The Western Democracies Stumble

Chapter 13Section 2

Post-War European Problems

• In 1919, after WWI, Britain, France, and the USA – the three democracies - appeared powerful

• However, postwar Europe faced grave problems• The most pressing issues were 1) finding jobs for veterans

and 2) rebuilding war-ravaged lands• Many potential future leaders were killed in the war

Post-War European Problems

• These problems made radical ideas more popular with citizens

• Britain had to deal with growing socialism and the “Irish Question”

• Fear of radicals set off a “Red Scare” in the USA

Irish Independence

• Irish militant nationalists demanded independence from Britain

• Britain refused Irish “home rule” in 1919 which triggered the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to wage guerilla war against British

• Fighting ceased in 1922• Ireland was divided into two countries• Protestant northern counties remained

part of Britain• Rest of Ireland became an

independent country and is predominantly Catholic

France After World War I

• After WWI – France became the Third Republic

• Third Republic plagued by corruption and scandals

• Many political parties – conservative to communist – competed for power

• Political parties could not agree on how to collect war reparations from Germany

• France witnessed many different governments in the 1920s and 1930s.

• This made France somewhat weak and ill-prepared to handle political and economic crises

The Red Scare

• The Bolshevik (Communist) Revolution triggered a “Red Scare” in the USA (1919-1920)

• Some Americans feared a Communist takeover similar to the Russian Revolution

• Police arrested “suspected” Communist radical sympathizers and deported them from the USA

• Red Scare sparked demands to limit immigration from Europe mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe

• Congress passed laws that restricted immigration from certain areas of Europe

• A shadow of immigration discrimination descended upon the USA

Red Scare

Red Scare

Anarchist Attempting to Blow Up the Statue of Liberty (Red Scare)

International Issues

• The three democracies also faced international issues• Concern about a strong Germany led France to build the

Maginot Line and insist on strict enforcement of the Versailles treaty and war reparations

• Maginot Line was a series of defensive fortifications along France-Germany border designed to prevent another German invasion

• France sought alliances with other countries to keep Germany weak

• Britain disagreed with France’s attitude toward Germany• Britain feared that IF Germany became too weak, USSR and

France would become too powerful

Maginot Line

The Maginot Line named after French minister of defense André Maginot was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along its borders with Germany and with Italy, in the light of experience from World War I, and in the run-up to World War II.

Maginot Line

Defensive Bunker Along the Maginot Line

Locarno Treaties

• Signed in 1925 in Locarno, Switzerland

• Seven European nations

• Settled border disputes between Germany and France, Belgium, the former Czechoslovakia, and Poland

• Perhaps Europe had finally learned to live in peace?

Kellogg-Briand Pact

• Many nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact promising to “renounce war as an instrument of national policy”

• In this optimistic spirit, the great powers pursued disarmament – the reduction of armed forces and weapons

• Sizes of navies were reduced but not the size of armies• Unfortunately, neither the Kellogg-Briand Pact nor the WEAK

League of Nations (located in Switzerland) had the power to stop aggression

• Ambitious dictators in Europe and Japan noted and exploited this weakness (e.g., Japanese invasion of Manchuria)

Signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact

Kellogg-Briand Pact

The Kellogg-Briand Pact, also known as the Pact of Paris after the city where it was signed on August 27, 1928, was an international treaty "providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy." It failed in its purpose but was significant for later developments in international law. It was named after the American secretary of state Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand, who drafted the pact.

WWI Affected National Economies

• The war affected economies all over the world• Both Britain and France owned huge war debts to the

USA and relied on reparation payments from Germany to pay their loans

• Britain was deeply in debt with high unemployment and low wages, and out of date factories

• In 1926, a general strike lasted nine days and involved three million workers

WWI Affected National Economies

• Conversely, the French economy recovered fairly quickly, while the USA emerged as the world’s top economic power

• In the affluent 1920s, middle-class Americans enjoyed the benefits of capitalism, buying cars, radios, and refrigerators

• Standard of living rose in the USA

Economic Pressures

• Better technologies allowed factories to make more products faster, leading to overproduction in the United States

• Factories then cut back, and many workers lost their jobs• A crisis in finance (management of money matters including the

circulation of money, loans, investments, and banking) led the Federal Reserve (central U.S. banking system) to raise interest rates

• This made people even more nervous about the economy

Economic Pressures

• In the Fall of 1929, financial panic set in• Stock prices crashed• The United States economy entered the Great Depression,

which soon spread around the world• “When the USA sneezes, the world catches a cold”

Great Depression

• Governments searched for solutions• In the USA, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced

the programs of the New Deal – package of economic and social programs designed to stimulate the economy

• Although the New Deal failed to end the Depression, it did ease much suffering

Great Depression

• Critics of the New Deal argued that the size of the federal government increased and the federal debt increased

• However, as the Depression wore on, it created fertile ground for extremists and radicals

• Many people grew weary of the global Depression and lost faith in the democratic governments’ ability to solve the economic crises

• Ultimately, it would take World War II to bring the world out of the Great Depression

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Elected four times as president of the United States

Powerpoint Questions

• 1. What were the three powerful democratic countries that emerged after World War I?

• 2. What pressing problem faced Great Britain from 1919-1922? How was this problem solved? Describe.

• 3. Why was France weakened in the 1920s?• 4. Which country emerged as the world’s top economic

power after WWI?• 4. Why did the USA experience a “Red Scare”?• 5. What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact designed to do?

Powerpoint Questions

• 6. What 1929 event aggravated the economic decline in the USA?• 7. What treaty settled territorial disputes between Germany and other

European countries?• 8. What agreement among various countries renounced war as an

instrument of national policy?• 9. In the USA, what was one result of manufacturing goods at a faster

rate?• 10. What is the name of the U.S. central banking system?• 11. What program did President Roosevelt introduce to stimulate the

U.S. economy after the Great Depression began?• 12. Why did people around the world lose faith in their governments?

The End