The Great Depression of 1929 shook the foundations of capitalism. The economic crisis radicalized politics and produced the worst possible result: the rise of fascism.
Basic Knowledge
On October 24, 1929 (Black Thursday), the stock market on New York's Wall Street crashed, beginning the Great Depression. The U.S. unemployment rate reached 25%, and world trade shrank to one-third in three years. Each country adopted its own measures: in the United States, Roosevelt (F. Roosevelt) implemented the New Deal (TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority; AAA, Agricultural Adjustment Act; NIRA, National Industrial Recovery Act; the Wagner Act; and the Social Security Act). Britain and France adopted bloc economies that enclosed their colonies (the British sterling bloc and French franc bloc). The Soviet Union was largely unaffected by the Depression and continued industrialization through a planned economy. Italy, Germany, and Japan, which had few colonies, chose external aggression through fascism and militarism.
1922 In Italy, Mussolini's “March on Rome” → acquisition of power
October 24, 1929 Black Thursday → Great Depression
January 1933 Hitler becomes chancellor
March 1933 Enabling Act (Nazi dictatorship), Germany leaves the League of Nations
1935 Germany declares rearmament, Italy invades Ethiopia
1936 Remilitarization of the Rhineland, outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Anti-Comintern Pact between Japan and Germany
1938 Germany annexes Austria, Munich Conference (Sudetenland)
1939 Germany dismantles Czechoslovakia, Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, invasion of Poland
In Depth (Background and Effects)
In Germany, the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers' Party), led by Adolf Hitler, expanded its seats by taking advantage of the disorder caused by the Great Depression. It became the largest party in 1932, and on January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. Using the Reichstag Fire of February as a pretext, the government suppressed the Communist Party. On March 23, it passed the Enabling Act, transferring legislative power from Parliament to the government. After Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler established his dictatorship as Führer. He imposed a reign of terror through anti-Semitism (the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 and Kristallnacht in 1938), the Gestapo (secret police), and concentration camps (including Dachau, opened in 1933). In Italy, Mussolini had already seized power through the March on Rome in 1922. In 1937, the Tripartite Anti-Comintern Pact among Japan, Germany, and Italy was established, forming the Axis Powers.
- Great Depression = October 24, 1929, New York stock market crash
- United States = New Deal (F. Roosevelt)
- Britain and France = bloc economies
- Soviet Union = unaffected by the Depression through a planned economy
- Germany, Italy, and Japan = fascism and militarism
- Mussolini = 1922, March on Rome
- Hitler becomes chancellor = January 30, 1933
- Enabling Act = March 1933, establishment of dictatorship
Points to Note (Easily Confused)
① F. Roosevelt (Franklin, 1933-45, New Deal, World War II) and T. Roosevelt (Theodore, 1901-09, mediation of the Russo-Japanese War) were different people. ② Fascism (Italy, Mussolini) and Nazism (Germany, Hitler) were different movements, although they were highly similar. ③ Remember the abbreviations NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act), AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act), and TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority). ④ The Nuremberg Laws (1935, anti-Jewish laws) and the Nuremberg Trials (1945-46, war-crimes trials) were different.
Practice
- On what date and at what place did the Great Depression begin?
- Which president implemented the New Deal in the United States?
- Which party and leader established a dictatorship in Germany through the “Enabling Act” in 1933?