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.
Extreme Inflation in Germany
By the end of the war, things did not come out as planned. There started to be inflation because of the burden of reparation payments imposed by the Treaty of Peace. The country started to issue new money, so the prices had to rise, like the case of the demand for more currency. The consumer price index had risen 140 percent. At the same time, the debt of the Reichsbank had increased from 3 billion marks to 55 billion. Germany borrowed heavily to pay its war costs, although this led also to inflation. By 1923, there seemed to be the wildest inflation in history. Often prices doubled in a few hours, and it took 200 billion marks buy a loaf of bread.
In the beginning inflation was kept within boundaries. Millions of men were still at the front, and not in the market for goods, so the necessities were limited. But the harsh reparation that Germany faced led to the mark to depreciate against foreign currencies. This meant that there was a bigger demand on a limited production capacity. Also, business accepted the inflation because they knew how to profit by speculating in foreign exchange.
The prices were rising much faster than the rate at which money was being printed. This price inflation could hardly be blamed on the government. For the next fifteen months the price index held stable. The mark actually gained in value against foreign currencies, so that prices of imported goods fell by some 50%. Here was a big opportunity to establish a stable currency. However, during these fifteen months the government kept issuing new money. The currency in circulation increased by 50% and the floating debt of the Reichsbank by 100%, providing fuel for a new outbreak.
In May 1921, price inflation started again and by July 1922 prices had risen 700%. All confidence in money vanished and the price index rose faster and faster, outpacing the printing presses which could not run out money as fast as it was depreciating.
From Mid-1922 to November 1923 hyperinflation raged in the Weimar Republic. Reichsbank officials believed that the basic trouble was the depreciation of the mark in terms of foreign currencies. In late 1922 they tried to support the mark by purchasing it in the foreign exchange markets. However, since they continued printing new currency at a fast rate, the attempt failed. They only succeeded in buying worthless marks in return for valuable gold and foreign exchange.
Under inflation, business was now operating at great speed and unemployment had disappeared. However, the real wages of workers had dropped. Businessmen began to abandon their occupations in order to speculate in stocks and in goods. By mid 1923 workers were being paid as often as three times a day, turning their money into fixed investments.
At the same time the economy was collapsing. Storekeepers could not obtain goods or could not to business fast enough to protect their cash receipts. Farms refused to bring their products to the city. Businesses started to close down and unemployment soared. Middle class people who depended on a fixed income found themselves poor. Hospitals, literary and art societies, charitable and religious institutions closed down without any funds.
Then by a mere effort of will, the government stepped in and stabilized the currency overnight. Throughout the "miracle of the Rentenmark" the depreciation halted, business revived, and inflation was ended, although there was an aftermath yet to come.
They say that this inflation contributed to Hitler’s rise to power, mainly when he talks about the negative consequences it lead. Like recently mentioned, the middle class was ruined by the inflation. They became receptive to rabid right wing propaganda and formed a fertile soil for Hitler.
Workers who had suffered through the inflation turned, in many cases, to the Communists. The biggest beneficiaries of this enormous redistribution of wealth were feudalistic industrial leaders who distrusted the democracy and who proved willing to deal with Hitler, thinking that they could control him. The democratic parties and the labor unions lost their capital and were weakened. The liberal democratic regime was discredited.
In conclusion, the government did not realize that the inflation was wiping out its burden of debt in order to ease their financial problems, which lead to greater concern for maintaining a solid currency in the monetary policy.
Treaty of Versailles
The First World War has been fought for four years when, on November 11th 1918, Germany and the Allies signed an armistice. The Allies soon join to discuss the peace treaty they would sign, but Germany and Austria-Hungary weren't invited; instead they were only allowed to present an answer to the treaty, a response which was largely ignored. Instead terms were made mainly by the ‘Big Three’: British Prime Minister Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Frances Clemenceau and US President Woodrow Wilson.
THE BIG THREE
- Woodrow Wilson: Wanted a 'fair and lasting peace' and had written a plan (the Fourteen Points) to achieve this. He wanted the armed forces of all nations reduced, not just the losers, and a League of Nations created to be sure that there would be peace.
- Frances Clemenceau: Wanted Germany to pay dearly for the war, including being taken from land, industry and their armed forces. He also wanted heavy reparations.
- Lloyd George: While he agreed with Wilson, he was affected by public opinion in Britain which agreed with Clemenceau.
