The document provides an overview of the Great Depression and Interwar Period in Europe from the late 1920s through 1939. It discusses how the economic crisis of the Great Depression originated in the US and spread globally. Life grew increasingly difficult in the US as unemployment rose sharply. In Europe, populism and radical governments rose to power in this unstable environment. Fascist regimes took hold in Germany and Italy while civil war erupted in Spain. Germany began expanding its territory through Austria and Czechoslovakia despite opposition from Britain and France weakening. This period of instability and conflict set the stage for the outbreak of World War II.

2. The Great Depression and
the Interwar Period in Europe
• Great Depression
• Life during the Great Depression in the US
• FDR and the New Deal
• Global Depression
• Interwar Europe
• Rise of Radical Governments
• Spanish Civil War
• German Expansion up to 1939

3. The Great Depression
• Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCQfMWAikyU&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepB
jTSG593eG7ObzO7s&index=34
• Recap - The American economy was essentially a house of cards.
• Farmers -> lose subsidies + decreased sales -> Can’t Pay their loans -> displaced farmers
• Banks -> loans to buy stocks on “margin” + any break in prosperity -> people can’t pay their
loans back -> banks don’t have income coming in -> banks sell the stocks to recoup some of
their losses -> Stock Market collapses
• Stock Market collapse -> panic about the economy -> people (in massive numbers) try to
withdraw their money -> banks (shocker) don’t actually have enough money on hand to pay
out -> banks collapse -> more panic, cycle repeats
• Industry had already begun to slow before 1929 -> businesses had started to cut back labor
costs (fire people) -> when banks begin to collapse, businesses can no longer take out short-
term loans to pay their workforce -> massive layoffs occur -> former employees now have no
income to buy things -> production decreases even more -> cycle repeats
• Massive interwar recession in Europe decreased foreign markets for American goods -> tariffs
put in place to help American businesses -> decrease foreign markets even more -> layoffs in
US meant little to no domestic markets -> see above cycle

4. Unemployment
Impact of the
1st New Deal
1st New Deal
Programs End
Impact of 2nd
New Deal
American Entry
into WWII
From 1939-1941 the decrease was
further impacted by supplying the
war in Europe
Around the same time that unemployment
maxed out near 25% in the US, it was hitting
30% in Germany, and was almost 16% in the
UK
For some perspective: In the US the rate was around 10%
during the recessions that began in 1982 and 2008; as of
late March 2020 it was around 5% (and growing).

5. Life in the Great Depression

9. Hoovervilles

10. The Dust Bowl
• Massive drought during the 1930s and early
1940s
• Made the bad situation for farmers even worse
• Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas,
Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas are hit the
hardest
• 800,000 people pack up an head west, thinking there
would be more opportunity
• Grapes of Wrath is a novel about this migration (John
Steinbeck)
• What was a “Black Blizzard?”

11. FDR and the New Deal
• Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMq9Ek6jnA&list=PL8dPuuaLjX
tMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s&index=35

12. New Deal Reforms

13. Remember this slide? It gets worse…
• Recap - The American economy was essentially a house of cards.
• Farmers -> lose subsidies + decreased sales -> Can’t Pay their loans -> displaced
farmers
• Banks -> loans to buy stocks on “margin” + any break in prosperity -> people can’t
pay their loans back -> banks don’t have income coming in -> banks sell the stocks to
recoup some of their losses -> Stock Market collapses
• Stock Market collapse -> panic about the economy -> people (in massive numbers)
try to withdraw their money -> banks (shocker) don’t actually have enough money
on hand to pay out -> banks collapse -> more panic, cycle repeats
• Industry had already begun to slow before 1929 -> businesses had started to cut
back labor costs (fire people) -> when banks begin to collapse, businesses can no
longer take out short-term loans to pay their workforce -> massive layoffs occur ->
former employees now have no income to buy things -> production decreases even
more -> cycle repeats
• Massive interwar recession in Europe decreased foreign markets for American goods
-> tariffs put in place to help American businesses -> decrease foreign markets even
more -> layoffs in US meant little to no domestic markets -> see above cycle

14. The European Depression
• In addition to all of the collapsing systems in the US:
• Germany (and others) owed massive amounts of reparations (money payments for
the damage in WWI) to Britain, France, and other European countries
• With their own economy slow to bounce back after the war, they had to take out
loans to pay reparations (most of their loans were from US banks)
• Britain and France had taken large amounts of loans from US banks during the war,
and relied on reparation payments (from Germany) to pay them back
• So, if you are keeping track…we (the US) are loaning money to Germany, so they can
pay reparations to GB and France, so GB and France can pay their loans back to us
(the US). What could possibly go wrong?
• Around the same time that US banks began to decline because of domestic
issues (and not give more loans to Germany), the Germans default on their
loans (and get a new leader who has no intentions of paying them back).
• This plummets Europe (and much of the world) into financial chaos
alongside the US

15. The Interwar Period in Europe
• Often called the Age of Anxiety
• After WWI, new governments take over:
• Republics: Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Baltic States, Greece
• Constitutional Monarchies: Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria
• Almost all of these have major nationalist tendencies (with the exceptions of
Weimar Germany, and Czechoslovakia - which were more centrist)
• Turkey – Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, president from 1920-1938, ultra-nationalist,
secular, and continued attempts to make Turkey ethnically homogeneous
(they had begun the Armenian Genocide during the war, and continued
persecution of Armenians, Kurds, Greeks, and others)
• Italy – Benito Mussolini founds the Fascist Party and becomes Prime Minister
in 1922. Ultra-nationalist, anti-Bolshevik, used paramilitary groups to
establish an authoritarian regime

