History

Summary-Easy to Learn
Lesson 1. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Storming of Bastille
 On the morning of 14 July 1789
 Rumours spread that the King would soon order the army to open fire upon the citizens.
 Some 7,000 men and women gathered in front of the town hall and decided to form a peoples’ militia.
 They broke into a number of government buildings in search of arms.
 Finally, a group of several hundred people marched towards the eastern part of the city and stormed the
fortress-prison, the Bastille,
 The commander of the Bastille was killed and the prisoners released
 Yet the Bastille was hated by all, because it stood for the despotic power of the king.
 The fortress was demolished
 Its stone fragments were sold in the markets to all those who wished to keep a souvenir of its destruction.

French Revolution
Political Reasons:
 In 1774, the appointment of Louis XVI as the monarch king of France.
 He faced an empty treasury, drained through years of wars.
 He was manipulated by the queen- Marie Antoinette.
 The French Monarchs were involved in rich and lavishness at the Versailles.
 The autocratic monarchy, poor administration, expensive expenditure created the political cause of the French
Revolution.

Economic Reasons:
 France became bankrupt due to over expense in wars and luxury.
 Long years of war had drained the financial resources of France.
 The French Monarchs were involved in rich and lavishness at the Versailles
 A rising national debt that the government was unable to pay.
 The third estate had to pay different taxes and feudal dues.
 Subsistence crisis

Social Reasons:(French Society)

 The French society was divided into 3 states:
 The first estate consisted of the clergy.
These people were exempted from paying any taxes.

 The second estate consisted of the nobility.

On top of being exempted from taxes,
they also enjoyed favourable feudal laws and privileges.
One of those privileges was feudal dues extracted from the peasants.

 The third estate consisted of the majority of the population.

It comprised big businessmen, merchants, lawyers, peasants, servants, and labourers.
The Church too extracted its share of taxes called tithes from the peasants
The third estate was oppressed with Taille taxes levied on essential daily items like salt and tobacco.
The burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the third estate alone.

The ‘subsistence crisis’ in France during the Old Regime

 The population of France increased from 23 million in 1715 to 28 million in 1789.
 This led to a rapid increase in demand for food grains.
 Production of grains could not keep pace with the demand.
 So the price of bread which was the staple food increased rapidly
 On the other hand, the wages could not keep pace with the rise in prices.
 At the time of drought or hail reduced the harvest, things got worse
 So the gap between the poor and the rich widened, this led to the subsistence crisis.

The Growing Middle Class:

 The eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of social groups, termed the middle class.
 Middle class earned their wealth through an expanding overseas trade and from the manufacture of goods.

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 The middle class, along with merchants and manufacturers, included professionals like lawyers and
administrative officials.
 Middle class were educated and believed that no group in society should be privileged by birth.
 Rather, a persons’ social position must depend on his merit.
 These ideas were put forward by philosophers such as Locke, Rousseau and Montesquieu.

Influence of the Philosophers in France

 Philosophers such as philosophers such as Locke, Rousseau and Montesquieu put forward ideas envisaging
a society
based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities for all.
 In Two Treatises of Government, John Locke sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute rights of
the monarch.
 Rousseau was proposing a form of government based on social contract between the people and their
representatives.
 In the Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the
legislative, the executive and the judiciary.
 The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensively in salons and coffee-houses and were spread
among people through books and newspapers.

The Estates General:

 It was a political body to which the three estates sent their representatives.
• Old Regime the monarch did not have the power to impose taxes according to King’s will alone.
• A meeting of the Estates General
• On 5 May 1789 - A meeting of the Estates General called after 175 Years.
• 1614 – Last time called estate General
• Aim: Proposals for new taxes
• Voting in the Estates General was 1 Estate had One Vote
• III Estate Demanded - Each member would have one vote
• The king rejected their demands.
• Walked out of the assembly

The Tennis Court Oath

 On 20 June 1789
 People Assembled at Indoor tennis court of Versailles On 20 June 1789
 Declared themselves a National Assembly and
 swore not to disperse till they had drafted a constitution for France
 that would limit the powers of the monarch.

Peasants protest against the feudal lords or nobles of France

 In the countryside there were rumours spread from village to village that the lords of the manor had hired bands
of brigands
 Caught in frenzy of fear, peasants in several districts seized hoes and pitchforks and attacked Chateaux.
 They looted hoarded grain and burnt down documents containing records of manorial dues.
 A large number of nobles fled from their homes,
 many of them migrating to the neighbouring countries.

