Rise of Totalitarianism

At the end of World War I, totalitarianism began to rise. To keep the countries at peace they created The League Of Nations. It did not execute its duties well, and failed to enforce treaties, and prevent invasions. At the end of the war France designed the Treaty of Versailles to punish Germany, and it caused many problems in Germany. The rise of totalitarianism could have been stopped if, the Treaty of Versailles was not as severe, the League of Nations was more effective, and had their not been an economic downfall.

The Treaty of Versailles had some harsh regulations. This treaty stated Germany had to pay high reparations, take the blame for the war, have land taken from them, have their military reduced, and League of Nations taking over seas colonies. If it was not for this treaty Germany would not have had the rise of Nazism. The main goal of Nazism was to reunite the German speaking people and they could not do that if all the German speaking countries were spilt up. Alsace Lorraine was taken from Germany and given back to France.

Other countries were stripped from Germany and were given to Poland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and some made independent countries showing self-determination. All this did was anger the German people, because they blame the signing of the treaty on the people known as the “November Criminals”. The Weimar Republic did not know who to blame for the defeat and faced many problems similar to that. Revolts let out and so did street gangs. Horrible inflation happened due to the high reparations in the 1920s. This caused many German citizens to have very little hope in the government.

Hitler came into power by gaining control of the Nazi Party and got support for finding blame for the war. Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s loss in World War I and the economic downfall. In the 1930s Hitler started to use communism uprising as a threat to gain power. He went against the other political parties and set up a fascist totalitarian state in Germany based on the ideas of Stalin and Mussolini. Each regulation of this treaty led to each event in Germany causing the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. The League of Nations came along after World War I.

The point of the League was to make sure a war was never to break out again, and keep world peace stabilized. All the countries counted on the League to bring stability into the world. They did not want another disaster to happen, and to avoid this they created an international body whose sole purpose was to maintain world peace. One major problem was this was created when the United States was in isolationism; this meant that the US was not a part of the League. As America was the one of the world’s most powerful country this was a major weakness in the League of Nations. Germany was also not in the League due to the Treaty of Versailles.

One of their punishments was not being considered a part of the international community. In 1917 Russia was not allowed to join the League also. Mainly due to the communist government in Russia. This league was lacking powerful countries and that was a big deal if they wanted international peace. The League of Nations did not have an army, therefore, how are they supposed to reinforce the Treaty of Versailles and the peace between countries. The League of Nations would have worked if it was more organized. It also could have prevented the rise of Hitler when everything went bad in Germany.

Hitler refused to pay the reparations when he came into power and the League of Nations could not have done anything about it because they had no army. If the League was more organized it could have stop the rise of totalitarianism. Germany was unable to pay was reparations. They had terrible inflation, and their currency became worthless. France was aware of the high reparation costs putting Germany into a great depression. Things got better in Germany for a little until the stock market crashes in 1929 known as Black Tuesday and put Germany back into an economic crisis.

This all lead to the overthrow of the government starting with the Freikorps. In 1920 the Freikorps attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic and tried to blame the communist for it. Germany was in horrible shape with its economy and they would try anything to get out of it. Hitler actually had his reason for this economic crisis it was blaming the Jews. Any sort of way out the German people went along with because they were desperate for help. Hitler banned strikes, placed strict controls on wages and prices to end unemployment and try to improve the economy.

He violated the treaty by increasing the military to help unemployment. The League had nothing to stop this so had to let it go by. Germany going into the great depression due to these high reparations is what caused the German people to become desperate and look toward anyone for help. They choose Hitler to listen to and he turns Germany into a fascist totalitarian state. Some countries in Europe during the 1920s were falling apart, and need help desperately. Totalitarian leaders are what these countries came to with Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Mao.

The League of Nations was created to stabilize the world and bring peace. But the League had nothing to back it up except for their own word. These European countries economies were crashing, and Germany was in an economic crisis. The German people had to turn to a totalitarian leader to get out of it. Hitler got those jobs and helped the unemployment rate. Totalitarianism could have been stop if the Treaty of Versailles was not as harsh, the League of Nations was put together better, and if the economy had not turn terribly.