AP European History/Neiffer

Reading Guide:
Chapter 26: Political Experiments of the 1920s

Political and Economic Favors after the Paris Settlement

Postwar Economic Problems
• Warren G. Harding's normalcy (silly Americans!)
• Rise of the United States as an economic power (silly Americans!)
• What impact did the war have on European economics?

New Roles for Government and Labor

• What was the impact of WWI on labor relations?

The Soviet Experiment Begins

War Communism
• The Cheka
• How did War Communism revolutionize the Soviet economy?

The New Economic Policy

• What was the “New Economic Policy?”

Stalin Versus Trotsky (EPIC COMMUNIST BATTLE)

• What was Trotsky's intellectual position in the post-revolution era?
• Who is Joseph Stalin (you may call him Uncle Joe)?
• Pravda
• How did Stalin ultimately win?

The Third International

• Comintern
• What is the Third International?
• What was Europe's response to the calls of the Third International? The impact?

Women and the Family in the Early Soviet Union

• Communism and the Family
• What was the role of women and family in the new Soviet Union?
• What rights did women gain under the early Soviet Union?
• What was the ultimate place of women in the Soviet Union?

The Fascist Experiment in Italy

What is fascism?

The Rise of Mussolini

• What was the background of Mussolini?
• How did Mussolini evolve from socialism to fascism?
• What was the conditions in Italy after WWI?
• How did Mussolini slowly gain power?
• The “Black Shirts”
• The “March on Rome”
• How did Mussolini seize power?

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The Fascists in Power
• How did Italian Fascists rule?
• How did Fascists use propaganda?
• What agreement did Fascists make with the Vatican?

Motherhood for the Nation in Fascist Italy

• How were women treated by the government in Italy?
•

Joyless Victors
France: The Search for Security
• What political decisions were made in France in the 1920s?
• What was France's position internationally after WWI?
• Little Entente... and the German and Russian response
• What problems plagued the attempts of France to get reparations
from WWI?
• Cartel des Gauches

Great Britain: Economic Confusion

• How did politics change in Great Britain after WWI?
• Describe the rise of the Labour Party. What was their platform?
• The General Strike of 1926
• How did the British empire change after WWI?
• Irish Self Rule
◦ Sinn Fein
◦ What causes continued violence over the issue of Ireland
despite Irish independence?

Trials of the Successor States in Eastern

Europe
Economic and Ethnic Pressures
• What factors made new states weak?

Poland: Democracy to Military Rule

• Why did a military dictator take over in Poland?

Hungary: Turn to Authoritarianism

• What perpetuated violence during in Hungary after WWI?
• Why did conservatives rule in Hungary during the 20s and 30s?

Austria: Political Turmoil and Nazi Occupation

• How did Nazis take over in this region in the 30s?

Southeastern Europe: Royal Dictatorships

• How did ethnic tensions dominate this region after WWI?
• What royal dictatorships rose during this era?

The Weimar Republic in Germany

Constitutional Flaws
• Reichstag

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Lack of Broad Popular Support
• Why did the Weimar government lack political support?
• Kapp Putsch

Invasion of the Ruhr and Inflation

• What caused the incredibly inflation in Germany during the
1920s?
• What led to the French invasion of the Ruhr Valley?

Hitler's Early Career

• What is Hitler background?
• What was critical in the development of Hitler's political
philosophy?
•
• Describe the creation of the Nazis.
• How did Nazis twist the concept of socialism?
• What is the SA? How were they used to expand Naziism?
• The Beer Hall Putsch
• Mein Kampf
• What decisions did Hitler reach in prison?

The Stresemann Years

• Gustav Stresemann
• Paul von Hindenburg

Locarno
• What was the Locarno Agreement?
• Was was the response of the Locarno Agreement by European countries?
• Why was the joy over the agreement not lasting?

Review Questions
• How did the Bolshevik revolution pose a challenge to the rest of Europe? Why did Lenin institute the
New Economic Policy? Could the Russian Revolution have succeeded without Lenin? How did the
Comintern affect Western socialist parties? How did Stalin overcome Trotsky and establish himself as
head of the Soviet state? How did the Bolshevik revolution result in the split of the socialist parties in
Western Europe?
• What was fascism? How and why did the fascists obtain power in Italy? To whom did they appeal? What
were the differences between the fascist dictatorship of Mussolini and the communist dictatorship of
Stalin? What was the status of women under these regimes?
• Why were Britain and France “joyless victors” after World War I? What weakness did each have? How
did World War I change British politics? How did Ireland win its independence?
• Why did France find it difficult to achieve security after the Versailles treaty? Was the invasion of the
Ruhr wise? Was the Locarno pact a success?
• Why was Czechoslovakia the only generally viable democracy in eastern Europe? What forces worked
against democracy in the region?
• Was the failure of the Weimar Republic in Germany inevitable? Between 1919 and 1929, what were the
republic’s greatest strengths and weaknesses? Why did the Versailles Treaty loom so large in domestic
German politics? What was the position of the Nazi Party in the late l920s?

