The Great Depression and its Consequences PDF

Chapter 1: *The Great Depression and its Consequences * ======================================================= \. The Wall Street crash  ### a) Causes  October 1929 : Wall Street crash = enormous crisis affecting the value of stocks in the US (NYC)  *State of the american economy * The econo...

Chapter 1: *The Great Depression and its Consequences * ======================================================= \. The Wall Street crash  ### a) Causes  October 1929 : Wall Street crash = enormous crisis affecting the value of stocks in the US (NYC)  *State of the american economy * The economy grew very fast in the 19th C, and unlike European economies at the time, the american one did not suffer from the 1WW (in europe it was the case for at least 2/3 years after) ; it benefited from it, because what people couldn't buy in Europe, they bought in America, so they even got a boost from the war. The 1920's is often remembered as a great economy -- and -- growth (especially the automobile sector). All this economic activity made the US the leading trading nation and was a leader in a number of industrial sectors (automobile, cold holders and consumer goods). That gave people great optimism about the future of the American economy.  The administration (gov) in the 1920's were republican (started with Harding 1920 ; Coolidge ; H. Hoover until 1933) ; they were friendly to large companies (seen as the reason that the American economy was doing so well). They were in favor of "laissez faire" policies : the government left the economy alone. At this time, there were some developments that should have been of some concern : a big part of the population was not going to be consumers of the productions → saturation of markets (farmers and industrial working class). Farmers were hitting a very bad batch at the end of 1920's, they were no longer selling as much as they did during the war, when they sold to the rest of the world, and many of them had inverted in expensive machinery, and when they could not pay the banks back, their farms were taken from them. They were becoming poorer and poorer. \[book by John Steinbeck wrote a serie of books about that period *the grapes of wrath* (also movie version)\] All of this led to a particular problem in a particular sector : NYST (New-York stock esteem) = the place where people, in New York, exchanged stock. What is the point of going public (for a company) = open this company to the rest of the population, selling a part of the company to other people in shares or stocks (same thing) meaning that they share the money they gained with the company. Companies started to produce more than they did at the beginning of the 1920s, so they had to expand → cost a lot of money. You could borrow money from the bank, but some companies would rather sell a part of their company, to not owe anything. Having 100% of a small company was worth less than having a shared bigger company. That grew very quickly because of the growth of the economy, and became extremely popular. People who bought shares might have increased their investment in a few years by 50% (a lot). A share that was worth 100\$ in 1926 might be worth 140\$ in 1928. At this time in the US, you had no retirement money, so you had to  have savings in order to live well after retirement. People invested a lot, to make more savings for themselves.  People who shouldn't have invested, and went to banks to borrow money in order to buy shares. The number of shares exceeded the number of shares needed. By 1928, the demand for stocks greatly exceeded the supply, to the point that people created completely fake companies, and people still bought shares, even if they'd never heard of it, just because they wanted shares. Shares no longer represented the numbers of the company and the actual value of the company.  By the summer of 1928, the serious investors and the banks started to sell gradually their shares in companies that weren't doing so well, and were scared that the speculation bubble (when ppl speculate about the value of stock regardless of the value of the company → speculation bubble)  In late october of 1928, they panicked \[didn't get that\] Black thursday : many people tried to sell the shares at whatever price you could, but without anyone buying. It was the first day of panic. \[also missing a part\] ### b) Consequences  People who had invested their savings to be able to retire comfortably someday, now had nothing, and could not retire at all, and would have to start saving again, or work for the rest of their life. To be able to save again, you'd have to put all of the money you were earning that you didn\'t ABSOLUTELY need to spend in the bank. Now these people could not spend and participate in the economy the same way they had before.  The American economy is based mostly on consuming goods, and having that many people not participate in it again was going to be a problem.  The banks that had lent money to those people would never be paid back, so they lost a lot of that money. At the time, Banks mostly made money by lending money and getting paid with interest. Banks invested mostly into the stock market because they made a lot of profit , and could invest much more than people because they had the money of thousands of people. But even though they started selling their shares in the summer of 1928, they still didn't sell everything, because some of them still believed that the situation would improve.  Private companies also invested in those stocks  #### *Impact on the american economy * Banks have suffered a lot from this, and some had to shut down, because many of their clients, when they found out that their banks had lost a lot of their money, lined out outside of these banks to get their money out (knowing that the first ones would get their money back, and the others not). Most of these banks did not open when they saw people lining up, and declared bankruptcy, and no one got their money back.  