The Rise and Fall of Empires: From Versailles to Fascism
The Treaty of Versailles
In early 1919, the Allied leaders met in Versailles to agree on a peace treaty. Britain, the USA, and France all attended. Germany was not invited. France, in particular, wanted to punish Germany severely. The USA and Britain were not so sure.
The participants wanted:
- To reorganize Europe.
- To establish the culprits of the war.
- To find a system to maintain peace.
This conference was strongly influenced by the Fourteen Points that Woodrow Wilson, the president of the USA, wrote. Eventually, this is what the Allied Powers decided:
Creation of the League of Nations
A peacekeeping organization based on the initiative of Woodrow Wilson.
Disappearance of the Central European Empires
We have already looked at the emergence of nation-states and nationalism in this unit, but we can also consider the end of WW1 as the beginning of the collapse of empires. Before Versailles, the map shows the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German Empire, and the Russian Empire. Things began to look very different after the war. Wilson’s Fourteen Points included the idea of self-determination: the idea that each different nation of people should have their own sovereign country.
Anyway, the main affected empire was the German Empire.
The Rise of Fascism
The financial crisis had negative consequences in many areas, creating unemployment and social unrest. The political institution was unprepared for these problems, causing instability. Two new references appeared: fascism and communism.
Fascism
Fascism took the most advantage of this political crisis. It started in Italy. Benito Mussolini was a member of the Italian parliament in 1921 under the fascist party. When they threatened to march on Rome, King Victor Emmanuel asked Mussolini to become prime minister.
Something About Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was a member of the Italian parliament in 1921 under the fascist Party. They formed squads to terrorize liberals, anarchists, and communists, and to break up workers’ strikes.
Something About Hitler
Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ party, obtained electoral victory in 1932, just after the Great Depression of 1929 had made the economic situation worse. Hitler promised a New Germany and in 1933 was nominated Chancellor. Within a few months, he had illegalized all other political parties and created concentration camps to imprison the opposition. His ideas, called Nazism, were more or less the same as those of Italian fascism.
The Booming Twenties
The end of WW1: The WW1 was so horrible that people wanted to live in peace and safety.
New technology: Much of the prototype that had been developed during the war was used to develop new technology for domestic markets.
Consumer demand: The industrial development accelerated consumer demand.
American loans to Europe: The 1920s saw billions of dollars loaned by the USA to Europe to help them recover from the effects of the war.
The USA century: The USA was by then the world’s most prosperous country with cheap labor, high wages, and mass production of goods.
The construction of skyscrapers: Many skyscrapers were built in the USA in this period, symbols of the rise of the USA.
Alliances
Triple Entente: France, Great Britain, Russia, Serbia, Portugal, Greece, Romania.
Triple Alliance: Austro-Hungary, Germany, Italy.
Neutral countries: Spain, Norway, Holland, Denmark, Albania, Turkey, Sweden.
Causes of WW1
Alliances: Agreements or promises to defend and help another country.
Imperialism: Trying to build up an empire.
Empire: Where a powerful country controls several less powerful countries.
Militarism: Building up armed forces, getting ready for war.
Nationalism: Having pride in your country, willing to defend it.
Germany wished to build up her empire; this is known as imperialism. Germany also built up her armed forces – known as militarism. As Britain had the most powerful navy, she was worried about other countries building up their armed forces. We could call this a worry about alliances. Germany, Britain, and other countries were keen to have large empires. Countries in Europe were very proud of themselves and would defend their country as well as they could. This is known as nationalism.
Europe was divided into two alliances. These were called the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance. Members of each alliance promised to fight for the other members if they were attacked. It would only take a small incident to spark a war that involved the whole of Europe.
Germany had been trying to build up her navy and her empire. Britain was worried about this. Both countries raced each other to build the best navy. There was tension between the two countries. This cause was militarism.
The area south and southeast of Austro-Hungary was known as the Balkans. This whole area was very unstable. The European alliances had different ideas about how to deal with the problems.
France was keen for revenge on Germany. The French had been defeated in 1871 and wanted their land back. They said it had been stolen from them by Germany.