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THE INTERWAR YEARS (1919-1938)
1
...
The European nations that had fought in the Great War emerged
economically and socially crippled
...
Germany especially
was destroyed economically by World War I and its aftermath: the reparations to Britain and France
forced on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles were impossibly high
...

However, the League never grew strong enough to make a significant impact on politics, and the
goals of deterrence of war and disarmament were left unaccomplished
...
There were very few moderates, and this situation kept the governments of Britain, France,
and Eastern Europe in constant turmoil, swinging wildly between one extreme and the next
...

The extremist nature of these disparate ideologies turned European politics into an arena for sharp
conflict, erupting in Spain during the late 1930s in the form of the Spanish Civil War, after which
Francisco Franco became dictator
...
With Britain and France tied up
in their own affairs, the path to World War II lay clear
...
Context:
The inter-war years refer to the pivotal 20 years that fell between the end of theFirst World War and
the Second World War
...
Ten million were
killed and twice that number wounded in what has been dubbed the first modern war
...
During the Great War, the French averaged a death each minute
...

In addition to the toll taken on European life, both the victorious Allies and the defeated Central
Powers were saddled with enormous national debts, which contributed to the financial insecurity
that was to plague all of Europe during the inter-war period
...
Soldiers of both sides returned home to this devastation
and found only rampant unemployment and despair
...

The diplomatic results of the First World War greatly determined the nature of European affairs
during the inter-war years
...
These new states were in
many cases not economically viable, due to the destruction of the war, and past reliance on the
economies of the empires
...

Moreover, the rise of radical political groups meant a wider spectrum of political ideologies
clamoring for acceptance
...
All of this made the task of good government difficult,
if not impossible, throughout Eastern Europe
...

Germany, for its part, was crippled not only by the war, but also by the settlement of the war, in
which it was scapegoated as the conflict's aggressor
...
France, having
suffered the greatest destruction at the hands of the Germans during World War One, was adamant
about keeping Germany weak, and demanded reparations without exception in the years following
the Great War
...
Naturally,
Germans reacted bitterly toward their foreign oppressors and dreamed of a return to the glory of the
German Empire
...
Under the Nazis,
Germany rearmed and began a program of European conquest, which at first was permitted by the
former Allies, in hopes of avoiding a second war
...


3
...

Bloc National - The Bloc National was a coalition of rightist groups in France that came together
in fear of socialist opposition to run the French government during the early years of the inter-war
period
...

Cartel des Gauches - After the French government's embarrassing failure to collect German
reparations even after invading the Ruhr, the Bloc National was replaced by the Cartel des Gauches,
a moderate socialistic coalition elected on May 11, 1924
...

Central Purge Commission - During the 1930s, Joseph Stalin consolidated power in the Soviet
Union by eliminating his opponents
...
In 1933 and 1934,
1,140,000 members were expelled from the party
...

Collectivization - Stalin's agricultural program, collectivization, forced farmers to pool their lands
into government-run farms
...

Dawes Plan - Proposed by the American, Charles Dawes, the Dawes Plan lowered the annual
amount of reparations to be paid by Germany to France and Britain, and loaned Germany a sizable
amount of money so that it could pay on time
...

International Brigades - These groups of leftist volunteers were made up mostly of workers, who
volunteered to aid the Republicans in the Spanish Civil war
...

Kellogg-Briand Pact - Developed in 1928 by United States Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and
French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand to jointly denounce war, the Kellogg-Briand Pact stated
that the singing parties condemned recourse to war, and denounced it as an aspect of policy
...

League of Nations - The League of Nations was established as the body of international
cooperation after World War One, with the deterrence of war and disarmament as its primary goals
...

Livitinov Protocol - The Livitinov Protocol was adopted by the Soviet Union and four other states,
in response to the Kellogg-Briand Pact
...

Locarno Pacts - The Locarno Pacts were a series of treaties signed to assure the stability of
Germany's borders and discourage Germany from lashing out at its neighbors
...

Mein Kampf - The book Hitler wrote while imprisoned from 1923 to 1925, Mein Kampf (My
Struggle) sets forth Hitler's future policies, and expounds upon the inferiority of the Jewish people
to the Aryans
...

Nazi - The Nazi Party, short for the National Socialist German Workers Party, controlled Germany
completely, under Hitler, from 1933 until the end of World War Two
...

Triple Alliance - Made up of the miners, railway workers, and other transport workers in England,
the Triple Alliance was the most organized and powerful labor coalition; it constantly battled the
Conservative government for higher wages, better conditions, and shorter hours
...
However, World War I shattered the old system along with the
empires that had maintained it
...
The Popular Front government was not successful
in maintaining stability, but is notable for its adherence to republican principles and the wide
popular participation in the government it encouraged
...

