Unit 2 Promise and Collapse 1919-1939 Test Review

Written Response Questions

Question: Describe how Stalin transformed the USSR into a modern industrial state.

  • Stalin implemented the collectivization of agriculture to increase production by using modern farming machinery
  • peasants move from the farm to the city and provide the labour force or factory workers required for industrialization
  • the state/government seized grain and sold it to other nations to pay for machinery/technology for the factories
  • the Kulaks who opposed collectivization were eliminated, deported or sent to the gulag
  • the Ukraine famine was orchestrated to destroy the Kulaks and Ukrainian nationalism
  • the gulags were established and people used as slave labour
  • Stalin introduced the Five Year Plans emphasizing heavy industry to industrialize the economy
  • production targets or quotas were established in electricity, coal, oil, pig-iron, steel
  • Stalin conducted purges that included show trials against members of the party, army officers and opponents of collectivization and Five Year Plans
  • OGPU/NKVD terrorized people into obedience and the threat of the gulag motivated them to produce

Question: Explain the factors that contributed to Hitler’s rise to power that resulted in him becoming Chancellor in January 1933.

Factors / Explanation/Supporting Details
Treaty of Versailles /
  • Germans blamed the leaders of the republic for accepting Treaty of Versailles and resented it and became bitter towards the government
  • the treaty and democracy were associated with one another and undermined its credibility

attitude
towards democracy /
  • slowness and inefficiency of democracy frustrated many Germans who were used to authoritarian (Kaiser) government to appear efficient
  • many judges, top civil servants, army officers disapproved of democracy and even conspired to overthrow the republic (1923 Munich Putsch)
  • proportional representation encouraged small parties and as a result prevent a party from gaining a majority of seats in the Reichstag
  • coalition governments were unstable and frequently broke up and reinforced the idea that democracy was weak and ineffective

Depression /
  • people wanted someone to blame and looked to extreme solutions and Hitler offered them both
  • Germans voted for the Nazis because they were desperate > Nazi seats in Reichstag increased 12 in 1928 to 107July 1930
  • Depression caused massive unemployment
  • people looked for strong leadership to end uncertainty and turned toleaders who promised order and stability which Hitler appeared to offer

Nazi Program /
  • Nazi Party program offered something for everyone
  • Hitler’s message brought hope of an end to the economic crisis and renewal of pride and self-confidence in the German people

Hitler /
  • Hitler’s energy and oratory attracted people to him as a political leader
  • his message against opponents was simple and delivered with passion
  • he appealed to emotional, irrational side of human nature in massrallies

support of the industrialists /
  • after November 1932 election Nazi party was short of funds, bankrupt and starting to lose popular support (went from 230 seats to 196 seats)
  • industrialists promised to pay Nazi election debts in return for promise of a hands off policy toward German industry and weaken the unions
  • Hitler also promised to eliminate/purgesocialists elements from the Nazi party (Night of the Long Knives June 1934)
  • industrialists thought Hitler only one able to defeat the communist

Sturmabteilling
(SA)/
Brownshirts /
  • SA attacked people who opposed Hitler
  • opponents intimidated to remain quiet out of fear
  • police, judges sympathized with SA and did not prosecute them

Hindenburg /
  • Chancellor Papen could not get enough support in the Reichstag
  • Hitler offered Vice-Chancellorship but refused
  • January 30, 1933 Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of a coalitiongovernment with Papen as Vice-Chancellor
  • they thought they could control Hitler

Question: To what extent was Roosevelt’s New Deal effective in dealing with the Depression?

Effective / Not Effective
  • initial acts instilled confidence in the government and gave people hope
(ex. Emergency Banking Act)
  • Emergency Banking Act helped to stabilize banking
  • alphabet agencies provided relief or help from hunger, unemployment, and mortgages
  • FERA built or improved 5,000 buildings and 7,000 bridges
  • PWA provided employment and provided valuable economic and social infrastructures such as roads, bridges, airports, schools, hospitals, etc.
  • NRA eliminated child labour
  • WPA employed 3 million people and built or improved 2,500 hospitals, 5,9000 schools, 1,000 airports, 13,000 playgrounds
  • NLRB increased union rights and bargaining power and established a minimum wage
  • Social Security Act provided pensions and unemployment insurance
/
  • New Deal did not end the Depression as the war brought it to an end
  • many black Americans and immigrants were laid off as a result of the NRA and NLRB’s attempt to give workers rights
  • opposition to New Deal came from businesses who did not support government interference and workers’ rights and from state governments who thought the federal government was infringing on their powers
  • AAA policy of destroying crops and livestock was unpopular when people were short of food and clothing; policy of reducing acreage under cultivation resulted in tenant framers/sharecroppers being evicted from their farms
  • NRA codes not mandatory and therefore were ignored; it did not stabilize prices of manufactures or improve wages and working conditions through organized labour
  • RA planned to settle 500, 000 poor farming families but resettled fewer than 5,000
  • PWA created only temporary employment
  • WPA provided employment for only one third of the nation’s unemployed
  • Socials Security Act did not set national rates of benefits for the unemployed or unemployable or insurance for workers who lost their jobs because of illness, pensions were not extended to all the elderly
  • opposition to the New Deal included companies, bankers, wealthy, who thought that it was a waste of tax payers money and government should not be involved in the economy and regulating it to this extent
  • 1935 Supreme Court ruled NRA codes on employers and AAA were unconstitutional (illegal) because they took away the states’ power (court reversed its decision in 1937)

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