The agreements that should end the conflicts of the First World War(1914-1918) served for a climate of rivalries get worse. The imposition of extremely heavy fines and sanctions failed to achieve real political balance between the world's economic powers. Roughly speaking, we can say that the First World War paved the way for the occurrence of a new international conflict.
totalitarianism
Even posing alongside the winners, Italy left the conflict frustrated by not receiving the material gains it had hoped for. In Germany, where the heaviest sanctions of the Treaty of Versailles were instituted, the economy lived in frank decay, and inflation rates reached exorbitant values. This context of decline and degradation ended up creating chances for Italy and Germany to be dominated by regimes marked by extreme nationalism and frank military expansion.
Mind Map: World War I
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The League of Nations, the international peace-keeping body, has failed to fulfill its role. Japan imposed an expansionist project that culminated in the occupation of Manchuria. The Germans began to gradually fail to comply with the requirements imposed by the Treaties of Versailles and carried out the occupation of the Rhineland region. Meanwhile, the Italians took advantage of the new situation to carry out the invasion of Ethiopia.
The balance sought by the countries was also impeded by the economic crisis that devastated the capitalist system in the year 1929. Unable to impose their interests against the Germans and Italians, the great European nations started to give space to the interests of the totalitarian governments. Taking advantage of this situation, the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini encouraged the expansion of a military industry, which used the Spanish Civil War as a “rehearsal stage” for a new world conflict.
World War II outbreak
Strengthened in this new political situation, Italy, Germany and Japan began to engender the first steps of an even bloodier and more devastating war: the Second World War. The long-awaited peace drained down the drain of the contradictions of a war sustained by the contradictions imposed by competitive capitalism. Finally, the year 1939 would be the trigger for old disputes that could not be overcome with the tragic outcome of the First War.
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*Image Credit:Everett Historical / Shutterstock
By Me. Rainer Sousa
*Mental Map by Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/consequencias.htm