Interwar Years

Treaty Of Versailles

Jun 28, 1919

The German government was given three weeks to accept the terms of the treaty (which it had not seen prior to delivery). Its initial response was a lengthy list of complaints, most of which were simply ignored. The treaty was perceived by many as too great a departure from U.S. President Wilson's Fourteen Points; and by the British as too harsh in its treatment of Germany.Controversial even today, it is often argued that the punitive terms of the treaty supported the rise of the Nazis and the Third Reich in 1930s Germany, which in turn led to the outbreak of World War II.The Versailles treaty deprived Germany of around 13.5% of its 1914 territory (some seven million people) and all of its overseas possessions. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, and Belgium was enlarged in the east with the addition of the formerly German border areas of Eupen and Malmedy.The German government was given three weeks to accept the new treaty taking place. Its response was lists of complaints, and those were ignored, the treaty supported the rise of nazis and the third reich, which caused WW II

Germany Signs Treaty of Versailles

Jun 28, 1919

On June 28, 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending its involvement in World War I. The treaty subjected Germany to a number of harsh penalties and restrictions that many historians believe contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler.Germany and the Allied Powers had signed an armistice on Nov. 11, 1918. Two months later, the Allied Powers met at the Paris Peace Conference to begin what became a four-month process of drafting the terms of Germany’s surrender.France, which had been invaded by Germany four times since 1814, sought to impose strict penalties on its neighbor to ensure its own safety. Conversely, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States pushed for his “Fourteen Points,” a collection of conditions intended to prevent the outbreak of war

Warren G, Harding

Mar 4, 1921

The 29th U.S. president, Warren Harding (1865-1923) served in office from 1921 to 1923 before dying of an apparent heart attack. Harding’s presidency was overshadowed by the criminal activities of some of his cabinet members and other government officials, although he himself was not involved in any wrongdoing. An Ohio native and Republican, Harding was a successful newspaper publisher who served in the Ohio legislature and the U.S. Senate. In 1920, he won the general election in a landslide, promising a “return to normalcy” after the hardships of World War I (1914-1918). As president, he favored pro-business policies and limited immigration. Harding died suddenly in San Francisco in 1923, and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). After Harding’s death, the Teapot Dome Scandal and other instances of corruption came to light, damaging his reputation.

Unemployment

Jul 9, 1921

The Depression of 1920–21 was an extremely sharp deflationary recession in the United States, shortly after the end of World War I. It lasted from January 1920 to July 1921.[1] The extent of the deflation was not only large, but large relative to the accompanying decline in real product.[2]A range of factors have been identified contributing to the depression, many relating to adjustments in the economy following the end of World War I. There was a brief Post-World War I recession immediately following the end of the war which lasted for 7 months. The economy started to grow, though it had not yet completed all the adjustments in shifting from a wartime to a peacetime economy. Factors identified as potentially contributing to the downturn include: returning troops which created a surge in the civilian labor force, a decline in labor union strife, changes in fiscal and monetary policy, and changes in price expectations.

David Lloyd

Oct 22, 1922

David Lloyd George was born in 1863 and died in 1945. Lloyd George was the major British politician present at the Treaty of Versailles and while at Versailles it was Lloyd George who tried to play the middle role between the total retribution of George Clemenceau and the seemingly mild rebuke of America’s Woodrow Wilson.Lloyd George was born in Manchester but he was brought up in Criccieth in north Wales. He was articled to a solicitor at Porthmadoc. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Caernarvon boroughs in 1890 and he served this constituency as MP for 55 years. Lloyd George was a member of the Liberal Party - north Wales being one of the last strongholds of the Liberals as it declined in the first half of the Twentieth Century.His talents, especially as a speaker, soon brought him the notice of the Liberal hierarchy. Though he had been tainted as being pro-Boer during the Boer War, he was made President of the Board of Trade in 1905 and promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1908.

