The Interwar Period - Essay Example

The Interwar Period Introduction The two World Wars, I and II, were set apart by a period of 20 years; recorded between 1919 and 1939. This period is what came to be known as the Interbellum in Latin, or the “between wars” period. The interwar period was marked by the aftermath of World War I as the participating nations tried to recover from the ashes, and also by the factors that led to the onset of World War II. Europe, which was the battleground for both wars, underwent multiple transitions which instead of preventing a second war in fact fuelled another instance of conflict on the continent. The key players during the interwar period were the Allies (mainly France and Britain), as well as Germany and Italy. During the period in investigation, economic crises dominated Europe in addition to insatiable political struggles as the participating nations sought to reclaim weakened economies, lost monarchies, and dignity. Interestingly, both the defeated central powers and the victorious Allies suffered equally during the interwar period, mainly struggling with a shortage of manpower, newly-introduced [binding] treaties, and huge national debts that had been acquired as either side sought victory. The Allies who were perceived of as the “innocent” insisted on Germany’s reparations with a concealed intent of keeping it weak. Germany, repressed by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, suffered economically, especially during the Great Depression. In its suffering though, Germany was secretly reorganizing itself to fight off the foreign invasion, andit was theseunderlying pressures that erupted, reigniting the conflict that had seemed to be cooling off. In this research paper, the events of WW1’s aftermath will be discussed with regards to how they contributed to the onset of WW2 within the twenty-year bracket that came to be popularly known as the interwar period. As World War I came to a halt, approximately 10 million Europeans lay dead, 15 million were seriously wounded, and about 7 million were disabled. Those who survived had been psychologically affected by the aftermath of the war that most of them never lived normal lives thereafter. The largest percentage of the affected was the young men of middle class level and who were supposed to have been working. However, they spent their time in battle. Apart from destruction of lives, property had been extensively rendered invaluable (Underhill 5). This left the Europeans with little to eat and almost nowhere to live as their houses laid in rubbles. Collectively, the living conditions of the Europeans deteriorated as the war ended as mortality rates shot up. Generally, life became unbearable during the period immediately after the close of the war. In estimation, the war had cost Europe about 7 times as much as what the world’s national debt totaled to in the years 1800 to 1914 (5). France, as part of the Allies, suffered the most in terms of debt overheads and material loss. However, it was the Central Powers, who endured the greater losses, and especially after treaties were established to calm the situation. For instance, Germany lost 90% of its mercantile fleet, its foreign investments, and about 20% of its pre-war capacity. Germany was also part of the nations slapped with reparation fines which in magnitude were enough to cripple it for good. In Hungary, by the time it was 1920, the value of commodities had multiplied approximately 23,000 times. Austria experienced a 53% decline in its agricultural output. On the part of the Allies, they found themselves deeply indebted to the U.S., and in trying to settle the payments, they had to borrow some more from other nations. As such, Europe was cast into a financial crisis as the demand for finances exceeded what could be provided. The destruction of resources and extensive loss of lives rendered the rivals short of manpower. As such, their economies suffered a great deal. It is further revealed that prior to the war; most European countries had ignored the gold standard as they sought to increase their money supply as the war required a lot of it. In this way, they were able to manipulate their currencies and organize their military (Wolf & Yousef 1). This move affected them in that after WW1, their currencies had lost their values to almost nothing and most of them resorted to the gold standard as a means of restoring the lost value. It did not work however because those with gold and related currencies decided to hoard them. The result was lack of liquidity in the financial system. Collectively, all these factors slowed business in Europe and was extending across the globe. As Germany sank further into debt, it decided to print more money, which in turn caused hyperinflation. At some point, the U.S. dollar was worth one trillion German marks. The United States of America is the only nation that came out of the war without major debts. In fact, it was so well off that it supplied Europe with food and credit. Additionally, the U.S. did not suffer after the war, but rather grew as it offered credit to the demanding