weimer Republic) he did not have a majority he called for new elections six days before the elections, the Nazis burned down the Reichstag and blamed Communists Hitler won a small majority and declared a one-party state

The Racial State Theories of racial superiority, racial purity Policies of eugenics Compulsory sterilization of 30,000 Germans Abortions illegal for healthy Germans, mandatory for hereditary ill and racial aliens Euthanasia program kills 200,000 people with physical or mental handicaps between Precursors to massacres of Jews, gypsies

38 Anti-Semitism Influence of 19 th -century racism 1935 Nuremburg laws define Jew on racial basis Prohibits marriages between Jews and non-Jews Removal of Jews from civil service, schools Liquidation of Jewish- owned businesses or purchase by non-Jews Kristallnacht: major country-wide pogrom on Jews, November 9- 10, 1938 night of broken glass