Introduction

• These slides contain:– Summaries of some of the main contents of European Dictatorships (with page

references)– Additional material:

• Historical• Historiographical

• Instructions. – Go on to Slide Show > View Show. This will activate:

• Slide transitions• Slide and box animations• Hyperlinks within this PowerPoint• Links to other websites for:

– Illustrations– Text– Other links

Title page follows

EUROPEAN DICTATORSHIPS 1918 - 1945

THIRD EDITION ROUTLEDGE 2008

STEPHEN J. LEE

Supporting PowerPoint 1

Setting for Dictatorship

Which countries were dictatorships?

European dictatorships (Details in European Dictatorships 2)

Dictatorships by 1938

D

D

D

D

D

DD

D

D

D

D

D

DD

D

D

D

D

Dictatorships dismantled by other dictatorships 1938-42 (Details in European Dictatorships 2)

Totalitarian dictatorships by 1938

Authoritarian dictatorships dismantled by totalitarian dictatorships 1938-43

D

D

D

D

D

DD

D

D

D

DD

D

D

D

D

D

D

Authoritarian dictatorships in alliance with totalitarian dictatorships after 1940

Authoritarian dictatorships remaining outside control of totalitarian dictatorships

D

D

D

European democracies (Details in European Dictatorships 2)

Dictatorships by 1938

D

D

D

D

D

DD

D

D

D

D

D

DD

D

D

D

D

Democracies dismantled by dictatorships 1938-40

Remaining democracies in 1940

Principal European dictators (Details in European Dictatorships xii-xv)

1920

1925

1930

1935

1940

1945

Russia

Italy

Germany

Portugal

Spain

Austria

Hungary

Poland

Baltic States

Yugoslavia

Albania

Romania

Bulgaria

Greece

Turkey

STALINLENIN

MUSSOLINI

HITLER

SALAZAR

HORTHY

FRANCOPRIMO DE RIVERA

K S

PIŁSUDSKI

DOLFUSS SCHUSCHNIGG

ZOG

METAXAS

MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATüRK

ANTONESCU

PAVELIC

BORIS

ALEXANDER

CAROL

SMETONA, ULMANIS, PÄTS

Overall argument of Chapter 1: The setting for dictatorship (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 5)

Europe before World War I was already in a state of uncertainty and crisis.

This was exacerbated by World War I …

… and by the peace settlement which followed it.

In the period after World War I democracy was tried – but gave way to dictatorship in many places.

This was influenced by attitudes to modernization …

… and affected by economic crisis

1

2

3

4

5

6

The period before 1914

Pre-War developments contributing to the emergence of dictatorship

(Details and comments in European Dictatorships 5-8) Rapid changes: technological development, population growth, industrialization, development of working class

Politicization of the masses and the development of mass politics

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

‘Fin de siècle’ and ‘intellectual crisis of the 1890s’ (Sternhell et al.)

Criticism of parliamentarianism

Development of the far left: Sorelian syndicalism, revolutionary Marxism

Development of far right: Social Darwinism, anti-Semitism, ultra-nationalism, völkisch groups

Convergence of far left and far right

Growing instability of traditionalist regimes

Rapid growth of nationalism at different levels9

Glamorization of violence10

The impact of World War I

Impact of World War as a contribution to the rise of dictatorship

(Details in European Dictatorships 5-8)

Casualties, impact on economies, depletion of resources, exhaustion of armies.

Defeat was a catalyst for revolution (see 3, 4, 5).

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Military defeat was a factor in revolutions in Russia

Military defeat was a factor in the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Long-term complications contributed to the rise of dictatorship.Military defeat was a factor in the collapse of Imperial Germany. Long-term complications contributed to the rise of Nazism.Although World War created he conditions for he establishment of democratic regimes, it also provided impossible obstacles for these to surmount (see 7,8,9)

The terms of the peace settlement were widely resented.

Economic instability was aggravated by war debts and reparations payments.

Destruction of empires which had helped constrain nationalism, communism and fascism.9

Pre-war influences and the influences of World War I compared

(Details and comments in European Dictatorships 11-12)

Was World War I more influential than pre-War developments?

