Interwar period and WWI

Name: Renee Koe Li Chun

Student ID: 50055120070, SPBM08

Subject: FWP 20034 History III - Test 1

1. Examine the rise of extreme ideologies during the interwar period and explain the extent to which they constituted a threat to the liberal order. (8 marks)

        The interwar period between 1918 to 1939 marked the period of disillusionment of people who suffered from the destructiveness of the World War One (WWI) both physically and psychologically. People lost hope on the existing ineffective and corrupt political system hence shifted their support to radical political leaders that promised to bring immediate change to rectify political, economic, and social problems at home. The incapability of the democracy to safeguard the public’s wellbeing gave room to the radical political leaders to exploit the disillusionment of people and came up with extreme ideologies such as socialism, communism and fascism.

        Firstly, the rise of communism took place in Russia during the Russian civil war that involved both the Bolsheviks and the Whites. Vladimir Lenin along with his Bolshevik followers came into power in Russia when they led the Red Terror and executed Tsar Nicholas II and his followers to root out the monarchs and prevent the exploitation of monarchs by the Whites. Later, the Whites backed by the Allies were defeated by the Red Army of Bolsheviks. Initially, the rule of Lenin was viewed as war communism characterised by his policies such as nationalising banks, crucial industries, monasteries and churches as well as the prohibition of private businesses. However, Lenin’s New Economic Policy (1921) reverted the free market economy and allowed small entreprises with less than 200 employees to hold private ownership. Apart from that, programs and technical schools were established to provide skilled workers in national industries. After Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin continued with his socialist policies of establishing quotas and collectivisation of private farms at the expense of the agricultural workers to feed the industrial workers. Although his agricultural collectivisation policies were condemned by kulaks and the central committee members, Stalin suppressed the dissidents by force and purged millions of oppositions into labour camps.

        Moreover, the rise of fascism can be seen in both Italy by Benito Mussolini and the Nazi Germany. Both the fascist leaders opposed the ideologies of democracy, socialism and communism. They practised extreme nationalism such as veneration to state and unquestionably obeyed to leaders. They ruled as the sole dictator and banned all their rivalries and through forceful militarism and censorship to maintain social order and suppress dissidents. For instance, Mussolini threatened the socialists with his Blackshirts troops and marched in Rome to take over power in Italy while German Hitler toppled all his rivalries by making his own party legal only and took control on judiciary, executive and military. Also, Mussolini and Hitler were characterised by their ethnocentrism and racism where they signed the Steel Pact (1938) and adopted anti-Semitism in their respective countries. In Italy, marriage between the Jews or Aryans was strongly condemned while in Germany, marriage and sexual intercourse with the Jews were illegal by law. Nazi German emphasised on purity on race to where state-sponsored euthanasia and compulsory sterilisation were held on physically or mentally deficient humans.

        In short, the rise of socialism, communism and fascism during interwar period gave the public a new perception towards alternative political systems that authoritarian government might be more reliable to democratic government. The practice of extreme ideologies possessed similar characteristics of hostile to democracy, extreme nationalism, militarism and ethnocentrism and racism. All these practices did result in effective policy-making in the short term. However, one should also consider that they ultimately threatened the liberal rights of the people and ignored the public interests in the long term as seen in the case of communism in Russia, fascist in Italy and Nazi Germany.

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