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History-GEO-FR


Wall Street Crash of 1929

Causes: mechanisms and explanations

  • after the Roaring Twenties:
    • period of social and culturual effervescence after WWI, leading to new social codes and a certain emancipation regarding gender roles
    • also a period of chain production = fordism and an increasing consumption
  • The Wall Street of 1929 is a rupture in modern society -> economic -> social -> politic crisis
  • economic crisises happen often but they become more and more global as markets become more and more interconnected / globalized
  • 24th of October 1929 -> Black Thursday: economic crisis due to a decrease in stock prices that causes an effect of panic and widespread selling of stocks (13M put to sale)
  • this is initially caused by a speculative bubble that collapsed (stock prices heavily exceeding the intrisic value of what's being traded)
  • 29th of october 1929 -> black tuesday there is a second decrease of stock prices (17M put to sale)

Propagation

  • vicious cycle -> banking sector is first hit with many bankrupt banks because speculators can no longer reimburse them.
  • this effect is then propagated to the industrial sector which depend on banks and need money -> they will also become bankrupt and enact large layoffs
  • their production decreases and unemployment increases massively.
  • 1929 -> 1933: 1.4M to 12.6M unemployed in the US (20%)
  • more unemployment = less purchasing power in society which leads to a worsening economy -> companies have a growing surplus and accumulating stocks
  • the agriculture sector is heavily hit -> Dust Bowl / dust storms that cause a total destruction of crops -> massive importation of products and depreciation of US crops

Explanations

  • Joseph Schumpeter - Schumpeter's Business Cycle Theory: states that there are, in society, periods of growth and recession / depression -> stagnation of economic growth with high unemployment. This interpretation is deterministic and turned out to be false
  • John Maynard Keynes -> theory of supply / demand imbalance. In the 20s there was more supply than demand -> companies didn't increase salaries so the demand didn't increase with the offer
  • inflation crisis: Milton Friedman and Robert Lucas: (inflation = increase of prices):
    • economic, fiscal and monetary policies caused the crisis because the central bank (FED) produced too much money -> the prices increased to the point where consumption became impossible

Social and international consequences

Internationalisation

  • After ww1, Americans invested large amounts (4600 bn) into Europe in the form of credits. During the crisis, they pulled back their credits and asked for reimbursements.
  • rapid fragilization of european economies -> banks, especially austrian and german banks weakened by the loss of ww1
  • the USSR is the only country spared from the ripple effect because its communist regime is isolated from global markets -> victory for communism

Social

  • explosion of unemployment in Europe, especially in industrial sectors -> steel -> consumer goods -> automobile.
  • unemployment hits 17M europeans in 1932 without taking into account partial unemployment
  • partial unemployment allows people to keep their job and preserves companies from layoff fees, while preseving the workforce for a later return from the crisis.
  • UK only european country to have an unemployment welfare -> 1911 National Insurance Act
  • the USA sees many slums -> hoovervilles named after the president Herbet Hoover republican -> liberal economics: liberty in the economy that produces a form of ultracapitalism that considers that the state should not intervene in the economy:
    • Harlem 10000 families live in caves to survive
    • racial minorities especially affected
    • women / single mothers extermely touched -> prostitution
    • increase of trafficking: alcohol, drugs / crime / mafia
    • signs of a general distress and population misery

Inequalities and tensions

  • deepening of inequalities -> wealth gap between individuals
  • artistic development on the social distress -> Raisins of Wrath steinbeck
  • poverty worsened by the increase of agricultural prices
  • general doubt of of the american model (EU / US) -> extreme rig

Overcoming the depression

New Deal and State intervention

  • Herbet Hoover (28-32) and Roosevelt (1932-1945)
  • Under Hoover, the US responds to the crisis with classic liberal politics -> non-intervention
    • deflation measures -> reduction of prices to avoid inflation and salaries / social aids
  • starting in 1933, economic politics change notably dude to the advice of John Maynard Keynes

Solutions in Europe

  • European States will intervene in their economies to attenuate the crisis
    • UK (1934) givees aids to "regions suffering from economic depression"
    • Italy / Germany try to limit importations and attain self-sufficiency as the government becomes a form of economic dirigism and develops certain activity sectors -> industry and military
    • in germany unemployment decreases to 5%

Unequal Crisis exits and lack of coop

  • July 1933 -> 66 countries come together at the London conference to discuss a decrease in custom duties internationally. Every country is protectionnist and no agreement is reached.
  • There will also be a strategy of territorial expansion (germany, japan, italy) that is required by systems of dirigism

Conclusion

The stock market crash of wall Street in October 1929 launched a financial crisis, and then an economic one massively, and finally a social and political one. The consequences were darmatic for the world economy and global societies: crisis responses were multiple and diverse, but also limited. We can say that the true exit from the depression was only after WWII.

