## Learning Outcomes

- Explain how World War I and its settlements weakened political order after **1918**
- Identify how weak democracies, economic crisis, and fear of communism helped authoritarian regimes rise
- Distinguish between **authoritarianism**, **totalitarianism**, **fascism**, **Nazism**, and **militarism**
- Use specific evidence from **Germany**, **Italy**, **Japan**, and the **USSR**
- Explain how failures of the **League of Nations** and **appeasement** increased the likelihood of wider war
- Build a causation argument for SAQs, DBQs, and LEQs using precise historical evidence

## AP World History: Modern Syllabus

For the AP World History: Modern, you are expected to understand challenges to political order and how they contributed to global conflict, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that the **interwar period** refers to the years between **World War I** and **World War II**, usually **1918–1939**
- Explain how the **Treaty of Versailles (1919)**, weak democratic institutions, and the **Great Depression** undermined political stability
- Identify how **Mussolini**, **Hitler**, **Stalin**, and Japanese military leaders consolidated power in different ways
- Understand the difference between **authoritarianism** and **totalitarianism**
- Explain how militant nationalism and expansion connected domestic instability to foreign aggression
- Know key examples of failed collective security, including **Manchuria (1931–1933)** and **Ethiopia (1935–1936)**
- Understand **appeasement** through examples such as the **Rhineland (1936)** and **Munich Agreement (1938)**
- Link these developments to the outbreak of **World War II in 1939**

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. How did the **Treaty of Versailles** contribute to instability in Germany without directly causing World War II by itself?
2. Why did the **Great Depression** help extremist movements more in some countries than in others?
3. What is the difference between **authoritarianism** and **totalitarianism**?
4. Name two examples of failed **collective security** in the 1930s.
5. How did domestic political crises in Japan, Italy, and Germany become international military aggression?

## Introduction

Causation questions in Unit 7 are rarely about one trigger alone. Strong AP answers show that global conflict emerged from a chain of connected pressures: the destruction of World War I, resentment over peace settlements, weak or discredited democratic governments, economic collapse, aggressive nationalism, and failed international responses.

This subtopic sits mainly in the **GOV** theme, but it also connects to **ECN** because economic crisis mattered so much, and to **SIO** because fear, resentment, and class conflict shaped political choices. To score well, you need more than a list of causes. You need to show how one condition made another more dangerous.

> **Key Term: interwar period**
> The years between World War I and World War II, usually **1918–1939**, marked by fragile peace, economic instability, and political extremism.

## Introduction to the crisis of political order after World War I

World War I left Europe and much of the wider world unstable. Four empires collapsed: the **German**, **Austro-Hungarian**, **Russian**, and **Ottoman** empires. That created a power vacuum, disputed borders, and new states with weak political foundations. On paper, the war ended in **1918**. In reality, many of its political shocks continued into the 1920s and 1930s.

The Paris Peace Conference tried to create order, but it also created bitterness. The new map of Europe reflected self-determination only partly. Some ethnic groups gained states; others were trapped inside new borders. Former Ottoman lands did not gain true independence, but were placed under mandates. Germany was blamed through the war guilt clause, forced to pay reparations, stripped of territory, and limited militarily.

That matters because students often write that Versailles “caused World War II.” That is too simple. A better argument is that Versailles helped create a climate of grievance, especially in Germany, where many saw the treaty as humiliating and illegitimate. Those resentments later became political weapons for the Nazis.

> **Key Term: Treaty of Versailles**
> The **1919** treaty ending the war with Germany, imposing reparations, territorial losses, military restrictions, and a war guilt clause.

A second problem was that postwar democracy was often shallow. In some places, democratic institutions were new and not deeply trusted. In others, old elites, military officers, and landowners accepted elections only when results suited them. When crisis hit, many citizens did not defend parliamentary government because they did not believe it worked.

## Why weak democracies and economic crisis helped dictators rise

### Weak democracies, fear, and political deadlock

The clearest case is **Germany**. The **Weimar Republic** was democratic, but it began in defeat. Many Germans associated it with surrender, revolution, and the hated Versailles settlement. That made it easier for enemies of democracy to claim the republic was weak from birth.

The republic also faced major shocks in the early 1920s, including hyperinflation, attempted coups, and political assassinations. Even when stability improved for a few years, the memory of disorder remained. This is crucial: extremist movements usually grow not only from current suffering, but also from recent memories of humiliation and fear.

In **Italy**, the issue was not Versailles humiliation to the same degree as in Germany, but postwar frustration and social conflict. Italy had fought on the winning side, yet many Italians believed they had not received the rewards they had expected. At the same time, labor unrest and fear of socialism frightened landowners, industrialists, and parts of the middle class. **Benito Mussolini** presented himself as the man who would restore order.

