Crash Course European History: The Great Depression and Rise of Dictators

Introduction

• Presenter: John Green
• Focus: Impact of the Great Depression on Europe and the rise of dictators in the 1930s.

The Great Depression

• 1929 U.S. Stock Market Crash
  • Citizens invested in the stock market with borrowed money.
  • The crash led to demands for loan repayments, causing financial failures.
  • Banks and businesses collapsed; resulted in mass unemployment.
  • By 1933, 6 million Germans were unemployed (1/3 of the workforce).

Impact on Gender Roles and Employment

• Women often retained jobs due to lower wages, while men epitomized unemployment.
• Men sometimes feigned going to work despite job losses.

Rise of Dictators

Germany

• Adolf Hitler and Nazism
  • Promised to restore masculinity and national pride.
  • Used violence and paramilitary forces (Stormtroopers) to discredit the Weimar Republic.
  • Became chancellor in 1933.
  • Passed Enabling Act for unchecked power.
  • Created an exclusionary "people's community" via the SS.
  • Employed negative integration by targeting Jews, Communists, and others.
  • Enacted policies to boost "Aryan" birth through incentives.
  • Launched infrastructure projects to reduce unemployment.

Soviet Union

• Joseph Stalin
  • Consolidated power post-1929.
  • Blamed kulaks for food scarcity issues.
  • Enforced collectivization, leading to famines and purges (10 million deaths).
  • Conducted show trials and purges within the Bolshevik party.
  • Engaged in rapid industrialization with the help of foreign consultants.

Expansions and Global Impact

• German Expansion

  • Openly rearmed in violation of the Versailles treaty.
  • Annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia.
  • Made agreements with France, Britain, and Stalin.

• Italian Expansion

  • Mussolini invaded Ethiopia.

• Japanese Expansion

  • Invaded Manchuria and then China, leading to broader conflicts in East Asia.

The Spanish Civil War

• Democratic enthusiasm in Spain led to a fractured government.
• Authoritarian military uprising by Francisco Franco in 1936.
• Involved European powers and foreshadowed WWII tactics.

Societal Support for Dictators

• Dictators like Franco, Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini gained support.
• Cultural symbols and rhetoric influenced public support.

Conclusion

• History involves broad societal participation and responsibility.
• Importance of understanding the factors behind the rise of tyranny.