Question

Explain how the First World War’s conclusion impacted the development of the political and social landscape in the postwar world. one could argue that the First World War was the root of fascism, WWII, and the troubles associated with the Cold War- is this true if you think about it in global terms?

Answer 1

The First World War destroyed empires, created numerous new nation-states, encouraged independence movements in European colonies, forced the US to become a world power and led directly to Soviet communism and Hitler's rise. Also a century later, diplomatic alliances and promises made during World War I, particularly in the Middle East, came back to haunt Europeans. The approach to the balance of power in foreign affairs has been broken but not shattered. It took World War II to bring in enough political forces to embark on a new revolutionary approach to inter-state relations.

During World War I, when Benito Mussolini and other radicals formed a political group (called a fasci) supporting the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary, the rise of fascism in Italy commenced. On January 24, 1915 the first meeting of Mussolini's Fasci of Revolutionary Action took place. The small group of fascists engaged in political activities for the next few years , taking advantage of workers' protests to provoke violence.
Around 1921 the fascists began to align with mainstream conservatives, exponentially increasing membership.

Starting in 1922, fascist paramilitaries escalated their strategy from attacking socialist offices and homes of socialist leadership figures to violent urban occupation, eventually setting up their sites in Rome. Mussolini had been named prime minister of Italy during the so-called "March on Rome." From 1925 until 1929, Fascism became steadily entrenched in power. Opposition deputies were denied access to parliament, censorship was introduced and Mussolini was made solely responsible to the King by a Decree of December 1925.

The Cold War ended in the years 1948–53. During this period, the Soviets unsuccessfully blocked West Berlin's Western-held sectors; the United States and its European allies formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO), a unified military command to resist the Soviet presence in Europe (1949); the Soviets exploded their first atomic warhead (1949), ending the American monopoly on the atomic bomb. On the other hand, the Soviets were determined to maintain control over Eastern Europe in order to safeguard against any possible renewed threat from Germany, and they were determined to spread communism worldwide, for ideological reasons in large part. By 1947–48, when US assistance given to Western Europe under the Marshall Plan had put those countries under American influence, the Cold War had solidified, and the Soviets had openly established communist regimes in Eastern Europe.