Now, even people who had not invested, had lost their money because the banks invested it, which led to even more people having to restart their savings, and stopped consuming all together.  Companies are constantly using bank money (buy supplies or pay workers) but it's not physical money. Some of those banks being closed, these companies could no longer function, because they could not buy supplies and pay their workers anymore, so they had to close. Companies that were still open had to reduce the amount of production of consumer goods in the US following the crash (less demand). The consequences for this was that since they were not getting as much as before, they had to lay off people, who lost their jobs. At the time, no job meant no money (pas de chômage). The people who had no income, would not consume as much as before → further decrease in demand → further reductions in production → had to lay off more workers → less consumption etc... (downward spiral). This was massive and affected every sector of the industry, so it just got worse and worse : a quarter (20/25%) of the population was unemployed.   By 1932, the elections took place. In November of 1932, people decided that they wanted to elect someone who promised to help with the situation, and elected the first democrat since WW1 : F.T.Roosevelt. He was following the idea of a British economist J.M. Keynes. He said that for an economy to function, you need high demand, and it's the role of the government to create that demand by investing in the economy (basically injecting significant money into the system), which will start the economy again.  #### *Worldwide * Banks were the first that were impacted.  In 1923, there was an economic crisis in Germany (hyperinflation to levels that had never been seen before and were never seen again after). The German currency had lost all of its value : Before, you could buy a \$ with 300 marks ; by the end of the crisis, a \$ was a trillion marks (for bread : a few hundred marks before / a few tenth of billions marks). \[missing\] propose solution : the leader (-) of that group of american bankers proposed a plan (the Daws plan) proposed a series of laws that would be given to Germany, and they would inject money into the system and allowed them to pay the reparations, and pay their debts to France, Belgium and Great Britain (coast of the war) → not only money but also raw material, which allowed them (GB and Fr) to pay the american banks back. that assured them an extremely better relation (international) in Europe → described as a honeymoon (GB Fr Ger)  Once the Germans agreed to have a completely diff attitude (treaty of Locarno 1925) triggered the period of honeymoon in Europe. The only countries that were safe with Germany were the western borders, so the east wasn't safe → since France and Britain didn't seem to care, some eastern countries took it as a way of saying that whatever could have happened to them and they wouldn't have cared.  It established the complete dependance of Germany on the US. Once the banks in the US were out of money, Germany was not getting any money anymore.  German and Austrian banks were still depending on the american loan, and they had been investing a lot in the stock exchange, and also lost a lot of money during the crash (the downward spiral also happened in Germany) **LOTS MISSING ** \ \ II. Consequenses of the WSC and the GD  ### a) International relations  #### *economic nationalism * What is it ?  →  Protectionism is one if not the most important thing in economic nationalism  1930 HAwley-Smoot Tariff act  All major trading countries eventually started denying access to American products since they could not sell anything in the US : In two/three years, international trade decreased by ⅔ → made it worse from all people involved.  It made all countries look at the world as a hostile place that you want to keep away from your own people : economic isolation → political isolation.. \[International treaty in Paris Kellogg-Briand (1929) and about 30 countries signed a pact in which they all agreed to never use war as a last resort again.\] Governments looked at the place as a serie of sources of problems in the future and lost any interest in any problems (even helping countries that were under attack) that happened outside of their border, even if that meant becoming hostile with the countries with which you were at peace with → hostile area that could only cause trouble in the future. Protect their own country at the sake of others → tension  League of nations  → created in 1919 by treaty of Versailles to keep peace  → based on the idea that if the whole world was watching every country, if a country was having thoughts about violence, they would have a chance to be facing the whole world  #### *military preparedness* Another consequence of the great depression is the search for new resources (led japan to invade china and also to an extend lead to italy invading ethiopia and germany to invade all of western europe)  The difference in which some countries responded to the great depression : totalitarianism as other remain democratic states → Democracies in crisis  WHY THE BUF FAILED TO ATTRACT SUPPORT → popular front nothing revolutionary only lasted a couple year extremely limited far politics  TBA new deal  Chapter 2 : *Totalitarian regimes * =================================== → Two ways in which totalitarian states caused outbreak of WW2  1\) We'll be looking at how fascist ideology can be seen as major cause of WW2 2\) Secondly, we'll look at the actions of totalitarian states and how they led to WW2  USSR can't be seen as having caused WW2 except for 1 action in August 1939 which failated war (but it was already inevitable)  I. Russia  ---------- Experienced revolutions in **1917 (feb and october)**:  \- one (february) that led to the fall of the tsar who was running a totalitarian regime. Russia was losing the war very badly against Germany, soldiers were given no chance to survive in battle, in many battles, one in three soldiers died. When poison gas attacks, they only have scarves. At the same time, since he was in charge of the war (incompetent), and put his wife in charge of the country, but she listened to the advice of Rusputin (who did a terrible job) and people were starving → the country was in complete chaos, and in february, people had enough, and started a bread riot in the streets, and very quickly, the soldiers in these cities joined them, within a few days, the tsar had left and abdicated. Now, there was no government. little class intellectuals started running the country, but had no way of communicating with the rest of the country → relied on an institution that was created at the time (representative of soldiers and workers): the soviets.  The soviets and the provisional government started working hand in hand to put the country back on track, and prevent it from sliding into chaos. They made two decisions that were mistakes :  1\) keep russian in the war, because they were losing the war, and because soldiers had lost all respect for their superiors, and they started leaving the front to go back to their houses (desertion).  2\) desperate need for land reform, because most of the land was in the hands of very rich people, and farmers had not enough land and were starving. Most of the representatives were for the land reform, but they felt like this should be put in place by the elected government, so not do it at the moment but wait for elections and a new constitution.  Lenin said that if he was in power, he would end the war and make the reform happen ; Bolshevik party. Led to a full scale civil war **1918-21** → first step towards the installation of a totalitarian regime, because they \[Bolshevik party.\] took full control of the government and economic system (industry, agriculture etc...) In order to feed the workers who were feeding the soldiers at the war, the state decided how much the farmer would have to give regardless of what he produces (requisitioning). By **1921**, the civil war (the white against the red) was pretty much over. Famine that affected most of the population, mostly because of the requisition, because farmers didn't have anything left → Lenin decided to stop the requisitioning, two important things now allowed : farmers could have a part of their land that was theirs to consume, or to sell on a private market, and they allowed people to start little businesses because they realized that they were lacking in most consumer goods, and now let people decide to make shoes, clothes etc... and you could keep the benefices → called the new economic plan (NEP). This essentially led to a major change on how the economic system was --, and how the state was --- in that economic system ; it introduced debates and discussion in the party before the policies were decided (called the ---). It was no longer as repressive as the years before, but only lasted a couple of years (politics)  **1922** : Lenin had a stroke, and for the next two years, he was not really the man in charge anymore, Trotski (second to Lenin before) was now the man in charge (Lenin still around in an advising way).  In **1924**, he died, and no one could know what Russia would look like anymore. Everyone expected someone to take his place, and Trotski had the best odds to take the part, but because he was the leader, and what everyone expected to see become the main ruler, the other members exiled him in Mexico where he was executed before. Lenin said in a letter that was never published that it should remain a collective leadership and said that Trotsky had some flaws, mainly because he wanted someone from the polit bureau to have the power, and especially not Staline, however, got the power anyway in **1928.** He eliminated the competition one by one, and he became the dominant leader of the polit bureau, and he could now establish the kind of regime he wanted (the totalitarian russian regime we now talk about)  *Stalin's Russia:* **1928** was one of the most complete form of totalitarianism because it included (they controlled) the economy. Debate was no longer free in the party, but he also started to get rid of anyone he thought to be a threat to his ideas. it accelerated after **1934** with the assassination of Kirov (we never knew who committed that assassination, but it benefitted Staline because he was the most vocal criticizer of Stalin), it gave Stalin the opportunity to start a full scale purge \[getting rid of it → expelling people of the party except for the most ancient leaders, who were found guilty of ridiculous crimes and were executed for them or send to prison\]of the party. Some of them were executed. By **1938**, millions of people of the party were purged (he only intended to purge the people at the top, but people were encourage to denounce each other, so they got killed, and accused the people they didn't like) if you were accused of sabotage (which was common) you got executed or sent to labor camp → became out of control and damaged the country economically and militarily (generals were purged).  Stalin eliminated all the things that could degrade his image (Yezhov, Trotsky).  freedoms were almost inexistant.  religions were not respected, ceremonies banned II. Italy --------- **1922-1943** ### Causes  A composition of factors that, put together, facilitated Mussolini's taking power: economic crisis  major dissatisfaction about war & its consequences (even if they won, many people were not happy with the Treaty of Versailles see notes from last year )  political crisis: after the war, Italy's leadership was seen as incompetent or even as traitors to the nation's interests, Italy also was a very young democracy A particular groupe took advantage of the people's dissatisfaction and was quick to take action: the fascist party and Benito Mussolini  After the war, former soldiers came back to a country that didn\'t welcome them as heroes, and wouldn't even give them jobs.  The fascist party gave them reasons and a structure to feel good about themselves. They wore uniforms, just like in the military and beat up people: communists, socialists, trade unions and anyone associated with that were seen as targets. Pretty much anyone could be accused. The fascists gained the population's support by scaring them  Those groups scared the Italian population into thinking that a communist revolution was possible, even likely to happen. And also that they were the only ones capable of stopping it → they managed to get the people's support to join the ranks with fascists (bc they were saving italy from communism) The fascists gained the financial support of big businesses Company owners & business managers were unhappy with the social crisis because their workers went on strikes.  The fascists beat up the people that went on strikes → the company owners were happy again → supported the fascists financially  To present the ideas they had, workers created assemblies which they called "soviets". The concept was actually a good idea (un peu comme les syndicats finalement) but the name they chose scared most people off (bc soviets = communism et tout ça)  Later on, Italy was overcome by political chaos: violence between fascists and communist/socialist groups escalated quickly, mostly because of the fascist groups that used violence all the time for everything.  Fascist Italy  The threat of having a fascist party taking over increased: Mussolini was threatening a march on Rome. → Slow escalation of violence convinced the center and right wing parties to accept Mussolini's lead and in October **1922**, the fascist army (since they provided weapons to the party) threatened the population that they would go to Rome to overthrow the government by violence. Result:  the King decided to make a deal with him and made Mussolini prime minister 30.000 blackshirts The King believed he could use Mussolini to get rid of every left-wing threat and then fire him once he did his job , law and order and then bye bye benito (spoiler alert: not what happened at all) Side note: it\'s pretty weird that he hired Mussolini to get rid of the political chaos when it was his party (= the fascist) that were the cause of that chaos Within **3** years & with the support of non-fascist parties: the fascists outlawed the rest of the parties and established a one party system. January **1925** Italy became an undisputed  dictatorship with full control of the political system but also complete censorship of the press & no opinion polls nor elections.  Other parties didn't seem to mind that much, there was no mass demonstration. Propaganda was very widespread  at that point, the fascist party had actually convinced a lot of people that they were bringing the "glory days" from the Roman Empire back. → actual public support Also since the democracy in Italy was young, people weren't able to vote for a long time and since they didn't see any drastic positive change with elections they didn't mind not voting, not so much to lose. Over the next few years, Mussolini established the 1st fascist totalitarian regime, the party took over all aspects of the state (politics, economics, society...) even the army. All workers organizations and trade unions were banned and replaced by fascist organizations. (By that, they kinda had their hands on the economy but the party didn't change drastically the economical aspect of the state, capitalism stayed capitalism but the fascist still tried to have a certain input on where the economy was going and participate in important decisions.) THE CORPORATE SYSTEM Mussolini's system and state needed support from big businesses. The big factory owners were not very happy because of the frequent strikes their workers went on, so Mussolini created corporations. Each corporation corresponded to one specific economic sector and in each of them sat representatives of **3** groups: 1\) workers 2\) management 3\) state (in that case fascists) The party used this to declare that there was no need for strikes anymore since all industrial conflicts could be solved in those corporations (if you had a problem, you went to see the corporation, explained the problem and they'd find a solution) →they banned strikes and trade unions ⇒ people who made the actual decisions in those corporations were the state who often (pretty much always) sided with management, workers couldn't really say much ⇒ it gave the appearance of a dialog. In **1926**, the Syndical Laws, also known as the Rocco Laws, were passed, organizing the economy into twelve separate employer and employee unions. The fascists gained the support from the catholic church Italy is the country within which the Pope lives and the most dominant party of post-war Italy was the Christian democrats. Moreover, there are a very big part of catholics among the italian population.  