Considered a failure in foreign affairs, he pursued the failed policy of appeasement in regard to
Adolf Hitler's aggression, signing the Munich Pact
...
Upon his victory in 1939, Franco became an oppressive dictator, a position he
maintained until 1975
...
His exit from government in 1922 signaled
the end of centrism and the beginning of extremis politics in Britain
...
He was not a strong enough ruler to initiate a truly fascist state, but
he was quite powerful, and quite conservative, as well as being openly anti-Semitic
...

Paul von Hindenburg - Hindenburg had the misfortune of serving as the President of Germany
from 1925 to 1934
...

Adolf Hitler - Adolf Hitler was the leader of the fascist Nazi Party that rose up to lead Germany
into the Second World War
...

Benito Mussolini - Mussolini became Italy's premier on October 30, 1922
...
Mussolini
was sympathetic to Hitler's desires for global hegemony, and would join Germany as an ally during
World War Two
...
Though his method of government was
questionable, Pilsudski provided a measure of stability and strength to Polish politics, which
floundered after his death
...
He served
as prime minister from 1922 to 1924, and from 1926 to 1929, providing stability to the otherwise
chaotic French government
...
He
established a totalitarian state in the Soviet Union, consolidating power and purging the party of his
enemies during the 1930s, while forcing a command economy on the Soviet people
...
'
When Stalin came to power, Trotsky was expelled from the party and fled the Soviet Union
...

Events
Beer Hall Putsch - On November 9, 1923, Hitler and World War I hero General Ludendorf
attempted a small, and somewhat comic revolution known as the Beer Hall Putsch
...
He and
Ludendorf led their supporters into the street, and were promptly arrested
...

Guernica - During the Spanish Civil War, on April 25, 1937, the small northern town of Guernica
was bombed by the Nationalists, and civilians were gunned down as they fled the scene
...
While the casualty figures pale in comparison to later numbers, Guernica was crucial in
crushing the spirit of the Republicans and convincing many that to resist the Nationalists was to
open the doors to bloodbath
...
The Conference resulted in a naval armaments treaty that set a ratio for tonnage of capital
ships (over 10,000 tons, with guns bigger than eight inches) for Great Britain, the US, Japan,
France, and Italy
...
67:1
...
The Washington
Conference and the subsequent London Naval Conference of 1930 produced the only successful
armaments agreements of the inter-war years
...
Timeline:
June 28, 1919: The treaty of Versailles is Signed The Treaty of Versailles endsWorld War One and
imposes heavy reparations payments on Germany
...
The US is notably absent, the Senate
having voted against joining the League in November 1919
...
The Conference results in a naval armaments treaty that sets a ratio for tonnage of capital
ships (over 10,000 tons, with guns bigger than eight inches) for Great Britain, the US, Japan,
France, and Italy
...
67:1
...

October 30, 1922: Benito Mussolini is Made Italian Premier King Victor Emmanuel declares
Mussolini premier in an attempt to head off violent conflict between the Fascists and the
Communists
...

January 21, 1924: Vladimir Lenin Dies Lenin's death leaves some question as to who will be his
successor
...

May 11, 1924: The Cartel des Gauches wins the French Election The Cartel displaces the ruling
Bloc National, in a marked victory for the left, but proves unable to govern effectively
...

December 1, 1925: The Locarno Pacts are Signed The Locarno Pacts are signed in efforts to
stabilize relations with Germany and its neighbors
...

1926: Joseph Pilsudski Becomes Virtual Dictator in Poland Pilsudski maintains this position until
his death in May 1935
March 1926: The Samuel Commission in England Releases Its Report on Coal Mining The Samuel
Commission, under the Conservative government, releases a report which advises wage cuts for
miners
...

April 14, 1931: The Spanish Monarchy is Overthrown and The Republic Is BornA provisional
government is established to take Spain from monarchy to republicanism
...

February - July 1932: The final League of Nations Disarmament Conference is Held The last major

League of Nations-sponsored disarmament conference meets from February to July 1932 at
Geneva, with 60 nations in attendance, including the United States
...

1933 - 1934: 1,140,000 Communist Party Members are Expelled by StalinStalin's Central Purge
Commission, created in 1933, publicly investigates and tries many party members for treason as
Stalin seeks to rid the party of oppositon
...

March 23, 1933: The German Reichstag Passes the Enabling Act The Enabling Act gives Hitler the
power to issue decrees with the status of law
...

July 17, 1936: The Spanish Nationalists Begin the Spanish Civil War Generals Goded, Mola, and
Francisco Franco lead troops in rebellion against the republic, sparking the Spanish Civil War
...
In this brutal massacre 1500 die and
800 are wounded, but the military targets in the town remain intact
...

March 30, 1939: The Spanish Civil War Ends Madrid falls to Francisco Franco's forces, effectively
ending the Spanish Civil War
...

