Facism

• WWI started


  June 1914
• WWI ended


  11th November 1918 at 11.00am
• The Great War was only supposed to last for several weeks or months. Leaders never thought it would last over 4 years
• There was a strong sense of desolation that dominated Europe after WWI
• The economic and human cost of the war was unimaginable
• Death and injury tolls into the tens of millions truly made the war something that cast a shadow of gloom over the entire continent
• The beliefs that dominated Europe about the "glory of war fighting" were dispelled by the end of the First World War
• The destruction wrought on the continent made rebuilding a task that was almost impossible to undertake
• Millions of women lost husbands, children lost parents, and a sense of abandonment and loss enveloped the nation
• Nationalism, faith in government, belief in religion, as well as the idea of honour in war were all ruptured by the end of the war
• In addition to the devastation of Germany, France, London sustained tremendous damage and 30,000 deaths from aerial attacks alone, after the war German borders were reset
• Most of the Germans fled or were expelled from outside the territory of postwar Germany and post-war Austria
• Much of northern and eastern France was physically devastated by the war
• Germany's economy was shattered and Britain was nearly bankrupt. Russia was in revolution and the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires were disintegrating
• France began to speak of the "lost generation" - the 1.8 million Frenchman killed during the war, and the long term effect it had on their society
• Germans were humiliated at Versailles and shocked that they had signed it. The veterans of the war were dazed - partly amazed at their survival, and forever wounded by what they had witnessed and lost
• This lack of belief caused a vacuum into which the dictators of the 1930s such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Franco were more than willing to absorb
• Casualties of WWI


  • Britain: 750,000 soldiers killed, 1,500,000 wounded
  • France: 1,400,000 soldiers killed, 2,500,000 wounded
  • Belgium: 50,000 soldiers killed
  • Italy: 600,000 soldiers killed
  • Russia: 1,700,000 soldiers killed
  • America: 116,000 soldiers killed
• Casualties of WWI for Central Powers

  • Germany: 2,000,000 soldiers killed
  • Austria-Hungary: 1,200,000 soldiers killed
  • Turkey: 325,000 soldiers killed
  • Bulgaria: 100,000 soldiers killed
• The total deaths of all nations who fought in the war is thought to have been 8.5 million with 21 million being wounded
• The Allied nations met in Paris at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to decide the fate of Germany and the Central Powers
• Leaders at the Paris Peace Conference

  • Georges Clemenceau (Prime Minister of France)
  • David Lloyd George (Prime Minister of Great Britain)
  • Woodrow Wilson (President of the United States)
  • Vitorio Orlando (Prime Minister of Italy)
• Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Point Peace Plan

  Nations should keep a small army for defence only, countries should avoid making secret treaties with each other, people of one race and language should be free to set up their own governments (self-determination)
• Woodrow Wilson felt that Germany should not be blamed for the war or punished too harshly
• French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau felt that Germany was responsible for the war and should take the blame and be forced to pay large reparations
• The Treaty of Versailles was signed


  June 28, 1919
• The Treaty of Versailles was extremely harsh on Germany. It forced Germany to "accept the responsibility for causing all the loss and damage" of the war (the 'War Guilt Clause')
• Germany had to pay reparations (compensation) to make good the damage caused by the war, later fixed at the huge sum of £6,000 million
• Germany lost the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine to France, territory in the east to allow the recreated state of Poland to have a coastline, and land in Denmark and Belgium
• As a result one tenth of Germany's population was now living in foreign countries
• The German army was to be reduced to 100,000 soldiers and the border region between Germany, France and Belgium and the Rhineland became a demilitarized zone (German troops were forbidden to be stationed there)
• Germany was forced to disarm, give up land to France, and to pay reparations of 132 billion marks (around $442 billion in 2014 money)
• Several new independent countries were formed including Poland, Finland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. Russia became the Soviet Union and the Ottoman Empire later became the country of Turkey
• The League of Nations was formed in an effort to establish world peace. Its member countries hoped to prevent wars by helping to settle disputes between countries
• The League also aimed to establish fair labour conditions, improve global health, control the global arms trade, and protect minorities in Europe
• The League was officially founded by the Treaty of Versailles and had 42 founding member countries
• Reasons for the rise of fascism

  • Armies suffered huge losses
  • High inflation made money worthless
  • Widespread disorder
  • Governments were short-lived, inefficient and corrupt
• Characteristics of fascism


  • Aggressively patriotic and nationalistic
  • Rejected democracy and believed in a totalitarian system of government
  • Dictatorship ruled by one party whose leader has total control over the country
  • Strongly opposed to communism
  • Supported private ownership
  • Outlawed opposition
  • Strongly anti-communist
• Hitler created his own private army of storm troopers, or brownshirts
• In 1923 they tried to stage a putsch (revolution) in Munich but were easily defeated and Hitler was imprisoned