Constitutional monarchy in France

 The constitution of 1791 had given the power to make laws to the National Assembly
 The right to vote was given to Active Citizen,
 men above 25 years of age,
 who paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a labourer’s wage
 The remaining men and all women were classed as passive citizens.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens

 The constitution of France began with a Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens.
 Rights such as right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, equality before law were established as
natural and inalienable rights
 i.e., they belong to each human being by birth and could not be taken away.
 It is the duty of the state to protect each citizen’s natural rights.

Jacobins and Abolition of Monarchy

 Jacobins were the most radical and ruthless of the political groups formed in the wake of the French
Revolution.
 They were the members of a democratic club established in 1789.
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 Jacobins were led by Maximilian Robespierre.
 Angered by the short supplies and high prices of food grains
 Jacobins stormed the Palace of the Tuileries.
 The king’s guards were killed and the king was held hostage.
 Elections were held in which every man of 21 years and above got the right to vote.
 The newly elected assembly was known as Convention
 Abolished monarchy and declared France a republic.

The “Reign of Terror”

 The period from 1793 to 1794 is called the Reign of Terror.
 Robespierre followed a policy of severe control and punishment.
 Ex-nobles, clergy, members of other political parties and even the members of his own party, who did not agree
with his methods, were arrested,
 imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary tribunal.
 If the court found them guilty they were guillotined.

Maximilien Robespierre’s Policies

 Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling of wages and prices.
 Meat and bread were rationed.
 Peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities
 and sell it at prices fixed by the government.
 The use of more expensive white flour was forbidden;
 all citizens were required to eat the equality bread.
 Equality was also sought to be practiced through forms of speech and address.
 Instead of the traditional Sir and Madam, French men and women were addressed as citizen.
 Churches were shut down and their buildings converted into barracks or offices.

Political symbols used during the French Revolution

 Most of the people in the 18th century France could not read and write.
 So images and symbols instead of printed books were used to communicate ideas.
 These symbols were used to convey the content of declaration of rights.

1. The Broken Chains- It stands for the act of becoming free.

2. The bundle of rods- One rod can easily be broken, a bindle cannot be broken. Strength lies in unity.
3. The eye within a triangle radiating light- it stands for knowledge. The rays of the sun will fade away the
ignorance.
4. Sceptre- it shows the royal power.
5. Snake biting its tail- it stands for eternity. The ring has no beginning and no end.
6. Red Phrygian cap- these were worn by slaves who were set free.
7. Blue-White-Red- national colors of France.
8. The Winged Woman- the personification of the law
9. The law tablet- law is the same for all and all are equal before the law.

Directory Rule
 The Directory was a five-member executive committee which governed France when the political power was
passed into the hands of the wealthier middle class.
 It was meant as a safeguard against the
 concentration of power in the hands of one-man executive as under the Jacobins.
 The Directors often clashed with the legislative councils who in turn sought to dismiss them.
 This led to political instability of Directory in France.
 It paved the way for the rise of a military dictator called Napoleon Bonaparte.

Women’s participation in the revolution:

 From the very beginning women were active participants in revolution.
 Most of the women of the third estate had to work for a living.
 Their wages were lower than those of men.
 Most women did not have access to education or job training.
 Women were disappointed that the Constitution of 1791 reduced them to passive citizens.
 To discuss and voice their interests, women started their own political clubs and newspapers.
 Some laws were introduced to improve the position of women.
 Their struggle continues in several parts of the world.

Women’s Demands
 One of their main demands was that women must enjoy the same political rights as men.
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 They also demanded equal pay for equal work.

The revolutionary government did introduce laws that helped improve the lives of women.
 By creation of state schools, schooling was made compulsory for all girls.
 Their fathers could no longer force them in to marriage against their will.
 Marriage was made into a contract entered into freely and registered under civil law.
 Divorce was made legal, and could be applied for by both women and men.
 Women could now train for jobs, could become artists or run small businesses.

Women-During the Reign of Terror

 During the Reign of Terror, the new government issued laws ordering closure of women’s clubs and
 banning their political activities.
 Many prominent women were arrested and a number of them executed.
 It was finally in 1946 that women in France won the right to vote.