September 3, 1939: Britain and France Declare War on Germany In response to Hitler's continued
aggression in Eastern Europe, Britain and France go to war with Germany in an attempt to stop
Hitler's bid for global hegemony
...
Economics During the Inter-War Years (1919-1938):
Summary
During World War I, some 10 million Europeans were killed, about 7 million were permanently
disabled, and 15 million seriously wounded, mostly young men of working age and middle class
backgrounds
...
Living conditions declined dramatically at the
close of the war, the infant mortality rate skyrocketed, and life was quite difficult for Europeans of
the period
...
The
war's prosecution had cost the nations of Europe six and one-half times as much as the total national
debt of the entire world during the years from 1800 to 1914
...
But the Central
Powers were punished severely by the war's concluding treaties
...
The Treaty of
Versailles imposed reparations payments which were generally considered intolerable and
impossible
...
Inflation hit all of Europe in the first years after the war, as pent up
demand was released and production fell off due to a shortage of raw materials
...
A sharp depression in 1920 and 1921 corrected prices to some extent
...
Germany pleaded with Britain and France for a moratorium on reparations
payments, but France would not agree, and in fact, sent troops into the Ruhr in 1923, when
Germany defaulted on its payments
...
Under this plan the total sum owed by Germany
would remain the same, but the yearly payments were reduced, and Germany was granted a loan
...
As a result, the German
mark began to stabilize, and Germany was able to pay on time for a short while
...
They ended the war deeply
indebted to the United States
...

From 1925 to 1929, Europe entered a period of relative prosperity and stability
...
During this
time, world trade increased and speculative investment increased as the result of better economic
times
...

Germany continued to struggle with reparations payments, and in 1930, the Young Plan replaced the
Dawes Plan, lowering annual payments yet again, but to no avail
...
As
the Great Depression that had struck the United States in 1929 began to set in throughout Europe in
the early 30s, banks began to collapse
...
Despite efforts to stabilize world prices and European employment, Europe remained mired
in depression until the outbreak of World War II
...
As a result, the money supply increased without any regard to the actual gold and
silver reserves of the European nations
...
However, many
analysts argue that strict government policies, implemented at the correct times, could have kept
this inflation in check
...
The widespread borrowing of money to make debt
payments only served to worsen the situation
...

Germany was no exception to this rule
...
Between 1924 and 1929, Germany
borrowed 28 billion marks, and paid some 10 million in reparations
...
When the depression
did hit, it was magnified in Germany by this overwhelming dependence on short-term capital
...
The United States feared the depreciation and collapse of foreign
currencies, so demanded payment in dollars and gold, a situation which put a great deal of pressure
on European treasuries
...
American financial experts favored
massive international loans as a means of increasing American exports, increasing employment, and

strengthening the already mighty dollar
...

This period of outward prosperity belied the problems beneath
...
Currencies responded to speculation during the period of
prosperity, rather than to realistic economic indicators
...
All of this meant that the situation was
primed for a sharp correction
...


6
...
The
League was to be centered in Geneva, Switzerland, a neutral location
...
The
League of Nations first met in November 1920
...
Notably absent were German, Russia, and the United States
...
Russia, now the
Soviet Union, was not invited to join the League due to the radical policies of the new communist
government
...
In November 1919,
the US Senate voted against accepting membership to the League, and the nation never joined
...
The Assembly met annually, and consisted of a delegation from each member nation
...
The Council was composed of four permanent members and four
nonpermanent members, serving as a sort of cabinet, with some executive powers
...
The Secretariat was the League's civil service, preparing the agenda for the
Assembly and the Council, serving a clerical purpose, and preparing documents for publication
...
During the early 1920s, the League made
two attempts to outline a mechanism by which international conflicts could be contained and
resolved
...
The Treaty of Mutual Assistance, the first of these two efforts, was drafted in 1923
...
The treaty failed, due to consensus that deciding which side of a conflict
was the aggressor was far too difficult to do in just four days and without any concrete guidelines
...
In 1925, the League tried once again to outline a mechanism for the
containment of war
...
Any nation unwilling to submit to the League's arbitration would be
declared the aggressor
...


Commentary
The League of Nations was at first heralded as the bastion of a new system of international relations
in Europe
...
Under the Westphalian system the elites of government often met in secret to
determine the fate of Europe and the world
...
American participation in the war was a major step toward a shift in
the balance of world power, and the beginning of the end for European dominance
...
The secretive nature of the
Westphalian system had led to petty resentments, the pursuit of narrow self-interest, and the
division of Europe into warring camps
...
The League was seen as a way to institutionalize these goals and strive for peace as a
collective world community
...
Membership was determined by the acceptance of the Covenant of the League, which stated
the goals and philosophy upon which it was founded
...
This contradiction foreshadowed similar crises
of ideology in the future for the League
...
' It also marked the beginning of a period of US isolationism, which kept the US
effectively out of European political affairs for the majority of the inter-war period
...
However, the League could not come
to a decision on how best to do this, without infringing on the sovereignty of the member countries,
as would have been the case if the Treaty of Mutual Assistance or the Geneva Protocol had been
passed
...
The League of Nations thus
exercised only limited powers, and did so clumsily
...
Despite these
shortcomings, the League of Nations did accomplish some of its unification and pacification goals,
and perhaps most importantly, set the stage for the United Nations, which would take its place after
World War II
...
Attempts at Reconciliation and Disarmament (1921-1930):
Summary
Though the League of Nations failed to pass any broad measures to achieve a lasting peace, the
former Allies and Germany were reconciled on December 1, 1925 with the signing of the Locarno
Pacts
...
They
included guarantees on the French-German and Belgian-German borders, signed by those three
nations and with Britain and Italy acting as guarantors, promising to provide military assistance to
the victim of any violation of peace along those borders
...
Additionally, French-Polish and French-Czechoslovakian mutual

