History Thoughts

Just moving these over from facebook.

The preoccupation of all European powers pre-WWI was on the moral rightness of their victory, and this morality-minded mentality led to the illusion of a decisive victory for ALL sides (e.g. the Schlieffen Plan and the British delusion of 'home by Christmas'!)... this led to the basis of caluculations for supplies in all areas to be grievously underestimated, and led to the total lack of preparation evident in all countries (except perhaps Germany thanks to Rathenau?)- this would partially explain the devastating economic loss post-1918, not to mention France's early loss of the Birge area, which was a CRITICAL economic area!

All memory- any mistakes, apologies. Elaboration on blogspot when time allows.
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All facts and arguments from memory, I suspect strong influence from Taylor and Stone.

Supplement:

The Fascist Party's name 'Fascio di Combattimento' literally alludes to 'fighting', from which we can see their advocating of violence and hence their expansionist foreign policy.

Therefore, this explains:

Corfu, Fiume, Abyssinia, Albania, and even involvement in the Spanish Civil War.<-- already wrote during test.



Extraneous Point One:


Both Mussolini and Hitler were charismatic leaders with excellent oratory skills; nevertheless the basis of their support was that they were able to manipulate post-war resentment against the unfair treaties (e.g. Versailles). Thus it may be argued that support for the leaders of Nazism and Fascism was partially due to their promising to reverse post-war circumstances in Germany and Italy.



Extraneous Point Two:

Ooutrageous demands of the Versailles Treaty such as the creation of the Polish Corridor meant that even moderate Germans supported Hitler who might not done so otherwise, enabling the growth of Nazism in Germany.



Extraneous Point Three:


Post-war circumstances were harsh even in Allied countries. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 meant that economically, the Allied Powers were too weak to militarily suppress the aggressive activites of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Appeasement was their only option, and the delaying tactic of appeasement coupled with the Axis Powers' agression led to a state of mutual reinforcement. Note that Hitler's aggression greatly increased after the ineffectual sanction imposed by the League of Nations, and its useless moral condemnation.



Extraneous Point Four+Five:


Basically my argument is that after the high death toll of WWI the people in Allied countries did not want war, their anti-war sentiment pressurised their governments into the appeasement policy- see point 3 for explanation.

Furthermore they felt guilt over the highly unfair treaties, which was afterall a Diktat (dictator's peace).