Bracher, Payne, Kershaw argue that it was. Their explanations in ED 11

But in Germany and Russia the war can also be seen as an ‘accelerator’ and ‘distorter’ of pre-1914 developments

Arguments in ED 11-12

Was the collapse of Tsarist Russia inevitable with or without World War I?

Arguments in ED 11-12

RUSSIA

GERMANY

AUSTRIA - HUNGARY

Poland

Czechoslovakia

Finland

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

Austria Hungary

Yugo-

slavia

Romania

To Italy

To France

To Denmark

The impact of World War I on three empires

The Peace Settlement and its significance

Peace treaties signed 1918-23 (Details in European Dictatorships 12-15)

TREATY OF VERSAILLES Germany 28 June 1919

TREATY Dealt with: Signed on:

TREATY OF ST GERMAIN Austria 10 July 1919

TREATY OF NEUILLY Bulgaria 27 November 1919

TREATY OF TRIANON Hungary 4 June 1920

TREATY OF SÈVRES Turkey 20 August 1920

TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK Russia March 1918

TREATY OF LAUSANNE Turkey September 1923

Paris Settlement 1919-23

RUSSIA

GERMANY

AUSTRIA - HUNGARY

Poland

Czechoslovakia

Finland

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

Austria Hungary

Yugo-

slavia

Romania

To Italy

To France

To Denmark

Territorial changes made to the three great empires by the peace treaties

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Treaty of Versailles

Treaties of St Germain and Trianon

Influences on the peace settlement (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 12-13)

Idealism?

- President Wilson’s Fourteen Points 1918

- National self-determination

- US detachment from European problems

Revanchism?

- Clemenceau’s concern with French security and revenge

Pragmatism?

- Lloyd George’s attempt to steer between Wilson and Clemenceau and to achieve a compromise

Treaty of Versailles 1919 (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 13)

Terms A fair settlement? (see ED 13-14)

Article 231: War Guilt Clause

Territorial losses:- Alsace Lorraine to France- Eupen and Malmédy to Belgium- N. Schleswig to Denmark (after plebiscite)- Posen, West Prussia to Poland- S. Silesia to Poland (after plebiscite)- All overseas colonies

Military terms:- Limits to navy- No airforce- Army of 100,000 volunteers- Demilitarization of Rhineland

Economic terms:- Confiscation of quantities of merchant shipping and rolling stock- Saar region to be exploited by France- Reparations (finalised in 1921 at 136,000 million gold marks

NO:

YES:

Contemporaries: J.M. Keynes, Harold Nicolson. The settlement lacked wisdom and the economic terms were ‘inexpedient and disastrous.’

Historians of the 1920s such as Dawson. Germany’s ‘bleeding frontiers’.

Recent historians such as such as Néré, Trachtenberg, McDougall: France suffered more severely than Germany from the war and had a powerful claim to compensation.

Contemporaries: Those who drew up the Treaty argued that Germany’s military and economic power needed to be cut back.

Treaties of St Germain (1919), Neuilly (1919), Trianon (1920), Sèvres (1920) and Lausanne (1923)

(Details and comments in European Dictatorships 14-15)

Terms

St Germain (Austria) and Trianon (Hungary):

- Czechoslovakia formed from provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Ruthenia.

- Romania received Transylvania and Bukovina

- Serbia (Yugoslavia) received Dalmatia, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia

Neuilly (Bulgaria):

-Greece received Aegean coastline and W. Thrace

- Romania received Dobrudja

- Serbia (Yugoslavia) received parts of Macedonia)

Sèvres (Turkey):

- Mandate of Arab provinces (Transjordan, Palestine and Iraq to Britain; Syria and Lebanon to France)

- Hejaz joined to rest of Arabia

- Greece received Smyrna for 5 years, E Thrace, Aegean islands

- Italy received Rhodes and Dodecanese

- Straits internationalized

Lausanne (Turkey):

- E. Thrace restored to Turkey

-Smyrna withdrawn from Greece

- Rhodes and Dodecanese withdrawn from Italy

The crisis of democracy

Characteristics of democracy, according to Kohn (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 15)

… ‘open-minded critical enquiry’ …

… ‘mutual regard and compromise’…

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

… opposition functioning as ‘a legitimate partner in the democratic process’…

… ‘a pluralistic view of values and associations’ …

… a refusal to identify totally with ‘one party or with one dogma’ …

… recognition of the fundamental values of ‘individual liberty’ …

… ‘freedom of the enquiring mind’ …

Features introduced to give democracy effect (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 15-16)

Introduction of Proportional representation:

- Belgian system as adapted in 1918 by the Dutch.

