Sebastian Zermeño
March 31, 2011
World History 2
Interwar Period Essay
The Interwar period was a lapse of time that started with the end of World War I and finalized with the beginning of World War II. This period of time lasted from 1919 to 1939. Many countries, mostly from Europe, were enormously affected negatively in their economies, societies, politics and militarisms. After World War I, many countries were in deplorable conditions; they had lost all of their economy for the support their armies in World War I. Also, their politics were in chaos because some countries introduced a new government. These actions created a total chaos inside the society, the people was divided into many groups in order to defend their beliefs of a perfect government.
The Interwar period had enormous consequences upon many countries such as Germany, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. For example, Germany had lost all of its economy during the World War I, it spent huge quantities of money to help its army. Then, with the end of the World War I, the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations were created. The Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany was the country that caused the World War I, and that they had to pay war reparations to France for all the destruction that it created. Also, the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to reduce its army to a 100,000 men and remove its aircraft. All these actions made Germany’s people to feel oppressed and down because they were the ones who were paying the real consequences. Germany wasn’t the only country that was having trouble after the World War I. France had a lot of economic problems as well as the United Kingdom. The United States wasn’t affected at all, its hell started when the Great Depression emerged in 1929. Many American investors saw that it was a good moment to capitalize in Germany. The United States was helping Germany with its reparations to France. The American investors founded banks, factories, schools, etc. to help Germany’s economy… until the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929 (also known as the Black Tuesday.) During the Great Depression, Italy, UK, Germany, and the U.S. were terribly affected. The rate of unemployment was incredibly high, the United States had unemployment of 60.7%, France had 21.4%, UK 12.9%, and Germany 23.2%.
Later on, a German leader named Adolph Hitler saw the perfect opportunity to ascend into power. Hitler promised the Germans to get them out of the Great Depression, many Germans followed him. He joined the Nazi Party and became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. On March 23, 1933 Hitler became the dictator of Germany and introduced a totalitarian government. Moving on, the United States was in total chaos, therefore the ex-president Herbert Hoover was removed from the charged and the ex-president Franklin D. Roosevelt was brought by a political realignment in 1932. Roosevelt imposed the “First New Deal” and the “Second New Deal” in 1935 which helped the economy a lot and gave a strong stimulus to the growth of labor unions. Furthermore, France had lost territory and had an awful economy. Many strikes began because of the crisis and hunger. On 1926, under the government of the French premier Poincaré, France recovered from the economic crisis. Poincaré levied new taxes on sales, and the bureaucracy was cut. This caused the budget to be balanced, the franc to be even 30% more valuable. Poincaré was then considered a national hero for his actions. The United Kingdom, in an effort to balance the budget and restore confidence in the pound, on 10 September 1931 with Phillip Snowden still as Chancellor, the new national government issued an emergency budget, which immediately instituted a round of draconian cuts in public spending and wages. Public sector wages and unemployment pay were cut by 10%, and income tax was raised. The pay cuts did not go down well however and resulted in a Mutiny in the Royal Navy.
After reviewing all the most important aspects of the leaders: Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong and Francisco Franco. I came with the conclusion that the most relevant leader was Adolph Hitler. If I had to put him in another country rather than Germany I would put him in the United States.
Hitler was one of the most important leaders in the whole world. He had extremely efficient tactics to introduce his plans. For example, he used propaganda that persuaded people to join the Nazi Party. Another example could be the Nazi Youth, by 1930 the organization had enlisted more than 25,000 boys aged 14 and upwards. In those times, the society of the United States was divided and could be easily manipulated. Hitler had a great advantage, he was really good in presenting speeches. Therefore, he could have used that advantage to persuade the U.S. citizens to follow him. I think Hitler wouldn’t have any difficulty in imposing his rules. He had the idea of a supreme race named the Aryans. He said that the Aryan race was supposed to rule the world and eliminate inferior races such as the Jews, blacks, gypsies, homosexuals, etc. One thing that could have helped Hitler in his way to dominate the U.S. was that in those times, the United States was extremely racist. So, many people would have agreed with Hitler’s ideas of a dominant race. All these factors would help Hitler a lot in his way to conquer the United States. I think that if he was born in the U.S. he could have done all the actions he did in Germany.