assistance treaties were signed in case of German aggression
...
In this arena it fared little better
than it had in the latter
...
Article III of the Covenant of
the League called for "reduction of armaments to the lowest point consistent with national safety
...
The United States convened the Washington Conference, attended by Britain,
France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, Japan, and Portugal
...
The ratio agreed upon,
in that order, was 5:5:3:1
...
67
...
The
commission met first in 1926, and a number of times subsequently, all without success
...
The League's
inability to promote disarmament led United States Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French
Foreign Minister Aristide Briand to jointly denounce war in the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, which
stated that the signing parties condemned recourse to war, and denounced it as an aspect of policy
...
Some nations signed while
claiming exceptions for self-defense and such
...

The last major League of Nations-sponsored disarmament conference met from February to July
1932 at Geneva, with 60 nations in attendance, including the United States
...

Commentary
The treaties of the Locarno Pacts were the major part of France's efforts to surround Germany with
French allies and discourage German aggression
...
The frequently referred
to 'spirit of Locarno' had a positive psychological effect throughout Europe and many believed a
lasting peace would grow from that root
...
Power politics had outdone the League in its efforts to promote
peace, and the Locarno Pacts demonstrated definitively that the major European powers were not
interested in handing authority over to the League
...
The Washington Conference and the subsequent London Naval Conference
of 1930 produced the only successful armaments agreements of the inter-war years
...
One fact that emerged clearly from the two conferences was that
the United States, though it generally stayed out of European affairss during this era, lent great
prestige to any affair in which it involved itself, and as an organizing unit commanded far more
respect from the economically and politically distressed states of Europe than did the League of
Nations, which was in effect, a weak coalition of these distressed states
...
Britain was willing to support the vast reduction of land forces to a minimal level
...
France had no qualms about supporting drastic naval cuts, but Britain, an island
nation, depended upon the navy for security, and refused to decrease naval strength
...
It took power politics and
the presence of the United States to forge the little compromise that was reached
...
The Soviet Union, not to be outdone, quickly adopted its own Eastern peace treaty, the
Livitinov Protocol, which was signed by the Soviet Union and four other states
...


8
...
In 1917,
Vladimir Lenin seized power in the Russian Revolution, establishing a single-party dictatorship
under the Bolsheviks
...
The obvious choice, to many, was Leon Trotsky, who had headed the
Military Revolutionary Committee that had carried out the Bolshevik Revolution
...

Trotsky's main competition for power was Joseph Stalin
...
He served under Lenin as commissar for
nationalities, and in 1923 became general secretary of the party
...
However, Stalin's
position as general secretary allowed him to manipulate the party structure and place his supporters
in crucial positions throughout the party, ultimately insuring his victory
...
Trotsky
advocated 'permanent world revolution,' claiming that the Soviet Union should strive continuously
to encourage proletarian revolutions throughout the world
...
This rift, combined with Stalin's rise to power as party leader, sealed
Trotsky's fate
...
He fled to Turkey, and eventually to Mexico, where he was killed in 1940 by a
Stalinist agent
...
In 1928 he
abandoned Lenin's economic policy and installed a system of central planning, which dictated
everything from where factories should be built to how farmers should plant their crops
...
Simultaneously, Stalin
introduced a policy of collectivization, under which were created governmentally owned and
operated farms in which peasants pooled their lands
...
Stalin would accept no resistance, and initiated a reign of terror
during 1929 and 1930, during which as many as 3 million were killed
...

In 1933, he created the Central Purge Commission, which publicly investigated and tried members
of the Communist Party for treason
...
Between 1933 and 1938, thousands were arrested and expelled, or shot, including about 25
percent of the army officer corps
...
Many
longstanding and prominent party members were tried
...

Commentary
Historians disagree over whether or not totalitarianism is an inherent aspect of Marxist-Leninist
theory, or whether Joseph Stalin, as many claim, deviated from the true tenets of Marxism-Leninism
in constructing his government
...
Whether or not there was an aspect of
totalitarianism inherent in Lenin's philosophy, he never consolidated power to the same extent as
Stalin did
...

Despite these misgivings, Lenin's rule no doubt set the stage for Stalin's complete totalitarianism
...
The party controlled the police
(official and secret), the army, and the bureaucracy
...