- Related number of votes to size of party in parliament and

- established a national pool for smaller groups.

- Used in Germany, Poland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Balkan states.

1

2

3

Increase in size of electorate in most states.

Extension of the franchise to women.

Initial democracies in post-war Europe

Democracy under strain (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 16-18)

Economic crisis: inflation in 1920s, depression in the 1930s

Racial instability as a result of conflicting ethnic groups

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Social disruption caused by class conflicts

Problems with political parties:- Liberal parties depleted- Populist parties moved to the right- Conservative parties became more authoritarian- Parties of the left saw a conflict between socialists and communists

Proportional Representation failed to maintain political stability by encouraging splinter parties.Some constitutions had emergency powers which could be abused (e.g. Article 48 in the constitution of the Weimar Republic.

Absence of really popular democratic statesmen between he wars.

The role of modernity

Influence of modernity: approaches (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 18-20)

For Germany and Italy, dictatorship was part of their path to modernization.

Some historians have argued that:

Others have pointed to the following destabilizing effects of modernization:

1 Resentment of Taylorism as a means of speeding up production, leading to:2 Trade union opposition and strikes3 Industrialists looking to authoritarian systems to control 24 Worsening of class divisions within society5 Growing appeal of the far left and the far right as a result

There is a strong argument for the impact of modern communications technologies:

1 Persuasiveness of public speaking magnified by loudspeakers2 Use of knowledge of crowd psychology3 Banners with modernized images4 Parades, uniforms, marching songs5 Rallies, radio, posters, cinema, simplified and targeted electoral messages6 Emphasis on ‘gigantomania’

The economic impact

The first crises: 1920s (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 21)

These followed the First World War:

RUSSIA: War Communism (1918-21) and New Economic Policy from 1921

ITALY: Economic collapse, inflation, rise of Mussolini by 1922

GERMANY: Reparations 1921, hyperinflation 1921-3

Recovery? (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 21-2)

System for international financial recovery under the Dawes Plan (1924) and Young Plan 1929

United States

War

deb

ts: $

2.6

billio

n

BritainFranceBelgium

Reparations: $2.0 billion

GermanyLoans: $2.5 billion

Did this work?

Vulnerability of economies in late 1920s and early 1930s (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 21-2)

Eastern Europe less affected by economic upswing

Industrial growth in Western Europe not accompanied by proportionate increase in volume of trade

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Agricultural overproduction in Western Europe and the United States resulted in fall in agricultural prices 1925-9Industrial growth depended too heavily on American short-term loans. Withdrawals resulted in sudden increases in unemploymentOperation of the gold standard was distorted by the accumulation of most of the world’s gold reserves in the United States

Europe’s prosperity linked to that of the United States

Devastating impact of Wall Street Crash (1929) and …

8 … collapse of Kredit Anstaldt 1931

Depression: economic impact (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 22-3)

30% decline in total world industrial production from 1929 levels

42% decline in trade and manufactured goods

1

2

3

4

Germany

Czechoslovakia

11% decline in food output

19% decline in raw materials

Most severely affected. Unemployment over 6 million

Impact on the Sudetenland

E. Europe

USSR

Destroyed trade in agricultural goods

In theory insulated from depression. In practice affected by drop in price of exported grain

Depression: political impact (Details and comments in European Dictatorships 23-4)

Hughes: The crisis of capitalism was also a crisis of liberalism and democracy.

De

mo

crac

y su

rviv

ed in

:

De

mo

crac

y co

llaps

ed

in:

Sweden, Denmark : use of consensus politics.

Britain: National Government from 1931

France: broad-based coalitions (e.g. Blum’s Popular Front 1936)

Germany : collapse of coalitions and rise of authoritarian regime which put Nazis into power

Eastern Europe and Balkans: use of emergency powers to replace democratic systems

Portugal and Austria: emergence of authoritarian regimes

For impact on international relations see European Dictatorships 24

End of PowerPoint 1