Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FRANCE
Immediately after WWI the Rightist National Bloc, with Paul
Deschanel as a president, won the elections. Deschanel later
quit after he was found naked and babbling in a public fountain.
Following WWI, France remained a parliamentary democracy
known as the Third Republic (1870 -German invasion in 1940)
(La Troisieme Republique).
USA
Between 1920s and 1930s the United States was already a
democracy but different from the rest of democracies from the
European democracies of that period. There was a two-party
predominance BETWEEEN THE REPUBLICANS AND THE
DEMOCRATS.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: supported the capitalist system
and free markets. The opposed government intervention
in the economy. Republicans generally represented the
interests of the wealthier Americans.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: as well as the Republican party
they supported capitalism, although they were more
sympathetic to government intervention in the economy.
Democrats represented the interests of the middle and
working class.
In October 2nd 1919 Wilson (PRESIDENT) suffered a cerebrovascular
accident which disabled him, so he couldnt develop his presidential
office, but his vice president Thomas R. Marshall did not use the law in
force to achieve power, so Wilson was president until elections in
1921.
After 1921 Wilson continued to be an important character in American
politics, considered as the president who decided the victory of the
Triple Entente over the Central Powers in World War I. Moreover
Wilson was the key driver and promoter of the League of Nations.
(In February 3rd 1924 Wilson died in Washington D.C. )
In other countries authoritarian dictatorships were stablished. SOVIET
UNION AND GERMANY-- became totalitarian regimes
SOVIET UNION
The Soviet Union was the first totalitarian state to establish
itself after World War One. In 1917, Vladimir Lenin seized power
in the Russian Revolution, establishing a single-party
dictatorship under the Bolsheviks.
Lenin died on January 21, 1924, with no clear path of
succession. The obvious choice, to many, was Leon Trotsky, who
had headed the Military Revolutionary Committee that had
carried out the Bolshevik Revolution. He was considered to be
the Communist Party's foremost Marxist theorist, but was also
considered reserved by many party members.
SPAIN
-With the support of King Alfonso XIII and the army of Primo de
Rivera led a military coup in September 1923. He was appointed
Prime Minister by the King. He promised to eliminate corruption
and to regenerate Spain. In order to do this he suspended the
constitution, established military law, imposed a strict system of
censorship, and ended the turno system of alternating parties.
He was forced to resign in January 1930 because he lost the
support of the army and the rich people as he increased taxes to
them.
-The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on April 14, 1931,
during the economic crisis followed by the Wall Street Crash in
1929. The Republic ended with the victory of General Franco in the
Spanish civil war.
-The Spanish Civil was a war that lasted from 1936 to 1939.
The Republicans, who were loyal to the democratic Spanish
Republic, fought againts the Nationalists, a rebel group led by
General Francisco Franco. The Nationalists won, and Franco ruled
Spain for the next 36 years, from 1939 until his death in 1975.This
victory marked the beginning of a forty-year dictatorship in Spain.
MATERIAL DESTRUCTION:
The fighting destroyed cities, factories, farmland and
infrastructures such as bridges, roads and ports. The
material losses did great damage to the European
economy. The war produced millions of deaths so as a
consequence of this population decreased and the
work-force was reduced.
END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR:
As the conflict ended there was no need to produce
military equipment and supplies so the war economy
plummet.
SHORTAGE OF GOODS:
As the commercial trade decreased because of the end
of the war, there were not enough supplies for
customers so prices increased sharply.
http://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties
The US started the 20th century as a country with enormous
potential, and finished the century as the world's only superpower. Yet
there are two ways of looking at this powerful nation in the 1920s - as
a wealthy country with a high standard of living, big cars and large
houses, or as a country with many people living in poverty and some
enduring terrible racism.
THE 1920S WAS AN AGE OF DRAMATIC SOCIAL AND POLITICAL
CHANGE.