Slave Trade
 The unwillingness of Europeans to go and work in the colonies in the Caribbean
 Created a shortage of labour on the plantations(Tobacco, indigo, sugar and coffee
 The slave trade began in the seventeenth century.
 French merchants sailed from their ports to the African coast, where they bought slaves from local chieftains.
 There they were sold to plantation owners.
 Port cities like Bordeaux and Nantes owed their economic prosperity to the flourishing slave trade.
 Government did not pass any laws against slave trade, fearing opposition from businessmen.

The Abolition of Slavery

 There was a triangular slave trade among Europe, Africa, and America.
 In the 18th century, there was little criticism of slavery in France.
 No laws were passed against it.
 It was in 1794 that the convention made it free to all slaves.
 But 10 years later slavery was reintroduced by Napoleon.
 It was finally in 1848 that slavery was abolished in the French colonies.

The Revolution and Everyday Life

 The years following 1789 in France saw many changes in the lives of men, women, and children.
 One important law that came into effect was the abolition of censorship.
 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen proclaimed freedom of speech and expression to be a natural
right
 Newspapers, pamphlets, books and printed pictures flooded the towns of France
 Plays, songs and festive processions attracted large numbers of people
 The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the French Revolution.

Napoleon Bonaparte
 After the end of reign of terror, directory created political instability
 In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France.
 He set out to conquer neighbouring European countries and created kingdoms where he placed members of
his family.
 He saw his role as a modernizer of Europe.
 He introduced many laws such as the protection of private property and a uniform system of weights and
measures provided by the decimal system.

Legacy of the French Revolution

• The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the French Revolution.
• These spread from France to the rest of Europe during the nineteenth century
• Later, these ideas were adopted by Indian revolutionary strugglers, Tipu Sultan and Rammohan Roy also.

Important Years
Date Line
 5th May 1789-Convocation of Estates General.
 June 20-1789- The Tennis Court Oath,
 14th July 1789 -the Third Estate forms National Assembly, storming of the Bastille.
 July 22 1789-The spread of the Great Fear
 1789, August 4 — Night of August 4 ends the rights of the aristocracy.
 1789, August 26 — Declaration of the Rights of Man
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 1791 — France becomes a constitutional monarchy.
 1792 Austria and Prussia attack revolutionary France.
The insurrection of the Palace of the Tuileries
Formation of the National Convention
France abolished monarchy and became a republic.
 1793 — Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are executed.
 1792-1794 — The Reign of Terror starts
 1794 — Robespierre is executed. France is governed by a Directory, a committee five men.
 1799 — Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the ruler of France.
 1804-Napoleon crowned as the emperor of France.
 1794-The Convention abolishes slavery in the French colonies.
 1804-Napoleon re introduces slavery.
 1815-Napoleon defeated at Waterloo.
 1848-Slavery was finally abolished in the French colonies.
 1946- Women in France got the right to vote.
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Russian Revolution

A group of people in Russian society

Liberals:
 Liberals, looked to change society
 They wanted a nation which tolerated all religions.
 They were not ‘democrats’.
 They did not believe in universal adult franchise
 They felt men of property mainly should have the vote.
 They also did not want the vote for women.
 Opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers.
 They wanted to safeguard the rights of individuals against governments.
 They argued for a representative,
elected parliamentary government,
 subject to laws interpreted by a well-trained judiciary that was independent of rulers and
officials.

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Radicals
 Radicals wanted a nation in which government was based on the majority of a country’s
population.
 Many supported women’s suffragette movements.(Right to vote for women)
 They opposed the privileges of great landowners and wealthy factory owners.
 They were not against the existence of private property
 but disliked concentration of property in the hands of a few.
Conservatives:
 Conservatives were opposed to radicals and liberals.
 18th C-conservatives opposed to the idea of change.
 After the French Revolution-opened their minds to the need for change. 19 th C-they
accepted that some change was inevitable
 but believed that the past had to be respected
 and change had to be brought about through a slow process.

Industrial Revolution(Industries) and Social and economic Changes

 Industrial Revolution led to changes in social and economic life
 New cities came up
 New industrialised regions developed,
 railways expanded
 Industrialisation brought men, women and children to factories.
 Work hours were often long and wages were poor.
 Unemployment was common
 Low demand for industrial goods.
 Housing and sanitation were problems
 Liberals and radicals searched for solutions to these issues.
 Many working men and women who wanted changes.
 In France, Italy, Germany and Russia, revolutionaries overthrow existing monarchs.
 Nationalists talked of revolutions to create ‘nations’ with equal rights.

