Ø
Hitler comes
to Power
§
1932: Hitler & Nazi party gain popular support
·
July: win 230 seats in Reichstag (high point)
·
NTL=> Hindenburg
& advisors deny Chancellor appt.
§
After other appointments, dismissals, &
resignations =>
§
1/30/33: Hindenburg relents & appoints Hitler
Chancellor
·
Hitler now head of Cabinet (Gov.) & achieved
legally
·
Civil service, Courts, & Gov. agencies can accept
¨
(With a clear conscience)
§
Significance: Hitler forged disciplined party
structure
·
Mastered mass political techniques & propaganda
·
Able to manipulate emotions of masses=>political
ends
·
Garnered strong support among farmers, vets, &
young
§
Hitler’s promises:
·
Security against communists & socialists
·
Effective Gov. vice petty party politics
·
Strong Nationalists vision of restored Germany
§
Who is most responsible for Hitler’s rise to power?
·
Big business? (attitude of Hitler’s supporters?)
·
Who was caught between big $$$ & the Socialists?
·
Who was nationalistic & wanted to return to the
past?
Ø
Hitler’s
Consolidation of Power
§
Three facets of consolidation:
·
Attainment of full legal authority
·
Crushing of alternative or competitive groups
·
Purging of potential rivals with Nazi party
§
27 Feb 1933: Dutch Communists set fire to Reichstag
·
Nazis exploit incident to own advantage=>
opportunity
¨
Claim all communists pose immediate threat to Gov.
¨
Hitler uses Article
48 powers=> emergency decree
Ø
Suspends all civil liberties & arrest communists
§
23 Mar 1933: Reichstag passes “Enabling Act”
¨
Hitler now rules by decree w/o restraint
¨
Weimar
Constitution circumvented but not repealed
Ø
Replaced by Emergency
Decree & Enabling Act
§
May 1933: Free trade unions, banks, & newspapers
seized
·
Union leaders arrested & jailed
·
June/July 1933: other political parties banned
¨
By 1933’s end: Nazis control all major institutions
§
30 June 1933: Night of the long knives
·
Hitler’s SS eliminates all key potential SA rivals
§
2 Aug 1933: Hindenburg dies & Hitler assumes both
roles
Ø
The Police
State
§
SS (Schutzstuffle) => instrument of Hitler’s police state
·
Headed by Heinrich Himmler-
¨
By 1936 Himmler headed all police matters
·
SS comprised
elite paramilitary force of 52K (1933)
§
SS mission was
all pervasive, but focused on Jews
·
Initially involved routine legal exclusion &
humiliation
·
Steadily escalated to persecution & discrimination
·
Culminated in extermination of 6 million- final solution
Ø
Women in Nazi
Germany
§
According to Nazi view=> where was women’s place?
·
Separate spheres which should not mix
·
Wives/mothers & child care givers (Hitler’s view
p.900)
§
Liberation under Weimar seen as sign: cultural
weakness
·
Nazi’s urged traditional role of wife & mother
¨
Also supported by conservative women &housewives
§
Nazi racism also incorporated into attitude toward
women
·
Key responsibility of mothers: safeguard Ger.
bloodline
§
Nazi view: breed strong sons & daughters for
fatherland
·
Educate nation’s young & protect Ger. cultural
values
·
If required to work, what kind of jobs should they
take?
v
Great Depression & FDR’s New Deal
Ø
Return to “Normalcy”
(under Harding & Coolidge)
§
Post-WWI: rejection of Versailles & League of
Nations
·
Isolation &
conservative economic domestic policies
§
America’s “Roaring twenties”
·
Prosperity & stock market speculation
·
Consumer goods grow along with advertising
·
Industrial growth & Ford’s Model “T”- mass market
·
Factories mechanized: engineers & efficiency
experts
§
All this moved in contrast to Europe’s economic
decline
·
Already well on its way during the early twenties
§
At same time American society remained divided
·
Segregation, Jim Crow, & KKK
·
Prohibition, 18th Amendment, &
Chicago’s Al Capone
·
Mexican & PR immigrants=> labor (only) for
cities
·
Wealth concentrated in the hands of the few
Ø
Economic
Collapse (Oct 29, 1929)
§
Triggered the start of America’s Great Depression
§
Other related factors & underlying causes of
above:
·
What other key factors caused Great Depression?
