Wall Street Crash (1929)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpLMvgUXe8&feature=BFp&list=PL524A96551AAE5495&index=1
Discovery of Penicillin (1928)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOph1n1Mdls&feature=BFa&list=PL524A96551AAE5495&index=2
Treaty of Versailles (1919)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKzZ1OwPXgk
Rise of the Nazis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YEUhHFMHY&feature=fvwrel
Topics
Political:
- Mussolini Rises to Power in Italy (1922)
- Treaty of Versailles (1919)
- Hitler in the Interwar
Social:
- Mein Kampf (1923-25)
- Independence of Ireland from UK (1922)
- Dachau Concentration Camp (1933)
Cultural:
- Foundation of Time Magazine (1923)
- Discovery of Penicillin (1928)
- BBC Foundation (1927)
Economic:
- Wall Street Crash (1929)
- Extreme Inflation in Germany (1921)
- The New Deal (1933)
Independence of Ireland from the UK
For centuries British dominion in Ireland gave rise to unrest which finally erupted into violence with the Easter Rising of 1916, when independence was proclaimed. The rising was crushed and many of its leaders executed, but the campaign for independence carried on through a bloody Anglo-Irish War of 1919-1921.
In July 1921 a truce in introduced between the Irish and British forces after months of stalemate. In October 1921, a Republican delegation travels to London to negotiate terms with the British. In December, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, the terms of which created the Irish Free State made up from 26 of 32 counties roughly what is the Republic of Ireland today. The treaty did give autonomy but made the Irish Free State part of the British Commonwealth and its citizens had to swear allegiance to the Crown. It was in 1922 that 26 counties of Ireland gained independence from London following negotiations which led to the other six counties, part of the province of Ulster, remaining in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Partition was followed by a year of civil war.
Dachau Concentration Camp
Dachau served as a model and prototype for those who followed it. In Dachau were concentrated particularly religious, aristocrats, intellectuals and politicians. The basic organization and construction plans were developed by Theodor Eicke and were applied to all fields later. Eicke later became chief inspector of all concentration camps, responsible for molding the other according to their model.
The first days, the prisioners were charged with improving the deficient instalationsof the camp, in wich only the main building and the fences were in use. The detainees were guarded by police, without wearing uniforms of prisioners, cut their hair or treated them bad.
The Dachau camp was a training center for SS concentration camp guards, and the camp's organization and routine became the model for all Nazi concentration camps. The camp was divided into two sections--the camp area and the crematoria area. The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime and one reserved for medical experiments. The camp administration was located in the gatehouse at the main entrance. The camp area had a group of support buildings, containing the kitchen, laundry, showers, and workshops, as well as a prison block (Bunker). The courtyard between the prison and the central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners. An electrified barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers surrounded the camp.
In Dachau, as in other Nazi camps, German physicians performed medical experiments on prisoners, including high-altitude experiments using a decompression chamber, malaria and tuberculosis experiments, hypothermia experiments, and experiments testing new medications. Prisoners were also forced to test methods of making seawater potable and of halting excessive bleeding. Hundreds of prisoners died or were permanently disabled as a result of these experiments.
Dachau prisoners were used as forced laborers. At first, they were employed in the operation of the camp, in various construction projects, and in small handicraft industries established in the camp. Prisoners built roads, worked in gravel pits, and drained marshes. During the war, forced labor utilizing concentration camp prisoners became increasingly important to German armaments production.
As Allied forces advanced toward Germany, the Germans began to move prisoners from concentration camps near the front to prevent the liberation of large numbers of prisoners. Transports from the evacuated camps arrived continuously at Dachau, resulting in a dramatic deterioration of conditions. After days of travel, with little or no food or water, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often near death. Typhus epidemics became a serious problem due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, insufficient provisions, and the weakened state of the prisoners.
"Mein Kampf"
The book was originally entitles "Four Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice". Hitler's publisher reduced it to "My Struggle" (Mein Kampf). The book is a mixture of autobiography, political ideas and an explanation of the techniques of propaganda. The autobiographical details in Mein Kampf are often inaccurate, and the main purpose of this part of the book appears to be to provide a positive image of Hitler. For example, when Hitler was living a life of leisure in Vienna, he claims he was working hard as a laborer.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler outlined his political philosophy. He argued that the German (he wrongly described them as the Aryan race) was superior to all others. "Every manifestation of human culture, every product of art, science and technical skill, which we see before our eyes today, is almost exclusively the product of Aryan creative power."
Adolf Hitler warned that the Aryan's superiority was being threatened by intermarriage. If this happened world civilization would decline: "On this planet of ours human culture and civilization are indissolubly bound up with the presence of the Aryan. If he should be exterminated or subjugated, then the dark shroud of a new barbarian era would enfold the earth."