16. The Interwar Period in Europe
• What is the difference between Fascism/Nazism and Communism?
• Why are the two so opposed to each other?
• Why are they both seen as a threat to democracy?
Flag of the British Fascist Party
The Fasci, ancient
Roman symbol that the
Italian Fascist Party
co-opts
Flag of the Spanish
Falange, fascist party

17. The Interwar Period in Europe - USSR
• Soviet Union (est. 1922)
• While consolidating power and defeating the “White” forces during the Russian Civil
War (1917-1922), Bolshevik forces retake lost territory in Belarus and Ukraine, but
are unsuccessful in Poland and the Baltic States.
• Lenin sees the need to stabilize the economy and puts the New Economic
Policy in place, allowing for limited capitalism and foreign investment
(including American companies)
• After Lenin dies (1924) there is a brief struggle for power. Joseph Stalin
succeeds in becoming the leader of the Soviet Union, and ends the NEP in
1928, instead turning to rapid industrialization as a means to build the
economy
• He is much more heavy-handed in his suppression of dissent
• Purges
• Holodomor/forced famines in Ukraine and Central Asia
• The new Soviet Union did not trust the US, since US troops and
goods had supported the “Whites” during the Russian Civil
War.
Lenin’s Tomb, Red Square, Moscow

18. Germany
• The Weimar Republic
• Had taken over after the Kaiser abdicated near the end of WWI
• Was seen as weak by the people for not negotiating better terms for surrender
• Allowing for French occupation in the west
• Accepting a forced demilitarization
• Had to deal with massive inflation, followed by forced deflation during the Great
Depression
• Contended with internal radical movements (both communist and hyper-nationalist)
• Exemplified by the Beer Hall Putsch (1923) in which Hitler and the Nazi party attempted to seize
power in Munich (Hitler was convicted of treason, and sentenced to 5 years, but served 9
months-during which he wrote Mein Kampf)
• Hitler and the Nazis focus on obtaining power using the political system (rather than a
revolution), became more popular in the early 1930s
• Promised to return Germany to greatness, fix the errors of the Weimar government, provided a
scapegoat for all of Germany’s financial troubles (the Jews)
• Hitler becomes Chancellor in 1933 after the Nazis help form a coalition government
• After a fire in the Reichstag (parliament building), emergency powers are granted to
the chancellor (Hitler would never give up this power)
Paul von Hindenburg, last
President of Weimar Germany

19. Spain and the Spanish Civil War
• Global Depression starting in the 1920s facilitates a rise in anti-
Monarchist political groups
• From 1931-1935 the government attempts to separate church and
state, and to further decrease the power of the monarchy (the king
leaves the country)
• Radical right-wing groups (such as the Falange) and radical
communist groups begin to grow in popularity and conflict with each
other
• In 1935 political factions fail to form a government
• A military insurrection in 1936 takes control of more conservative
areas of the country, arriving in German and Italian airplanes,
sparking a Civil War
British (left) and American
(right) volunteers in the
Spanish Civil War. Many
were communists, but
some just wanted to fight
fascism.

20. Spanish Civil War (cont.)
• Nationalists
• Led by General Francisco Franco
• Funded and supplied by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy
• Eventually unites Fascists and Monarchists (under Franco, with the support of
the Spanish King)
• Republican Loyalists
• Any political party that opposed the Catholic Church, the Monarchy, or the
Fascists
• Funded and supplied by the Soviet Union, supported by GB and France
• Over 3000 Americans would travel to Spain to fight on this side, some
because they supported communism, some because they opposed fascism,
and some because they longed to fight
• Ernest Hemingway wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls based on his time there as
a journalist
Ernest Hemingway

21. Spanish Civil War (cont.)
• Served as a proxy War between the Soviet Union and Italy/Nazi
Germany
• Airplanes proved decisive in battle for the fascists and tank designs
were perfected on both sides
• Blitzkrieg tactics developed in Germany are used for the first time by
the fascists
• By 1939 Britain and France no longer support the Republican forces
(dealing with internal issues), and Franco is able to splinter remaining
opposition
• Franco would stay in power until 1975 when he died
• The war showed Hitler and Mussolini the extent to which other
European powers and America were willing to intervene (or NOT
intervene) in European affairs

22. Spanish Civil War (cont.)
• Pablo Picasso painted this work, called Guernica, in 1937
• It depicted the horrors of the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica the
same year (done by the Spanish Nationalists with German and Italian planes)
What themes or images
do you see in the
painting? How does it
convey the emotions
experienced during war?

23. European Leaders in the late 1930s
Adolf Hitler – National Socialism,
Germany
Benito Mussolini (Il Duce)
Fascist Party, Italy
Francisco Franco – Nationalist, Spain Joseph Stalin – Communist, Soviet Union
Albert Lebrun
Prime Minister of France
Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of
Great BritainThese two (to the right) are less well-known,
mostly because they appeased Hitler and were
not able to lead their countries effectively as the
war started. Their predecessors (Charles de
Gaulle, France, and Winston Churchill, GB) are far
better known.

24. German Expansion
1936 – Remilitarized the Rhineland
1938 – Anschluss with Austria (What is
this?)
1938 (Sept) – Annexed the Sudetenland
(Where is this?)
1939 (Mar) – “Protectorate of Bohemia
and Moravia” (Where is this?)
Why did GB and France let all this
happen?
After Czechoslovakia, GB realized that
Germany could no longer be ignored.
1939 (Sept) – invaded Poland (divided it
with the Soviet Union) begins WWII