nations as well as reclaiming its debts from the Allies. In 1923 under the Dawes Plan, the United States helped Germany to borrow 28 million marks and therefore helped to ease its hyperinflation (Thackeray, Frank & John 125). In the mid-1920s, the economies of most European nations began to recover. Additionally, newer industries such as commercial aviation, radio, and the automotive emerged. All this time, the United States held the biggest share of the world market and was flourishing as the other nations rose from their financial crises. As the economies of European countries began to grow, the Great Depression set in. As the events reveal, the United States was the backbone of Europe during the interwar period. Therefore, in 1929 when the American stock market crashed, it did not affect the United States alone; but the entire Europe as well. The crash led to the disappearance of American credit and a reshuffling of the calm that had been emerging occurred. First of all, Germany was so weakened by the Great Depression that it could no longer pay its reparations. The U.S. intervened and saw Germany allowed to pay less per installment. This move in turn unsettled Europe’s economy in that the reduction of the reparations meant less money for Europe. As such, Europe had less finances in its economy, and was unable to continue repaying its debts to America. It is said that the Great Depression was made worse by the way that Europe responded to it; civil service was reduced, salaries were slashed, tariffs were raised, and the payment done to former military men was reduced. Unemployment levels soared as jobs reduced, and since the whole of Europe used the same approach to counter the Great Depression, it endured the suffering for the next one decade as a bloc (Romer 597). The Great Depression forced nations to devise individual means of survival, which in turn influenced on their political systems. In the 1930s, the Nazis obtained power in Germany and based their government style on fascism. In fascism, it was dictated that the masses should participate in the state directly as opposed to a centralized systems such as through parliament. The Nazis were dictators and inflicted it on the people of Germany to work in saving their country. Adolf Hitler, on rising to power implemented mega state projects to boost the German economy, such as production of the Volkswagen and the Autobahn’s construction. As Germany’s economy rise, so did Hitler’s direction for the rearmament of his army ready for revival from the foreigners. The rearmament of Germany was a breach of the Treaty of Versailles in that it prohibited Hitler’s nation from rearming in any way post-WW1. Hitler continued with the rearmament.Russia, like Germany, inspired Europe in that both had risen from the Great Depression through strategy. Russia had suffered from WW1 and civil wars too, and these had destroyed its economy. Unemployment rates were high, famine and disease struck, agricultural production declined by more than 50%, and its industrial production capacity dropped by 18% as compared to before WW1 (Gorodnichenko, Mendoza, &Tesar 3). The United States’ President Woodrow Wilson proposed a formation of the League of Nations to act as a body fostering international cooperation and regulating conflicts (Clavin 26). This would be done by bringing together all the nations of the world. Concisely, the move was aimed at preventing the occurrence of another world war. In its application, the body would identify the aggressor in any conflict and throw its support behind the victim nation. For any country to join, however, it was required to accept the League’s Covenant. At the first convention of the League of Nations, forty countries showed up, but the U.S., Russia, and Germany were absent. In its absence, Russia was declared World War 1’s aggressor and it was not until 1926 that it was accepted in joining the League of Nations. The new Communist style of government is what contributed to Russia not being invited into joining the league. It was to be however, accepted in 1935. The United States never joined the League of Nations. In its operations, the League of Nations had three distinct agencies namely the Secretariat, the Council, and the Assembly. The Secretariat acted as the civil service for the league, the Council served as a form of cabinet with some power, and the Assembly met annually to decide on the League’s matters (59). Amongst some of the League’s successes include resolving conflicts between minor powers and assisting bankrupt countries. Around 1925, the League of Nations tried to come up with a measure of containing major war in which case it came up with the Geneva Protocol. This protocol allowed the League to intervene in any international dispute, and if a country was unwilling to submit to the protocol, it would be termed as the aggressor. The protocol never got to work as it was shot down by the British delegation in 1925. As such, the world remained without a body that would regulate international conflicts. On December 1, 1925, the signing of the Locarno Pacts reconciled Germany and the