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AP European History/Neiffer

Reading Guide:
Chapter 27: Europe and the
Great Depression of the 1930s

Toward the Great Depression

The Financial Tailspin
• How did WWI reparations and loans help contribute to the financial crisis?
• Dawes Plan (1924)
• How did the US financial crisis in 1929 impact the rest of Europe?

Problems in Agricultural Commodities

• How did the changes in the 1920s economic situation impact the agricultural situation in Europe?

Depression and Government Policy

• Why were the governments not ready for the Great Depression?
• General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes (1936)

Confronting the Great Depression in the

Democracies
Great Britain: The National Governments
• Ramsay Macdonald
•
• What was the political situation in Britain as the Depression
unfolded?
• What steps did the National Government take during the
depression? What were the results?
• Neville Chamberlain
• What was the political result of the Depression for the
British?

France: The Popular Front

• What was the difference between France and Britain in the
Depression?
• What was the political results of the Depression?
• Why were Right-Wingers protesting in France?
• The Popular Front
• Leon Blum
• What actions did the Blum government take? What was the
response? Ramsay MacDonald

Germany: The Nazi Seizure of Power

Depression and Political Deadlock
• How did the German economy fair as the west fell apart?
• How did the economic situation impact politics?

Hitler Comes to Power

• How did Hitler use the unsure political structure to seize power?
• How did Hitler's rise go against his “Will to Power” narrative?

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Hitler's Consolidation of Power
• How did the Reichstag fire help Hitler solidify power?
• The Enabling Act (1933)
• Why did Hitler purge the SA of its
leadership?

The Police State ad Anti-Semitism

• What was the Schutzstaffel (SS)?
• What did the German government
do to persecute Jews?
• Nuremberg Laws (1935)
• Kristallnacht

Racial Ideology and the Lives of Women

• How were women viewed by the
Reich?
• Why was motherhood important to
Nazis?

Nazi Economic Policy

• Why was Hitler effective in dealing
with the Depression when others
failed?
• How did military spending impact
the economy? Kristallnacht

Italy: Fascist Economics

Syndicates
• What is corporatism?

Corporations
• What were corporations?
• What was the impact of the corporate economic policies?
• Italy's invasion of Ethiopia

Stalin's Soviet Union: Central Economic Planning, Collectivization, and

Party Purges
The Decision for Rapid Industrialization
• How successful was the New Economic Policy?
• What was the impact of rapid industrialization?

The Collectivization of Agriculture

• Why was agriculture a continued problem in the Soviet Union?
•
• Was was Stalin's response to this ongoing problem?
• Describe Stalin's collectivization policies.
• What was the impact of collectivization on the Soviet people?

Flight to Soviet Cities

• Why did Soviet citizens move in mass to urban areas?

Urban Consumer Shortages

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 • Why were there shortages and other disappointing economic problems in the Soviet urban centers?

Foreign Reactions and Repercussions

• Describe the reaction of outsiders to the new
Soviet Union. Why were their views narrow-
minded?

The Purges
• Why did Stalin push purges among his people?
• What were the impacts of the purges?

Review Questions
• Why did the Great Depression of the 1930s
occur, and why was it more severe and longer-
lasting than previous depressions?
• Why did Britain’s National Government and
France’s Popular Front deal with the Depression
in different ways? Why did the Third Republic
in France have so few supporters?
• How did the Great Depression affect Germany?
How did Hitler come to power?
• How did Hitler’s economic policies differ from
those Britain, Italy, and France used to confront
the Depression? Why did some nations deal
with the Great Depression more effectively
than others?
• How and why did Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin
use terror to achieve their goals? What were
"Uncle Joe" Stalin
the particular characteristics of Nazi racial
policy? How did this policy in its various guises affect Jewish life?
• Why did Stalin decide that Russia had to industrialize rapidly? Why did this require the collectivization
of agriculture? How did Stalin overcome the obstacles to collectivization? What were the causes of
the purges in the Soviet Union?

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