The Inter-War Period
Senior 6 · History (Languages)
The Inter-War Period
Lesson 4 of 4
20 min
In November 1945 some of the most powerful men of Nazi Germany sat in two rows in a courtroom in Nuremberg, guarded by military police in white helmets. Only a few years before, they had commanded armies, ministries and police forces across Europe. The photograph raises the question of this lesson: how do regimes that seem all-powerful come to an end?
Definition
Unconditional surrender: surrender without any terms agreed in advance; the winners decide what happens next. The Allies demanded it of Germany and Japan.
Denazification: the Allied programme after 1945 to remove Nazi ideas, laws and officials from German public life.
Crimes against humanity: widespread or systematic attacks on civilians, such as murder, extermination or deportation. The term was first used in an international trial at Nuremberg.
Figure 1. Three regimes fell through defeat in war; others ended through the death of the dictator, revolution or collapse from within.
| Factor | How it worked | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Military defeat | Expansion brought the regimes into a war against a stronger coalition. | Italy, 1943 to 1945; Germany, 1945; Japan, 1945 |
| Overreach | Fighting on several fronts and occupying vast territories exhausted men and resources. | Germany's invasion of the USSR in 1941 |
| Opposition from within | Resistance movements, partisans and, in Italy, the Fascist Grand Council itself, which voted against Mussolini in July 1943. | Italian partisans; the July 1944 plot against Hitler (failed) |
| Death of the dictator | Systems built around one man changed once he was gone. | Stalin, 1953; Franco, 1975 |
| Revolution and economic failure | Costly colonial wars and stagnation turned the army or the people against the regime. | Portugal, 1974; the Soviet Union, 1991 |
The victors tried to make sure the defeated regimes could not return. At Nuremberg (1945 to 1946) leaders were tried as individuals for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity: for the first time, "obeying orders" was not accepted as a defence. Germany and Japan were occupied, rebuilt as democracies and given new constitutions. Fascist parties were banned. The new United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
These ideas reached Africa and Rwanda too. Portugal's revolution of 1974 opened the way to the independence of its African colonies (unit 5). And the principle of Nuremberg, that leaders are personally responsible for mass crimes, was applied by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, set up by the United Nations in November 1994 to try those most responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Warning
Not all at once, not all the same way. Do not write that "the dictatorships ended in 1945". Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany did; Stalin's system outlived him in a milder form until 1991, and Franco ruled Spain until 1975.
Tip
Rise and fall mirror each other. War and crisis helped these regimes rise; war and crisis destroyed most of them. Using that idea as a thread links your answers on rise and downfall.
Important
Discuss. Is trying leaders in court (Nuremberg, the ICTR) a better way to prevent future dictatorships and mass crimes than simply removing them from power? Give reasons.
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the timeline, the table, the analysis and the exercises.
