IN HISTORY

The Inter-War Crisis 1919-1939

Second edition

R.J. OVERY

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PEARSON

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First published 1994 Second edition published in Great Britain 2007

© Pearson Education Limited 1994, 2007

The right of R.]. Overy to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-4058-2468-2

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Introduction to the Series Vll

Acknow ledgemen ts Vlll

Chronology IX

PART ONE: THE BACKGROUND 1

1. WHAT KIND OF CRISIS? 3

PART TWO: ANALYSIS 13

2. REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION 15 The Russian Revolution 15 Exporting the Revolution 18 The Failure of Revolution 21

3. A CRISIS OF MODERNIZATION 25 The Challenge of Modernity 25 The Conservative Revolt 32

4. THE 'END OF CIVILIZATION' 38 Decline of the West 38 Science and Civilization 39 Women, Sex and Moral Decline 42 Psychoanalysis and the Modern Malaise 44 War and Civilization 46

5. THE 'GREAT CRASH': CAPITALISM IN CRISIS 48 The Causes of the Crash 48 The Effects of the Recession 52 The Search for Recovery 56 The End of Capitalism? 60

6. DEMOCRACY AND DICTATORSHIP 63 The Decline of Democracy 63 The Appeal of Dictatorship 67 The 'New Order' in Politics 71

7. THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS 76 The Unsettled Peace 76 The W or Id Crisis 80 The Slide to War 88

VI Contents

PART THREE: ASSESSMENT 95

8. THE CHALLENGE OF PROGRESS 97

PART FOUR: DOCUMENTS 103

Glossary 137 Who's Who 142 Bibliography 147

Contemporary Sources, Memoirs 147 Revolution and Counter-Revolution 147 Modernization and Crisis 148 A Crisis of Civilization 149 The Inter-War Economy 150 Democracy and Dictatorship 151 The International Crisis 152 General Books 153

Index 154

MAPS 1 The main empires in 1900 10 2 The post-war territorial settlement 78

We are grateful to the following for permISSIon to reproduce copyright material:

Document 22 reprinted by permISSIon of FOREIGN AFFAIRS (vol 18, 1939/1940) Copyright (1940) by the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc; lines from 'The Waste Land' from Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T.S. Eliot (Faber and Faber, 2002); the extract from David Gascoyne's 'Farewell Chorus' is from his Selected Poems (Enitharmon Press, 1994); Tavistock Publications for an extract from Marienthal: The Sociography of an Unemployed Community by M. Jahoda, P. Lazarsfeld and H. Zeisel (Tavistock Publications, 1972); Document 36 reprinted with the permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, from NO COMPROMISE: CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS by Melvin M. Rader. Copyright © 1939 by The Macmillan Company; copyright renewed © 1967 by Melvin M. Rader. All rights reserved.

We have unfortunately been unable to trace the copyright holder of 'Looking for Trouble' by V. Cowles in Decade: A Commemorative Anthology: 1931-1941 and would appreciate any information which would enable us to do so.

28 July-4 Aug. 1914 Outbreak of First World War. 23 Feb. 1917 Demonstrations in Petrograd provoke revolutionary

cnSIS.

2 Mar. 1917 25 Oct. 1917 3 Mar. 1918 9 Nov. 1918 11 Nov. 1918 Nov.-Dec. 1918 15 Jan. 1919 21 Mar. 1919 28 June 1919 10 Jail. 1920 17 Mar. 1921 6 Feb. 1922 May 1922

28 Oct. 1922 3 Sept. 1923 9 Nov. 1923 15 Nov. 1923 1 Dec. 1925

12-14 May 1926 28 May 1926 29 Aug. 1928 29 Oct. 1929 17 June 1930 14 Apr. 1931 Sept. 1931 11 Dec. 1931

6 Mar. 1932

Tsar Nicholas II abdicates. Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia. German-Russian Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates. Armistice on Western Front ends First World War. Communist seizure of power in Bavaria. Murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Bela Kun leads Communist takeover in Hungary. Signing of the Versailles Treaty. League of Nations Organization begins its operations. Marie Stopes opens first Birth Control Clinic. Washington Naval Treaty signed. Stalin appointed General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party. March on Rome by Italian Fascists. Primo de Rivera becomes Spanish dictator. Hitler Putsch in Munich ends in his arrest. German mark collapses at end of hyperinflation. Locarno Treaty signed by Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Belgium. Marshal Pilsudski assumes power in Poland. Parliamentary rule overthrown in Portugal. Kellogg-Briand Pact signed in Paris. Start of 'Great Crash' on US Stock Exchange. Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. Founding of Second Spanish Republic. Japanese Kwantung army seizes Manchuria. Statute of Westminster gives dominions right to declare war. US 'Bank Holiday' to prevent collapse of banking system.

x Chronology

9 July 1932 July/Aug. 1932 July 1932

30 Jan. 1933 2 May 1933 June 1933 July 1933 16 Oct. 1933

6 Feb. 1934 15 May 1934 19 May 1934 30 June 1934

2 Aug. 1934 Sept. 1934

19 Sept. 1934 13 Jan. 1935 5 July 1935 Aug. 1935

2/3 Oct. 1935 13 Mar. 1936 17 July 1936

26 Apr. 1937

9 July 1937 13 Dec. 1937 12 Mar. 1938 30 Sept. 1938

15 Mar. 1939 30 Mar. 1939 23 Aug. 1939 25 Aug. 1939 1 Sept. 1939 3 Sept. 1939

End of Lausanne Conference on reparations. British Commonwealth Ottawa Conference. NSDAP wins 37% of the popular vote in German election. Hitler appointed German chancellor. German trade unions dissolved. World Economic Conference, London. US Dow Jones share index reaches lowest point. Germany withdraws from League of Nations and from Disarmament Conference. Riots in central Paris. Konstantin Ulmanis declares dictatorship in Latvia. King Boris III and the army stage coup in Bulgaria. Hitler orders murder of former opponents and SA leaders on 'Night of the Long Knives'. Hitler proclaimed Fuhrer by German parliament. Hjalmar Schacht becomes German Economics Minister. USSR joins League of Nations. Saar plebiscite returns territory to Germany. Salazar becomes dictator of Portugal. Provisional Neutrality Act passed in the United States. Italian forces attack Ethiopia (Abyssinia). German forces remilitarize the Rhineland provinces. Nationalist forces stage attempted coup, start of Spanish Civil War. German and Italian aircraft bomb Basque city of Guernica. Start of Sino-Japanese war. Japanese capture Chinese capital of Nanking. Germany concludes 'Anschluss' with Austria. Partition of Czechoslovakia agreed at Munich Conference. German forces occupy Bohemia and Moravia. Chamberlain gives guarantee to Poland. Signing of German-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggressioin. Anglo-Polish Treaty signed. Germany attacks Poland. Britain and France declare war on Germany.