What Evans means by this is that the desperation of the people led them to polarising their votes and seeing radical leaders like Hitler as a solution to the mess that Germany had become. Hitler took advantage of this, and from there was able to play a huge role in the collapse of the Weimar Republic. The economic strain that Germany was placed under was also a major impact of the Depression on the collapse of the Republic. Firstly, the Depression had the obvious impact of the debt rising and the banking crises however, there were a number other impacts. Germany relied heavily on international trade for resources; almost one third of their resources came from overseas.
However, when the stock market crashed in 1929, President Hoover was faced with the challenges of helping the United States recover from a severe economic depression. The Great Depression served as a turning point in Hoover’s presidency because his policies are what made him infamous. Hoover was a believer that the federal government should not provide direct relief to citizens in order to avoid people relying of government money to get by. As a result, Hoover stated in a statement to the press that private, state and local government are responsible for providing relief to the public (Doc C). Hoover’s assertions accurately portray the conservative ideals of the federal government adopting a laissez faire policy towards the economy.
Although, the development of change already faced opposition from right-winged supporters, including rich landowners who feared social changes that the Republic would try to implement. Under Generals Sanjurjo, Franco and Mola, the Spanish Civil War began as a military coup, which was aimed to put an end to the democratic political change that was seen in 1931. As seen in Italy with Mussolini in 1922 and with Hitler in Germany in 1933, one could argue that the rise of fascism subsequently kick started the demand of a takeover in Spain. But, we have to bear in mind the bad timing of 1931 to implement such a change, with the worldwide economic crisis caused by the 1929 Wall Street Crash in America, and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, there was now fear throughout Europe of communism and revolution. Although at the beginning of the rebellion, the three main generals were not actually all in Spain.
The elite undermined Weimar as a result of their traditional values and hatred of democracy. In addition, Hitler’s radical new approach to politics utilised the weaknesses in Weimar – he was charismatic and through propaganda convinced the public that he could be their saviour. During the years 1918-28 the Nazis had little impact on the political scene – apart from the failed Beer Hall Putsch, which did earn them admiration from some nationalists. However, during these years, some sections of the public were becoming increasingly disillusioned with Weimar. This was due to events like the devastating 1923 hyperinflation, and of course the Treaty of Versailles, which had tainted Weimar’s reputation from its inception.
Not only did this increase the tension and suspicion between the two countries, but it also caused problems at home, and contributed greatly to the undermining of Bulow’s chancellorship, forcing him to step down in the summer of 1909. This further increased the instability of the government in the Reichstag. Source 1 also makes reference to the Kaisers “reckless quest for colonies”, which highlights the aggressive natures of weltpolitik and economical imperial expansion. However, the expansion of the German empire during this period was actually bloodless, and
6) Hoovervilles were named after Herbert Hoover because he was the president at the time of the great depression. The American people felt like he was to blame for the terrible economy because he raised taxes when he promised that he wouldn't as well as creating the Smoot Hawley tariff which eventually cut America off from foreign trade, tightening the grasp that the depression already had on the U.S. The negative view that the American people had of Hoover was not fair because he put forth more effort than any other president before him to pull America out of a
The treaty of Versailles greatly humiliated Germany forcing it to accept soul responsibility for the war. Another fault in this treaty was that it did not work as intended. The idea that Germany could ever afford to pay the reparations to full amount was ludicrous as it was already suffering from the defeat of war. These reparations caused runaway inflation throughout Germany. But perhaps the biggest problem of all was that those who created it themselves did not enforce
Thankfully Citizens will finally have some light in this dark storm that was brought by the great depression when president Roosevelt and his administration came to office. Even with President Roosevelt in office, president Hoover still ridiculed his approached in restoring the economy with the new deal. President Hoover believed that the New Deal created by president Roosevelt was ridiculous and a complete waste of time. Thankfully President Roosevelt continued on his quest to restore the economy regardless of Hoover’s opinion. Unlike the administration of President Hoover, the Administration of President Roosevelt believed that the great depression could only be defeated through hands
The Great depression itself also created reasons for the outbreak of aggression in the Manchurian crisis. The Great depression is the reason that Hitler fell in to power. Hitler did not agree with the concept of collective security and the attempts to prevent war. Nearly all the nations gave up hope and lost motivation to preserve peace and
Hoover’s most destructive and wrong move was the Hawley-Smoot Tariff that, although good intentioned, decimated foreign trade. But Hoover’s attempt were half-hearted because “his own philosophy, now hardened into dogma, set strict limits on action by the federal government, and he refused to set his philosophy aside even to meet the unprecedented emergency” (T&S 818). When Roosevelt came into office he had to fix a legacy of broken promises and failed legislature by the federal government. Although the New Deal was unprecedented in the amount of legislature it passed, it had many sources that had been building for the last years. Progressivism had been growing the last decades, as it had roots deep in American society, and the New Deal shared many aspects with Progressive ideals.