former Allies. The treaty promised military assistance at the Belgian-German border and the German-French border as a means of maintaining peace (Evans& Godin 89). Most of the treaties were signed against any form of German invasion or aggression. Apart from reconciling the former allies and Germany, the League of Nations sought to disarm most of the European nations so the arms that remained would not threaten national security. In 1921, a convention was held in Washington in whose attendance was Portugal, China, Italy, Belgium, France, Britain, the Netherlands, and Japan. At this particular convention, naval armament was the key resolution, and only Italy, France, Japan, and the U.S. were allowed to retain or obtain naval ships. This however was not enough disarmament. In a bid to foster disarmament, the League convened again in 1925 in which case France and Germany never participated in, resulting in floundering of the entire process. The final move by the League was made in 1932 towards disarmament, but as was the case with other conventions, this one failed as well. The failure by the League of Nations therefore meant that disarmament as an organized measure remained an unmet accomplishment. In this way, the chances of war or international conflict emerging and not being regulated remained high. According to Midlarsky (73), Italy had been promised territory by the Russians, British, and French for their acceptance in joining the Allies. However, the treaties signed after WW1 ended could not permit this to happen because none of the promising nations owned any of the promised territory. As such, Italy did not have anything to show for its participation in WW1. The result was embarrassment and retaliation from the Italian people upon returning home. The Italian army went home not only empty-handed and embarrassed but also went to a devastated nation suffering from poverty and widespread unemployment. The Italian people were so disappointed that they revolted against the then Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando’s government. This led to the formation of an anti-communist party, the Fascist Party. The party acknowledged war as part of Italian nobility, and sought to reclaim Rome. In 1922, Benito Mussolini was appointed to be the military Premier from where he formed his own militia, which sympathized with Hitler’s recovery of Europe and Germany. From there, Mussolini and Adolf Hitler formed a strong political relationship. France was probably the most affected nation on the side of the Allies. In estimation, it lost about one and a half million men, and another three and a half million were wounded in WW1. This was equivalent to the birth rate being surpassed by the death rate in France. With the workforce reduced to such extents, France experienced a worse economic crisis, and throughout the entire 20 years of the interwar period, it never recovered. The value of their currency, the Franc, fell by about half its original worth before WW1 and stayed low one year after the war ended. Agriculture was similarly affected and its steel production, which acted as one of France’s key economic pillars suffered too. Similar to Germany other States in Europe, France survived mainly by borrowing. An opportunity however emerged during Raymond Poincare’s rule (1922 to 1924) where full reparation payments were demanded from Germany by the French Chamber of deputies. France relied heavily on these payments and when Germany suffered during the Great Depression and failed to pay, Poincare felt it was necessary to use force. He therefore sent troops numbering forty thousand to capture Ruhr inside Germany (Combs 59). Unlike what France expected, the move worsened matters in that the invasion influenced the drafting of the Dawes Plan. The Plan punished France by decreasing the reparations that Germany was supposed to pay France. Poincare’s exit from politics cast France into disorder, especially when the Great Depression struck. Without clear ideologies or stability, communism and fascism as form of extremism support grew at high rates, and in February 1934, mass protests began. People barricaded the main square in Paris, engaging police and seeing multiple lives lost in the confrontations. Leon Blum became the Prime Minister in 1936, but one year down the line, his government fell apart. Under the new rightist government, France took to increase its manufacture of armaments. Little did they know that they would use them as they declared war on Germany in September 1939. The biggest contributor to the Second World War was the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. Adolf Hitler, the dictator and ruler of the Nazi party, felt that it was unfair for Germany to have lost in the First World War, and that the oppression that Germany was facing were simply meant to cripple it. According to him, Germany had lost because Jews and socialists had surrendered, and not that Germany was weak. His intentions were therefore clear as he took charge of the German workers Party in 1920 which he later renamed to the National Socialist German Workers Party, or in short