It was an almost impossible task, with the need to pay debts with German cash and goods, but also to restore the pan-European economy; the need to sate territorial demands, many of which were included in secret treaties, but also allow self-determination and deal with growing nationalism; the need to remove the German threat, but not humiliate the nation and breed a generation intent on revenge, all while mollifying voters.
Reactions and Results
- Germany lost 13% of its land, 12% of its people, 48% of its iron resources, 15% of its agricultural production and 10% of its coal. Britain and France felt the treaty was fair (they actually wanted harsher terms imposed on the Germans) but the United States refused to ratify it because they didn't want to be part of the League of Nations.
- The map of Europe was redrawn with consequences which, especially in the Balkans, remain to the modern day.
- Numerous countries were left with large minorities groups: there were three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia alone.
- The League of Nations was fatally weakened without the United States and its army to enforce decisions.
- Many Germans felt unfairly treated, after all they had just signed an armistice, not a unilateral surrender, and the allies hasn't occupied deep into Germany.
Mussolini Rises to Power in Italy
- All parties except the fascists were suppressed: Opponents of the regime were exiled or murdered. Socialist leaders Giacomo Matteotti and Giovanni Amendola were both beaten to death by the fascists. After 1926, when Mussolini felt secure in power the violence was greatly reduced.
- A strict press censorship was enforced in which anti-fascist newspapers were suppressed or their editors replaced by fascist supporters. Radio, films and the theatre were similarly controlled.
- Education in schools and universities was supervised, teachers had to wear uniforms, new textbooks were written to glorify the fascist system. Children and young people were forced to join the government youth organizations which indoctrinated them with the brilliance of the Duce and the glories of war.
- Corporate State: The government tried to promote co-operation between employers and workers and to end class warfare in what was known as the Corporate State. Fascist controlled unions had the sole right to negotiate for the workers and both unions and employers' associations were organized into corporations and were expected to co-operate to settle disputes over pay and working.
- Catholic Church: Mussolini left religion outside the control of the government. He had his children baptized and married their mother in the church. He passed laws to make swearing in public a crime and allowed crosses to be hung in public buildings. He made religious education compulsory in Italy. In 1929 he signed a treaty with Gasparri.
Successes
- Industry: gave government subsidies where necessary so that iron and steel production doubled by 1930 and artificial silk production tenfold.
- Battle of Wheat: encourages farmers to concentrate on wheat production in a drive for self-sufficiency; by 1935 the wheat imports had been cut by 75 per cent.
- Land Reclamation: a program was started and the Pontine Marshes around Rome were drained and reclaimed.
- Public Works Program: this was designed to reduce unemployment. It included the building of motorways, bridges, blocks of flats, railway stations, sports stadiums, schools and new towns on reclaimed land.
Hitler in the Interwar
Released in 1925, Hitler worked for the advancement of the Nazi party. Such advancement was slow in coming through the years 1925 to 1929, a fairly stable period in Europe. However, as the world became mired in depression and unemployment rose, so did support for the Nazi Party, which promised employment and a return to glory for the nation. In 1932 the Nazis won 37.3 percent of the popular vote and occupied 230 seats in the German Reichstag. Hitler dissolved the Reichstag and persuaded Hindenburg to issue a decree granting Hitler authority to prohibit public meetings, the wearing of political uniforms, and publication of dissenting opinions.
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building burned down and a retarded Dutch boy claiming he worked for the communists was arrested for arson. There is evidence to prove that the Nazis themselves had set the fire, but in any case, Hitler used the incident to persuade Hindenburg to restrict all individual rights and declare that the central government could oust any state government failing to maintain order. Hitler systematically took control of all of the state governments this way. The Nazis only won 43.9 percent of the vote in 1933. To gain a two-thirds majority Hitler formed an alliance with the Nationalist party, and declared the communist party illegal.
On March 23, 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, giving Hitler the power to make decrees with the status of law, and ending elections.
Hitler's vague policy included a planned economy in which the unemployed were put to work on government projects, working hours were shortened to open up jobs, and labor was forbidden to organize. All education and speech was controlled. Curricula and textbooks were rewritten to reflect Nazi ideology, and all movies, newspapers, radio, and art were regulated by the vigilant Ministry of Propaganda, under Joseph Goebbels. One of the Ministry's main tasks was to mobilize German anti- Semitism in support of Nazi persecution of German Jews, which would reach its climax in the Holocaust, begun in earnest in 1941. The persecution of the Jews was a major step in Hitler's plan to conquer all of Europe for the Aryan race, a plan that resulted in the outbreak of World War II.
