During the 1800's Europe had been the cultural, military, political, and the financial center of the world. Political Liberalism and parliamentary institutions was prosperous. After World War I the world faced economic disasters.
In the years following the First World War, a new era of democracy seemed to be unfolding and it was looked promising. The autocratic regimes in Russia, Germany and Austria, were all overthrown and replaced by republics. The seven new states in Europe all had a republican form of government. Democracy seemed to be doing good in the post-war world.
European economy was in a desperate situation. They had to borrow money to cover the cost of the war. Their debt needed to be paid and they didn't have any money. So the British borrowed from the United States.
Two decades following World War I, many democratic countries in Europe were taken over by some kind of dictatorship. Russia became a Communist state. Italy and Germany became Fascist states. Of the powers in Europe, only Britain and France remained democratic. Actually the First World War brought some negative effects to Europe.
Germany and her allies were blamed for the war. The Treaty of Versailles said that they had to pay for the cost of the war. The Treaty of Versailles is what caused World War II. If it had been less harsh on Germany, the Weimar Republic would have been stronger and would not have faced as much economic and social turmoil. Had the treaty been harsher, Germany would not have had the power to make war.
In order for Germany to pay the debt that they owed they kept changing the value of their currency. This action caused inflation. The Bourgeoisie was suffering greatly from inflation as well. Infla...
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...ler passed a series of laws against the Jews. It constrained their rights. They became non-citizens, and had to give up their passports, and were given new ones that were stamped labeling them. Their businesses, homes, and their private belongings were taken away from them. In 1941, an order was made to annihilate all the Jews, it stated, "All Jews without exception are to be destroyed."
In today's society if there was another depression like in the 1920's, and 1930's, it would take a lot for this world to turn to fascism. We have seen what happened in the past, and I don't think that anyone would want to repeat it. There would have to be a lot of hunger, and loss of jobs. The only ways fascism could happen is if there was nowhere else to turn. With the world today I think we have many options to choose from before we will ever have to face fascism again.
These were pivotal times in the annals of world history in the 20th century. Mussolini and Hitler’s rise to power was clearly a threat to the freedoms of the United States and its Allies. Through God’s grace and omnipotence, the US alliance, industrialization and intellectual might, we had the resources required to overcome the fierce and mighty threat of Fascism in the Free World.
To keep with the “true neutrality” the United States initially refused to aid either side with supplies or economic assistance. Once the battles became entrenched and a “war of attrition” began, the European nations continued to look toward the United States for aid. As American financial institutions and exporters sought guidance from Wilson’s administration they received a different answer: “short term loans and credits by American financial institutions to belligerents in connection with trade were acceptable” (Zieger, 11). Americans could not over look the potential economic boost that could be achieved by supplying the European nations with food, supplies and weapons orders being requested.
There is no excuse for the horrible things Nazi Germany did during World War II. But one can get a better idea how that war started by learning about how World War I ended. The Treaty of Versailles was created by the winners of World War I, like France, Great Britain, and the United States, to make peace. So how did it help contribute to an even worse war less than twenty years later? It was mainly because it was too hard on Germany’s territory, military, economy, and national pride.
Wars tear countries apart. During wartime, laws are often not followed as they should be and the legal system becomes lax. The military of a country may abuse the power of martial law granted to them during war. Laws may be created on the spot to serve a personal purpose to someone of power and people may be wrongfully punished. All of these things are warning signs that democracy is at risk
The Fear of Socialism and the Rise to Power of the Nazis in Germany between 1919 and 1933
World War Two was the most devastating conflict in the history of humanity. It crippled many nations and caused millions of people to die. One of the major causes of this disastrous war was the Treaty of Versailles which ended the First World War. This treaty was destructive towards the Germans. Germany had to pay large amounts of reparations to the Allied nations at the end of World War One resulting in a Great Depression in Germany. Additionally, the Treaty of Versailles’ war guilt clause forced Germans to admit full responsibility for starting the war. Furthermore, to gain the support of the German populace, Adolf Hitler adopted an effective propaganda campaign. Adolf Hitler employed a successful propaganda campaign to gain the support of the German people combined with the Treaty of Versailles harsh economic and political sanctions ignited World War Two.
on what happened rather than why it did, so it could in a sense put
Fascism is defined as, “an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.” Peter Hyland reports that throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, an economic depression was growing and becoming widespread throughout the world. People were losing faith in their democracies and in capitalism. Leaders who gained power supported powerful militarism, nationalism, and initiated the return of an authoritarian rule. J.R. Oppenheimer says that the rise of fascism and totalitarianism in Europe and Russia instigated a “critical step on the path to war.”
