Totalitarianism By Sierra, Terri, Nate, & Shane

British Party Struggles. During the 1920's, the Labour party surpassed the Liberal party in strength. The Labour party gained support among workers by promoting a gradual move toward socialism. As the liberal party faltered, the middle-class began to back the Conservative party, joining the upper class, professionals, and farmers. With this support, the Conservative party held power during much of 1920s. After a massive strike of over three million workers in 1926, Conservatives passed legislation limiting the power of workers to strike.

Irish Independence Britain still faced the "Irish Question." In 1914, Parliament passed a home-rule that was shelved when the war began. On Easter 1916, a small group of militant Irish nationalists launched a revolt against British rule/. Although the Easter Rising was quickly suppressed, it stirred wider support for the Irish cause. When Parliament failed again to grant home rule in 1919, the members of the Irish Republican Army, or the IRA, began the guerrilla war against British forces and their supporters.

France's Troubled Peace Like Britain, France emerged from World War 1 both a victor and a loser. Political divisions and financial scandals plagued the government of the Third Republic. Several parties, from conservatives to communists, competed for power. The parties differed on many issues, including how to get reparations payments from Germany. A series of quickly changing coalition governments ruled France.

U.S. Isolation The United States came out of World War I in good shape, losing a small amount of men and property. Police started kicking suspected foreign-born people out of the United States for fear of the Bolshevik Revolution. Congress passed laws limiting immigration from Europe.

Foreign Policy France strengthened its military, and because of the Treaty of Versailles Germany had to pay reparations. Britain wanted to relax the treaty's treatment of Germany. They feared that if Germany became too weak, The Soviet Union and France would gain too much power.

Maginot Line To prevent from being invaded again, France build giant fortifications along its border with Germany called the Maginot Line. Although it worked for a while, it would fail to stop another German invasion in the future.

Peace Agreements In 1928 the U.S. sponsored the Kellogg-Briand Pact brought the hopeful "spirit of Locarno" Almost every independent nation signed this agreement, Promising to "renounce war as an instrument of national policy" The U.S., Britain, France, Japan and other nation signed treaties to reduce the size of their navies.

Economics Britain had a very hard time recovering, while France recovered quickly. The United States came out of the war as the world's leading economic power. America's loans and investments helped the recovery of Europe.

Great Depression This is a painful time of global economic collapse, had begun quietly in the summer of 1929 with decreasing production. The October stock market crash aggravated the economic decline. The economic problems quickly spread around the world. Without the support from the United States, Germany suffered. It could not make its reparations payments. France and Britain were not able to make their loan payments.

Overproduction Through demand for raw materials and agricultural products had skyrocketed during the war, prices fell. Farmers, miners and other suppliers of raw materials suffered because of this. Because they earned less they bought less. Also at the same time better technology allowed factories to make more products faster.

Finance The management of money, money circulation loans investments and banking were heating up. Few people realized the dangers Prices on the New York Stock Exchange were at an all time high

Federal Reserve Is the central banking system for the U.S. In 1928 it raised it's interest rates and again in 1929 People were nervous to borrow money, demand dropped People started selling their stocks Stock prices dropped, and so did the entire stock market

Democracies Reaction Britain set up a coalition government made up of leaders from all three of it's major political parties, but by out of 4 workers was unemployed. The great depression took longer to have an effect on France, the production slowed and unemployment increased

New Deal The new deal was a massive package of economic and social programs New laws regulated the sock market and protected band deposits Government programs created jobs and gave aid to farmers The new deal failed to end the Great Depression, but it helped to make improvements