Chapter 21: The Collapse and Recovery of Europe

The Collapse and Recovery of Europe

            The Great War, WW I, is considered the beginning of a new phase of world history. It was followed by the economic meltdown of the Great Depression, by the rise of Nazi Germany and the horror of the Holocaust and the WW II.

            European nations rise as global powers did not mean that they had peace in Europe; quite the opposite. The most obvious division was among its competing states. Those historical rivalries further sharpened as both Italy and Germany joined as major forces.

Since the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, a fragile and fluctuating balance of power had generally maintained the peace in Europe. That balance of power was expressed in two rival alliances, the triple alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy and the Triple Entete of Russia, France and England. It was those commitments that transformed minor incident in the Balkans into a conflagration that consumed all of Europe. The incident was the assassination of the heir of the Austrian throne. Thus, a system of alliances intended to keep peace created an obligation for war.

Competition on colonies and industrialized militarism contributed to initiate the war and Europe’s imperial reach around the world shaped the scope and conduct of war.   

            The Great War was a conflict that shattered every expectation. Most Europeans believed that the war will end soon, but it took four years and ended with the German defeat in 1918. The war resulted in enormous causalities and some nations’ population were mobilized, increasing the authority of the government. Europeans could believe that their cultural advancement could not prevent such tragic and bloody war.

The treaty of Versaills, which formally ended the war in 1919, proved in retrospect to have established the conditions for the generated the second world war only twenty years later. In the treaty, Germany lost its colonial empire and 15% of its European territories, was required to pay heavy reparations to the winners, had its military forces severally restricted, and had to accept sole responsibility for the war.

            The aftermath of the war brought substantial social and cultural changes to the European and American victors of the war. Integrating millions of returning veterans into ordinary civilian life was not easy and governments took many actions to ease the integration.

The most influential change of the postwar decades lay in the Great Depression. If World War I represented the political collapse of Europe, this economic downturn suggested that its economic system was also failing. It spread from America to Europe and beyond and lasted for a decade.

The Great Depression sharply challenged the believer in capitalism and many turned to the Soviet Union to find answers. The US response to the depression came in the form of Roosevelt’s New Deal program which many historian blame for lingering the depression.

           

            Between 1919 and 1945, a new political ideology, known as Fascism, found expressions across much of Europe. Fascism was intensely nationalistic, seeking to mobilize the nation to a grand task. Its spokesmen condoned violence against enemies and exalted action rather than thought and reflection. Fascist condemned individualism, liberalism, feminism and democracy and communism.  The fascist alternative took shape first in Italy.   

            The German expression of the European fascism took shape as the Nazi party under Adolf Hitker (1889-1945). In many respects, it was similar to its Italian counterparts. This movement grew in the aftermath of the humiliating loss of WW I. The German economy was severally hit in 1930s and the unemployment was very high, everyone demanded decisive government action. It is in this atmosphere that the Nazi movement, led by Hitler, gained support.  By the late 1930s, Hitler had the support of the majority of the population given the economic revival.

Soon after coming to power, Hitler implemented policies that increasingly restricted Jewish life, like excluding them from universities, professional organization…etc. In the meanwhile, Nazis celebrated the superiority of the German race, its culture and its ancient heroes. If WW I and the Great Depression brought about political and economic collapse to Europe, Nazi movement brought its moral collapse.  

            The modern history of Japan paralleled that of Italy and Germany. All three were newcomers to great power status, with Japan joining the club of industrializing and empire-building state only in the 19th century. Although japan during the 1930s shared some common features with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, it remained a less repressive and more pluralistic society.

            World War II began in Asia before it occurred in Europe. In the late 1920s and 1930s, Japanese imperial ambitions mounted as the military became more prominent and powerful in Japan’s political life and as nationalism grew in society. The first attack began against China; in 1940-1941, Japan extended its military operations to the French, British, Dutch, and American colonies in the Pacific Ocean.

            As a consequence of its defeat on WW I and the harsh terms of the Versailles, many Germans had deep resentments about the country’s position in the international arena and the Nazi pledged to rectify the treaty. War was essential to the Nazi phenomenon in several ways: 1) Nazism was born out of WW I, 2) the celebration of war as a mean of ennobling humanity and enabling the rise of the superior race was at the core of the Nazi ideology. 

            World War II was the most destructive conflict in world history, with total death of estimated 60 millions, with 50% civilians with many more injured and homeless. A further dimension of the war lay in governments’ effort to mobilize their economies, their people and their propaganda machine.