Economic and Political Concepts Quiz

Deficit Spending

• Government spending exceeding revenue from taxation and other sources.

Collective Bargaining

• Unions negotiating with employers over wages and hours.

Depression

• Period of low economic activity and high unemployment.

Inflation

• Rapid increase in prices.

New Deal

• Policy of active government intervention in the economy.

Treaty of Versailles

• Reparations imposed on Germany for its war guilt.
• Germany's debt set at 132 billion German marks (~$33 billion).
• Annual payments of 2.5 billion marks.

League of Nations

• Weakened by the absence of the US and other factors.
• Woodrow Wilson's hope for maintaining peace obstructed by US Senate's refusal to ratify the Treaty.

Mussolini's Fascist Government

• Controlled citizens through propaganda, mandatory service, and unconventional women's roles.
• Gained support by exploiting fears of uncertainty and disorder.
• Established a dictatorship, banning parties and creating OVRA (secret police) by 1926.

Stalin's Five-Year Plans

• Aimed to industrialize the Soviet Union.
• Stalin purged threats to gain control of the Communist Party.
• Collectivization led to devastating famines.

Hitler's Germany

• Political theories based on racism and nationalism.
• Ended the depression through public works and rearmament.
• Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938): Violent rampage against German Jews.
• Nuremberg Laws (September 1935): Excluded Jews from citizenship and prohibited mixed marriages.

Spanish Civil War

• Led by Francisco Franco against the democratic government.
• Supported by Italy and Germany.

Economic Policies and Responses

• Dawes Plan (1924): Reduced reparations, including a $200 million loan.
• Treaty of Locarno (1925): Secured Germany's western borders.
• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928): International agreement to renounce war, lacking enforcement.

The Great Depression

• Economic collapse after a brief recovery from 1924.
• Overproduction in agriculture contributed to plunging prices.
• U.S. Stock Market Crash (1929) triggered an international crisis.

Germany During the Depression

• Transition to Weimar Republic.
• Faced severe inflation and rising unemployment.

France During the Depression

• Avoided severe early impacts but faced political unrest from 1932-1933.
• Popular Front government (1936) focused on labor rights, inspired by the U.S. New Deal.

Great Britain During the Depression

• Labour Party lost power due to economic issues.
• Conservative Party implemented balanced budgets and tariffs.

United States During the Depression

• Deeply impacted; over 12 million unemployed by 1933.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal included:
  • Works Progress Administration (WPA) for public works.
  • Social Security Act (1935) for pensions and unemployment insurance.

Cultural Reflections Post-WWI

• Lost Generation: Writers like Hemingway reflecting the psychological impact of the war.
• Dada: Art focused on life's absurdity, expressing chaos.
• Surrealism: Art exploring the unconscious, like Salvador Dalí's irrational worlds.
• Einstein's Influence: Revolutionized physics, and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle reflected contemporary anxieties.

Rise of Dictatorial Regimes

• Post-WWI Europe faced threats to democratic systems.
• Fascism, Mussolini's Italy and Stalin's Russia rose as totalitarian states.
• Totalitarian states controlled political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural lives using propaganda and modern communications.
• Fascism in Italy: Glorified the state; Mussolini initiated the first European fascist movement.
• Mussolini's use of nationalism and threats to gain power.

Stalin's USSR

• Lenin's NEP (New Economic Policy) allowed limited private ownership and market mechanisms.
• USSR formed in 1922.
• Stalin outmaneuvered Trotsky and launched the First Five-Year Plan in 1928.
• Industrialization caused poor living conditions and falling wages.
• Collectivization resulted in widespread famine.
• Great Purge (late 1930s): Mass arrests and executions.

Authoritarian States in the West

• Some Western governments adopted authoritarianism without total control.
• Aimed to maintain existing social orders.
• Many Eastern European nations initially had parliamentary systems, but authoritarianism replaced them due to a lack of democratic traditions.

Spain

• Francisco Franco led a revolt in 1936, initiating the Spanish Civil War.
• Supported by Italy and Germany, aided by the Soviet Union.
• Franco's victory established a long-lasting dictatorship until 1975.

Hitler and Nazi Germany

• Post-WWI Germany faced severe repercussions, economic turmoil, and hyperinflation.
• The Great Depression intensified unrest, making extremist parties attractive.
• Hitler developed anti-Semitic and nationalist ideas in Vienna.
• Served in the German Army, fueling his ambitions.

Nazi Party Formation

• Joined the German Workers' Party (1919), transformed into the NSDAP (1921).
• SA (Storm Troops) grew to 15,000 members.
• Beer Hall Putsch (1923): Failed armed revolt in Munich led to Hitler's imprisonment.
• Wrote Mein Kampf during imprisonment.

Rise of Nazism

• Hitler strategically sought legal means to gain power.
• Nazi Party’s organization reached nationwide coverage; membership swelled to 800,000.
• Economic crisis and unemployment contributed to the Nazi rise.
• Hitler appointed Chancellor in January 1933 under pressure.

The Nazi State (1933–1939)

• Created a totalitarian state based on Aryan racial ideology.
• Controlled education, culture, and leisure.
• SS played a critical role in enforcing Nazi terror.

Economic Recovery

• Implemented large-scale public works projects (e.g., Autobahn).
• Rearmament initiatives created jobs.
• Unemployment fell below 500,000 by 1937 under the Nazi program.

Women and Nazism

• Nazi ideology relegated women to homemaker and mother roles.
• Careers in heavy industries, law, and higher education discouraged.

Anti-Semitic Policies

• Nuremberg Laws (1935): Defined Jewish identity, stripped Jews of citizenship.
• Kristallnacht (1938): Coordinated attacks on Jewish communities.

Culture and Leisure

• Mass communications, particularly radio, facilitated cultural and political influence.