The document summarizes key events and developments in several countries during the Interwar Period (1918-1939). It discusses the economic boom and subsequent stock market crash and Great Depression in the United States. It also outlines the rise of fascism in Italy under Mussolini and Germany under Hitler, including their paths to power. Finally, it describes the rise of Stalin's dictatorship in the Soviet Union after Lenin's death in 1924 and key characteristics of Stalinism.

1. THE INTERWAR PERIOD
1918-1939

2. The US prosperity and crisis
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3. The US prosperity and crisis
• The roaring twenties:
– Triumph of the “American way of life”: Individual effort and
success guaranteed wealth and wellbeing.
– Economic growth based on industrial production for a mass
consumption society.
– Stock market boom: profits from good business rise in
demand for shares.

4. • The paradox of prosperity:
Deceleration in production (1926 –
1927)
– Agricultural collapse: Agricultural
prices increased less rapidly than
industrial ones. Many farmers were
unable to pay their loans.
– Stagnation of traditional industries :
Overproduction generated and excess
in offer. Many workers started to lose
purchasing power.
The US prosperity and crisis

5. • The wall street crash of 1929:
– Speculative in bubble in the stock market: made a disconnection
between real economy and productive economy.
– Price of shares rise steadily: many people ask for loans and credits to
invest in the stock market.
– Mistrust spread on October 24th
: rumours about a possible decrease in
shares prices unleash the panic, everyone wanted to sell and no one
wanted to buy shares. (Black Thursday)
– The value of shares plummeted and triggered the Wall Street Crash of
1929.
The US prosperity and crisis

6. The US prosperity and crisis
• Consequences of the crash:
– Many investors were ruined and panic spread.
– Citizens wanted to withdraw money from their banks, but
their were unable to provide cash.
– Dozens of banks were forced to close: they could not collect
loans provided to individuals.
– Industry and agriculture was also affected.
– Widespread economic recession: Unemployment, decline in
consumption, factories shutdown and poverty.

7. The US prosperity and crisis
• The New Deal:
– Economic program introduced in 1932
by president Franklin D. Roosevelt to
fight the crisis.
– Based on ideas of J.M. Keynes:
advocated state intervention in
economy.
– Most important measures:
• Creation of public companies in strategic
sectors: agriculture, construction…
• Strict control over banks: Monitoring
deposits and forcing to offer low-interest
loans.
• The state promote public works programme,
encouraged companies to increase wages
and reduce working week to 40 hours.

8. Italian Fascism
• Causes of fascism:
– Disappointment with peace agreements of 1919:
• Italy did not receive Dalmatia and Fiume, as had
been agreed in 1915 by the Triple Entente.
– Political Instability:
• No political party had sufficient majority; Five
different governments between 1919 and 1922.
– Economic instability:
• Due to the costs of war: high number of casualties,
industries destroyed, high foreign debt…
• Big inflation: many Italians suffer food shortage,
unemployment or economic recession.
– Social tensions:
• Workers strikes widespread encouraged by the
soviet example.
• Conservative classes fear of a workers’ revolution.

9. Italian Fascism
• Origin and rise of the Fascist Party:
– Benito Mussolini founded in 1919 the “Fasci Italiani
di Combattimento”: a paramilitary group that wore
black shirts and violently attacked the rise of labour
movement.
– In 1921 founded the “Fascist National Party”, main
ideas:
• Stop revolutionary movements in Italy
• Build a strong state and guarantee private property
• Expansionist foreign policy.
– Initial supports:
• Petty bourgeoisie
• Catholic Church
• King Victor Emmanuelle III
• Financed by large agricultural and industrial owners.

10. Italian Fascism
• Storming of power:
– In 1922 elections Fascist Party only obtained 22 deputies out of 500.
– Months later, the general strike made by socialist and anarchist,
proved the government’s lack of control on the situation. Mussolini
demanded that the king give him the control of the government.
– The March on Rome:
• In October 1922, Mussolini organised a large demonstration in Rome, to show his
power.
• The king, forced by conservatives forces, appointed him as head of government.

11. Italian Fascism: The fascist government
• 1st
phase 1922 – 1924:
– Mussolini restricted freedoms and persecuted opponents
(Socialists, communists and Christian democrats)
– Kept up the pretence of a parliamentary regime.
• 2nd
phase 1924- 1940:
– Fascist party won the elections using violence and vote-coercion.
– Establishment of an authoritarian regime:
• Abolishment of political parties except the Fascist party
• The parliament was replaced by “Chamber of Fasci”
• Strikes and trade unions were banned
• Self-sufficient economy policy: supported private companies
with the intervention of the state.
• Strict control over society: Censorship, cult of the leader
“Duce”, confessional state.
– Territorial expansion: Invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Eritrea, Libia
and Somalia between 1935 and 1938.

12. Germany: the rise of Nazism
• Post war Germany:
– Weimar Republic: Democratic government founded
after the abdication of the Kaiser Wilhelm in 1918. Led
by Christian Democrats and socialists.
– General unrest:
• Humiliation of Germany in the treaty of Versailles.
• Economic crisis due to the war debts caused high
inflation, poverty and unemployment.
• Revolutionary movements arose (Sparticists and
Communists) and nationalist movements (Nazis).
Both, wanted to take over the power.

13. Germany: the rise of Nazism
• The emergence of the Nazi Party:
– Adolf Hitler a former soldier of WWI could not accepted the
German’s defeat, he joined the Nazi party and emerged as its
leader in 1920.
– The NSDAP (Nazi Party) had a paramilitary force the SA
(Assault Groups) and the SS (Protection Squadron)
– Hitler reinvigorated the NSDAP with his ideology, reflected in
his book “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle):
• Rejection of parliamentarism and socialism
• Superiority of Aryan race: need to build a great empire to
unite all German-speaking peoples.
• Strong antisemitism: Jews were considered responsible of
the crisis of Germany.
• Use of propaganda: Symbols (Swastika), cult of the
leader, military parades…
• Use demagogy to attract working classes: promised jobs,
better wages and easy solutions for all the problems.

14. Germany: Hitler’s rise to power
• Took advantage of economic crisis and social unrest:
– Ruined bourgeoisie, farmers and desperate workers
were attracted by Nazi promises.
– Financed by large industrial corporations.
• Elections of 1932: the NSDAP obtained 13 million votes and
the second place in parliament.
– President Hindenburg, winner in the elections, made a
coalition with NSDAP and appointed Hitler as chancellor.
• Elections of 1933: summoned by Hitler in order to win
parliamentary majority:
– Nazi squads fire the Reichstag and blamed it on the
communists.
– Hitler obtained an overpowering victory in elections.
• 1934 Hitler’s full powers:
– With the control of government he declared himself
“Führer of the Third Reich”
– Concentrated all political power on him
– Abolished all political parties except NSDAP

15. Stalinism in the USSR
• The succession of Lenin in 1924:
– Trotsky: Internationalisation of the revolution.
Decentralised government.
– Stalin: Socialism in one country. Wanted to strength
Russia and the central government.
• Stalin eventually achieved the power and the
control of the CPSU. He began a purge in the
communist party.
– Trotsky had to go to exile and was killed in Mexico in
1940 by a Spanish agent at the service of Stalin.

16. Stalinism in the USSR
Characteristics of the Stain’s dictatorship:
-Cult of the leader and intense political propaganda
-Control of the Communist Party: Huge bureaucracy controls all
aspect of social and political life in the USSR.
-Persecution of opposition: Foundation of the Cheka (Political
police) and KGB (espionage organisation) to persecute and
punish political opposition.
-Creation of Gulags: concentration camps for political dissidents
or suspicious of treason.