The Western Democracies Stumble

By: Sabrina GriffinTravis Beohm

Nick Hornbaker Joshua BardTyler Eitnier

British Party Stumbles-During the 1920s, the Labor party surpassed the Liberal party in strength.   -The Labor party had gained a lot of support from workers by promoting socialist reforms.-As the Liberal party faltered, the middle-class began to back the Conservative party.-The Conservatives held power for much of the 1920s.-After a massive strike of over three million workers, Conservatives passed legislation limiting power of workers on strike.

Irish Independence-In 1914, Britain still faced the "Irish question". Parliament passed a home-rule bill that was shelved when the war began.-On Easter 1916, a group of militant Irish nationalists launched a revolt against British rule.-It was ultimately suppressed, but it stirred wider support for the Irish cause.-In 1919 when Parliament again failed to grant home-rule causing members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to begin a guerrilla war against British forces.-In 1922, moderates from Ireland and Britain reached an agreement. Most of Ireland became the self-governing Irish Free State. However, the Protestant northern counties remained under British rule.-The IRA would continuing fighting for decades against this division.

Frances Troubled Peace

• Britian and France emerged as a victor and a loser. 

• Several parties from conservitive to communists competed for the power.

• All of the leaders had very diffrent thoughts on how to repay war debt.

• A series of quickly changing coalitation goverments ruled france at this time.

  United States Isolation

• - In contrast the United States emerged from World War I in very good shape.

•  -Entering into the war late really made A positive impact on the number of casualties and little loss of property.

• -Fear of radicals and Bolsheviks in Russia set off the "Red Scare" in 1919 and 1920.

• -Many born radicals were expelled for the United States

• -After this there were many limits on immigration and there is still limits to this day.

 

Foreign Policy

•  Addition to the problems at home, the three democracies faced a difficult situation. 

• The peace settlements caused friction , especially in Germany and among some ethnic groups in eastern Europe,

• Then there was a lot more arguing through out the countries

Peace Agreement

• The peace agreement was to help the country's get along with each other.

• Many people had to work for peace.

• Representatives from 7 European nations signed many treaties at Locarno, Switzerland.

• The Kellogg-Briand pact was sponsored by the united states in 1928.

• The great powers persuade disarmament witch means they lost the weapons and armed forces.

Maginot Line

• France built massive fortifications called the maginot line, along the boarder of Germany.

• However the line did not stop Germany.

•  France's goal was to keep Germany weak.

• In the quest for security France strengthened its military.

• British leaders wanted to relax the treaties harsh treatment of Germany.

Economics• Britain and France both faced serious economic

problems while the USA became the world's economic leader.

• Britain was deeply in debt and unemployment was sky high. many of its factories were out of date and workers received low wages, leading them to frequently strike.

• France's economy recovered more quickly than Britain's due to the territories they gained from Germany. Their economy, though, was still unstable.

• USA, however, had a much better economy than the other democracies. Loans and investments helped Europe recover and as long the American economy was going, the world economy would remain stable. That all changes, though, during the Great Depression.

The Great Depression

• At the end of 1920's, an economic crisis in the United States began to spread all across the globe affecting every country.

• The wealth that was created in the USA was not shared equally among the people. This lead to many workers and farmers being on the losing end. during the war, there was a great demand for raw materials and other products during the war. After the war, however, the demand fell for the products sending farmers into turmoil.

• Many people also tried to sell their stocks all at once. this would send the stock market crashing and many people will lose their money. This causes the USA to enter the Great Depression.

• When the USA entered the Depression, it would stop making loans to other countries which would send them into turmoil

Overproduction

• Overproduction is a condition when the production of goods exceeds the demand for these goods.

• This was caused by better technology that made factories able to produce more products.

• As demand slowed down for these product, factories cut back on production causing many workers to lose their jobs. This will help lead to the Great Depression

Finance• Finance is the management of

money matters including the circulation of money, investment, loans, and banking.

• Many of the prices in the New York Stock Exchange were rising. in order to keep up, the Federal Reserve raised interests in 1928 and 1929. this made many people very uneasy about loans and borrowing money. 

• In 1929, Everyone wanted to sell their stocks at once. This made the stocks crash and opened the door to the Great Depression

Federal Reserve • New York Stock Exchange prices at all time high.

• Federal Reserve is the central banking system of the United States, which regulates banks, raised interest rates in 1928 and again in 1929.

• People started to become nervous when it came to borrowing money or investing, so the demand was impacted.

• Many people started selling their stocks, and the ones who didn't lost a lot of money, including inventors.

• Stock market crashed which affected the economic decline, once again resulting in the Federal Reserve increasing the interest rate, causing an even worse effect.

• People were buying less so businesses closed and banks failed, causing many people to lose their jobs.

• Soon these problems were all around the world, banks not making loans to any one or any countries, making it impossible to pay of their war debts.

Democracies Reaction

• Governments all over tried to find ways to fix the Great Depression, none of the ideas helping quickly, but they helped some of the suffering.

• Britain set up a coalition government made from leaders of its three political parties, providing some benefits to the unemployed but did not succeed in improving the economy.

• By 1931, one in every four people were unemployed.• France took longer for the depression to affect, but by the 1930's they

were starting to have a higher unemployment rate and decreased production.

• Many leftist parties united behind their socialist leader, Leon Blum.• Blum's government tried to solve working problems and passed some

social legislation, without receiving satisfaction from radical leftists.• Soon after, strikes came and Blum's government was brought down.• France lacked strong leadership but the democracy survived.

New Deal• President Herber Hoover believed

that the government should not get involved in private business matters, even though he did try many different things to solve this crisis.

• In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States.

• He introduced the New Deal; a massive package of economic and social programs.

• This made the government get more involved in people's lives than before.

• New laws protected bank deposits and regulated the stock market.