The Treaty of Versailles, initially created to keep peace in Europe and ensure that another war like World War I wouldn’t happen again, had in fact, backfired and spiraled the world down into a deeper, bloodier battle. The treaty discriminated strongly against Germany, with the loss of territories, military restrictions, economic reparations, and the War Guilt Clause. It caused humiliation and anger within Germany, and led to Hitler and the Nazi Party coming to power. World War II was not only started by Adolf Hitler and Germany, but had a lot to do with the humiliation that Germany felt when the terms for the Treaty of Versailles were laid down. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles may be indirectly related to the cause of World War II, but nonetheless was a huge factor in starting the war.
Although in the Treaty of Versailles Germany was to accept full responsibility for World War 1 this in not necessarily the case. Many factors have to be taken into account when considering the cause of World War 1. Germany may have been primarily responsible for the war but the other major powers must accept some of the blame for failing to prevent it. The conflict resulting from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinard should have been local and confined but due to a series of factors, militarism, the alliance system, nationalism, this one incident led to the greatest war Europe had ever seen. As a result of underlying hostilities the assassination led to a chain of events that ensured war on a wide scale.
Fascism may be described as an extreme right-wing movement in the form of a radical authoritarian nationalism. Fascism was first created in Italy by Mussolini in 1922 to 1943. Mussolini implemented force wherever necessary to ensure the continuation of the controlling environment he was trying to perfect. The Italian government was endeavouring to control nearly all aspects of life and had completely thrown the private and public spheres of life out of balance. A fascist state needs a strong leader who can motivate the nation to feel a huge sense of nationalism and thus increase the army’s size, have a nostalgia for the past, show a hatred of communism, no opposition parties or even perhaps create a scapegoat of the opposite party. A fascist state would also require state control over production and major banks to ensure control. In the beginning of 1933 when Adolf Hitler was given the chancellorship he began implementing these fascist ideals into the German society through propaganda speeches, passing legislation that banned certain practices and ignoring the binding clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and rebuilding the army to its former glory. Many historians have argued that the Nazi ruled Germany was a fascist state. This report will show that Nazi Germany was infact a fascist state in regards to women, children and the control of the government.
...13, World War I (1914-1918), the interwar period (1919-1938), World War II (1939-1945), and the post-World War II era (1946-1980). They found a correlation between democracy and peace applicable only to the post-World War II era (Farber and Gowa, 1995).
Finally, the accumulated hatred amongst the people gave birth to the potential for a revolution. The Treaty of Versailles is, therefore, an indirect cause to World War II, because of the alliances it caused, the punishments it enforced, and the hatred it developed. The coalitions brought by the Versailles Treaty contributed greatly to starting WWII. The Treaty was responsible for the formation of the Allies. However, when made, these alliances were based on promises from the superpowers, particularly France.
Fascism is both an outgrowth of and a reaction against nineteenth-century liberalism. Nineteenth-century liberals argued for laissez-faire economics, the equality of men (and it was, explicitly, men), and the universality of human progress and human reason. Underlying all of these ideals was the sanctity of the individual. By the 1920s, though, these liberal ideals were challenged (Paxton 36-41). Laissez-faire economics led to dingy, heartless industrial towns; anthropological research called into question the equality of all people; economic crises threatened to drop the newly emerging middle-class into the proletariat, arguing against progress; and the mass annihilation of human life in the Great War eroded belief in rationality.
... and fascism offered bold new approaches to modern politics. These ideologies maintained that democracy was effeminate and that it wasted precious time in building consensus among citizens. Totalitarian leaders’ military style made representative government and the democratic values of the United States, France, and Great Britain appear feeble- a sign that these societies were on the decline. Totalitarianism put democracies on the defensive as they aimed to restore prosperity while still upholding individual rights and the rule of law”(Hunt & Martin, 852).