Germany: The Great Depression

The Great Depression, which initiated in 1929, was the complete eruption of economic life in Europe and the Americas since the great and successful outbreak of industrialization and urbanization. When studying the topic of the Great Depression, what comes to mind at first is the affect on the United States, a most powerful country at the time whose stock market crashed, there was great bank failure and they formed a stable American Economic Policy with Europe. The collapse of the stock market on Wall Street on October 29, 1929 had an immediate financial impact worldwide, especially on Germany. The result of this domino effect meant that there was less production, therefore less workers – this was a struggling and vulnerable time for Germany since they were still trying to compensate for WW1 and were receiving loans from America, who also suffered from the Economic Depression. Even without the devastating hit of the Great Depression, the factor of money owed for World War 1 would have most likely caused it's own Depression in Germany. With the sudden change in global economy, inflation arose making money seem worthless, and so disturbances and protests against the government proceeded in an attempt to boost the business situation, but what followed was extreme nationalism and the rise of the Nazi party.
With Germany's insecure governmental control, this gave a much more effortless acceptance of Nazism and the rise of Hitler. Although previously the Nazi party was growing slowly, it was a methodical and structured organization which was ready for anything. The extremity of the Great Depression was what caused Germany's political schism, and the Communist party of 1920 began to expand. Communism seemed to be exemplary at the time, because Germany was suffering from severe unemployment and poorness – there was high reduction in both consumption and production, and effective deprivation and loss of trade between other countries. Social classes as adequate as the Middle Class were impacted as their lives were driven into poverty and distress. Whilst Communism seemed to be an appropriate fallback, it was not Germany's primary choice, since Hitler's “reign” modified nationalism into a fascist dictatorship which manipulated the vital means of socialist terms. The population of Germany was inspired by Hitler's speeches and persuasive discussions, hence turning their backs on their corrupted government and siding with a new and different reason for the crash of the market which they thought would be fixed with their support.
The Weimar Republic was being revoked by the popular Nazi party, which was the largest party in 1932 at the Reichstag elections. At the following Reichstag elections, 4 months later in November, the Nazi party had dipped to filling 196 as opposed to their previous 230 seats, but they were still the largest party seating. As many times as Hitler requested to be nominated as chancellor, Hindenburg greatly avoided the opportunity, because as previously mentioned it was not Germany's primary vote to appoint Hitler into leading the nationalist and communist Nazi party which was still expanding. The German population was desperate, they were willing to undergo any change which would eventually improve their standards of living in society, and with the inconsistency of the government, Adolf Hitler motivated the public and rose to his now called dictatorship. The Weimar Republic was easily diminished by the beliefs of this one man alone due to the lack of faith and anger of the German people, especially after the signing of the Locarno Treaty which was the first major financial hit upon Germany. The overall disorganization and unreliability of Germany's political and governmental situation allowed Hitler's persuasiveness to mesmerize the public into believing that the hopeless condition of the country would be sufficiently improved.
The consequences of the Great Depression spread from the United States, to Europe and to the already suffering Germany. Anger and disloyalty was stirred up when the public protested and demanded for food and proper reparations of the circumstances at the time, including the immense rise of unemployment, and decrease of production. The radical changes which were established were the violent maneuvers used by the powerful Nazi and Nationalistic parties, both mainly due to the powerful rise of one man, Adolf Hitler who primarily blamed the unfortunate occurrence of the economic failure on one race. The downturn of Germany's economy became a valuable excuse for Nazism to advertise itself as a marvelous solution and ready “society”. Although communist strategies were beginning to succeed, they were replaced by socialist and fascist authorities, which sabotaged any improvement which were being made in the country. With all examples and reasonings mentioned, it is almost pristinely obvious that the unreasonable blame placed upon a certain community of Germany, and the techniques used to solve the mighty complication merely caused a much more remembered and painful event in history, the second World War.