> **Key Term: authoritarianism**
> A political system in which power is concentrated in a leader or small group, with limited political freedoms and suppression of opposition.

These systems were authoritarian because they concentrated power and crushed opposition. But not all authoritarian regimes were the same. Some sought obedience. Others sought to control every part of life.

> **Key Term: totalitarianism**
> A more extreme form of authoritarian rule that seeks to control politics, culture, media, education, and often private life through ideology, propaganda, and terror.

The **USSR under Stalin** is a useful comparison. Stalin's regime was not fascist, but it was deeply authoritarian and totalitarian. Students often lump Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, and Japan together. AP readers reward sharper distinctions. Stalinism was rooted in communist ideology and state planning, not fascist ultranationalism.

### The Great Depression as an accelerator

The **Great Depression** beginning in **1929** turned political weakness into political crisis. This is one of the most important causation links in the topic.

When global trade contracted, businesses failed, unemployment soared, and governments seemed helpless, many people lost faith in liberal democracy and capitalism. Parliamentary coalitions looked slow, divided, and ineffective. Extremist leaders benefited because they promised rapid action, national revival, and simple answers.

In Germany, this effect was dramatic. By **1932**, unemployment reached roughly **40 percent** of the workforce in some estimates used in survey material. The Nazis could now argue that democracy, reparations, and capitalism had all failed. Hitler promised jobs, military revival, and restored national pride. He blamed Germany's problems on Versailles, communists, and Jews.

In Italy, the Depression weakened Mussolini's earlier claims of success and pushed the regime further toward repression and aggressive nationalism.

In Japan, the Depression hit exports hard. Economic pain strengthened military voices who claimed that expansion abroad would solve domestic weakness by securing resources and markets. This is a major link from economic crisis to foreign aggression.

> **Test Tip:** For causation questions, avoid saying “the Great Depression caused fascism.” Better: “The Great Depression intensified unemployment and distrust of parliamentary government, which increased support for extremist parties in states where democracy was already weak.”

## Comparing the challengers to political order

### Italy, Germany, Japan, and the USSR: similarities and differences

These states shared some methods: propaganda, censorship, repression, and hostility to dissent. But the AP exam expects you to compare carefully.

Italy under Mussolini

- Mussolini came to power in **1922** after the **March on Rome**
- Fascism emphasized nationalism, dictatorship, militarism, and anti-communism
- Italy was authoritarian, but generally less totalitarian and less genocidal than Nazi Germany

Germany under Hitler

- Hitler became chancellor in **1933**
- The **Enabling Act (1933)** helped destroy constitutional government
- Nazism combined fascism with extreme racial ideology and antisemitism
- Nazi Germany was both fascist and totalitarian
  > **Key Term: fascism**
  > A political ideology centered on dictatorship, ultranationalism, militarism, anti-liberalism, and suppression of dissent, associated especially with Mussolini’s Italy.
  >
  > **Key Term: Nazism**
  > Hitler’s German form of fascism, marked by dictatorship, expansionism, militarism, and racial ideology, especially antisemitism.

USSR under Stalin

- A communist one-party state
- Used purges, propaganda, collectivization, and central planning
- Totalitarian, but not fascist

Japan

- Civilian government weakened in the late 1920s and early 1930s
- Military leaders gained influence
- Expansion was justified as necessary for national survival and Asian leadership
- Authoritarian and militarist, but not identical to European fascism
  > **Key Term: militarism**
  > The glorification of military power and the belief that force is a proper tool for national goals.

What unites these cases is that internal instability fed political extremism, and extremist rule then encouraged foreign aggression. That is the core causation pattern.

### Domestic instability becoming external aggression

This transition from home crisis to foreign conquest is essential.

Japan seized **Manchuria in 1931** after the Mukden Incident. Military leaders used expansion to answer economic weakness and project strength.

Italy invaded **Ethiopia in 1935**. This was not only an act of conquest. It was also propaganda for fascist prestige and an attempt to build empire.

Germany remilitarized the **Rhineland on March 7, 1936**, annexed Austria in **1938**, and demanded the **Sudetenland** later that year. Each move challenged the postwar order and tested foreign resistance.

These actions show how dictatorships did not simply arise in a vacuum. They turned domestic fear and resentment into outward violence.

> **Test Tip:** If asked to compare Japan with Germany or Italy, note both similarity and difference. Similarity: all linked domestic crisis to external expansion. Difference: Japan's regime was driven more by military dominance and imperial strategy than by a single fascist party identical to the Nazis.