The position of the catholic church was super important to Mussolini, he needed to make a deal with them, to make sure they wouldn't become a problem. (not easy to convince the church to make a deal with ppl who beat up innocent to take power) The Church and the Italian state had been at conflict since they took over the entirety of the Papal States in 1870 (first the military took over Latium, then Rome, notes from last year on unification of Italy). Mussolini promised a certain number of concessions in exchange for the Church's support and restore recognition: the Vatican state would be independent the separation of Church and State would take an end → roman catholicism would be the official religion of the Italian State again catholic priests would be allowed in elementary schools again (religion became a part of education) financial compensation for the attack of **1870** (BIG fat envelope + fiscal privileges)  In exchange: Rome became the capital of Italy ⇒ this took years, but was achieved in **1929**: "Concordat", Lateran Treaty IMMEDIATE RESULT ON THE ELECTION OF **1929** → the only candidates were the fascists → the church fully supported them (en vrai ca changeait rien mais c'était symbolique) Last important aspect: propaganda Just like in Germany, there is a very strong militaristic element in fascist propaganda. They used everything they could use: press, media, literature, parades, demonstrations... Cult of personality: Not only head of the fascist state but also a leader apart from the party. Fascism is not an ideology (just brute power) unlike nazism and communism which had (doubtable) principles to follow so the solutions came from Mussolini alone.  REPRESSION: of the opposition, killing people, being violent, sending ppl to prison sometimes (compared to nazi germany and Stalin's russia= not as much repression and killing) + presence of a secret police: OVRA ### B) Abyssinia Also known as Ethiopia, is a country in Africa. Mussolinin in **1935** decided to send the italian army to invade the country, as the result of the great depression (poverty was increasing, although Italy was not hit as hard as the other countries) → had been a target by the italian for decades, was the only country in Africa that was available, and was next to other Italian possessions (somalia and ) → tried to keep the promise to have an italian empire (proof he was that great italian leader and would make italy great again). At that point, the LON had to say something ; Britain and France agreed to enforce a trade embargo on Italy (economic sanction), except that, since Italy had become fascist, had developed a sense of sufficiency (autarchy), so the trade embargo wasn't gonna be efficient on Italy, UNLESS they put oil related products in the sanction. Oil was taken off the list that the world wasn't supposed to trade with Italy. they didn't put a full trade embargo on IT because of the Stresa Front (pact), which was signed earlier that year between FR, GB and IT, in case Germany became a problem.  They signed the pact because, in **1934**, Hitler tested the waters with Austria : a lot of nazi groups, with propaganda for Germany created some trouble, so he sent troupes, being careful not to go beyond what was reasonable and acceptable → they brought troops to the border, and said that they were available. He didn't care what Austria thought, he just wanted to see the reaction of other countries, and if there were no reactions, he would send the troops and annex Australia (would have been called die Anschluss = union of Germany and Austria as one). FR and BR protested, but didn't do anything ; Mussolini sent his troops to Australia to stop the Nazis (who was a fascist, but didn't like the Nazis, and didn't want a powerful country to its border, as Australia was not a threat at all.). Seeing the Italians, Hitler sent his troops back and never invaded Australia. Mussolini making German troops retire impressed FR and GB, and decided that it would be a great idea to get together and prevent acts from Germany becoming a problem in the future.  The trade embargo made IT mad at FR and GB, which means that IT turned its back on them. Hitler and GE expressed their sympathy, making IT turn towards the German side. In **l93?**, Japan and Germany signed a pact : the anti-communist international (anti-comintern) pact (officially against communism and communist countries) and Mussolini joined in **1937**.  He took the path of no resistance. Between **1935** and **1937**, he had been invited to Germany a couple of times and had been impressed by the german army, the german troops, and invited GE to see his own troops marching. He was very impressed by what Hitler was doing in Germany in a very short period of time, and by the second visit, he knew that if there was a war, he could not be the opposite to Germany.  The second consequence was to show the incapacity of the LON (LEAGUE OF NATIONS) and BR and FR to do anything against invasions → LON had failed to fulfill its role to keep peace in the world.  All the countries that wanted to do any acts of aggression were convinced at the time that nothing (consequences) was going to happen to them if they acted on it.  III. Germany  ------------- The moment HItlaer came to power, he endeavored to violate every aspect of the treaty of Versailles he could : in **1933**, he heavily rearmed Germany (build the best air forces and had the best tanks of the second world war) without hiding it, but not showing it to the world either. First attempt of Anschluss, which failed, but was completely against the treaty of Versailles. In **1936**, he remilitarized the Rhineland ; essentially land west of the Rhein river, which was supposed to remain demilitarized (no german troops allowed). In **1936**, Hitler sent troops against that river, with the order that if they saw a French soldier, they had to come back to the other side. The one country that had troops close to France, France chose to not do anything, they adopted a very defensive frame (1920's) of mind against Germany, and the French generals told the government that if the British stayed out of ---, they wouldn't do anything either. French generals were not convinced that they could not win an encounter against Germany; The reason the BR said no to send help to France was because they were convinced that the Treaty of Versailles was a mistake, and was too hard on Germany, and was not worth fighting over ; they convinced themselves that it was the right thing to do (risking war about germany rearming). Germans were showing off their weapons. So in 1936 : germany rearming and FR and GB protesting but not doing anything about it.  