The postwar period

The period after this war, was really hard as the deadly victims were around 9 million in total. It also had a big impact on the economy, the most affected were France, Russia and Belgium, however the USA was not affected at all, in fact it became the creditor of all of them. 

The treaty of Versailles

·      When the treaty of Versailles was signed[1], it established Germany as the guilty for the WWI, and as so, it was obligated to: reduce all the army (aerial, marine and normal); renounce to their colonial territories (which were shared between the winning nations); leave Russia; leave and restore Belgium and France; pay for all the losses it had caused; and the king William II was forced to abdicate. With this, Germany became a Republic and in January of 1919 the Weimar Republic was created[2].

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[1] June 28th 1919. Between Germany and the winning countries in the Mirror room of the Versailles Palace. There were present the British Prime Minister Lloyd George, the Italian Minister Giorgio Sonnino, the French politician George Clemenceau and the USA president Woodrow Wilson.

[2] Gustav Stresseman: prime minister of the Weimar republic.

Democracy in danger

In this period of time, as a consequence of the active participation of women and the “low classes” during the war, the universal suffrage had to be accepted. On the other hand, many new parties appeared, the most of them were radical as the socialists, the communists and the social democrats.

Democracy in danger: Italy

·      When the war finished, the king in the throne was Victor Manuel II, however he had no political power at all as the government was a democracy. In these right moments, a lot of radical parties started to form and to get strength, one of those was Mussolini’s fascism.

Mussolini wanted to rule Italy under a fascist regime where they were the only political force and there was no right for vote; in other words, he wanted a dictatorship. In such a way that nobody could take his power away by any means, neither by choosing another member of another political party, nor by giving a coup d’état.

He got the political power that he wanted after the March on Rome. When the king Victor Manuel II named him Prime Minister, which he shouldn't, as in that time, the king had no political power, which meant that he could not take any decision over the State.

 

Victor Manuel III and Mussolini.

Democracy in danger: Spain

·      During and after the WWI, Spain was reigned by Alfonso XIII, until 1923, when Miguel Primo de Rivera gave a coup d’état which was accepted by the king and did nothing to help it. However, when Primo de Rivera had definitely
      failed in 1930, Alfonso XIII tried to restore the Republic, 
      but all the radical parties opposed the monarchy, so one
      year later, the April 14^th 1931, to avoid a Civil War, left the country.

His intentions were good and worked for some time, but as
 a consequence of the majority of socialist and republican parties through Spain, in 1936, the war the king tried to avoid, started.

                                                                                            Alfonso XIII and Miguel Primo de Rivera.

The Locarno Agreements

·      The Locarno Agreements were a series of treaties signed by France, Germany, the U.K, Italy and Belgium in London in 1925 to maintain the peace. It involved leaving the borders and frontiers as they were arranged with the Treaty of Versailles, that they would not attack each other unless it was for self-defense; that they would solve their problems by pacific means and that if one of them broke the agreement, the others will join against him.

With the signing of these agreements Germany could enter in the League of Nations in 1926. 
After all that had happened during the WWI, and Germany being blamed for leading all Europe to it, Stressman thought it was the best idea to stablish peaceful relations with other countries and to improve the countrie's situation by respectable means. During his time in power, he carried out this plan, however, it was not reallu succesful, this is the reason for the which Hilter could convince people and change their minds easily and win the elections.

These agreements were broken by Hitler in 1936.

A new European Balance: League of Nations

After the Great War, the winning countries met to sign the Treaty of Versailles; the last point of this treaty established a new system by the which they wanted to avoid any conflict that could end in war. In the beginning it excluded Germany, however when the Locarno Agreements were signed, it supposed the entrance of Germany in the League of Nations. In one way or another this was one of the reasons that led to the Second World War, because one of the main points of the League of Nations was that if any of the members did anything against the rest, they would ally against him, so after all Germany had done and other problems, the war broke out once again. This system existed since 1920 until 1946.

Thanks to it, today we have what we know as the United Nations.