Comparing Nazism and Stalinism - Essay Example

Q The Europeans were largely driven to create overseas empires because of the need to ensure that they were able to access the resources that were needed the most in the home countries. The high demand for such products as sugar, cotton, and tobacco meant that many European countries worked towards the development of overseas empires which would ensure that these products were available to them in plenty. Moreover, the Europeans at the time believed that they were the most civilized of nations and because of this; they set out to develop empires over other peoples across the world as a means of fulfilling their civilizing mission. Furthermore, overseas empires were created for the sake of prestige since during this period; most of the main European powers rivaled one another on the continent. The main European powers, such as Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands, as a result of their rivalry on the European continent, sought to show their superiority overseas and this is the reason why such nations as Spain developed huge empires in the Americas and in Asia. Q.2 Anti-Semitism had a long history in Europe and it had developed over the centuries to become one of the bases upon which most of the views concerning Jews in European society were made. The Dreyfus Affair was one of the most blatant shows of anti-Semitism to be displayed in nineteenth century Europe and this is mainly because of the fact that most of the accusations made against Dreyfus were false. The Dreyfus Affair was mainly driven by the feelings of humiliation that France still felt over the loss of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany in 1871 and it is for this reason that Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army, came to serve as a useful scapegoat. One of the main reasons for the development of the accusations of treason against him was because he was a Jew from Alsace and his Jewishness alone made him a culprit in the eyes of the law and the state. The belief that Jews were a treacherous people made it people for a significant part of the French public to believe the accusations against him. Q.3 Many European nations can be blamed for the occurrence of World War I and this is because of their tendency several years before the war to form alliances which were based on protecting one another from attacks from countries which were not members of their alliances. For instance, Britain, France, and Russia formed the Triple Entente and this was an alliance based on mutual protection so that if any of the countries named above was attacked, the other two were obliged to take part in the war on the side of their ally. Therefore, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in response to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Russia, which considered itself to be the protector of the southern Slavic people was dragged into the war on the side of Serbia. As a consequence, Germany threatened that it would enter the war on Austria-Hungary’s side if Russia were to get involved in the conflict. This threat in turn dragged France and Britain into the conflict because their ally, Russia had been threatened. Therefore, one would suggest that the biggest culprits in the war were not individual countries but the fault lies squarely on the alliance systems that were developed prior to the war. Q.4 The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for about four centuries and during this period, it faced many problems as it sought to first establish itself in the country, and later retain it. However, the Romanovs managed to overcome all the problems involved in maintaining their power until such the middle of the nineteenth century when suddenly, things seemed to get out of their control. One of the reasons for the fall of this dynasty was the assassinations carried out against two of the tsars in the nineteenth century which brought about the instability of the monarchy. This instability led to the tsars developing policies which were meant to safeguard their power rather than protecting the interests of their people. Moreover, the defeat of Russia during the Russo-Japanese war led to a loss of credibility for the monarchy because the war had almost bankrupted the state. The provisional government that was formed in Russia after the end of direct monarchical rule was highly significant because it showed that Russia was moving towards becoming a democratic state modeled on western European ones. The Bolshevik seizure of power and the civil war that ensued led to the loss of many lives as well as the complete removal of the monarchy from the country. In its stead, the Bolsheviks turned Russia into a communist state that was completely under the dominance of the Communist Party. Q.5 The treaty of Versailles marked the official end of World War I and it was significant because it worked towards the establishment of a world order which would prevent the occurrence of another war. In addition, this treaty discussed the various ways in which Germany, which was blamed for the war, could pay for the damages it had done during the First World War. The main conditions of this treaty were that since Germany was the cause of the First World War, this country, through the war guilt clause, was given extremely harsh conditions to fulfill and these included the loss of several territories which did not sit well with most Germans. Q.6 Fascism became a very attractive political doctrine in Germany and Italy mainly because of the economic situation of both of these countries. In the case of Italy, Mussolini took advantage of the dire economic situation as well as the loss of prestige that the country had suffered to make sure that he gained a political foothold which took him to power. Moreover, Mussolini fanned the fires of Italian nationalism, to such an extent that he gained popular support against his rivals. The situation on Germany was based mainly on the humiliation that Germany faced after the end of World War I with the degrading provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. The coming of Hitler and the Nazi party gave Germans the hope that they would be able to regain their lost glory and empire through them and this made fascism most attractive to them (Benn, 151). However, one of the biggest successes of these two men was that Hitler managed to restore Germany to its status as a world power while Mussolini did the same through the conquest of Ethiopia. While this may have been the case, the biggest failure of these two men was to create an alliance against other European countries which essentially brought about World War II. Where they would have been considered great statesmen, they ended up being considered the villains of the war and their rule was brought to an end with both losing their lives. Q.7 Most of the European democracies responded to the Great Depression through taking steps to ensure that neither fascism nor communism got a foothold in their countries. Among the measures that they took was to increase public spending as well as ensuring more political freedoms were guaranteed. Moreover, there was an increase in the spending on defense because it was believed that either the Soviet Union or Germany would attack them to enforce their political ideologies. In addition, European democracies worked towards coming to an accommodation with both the Soviet Union and Germany, especially with the latter through making concessions when Germany took such actions as the remilitarization of the Rhineland among others. Works Cited Benn, David Wedgwood. "Nazism and Stalinism: Problems of Comparison--a Review Article." Europe - Asia Studies 51.1 (1999): 151-9. Read More