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The Great Depression and the rise of dictators

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After 1918 many people hoped for lasting peace. Economic disaster in the 1930s helped dictators take power and start a new war.

The Great Depression

In October 1929 share prices crashed in New York: the Wall Street Crash. Banks and businesses failed around the world.
In Britain unemployment soared in industrial areas. In 1936 about 200 men from Jarrow marched to London to ask for work.
Germany was hit very hard: millions were unemployed.

Dictators

A dictator rules with total power and no free elections.
Benito Mussolini took power in Italy in 1922. Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from the late 1920s.
In Germany, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party promised jobs and to tear up the Treaty of Versailles. It also spread hatred of Jews. Hitler became Chancellor on 30 January 1933 and quickly turned Germany into a dictatorship.

The road to war

Hitler rebuilt the army and moved troops into the Rhineland (1936). He joined Austria to Germany (1938).
Britain and France followed appeasement: giving Hitler some of what he wanted to avoid war. At Munich in 1938 Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to let Germany take part of Czechoslovakia.
In March 1939 Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia. He invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France declared war on 3 September 1939.
Worked example

Why did Britain follow a policy of appeasement in the 1930s?

  1. Memories of the huge losses of the First World War made people want to avoid war.
  2. Britain's armed forces were not ready, and appeasement gave time to rearm.
  3. Some felt the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh on Germany.

Answer: Fear of another war, the need for time to rearm, and a feeling Germany had been treated harshly.

Key idea

Wall Street Crash (1929) caused the Great Depression; Jarrow March (1936). Dictators: Mussolini (Italy), Stalin (USSR), Hitler (Chancellor 30 January 1933). Appeasement and Munich (1938). Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939; Britain declared war on 3 September.

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