In **1938** : Within weeks, German troops entered Austria, and a referendum was organized for the population to decide if they wanted to merge with Germany. Known as the annexation of Austria by Germany, because Austria was not an equal force to Germany. The referendum was heavily watched over by the military so kind of pressuring Austrians to vote yes.  At this point, Hitler thought he could basically get away with everything, so as soon as Austria was taken care of, he turned to Tchekoslovakia (spring of 1938). To the west and north of Czechoslovakia (sudetenland), the German speaking population → became Hitler's new target. He did the same as Austria, and "asked" the people if they wanted to remain slaves or turn to German speaking people.  Obviously for Czechoslovakia, it was not possible, because that area was where they had put everything that was protecting them and their industry. They said no, and felt supported because of the alliance with FR and GB who would be supportive if invasion (pact signed where they would protect Czechoslovakia). Tensions grew because of that sudetenland. Germany thought that the support from GB and FR might not have been that strong, partially because of a speech from the british prime minister (name) saying how fantastic (can't comprehend it) it was that that they were trying on gas mask and preparing for war over a foreign far away country and people of whom they knew nothing. (basically why are they doing that, it's ridiculous). He was not crazy about the idea of going to war for Czechoslovakia. Mussolini then stepped in and offered to organize an eleven hour meeting in the south of Germany in the city of Munick, where four leaders of four countries to discuss the sudetenland of Czechoslovakia : FR GB GE IT. Absence of Slovakia and Russia were absent, when they would have been important in the decision and the turning of events. It was decided that they would give Hitler everything he was asking for : asking Czechoslovakia to give Sudetenland to Germany. The prime minister received a hero\'s welcome when he came back from the conference, because people were relieved that there was not going to be a war. We hoped Chamberlain was thinking What happened in Munich was not what people came to see in the city : complete lack of courage (cowardness) ; they thought they were doing an appeasement (small concessions to make in order to give Hitler reasons for him to be reasonable and not take Europe to war) was the most effective way to deal with Hitler. They thought (convinced themselves) that what happened in Munich was the last concession that was going to prevent Hitler from asking for anything more. If it could save peace, giving Hitler the sudetenland was worth it. Hitler however had not any intentions of stopping there, but the people at the time didn't know that. Chamberlain came back to London and waved the signed piece of paper and said "This is peace for our time" ; he was convinced that everything was solved.  The French were much more under the menace of Germany, and at the time, they had figured that the war was close, and were just buying time and preparing for German invasion (not sure but possible).  The FR and GB conceded to Hitler --- By march of **1939**, six months afterwards, the German troops marched in the streets of Prague, and Germany was occupying the whole Czech part of Czechoslovakia ; Czechoslovakia had ceased to exist, within six months of the Munich treaty. As soon as that was done, he started asking for the same thing for another part of Europe that was also half populated by German speaking people : the Polish corridor. He asked for the people to be given a choice to join the German part of Europe. Throughout the months of May, July and August, the countries prepared for war. GB and FR also had an alliance with PO and made it clear that this time, they were not giving Germany what they wanted. However, FR and GB could not provide PO with troops if the German invaded it. The only that could've helped were the russians, but it didn't happen, because the polish didn't want anything to do with russia and didn't want russian on their soil, and even if they did, Russia, now that everyone knew a war was coming, had dropped hopes of winning against Germany, and now wanted an alliance with Germany (since he didn't have a agreement with FR and GB, it didn't want to end up alone against Germany) and sign a nonaggression pact with Germany. On the **23rd of August 1939** the Molotov Ribbentrop pact, also known as the (nazi-soviet) non aggression pact. On the **1st of September 1939**, Germany invaded Poland. On the second, GB and FR sent an ultimatum to Germany : leave Poland or there will be a war. 3rd, no answers from germany, so declaration of war → worst war in history.  IV. Japan --------- Japan is the perfect example of an economic crisis that was caused by economic nationalism (with the Smoot-Hawley Act and the tariff act) and resulted in economic nationalism → the result of the economic crisis (which can be seen as a direct cause of WW2 in the Pacific), is also a kind of economic nationalism  Japan is not a totalitarian regime per se but by the mid 30s the military controlled the japanese politics as well as the japanese policies: either through the influence they had on the emperor or directly through occupying key positions in the government. Politics = debates, political discussions  Policies = measures put into place, executive power → for example: the minister of education was a former general  Allowed the Japanese military to introduce totalitarian tendencies in government through the dominant positions they were occupying. RECAP: 3 fascist states (nazi, italy and Japan) + soviet russia Civilians reaction in Japan, impact on the society: see doc on Moodle In what way is Japan a totalitarian regime:  government