Nazi. He demonstrated his quest for a revolution when in 1923, together with General Ludendorff tried to stage anti-government demonstrations in the streets. They were arrested and both earned two years of jail terms. While he was in prison, Hitler wrote his literature Mein Kampf, or “my struggle” in which his undying quest for a revolution of Germany was evident (Overy 22). He also advocated for Jewish inferiority and Aryan supremacy. After his release in 1925, Hitler furthered his political ideologies with the Nazi Party. Progress was slow in that stability was being restored across Europe. He however found new grounds when the Great Depression Struck. He gained massive support by promising restoration of Germany’s glory and employment for his supporters. This saw his party gain popularity and in 1933, the Nazi Party scooped 230 seats in the German Reichstag. After his appointment as chancellor, Hitler began his dictatorial ideologies by banning political meeting, publishing of dissenting opinions, and wearing of political uniforms. He further banned the communist party after forming an alliance with the Nationalist party in 1933. After Hindenburg died in 1939, Hitler took power as the president, and that marked the start of the revolution. Secret police units were deployed to quell all dissent; he shortened working hours so the unemployed could find jobs. He prohibited organized labor, and his government oversaw all economical functions. Education became centralized on Nazi ideologies, same as all forms of media. One of Hitler’s ideologies was to preach German anti-Semitism and garner support for the persecution of Jews (Mara 88). The torture of the German Jews was a strategy of conquering Europe by elevating the Aryan race. The Allies could no longer stand to see millions of Jews being tortured and killed in Germany. As such, when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, France and Britain found the opportunity to attack Germany (77). That marked the second onset of extensive conflict in Europe; World War II. Conclusion As this research study reveals, the First World War caused massive destruction and changed the equilibrium of global political and economic stability. As the Central Powers and the Allies struggled with the tough times following the destruction of property and the loss of millions of lives, another conflict began to brew. The period between the two wars lasted 20 years and came to be known as the interwar period. The main events experienced during the interwar period were struggling for economic stability, restoration of world peace, and in Germany’s case; restoring its lost glory. Europe has lost workforce of about 10 million men as an additional 7 million were disabled. As such, there was a massive shortage of labor during the interwar period. This saw many nations struggling to rise, but not making any steps forward. The Great Depression caused by the collapse of the American stock market worsened the suffering in Europe, and also hastened the journey towards WW2. Germany was unable to pay reparations to France, renewing their enmity. Several legislations to control the world peace such as the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations failed as the major nations ignored their policies. As such, the world lay vulnerable to global conflict. Dictator Hitler’s rise to power sealed the onset of the second global war in that his armament programs, persecution of Jews and finally invasion of Poland attracted intervention by France and Britain in 1939. As each of these nations attracted support from affiliated nations, the Second World War broke out in Europe. Works Cited Clavin, Patricia. Securing the World Economy: The Reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920-1946. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print. Combs, Jerald.The History of American Foreign Policy. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, 2008. Print. Evans, Martin, & Godin, Emmanuel.France Since 1815. Routledge, 2014. Print. Gorodnichenko, Yuriy, Mendoza, Enrique, &Tesar, Linda.“The Finnish Great Depression: From Russia with Love.”The National Bureau of Economic Research 1. 2009. 1-62. Mara, Wil.Kristallnacht: Nazi Persecution of the Jews in Europe. Marshall Cavendish, 2009. Print. Midlarsky, Manus. Origins of Politcal Extremism: Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century and Beyond.Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print. Overy, R.The Interwar Crisis.Routledge, 2014. Print. Romer, Christina. “The Great Crash and the Onset of the Great Depression.”The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1990.597-624. Thackeray, Frank W, and John E. Findling.Events That Formed the Modern World: From the European Renaissance Through the War on Terror. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2012. Print. Underhill, Robert. The Rise and Fall of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Algora Pub., 2012. Print. Wolf, Holger, & Yousef, Tarik. “Breaking the Fetters: Why Did Countries Exit the Interwar Gold Standard?” Georgetown University, 2005.1-38. Read More