Topic 3: The Rise and Rule of Single-Party States
NAME AND AUTHOR OF THE PACKET READING: Kissinger: Diplomacy, Chapter 11 "Stresemann and the Re-Emergence of
the Vanquished"
Major Theme: Origins and Nature of Authoritarian and Single-Party States
Conditions That Produced Single-Party States
France pursued a foreign policy of desperation, alternating between
using the Treaty of Versailles to delay German recovery.
1923 France and Belgium troops occupied the Ruhr valley
Mid 1920’s Germany accepted the Western frontier with France
and Belgium, and the permanent demilitarization of the Rhineland;
Great Britain and Italy guaranteed this arrangement pledging
assistance to repel invasions across the frontiers of into the
demilitarized Rhineland. Finally Germany agreed to enter the
League of Nations
The Locarno pact- three tiers of commitment snow prevailed in
Europe.
First- traditional alliances backed by conventional machinery of
staff talks and political consultations.
Second- special guarantees such as Locarno, deemed less binding
than formal alliances.
Third- The League of Nations was inadequate to assure the security
of even its principal founding members.
Emergence of Leaders: Aims, Ideology, Support
Gustav Stresemann: in 1923 became German Foreign Minister and
then Chancellor. Method for renewing Germany’s strength was the
policy of “fulfillment.”
Was a total reversal of previous German policy and the
abandonment of the diplomatic guerrilla war his predecessors had
waged against the provisions of the Versailles Treaty.
Built his political career by supporting the views of the
conservative, pro-business bourgeois National Liberty Party.
Advocated vast conquests in both the East and the West, as well as
the annexation o French and British colonial possessions in Asia
and Africa.
Totalitarianism: the Aim and the Extent to Which it was
Achieved
Historiography
France’s sole unilateral military initiative demonstrated that it had
in fact lost the capacity to act alone.
The League was too divided and, by the time Germany ran amok, I
would be too late to organize alliances.
Stresemann’s policy of fulfillment took advantages of the
discomfort of Great Britain and France.
Stresemann understood that because the Soviet Union was too
impoverished to aid German economic recovery and too isolated to
lend support in most diplomatic confrontations, its real impact
would be felt only after Germany became strong enough to
challenge the Versailles settlement openly.
Stresemann’s policy of fulfillment reflected above all his realistic
assessment of the requirements of German political and economic
recovery.
Stresemann was the first postwar German leader who exploited the
geopolitical advantages with the Versailles settlement conferred on
Germany. He grasped the essentially brittle nature of the FrancoEnglish relationship, and used it to widen the wedge between the
two wartime allies.
The Western democracies were wise to go along with Stresemann’s
fulfillment policy. However, they erred in not tightening the bonds
amongst themselves.
Locarno represented not so much reconciliation between France
and Germany as endorsement of the military outcome of the recent
war. Germany had been defeated in the West but had overcome
Russia in the East. Locarno confirmed both results and laid the
basis for Germany’s ultimate assault on the Eastern settlement.
The post-Locarno period witnessed France’s step-by-step retreat for
the Versailles settlement under constant British and American
pressures to go even further.
After Locarno, France was no longer in a position to pursue its
convictions and had to settle for mitigating its fears.
Stresemann used Germany’s entry into the League both to increase
his options toward the Soviet Union and to intensify German
pressure on France for parity in armaments.
Stresemann’s papers became available after he died. Stresemann
was not a “good European” in the post- World War II sense of the
phrase.
Stresemann’s opportunity to pursue his policy was inherent in
Germany’s resources and potential. Rather than see Stresemann as
a precursor of the Nazi assault on Western values, it would be more
accurate to view Nazi excesses as an interruption of Stresemann’s
gradual and almost certainly peaceful progression to achieving a
decisive role for his country in Europe.
Major Theme: Establishment of Authoritarian and Single-Party States
Methods: Force
Methods: Legal
Form of Government, (Left & Right Wing) Ideology
Nature, extent and Treatment of Opposition
Historiography
Major Theme: Domestic Policies and Impact
Structure and Organization of Government and Administration
Political Policies
Economic Policies
Social Policies
Religious Policies
Role of Education
Role of the Arts
Role of Media, Propaganda
Status of Women
Treatment of Religious Groups and Minorities
Historiography
April 1926, treaty of neutrality between the Soviet Union and Germany
was signed in Berlin.
Stresemann proposed international arbitration for a new schedule of
reparations. Over the next 5 years Germany paid about $1 billion in
reparations and received loans of about $2 billion.
The 1926 treaty meant that the Soviet Union and Germany excluded
themselves from the application of collective security against each other.