According to Hitler, Jews were responsible for everything he did not like, including modern art, pornography and prostitution. Hitler also alleged that the Jews had been responsible for losing the First World War. He also claimed that Jews, who were only about 1% of the population, were slowly taking over the country. They were doing this by controlling the largest political party in Germany, the German Social Democrat Party, many of the leading companies and several of the country's newspapers. The fact that Jews had achieved prominent positions in a democratic society was, according to Hitler, an argument against democracy: "a hundred blockheads do not equal one man in wisdom".
Hitler believed that the Jews were involved with Communists in a joint conspiracy to take over the world. Like Henry Ford, he claimed that 75% of all Communists were Jews. He argued about that the combination of Jews and Marxists had already been successful in Russia and now threatened the rest of Europe. Also, he said the communist revolution was an act of revenge that attempted to disguise the inferiority of the Jews.
In Mein Kampf Hitler declared that: "The external security of a people in largely determined by the size of its territory." If he won power Hitler promised to occupy Russian land that would provide protection and living space for the German people. This action would help to destroy the Jewish/Marxist attempt to control the world: "The Russian Empire in the East is ripe for collapse; and the end of the Jewish domination of Russia will also be the end of Russia as a state."
Wall Street Crash
Companies could price fix their stocks thus charging more for them than they were actually worth. Most of the people were buying stocks, or consumer goods, on what was known as a margin, with credit to promise to pay later. The margin allowed speculates to sell off shares at a profit before paying what they owed.
There came a moment in which the market became too heavy with too many overvalued stocks, and basically the market shares started to fall. Stock prices separated from the real earnings of the share prices, getting in a speculative bubble. Stockholders started selling their stocks because they started to panic because they could not meet the margin call. There were so many stocks for sale, and not enough buyers, the prices got lower and lower until they were hardly worth anything at all.
All the people who bought on margin suddenly found themselves having to pay for failing stock, and most went broke. There was even no confidence in the economy, and people felt poor as they lost their money in the market.
In an article entitled Everybody Ought to be Rich, John Jaskob claimed that by investing $15 a month in stocks and shares it would be possible to make $80,000 over the next 20 years. Another investor, Will Payne, stated in 1929 that it had become so easy to make money on the Wall Street Stock Exchange that it had ceased to become a gamble. He went on to say that a gambler wins only because someone loses, when you invest in stocks and shares, everybody wins.
On October 29, also known as Black Tuesday, was the official day of the Crash. Almost 14 billion dollars were lost, and all the prices began to decline. People found themselves in many debts, and banks closed down because people could not pay back these loans. The Wall Street Crash opened up the great depression in America.
Although less than one per cent of the American people actually possessed stocks and shares, this crash had a huge impact on the whole population. It was very difficult to raise the money needed to run the companies, so many were forced to close. There was unemployment, so the purchasing power of the people fell, and turned into even more unemployment.
The New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the country which lasted until 1936. They were passed by the US Congress during the term of President Roosevelt. Roosevelt wanted to transform America’s economy which had been shattered by the crash.
These programs were responses to the Great Depression, and focused on the “3Rs”; relief, recovery and reform. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
Historians distinguish a "First New Deal" (1933) and a "Second New Deal" (1934–36). The "First New Deal" dealt with diverse groups, from banking and railroads to industry and farming, all of which demanded help for economic recovery. A "Second New Deal" in 1934-36 included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program, the Social Security Act, and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers.
Roosevelt started gaining money. On March 15th, 1933 he asked the congress to pas the Economy Act. This cut the pay of everybody who worked for the government and the armed forces by 15 per cent. Government departmental spending was also cut by 25 per cent. The saved money, which was about 1 billion dollars, was to go towards financing the New Deal. On March 20th 1933, Roosevelt asked Congress to pass the Beer Act. The sold beer would raise income for the government by tax and it would also introduce a fee-good factor in that perfectly normal people who wanted an alcoholic drink would no longer be criminalized simply because they wanted a drink.
The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and Farm Security Administration, both in 1937, then the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers and the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938.
The New Deal did not end with the Depression, but it did preserve the people’s confidence in America’s institutions and government. The relief measures of the New Deal were considered a success, although not everyone supported it. There was not an actually economic recovery. Many businessmen and financiers did not support the economic measures of the New Deal. The attempt to maintain prosperity during peacetime was not successful at all.
Many Americans however in both rural and urban areas of the nation did support the efforts of the New Deal. Rural electrification, Social Security, insurance of bank accounts, protection for labor unions, and federal controls over the economy gave many a sense of security in the future and in the government.
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