Totalitarianism
• Governments had increased control during WWI• Rejected liberalism • Will of the masses dominated over the individual• Obedience & participation• Often radically nationalistic
• Could be far right (fascists) or far left (communists)• Technologically savvy
Italy1919: verge of bankruptcy • high inflation & unemployment• unhappy with terms of Versailles
Mussolini’s Fascio di Combattimento appealed to veterans; used brute force & nationalistic rhetoric
1922: march on Rome w/ his Black Shirts
Il Duce
Fascism in ItalyNationalistic ideology• Militarization• Rampant sexism
Education; massive indoctrination & propaganda
Loyal to landowners & industrialists; NOT the lower classes
Secret Police; censorship
Lateran Accords
Fascist YouthFascist Youth
State “Corporatism”1926: National Council of Corporations created
• Guilds of employers & employees established to manage the economy
• Supported by small capitalists & the middle class; all felt threatened by the rise of Socialists
• Goal harmonize the interests of workers, managers and the state by abolishing class warfare.
• Reality This system hampered technological progress and destroyed workers’ rights.
Weimar Germany1919-24:• Versailles’ punishments• Ruhr, hyperinflation & unemployment• National Socialism• Beer Hall Putsch
1924-29:• stability & prosperity• Nazis organize & plan
1929-33:• The Great Depression• Nazis come to power Hyperinflation in Germany
The GermanMark
The GermanMark
1923 - Ruhr Valley Fiasco1923 - Ruhr Valley Fiasco
Weimar Republic PoliticsWeimar Republic Politics
Unemployment during the Great DepressionUnemployment during the Great Depression
The Great DepressionThe Great Depression
Spanish Civil War
1931: King Alfonso XIII abdicated; a Popular Front formed
1936-39: Spanish Civil War• Nationalists vs. Republicans• Franco’s Nationalists win• “dress rehearsal for WWII” • Picasso’s Guernica
Republican At the Instant of Death
Picasso’s GuernicaPicasso’s Guernica
The Democracies & Depression
France:
1920s: Raymond Poincare• Ruhr Valley fiasco• Cartel of the Left
1936: Leon Blum’s Popular Front; “France’s New Deal”
Great Britain:• massive unemployment• Keynesian Economics
Massive Unemployment
Culture Between the Wars
Mass Media: radio & cinema• BBC • Goebbels’ The Triumph of Will
Art: surrealism & modern art• Dali’s Persistence of Memory• Dadaism
Literature: “stream of consciousness”
Dali’s Persistence of Memory
