“This is not a peace.
It is an armistice for twenty years”-
Marshal Ferdinand Foch
It’s difficult to visualise the Inter-war period, an era buffered so greatly by the horrors of the Second World War that came after it. Hindsight sees this period as short lived; a brief era of prosperity which abruptly detoured into despair and anxiety. In reality, this period is a lesson in mismanagement – a botched peace conference with an ineffective economic system and institutions of global governance that lacked mass support. Each failure continued to creep the world closer to devastating war.
VERSAILLES – NO THE 40s CLASS
Following the November 11th armistice in 1918, officials from all parties began six months of negotiation to deliberate the Treaty of Versailles. The problems that would plague a generation began here. Future representative to the British Treasury John Keynes would describe Versailles as a ‘Carthaginian peace’. Moreover, the harsh terms imposed on the defeated German Empire with the guilt clause as a stern example would only serve to antagonise Germans and drive their efforts to re-arm over the course of the interwar period. Versailles would symbolise antagonising shame, such as the humiliating and severe economic punishments imposed upon Germany which laid the foundations of Nazism.
Italy would serve as an early warning for this rise. Although they sided with the allies, Versailles would again symbolise betrayal as Italy gained very little of desired land along the Adriatic Sea. In parallel to ‘Lebensraum’, Benito Mussolini would call this land ‘vital space’ as one of his first major policy ideas in 1919. Indeed, Mussolini as a public figure would only grow in popularity, culminating in his march on Rome on 28 October 1922 which would directly lead to his appointment as Prime Minister as Victor Emmanuel III and conservative establishment didn’t want to risk civil war when confronted by 30,000 of Mussolini’s supporters.
Hitler would be inspired by these events to organise his own march, known as the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’. Nearly 2,000 Nazi sympathisers tried to start a coup in the city of Munich. However, this was swiftly crushed by the Weimar military with Hitler arrested. Alongside this, in the 1928 Weimar General Elections the Nazis would only earn 2.6% of the vote. It would’ve seemed, that the impending threat of fascism was no worry amidst a time of great economic prosperity.
THE 1920s BOOM
The 1920s is remembered as a period of great prosperity. The United States would emerge from the war as the economic leader of the world with 42% growth, unemployment consistently below 4%, and a significant amount of engagement in the stock market with an average value increase of 20% annually throughout the decade. These were outstandingly prosperous times that translated all over the world. Indeed, the German economy was in such a weak state by the end of the war it could not pay the imposed reparations. Consequently, the French army invaded and occupied the Ruhr Valley to take control of German mines in order to seek some form of compensation. Combined with other pressures on the economy, this led to hyperinflation and social unrest.
What would save Germany from economic collapse would be the intervention of US officials, especially Charles G. Dawes. In its most simplistic form: America would issue a $200 million loan and reorganise Germany’s major bank under allied supervision. This would allow the German economy to rebound and repay reparations gradually with new infrastructure along with excise and customs tax revenue. Moreover, the Allies would benefit as while Britain and France received reparations it would be able to bring the benefits around to America by paying off war debts. This economic prosperity would be the main driving force of stability in global affairs. However, this was short lived and would only become a distant memory amidst the collapse that would arrive 24 October 1929.
THE 1930s BUST
What would be known as Black Monday was the crash of the American stock market, leading to the worst global economic crisis in world history. With limited regulations, the US economy became a ticking time-bomb that would go on to explode, unravelling global trade with devastating political repercussions world-wide. Mass unemployment and an evaporation of wealth created the perfect conditions for fascism to take centre stage. Hitler, from only winning a meagre 2.6% would balloon to 18.25% in 1930. By March 1933, with a fracturing political establishment, Nazi support would reach a peak of 43.91% with Hitler soon being appointed chancellor. His power was used to strip away the remaining democratic aspects of the Weimar Republic to become a totalitarian dictator.
The League of Nations, established as an international forum to maintain global peace in January of 1920, suffered from structural weaknesses that left it unable to handle the rising threat of war. With the tumultuous geopolitical condition of the time, fascist leaders aimed to flex their military might. Japan would invade Manchuria in 1932, and when the League met to condemn Japan’s actions in 1933 the rising empire just withdrew from the league altogether which effectively killed any notion of collective security. Moreover, the League’s moral leadership was further tarnished when Italy invaded and conquered Abyssinia in 1935, with the League’s core leaders Britain and France trying to partition Abyssinia which was only stopped by a major public outcry within the two nations.
With fascists empowered and institutionalised alongside any moral leadership diminished, there was nothing left to stop the Second World War from coming as Hitler used the examples in Manchuria and Abyssinia to see Poland as a viable target. Versailles set up an interwar period that can be seen as an example of the consequences of leadership that isn’t forward thinking.
Do take part in the Treaty of Versailles historical committee at MUNash 2019, please register at following link: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/monash-model-united-nations-2019-tickets-68663405093