Different Visions of Socialists

 Socialists had different visions of the future.
 Some believed in the idea of cooperatives.
 Robert Owen sought to build a cooperative community called New Harmony in Indiana
(USA).
 In France, Louis Blanc wanted the government to encourage cooperatives and replace
capitalist enterprises.
 Karl Marx argued that industrial society was capitalist.
 Marx believed that to free themselves from capitalist exploitation.
 Workers had to construct a radically socialist society
where all property was socially controlled.

Karl Marx and his ideas about a Socialist society

 Karl Marx was a German philosopher,
economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist,
journalist and revolutionary socialist.
 Marx argued that industrial society was ‘capitalist’.
 Capitalists owned the capital invested in factories,
and the profit of capitalists was produced by workers.
 The conditions of workers could not improve as long as this profit was accumulated by
private capitalists.
 Workers had to overthrow capitalism and the rule of private property.
 Marx believed that to free themselves from capitalist exploitation,
workers had to construct a radically socialist society
where all property was socially controlled. This would be a communist society.
 He was convinced that workers would triumph in their conflict with capitalists.
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  A communist society was the natural society of the future.

Support Socialism
 By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe
 They formed an international body – namely, the Second International.
 Associations were formed by workers in Germany and England to fight for better living and
working conditions.
 The Labour Party and Socialist Party were formed by socialists and trade unionists by
1905.

The Russian Empire in 1914

 In 1914, Russia was ruled by Tsar Nicholas II and its empire.
 The Russian empire include Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine
and Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
 People of Russia: Russian Orthodox Christianity, the Greek Orthodox Church, Catholics,
Protestants, Muslims and Buddhists.

The political, social & economic conditions of Russia in 1914.

 In 1914, Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia and its empire.
 The Russian empire included current-day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, parts of
Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.
 It stretched to the Pacific and comprised today’s Central Asian states, as well as Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan.
 The majority religion was Russian Orthodox Christianity
 The empire also included Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Buddhists.
 Industry was found in pockets.
 Prominent industrial areas were St Petersburg and Moscow.
 Many factories were set up in the 1890s,
 Russia’s railway network was extended.
 Foreign investment in industry increased.
 Coal production doubled and iron and steel output quadrupled.

The Peasants of Russia different from rest of Europe

 About 85 per cent of the Russian empire’s population earned their living from agriculture.
 In France and Germany the proportion was between 40 per cent and 50 per cent.
 Russia were a major exporter of grain.
 In the countryside, peasants cultivated most of the land.
 They were also deeply religious.
 They had no respect for the nobility.
 In Russia, peasants wanted the land of the nobles to be given to them.
 Frequently, they refused to pay rent and even murdered landlords.
 In 1905, such incidents took place all over Russia.
 Russian peasants were different from other European peasants
 They pooled their land together periodically and
their commune divided it according to the needs of individual families.

Russian Revolution:
1. Bloody Sunday – 1905 - Creation of Duma.
2. February Revolution - 1917 -The fall of monarchy
3. October Revolution - 1917 - Socialists took over the government

‘Bloody Sunday’ (The revolution of 1905)

 In 1904 prices of essential goods rose so quickly
 that real wages declined by 20 per cent.
 The membership of workers associations rose dramatically.

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  Four members of the Assembly of Russian Workers were dismissed at the Putilov Iron
Works,
 Over 110,000 workers in St. Petersburg went on strike in 1905,
 demanding a reduction in the working day to eight hours, an increase in wages and
improvement in working conditions.
 When the procession of workers led by Father Gapon reached the Winter Palace
 it was attacked by the police and the Cossacks.
 Over 100 workers were killed and about 300 wounded.
 This incident, known as Bloody Sunday,
 started a series of events that became known as the 1905 Revolution.
 The Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament or Duma.

The three reforms introduced by Tsar Nicholas II after the revolution of 1905.
 The Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament or Duma.
 After 1905, most committees and unions worked unofficially since they were declared
illegal.
 The Tsar dismissed the first Duma within 75 days
 and the re-elected second Duma within three months.
 He changed the voting laws
 packed the third Duma with conservative politicians.
 Liberals and revolutionaries were kept out.