Although the USA did not enter the First World War until April 1917,
there was a brief economic recession at the start of the 1920s, but, as
the decade moved on, the economy boomed and America began the
age of consumerism.
The nations total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929,
and this economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but
unfamiliar consumer society. People from coast to coast bought the
same goods (thanks to nationwide advertising and the spread of chain
stores). For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on
farms. Major cities such as New York and Chicago grew rapidly and
the building of skyscrapers like the Empire State Building, which was
completed in 1931, seemed to show the self-confidence of American
society.
At the same time, many Americans wanted to enjoy themselves as
much as they could by perhaps listening to the new jazz music, or
doing the new dances such as the Charleston and the black bottom.
The emphasis on having fun and spending money has led to the
1920s being called the Roaring Twenties.
The Roaring Twenties were characterised by:
-new forms of entertainment
-increased consumption
-rapid growth in financial investments
The United States and Japan were the first countries to recover from
the crisis, since they had not been devastated by the war. The US also
helped European countries by giving them loans and selling them the
consumer goods that they lacked.
WOMAN THE NEW WOMAN
In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of
a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage
MUSIC:
The 1920s was the decade that marked the beginning of the
modern music era. During the Roaring Twenties, music in
particular underwent drastic changes that accurately
represented the cultural evolution that was occurring during
that decade of the twenties. This fundamental period of
American music resulted in many important changes in song
form, dance music, popular taste, and production that still have
a resounding effect on music to this day. These changes in the
music business began with the new technologies such as radio,
phonographs, and advances in recording technology. Also, the
inventions of the radio and phonograph made music in general
much more accessible.
Until World War I, the biggest influence on dance music was
ragtime. However, during the jazz age, this next stage of
musical development , can be considered the African
Americanization of dance music. African Americans were
having a strong influence on the musical tastes of white
Americans and were developing their own sound which
appealed to both races.
JAZZ
Jazz music began in the early 1900s within the black community in
New Orleans. It was a new type of music that combined European
and African styles. Jazz music reached the mainstream in the
1920s when Southern African American musicians began moving
up to Chicago looking for work. The Twenties are often called the
Jazz Age as the popularization of Jazz music had an enormous
cultural effect. Jazz heavily influenced dance music in the late
1920s.
Famous jazz performers and singers from the 1920s include Louis
Armstrong, Duke Ellington
time. The most famous and recognizable dance from the twenties was
the Charleston.
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/20smusic.html
BLUES
The first popular blues music began appearing in the late 1900s
and early 1910s. Blues music is characterized by repeating chords
and 1920s blues focused on a twelve bar structure. Songs would
often talked about the singers personal troubles and the daily
racial. During the Twenties, blues was almost exclusively played by
black musicians and was only popular within the black community.
One of the most important blues singers of the decade was Mamie
Smith.
BROADWAY
Prior to the creation of talking films, musicals were often originated
in the theatrical Broadway area of New York City. Broadway
became a place where talented performers, composers, writers,
and musicians gathered to create new art together. It came into its
own during the 1920s and was a place where creativity and
decadence predominated. Composers like George and Ira
Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin developed in their creation
of musical theater.
CINEMA:
A new film industry developed, with famous Hollywood stars such as
Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin emerging.
Actors/actresses
1. Charles Chaplin
2. Greta Garbo
3. 3.Douglas Fairbanks
4. Bebe Daniels
FILMS:
o Underworld (1927). is a 1927 crime film directed by Josef von
Sternberg.-
INVESTMENTS:
People speculated, buying shares and making large profits over short
periods of time.
ART:
The most important styles which emerged in the inter-war years
were:
- New objectivity
-Surrealism.
-Fluxus:
-Harlem Renaissance:
Cultural Events:
Key People:
GREAT DEPRESION
During the 1920s, the economy of the United States was booming. It was
the largest and richest economy in the world. People made fortunes by
buying stocks and shares on the United States' stockmarket. Many
borrowed money so that they could invest.
The problems that led to the crisis in the United States were: CAUSES: