Effects Of Democracy In 1918-1945

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Democracy, during 1918-1945, showed to be ridged and inflexible. The idea of democracy was attempted by many countries that were fighting for their rights but the leaders put in power showed the idea of democracy’s weakness at this time. Both world wars played a huge part in democracy’s decline at this time and rise in fascism, Nazism, and communism. World War 1 was intended to save democracy but by the end of the war democracy was squashed. The after effects of the war caused a rise in nationalism and want for revenge. Ultimately, democracy faded in and out during the 1918-1945 showing the style of governing to be fragile. World War 1 was unnecessary and was caused by the web of all of the country’s alliances with each other. The war was Many countries by the end of WW1 and throughout WW2 had revolutions and civil wars going on in their own countries. China was having a civil war and Russia was fighting an ongoing revolution. In both instances and all instances at the time the native people of these countries dreamt of equality and democracy but instead the wrong leaders or parties were put into power. The USSR fought for many years to get rid of communism and “at one point more than 100,00 foreign troops- mostly Japanese, British, American, and French” (Duiker & Spielvogel, 609) were sent to Russia to try to squash the communism problem. In Russia’s case they ended their many years of fighting to end up with Joseph Stalin, a dictator, in power of the country, who gave the people no involvement in affairs. Many people were killed under Stalin’s leadership and many people were forced to work in camps. In China’s case, they first had a failed attempt at a revolution which caused the rise of the communist party. This ended in another civil war with Mao Zedong’s communist party in power. Japan at this time had many failed attempts at putting a democratic government in place because they always were “fragile and unable to survive throughout the 1920’s” (Duiker & Spielvogel, 641). Their democratic trials never stuck in place and once the Great Democracy is what they thought they were getting when they took out the old government and replaced it. But in reality the new governments put in place were the total opposite from democracy. Also, after WW1 people wanted change and revenge from all the damage done so, they put leaders like Stalin and Hitler in power for radical change. Ultimately this lead to the second War World, which got rid of anyone’s desires for democracy. And even America’s leader FDR was making anti-democratic decisions that lead up to America being forced into the World War. In the end, democracy was proven to be weak in the after math of the first World War and in the second World

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