Foundation of BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster, headquartered at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with a staff of 23,000 staff. It is responsible to provide public service broadcasting in the UK.
The original company, the British Broadcasting Company, was founded on October 18, 1922. It was founded by a group of six telecommunication companies to broadcast experimental radio services. Its staff was of four, and it was funded by a license fee at a rate set by parliament. The first broadcast came from London on November 14, and listening to it quickly became part of the daily life. John Reith, a Scottish broadcast executive, became the general manager in December of that year. In 1927, he was employed as the Director-General of the BBC, under a Royal Charter. His concept of broadcasting as a way of educating the masses marked for a long time the BBC and similar organizations around the world.The BBC was officially established on January 1, 1927; with Reith as the Director-General and George Villiers as the chairman. It was recognized as a broadcasting monopoly operated by a board of governors and director general. The BBC became the world’s first public service broadcasting organization, with headquarters in London, where advertising on radio was banned.
John Reith had a mission to educate and improve the audience, and under his leadership the BBC developed a reputation for having serious and important programs. He also insisted that all radio announcers should wear dinner jackets while being on the air. Since the 1930’s, the BBC introduced more sports and light entertainment on the radio, for acquiring a bigger audience.
In 1936, the BBC began the world’s first regular television service. This was halted during World War II, and all of BBC’s efforts were concentrated on radio broadcasting. The BBC television service was established on November 2, 1936, but was suspended because of the outbreak of World War II, in 1939.
Today, the BBC has expanded with new channels; World Service radio is complemented by a BBC World television service, while a satellite channel UK Gold helped it exploit its valuable archives. It has been expanding in both radio and television, and has become an important factor in news and entertainment.
Discovery of Penicillin
Penicillin was discovered by the Scottish scientist and Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming, in 1928. He began to sort through petri dishes with colonies of Staphylococcus, bacteria that caused boils, sore throats, and abscesses. In one dish he noticed something unusual: it was dotted with colonies, save for one area where a blob of mold was growing. The zone around the mold (penicillium notatum) was clear, as if the mold had secreted something that inhibited bacterial growth.
He later detected that the mold possessed properties that could kill a wide range of harmful bacteria cells without harming human blood cells. He determined this by isolating pure penicillin from the mold juice. It proved to be very unstable, and they were only able to prepare solutions of crude material to work with.
In June 1929, Fleming published his findings in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology, with only a passing reference to penicillin’s potential therapeutic benefits. This was of practical benefit to bacteriologists, and kept interest in penicillin going. Other scientists, including Harold Raistrick, Professor of Biochemistry at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, tried to purify penicillin but failed.
The chemical structure of penicillin was determined by the British chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in 1945. Ever since, penicillin has become the most widely used antibiotic, and it is still used for many bacterial infections. A team of Oxford research scientists devised a method of mass-producing this drug. In this same year, the Australian scientists Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Fleming for their work.
Time Magazine
Hadden and Luce had already worked together for the Yale Daily News, and had considered calling this magazine Facts. Hadden was known for being carefree, he liked to tease Luce and saw Time as something important but also fun. This is a reason for some critics, mentioning it as “too light for serious news and more suited to its heave coverage of celebrities, the entertainment industry, and pop culture”.
After Hadden’s death in 1929, Luce became the dominant man at Time, and a major figure in the history of 20th-century media. Roy Edward Larsen was hired to play a small role in the development of Time Inc. He then became the general manager of Time, and an influential and important figure after Luce. After Time magazine began publishing its weekly issues in March 1923, Roy Larsen was able to increase the circulation by utilizing U.S. radio and movie theaters around the world.
On March 6, 1931, Larsen arranged a 30-minute radio program, The March of Time, which would be broadcasted over CBS. Each week, it presented an adaptation of the week’s news for the radio listeners; and Time was brought “to the attention of millions previously unaware of its existence”, which led to an increased circulation of the magazine during the 1930’s. Between 1931 and 1937, the radio program was broadcasted by CBS radio, and between 1937 and 1945 it was broadcasted over NBC radio.
Time magazine is now the world’s largest weekly news magazine, and has a domestic audience of 20 million and a global audience of 25 million.
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