The twentieth century from 1901-1939.
Throughout the world, amid the twentieth century, underlying changes were
occurring. The First World War was fought, the world experienced the Great
Depression, there was a rise of imperialism, belief of anarchism, plead of
socialism, expansion of fascism, growth of nationalism and fear of
communism. By 1914 all major European powers are at war, it became a global
war involving 32 nations. Twenty-eight of these nations were known as the
Allies, including Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Australia and the
United States, opposed the coalition known as the Central Powers,
consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The war,
which was won by the Allies, resulted in civilians in the vast war zones
suffering from disease, malnutrition, and often actual starvation,
destruction of their towns and cities, and appalling injuries and death.
The world had become a divided planet.
The conclusion of WWI led to the
conferences at Versailles and the peace treaties that emerged from the
conference included Saint-Germain, Trianon, Neuilly, and Svres. These
treaties were on the whole inadequately enforced by the victorious powers,
leading to the resurgence of militarism and aggressive nationalism in
Germany and to social disorder throughout much of Europe. The economic
impact of WWI leads the world into the Great Depression. During the
Depression support of fascism grew to generate enough conflict for the
basis of WWII.
One ideology that had arisen, between 1894 and 1914, was the belief of
anarchism. Anarchists believed that if there was no law or government then
man would be free to live how God had intended. They believed they could
solve the evil in the world through violence. Around the 1900’s the world
was terrified of anarchism. However anarchism did not last as long as
fascism or communism. Anarchism died out as the working class drifted
toward socialist or unionist movement.
Socialists sought to redistribute
the wealth equally, so that everybody had enough. Even though its goals
were similar to anarchism, its approach was completely different, socialism
was more an organised movement, rather than the assassinating methods of
the anarchists. Nevertheless by 1910 the main issue was no longer the
social revolution but the onset of war. As nationalism grew, the socialist
working class were willing to join their countrymen from upper and middle
classes in going to war.
The immediate cause of the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was the
assassination on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo in Bosnia, of Archduke Francis
Ferdinand, heir-presumptive to the Austrian and Hungarian thrones, by
Gavrilo Princip, a Serb nationalist. The underlying causes of World War I
were the spirit of intense nationalism that spread throughout Europe at the
end of the 19th and into the 20th century, the political and economic
rivalry among the nations, and the establishment and maintenance in Europe
after 1871 of large armaments and of two hostile military alliances. These
fundamental changes in society and variations of nation’s policies were
apparent at the establishment of WWI.
The French Revolution and the
Napoleonic Wars had spread throughout most of Europe the idea of political
democracy, with the resulting idea that people of the same ethnic origin,
language, and political ideals had the right to independent states. Several
peoples who desired national autonomy were made subject to local dynasties
or to other nations. Notable examples were the German people, whom the
Congress of Vienna left divided into numerous duchies, principalities, and
kingdoms; Italy was also left divided into many parts, some of which were
under foreign control; and the Flemish- and French-speaking Belgians of the
Austrian Netherlands, whom the congress placed under Dutch rule.
Revolutions and strong nationalistic movements during the 19th century
succeeded in abolishing much of the reactionary and anti-nationalist work
of the congress. At the close of the century, however, the problem of
nationalism was still unresolved in some areas of Europe, resulting in
tensions both within the regions involved and between various European
nations.
The spirit of nationalism was also evident in economic conflict. The
Industrial Revolution, which took place in Great Britain at the end of the
18th century, followed into France in the early 19th century, and then in
Germany after 1870, caused an immense increase in the manufacturing in each
country and a consequent need for foreign markets. The major field for the
European policies of economic expansion was Africa, and on that continent
colonial interests frequently clashed. Several times between 1898 and 1914
the economic rivalry in Africa between France and Great Britain, and
between Germany on one side and France and Great Britain on the other,
almost precipitated a European war. Other nations were also expanding their
empires, the USA in the Caribbean and the Pacific; Russia, on her southern
and Asiatic borders; and Japan, in Formosa and on the Asian mainland.
As a result of such tensions, between 1871 and 1914 the nations of Europe
adopted domestic measures and foreign policies that in turn steadily
increased the danger of war. Convinced that their interests were
threatened, they maintained large standing armies, which they constantly
replenished and augmented by peacetime conscription. At the same time, they
increased the size of their navies. The naval expansion was intensely
competitive. Great Britain, influenced by the expansion of the German navy
begun in 1900, and by the events of the Russo-Japanese War, developed its
fleet under the direction of Admiral Sir John Fisher. The war between
Russia and Japan had proved the efficiency of long-range naval guns, and
the British then developed the widely copied dreadnought battleship,
notable for its heavy armament.