PPO

New Deal - Roosevelet

  • keynesian reforms
  • democrat candidate franklin delano roosevelt (1933 enters power)
  • starts policy of large projects across the country, with money from the federal state. It's the birth of a welfare state -> state intervention into the state's economy and market to regulate its harmful consequences.
  • economic recovery (relief, recovery, reform)

First New Deal (1933)

  • Civilian Conversation Corps (1933) = gives work, a place to live and food / instruction to young single and unemployed men who also participate in the care of parks.
  • Agricultural adjusment act -> indemnisation of indebted farmers
  • tennesse projects

Second New Deal: wealth redistribution and help for the most poor

  • Works Progress Administration (1935): large administration that gave work to unemployed, built infrastructure, under Roosevelt
  • National Industry Recovery Act (1935) - minimum salary and rules on company behavior
  • Social Security Act -> unemployment welfare checks

Matignon Accords

  • In france classic deflationist and liberal policies persist until 1936 when the Popular Front (mix of left movements joined to fight fascism) gained power.
  • Leon Blum, socialist and head of the SFIO workers' party became president of the council of the 3rd republic (1936-38).
  • To fight the crisis and address the strikes, the government meets with syndicates and patronage to sign the Matignon accords the 7th and 8th of june 1936
    • increase in worker salaries
    • syndicate liberty
    • right to strike without consequences
    • creation of collective conventions in companies that implement rules regarding employee rights
  • other reforms:
    • 2 paid vacation weeks
    • decrease of work week hours (48 -> 40)
    • creation in 1937 of the SCNF

Consequences of 1929 in Latin America

  • deeply affected -> countries that are very dependent on the United States because of foreign investment but also because they export their agricultural production to the US (economic opportunity)
  • exchange rate of natural resources caused there to be a surplus of unsold goods now unsellable or at a low price.
  • becomes a social crisis and there are revolts, revolutions and coups that lead to dictatures like Getulio Vargas in Bresil.

Chapter 2: Totalitarian regimes in Europe between World wars

  • the economic crisis increases general frustration and makes the rise of extremes opportune -> it puts in doubt the structure of democracy => totalitarian regimes (USSR, IT, DE), new form of power
  • what are the theoretical foundations and the implementation details of totalitarian regimes?

Ideologies

Stalinism - URSS

  • 1917, Russia exits WW1 due to internal conflicts and a frumentary (wheat / alimentation) crisis which causes strikes and protests
  • Lenin wanted to exit the war and he takes control in October 1917, exiling tsar Nicolas II.
  • this is followed by a brutal civil war between the tsarists and the bolcheviks (ends in 1922)
  • Proclamation of the USSR = Union of Socialist Sovietic Republics in 1921
  • communism has at its core the union of workers (industry / agriculture) into the proletariat -> dictature of the proletariat
  • belief that a hierarchised society is one without democracy
  • communist ideal: everyone is equal. To arrive at this ideal, private property is abolished to democratize the means of production
  • for communists, the capitalist system can be compared to a form of slavery.
  • Lenin dies in 1924 -> succeeded by Stalin -> Troski is excluded of the communist party in 1928
  • abolishing private property to abolish social classes and reach equality
  • the state decides on economic policy through five year plans and decide on production objectives -> Stalin wants to industrialize the country
  • sovkhoves: state farm
  • def: communist regime: regime putting foward the collectivization of the means of production to establish the equality of all

