Was World War I the Cause of World War II

Introduction

The First World War was waged from 1914 to 1918 between the Central Powers (principally Germany and Austria-Hungary) and the Allied forces (principally Great Britain, France, Russia, and, after April 1917, the United States). For American president Woodrow Wilson, the purpose of the war was "to make the world safe for democracy," but its effects nowhere favored democracy. In some cases, prewar democratic experiments gave way to authoritarianism, either during the war (as in Russia) or shortly thereafter (in Germany and Italy). The Second World War was waged from 1939 to 1945 between the Axis powers (principally Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allied powers (principally Great Britain, France, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China). The leaders of the Axis powers—Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo—shared a bottomless contempt for the democracies, which they tried to destroy using blitzkrieg tactics. In the end, all three dictators led their countries to defeat and unconditional surrender (John, 19).

Discussion

This system of government collapsed in 1918 in the wake of military defeat and two revolutions: one democratic, the other communist. Thereafter, under pressure from the victorious Allies, Hungary's political system was democratized by the abolition of open balloting and by the enlargement of the electorate to 39.2 percent of the population. This number included women for the first time (Alan, 21). These reforms had no lasting effect. In 1922, the franchise was changed again after a parliamentary coup engineered by Premier Count Istvan Bethlen with the blessing of Regent Miklos Horthy, the new head of state. The new electoral law reduced the size of the electorate to 29 percent by raising educational, property, and residency requirements. Although the new law kept the secret ballot and list voting (voting for lists of candidates submitted ...