§
Other $$$ factors & underlying causes of Depression:
·
Insufficient capital investment by manufacturers
·
Majority of profits made channeled to 5% population
¨
Result: undermined purchasing power of
consumers
Ø
Less money to buy manufactured goods=>
§
Less demand=> less jobs => less $$ to buy=>
·
Downward spiral continues
¨
Agricultural problem festered as previously noted
Ø
Less revenue=> Mortgage foreclosure & op. debt
§
No money to buy tractors, combines, goods, etc
·
Europe & LATAM unable to buy US made exports
¨
Earlier $ downturn=> no jobs, revenue, or credit
·
Most pervasion US problem=> unemployment (25%)
¨
Unskilled labor first=> then spreads up job ladder
¨
Factory & white collar next in chain to lose jobs
¨
Small retail businesses go bankrupt (less jobs too)
¨
Commodities (corn) prices fall
·
1930s: Banks
unable to collect on bad debts=> fail
¨
People lose life’s savings- along with jobs
·
Federal government inaction or ineffective response:
¨
Make matters worse (Hawley-Smoot Tariff-1930)
Ø
New Role for
Federal Government
§
FDR wins
landslide in 1932 election
·
Joke at the time: quip supposedly made to Hoover:
¨
“Why don’t you vote for FDR & make it unanimous”
·
First One
Hundred Days=> “New Deal”
enacted
§
FDR’s
Background:
·
Harvard undergraduate & Columbia Law School
·
WWI: Secretary of the Navy & later VP nominee
·
Struck with polio => optimism helps overcome it
·
Campaigns for & elected NY Governor (1928)
§
Upon election takes decisive action to inspire
confidence:
·
Inaugural address: “Nothing to fear but fear itself”
·
Closed all banks=> re-opens only sound institutions
·
Congress passes New Banking Act
§
New Deal legislation
past during first hundred days:
·
Agricultural Adjustment Act & Farm Credit Act
·
Job creation bills:
¨
Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC)
¨
Federal Emergency Relief Act
·
Restores confidence of Government to American people
¨
“Fire side
chats” => inspires & informs people
·
Most ambitious New
Deal programs:
¨
National
Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
Ø
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
·
Wagner Act (1935)=>
established:
¨
National Labor Relations Board
¨
Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)- Labor’s role rises
¨
Unions organized across whole industries- key gains
Ø
United Mine Workers & United Auto Workers
§
CIO & AFL => combined in 1950
Ø
Unions now powerful new force in US economy
·
Works
Progress Administration (WPA)
¨
Federal relief for industrial unemployed
¨
Massive Federally funded public works programs
·
Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA)
¨
Direct Federal economic involvement
¨
Dams constructed & hydroelectricity sold
·
Social
Security Act of 1935
¨
Retirement insurance for elderly
§
Supreme Court did declare NRA unconstitutional (1935)
·
Conservative justices soon find themselves in big fight
·
Court packing strategy- “switch in time saves nine”
§
Significance of FDR’s
New Deal programs:
·
Radically changed Federal government’s role in $$
·
Extensive involvement in private sector
·
Major change from past – precedent for new role
§
Result of New Deal & impact on nation- Bottom
line:
·
Preserved democracy & capitalism
·
Stark contrast to political experiments in Europe
·
Preserved America’s way of life
v
Economic and Political Crisis in Global Perspective
Ø
Political
& economic transition of inter-war period:
§
Political turmoil & economic instability globally
§
Establishment of militaristic dictatorships followed:
·
Nazis, Fascists,
& Soviets
§
East Asian Nations also adversely effected:
·
Japan’s right wing militaristic government
·
China mired in
civil war & revolution
§
Latin America under sway of military “strongmen”
·
Military influences just below the surface
§
Many believed era of Liberalism dead
·
Parliamentary democracy coming to end
·
Unable to address $$ turmoil of Depression
Ø
New role for
governments in the national economy
§
Major departure from the past- hands off approach
§
Major problems that influenced change to above:
·
Germany’s hyper inflation of 1920s
·
Global financial collapse in late 1920s
·
Vast unemployment of 1930s
·
Agricultural crisis of both decades
§
Major demand for gov. action to address problem-reason?
§
Reason: Gov. responsible to mass democratic
electorates
·
Those that failed to address problem- voted out
¨
GOP voted out in 1932 election
¨
Left-wing parties of Japan
¨
LATAM parties failing to deal with depression
§
Some Euro parties turned over to authoritarian
regimes
·
Desperate search for social & economic stability
¨
Post WWII lesson to avoid similar response
·
Based on inter-war experience- democracies=>
¨
Sought to provide $$ & social security
¨
Aim: protect democratic political structures
Ø
Impact of
extreme nationalism
§
Produced authoritarianism in Japan, Germany &
Italy
·
All possessed agendas of nationalistic aggression
·
Unite own ethnic groups under their control
·
Establish dominance over others (Empire)
¨
Japan over Manchuria & greater Asia
¨
Italy over Ethiopia
¨
Germany sought union with Euro German speakers
Ø
Austria & Czechoslovakia
Ø
Expand into eastern Europe (over Slavs)
§
Imperialistic actions challenged both Britain & US
·
British colonial interests in Asia
·
US security interests in Pacific
Ø
American
& Soviet contrast
§
Both remained withdrawn from world scene
·
America pursued domestic New Deal
·
Soviet pursued centralized economic planning
¨
Five year plans & political repression
§
Aggression in Europe would draw both into war
§
Post WWII revealed them as the only two superpowers
·
Both would engage in an intense competition:
¨
Democratic capitalism vs. Communist Dictatorship
·
Issues of above formed basis of superpower rivalry
¨
Known as the Cold
War