Russians Great Civil War Ends

Oct 25, 1922

The Russian Civil War was to tear Russia apart for three years – between 1918 and 1921. The civil war occurred because after November 1917, many groups had formed that opposed Lenin’s Bolsheviks. These groups included monarchists, militarists, and, for a short time, foreign nations. Collectively, they were known as the Whites while the Bolsheviks were known as the Reds.The Whites also suffered a massive blow to their campaign when the Allies withdrew from Russia after November 11th 1918. With the end of World War One, the Allies were much cooler in their dealings with the White leaders. Reports reached London that the Whites had committed many atrocities on innocent civilians – and the government could not afford to be associated with such things. The senior British observer attached to Kolchak wrote to Lloyd George that Kolchak was a “disinterested patriot”. In May 1919, Britain refused to recognise Kolchak and France did the same in May. The Red Army drove Kolchak and his rapidly disintegrating forces back to Siberia where he surrendered to the Communists. He died in their custody.White forces in the south of Russia were evacuated from the Crimea from November 1920 on.After success against forces in Russia itself, Trotsky then faced a challenge from Poland. Granted her independence in 1918, Poland invaded the Ukraine in 1920. However, the Polish army was not able to defeat Trotsky’s Red Army and it broke through the Poles lines and advanced on Warsaw. Jozef Pilsudski, Poland’s commander-in-chief, led a counter-attack against the Red Army and Lenin decided to cut his losses and agreed to the Treaty of Riga on March 18th 1921. As a result of this treaty, about 10 million Ukranians and White Russians were put under Polish rule. The Treaty of Riga brought to an end the Russian Civil War. Within Russia, the Communist government under Lenin was now secure.

Lenin Dies, Then Stalin

Jan 1, 1924

For twenty-five years Comrade Lenin tended our Party and made it into the strongest and most highly steeled worker’ party in the world. The blows of tsarism and its henchmen, the fury of the bourgeoisie and the landlords, the armed attacks of Kolchak and Denikin, the armed intervention of Britain and France, the lies and slanders of the hundred-mouthed bourgeois press — all these scorpions constantly chastised our Party for a quarter of a century. But our Party stood firm as a rock, repelling the countless blows of its enemies and leading the working class forward, to victory. In fierce battles our Party forged the unity and solidarity of its ranks. And by unity and solidarity it achieved victory over the enemies of the working class.

Dawes Plan

Aug 27, 1924

The Dawes Plan of 1924 was formulated to take Weimar Germany out of hyperinflation and to return Weimar’s economy to some form of stability. The Dawes Plan got its name as the man who headed the committee was an American called Charles Dawes. The Dawes Plan of 1924 was formulated to take Weimar Germany out of hyperinflation and to return Weimar’s economy to some form of stability. The Dawes Plan got its name as the man who headed the committee was an American called Charles Dawes.

Stalin's Five Year Plan

Oct 1, 1924

Stalin's willingness to use brutality to achieve political aims was well established by the time he took power; nevertheless, the Soviet Union (as it was known after 1922) was unprepared for the extreme violence and oppression that Stalin unleashed in 1928. This was the first year of Stalin's Five Year Plan, a radical attempt to bring the Soviet Union into the industrial age. Stalin's Five Year Plans Caused FaminesIn the name of Communism, Stalin seized assets, including farms and factories, and reorganized the economy. However, these efforts often led to less efficient production, ensuring that mass starvation swept the countryside. To mask the disastrous results of the plan, Stalin maintained export levels, shipping food out of the country even as rural residents died by the hundreds of thousands. Any protest of his policies resulted in immediate death or relocation to a gulag (a prison camp in the remote regions of the nation). The Disastrous Effects Kept SecretThe first Five Year Plan (1928-1932) was declared completed a year early and the second Five Year Plan (1933-1937) was launched with equally disastrous results. A third Five Year began in 1938, but was interrupted by World War II in 1941. While all of these plans were unmitigated disasters, Stalin’s policy forbidding any negative publicity led the full consequences of these upheavals to remain hidden for decades. To many who were not directly impacted, the Five Year Plans appeared to exemplify Stalin's proactive leadership.

Black Tuesday

Oct 24, 1929

The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday[1] and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, began on October 29, 1929 and was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout.[2] The crash signaled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries[3] and did not end in the United States until the onset of American mobilization for World War II at the end of 1941. 15 million people had unemployment coming to them after the banks crashed.Anyone who bought stocks in mid-1929 and held onto them saw most of his or her adult life pass by before getting back to even.—Richard M. Salsman[4]

Hitler Appointed Chancellor

Feb 10, 1933

On this day in 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. The year 1932 had seen Hitler's meteoric rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people's frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. A charismatic speaker, Hitler channeled popular discontent with the post-war Weimar government into support for his fledgling Nazi party. In an election held in July 1932, the Nazis won 230 governmental seats; together with the Communists, the next largest party, they made up over half of the Reichstag.Hindenburg, intimidated by Hitler's growing popularity and the thuggish nature of his cadre of supporters, the SA (or Brownshirts), initially refused to make him chancellor. Instead, he appointed General Kurt von Schleicher, who attempted to steal Hitler's thunder by negotiating with a dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor Strasser. At the next round of elections in November, the Nazis lost ground—but the Communists gained it, a paradoxical effect of Schleicher's efforts that made right-wing forces in Germany even more determined to get Hitler into power. In a series of complicated negotiations, ex-Chancellor Franz von Papen, backed by prominent German businessmen and the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), convinced Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor, with the understanding that von Papen as vice-chancellor and other non-Nazis in key government positions would contain and temper Hitler's more brutal tendencies.