Lenin had some sense that this might happen, and expressed his doubts in his 'political testament
...
However, Lenin expressed
doubts about Stalin, fearing he would abuse the power concentrated in his hands
...

The success of Stalin's 'communism in one country' philosophy was both the result of, and a cause
for, the spirit of nationalism, which was prominent in many of the nations of Europe following the
First World War
...
Though Stalin would have been hard-pressed to convince the Soviet people that
he could lead communism in the eradication of all of the problems of the world, he did a fair job of
convincing them that under his leadership, communism could address the problems of his country,
which when it had grown in strength, could then effect global change
...
This nationalism
translated easily into many facets of totalitarianism, including the elimination of dissent, the
demand for uniformity, and the destruction of individualism as the individual was overshadowed by
the united nation
...
Industrialization proved to be a somewhat
effective policy, though it proceeded along a different path and schedule than Stalin had planned
...
However, agricultural policies never achieved the goal of selfsufficiency, and the Soviet Union continued to import crops and heavily subsidize agriculture
...
However, Stalin's main
focus during the 1930s was consolidating power and eliminating rivals, two tasks at which he
proved greatly successful
...
Eastern Europe During the Inter-War Years (1919-1938):
Summary
The nations of Eastern Europe, which were dominated to a large extent by the major powers
before World War I, found themselves in a period of unprecedented self-determination between the
wars
...
All
of these states had formerly been dominated by Germany to the west and Russia to the east
...
Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania all struggled with democracy, and became ruled by dictatorships
...

Poland, similarly freed from domination, established a democratic government in 1922, but due to
social and economic distress, Joseph Pilsudski took power as virtual dictator in 1926
...

However, uncertainty about this constitution grew, culminating in May 1935, when Pilsudski died
...
The Camp of National Unity (OZN) took control in 1937, a mass
organization based on the principles of nationalism, social justice, and organization
...
Eventually
however, the balance collapsed, and Poland fell prey to both nations in World War II
...
Hungary had been tied to
Austria since before World War One, due to the fact that the Hapsburg Emperor of Austria had also
ruled as the King of Hungary
...
In January 1920, a National Constituent Assembly was elected to determine the
future of Hungarian government
...
In 1932, General Gyula Gombos came to power as prime
minister, an office he used as a dictatorship
...
Gombos set the tone for a string of conservative prime ministers who practiced open antiSemitism, and eventually cooperated with Germany in its efforts at European domination
...
The chief
beneficiaries of the land cession were Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia
...
On October 18, 1918, Czechoslovakia declared its
independence from Hungary and established the National Assembly in Prague
...
Despite a
number of rough patches, the parties within the Czechoslovakian government demonstrated marked
unity, and between 1922 and 1929 proceeded in relative stability, ruled by Antonin Svehla, whose
rule was broken up into several long stints
...
Despite
efforts to enlist the support of France and the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia was not able to fend off
German expansionism, and on September 18, 1938, under the Munich Pact, Britain and France
officially recognized German Control of the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland
...
The primary reason for turmoil was the organization
of newly defined geographic regions under newly formed governments that were unaccustomed to
deciding their own fate
...
These independent nations all tried democracy, hailed as the best system
by which to introduce the principle of national self- determination to a fledgling nation
...

The general public had no experience with democracy, and thus was ignorant of the structures and
philosophy that supported a democratic government
...
Additionally, the politicians of Eastern Europe
had been handed their orders from the governments that had dominated them
...
Some proceeded
tentatively, afraid that a wrong move would put them out of favor with the population or lead the
government down a dangerous path
...
This allowed others to usurp and abuse power, forming oppressive,
fascistic dictatorships
...
To many it
seemed that fascism was the only solution to the problem of an aimlessly drifting government
...
Over the centuries, Eastern Europe had become a region populated by various and sundry
ethnicities, some concentrated in small areas, others spread throughout large tracts
...
However, the interaction of politics and
longstanding beliefs and resentments with the reorganizing process meant that these borders were
often drawn without regard for the consequences
...
In the newly drawn state, only 65 percent of the inhabitants were Czechs or Slovaks, two
groups that had bonded together more out of necessity than mutual affection
...
Both of these groups resented being lumped together with the majority groups,
and maintained close ties to their original nations
...
There was no spirit of cooperation, making effective
democracy nearly difficult, and eventually, resistance to German aggression impossible
...
Italian Fascism during the Inter-War Years (1919-1938):
Summary
In 1915, the French, British, and Russians had promised territory to Italy in exchange for joining the
Allied cause
...
Under this widely accepted philosophy, the Allies
could not grant Italy the territory it had been promised because it was not theirs to give, since most
of the territory promised to Italy was populated by non-Italians
...
The Italian people
naturally turned against Orlando's government, as well as the returning veterans, and both were
widely despised
...

