Deck 20: Democracy and Dictatorship in the 1930s

Question 1

As a consequence of the Great Depression, during the 1930s people everywhere demanded

A) more individual freedom.
B) more security.
C) more democracy.
D) less authoritarianism.

Answer 1

more security.

Question 2

Roosevelt's New Deal did all of the following except

A) provide jobs for almost 3 million young people.
B) organize conservation and reforestation projects.
C) promote industrial competition.
D) initiate many public works programs.

Answer 2

promote industrial competition.

Question 3

In the New Deal recovery and relief programs, the United States government assumed a role it had

A) never before played.
B) played only in wartime.
C) played before during wartime and depressions.
D) planned for years.

Answer 3

played only in wartime.

Question 4

The British economist John Maynard Keynes became famous during the depression of the 1930s because he

A) argued that if private investment funds were idle, government funds must be employed to encourage
B) argued that the only cure for the Great Depression was socialism.
C) encouraged governments to balance their budgets so that interest rates would go down and private enterprise could borrow more easily.
D) called for huge tax cuts to encourage consumer spending.

Question 5

The National government headed by Labor party leader Ramsay MacDonald (1931-1935) coped with the depression by

A) pursuing a reform program similar to that later adopted by Franklin Roosevelt.
B) greatly expanding the "dole."
C) retrenchment, budget balancing, and low-interest loans to business.
D) terminating imperial trade preferences.

Question 6

According to the 1931 Statute of Westminster, Britain redefined the status of the dominions, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, within the empire so that

A) they were allowed to levy tariffs against British goods.
B) they became legally equal with each other and with Britain.
C) they became legally equal with each other but had to obey the British Parliament in some matters.
D) they had full internal autonomy, although the British continued to manage their foreign affairs.

Question 7

The Popular Front was

A) a Communist-controlled electoral organization.
B) a western European version of the Russian populist movement.
C) a political coalition of the moderate and extreme left designed to stop fascism.
D) a coalition of peasants and other rural voters.

Question 8

The French Popular Front was overthrown because of discontent over all of the following issues _except

A) the difficulty of rearming and reforming labor conditions at the same time.
B) the government's failure to provide continual aid to the Spanish Popular front.
C) the government's demand for emergency financial powers.
D) right-wing riots in Paris.

Question 9

The future Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini

A) was the son of a blacksmith.
B) had been a left-wing socialist before World War I.
C) demanded Italian intervention in the World War I on the side of Britain and France.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 10

The October 1922 "March on Rome" was

A) a violent coup d'état in which Mussolini seized power by force.
B) the convergence on Rome of groups of Blackshirts, while Mussolini remained in Milan.
C) the triumphant procession of an Italian army corps that mutinied and went over to the Fascists.
D) A and C

Question 11

Mussolini became prime minister of Italy in November 1922

A) through a violent coup d'état.
B) after the Fascist party had become the largest in parliament.
C) after the old cabinet resigned and the king named Mussolini premier.
D) B and C

Question 12

In theory, Mussolini introduced the corporative state, which included all of the following features _except

A) dividing all economic life into twenty-two major areas.
B) establishing a "corporation" for each division of economic life.
C) allowing the Fascist syndicates' revolutionary labor unions to expropriate the property of the owners of industry.
D) doing away with the anarchy and class conflict of free capitalism.

Question 13

When the Great Depression struck, Italian Fascism

A) delivered Italy from economic distress
B) turned to a vigorous program of public works and to increasing economic self-sufficiency.
C) revolutionized the position of the peasantry through a nation-wide program of land reclamation.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 14

"Nazi party" is an abbreviation for

A) the Nationalist party.
B) the Greater Germany Nationalist party.
C) the National German Anti-Jewish party.
D) the National Socialist German Workers' party.

Question 15

By the end of the 1920s, the Nazi party had

A) become the largest political party in Germany.
B) lost its appeal and many of its members.
C) been declared illegal and gone underground.
D) steadily increased its strength.

Question 16

Hitler came to power in 1933 for all of the following reasons except

A) no country suffered more than Germany during the Great Depression
B) the steady increase in the Communist vote frightened many people.
C) hatred for the Treaty of Versailles.
D) terrible inflation developed during the 1930s when the government tried to finance public works through deficit spending.

Question 17

In 1933, the burning of the Reichstag, the building that housed the German parliament, was significant _because

A) Hindenburg blamed it on the Nazis and tried to have them outlawed.
B) Hitler blamed it on the Communists, frightening the population just before critical elections.
C) it showed that Germany was on the verge of a leftist revolution.
D) it showed that Nazi terrorism was out of control.

Question 18

In Germany's last relatively free elections in March 1933, the Nazis won

A) a two-thirds majority of the seats in parliament.
B) 90 percent of the vote.
C) less than a majority of the vote.
D) a bare majority.

Question 19

During the 1930s, Hitler's economic policy in Germany was

A) to free private enterprise from all controls.
B) to increase government controls of industry and agriculture.
C) widespread nationalization of industry and of agriculture.
D) total Nazi ownership and control of the economy.

Question 20

Nazi Germany, as well as Fascist Italy, set up the economic goal of autarky, which meant

A) concentrating on building up industry so that manufactured goods could be traded for raw materials.
B) focusing on the production of automobiles.
C) self-sufficiency and absolute independence from foreign trade.
D) giving priority to agricultural production over industrial production.

Question 21

Twentieth century totalitarianism implied all of the following except

A) the absolute subordination of the individual to the state.
B) the government monopolization of all public communication.
C) the acceptance and even glorification of violence.
D) the denial of the importance of the nation.

Question 22

Totalitarianism typically glorified

A) the idea of truth itself.
B) class conflict.
C) democratic politics.
D) violence.

Question 23

What were the causes and consequences of the Great Depression of the 1930s? Could governments have done anything to prevent it?

Question 24

Compare and contrast the anti-Depression policies of the western democracies with the policies of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

Question 25

Explain the circumstances that led to the triumph of Mussolini and Fascism in Italy.

Question 26

Discuss the major political and economic crises in France during the interwar years. Why did France not succumb to a Fascist dictatorship?

Question 27

What are the characteristics of a totalitarian state? How well did Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Stalinist Russia fit the definition of totalitarianism?

Question 28

Define totalitarianism and explain why it emerged after World War I. Was totalitarianism a completely new phenomenon or did it have roots in the 19th century and earlier?

Question 29

What was the New Deal? What was the relationship between the New Deal and the ideas of Keynes?

Question 30

Evaluate the influence of the Popular Front in France.

Question 31

Define the corporative state. How closely did the Fascist corporative state resemble the one found in syndicalist theories?

Question 32

How did Hitler use propaganda to inflame Germans? What ideas and experiences proved useful in Nazi propaganda?

Question 33

In what ways did totalitarianism aspire to resolve class conflict? Was it effective in doing so?

Question 34

How did the Nazis "coordinate" German society?