Impact of First World War on Russian economy

 The war had a severe impact on industry.
 Russia’s own industries were few in number.
 Industrial equipment disintegrated more rapidly in Russia.
 By 1916, railway lines began to break down.
 Able-bodied men were called up to the war.
 As a result, there were labour shortages
 small workshops producing essentials were shut down.
 Large supplies of grain were sent to feed the army.
 Bread and flour became scarce.
 By the winter of 1916, riots at bread shops were common.

February Revolution
 On 22 February 1917, a lockout took place at a factory.
 Workers of 50 other factories joined in sympathy.
 Women also led and participated in the strikes.
 The government imposed a curfew
 Official buildings were surrounded by workers.
 On the 24th and 25th, the government called out the cavalry and police to keep an eye on
them.
 On 25th February, the government suspended the Duma
 On 27th, the police headquarters were plundered.
 Cavalry was called out again.
 By that evening, soldiers and striking workers had gathered to form a ‘soviet’ or ‘council’.
 This was the Petrograd Soviet.
 A delegation went to meet the Tsar,
 military commanders advised him to Surrendered.
 The Tsar Surrendered on 2nd March.
 A Provincial Government was formed by the Soviet
 and Duma leaders to run the country.
Effects
 The fall of monarchy
 Restrictions on public meetings and associations were removed.
 Soviets were set up everywhere.
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  In individual areas factory committees were formed
 Soldiers’ committees were formed in the army.
 The provisional government saw its power declining.
 and Bolshevik influence grow.
 Workers to run factories and arrested leaders.
 Peasants and the socialist revolutionary leaders pressed for a redistribution of land.
 Land committees were formed,

Lenin and the April Theses

 Lenin was one of the most important leaders of the Bolshevik the party.
 In April 1917, Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from his exile.
 Lenin demanded three things termed as ‘April Theses’.
 He wanted (i)war to end,
 (ii)land to be transferred to the peasants,
 and (iii)banks to be nationalized.

October Revolution
 In April 1917, the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from his exile.
 In July demonstration by the Bolsheviks against the Provincial Government.
 The Bolshevik Party was renamed the Russian Communist Party
 July to September peasants seized land from the rich landlords.
 16th October Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and
 Bolshevik Party to agree to a socialist seizure of power.
 A Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviet to organize seizure.
 24th October, the Bolshevik uprising began.
Effects
 Fall of Provisional Government
 Most industry and banks were nationalized in November 1917.
 Land was declared social property and peasants were allowed to seize the land of the
nobility.
 Russia became a one-party state. Russia adopted Socialism.
 Trade unions were kept under party control.
 A process of centralized planning was introduced. This led to economic growth.
Industrial production increased.
 An extended schooling system developed.
 Lenin Headed the new Soviet Government.
 Collectivization of farms started.

Stalin’s collectivization
Aims:
 To develop modern farms
 Run them along industrial lines with machinery
 Eliminate kulaks
 Take away land from peasants
 Establish state-controlled large farms.

 From 1929, the Party forced all peasants to cultivate in collective farms (kolkhoz).
 The bulk of land and implements were transferred to the ownership of collective farms.
 Peasants worked on the land, and the kolkhoz profit was shared.
 Those who resisted collectivization were severely punished.
 Many were deported and exiled.
 As they resisted collectivization, peasants argued that they were not rich and they were not
against socialism.
 They merely did not want to work in collective farms for a variety of reasons.
 Stalin’s government allowed some independent cultivation.
 but treated such cultivators unsympathetically.
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Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

Birth of the Weimar Republic

 Germany fought the First World War (1914-1918) alongside the Austrian Empire and against the
Allies (England, France and Russia.).
 All resources of Europe were drained out because of the war.
 Germany occupied France and Belgium.
 The US entry in 1917,defeated Germany and the Central Powers in November 1918.
 At Weimar, the National Assembly met and established a democratic constitution with a federal
structure.
 In the German Parliament, deputies were elected on the basis of equal and universal votes cast by
all adults, including women.

The Effects of the First World War

 The entire continent was devastated by the war, both psychologically and financially.
 The war of guilt and national humiliation was carried by the Republic
 Financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation.
 Socialists, Catholics and Democrats supported the Weimar Republic, and they were mockingly
called the ‘November criminals’.
 The First World War left a deep imprint on European society and polity.
 Soldiers are placed above civilians, but unfortunately, soldiers live a miserable life.