## Why collective security failed

### The League of Nations and its structural weakness

After World War I, many hoped war could be prevented through **collective security**, the principle that states would act together against aggression. The main institution for this was the **League of Nations**, created in **1920**.

> **Key Term: collective security**
> The idea that states cooperate to resist aggression against any member, rather than leaving each state to defend itself alone.

The problem was not just that the League was slow. It lacked the force to impose its will. It had no standing army and depended on member states to act. Major powers often preferred their own national interests over shared enforcement. The **United States never joined**, which weakened the League from the start.

The failures in **Manchuria** and **Ethiopia** exposed that weakness.

In Manchuria, Japan invaded in **1931**. The League investigated, condemned Japan, and achieved almost nothing. Japan simply withdrew from the League in **1933**.

In Ethiopia, the League condemned Italy's invasion in **1935**, but sanctions were limited and weak. Oil was not fully banned, and the **Suez Canal** was not closed. That showed aggressors that international outrage might be survivable.

### Appeasement and the road to wider war

Britain and France also pursued **appeasement** in the 1930s.

> **Key Term: appeasement**
> The policy of granting concessions to aggressive states in hopes of avoiding war, especially by Britain and France in the 1930s.

Appeasement did not mean leaders loved fascism. More often, they feared another world war, doubted their own readiness, and hoped limited concessions would preserve peace. The memory of World War I mattered here. So did economic weakness after the Depression.

But appeasement had a damaging effect. It signaled that treaty violations might go unpunished.

Key examples:

- **Rhineland remilitarization, 1936**
- **Anschluss with Austria, 1938**
- **Munich Agreement, September 1938**, allowing Germany to take the Sudetenland

The Munich Agreement is especially important because it showed how Britain and France chose concession over confrontation even after a pattern of aggression was already clear. Hitler then occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia in **1939**, proving appeasement had failed.

A strong causation answer therefore shows two linked failures:

1. aggressive regimes kept expanding
2. international resistance remained weak

That combination made large-scale war more likely.

## How to build an AP causation argument

### A strong chain of reasoning for SAQ, DBQ, or LEQ

For this topic, the strongest thesis usually avoids a single-cause explanation. A good line of reasoning sounds like this:

World War II emerged from the interaction of post-World War I grievances, weak democratic legitimacy, economic crisis, militant nationalism, and the failure of collective security.

That works because it explains both **why** dictatorships rose and **how** their rise produced war.

If you are writing body paragraphs, a useful structure is:

1. postwar instability after **1918**
2. economic crisis after **1929**
3. rise of authoritarian or totalitarian states
4. failure of League and appeasement
5. aggression leading to war in **1939**

For a comparison paragraph, you might pair:

- Germany and Italy as fascist cases
- Japan as a militarist case
- USSR as totalitarian but communist, not fascist

For outside evidence in a DBQ or LEQ, high-value examples include:

- **March on Rome (1922)**
- **Enabling Act (1933)**
- **Mukden Incident (1931)**
- **Italy invades Ethiopia (1935)**
- **Rhineland (1936)**
- **Munich Agreement (1938)**
- **Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939)** as the final diplomatic step before war

The most common weak answer simply narrates events. The better answer keeps asking:

- Why did this happen here?
- Why did people support it?
- Why did rivals fail to stop it?
- How did domestic crisis become global conflict?

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- The **interwar period** ran from **1918 to 1939**
- World War I and the **Treaty of Versailles** destabilized political order, especially in Germany
- Weak democratic institutions made some states vulnerable to extremist movements
- The **Great Depression** intensified unemployment, fear, and distrust of parliamentary government
- **Mussolini** rose in Italy in **1922**, and **Hitler** became chancellor in **1933**
- **Authoritarianism** and **totalitarianism** are related but not identical
- **Stalin’s USSR** was totalitarian but not fascist
- Japanese **militarism** grew stronger after economic crisis and weak civilian control
- Domestic instability led to foreign aggression in **Manchuria**, **Ethiopia**, the **Rhineland**, **Austria**, and the **Sudetenland**
- The **League of Nations** failed because it lacked enforcement power and member commitment
- **Appeasement** encouraged further aggression by showing that treaty violations might go unpunished
- Strong AP causation arguments explain how postwar grievances, economic crisis, nationalism, and failed diplomacy interacted to make World War II more likely

## Key Terms and Concepts

- interwar period
- Treaty of Versailles
- authoritarianism
- totalitarianism
- fascism
- Nazism
- militarism
- collective security
- appeasement


Causation in Global Conflict - Challenges to political order and global conflict