The Dark Continent Flashcards
Causes of democracies’ fall
- laws before politics
- legislative/juridicial perfection: unworkable schemes, utopian political structure0 paralysis
- too much confidence in the legistlature
- fear of communism: leftists were casted out of parliaments (always rightward movements)
- Liberalism cannot give what people wanted
- democracy not suited for modern problems
- polarization of politics
Birth of minorities
Term born after WW1
- threat-reproach: new democracies= founded on people’s sovereignity– people= nation; ehtnic minority= threat
- failed tactics:
1. divide et impera: exploiting ethnic differences– brang people to gain rights by themselves
2. assimilation in public offices: inadvertedely created a backlash (=counter-nationalism)
3. international laws= humiliation to states’ sovereignity
4. cultural autonomy: very few thought outright independence was possible
5. repatriation’s failure: high costs, not everyone had a home to go to
MINORITIES’ NATIONALISM AFTER WW1: exponentially grew as both sides offered increased independence to get them on their side
Versailles Treaty: what was it actually?
= treaty favourable to France and Britain: creation of buffer states againts Russia and Germany while managing their interests in the colonies
EUROPE’S LOSS OF BALANCE
Germany– lost its position of Great Power; had to be restablished if a russo-german understanding was to be avoided
Pioneer of the federal system
Russia after revolution
Applied Habsburgic’s program= cultural autonomy and minorities in the offices
Worked because– russians= never had been less than half of the Empire’s population
Polish question and its minorities
Creation of a polish state?
- France: yes– bulwark against Germany and Bolshevism; did not care about minorities
- Britain: concerned about the risks of polish nationalism= possible imperialist Poland
Confederation was out of question– avoidance of a state within a state
LIBERAL SOLUTION:
creation of Polish state that recognizes rights to its minorities– guarantor= League of Nations
League of Nations’ role in minorities question
= international channel and interlocutor– could bring cases before the Permanent Court of International Justice– jeleaous of this capacity= boycott of minorities to directly appeal to it
- France: wanted strong allies in the East
- Britian: thought minorities’ laws were resisting assimilation
ANTI-EGUALITARIANISM:
international laws were applied only to “uncivilized” and “immature” countries
League of Nations
1919
= international channel of communication
- never had power if not by exposing countries to public opinion
- states’ were not legally bound to it
- its effectiveness depended upon states’ willingness= pacifism and passive international attitude
National Socialism foreign policy in the East (Vienna Accord)
- trustees over German minorities in eastern european countries
- gained rights over Romanian oil
- Germany would act as arbiter between Hungary, Slovakia and Romania
Scars of WW1
- decay of European values
- fatherless generation
- decay of Patriachism: especially in the USSR; in other countries the old order was restablished
- the states’ sense of insecurity; tried to organize and educate its population to be healthy and many– the power of the nation resides in the quantity and quality of human stocks
- collapsing world– revolutions, insurrections, mutinies
All this brang the state to turn into a PATERNAL SUROGATE– showed everyone their place and was source of moral authority
Brought about obligations for NATIONAL SECURITY
Role of the cities
- sterelized middle class; the working class breeded at high rate
- surplus population: brang to the creation of slums
- threat to the state:
1. biologically= enormous birth-rates
2. politically= negation of healthy democracy
3. militarily= vulnerability of the cities
4. morally= too many temptations
REACTION= idealization of the countryside
Economic consequences of WW1
End of trust into liberalism
Abandonment of:
- free trade
- gold standard
- convertibility of the currence
After WW1 economy’s recovery was in the hands of privates reluctant to invest= no result
States were guarantors rather than investors– after WW2 economy would be rebuilt by states’ loans
Central-eastern European industrial power was to be rebuilt for the survival of european states (other production centres had arisen)
LEAGUE OF NATIONS:
- raised money to eastern countries to stabilize themselves
- pushed for the building of indipendent central banks
- helped mediate to conclude deals between bondholders and the countries
FEAR OF TRANSATLANTIC TAKEOVER USHERED COOPERATION
Never worked
1929 crisis’ effects
- increase in nationalisms
- end of gold standard
- end of lassaiz-faire
- stop of money lending
- economic nationalisms, incompatible with liberal capitalism
- nation over globe economy
- production over stable prices
Recovery from 1929 crisis
Solution= economic nationalism– countries producing for themselves rather than struggling on international market and gold standard
Aim= self-sufficiency
PLANNED OUTPUT= SUCCESS
- prices stopped falling
- employment rose
AUTARKY= short term solution– there was no competition, firms were protected
Industrials were not incentived to reinvest money– nazi Germany instead forced them to do so
Feasability of the German dream
Many european countries were well disposed to welcome German management under an authoritarian regime after liberalism’s failure
CONDEMNATION OF THE GERMANS= extreme violence and rascism– all european nations were in short term sources of labour; in the long-term they were to be annexed to Germany (no other Europe if not one of the Germans)
To workers one does not only have to give a wage but also sentiment that brings them to produce
ECONOMIC LEVEL
Blitzkrieg– recquired economy of conquest
Speer’s plan after 1942– stop in expropriation of firms and organisation of planned output with industrial technocrats
