After World War I, Western democracies faced severe challenges such as job shortages for veterans and political instability, leading to the rise of radical ideas and conflicts like the Irish independence struggle. The U.S. experienced a 'red scare,' fueled by fears of communism, while France grappled with corruption and competing political factions. The economic fallout culminated in the Great Depression, which brought significant governmental reforms but also increased disillusionment with democracy.

1. The Western Democracies Stumble

2. Post-War European Problems
• In 1919, after WWI, Britain, France, and the USA – the
three democracies - appeared powerful
• However, postwar Europe faced grave problems
• The most pressing issues were 1) finding jobs for veterans
and 2) rebuilding war-ravaged lands
• Many potential future leaders were killed in the war

3. Post-War European Problems
• These problems made radical ideas
more popular with citizens
• Britain had to deal with growing
socialism and the “Irish Question”
• Fear of radicals set off a “Red Scare”
in the USA

4. Irish Independence
• Irish militant nationalists demanded
independence from Britain
• Britain refused Irish “home rule” in
1919 which triggered the Irish
Republican Army (IRA) to wage
guerilla war against British
• Fighting ceased in 1922
• Ireland was divided into two countries
• Protestant northern counties remained
part of Britain
• Rest of Ireland became an
independent country and is
predominantly Catholic

5. France After World War I
• After WWI – France became the Third
Republic
• Third Republic plagued by corruption and
scandals
• Many political parties – conservative to
communist – competed for power
• Political parties could not agree on how to
collect war reparations from Germany
• France witnessed many different
governments in the 1920s and 1930s.
• This made France somewhat weak and
ill-prepared to handle political and
economic crises

6. The Red Scare
• The Bolshevik (Communist) Revolution triggered a “Red
Scare” in the USA (1919-1920)
• Some Americans feared a Communist takeover similar to
the Russian Revolution
• Police arrested “suspected” Communist radical
sympathizers and deported them from the USA
• Red Scare sparked demands to limit immigration from
Europe mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe
• Congress passed laws that restricted immigration from
certain areas of Europe
• A shadow of immigration discrimination descended upon
the USA

7. Red Scare

8. Red Scare

9. Anarchist Attempting to Blow Up the
Statue of Liberty (Red Scare)

10. International Issues
• The three democracies also faced international issues
• Concern about a strong Germany led France to build the
Maginot Line and insist on strict enforcement of the
Versailles treaty and war reparations
• Maginot Line was a series of defensive fortifications along
France-Germany border designed to prevent another
German invasion
• France sought alliances with other countries to keep
Germany weak
• Britain disagreed with France’s attitude toward Germany
• Britain feared that IF Germany became too weak, USSR and
France would become too powerful

11. Maginot Line
The Maginot Line named after French minister of
defense André Maginot was a line of concrete
fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and
other defenses which France constructed along its
borders with Germany and with Italy, in the light of
experience from World War I, and in the run-up to World
War II.

12. Maginot Line

13. Defensive Bunker Along the Maginot
Line

14. Locarno Treaties
• Signed in 1925 in Locarno, Switzerland
• Seven European nations
• Settled border disputes between Germany and
France, Belgium, the former Czechoslovakia, and
Poland
• Perhaps Europe had finally learned to live in
peace?

15. Kellogg-Briand Pact
• Many nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact promising to
“renounce war as an instrument of national policy”
• In this optimistic spirit, the great powers pursued
disarmament – the reduction of armed forces and weapons
• Sizes of navies were reduced but not the size of armies
• Unfortunately, neither the Kellogg-Briand Pact nor the WEAK
League of Nations (located in Switzerland) had the power to
stop aggression
• Ambitious dictators in Europe and Japan noted and exploited
this weakness (e.g., Japanese invasion of Manchuria)

16. Signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact

17. Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Kellogg-Briand Pact, also known as the Pact of
Paris after the city where it was signed on August 27,
1928, was an international treaty "providing for the
renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy." It
failed in its purpose but was significant for later
developments in international law. It was named after the
American secretary of state Frank B. Kellogg and French
foreign minister Aristide Briand, who drafted the pact.

18. WWI Affected National Economies
• The war affected economies all over the world
• Both Britain and France owned huge war debts to the
USA and relied on reparation payments from Germany to
pay their loans
• Britain was deeply in debt with high unemployment and
low wages, and out of date factories
• In 1926, a general strike lasted nine days and involved
three million workers

19. WWI Affected National Economies
• Conversely, the French economy recovered fairly quickly,
while the USA emerged as the world’s top economic power
• In the affluent 1920s, middle-class Americans enjoyed the
benefits of capitalism, buying cars, radios, and refrigerators
• Standard of living rose in the USA

20. Economic Pressures
• Better technologies allowed factories to make more
products faster, leading to overproduction in the United
States
• Factories then cut back, and many workers lost their jobs
• A crisis in finance (management of money matters
including the circulation of money, loans, investments, and
banking) led the Federal Reserve (central U.S. banking
system) to raise interest rates
• This made people even more nervous about the economy

21. Economic Pressures
• In the Fall of 1929, financial panic set in
• Stock prices crashed
• The United States economy entered the Great Depression,
which soon spread around the world
• “When the USA sneezes, the world catches a cold”

22. Great Depression
• Governments searched for solutions
• In the USA, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced
the programs of the New Deal – package of economic and
social programs designed to stimulate the economy
• Although the New Deal failed to end the Depression, it did
ease much suffering

23. Great Depression
• Critics of the New Deal argued
that the size of the federal
government increased and the
federal debt increased
• However, as the Depression wore
on, it created fertile ground for
extremists and radicals
• Many people grew weary of the
global Depression and lost faith in
the democratic governments’
ability to solve the economic crises
• Ultimately, it would take World
War II to bring the world out of the
Great Depression

24. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Elected four times as president of
the United States

25. Powerpoint Questions
• 1. What were the three powerful democratic countries that
emerged after World War I?
• 2. What pressing problem faced Great Britain from 1919-
1922? How was this problem solved? Describe.
• 3. Why was France weakened in the 1920s?
• 4. Which country emerged as the world’s top economic
power after WWI?
• 4. Why did the USA experience a “Red Scare”?
• 5. What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact designed to do?

26. Powerpoint Questions
• 6. What 1929 event aggravated the economic decline in the USA?
• 7. What treaty settled territorial disputes between Germany and other
European countries?
• 8. What agreement among various countries renounced war as an
instrument of national policy?
• 9. In the USA, what was one result of manufacturing goods at a faster
rate?
• 10. What is the name of the U.S. central banking system?
• 11. What program did President Roosevelt introduce to stimulate the
U.S. economy after the Great Depression began?
• 12. Why did people around the world lose faith in their governments?

27. The End