Treaty of Versailles(“The Treaty of Versailles was humiliating on the Germans.”)

28 June 1919 : Treaty of Versailles

Impacts:
• A harsh and humiliating peace.
• Germany lost its overseas colonies,
• a tenth of its population,
• 13 per cent of its territories,
• 75 per cent of its iron and
• 26 per cent of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.
• to weaken its power.
• Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to £6 billion.
• The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for much of the 1920s.

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Economic Crises after First World War(1923)
• Political radicalisation was only heightened by the economic crisis of 1923.
• Germany had fought the war largely on loans and
• had to pay war reparations in gold.
• This depleted gold reserves at a time resources were scarce.
• In 1923 Germany refused to pay
• French occupied its leading industrial area, Ruhr, to claim their coal.
• the value of the German mark fell.
• Too much printed money in circulation
• In April the US dollar was equal to 24,000 marks,
• in July 353,000 marks,
• in August 4,621,000 marks
• 98,860,000 marks by December,
• the figure had run into trillions

The Dawes Plan

 The Americans provided short-term loans to Germany through the Dawes Plan.
 The Dawes Plan reduced Germany's financial burden.
 Germany was stable between 1924 and 1928.
 The Wall Street crash in 1929 stopped short-term loan support.

The Great Economic Depression between 1929 and 1932

 The support of short-term loans was withdrawn
 when the Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929
 The Great Economic Depression started between 1929 and 1932(3 years)
 the national income of the USA fell by half.
 The economy of Germany was the worst hit.
 Workers became jobless and went on streets with placards saying,
 ‘Willing to do any work’.
 Youths indulged themselves in criminal activities.
 The middle class and small businessmen were filled with the fear of proletarianization,
 The Weimar Republic was fragile.

Defects of Weimar Constitution

Politically too the Weimar Republic was fragile.
• Unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship.
• Proportional representation(coalitions)
• Article 48 - the President the powers to impose emergency
• Suspend civil rights and rule by decree.
• Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets lasting on an average 239 days
• A liberal use of Article 48.
• Crisis could not be managed.

People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system(Weimar Republic)

 Proportional representation: Impossible for anyone political party to achieve a majority, result-coalition
government.
 Article 48: It gave the President the powers to impose emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.
 Within a short period Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets
• Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets lasting on an average 239 days
 People no longer had faith in the democratic parliamentary system.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

 Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria and spent his youth in poverty.
 In the First World War, he enrolled on the army,
 Acted as a messenger in the front, became a corporal, and earned medals for bravery.
 Hitler joined a small group called the German Workers’ Party in 1919.
 He took over the organisation and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers’ Party,
 later came to be known as the Nazi Party.

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  In 1923, he planned to seize control of Bavaria, march to Berlin and capture power. He failed and
arrested.
 During the Great Depression, Nazism became a mass movement.
 After 1929, banks collapsed, businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs,
 and the middle classes were threatened with destitution.
 In such a situation, Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future.
 Hitler was a powerful speaker, and his words moved people.
 In his speech, he promised to build a strong nation,
 undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and
 restore the dignity of the German people.
 He also promised employment for those looking for work and a secure future for the youth.
 He promised to remove all foreign influences and
 resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against Germany.
 Hitler started following a new style of politics, and
 his followers held big rallies and public meetings to demonstrate support.
 According to the Nazi propaganda, Hitler was called a messiah, a saviour.

‘By the end of 1940, Hitler was at the pinnacle of his power.’
 In foreign policy, Hitler acquired quick successes.
 He left the League of Nations, reoccupied Rhineland, annexed Austria, took German-speaking Sudetenland
from Czechoslovakia and finally the whole country.
In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.
 It started the war with England and France.
 Puppet governments who supported Hitler were set up in many parts of Europe.
 In September 1940, Hitler signed a Tripartite pact with Italy and Japan
to strengthen his claim to international power.

Foreign policy of Hitler

Hitler took the following action as part of his foreign policy:
(a) Germany left the League of Nations in 1933.
(b) Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936.
(c) He annexed Austria in 1938 under the slogan one people, one empire and one leader.
(d) He annexed Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and then the whole country.
(e) Hitler chose war as the way to solve economic crisis. Territories had to be expanded for collection
of resources.
In September 1939, Poland was invaded and it started the Second World War.
In 1940, Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Italy and Japan.
Puppet governments, who supported Nazi Germany, were installed in large parts of Europe.