Italian Fascism

  • during WW1, Italy enters the war in 1915 on the side of the Triple Entente (FR / UK / Russia) because it's promised the irredent lands (geographically, historically, culturally Italian lands) that are not part of Italy
  • these were not given to them at the Treaty of Versailles (1919) -> mutilated victory
    • feeling of humiliation and betrayal that is used by Mussolini
  • Italian society is brutalized -> violence has become a banality, as a reactivation of anterior horror
  • desire for revenge: militarisation and violence
  • humiliation in the victory: paradox of mutilated victory
  • Benito Mussolini creates the Italian fasces of combat: paramilitary organization, one of the first fascist groups
  • organized the March on Rome of the 28th October 1922 -> coup d'état:
    • named as head of state and then as president of the Italian Council, named by king Victor Emmanuel III
    • fascism was a totalitarian regime, but not one that depended solely on Mussolini's thought
    • it's a belligerent regime: war at its core -> ideology inherited from the Roman empire
    • anti-communist regime: European fear that communism will spread, by elites
    • anti-parlementary regime: allows quick decision-making so fascistissim laws are passed in 1926, that give Mussolini full powers
    • in 1924, the fascist squadrismo militia kills Mussolini's main political opponent, Matteoti
    • in Italian society, Mussolini is the Duce, there's the creation of a personality cult around the dictator
    • in 1926 fundamental liberties are abolished: liberty to circulate, to express oneself and censorship of the press -> the nation is above everything else
    • only the fascist party is allowed to exist and its syndicate is the only one
    • Latran Pacts of 1929 between the papacy and the Italian gov: the pope recognizes Mussolini and receives land
    • traditionalist regime: reactionary -> woman have the role of staying at home, taking care and having kids

Nazism

  • nazi regime is fundamentally racist
    • fear of racial heterogeneity; described as a racial menace to the aryan / germanic race which is deemed superior as creator of culture
    • linked to demographic decline right after the war and near the end of Germany's demographic transition
  • nazi imperatives:
    • reproduce (polygamy)
    • notion of the lebenstraum - vital space of maternity where the aryan race can live, isolated from other cultures. This is linked to a need for expansion, specifically to the East and germanophone countries
    • be strong and fight in the race war
    • reign and propagate aryan culture
  • hate of jewish / slavic / african ethnicities
  • aryan vision of history is that of a continuous race war -> hate of the French revolution that implanted the idea of "nations" - considered bad because it exists above the domain of race
  • ideology is at the heart of nazi crimes
  • lesson: people who joined and became the nazi regime were just normal germans: anger and miscontent can lead to abominations?
  • anti-nazi and jewish books are burned -> censorship
  • fundamentally anti-democratic regime: reichstag fire (27 feb 1933) in German parliament was used to oust the communist party blamed for it
  • hitler gets full powers the 28th of february 1933 and he removes fundamental liberties
  • anti-capitalist / communist regime: considered to be jewish inventions, yet Hitler sides with the industry and commerce to get elected

Exercise of totalitarian power

Adhesion of societies

  • in all 3 regimes, ideology is spread through propaganda (set of means used to make the population adhere to a cause)
  • Nazism: minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels
  • organization of mass demonstrations (Nuremberg rally of 1935): show of strength and unity
  • creation of "official art" and censorship
  • youth groups to organize the youth and transmit regime ideology:
    • Opera Nazionale / Hitler Youth / Komsomols
  • forcing ideology into the structure of society: in Italy, being a member of the party is necessary to access spheres of power
  • there are some forms of resistance, but mostly passive: inaction as a way to show the lack of adhesion to the ideology

Suppression of regime enemies

  • juridic / legislative arsenal: legal means to evince enemies
    • Nuremberg Laws (1935):
      • jewish / german marriages are forbidden
      • Jews are prevented from joining certain professions -> professor, banker, etc... because contact with many people and the Jews are considered like vermin
    • suppression camps:
      • (NAZI) concentration camps are created for regime enemies, not only the Jews where situations are worse, but also for the handicapped (70000 killed), Tzigans and homosexuals -> first one is Dachau in march 1933
      • (USSR) forced work camps: gulag = administration that manages the work camps
      • (Italy) Lipari Islands
  • illegal means:
    • in the USSR, massacre of the kulaks (dekulakization) (kulak = rich or land-owning farmers)
    • direct violence against the Jews, pogroms -> Night of Broken Glass (november 1938)
    • famine in the USSR, Ukraine -> Holodomor (1932-33):
      • 5M deaths, extermination by famine
      • way to break resistance to collectivization of land

Night of broken glass

  • 9/10 november 1938
  • assassination of a german diplomat by a young jew the 7th of november is used as a justification for the nazis to launch a wave of violence against the jewish people. During the night of broken glass, the nazis organize a pogrom (term used to describe repressions aimed specifically at Jews) that they pretend is a spontaneous revolt of the population
  • hundreds of deaths and wounded
  • destruction of synagogues, stores and homes
  • in the following weeks, thousands of Jews are interned in camps, and many leave Germany
  • this is the use of illegal means to exclude Jews from all spheres of German society: economic, scholarly, religious, and is an important step in the history of their extermination

