Key Events and Definitions: Interwar Period (1919-1938)

Posted on Feb 27, 2025 in History

Key Events: 1919-1938

  • 1919: Dollar becomes a new international currency.
  • 1922: United States emerges as a world power.
  • 1923: Inflation surges in Europe.
  • 1925: Rise in stock shares and speculation.
  • 1929: Wall Street Crash in New York triggers the Great Depression.
  • 1930: United States implements Protective Tariffs.
  • 1931: The Depression spreads to Europe.
  • 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt initiates the New Deal.
  • 1922: Russia recognizes the Irish Free State.
  • 1936: The Popular Front triumphs in France.
  • 1921: Founding of the National Fascist Party in Italy.
  • 1922: March on Rome.
  • 1924: Mussolini gains full parliamentary powers in Italy.
  • 1926: Mussolini establishes a dictatorship.
  • 1918: Democratic Regime in Germany: The Weimar Republic.
  • 1920: Founding of the Nazi Party in Germany.
  • 1933: Hitler is appointed Chancellor.
  • 1934: Hitler gains absolute power, establishing a Nazi dictatorship.
  • 1934: Night of the Long Knives.
  • 1938: Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass).

Key Definitions

  • Stock Market: A market where shares of enterprises are exchanged according to supply and demand. Companies issue shares, and investors save.
  • Deflation: A policy practiced by various countries, often European, to minimize inflation and improve market competitiveness. It involves currency revaluation, credit restriction, higher taxes, and declining public expenditure, wages, and prices.
  • New Deal: An English term referring to the reforms conducted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration in the U.S. to address the effects of the 1929 crisis.
  • Fascism: A political and social movement, totalitarian and nationalist in nature, initially emerging in Italy and founded by Benito Mussolini after World War I. The term is extended to similar movements in other countries during the interwar period.
  • Blackshirts (Camicie Nere): Members of the Squadra d’Azione (Action Squad), named after the color of their clothing. Founded by Benito Mussolini as a paramilitary shock force, they joined the Fascist Party. Their methods commonly used to eliminate political opposition (mainly socialists and communists) included violence and murder.
  • Parliamentary System: A political system based on liberal principles, allowing citizens to choose their rulers and legislative power.
  • Totalitarianism: A political system where power is exercised by a single person or party in an authoritarian manner, characteristic of dictatorships.
  • Anti-Semitism: A doctrine manifesting a hostile attitude towards Jews. Anti-Semitism and the overestimation of the German nation were central to Nazism, resulting from the consideration of race as the basis of human values.
  • Nuremberg Laws: Laws enacted in 1935 that deprived Jews of civil rights, prohibiting mixed marriages and sexual relations between Jews and Germans.
  • SS (Schutzstaffel): Abbreviation for “Military Protection Group.” A paramilitary organization that, from 1933, served as the police force of the Nazi party. It brought all police forces in Germany under its control. During the war, it created its own combat units, known for their ferocity and fanaticism.
  • Anschluss: A German term meaning unification, used by supporters of incorporating Austrian territories with a German language into Germany. It refers to the forced incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany on March 13, 1938.