Rejections of Democracy: The Interwar Years and World War II, 1918 to 1945
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Theme
The legacy of World War I was weakening empires, rising dictatorships, collapsing economies, and World War II.
Summaries
Decline of the West?
After the Great War, many percieved that Western Civilization was in crisis.
Russians in Revolt
The Russian Revolution created a new kind of totalitarian state.
Losing Their Grip
Western Imperialism reached its high point while already starting to lose control of colonies.
Fascist Fury
Fascism came to dominate European politics.
Hitler’s Hatreds
The German version of fascism—Naziism—brought its leader Hitler to power.
The Roads to Global War
Fascist Japan and Nazi Germany launched into World War II.
Keywords
Decline of the West?
influenza pandemic (1918-1919), theory of relativity, Fourteen Points, League of Nations, Treaty of Versailles (1919), Roaring Twenties, radio, movies, Wall Street Crash (1929), Great Depression (1929-1941), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (r. 1933-1945), Keynesian economic theory
Russians in Revolt
Russian Revolution (1917-1922), totalitarianism, authoritarianism, Russo-Japanese War (1905-1906), 1905 Revolution, L. Trotsky, Tsarism, Lenin (r. 1917-1924), Bolshevik, Bolshevism, Leninism, war communism, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922-1991), Red Scare (1918-1922), Stalin (r. 1927-1953), Stalinism, “Great Terror” (1936-1938), Five-Year Plans, collectivization
Losing Their Grip
mandates, population explosion, "Irish Problem," Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland, dominions, British Commonwealth (1932-), Iraq, Palestine, Indian National Congress (1885), Gandhi (d. 1948), Amritsar (1919
Fascist Fury
fascism, eugenics, corporate state, Mussolini (r. 1922-1943), Italo-Abyssinian War (1935-1937), balkanization, Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1918-1929), Yugoslavia, Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Basques, Atatürk (r. 1922-1938), Czecho-slovakia
Hitler’s Hatreds
Adolf Hitler (r. 1933-1945), Third Reich, pan-germanism, Weimar Republic (1918-1933), Nazis, Jewish Problem
The Roads to Global War
Sun Yat-sen (r. 1912 ), Nationalist Party of China, Jiang Jei-shei/Chiang Kai-shek (r. 1928-1975), Mao (d. 1976), World War II (1937-1945), Anschluß (1938), Munich Conference (1938), appeasement, Blitzkrieg, Winston Churchill (r. 1940-1945, 1951-1953), Battle of Britain (1940), Final Solution/Holocaust/Shoah (1941-1945), The Atlantic Charter (1941), Battle of Pearl Harbor (1941), atomic bomb (1945)
Review Questions
- How did the West suffer cultural confusion in the wake of war?
- How did the Bolsheviks establish a new kind of state and society?
- How were the Western Empires slowly weakening?
- How did fascism spread across the West?
- How did Hitler rise to power and change Germany?
- How did the German and Japanese desire for world empires shape World War II?
Other Questions
- How does the basic principle “No revolution can succeed against a relatively competent government” prove itself against the Russian Revolution or Weimar Germany?
- Discuss the ideas and methods behind the rise of Fascism in the world between the world Wars. What were the basic core beliefs and practices of Fascism? How did fascists come to power in particular countries? How did fascist policies try to transform global politics and society?
- What were the differences and similarities between Lenin and Stalin as rulers?
- How has modern science has changed Western Society's view of the world? You might consider the following questions: How did astronomy first destroy the medieval view of the universe, and what replaced it in the 17th century? What 19th century advances, especially in physics and biology, in turn brought further change? How did issues in the beginning of the Twentieth Century both promote and weaken the authority of science?
- How much is World War II a continuation of World War I?
- Discuss the underlying causes for World War Two. What were the long term problems that continued after World War I? What was the role of the democratic powers in Europe and America? What were the Japanese interests? What steps did Hitler take toward provoking war?
- What enabled the Allies to win World War II?
- Describe the conduct of World War II. How did the Axis powers succeed in the early years of the war? What were some of the consequences of the war for civilian populations? How did the Allied powers defeat the Axis? What problems did World War II leave as it ended?
