IB History Impact of Fascism and Nazism on the Foreign Policies of Italy and Germany Notes

The Great Depression and Its Global Impact

1. The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 triggered a global economic collapse that devastated industrial economies
2. World trade fell by 70% between 1929-1932 as countries imposed tariff barriers to protect domestic industries
3. In the USA, 9,000 banks collapsed and unemployment reached 25% of the workforce by 1933
4. Germany was particularly hard hit, with unemployment reaching 26% by 1932 and industrial output falling dramatically
5. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930) raised US import duties, prompting retaliatory trade barriers worldwide
6. Britain adopted an imperial preference system at the Ottawa Conference (1932), favouring Commonwealth trade over free trade
7. The collapse of international trade destroyed the cooperative spirit of the Locarno era and encouraged economic nationalism
8. Countries prioritised domestic recovery over international cooperation, weakening the League of Nations and collective security

Political Effects of the Depression on Major Powers

USA

1. President Roosevelt pursued isolationism, focusing on the New Deal domestic recovery programme from 1933
2. Congress passed the Neutrality Acts (1935-1937) banning arms sales to belligerents and loans to warring nations
3. American public opinion strongly opposed foreign entanglements after the costly experience of World War I

Britain

1. The National Government under MacDonald and Baldwin prioritised economic recovery over rearmament through the 1930s
2. The Ten-Year Rule (abandoned 1932) had assumed no major war for a decade, leaving Britain's military severely weakened
3. Britain's defence spending was cut to just 2.5% of GDP by 1932, making military enforcement of treaties impossible

France

1. France experienced 11 governments in 4 years (1932-1936), creating political paralysis and inability to respond decisively
2. France maintained alliances with Poland (1921) and Czechoslovakia (1924) but lacked the military will to enforce them
3. The Maginot Line strategy reflected France's defensive mentality after losing 1.4 million soldiers in WWI

Soviet Union

1. Stalin pursued Five Year Plans focused on rapid industrialisation, largely isolating the USSR from European diplomacy
2. The Soviet Union was excluded from international diplomacy until joining the League of Nations in 1934
3. Stalin's purges of the Red Army (1937-1938) removed experienced officers and weakened Soviet military credibility

The Rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany

1. Germany's Weimar Republic was already fragile when the Depression struck in 1929, relying on US loans under the Dawes Plan
2. Chancellor Bruning's austerity measures (1930-1932) cut wages and welfare, deepening the crisis and alienating millions
3. Unemployment rose from 1.3 million in 1929 to 6 million by January 1932, leaving one-third of the workforce jobless
4. The Treaty of Versailles limited Germany to 100,000 troops, imposed reparations, and stripped territory including the Rhineland and Saar
5. The Lausanne Conference (July 1932) effectively suspended reparations, but resentment towards Versailles remained central to German politics
6. Hitler's Nazi Party rose from 2.6% of the vote in 1928 to 37.3% in July 1932
7. Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933 by President Hindenburg after backroom deals with conservative elites
8. The Enabling Act (March 1933) gave Hitler power to pass laws without the Reichstag, ending Weimar democracy
9. The Nazis appealed to industrialists who feared communism and funded the party as a bulwark against the left
10. The SA (Sturmabteilung) used street violence to intimidate political opponents, especially communists and social democrats

Nazi Foreign Policy Aims

1. Hitler outlined his foreign policy aims in Mein Kampf (1925): destroy Versailles, unite all Germans, and gain Lebensraum in the east
2. Lebensraum meant eastward expansion into Poland and the Soviet Union to secure agricultural land and resources for the German race
3. Rearmament was a central priority: military spending rose from 1% to 10% of GDP by 1936, violating the Versailles limits
4. The Saar plebiscite (January 1935) returned the region to Germany with 90.7% voting for reunification
5. Danzig (modern Gdansk) was a Free City under League protection with a majority German population
6. Memel was seized from Lithuania in March 1939 following an ultimatum
7. Hitler's ideology combined racial supremacy, anti-communism, and territorial expansion into a programme far more radical than traditional revisionism
8. Nazi foreign policy aimed for European domination through a racial empire, going far beyond simply reversing Versailles

Mussolini and the Rise of Italian Fascism

1. Mussolini's March on Rome (October 1922) brought the Fascists to power through the threat of violence against a weak liberal government
2. The Treaty of London (1915) had promised Italy territorial gains for joining WWI, but the Allies largely reneged at Versailles
3. Italy gained South Tyrol, Trentino, and Istria but not Fiume or Dalmatia, creating the narrative of a "mutilated victory"
4. Italy was deeply divided between the industrialised north and the impoverished, largely agricultural south
5. The Black Shirts (squadristi) attacked socialists and trade unions, intimidating opposition through organised political violence
6. Mussolini declared himself Il Duce (The Leader) and banned opposition parties, independent trade unions, and a free press
7. Fascist ideology glorified nationalism, obedience to the state, and a single-party system that rejected both liberalism and communism
8. Mussolini invoked Roman Empire imagery, seeking to restore Italy as a Mediterranean great power through colonial expansion

Fascist Italy's Foreign Policy and the Depression

1. Mussolini pursued autarky (economic self-sufficiency) to reduce dependence on foreign imports and strengthen Italy for war
2. The Corporate State reorganised the economy into employer-worker corporations controlled by the Fascist Party
3. The Depression hit Italy hard: industrial production fell 33% between 1929-1932, increasing pressure for imperial expansion
4. Mussolini saw colonial expansion in Africa as a solution to Italy's economic problems, overpopulation, and national prestige
5. Fascist foreign policy was driven by prestige and imperial ambition rather than the systematic racial ideology of Nazism
6. Italy initially opposed German expansion: Mussolini deployed troops to the Brenner Pass in July 1934 to block the Austrian Anschluss
7. The Abyssinia crisis (1935-1936) pushed Italy away from Britain and France and towards alliance with Nazi Germany

International Diplomacy in the Early 1930s

1. The League of Nations was fatally weakened by its failure to act against Japan's invasion of Manchuria (1931-1933)
2. Japan's aggression proved the League could not punish a major power, encouraging Italy and Germany to act
3. France maintained defensive alliances with Poland (1921) and Czechoslovakia (1924), but these were undermined by France's defensive posture
4. Britain preferred German rehabilitation over French-led encirclement, believing Versailles had been too harsh
5. The Disarmament Conference (1932-1934) collapsed when Germany demanded equality of arms, then withdrew from the League in October 1933
6. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (June 1935) allowed Germany 35% of British naval tonnage, undermining collective security
7. By 1935, the post-war order was crumbling as revisionist powers in Germany, Italy, and Japan openly challenged the status quo
8. The democracies' inability to agree on a unified response left the door open for further aggression

Key Dates Timeline