World War II: Causes, Consequences, and the Rise of Fascism
Causes of World War II
Nazi-Fascist Expansionism: The economic crisis of the 1930s and the arrival of Hitler led to the abandonment of the Conference on Disarmament in 1933, the annexation of the Saarland in 1935, and compulsory military service. A series of localized conflicts showed the weakness of Western democracies: the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-1936, the re-militarization of the Rhineland in 1936, and the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. At the same time, a closer relationship between the fascist regimes developed: the Rome-Berlin Axis (1936) and the Anti-Comintern Pact (1936). In 1938, after annexing Austria to the Reich, Germany forced a conference in Munich where France and Britain gave in to its demands for the Sudetenland annexation. In 1939, Hitler dismembered Czechoslovakia, and Mussolini took Albania. Both dictatorships signed the Pact of Steel. In 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a nonaggression pact. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland.
Consequences of World War II
- Demographic and Economic: More than 55 million deaths and 35 million injured, especially among the civilian population. Ruin and desolation in Europe and Japan. The war accelerated the decline of the old European powers as the United States consolidated its leading position worldwide. Also, the USSR was confirmed as the second-largest power. The tremendous barbarity of war caused an intense moral trauma and questioned all the values on which Western civilization rested.
- Political: In Western Europe, liberated by the British and Americans, parliamentary democracy and the capitalist system were restored. In Eastern Europe, liberated by the Soviet Union, Communist dictatorships were imposed. In the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the division of Germany and a new map of Europe were agreed upon, which benefited the USSR. All three major victorious powers created a new organization for “peacekeeping and international security”: the UN, in 1945.
The Cold War
A system of international relations between 1945 and 1991. The world was divided into two blocks, one headed by the U.S. and the other by the Soviet Union, generating a bipolar system. The two blocks were:
- The West, defending a democratic political system, capitalist economy, and liberal ideology.
- The Communist bloc, with a totalitarian system, advocated a planned economy and a Marxist ideology.
Features: Continuous arms race, ideological propaganda, espionage (American CIA and Soviet KGB), political and economic pressures, and localized wars.
The Berlin Crisis
After the war, Germany was divided into four areas: USA, UK, France, and the USSR. Berlin was in the Soviet zone and in turn divided into four zones. In 1948, the unification of Germany into a single state was agreed upon. Stalin imposed a land blockade of Berlin, which led to the first great crisis of the Cold War. The U.S. response convinced Stalin of the futility of the measure, but the USSR created in its sector of Germany an independent state from the rest: the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Military Blocs
The rising tension led to the formation of two military blocs. The Western bloc formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The first objective of the USSR was to develop nuclear weapons, which it achieved in 1949, the year it detonated its first atomic bomb. It signed the Treaty of Friendship, known as the Warsaw Pact.
Crisis of Democracies
Causes:
- Increased political radicalization with increased extremism on both the right and the left.
- Political unrest in Italy and Germany due to the Peace Accords after the First World War.
- The economic crisis of the 1930s and the inability of parliamentary governments to take effective action.
The System Politically Divided: The nations of Western and Northern Europe managed to maintain their institutions. In the nations of Central, Eastern, Balkan, and Mediterranean Europe, right-wing dictatorships were imposed. Only in Italy and Germany were fascist dictatorships imposed.
Fascist Italy
The March to Power of Fascism: Fascism was initially a radical minority movement. In 1921, Mussolini changed tactics and founded the National Fascist Party. Fascism had social support from the middle classes, landowners, and the police. In August 1922, the Socialists’ call for a general strike against fascist violence failed. In October 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III asked Mussolini to form a government.
Implementation of the Dictatorship: Initially, Mussolini maintained the appearance of a parliament. The 1924 elections gave the fascists and their allies a majority in the chamber. From 1925, through the “fascist laws,” a one-party totalitarian rule and press censorship were imposed. The signing of the Lateran Pacts in 1929 with the Catholic Church consolidated the regime. The new fascist totalitarian state aspired to:
- Control and indoctrinate the whole society through education.
- Direct the economy and industrial relations through corporatism, interventionism, and autarky.
Nazi Germany
The Weimar Republic: In 1919, the new republic had to cope with the uprising of Spartacus, following the lead of supporters of Bolshevism. The Social Democrats crushed the revolt with violence, and its leaders were killed. Elections were held in Weimar. The Assembly drafted a constitution that established a federal republic based on democratic principles. The president was elected every seven years. The chancellor or head of government was appointed by the president and Parliament. Ebert was chosen to be president of the republic. In the elections, the three major moderate parties, the Center Party and the Social-Democratic Party, formed a coalition government, known as the “Weimar Coalition.” The first decision of the new government was the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The First World War had negative economic effects, but these became more serious because of the war reparations. The Republic experienced a situation of serious economic instability, which ruined the country’s hyperinflation. Between 1924 and 1929, the Weimar Republic enjoyed a period of stability after the victorious powers in World War I decided to help Germany out of the crisis through the Dawes Plan and the Locarno Pact.
Beginnings of Nazism: In 1919, in Munich, the German Workers’ Party was founded. With the accession of Hitler to this party, the history of the Nazi movement began. The name was changed to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP). The SA was formed, which soon exerted paramilitary violence. Like fascism, it defended “national socialism,” which was anti-capitalist. The central ideas of the program were twofold: on the one hand, the need to establish a nationalist dictatorship and eliminate the enemies of Germany, and on the other hand, to unite all Germans in a Greater Germany. In 1923, amid hyperinflation, a coup d’état known as the “Beer Hall Putsch” was prepared. Hitler was imprisoned. After his release from prison, he refounded the party, limited the anti-capitalist tenets to the fight against Jewish financiers, and used anti-Semitic rhetoric. He changed his strategy to transform his party into a mass movement. The Great Depression was devastating to German democracy and pushed the Nazis to power because of its catastrophic social and economic effects, the loss of public confidence in the traditional parties and the democratic system, and the ideological radicalization that gave new social support to Nazism. In 1931, the alliance of the Nazis with the traditional right was formalized. In January 1933, with this support, Hitler was appointed chancellor.