The Western Democracies Stumble

1
The Western Democracies Stumble

• Chapter 13
• Section 2

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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

3
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

4
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

5
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

6
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

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Red Scare
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Red Scare
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Anarchist Attempting to Blow Up the Statue of
Liberty (Red Scare)
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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 Frances attitude toward
  Germany
• Britain feared that IF Germany became too weak,
  USSR and France would become too powerful

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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.
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Maginot Line
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Defensive Bunker Along the Maginot Line
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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?

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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)

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Signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact
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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.
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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

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WWI Affected National Economies

• Conversely, the French economy recovered fairly
  quickly, while the USA emerged as the worlds 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Elected four times as president of the United
States
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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 worlds top
  economic power after WWI?
• 4. Why did the USA experience a Red Scare?
• 5. What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact designed to
  do?

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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?

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The End