Treaty of Versailles

It was signed on June 28th 1919 as an end to the First World War, The Treaty of Versailles was supposed to ensure a lasting peace by punishing Germany and making a League of Nations to solve diplomatic problems. But, instead of that, it left political and geographical difficulties which have often been blamed, for starting the Second World War.

The First World War has been fought for four years when, on November 11th 1918, Germany and the Allies signed an armistice. The Allies soon join to discuss the peace treaty they would sign, but Germany and Austria-Hungary weren't invited; instead they were only allowed to present an answer to the treaty, a response which was largely ignored. Instead terms were made mainly by the ‘Big Three’: British Prime Minister Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Frances Clemenceau and US President Woodrow Wilson.

THE BIG THREE

• Woodrow Wilson: Wanted a 'fair and lasting peace' and had written a plan (the Fourteen Points) to achieve this. He wanted the armed forces of all nations reduced, not just the losers, and a League of Nations created to be sure that there would be peace.
• Frances Clemenceau: Wanted Germany to pay dearly for the war, including being taken from land, industry and their armed forces. He also wanted heavy reparations.
• Lloyd George: While he agreed with Wilson, he was affected by public opinion in Britain which agreed with Clemenceau.

It was an almost impossible task, with the need to pay debts with German cash and goods, but also to restore the pan-European economy; the need to sate territorial demands, many of which were included in secret treaties, but also allow self-determination and deal with growing nationalism; the need to remove the German threat, but not humiliate the nation and breed a generation intent on revenge, all while mollifying voters.

Reactions and Results

• Germany lost 13% of its land, 12% of its people, 48% of its iron resources, 15% of its agricultural production and 10% of its coal. Britain and France felt the treaty was fair (they actually wanted harsher terms imposed on the Germans) but the United States refused to ratify it because they didn't want to be part of the League of Nations.
• The map of Europe was redrawn with consequences which, especially in the Balkans, remain to the modern day.
• Numerous countries were left with large minorities groups: there were three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia alone.
• The League of Nations was fatally weakened without the United States and its army to enforce decisions.
• Many Germans felt unfairly treated, after all they had just signed an armistice, not a unilateral surrender, and the allies hasn't occupied deep into Germany. 

Mussolini Rises to Power in Italy

The new state of Italy was far from being a great success in the years before 1914; the tension of the First World War on her economy and the disappointment at her treatment by the Versailles Treaty caused growing discontent. Between 1919 and 1922 there were five different governments, all of which were incapable of taking decisive action that the situation demanded. In 1919 Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist party which won 35 seats in the 1921 elections. At the same time there seemed to be a real danger of a left-wing seizure of power, in a time of strikes, the fascists staged a 'March on Rome' which culminated in King Emmanuel III giving Mussolini the opportunity to form a government in October 1922. Mussolini remained in effective power until July 1943.

• All parties except the fascists were suppressed: Opponents of the regime were exiled or murdered. Socialist leaders Giacomo Matteotti and Giovanni Amendola were both beaten to death by the fascists. After 1926, when Mussolini felt secure in power the violence was greatly reduced.
• A strict press censorship was enforced in which anti-fascist newspapers were suppressed or their editors replaced by fascist supporters. Radio, films and the theatre were similarly controlled.
• Education in schools and universities was supervised, teachers had to wear uniforms, new textbooks were written to glorify the fascist system. Children and young people were forced to join the government youth organizations which indoctrinated them with the brilliance of the Duce and the glories of war.
• Corporate State: The government tried to promote co-operation between employers and workers and to end class warfare in what was known as the Corporate State. Fascist controlled unions had the sole right to negotiate for the workers and both unions and employers' associations were organized into corporations and were expected to co-operate to settle disputes over pay and working.
• Catholic Church: Mussolini left religion outside the control of the government. He had his children baptized and married their mother in the church. He passed laws to make swearing in public a crime and allowed crosses to be hung in public buildings. He made religious education compulsory in Italy. In 1929 he signed a treaty with Gasparri.

Successes

• Industry: gave government subsidies where necessary so that iron and steel production doubled by 1930 and artificial silk production tenfold.
• Battle of Wheat: encourages farmers to concentrate on wheat production in a drive for self-sufficiency; by 1935 the wheat imports had been cut by 75 per cent.
• Land Reclamation: a program was started and the Pontine Marshes around Rome were drained and reclaimed.
• Public Works Program: this was designed to reduce unemployment. It included the building of motorways, bridges, blocks of flats, railway stations, sports stadiums, schools and new towns on reclaimed land.

Hitler in the Interwar

In 1920, Hitler seized control in the German Workers Party, changing its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party, called the Nazi Party for short. On November 9, 1923, Hitler and World War I hero General Ludendorf attempted a small revolution known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler had jumped onto a beer hall table and proclaimed the current Weimar government overthrown.

Released in 1925, Hitler worked for the advancement of the Nazi party. Such advancement was slow in coming through the years 1925 to 1929, a fairly stable period in Europe. However, as the world became mired in depression and unemployment rose, so did support for the Nazi Party, which promised employment and a return to glory for the nation. In 1932 the Nazis won 37.3 percent of the popular vote and occupied 230 seats in the German Reichstag. Hitler dissolved the Reichstag and persuaded Hindenburg to issue a decree granting Hitler authority to prohibit public meetings, the wearing of political uniforms, and publication of dissenting opinions.

On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building burned down and a retarded Dutch boy claiming he worked for the communists was arrested for arson. There is evidence to prove that the Nazis themselves had set the fire, but in any case, Hitler used the incident to persuade Hindenburg to restrict all individual rights and declare that the central government could oust any state government failing to maintain order. Hitler systematically took control of all of the state governments this way. The Nazis only won 43.9 percent of the vote in 1933. To gain a two-thirds majority Hitler formed an alliance with the Nationalist party, and declared the communist party illegal.

On March 23, 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, giving Hitler the power to make decrees with the status of law, and ending elections.

Hitler's vague policy included a planned economy in which the unemployed were put to work on government projects, working hours were shortened to open up jobs, and labor was forbidden to organize.  All education and speech was controlled. Curricula and textbooks were rewritten to reflect Nazi ideology, and all movies, newspapers, radio, and art were regulated by the vigilant Ministry of Propaganda, under Joseph Goebbels. One of the Ministry's main tasks was to mobilize German anti- Semitism in support of Nazi persecution of German Jews, which would reach its climax in the Holocaust, begun in earnest in 1941. The persecution of the Jews was a major step in Hitler's plan to conquer all of Europe for the Aryan race, a plan that resulted in the outbreak of World War II.