The Great Terror in the USSR (1936-37)

  • August 1937 - November 1938, Stalin organizes a state massacre.
  • NKVD arrests and condems 1.7M people, 1M deported to the gulag, and 750k killed
  • this includes the arrest / execution of Party members and members of the red army.
  • The majority are normal citizens labeled as "anti-sovietic" (ex-kulaks, members of the clery, delinquents, minorities...)
  • Stalin then kills most of the massacre's executors

Particular administration and organization of institutions

  • political police subject to the State:
    • Gestapo (1933) and then the SS in Germany
    • NKVD (people's commissariat for internal affairs) secret police in the USSR
    • Ovra (italy) = Organization for Vigilance and repression of anti-fascism
    • goal: stop, condemn, imprison, or execute enemies
  • blurring of the lines between instances of the party and the state
    • anti-democratic
    • more efficient administrative structures
  • purge inside political parties -> political terror
    • Night of Long Knives (1934) -> death of the SA, deemed too influential in Nazi Germany
    • The Great Terror (1937-38): massacre of Stalinist opposants
  • totalitarian regimes are political regimes that seek to control every aspect of society: to obtain obedience and submission of the entire population, through two main ways: propaganda and terror
  • this is opposed to authoritarian regimes where the lack of adhesion to regime ideology is tolerated

How to do totalitarian regimes contribute to the destabilization of European order in the 1930s

Objectives

  • nazism: desire to extend their empire over all germanophone territories, leading to military industrialization, and they break the limit of 100000 men in their army, set by the Versailles treaty
  • italy: objective to take back the Irredent Lands, and extend their colonial empire / desire to take over the Medditeranean -> strong navy
  • URSS: extend communism -> Komintern: organization that unites all the world's communist parties

Intervention in european geopolitics

  • Italy and Germany are hostile to the collective security principle set forth by the League of nations, peace organization created after WW1, which promotes the lack of territorial invasion and attempts to maintain peace
  • both of these countries are expansionist and conquer many regions:
    • Germany leaves the league of nations in 1933
    • Hitler tries to annex austria in 1934, but is opposed by Italy that doesn't want common borders with Germany, and then succeeds in 1938 -> buffer state
    • Germany makes military service obligatory in 1935
    • they conquer Rhineland in 1936
    • Italy invades Ethiopia in 1935
  • there's also an emergence of authoritarian regimes = anti-democratic regimes that, however does not seek a total control of the entire population
    • Spain -> civil war in 1936, between the Spanish People's Party and the Franco Regime, that lasts until 1975. Italy / Germany help Franco win the war, and in doing so also test their weapons
    • Portugal: Antonio Salazar leads an authoritarian regime from 1926 to 1974
    • authoritarian regime in Austria since 1935 -> austro-facscism = Fatherland front

Italian imperialism and the march towards war

  • Sudetes in Tchekoslovakia invaded in 1937 by Germany
  • Austria is annexed in 1938 -> Anschluss that is made possible by the german alliance with mussolini
  • 29 and 30th september of 1938: Munich Agreement
    • Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, France
    • democracies recognize german territorial gains at the promise from hitler to stop his expansionism
    • the fear and tolerance of democracies allows totalitarian territorial ambitions to grow
    • rest of Tchekoslovakia is annexed in march 1939 and in april 1939 Mussolini takes control of Albania
  • 23 august 1939: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: non-aggression between Germany and USSR
    • secret clause: plan of division of the territories that separate the two countries in case of European conflict (Poland, baltic states)

Intervention in the Spanish civil war

  • important moment in the implication of totalitarian regimes in european geopolitics
  • In spain, royalty is reversed in 1931, replaced by a Republic
  • civil war (1936-39) after the coalition of left-wing parties wins legislative elections in Spain, and this victory is not accepted by the conservative right, aided by the Church / army
  • Franco begins a mass uprising, opposing the franquists to the republicans -> franquists promoting a return to traditional values
  • Franco arrives to power in 1939 and creates an authoritarian, conservative and catholic regime
  • The conflict is international: German / Italy fighting with Franco, USSR with the republicans. They all send money, weaponry and men
  • the war is a war for these forces to test their armies and has an ideological dimension
  • european democracies stay neutral, promotiong non-intervention Conclusion: in the 20s and 30s, the difficult exit of the war, accentuated by the economic crisis contributes to the implantation of totalitarian regimes in Europe. Despite their differences in ideology, these territories function on the same principles

