Post-WWI Democracy: Rise, Crisis, and Political Shifts

The Rise and Crisis of Democracy

The peace treaties that put an end to World War I led to the emergence of new states in Europe. In the majority, parliamentary governments were established, making democracy the dominant political system. Key characteristics included:

• Recognized individual rights: freedom of opinion, expression, belief, and movement.
• Free elections and equality before the law.
• Trade union freedom and the emergence of universal male suffrage.

Women's suffrage also began to be established in some countries. In contrast to these ideologies, the extreme left, following the lines of the Soviet Union, advocated for the "dictatorship of the proletariat." Communism served as a working-class alternative to democracy.

Western Democracies

France and the United Kingdom

France (I know.) In the United Kingdom, general respect for the democratic system was manifested in Parliament through the peaceful confrontation between the Conservative and the Labour Party. However, Ireland experienced serious clashes between nationalists fighting for independence and the British army and police. In the elections of 1919, the Irish independence deputies refused to participate in the British Parliament and established an Irish Parliament in Dublin, which proclaimed independence. The United Kingdom initially responded with the use of strength, but in 1922, it finally acknowledged the Irish Free State. Ulster (Northern Ireland), with its majority Protestant population, remained a British province, where clashes have continued until today.

The United States

The United States was characterized by political conservatism, the enactment of Prohibition (which banned the consumption of alcoholic beverages), the persecution of labor organizations, and the marginalization of left-wing groups. After a period of international isolation, the U.S. emerged from the Great War as the undisputed world economic power, fueled by the great prosperity of the 1920s. In 1929, the U.S. launched a social and political change of a progressive nature, which was reflected by President Roosevelt.

The Weimar Republic and the Rise of Nazism

After World War I, Germany experienced the Weimar Republic, which faced double opposition. First, the Spartacists promoted a Bolshevik-type revolution that was crushed, and its main leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, were assassinated. On the other hand, the right-wing accused the ruling Democrats of being traitors for accepting the Treaty of Versailles.

The political crisis was joined by an economic crisis. In the 1930 elections, the Nazi and Communist parties radicalized; the reparations Germany had to pay had catastrophic consequences for the economy. This led to the occupation of the Ruhr by the French to force Germany to pay its debts. The situation forced a revision of reparations and the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo, which signaled the end of international isolation, and the Locarno Treaties, which established mutual security for the borders between Germany, France, and Belgium. With half the electorate's support, the following year, the leader of the Nazi party, Adolf Hitler, was appointed Chancellor.