Like the other warring nations, Italy had borrowed extensively to finance its war effort
...
To make matters worse, the democratically elected Chamber of Deputies, Italy's primary
governing body, was unpaid, and thus prone to corruption and bribery
...
The Fascist Party, composed largely of war veterans, was vehemently anti-communist, and
advocated the glorification of war, which they claimed displayed the nobility of the Italian soul
...

In the elections of May 1921, 35 fascists, including Mussolini, were elected to the Chamber of
Deputies, representing about 250,000 official party members drawn mostly from the lower middle
class
...
Fascist 'black shirts' and communist 'red shirts' were often seen brawling in the
streets
...
The Communists also possessed their own army, and the king
feared open violence
...

Mussolini used his private army, now turned into a militia, to purge local governments of any
opposition to fascism
...
" Under this doctrine he ruled Italy with a tight fist during the war
years, instituting economic and social reforms, some successful, others unsuccessful
...

Commentary
Democracy as an institution was unstable and novel to the Italians, with universal male suffrage
only having been granted in 1912
...
Mussolini's strength lay in his ability to
harness the anger and disillusionment of the returning soldiers and the lower middle class
...
Moreover, they
were not thanked for their sacrifices but jeered as the cause of Italy's hard times
...
Under their rule, conditions only worsened, and in many
instances it seemed like they were doing nothing as Italy collapsed
...

Rather than preaching liberalism and newly emerging liberal values, the Fascists offered a return to
traditional politics and traditional values, promising to undo the changes made by the liberals and
lift poor, crippled Italy to a position of glory once more
...
To many, it did not matter what exactly the Fascists did, but only that they acted, and
acted within the framework of a stable and strong government
...
Born into a lower middle-class family,
Mussolini had watched his father in action as the socialist mayor of his small village
...
At
the age of ten, Mussolini was expelled from boarding school after stabbing another student, an
incident repeated at a second school
...
When he rose to dictatorship, this
bullying became institutionalized as a means of intimidating and silencing his opponents
...


Mussolini's rule as dictator fell nicely into the established totalitarian mold of an omnipotent state
apparatus that controlled thought and suppressed dissent, demanding obedience and uniformity
...

Though Mussolini's means of ascension to power were by no means legal, in the end, he was
granted control of the government by the king himself
...


9
...
David Lloyd
George, the talentedd Liberal prime minister, was permitted to retain his office by the Conservative
majority
...
He often worked behind closed doors
...
Demobilization caused much difficulty in England
...
Long-term military personnel grew angry, and, after a number of demonstrations, the
policy of 'first in, first out' was set to appease the military
...
Workers in the
mining and railway industries were especially adamant, and troops were called in on a number of
occasions
...
Factories owned by
the government were sold off, and soon practically no businesses remained in government hands
...

However, political stability could not be maintained
...
The next years found
the British Conservative Party struggling to prevent power from falling into the hands of the leftist
Labour Party, which in fact controlled the government for a short time in 1924
...
In March 1926, the
Samuel Commission, at the behest of the government, released a report on the coal industry
advocating wage reductions, setting off strikes all over the nation in May
...
However, the spirit of Conservatism remained high
and the government held out
...
Amid this battlle, however, the
Conservative government lost direction and unity, and the Labour Party won the election of 1929
...

The onset of the depression in the early 1930s tore the British Parliament apart, as disagreement
over recovery measures divided the nation
...
The election of 1931 was a marked success for the Conservatives, who emerged with a vast
majority in Parliament
...


Unemployment benefits were cut in 1931, and adjusted again in 1934
...

In the realm of foreign relations, the only major issue was the resurgence of German aggression
...

Chamberlain pursued the failed policy of appeasement in regard to Adolf Hitler's aggression,
signing the Munich Pact
...
He clung to power until his death on
November 9, 1940, when Winston Churchill took over
...
For
centuries, Britain had been widely successful economically and politically, always seemingly a step
ahead of the other nations of the world
...
The nation responded to its
newfound problems by dividing sharply between those who favored the solutions of the far left and
those who favored the solutions of the far right
...
The attitude of the Conservative Party may be seen in the early years
following the war
...

This attitude was constantly challenged and forced to modify itself by the Labour party and Britain's
workers
...
Despite the absence of
broad gains, the Labour party's pressure did push the Conservative government to institute social
programs, and steps were taken early on toward the construction of a social safety net, most notably
with the passage of the Unemployment Insurance Act of 1920
...
The Labour Party again got a chance to govern
between 1929 and 1931, but got little accomplished with a small majority
...
The early
strikes demonstrated that while the spirit of socialism was in the air, the leftists themselves were
hopelessly divided among themselves based upon differing degrees ofleftism, ranging from
moderate socialism to communism, and devoted much of their energy to internecine quarrels
...
By 1929, the leftist forces had combined their strength in a more organized
fashion, and had long abandoned radical socialism and decided to work within the capitalist system
to regulate and control it
...
Such a cautious
government was incapable of tackling the problem of mounting unemployment
...
This statement was followed not long after by the
dissolution of the Labour government, and the beginning of the long years of the depression
...
Chamberlain, who proved throughout his time in office that

international relations were not his forte, agreed to sign the Munich Pact in 1938, granting Hitler the
Czech Sudetenland in an attempt to appease the ambitious dictator
...
Though Chamberlain's policies in office were questionable, he did prove
that he had learned one thing from the interwar years
...