Hindenburg Dies

Aug 2, 1934

President Hindenburg died on August 2nd 1934. Hitler had already agreed with the Cabinet that upon Hindenburg's death the offices of President and Chancellor would be combined. The last wishes of Hindenburg were that upon his death the monarchy should be restored. Hitler managed to suppress these wishes and did not publish the President's will. Having already ensured the support of the Army, Hitler went a step further by making the whole of the armed forces swear an oath of loyalty to him personally. A plebiscite was then held for the public to decide on whether they approved of the changes already made - 90% of voters gave their approval. Thus Hitler had become "Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor" and the title of President was then abolished.

Spanish Civil War Starts

Jul 17, 1936

On July 18, 1936, the Spanish Civil War begins as a revolt by right-wing Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco and spreads to mainland Spain. From the Canary Islands, General Francisco Franco broadcasts a message calling for all army officers to join the uprising and overthrow Spain's leftist Republican government. Within three days, the rebels captured Morocco, much of northern Spain, and several key cities in the south. The Republicans succeeded in putting down the uprising in other areas, including Madrid, Spain's capital. The Republicans and the Nationalists, as the rebels were called, then proceeded to secure their respective territories by executing thousands of suspected political opponents. Meanwhile, Franco flew to Morocco and prepared to bring the Army of Africa over to the mainland.

Roosevelt's re election

Nov 3, 1936

On Nov. 3, 1936, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over his Republican challenger, Kansas Governor Alfred M. “Alf” Landon. The president won over 60 percent of the popular vote and 523 of the 531 electoral votes, losing only Maine and Vermont.President Roosevelt had taken office in 1933, three and a half years after the stock market crash and the start of the Great Depression. Many Americans were struggling. The president outlined what was called a “New Deal” that would introduce work relief programs a series of economic and agricultural reforms designed to spur economic recovery. The New Deal provided immediate relief, but it was largely unsuccessful in stimulating the economy

Britian Priminister

May 28, 1937

His reputation before 1937 had been made largely inside the party, and the cabinet, and the man in the street, willing enough to discover exceptional and appealing qualities in a new national leader, was rather at a loss to know what to make of him. Almost to the last he held the affection of many individuals in all classes who saw him as a dignified, patient, rather crafty old gentleman who would outmanoeuvre Hitler in the end; but much of this was a rather blind groping by ordinary men for the positive qualities which they felt instinctively that every prime minister must possess. Chamberlain, however, never made a rabble-rousing speech; his drawn, unsmiling, rather corvine features offered no hint of sagacious bonhomie, roguish humour, or robust self-confidence; no mild irregularity of dress or taste or speech, no cigar, no funny hat, no affection for pigs or orchids, no ingenious deployment of Celtic idiom, gave a little geniality or humanity to his personality; he was never rude. England in 1937 was already feeling rather badly the need for a leader who could answer the dictators in a style as effective as their own. Chamberlain could not do this.But this failure of style or personality, which was of quite exceptional political importance during his premiership, was misleading in many ways; positive qualities and achievements explain his almost continuously successful ministerial record down to 1937

Treaty Of Versailles

Mar 9, 2013

The Treaty of Versailles was the peace settlement signed after World War One had ended in 1918 and in the shadow of the Russian Revolution and other events in Russia. The treaty was signed at the vast Versailles Palace near Paris - hence its title - between Germany and the Allies. The three most important politicians there were David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson. The Versailles Palace was considered the most appropriate venue simply because of its size - many hundreds of people were involved in the process and the final signing ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors could accommodate hundreds of dignitaries. Many wanted Germany, now led by Friedrich Ebert, smashed - others, like Lloyd George, were privately more cautiousBritain : 750,000 soldiers killed; 1,500,000 woundedFrance : 1,400,000 soldiers killed; 2,500,000 woundedBelgium : 50,000 soldiers killedItaly : 600,000 soldiers killedRussia : 1,700,000 soldiers killedAmerica : 116,000 soldiers killedThose who had fought against the Allies suffered heavy casualties as well:Germany : 2,000,000 soldiers killedAustria-Hungary : 1,200,000 soldiers killedTurkey : 325,000 soldiers killedBulgaria : 100,000 soldiers killed