Nations everywhere realized that the tremendous and ever-growing
expenditures for armament would in time lead either to national bankruptcy
or to war, and several efforts for worldwide disarmament were made, notably
at the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907. International rivalry was,
however, far too advanced to permit any progress towards disarmament at
these conferences.
The European nations not only armed themselves for
purposes of “self-defence”, but also, so as not to find themselves standing
alone if war did break out, sought alliances with other powers. The result
was a phenomenon that in itself greatly increased the chances for
generalized war: the grouping of the great European powers into two hostile
military alliances, the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
Italy and the Triple Entente of Great Britain, France, and Russia. Shifts
within these alliances added to the building sense of crisis. The world in
the twentieth century had become divided due to social differences; this
separation resulted in the outbreak of World War One.
World War I began on July 28, 1914, with the declaration of war by Austria-
Hungary on Serbia, and hostilities between the Allied and Central Powers
continued until the signing of the peace agreement on November 11, 1918, a
period of 4 years, 3 months, and 14 days. The aggregate direct war costs of
all the nations amounted to about US$186 billion. Casualties in the land
forces amounted to more than 37 million; in addition, close to 10 million
deaths among the civilian populations were caused indirectly by the war.
Despite worldwide hopes that the settlements arrived at after the war would
restore world peace on a permanent basis, World War I actually provided the
basis for an even more devastating conflict. On the whole, however, the
Allies came to the conference at Versailles and to the subsequent peace
conferences with the determination to extract from the Central Powers
damages equal to the entire cost of the war, and to distribute among
themselves territories and possessions of the defeated nations.
Three major powers had been dissatisfied with the outcome of World War I.
Germany, the principal defeated nation, bitterly resented the territorial
losses and reparations payments imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles.
Italy, one of the victors, found its territorial gains far from enough
either to offset the cost of the war or to satisfy its ambitions. Japan,
also a victor, was unhappy about its failure to gain greater holdings in
East Asia. These dissatisfactions led to the rise of fascism.
Post-war Germany adopted a democratic constitution, as did most of the
other states restored or created after the war. In the 1920s, however, the
wave of the future appeared to be a form of nationalistic, militaristic
totalitarianism known by its Italian name, fascism. It promised to minister
to people’s wants more effectively than democracy and presented itself as
the one sure defence against Communism. Benito Mussolini established the
first Fascist dictatorship in Italy in 1922. Adolf Hitler, the leader of
the German National Socialist (Nazi) party, preached a brand of fascism
based on racism.
Hitler promised to overturn the Versailles Treaty and
secure additional living space for the German people who, he contended,
deserved more as members of a superior race. In the early 1930s the Great
Depression hit Germany. The moderate parties could not agree on what to do
about it, and large numbers of voters turned to the Nazis and Communists.
In 1933 Hitler became the German chancellor, and in a series of subsequent
moves established himself as dictator.
Japan did not formally adopt fascism, but the armed forces’ powerful
position in the government enabled them to impose a similar type of
totalitarianism on the civilian leadership. The Japanese military was well
ahead of Hitler. It used a minor clash with Chinese troops near Mukden in
1931 as a pretext for taking over all of Manchuria, where it proclaimed the
puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932. In 1937-1938 it occupied the main
Chinese ports.
Germany had denounced the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty,
created a new air force, and reintroduced conscription, in March 1936
Hitler dispatched German troops into the Rhineland. Under the Versailles
and Locarno treaties, the Rhineland had been permanently demilitarized, but
Hitler’s breach of the treaties was greeted with only feeble protests from
London and Paris. Hitler had committed his first major breach of the treaty
settlement of 1919 and the Anglo-French entente failed to resist him, a
pattern followed with monotonous regularity until September 1939.
Changes in beliefs and ideas were the major causes of transformation within
the twentieth century. Within some European nations there was a rise of
imperialism, this led to the belief of anarchism, then the socialist
movements, which was shortened by the outbreak of the First World War. The
world, soon after WWI, experienced the Great Depression, expansion of
fascism, growth of nationalism and fear of communism. The world, during the
twentieth century, experienced major changes in economies, leading world
powers and interactions among nations. The world in the 1920s endured the
most devastating economic period in history.
The world survived the largest
war the globe had ever experienced and the Allies attempted to be in charge
of the world’s economy. However, control was not desired by many nations
and led to the expansion of fascism. The discontent among nations led to
the Second World War. To conclude, fundamental adjustments occurred within
issues between leading world powers which resulted in wars and economical
catastrophes. Throughout the twentieth century national interests clashed
and conflict developed, this led to devastating loss of lives and many
individuals loss of way of life.
By Nicole Papworth