10
...
5 million men in World War I, and had 3
...
After
the war, France faced an increased death rate was up and falling birth rate
...
Steel
production, a good indication of the status of heavy industry, was more than cut in half, and both
agriculture and industry fell into serious decline after the war
...
To pay off bondholders, France was forced to
borrow at extremely high short-term rates
...
The advocates of socialism began to align themselves in protest of government
inaction during the early years of the inter-war period, but the threat from the left was quickly
quashed by a coalition of the petite bourgeoisie and the bureaucracy
...
The Bloc national
was determined not to bow to the needs of the lower classes
...
The left put up only slight, disorganized protest to these decisions
...
When the Germans asked for a
moratorium on payment, and subsequently defaulted on their reparations, Poincare sent 40,000
troops to occupy the Ruhr in Germany
...
Due largely to this failure, the Bloc National was replaced
by the Cartel des Gauches, a moderate socialistic coalition elected on May 11, 1924
...
They
could not agree on how to approach the problem of Germany, and could not make headway on
economic issues
...
In 1928, Poincare decreed that the franc was to be devalued, a bold move
which paid off brilliantly in the short- run
...
After the onset of the depression in the early
1930s, support for extremist groups began to expand
...
The
coming years held much turmoil for the French government, and in the elections of the spring of
1936, the radical leftist Popular Front emerged victorious, and a Jew, Leon Blum, became prime
minister on June 3, 1936
...
Blum proved unable to curtail the rapidly depreciating economy, and a year
after its inception, the Popular Front government fell apart
...
France would need these armaments soon, since it
was not long before France declared war on Germany, on September 3, 1939
...
Its economic problems were not
insurmountable, but the political will was lacking to tackle the fairly major adjustments that did
need to be made, and there was little willingness in French society to adopt new attitudes
commensurate with significant change
...
The challenge from the left was strong enough to bring the petite bourgeoisie into
cahoots with the bureaucracy, but never strong enough to present a real threat during the early years
of the inter-war period
...
Many
traditional socialist sympathizers were concerned that the movement was far to accepting of
communism
...
Finally, with the creation of the Cartel
des Gauches, the socialists presented a workable alliance, in which the communists weren't
powerful enough to threaten the moderate balance
...
Poincare's
decision to occupy the Ruhr was a gesture of frustration that gained nothing for France
...
Germany had not been made to pay, and demonstrably could not be
made to do so
...

When all else failed in France during the first decade of the inter-war period, the government called
on Raymond Poincare
...
Although between 1920 and 1940 the average government in France lasted only seven
months, Poincare was prime minister from 1922 to 1924, and from 1926 to 1929
...
Poincare's stability
was a dramatic contrast to the instability of the 1930s, during which period the appeal of extreme
solutions grew as the problems of the nation became more and more extreme
...
The victory of the Popular front seemingly broke the stalemate between the socialists
and the fascist radicals, putting the socialists in power
...
Workers struck in celebration of the socialist victory, and Blum was
forced to make many concessions in order to persuade them to go back to work
...
They hated him for his socialism, his
intelligence, and for being a Jew
...

It would be a mistake to write the Popular Front off entirely as a failure
...

Under the rightist government, France headed into war, with well-equipped armed forces, but was
politically and psychologically unprepared to withstand the fundamental test of unity and common
purpose that was to come
...
The Spanish Civil War (1931-1939):
Summary
On April 14, 1931 the Spanish monarchy was declared overthrown and a provisional government
took power
...
In the elections of February
1936 the left won a clear majority
...
Generals Goded, Mola, and
Francisco Franco disagreed with the leftist efforts at army reform, and viewed with distaste the
violence and anarchy which reigned in the streets of Spain
...

Mola organized for military action in Pamplona, while Franco traveled to Morocco to lead the
African installment of the Spanish army against the republic
...
The rebels stirred by the Nationalists were easily defeated in many
cities where the loyal Civil Guard was present
...
The Republicans, aided by the Soviet Union, consolidated support for the republic,
and by May 1937 were entrenched in defensive positions in a triangle of cities with the points in
Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona
...
With only limited support from France, and none at all from
Britain, The Spanish Republicans turned to the Soviet Union for support
...

One source of support for the Republicans was the presence of the International Brigades
...
The protagonist of
Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is such an international brigadier
...