Evaluate the successes and failures of The Paris Peace Conference in creating a stable European community in post World War One era.

The Paris Peace Conference, subsequent to the WW1 era was held in 1919 in order to form restrictions upon the defeated countries of the Central Power; these of which included Germany, The Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary and Russia and these countries are those which the treaty illuminate their focus upon. The actions taken during the treaties caused countries to develop borders, and create new countries which effectively altered the geographical status of the maps during the time. Whilst Germany's economy, political background and society were being quickly demolished, the allied countries which were dependent on eachother were protected from further attack. Clearly both failures and successes arose from the peace convention, affecting countries and their populations in different ways, but also morphing Europe into it's daily position.

It is believable and debatable whether Austria-Hungary generated the global chaos of WW1, however the Treaty of Versailles still placed the blame upon Germany, since as a country they were declining. The conference was run by the “Great Powers' being France led by George Clemenceau, Britain and their Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the United States, led by General Woodrow Wilson, a strong supporter of self-determination in a country. Smaller treaties which derived from the Treaty of Versailles claimed that the country which stirred up the war to form it's birth were responsible for recompensation towards damages; must reduce it's territory and military as well as end alliances which countries, especially those of the Great Powers, may be threatened by. The decisions which were made at the time either assisted the situation, or assisted it to deteriorate.

The first treaty which became associated first after deciding about the German Empire was The Treaty of Saint-Germain, which affected Austria and created their new Republic. However, they were still obliged to maintain their German-speak territories in Hapsburg, but still avoid any possibly unification with Germany. Yet, over time, Austria had to distribute land so countries such as Italy and caused Austria to shrink as a state, where German was the only recognizable language. Once a powerful country, it was now slowly degenerating – their military was weak, their economy was restricted and their allied army between Austria-Hungary was allocated to Allied Powers. By deriving a country of their military, their economy is almost immediately affected, causing a chain reaction.

One other impacting treaty was the Treaty of Trianon, held in June of 1920. It mainly concerned Hungary after their separation with their former allies, Austria, which was apparently a compulsory act since as a bonded country they were a large threat. Since during war time Austria-Hungary were sided with Germany, they also had to pay in compensation for damages caused, specifically to Italy. As a country, Hungary's Empire had then lost all their rights to self-determination, leading to the country so be divided and Hungary lost 72% of their original territory. With their decreased borders and loss of ports, there was much less produce occurring in the country, which eventually led to a great dip in money, known as the recession. As well as loss in economy, their military was reduced to 35, 000 which affected the populations pride toward their country. The greatest lost that came from this treaty was the claim that affected their society's citizens – if they were outside Hungarian borders, they would effectively lose their citizenship in Hungary.

The Treaty of Sevres, much similar to that of Trianon in the sense of limitations placed, addressed the Ottoman Empire and was held on the 20^th of August in 1920. The Empire was deconstructed, and territories were given and shared amongst Allies. A new independent state was formed, known as The New Republic of Turkey, which limited their army as they were removed from Europe and much of their land was lost. The Ottoman Empire was broken down because it posed a large threat so other suffering countries, including France who were in favor of their protection.

As an attempt to better the conditions throughout Europe and Nations, the Paris Peace Conference was held but the results, however, were indifferent to what would have been originally expected by the Great Powers, who evidently had control over the conference and the actions taken. Countries and their nations were extremely antagonized due to their lost lands and borders, and for some the fact that they had to pay vast amounts in order to reconstruct the havoc which may have demolished the countries which they have attacked. Although one of the main powers which a majority of countries were longing to be sided with, the United States, were extremely pro self-determination, many countries were losing their human rights, driving citizens to leave, change their nationalities and eventually side with the Nazi party during the second World War. Some restraints which originated from the treaties were cruel, but the main advantage of this substantial treaty was the logical restrictions placed upon the militaries which certainly yet temporarily prevented war or disputes from occurring which was surely required in Europe at the time.