World War I and the Interwar Period: Causes, Consequences, and Rise of Totalitarianism

Posted on Dec 19, 2024 in History

The Causes of World War I

  • Territorial Conflicts: France claimed Alsace-Lorraine from Germany. Russia and Austria-Hungary were rivals for the Balkans and sought an exit to the Mediterranean. Italy demanded territories on the Adriatic Sea.
  • National Conflicts: Different nationalities faced conflicts amongst themselves and with the imperial powers.
  • Economic Rivalries: These rivalries increased with the rise of industrial Germany, posing a threat to the British and French economies. This rivalry arose alongside colonial expansion.
  • The Arms Race: This occurred during a period of armed peace and the formation of two alliance systems:
    • The Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
    • The Triple Entente, composed of France, Russia, and Great Britain.

The Trigger and the Contending Countries

The trigger was the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, which was supported by Russia. This activated the alliance system.

The contending powers were:

  • The Central Powers: Included Germany and Austria-Hungary. Italy initially belonged to this group but later switched to the Allied side.
  • The Allies: Included Great Britain, France, Russia, and Serbia.

The Characteristics of the War

  • Reached a major territorial extension.
  • New weapons were used, such as machine guns, flamethrowers, underwater toxic gases, and new defense systems like trenches.
  • New forms of warfare emerged, such as psychological warfare.
  • Economic and social transformations occurred, as economies focused on military production.
  • Massive incorporation of women into the workforce.

The Stages of the War

  • War of Movement: Germany attempted a quick victory over France to concentrate its forces on the Eastern Front and defeat Russia, but the plan failed.
  • War of Positions and Trenches: In the absence of a decisive victory, the front stabilized over vast trench lines. From these trenches, offensives such as the Battle of Verdun were launched.
  • 1917: Russia withdrew from the war after the triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution. The United States entered the conflict, supporting the Allies.
  • The End of the War: In 1918, an offensive by the Allies on all fronts led to the gradual surrender of the Central Powers.

The Treaties of Peace

  • Peace of Paris (1919-1920): The Paris Peace Conference, attended only by the victorious powers, signed five treaties with the defeated, designing a new map of Europe and creating the League of Nations.
  • The Treaty of Versailles: Signed with Germany, it held Germany responsible for the war and imposed the payment of reparations, the reduction of its army, the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France, and the loss of its colonies.

The New Map of Europe

New states emerged (Poland), and Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were created. Austria-Hungary was dissolved. Territorial concessions were made, with Germany ceding Alsace-Lorraine to France.

The Consequences of War

  • Political: The dynasties that ruled the great empires were abolished.
  • International: The war ended European hegemony, which was replaced by the dominance of the United States.
  • Economic: The war caused serious losses and heavily indebted Europe to the United States.
  • Demographic: More than nine million dead, and many injured, orphaned, and disabled.
  • Social: The war sharpened the contrasts between the impoverished working and middle classes and a minority enriched by war businesses. It also encouraged women’s work outside the home.

The Government of Lenin (1921-1924)

The USSR was formed, consisting of Russia and other Asian republics with a certain degree of self-government and representation in parliament. The direction of the state fell to the Communist Party, the only legal party. A New Economic Policy (NEP) was implemented, combining capitalist and communist elements.

Stalin’s Government

Following Lenin’s death, Stalin seized power and imposed a new stage in the USSR characterized by:

  • A totalitarian political system in which the Communist Party, led by Stalin, exercised a dictatorship characterized by repression and purges.
  • A planned economy implemented through five-year plans. Land was collectivized.

The Roaring Twenties

Between 1924 and 1929, Europe and the United States experienced a period of economic prosperity known as the Roaring Twenties. This primarily affected the U.S., which became the world’s leading economic power. It was characterized by industrial development, increased consumption, and investment in the stock market.

The 1929 Crash and Its Causes

During the Great War, U.S. agriculture and industry steadily increased production. After the war, the demand for agricultural and industrial products decreased, causing an excess of production. This led to falling agricultural prices and an increase in stocks. The apparent American economic prosperity did not reflect reality; the real situation of enterprises did not correspond with the high value of their shares on the stock market. This reality led in 1929 to a situation of distrust that reduced the price of shares. On October 24, 1929, known as Black Thursday, investors’ fear of a decline in the value of shares led to a sell-off, causing their price to collapse and the bankruptcy of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Extent and Consequences of the Crisis

The crisis spread from the U.S. to the rest of the world. The consequences were:

  • Demographic: Population growth and transoceanic migration stopped.
  • Economic: Agricultural and industrial production decreased, as did foreign trade because of protectionist policies.
  • Social: Unemployment grew.
  • Political: The crisis challenged the prestige of democracy, facilitating the rise of totalitarian ideologies.

Searching for Solutions

To resolve the crisis, some countries promoted economic autonomy or self-sufficiency, the creation of state enterprises, and state intervention in the economy. In the U.S., the new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, launched a recovery program in 1933 known as the New Deal.

The Rise of Fascism

During the interwar period, some European countries with more liberal traditions maintained parliamentary political systems. However, many countries in Central and Southern Europe adopted authoritarian systems. These systems reached their greatest development in Italy under Mussolini and in Germany under Hitler, converting into totalitarian regimes that sought to control all aspects of people’s lives.

Causes and Social Support of Totalitarianism

The causes included poorly consolidated democratic systems, the severe economic crisis blamed on liberal governments, social polarization between revolutionary and anti-revolutionary groups, and the formation of ultranationalist groups unhappy with the peace treaties of the First World War. Germany felt humiliated, and Italy considered that it had received few compensations. Social support came from the middle class, big business, ex-combatants, and conservative social sectors.

Characteristics of Totalitarian Systems

  • Implantation of an Authoritarian Political System: The state concentrates all power and is exercised through a charismatic leader who is considered infallible and demands obedience. There are no freedoms or political pluralism, and the opposition is violently repressed.
  • State Control of the Economy and Society: Rejection of social equality, irrational thought, ultranationalism, and militarism.

Italian Fascism

Fascism arose in Italy around Benito Mussolini, who founded the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in 1919, also known as the Blackshirts. In 1922, the intervention of these groups against unions and strikes led Mussolini to claim power. To pressure the government, he organized a March on Rome, after which King Victor Emmanuel III commissioned him to form a new government. When he came to power, he established a fascist dictatorship.

German Nazism

Nazism arose in Germany around the Nazi Party, founded in 1920 and led by Adolf Hitler. In 1933, after winning the elections, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Once in power, he ended the Weimar Republic and proclaimed the Third Reich. He introduced a harsh dictatorship and pursued a militaristic and aggressive policy based on the rejection of the Treaty of Versailles. This policy led to the Second World War.