The Interwar Era and the Rise of Fascism

Throughout history, politics have always seemed to follow geopolitics. During the interwar era, around 1920s, several democracies around the world had expanded in the aftermath of WW1 (Kagan). These countries were experiencing a natural trend that resulted from the social progress. However, no sooner had the progression trend started than the new democracies, for instance Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, started crumbling. Great democratic powers in Europe like Britain and France, were hard hit by devastating effects of the war, while the super power nation, the US, retreated to its far but safe shores (Drucker 38). Commonly, all the nations were significantly affected by the war confrontations, which altered both their external and internal political landscape. Moreover, these nations suffered a more severe external stimuli, economic crisis, especially from the Great Depression that stroke between late 1920s and the early years of 1930s.

As a result of such uncertainties, a vacuum was created, and it saw the rise of ruthless powers like military rules, the rise of Mussolini in Italy, European Fascism and the crumble of Weimer Republic in Germany (Kagan).

With the rise of such powers saw a transition to Socialism and totalitarian dictatorship like that Nazism headed by Hitler, and power monopoly which carried out killings of mass protestors and political foes (Drucker 7). This interwar era was generally marked with land grabbing, strikes, public unrests, increased unemployment, and even disorganized factor occupations. The middle class and the poor dreaded the spectra of such regimes and events, and no way could democracy be effectively established. The greed of those in power made it extremely impossible for their opposers to pass political agendas for the benefit of all of the country’s citizens, and only after their abolition did democracy appeal in the affected regions.

Works Cited

Drucker, Peter. The end of economic man: The origins of totalitarianism. Routledge, 2017.

Kagan, Robert. “Is Democracy In Decline? The Weight Of Geopolitics”. Brookings, 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/is-democracy-in-decline-the-weight-of-geopolitics/. Accessed 29 Nov 2018.