dominated by one group (the army) → usually in totalitarian regimes, the group dominating is a political party but the japanese army was kind of behaving like a political party education greatly influenced by militarism (same with soviet russia and communism, nazi germany and racism...) → controlled pretty much every aspect of life racial element (very present in Germany, a little less in Italy or Soviet Russia): when you insist on nationalism, insist on your own country's superiority, your own people are superior 🔜 creates racism, seeing the other as inferiors. In **1930** in Japan, the racial element is very present, especially against Chinese but also Koreans (very BAD discriminations) quote by the japanese soldier explaining what he was taught in school during the pre-war period (find on moodle) **1937**, massacre of Nanjing: very very violent, maybe because the Chinese weren't even considered as humans so the Japanese didn't feel bad for killing them. Japan also was similar to other totalitarian regimes from another aspect: the role of the leader: in Japan, the emperor was mostly used by the army to obtain the loyalty of japanese people (not the same in Germany, Italy or Russia where leaders actually took decisions) but the role of the emperor was still extremely important, he was like this godlike figure, people were ready to sacrifice themselves for him... \ \[Mon cours dont j'ai que la fin  In **1931** : invasion of ----. The military now controlled the state (starting 1933), by 1936 they were completely in control.  Third consequence : the very real first test for the league of nations, this was the real first test league of nation missions, failed. The decision was made by only Britani, to not condemn Japan.  Second consequence : the message that was sent was that if you were an aggressor, you could get away with it (intrusion in other countries)\] \ V. Response of western democracies  ----------------------------------- ### 1) Britain  → was a very important part to that western response  → complete lack of enthusiasm from the british population for another war, mostly because of the trauma from \- WW1 (there had never been a war like that in the history if Britain \[almost a million people died\])  millions of people came back physically or mentally affected by the war, and their families were also impacted. \- When things started to get a little tense (germany, japan,italy) Br had no intentions of getting involved in a conflict, especially if there was never any british interest for it not even the league of nations was a good enough reason)  → The great depression led to a major decrease in the -- of the state. While Germany was rearming, Britain didn't. They only started re-arming properly by **1937-8** when they realized that there was a high chance that things would get out of control.  → The population(of all western countries who were democracies) put an enormous amount of pressure onto the government for it to focus on internal problems (mainly unemployment) and didn't want to hear anything about international policies etc... → weak response from western countries regarding the situation in Europe.  \[already in previous chapter M Two main reasons why Britain didn't put any restrictions on Japan : military concerns and economic concerns.  → they were afraid that they wouldn't have enough troops to stop the Japanese troops  → economic factors, and tried to save whatever trade there was between Britain and Japan Abyssinia (also in the previous lesson) Germany → they didn't respond to the violation of the treaty of versailles, because the brits did not believe in the treaty of versailles (they thought more and more that the treaty was a mistake). When Germany started rearming, they thought that it was normal for a country to be able to defend itself.\] People until **1937-8** believed that the soviet union was more of a threat than Germany : said in the british press a lot (threat of communism and not threat of Nazi Germany)  ### 2) France  → also trauma of WW1 and great depression (like Britain)  → over a million and a half of people died on the french side (with french empire)  → the half east of the country was destroyed in the war.  The French population did not support any war away from France, their main concern was to solve the problems brought by the great depression.  From almost the beginning, they opted for a defense strategy : line of defense = Maginot line. It was very sophisticated, and meant that they didn't spend as much money on offensive attire, which they would have needed once Germany attacked. They dind"t have the manpower to attack Germany by themselves, so the needed British → refused to help because they 'couldn't'.  There is a possibility that France was not as convinced by Hitler's reassurances and promises as Chamberlain was and they were just buying time (if they thought there was a chance that a war would take place, they needed time to prepare) → only possible nothing confirmed.  AJP Taylor published a book about the reasons for the war and mostly blames the western countries for it. Today historians came to downplay that aspect of things and mostly blame Japan and Germany for the outbreak of the war. By responding so weaky, Fr and BR did give Jp and Ge the impression that they could get away with it.  ### 3) The US  **From 1919 to 1930** → somewhat -- policy by refusing to take part in the league of nations ; anything that wasn't related to twister emisphere (north and south america), they were not interested though they did participate in international conference \[1922 Washington conference → organized by the american no talk about naval forces and disarmament in the pacific ; major powers in the pacific involved : UK, US, Japan, France and Italy → agreed to a specific ratio where for every five american warships, the UK could have five and Japan three (bc Japan was smaller and the Uk had many possessions in the world)\]. The US didn't want to be dragged into any forceful alliances that would come with being part of the league of nations. \[1928 Briand Kellogg pact which was not very important but shows that the americans were involved in some international affairs (Briand = french something and Kellogg = american prime minister)\]  **From 1931 to 1937** → In **1931**, people in the US started to get worried about a big conflict happening somewhere in the world and that the country would be dragged into it like the 1st WW, and didn't want it to happen again (though WW1 was not as traumatic to them as in Europe. People in congress thought that a way to avoid getting caught in the conflict was to stop that --. In **1935**, the US Congress passed an act of neutrality (first of three) which banned all financial aid (military) to countries involved in the war (belligerent country). In **1936**, they furthered that ban on any assistance to countries taking part in the war, and no american private --- could be giving money to those countries. In **1937**, they added that in the case of a civil war, no one and nothing in America could pick a side and help financially (because of spanish civil war)  **In 1937** → Things changed drastically because Roosevelt started thinking that they should. The conflict in Spain started to look very serious and looked pretty bad from the perspective of the government. What happened in China was concerning for the US government : Massacre of Nanjing fight w japan where most of the population was massacred. Same thing happened in Spain, where fascist were gaining ground, and the government got no help from the rest of the world. The soviet union started providing them with some military supplies, but it was no help, as the fascist were getting help from mussolini and Hitler. The neutrality act was not working, and the US started to provide China with a little assistance (1938) which was slowly increased with military supplies. When the war started in Europe in 1939, the US stated that the UK and France could come and buy all the military supplies they wanted (cash and carry program of september 1939 where they had to travel to the US, pay cash, and go back with the supplies in Europe), which essentially officialised that the acts of neutrality were now officially dead.  **1938** → switch from neutrality to support to countries who clearly needed it.  **1939** → cash and carry  **1940** → By December, France had been defeated by Germany, and there was only Britain to fight Germany. Roosevelt made a speech which describes the US as the arsenal of democracy.  **March 1941** → Congress passed what is known as the Land-lease, saying that they would be giving anything they wanted with no charge to Britain (military) with the only condition of returning what they had left at the end of the war. Extended to the USSR by **June of 1941**.  All of that led to military intervention following the attack of Japan on Pearl Harbor on the **7th of December 1941**, and Germany declaring war on the US on the **11th of december 1941**.  Document on freon policy US on Moodle  Why did Japan bomb Pearl Harbor ??? **FOR TEST**  1941 conference send japan an ultimatum saying that if it didn't quit its  *Can the answers of those western countries be considered a factor of the second world war ?? * VI. Response of Russia  ----------------------- The neutrality pact signed at the end of august **1939** → considered a factor of the war bbc Poland was invaded days after. They had essentially given the green light to the invasion of Poland (Hitler felt a lot more at ease for the invasion since he didn't have to worry about Russia. In order to estimate whether the soviet union can be blamed, we have to look at what brought it to that point of signing the pact with Germany : 3 years of extreme --- attitude from GB and FR. Stalin offered many times to sign an anti-fashist pact (during **1936-38**). In that period of time, lots of discussion, but the British or the French made no sign of being serious about signing a pact with the soviet union (they never got the impression that the fr and br were serious about the pact). 1938 happened with the situation of the sudetenland, where France and Britain seemed serious about their pact with Czechoslovakia. BUT there was an announcement that they would meet in Munich with FR, GE, BR and CZ ; Russia was not invited, and when the agreement was announced, Stalin's concerns were confirmed.  The concern was that the west in the end was not that concerned about Germany as long as it wasn't a threat to western europe (In Mein Kampf, Hitler said clearly that he was only interested in the East). Since FR and GB seemed to be willing to give GE anything they wanted at the east, RU was concerned.  Only hope was to find an agreement with GE to buy time against a German attack on the Soviet Union, and be able to prepare (the red army had been destroyed by the great purge). Switch to Molotov →  Poland became the next focal point in Europe. At that point, there was still hope, because FR and GB might have realized that GE was an actual threat. Poland could not accept to have a military with Russia ; they had been at war against each other, fighting over territories, and the alliance would allow Russian routes on Polish soil, because there would be no guarantee they would ever leave. That made any kind of alliance btw Russia, France and GB couldn't work.   Molotov Ribbentrop pact at the end of august 1939.  Why did FR and GB not pursue this potential alliance seriously ?  → the fact that they didn't, until 1939, believe that war against Germany was inevitable.  → There was a certain amount of pressure, mostly from the political right, to not associate with communist countries. These people had influence over the parties and the press, and people still considered Russia as the real threat.