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Europe in the Interwar period
Casey Gurganus
[Institutional Affiliation(s)]
Author Note
Rise of Fascism and Interests of the Allied Powers
The interwar period
Indeed, the world must never see the likes of Mussolini and Hitler ever again due to their ruthlessness. But these leaders were not created in a day as there were several factors responsible for their rise to power. The chief of these factors is the Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of the Great War. This article, often cited in the history as the Guilt clause imposed economically crushing sanctions on the Germans. These harsh restrictions on Germans fueled a general state of unrest and frustrations among the citizens of Germany. Hitler capitalized on the opportunity, wrestled the power from Hindenburg through a series of political maneuvers, and rose to power as Fuhrer (German for Leader). He was impressed by Benito Mussolini who happened to be the founder of the ideology of Fascism, a concept he wanted to use to establish his rule and relieve the ailing economy of his state by the excessive use of military power. Both wanted the power to rival the British Empire, which was ruling at least 24% of the total world area at the time CITATION Bay16 \l 1033 (Bayly, 2016).
The world powers were not farsighted enough to see such an impending threat that would trigger the second world war. Their main focus was to make sure that the Germans may never be able to rise again. They gave the Coal mines in the Rhineland to the French and forbad the Germans to make expand their ground forces and making their air forces CITATION MHC18 \l 1033 (Creswell, 2018). Also, blind to the suffering of the Germans, they were busy carving the Turkish Empire in the pieces of their choice. Another idea that the allies seemed focused on was the creation of League of Nations, which proved as a toothless tiger in the prevention of invasion of Ethiopia by the Italians as well as the start of another world war.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Bayly, C. (2016). Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World 1780-1830. Routledge.
Creswell, M. (2018). No Easy Occupation: French Control Of The German Saar, 1944-1957. Journal of Modern History, 420-422.
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