The Second World War

How did ww2 wreck the national order of societies?

beginning

  • 1st september 1939 invasion of poland in danzig corridor
  • ultimatum from france / uk to stop
  • both UK & France declare war on germany
  • massacre on the polish ffront (differences in strength)
  • blitzkrieg = lightning war
  • starting 17 september 1939, URSS attacks the east of poland
  • sept 39 to spring 1940 the french front is a "phony war" with little hostility on both sides due to the maginot lines and other conditions that paralyze the war effort.
  • may 1940, germans push through the ardennes forest and rapidly occupy half of the north and the atlantic coast of france
  • however they have trouble approaching the english island and use air deployments -> battle of England (sep 1940 to may 1941) that opposes the luftwaffe (german air forces) to english planes
  • UK is main opposer and hosts foreign governments
  • Germans / italians try to cut uk oil supply in the middle east and the suez canal => Afrikacorps in libya
  • USSR takes control of poland, baltic states and finland
  • in 1937, japan declares war on china => expansionist policy similar to germany's. They recuperated territories in asia like the chinese coast, south-eastern asia and the north of new guinea.
  • in dec 1937, japanse massacre of 300000 soldiers and prisonners in nankin. they are stopped at wuhan in 1938 => they have an objective of controlling the pacific
  • the french colonies in indochina will colllaborate with japan

A global war

  • 22 june 1941 -> barbarossa operation in the east with the germans attacking the soviets. begins in the east of poland which had become sovietic territory
  • Nazis want to destroy the sovietic regime which is the heart of communism and whos e ideology is opposed to nazism. they also want to extend their vital space (lebensraum) for the aryan race. + goal to exterminate jews in soviet territories. => they progress towards the north (baltic states), the center (moscow), and the south (ukraine) which is an agricultural region => desire to feed the people
  • they are stopped at moscow in december 1941 et at the door of stalingrad => siege of stalingrad (july 1942 - january 1943) + siege of leningrad (sep 1941 - jan 1944)
  • pearl harbor (7 dec 1941) japanese air force attack on americain air base in hawwai. 8 american boats + 188 avions destroyed + 2400 deaths
  • causes entry in war of the US and the next day roosevelt begins a total mobilization. 120000 of which 2/3s are citizens, japanese interned in camps

Mers et oceans: central spaces of globalization

An essential role: reinforced by economic maritimization

Explosion of flows of diverse natures

  • intensification of flows in globalization => mobilization of oceans and seas
  • Types of flows:
    • flow of foods, increasing with time => demographic growth ; internationalization of productive systems; growth of societies and increase of life quality
    • flow of humans:
      • touristic: sea side + cruise ships (28M/yr)
      • immigration: oceans as place of passage eg migrant ships (less risks than on the earth due to borders and control points
    • data and capital
      • submarine cables for data transfer, essential to global network

Maritimization of the world

Why use oceans and seas?

  • most reliable and cheap efficace
    • quadrupled in 50 years
    • 80% of total commerce
  • commerce maritime possible due to container vessels that can carry huge amounts and thus lower the price of production with economies of scale and energy gains
  • vraquiers = bulkers; porte-conteneur = cargo ship; pétroliers = tankers
  • cargo shipification of the world and race toward gigantism
  • tentative

Littoralization of the world

  • dense maritime commerce causes littoralization / concentration of inviduals and activitis on the coast:
    • development of port cities & ports into industrial port areas

Attractive spaces for their many resources

fishery resources

  • fishery resources (28M jobs)
  • 2 types of fishing:
    • industrial, made by trawlers in high sea
      • china main exporter
      • important consumption in East Asia
    • artisanal = fishers near coasts, smal quantities
  • aquaculture near the coasts
  • use of algea for food, cosmetic, pharmaceutic, etc...

Energy resources

  • hydrocarbons (oil + gas) = offshore exploitation in deep sea requiring oil rigs
    • near atlantic coasts, asia and the arabo-persian gulf
    • non-renewable energies requiring discovery of new oils deposits
  • renewables
    • wind turbines
    • tidal turbines

Mining and landscape resources

  • rare minerals (cobalt, lithium for electronics) => Japan opening of rare mineral mining near their coasts
  • copper = natural conductor / nickel
  • however they are deep and difficult to access, there is also a new race for mineral in the oceans
  • also landscape resources => visually attractive and touristic scape
    • heliotherapy / sea side tourism
    • polluting cruises

Unequally integrated and hierarchised spaces