Hitler-conquering Eastern Europe

 Hitler wanted to conquer Eastern Europe
because he wanted to ensure food supplies and living space for the Germans.
 He attacked Soviet Union in June 1941.
 The Red Army inflicted a humiliating defeat on Germany.
 It was a historic blunder on the part of Germany.
 Her western frontiers were exposed to British aerial bombing and eastern frontier to the soviet army.
 The soviet army established its control over the entire Eastern Europe.

The Destruction of Democracy in Germany

 President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship,(the highest position in the cabinet of ministers)
on 30 January 1933.
 A mysterious fire broke out in German Parliament which facilitated his move.
 The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press and
assembly that had been guaranteed by the Weimar Constitution.
 Communists, who were the enemies of Hitler were sent to the concentration camps.
 On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed
 established a dictatorship in Germany.
 Hitler could rule without the consent of the parliament.
 All political parties and trade unions were banned except the Nazi Party.
 The state took control over the economy, media, army and judiciary.
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Reconstruction of Germany-Hitler
 Economic recovery was assigned to the economist Hjalmar Schacht by Hitler,
 he aimed at full production and full employment through
a state-funded work-creation programme.
 This project produced the famous German superhighways and
 the people’s car, the Volkswagen.
 Hitler ruled out the League of Nations in 1933,
 reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936,
 and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan, One people, One empire and One
leader.
 Hitler chose war as the way out of the approaching economic crisis.
 Resources were to be accumulated through expansion of territory.

Establishment of the Racial State

 Nazis came into power and quickly began to implement their dream of creating an exclusive racial
community of pure Germans.

 They wanted a society of ‘pure and healthy Nordic Aryans’.

 Germany occupied Poland and parts of Russia captured civilians and forced them to work as slave
labour.
 Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany.
 Hitler hated Jews based on pseudoscientific theories of race. From 1933 to 1938,

 the Nazis terrorised, pauperised and segregated the Jews,

 compelling them to leave the country.
 A genocidal war, Killed 6 million Jews, 200,000 Gypsies, 1 million Polish civilians and 70,000
Germans

Genocidal war
 Genocidal war means killing on large scale leading to the destruction of large sections of people.
The following two methods were adopted for the extermination of Jews.
(a) Passing them through gas chambers in various killing centres like Auschwitz, Treblinka
(b) They were kept in ghettos.
o Ghettos were sites of extreme poverty and misery.
o Jews had to surrender all their wealth before they entered the ghetto.
o Soon after, some were brimming with hunger, starvation and disease due to poor hygiene.

Youth in Nazi Germany

 Hitler was interested in the youth of the country.
 Schools were cleansed and purified.
 Germans and Jews were not allowed to sit or play together.
 In the 1940s, Jews were taken to the gas chambers.
 Introduction of racial science to justify Nazi ideas of race.
 Children were taught - hate Jews and worship Hitler.
 At the age of 14, boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation
they were taught to worship war, glorify aggression and violence,
condemn democracy, and hate Jews, communists, Gypsies
 Later, they joined the Labour Service at the age of 18 and
served in the armed forces and entered one of the Nazi organisations.
 In 1922, the Youth League of the Nazis was founded.

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The Nazi Cult of Motherhood
 Boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steel-hearted
 Girls were told to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children.
 Girls had to maintain the purity of the race,
distance themselves from Jews,
look after their homes and teach their children Nazi values.
 But all mothers were not treated equally.
 Honours Crosses were awarded to those who encouraged women to produce more children.
Bronze cross for four children,
silver for six and
gold for eight or more.
 Women who maintained contact with Jews, Poles and Russians were paraded through the
town with shaved heads,
blackened faces and
placards hanging around their necks announcing, ‘I have sullied the honour of the nation’.

Knowledge about the Holocaust

• After the Second World War ended, Germany was defeated
• The world came to realise the horrors of what had happened.
• The Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the
Nazi killing operations – also called the Holocaust.
• The documents can be seen in many ghetto and camp inhabitants who wrote diaries, kept
notebooks, and created archives.

• But, after the war Nazi leadership distributed petrol to destroy all evidence available in offices.
• Holocaust live on in memoirs, fiction, documentaries, poetry, memorials and museums in many
parts of the world today.

Prepared by Shyam Mohan

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