Introduction

To justify participating in World War I, Woodrow Wilson and others invoked the ideal of making the world safe for democracy. Most of those who embraced this rationale thought of democracy as being linked intrinsically to free elections and liberal notions of individual liberties: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and so on. Ironically, the war fostered conditions that encouraged the rise of totalitarianism. For example, the stresses and strains of fighting the war precipitated the Russian revolution of March 1917, which eventually gave the Bolsheviks their great opportunity to seize power eight months later. Subsequent events led to the dictatorship of Josef Stalin.

The war also opened opportunities for the fascists. Mussolini began his transformation from socialist to fascist while campaigning for Italian intervention in the conflict. Economic hardships that stemmed in large part from the war and disappointment with the peace settlement of 1919 set the stage for the growth of Mussolini's Fascist movement and his formation of a government in 1922.

Hitler's Nazi party is, of course, the other major version of fascism that benefited from factors closely related to World War I. Other causes undoubtedly played a role, but it seems very unlikely that the Nazis could have gained power if the war had not occurred (or perhaps if the Germans had won).

In Japan, economic pressures and expansionist tendencies led to militaristic government policies that overpowered developing democratic institutions. The result would be a concentrated effort to make Japan the dominant power in Asia.

Less obvious is the role of World War I in building up the power of the modern state. Faced with the exigencies of waging war, governments accelerated the development of bureaucratic organizations and techniques for controlling and mobilizing their populations. Rejecting ethical and constitutional limitations, the totalitarian regimes carried governmental oppression to terrible extremes.

The full horror of totalitarianism was not generally perceived right away. Indeed, those regimes attracted considerable praise from admirers in the Western democracies who were impressed by propaganda about efficiency and economic growth. For instance, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, dynamic images of economic growth projected by the Soviet Union made it appear to be a viable model for many reformers who thought capitalism was failing. Such images, of course, would be discredited. It soon became apparent that totalitarianism represented a new threat to world order and national sovereignty around the globe.