On April 25, 1937, the small northern town of Guernica was bombed by the Nationalists, and
civilians were gunned down as they fled the scene
...
As the bloody conflict escalated, the
Republican government fell prey to corruption and faction, and support and organization steadily
waned
...
Catalonia fell
during February, and Valencia and Madrid collapsed by the end of March
...
He imprisoned and many upon coming to power--up to a million
according to some estimates
...
They would wait for 36 years, for Franco remained in power until his death in
1975
...

Nationalist, fascist leadership proved more effective at carrying out the war than the clumsy
democratic government of the Republicans
...
The Nationalists had
no such difficulties
...
Franco's wing of the army was the
most successful of the nationalist forces, and he was a respected and very professional soldier
...
The
command structure of the army had been destroyed by the division of the nation
...

Mussolini had been involved to some extent in Spanish affairs before the revolt, but he knew
nothing of the generals' plans
...
There were 50,000 Italian soldiers in Spain
at the height of their involvement, and hundreds of airplanes were sent, along with tanks and
artillery
...
Germany also made a great
contribution in the form of specialists and instructors
...
The French Popular Front was
sympathetic to the republic, but Leon Blum's hands were tied by conservatives in the government,
who did not want to get involved in a foreign war
...
The British urged the
French not to get involved, and remained detached from the situation themselves
...
Stalin
aided Spain in efforts to strengthen his position against Germany, to appear as the defender of
legitimate government, and to divert attention away from the purge trials in Moscow
...

Added to unbalanced sources of support was the unbalanced zeal of the two contending groups
...
Morale was low throughout the republican forces, while it remained fairly
high in the Nationalist ranks
...
Morally crushed, the
Republicans collapsed in front of the Nationalist effort
...
In military
terms this was far from true
...
Civilians were bombed, but the
destruction in Spain did not compare to the assault unleashed upon all of Europe shortly after
...
Nazi Germany (1919-1938):
Summary
The rise of Nazi Germany was the capstone of the inter-war period, and led to the outbreak
of World War II, shattering the tenuous peace
...
Born in a small town in Austria, Hitler dreamed of being an artist
...
In 1914, Hitler joined the German army, and earned the iron
cross for bravery as a message-carrier
...

In 1920, Hitler seized control in the German Workers Party, changing its name to the National
Socialist German Workers Party, called the Nazi Party for short
...

Hitler had jumped onto a beer hall table and proclaimed the current Weimar government
overthrown
...

Hitler spent two years in prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which outlined his
future policies, centered on the theory of Aryan superiority and Jewish inferiority
...
Such advancement was slow in coming through the years 1925 to 1929, a fairly stable period
in Europe
...
In 1932
the Nazis won 37
...

There was little stability in the German government at this time, and seeking a solution to this
instability, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on January 30, 1933
...

On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building burned down and a retarded Dutch boy claiming he
worked for the communists was arrested for arson
...
Hitler systematically took control of all of the state governments this way
...
A
...
Even so, the Nazis
only won 43
...
To gain a two-thirds majority Hitler formed an alliance
with the Nationalist party, and declared the communist party illegal
...
When Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler fused
the positions of chancellor and president into one office: 'Der Fuhrer
...

Hitler constructed the Third Reich under his dictatorship, using the Gestapo, the secret police, to
stifle all dissent
...
The government oversaw all functions of the economy
...
Curricula and textbooks were rewritten to reflect Nazi ideology, and all movies,
newspapers, radio, and art were regulated by the vigilant Ministry of Propaganda, under Joseph
Goebbels
...
The persecution of the Jews was a major step in Hitler's plan to conquer all of Europe for
the Aryan race, a plan that resulted in the outbreak of World War II
...
The first
focuses on the evil genius of Hitler himself
...
A skilled manipulator, he played the
masses, the government, and the media perfectly, creating a party that reached into every aspect of
German life
...
Germans were deeply ashamed of their loss in World War One, and the
German state was devastated by the war and the Treaty of Versailles, which mandated vast
reparations payments
...

The German people, with a history of anti-Semitism, found it much easier to blame the defeat on
the Jews and socialists than themselves
...
The German state had a long
tradition of authoritarian government, and many Germans associated the liberalization of that
government with the outbreak of war, and more importantly, the devastation of the post-war period
...
Hitler offered not freedom, but
rather security
...

Hitler's political program was a vague collection of promises that led each societal group to believe
it would be the primary beneficiary of the Nazi government
...
These promises addressed the most important reason
for Hitler's ascent to power: the economic depression that wracked Germany during the inter-war
years
...
Luckily for Hitler, the 1930s brought depression to Germany, and one out of every two
German families was affected by unemployment
...

Hitler's consolidation of power mirrored Benito Mussolini's in many ways, as Hitler manipulated
President Hindenburg into granting him legal dictatorial power, one step at a time, so as to
legitimize the rise of the Third Reich
...

Hitler's government was the ultimate example of totalitarianism
...
Its ideology could be read in pamphlets, or in the newspaper every day
...
During the twelve-year reign of the Third Reich, Germany had one police officer for
every 155 citizens, serving as enforcers of the system of total control
...




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