Compare and contrast the situation in Italy 1919-22 with that in Germany 1919-29.

was the difficulties Ebert faced n running the government after the war including threats from the left wing socialists for example the USPD, The KPD otherwise known as the spartacists who were led by Rosa Luxembourg. The spartacists posed as a threat, but Ebert had no army, as a result of this the people were insecure, thus, Ebert was forced into paying for the freikorp to defend Germany from potential attacks from the Spartacists. Yet, the good thing was that like Italy the socialists were not that united and was going by their own schemes and wanted to reign by themselves. The Germans feared a ‘red Plague’ was about to hit their nation, they knew that a socialist revolution could hit any time however some historians believe otherwise. However despite protests from the socialists, Ebert was chosen as Chancellor as mentioned above. After his post as chancellor a new democratic constitution was drawn up in Germany. As part of the treaty in Article 48 it states that “the president could declare a state of emergency and rule by decree.” This concept would be somehow close to what John Locke would preach.  Even though a new government was laid out hyperinflation had hit Germany and a new leader was needed thus this led into the Stresemann era of the Weimar Republic expanding from 1923-1929. Hyperinflation in Germany couldn’t be tolerates by the locals, as it had adverse effects on their financial lives. As a result of the led down people of Germany Stresemann was introduced into the government as the new Chancellor of Germany from 1923-1929. Under the Stresemann era Germany went through drastic changes as he managed to fight of left-wing revolutionaries which led him to gaining a well deserved reputation, in addition to this Gustav Stresemann brought to Germany what no one else had done in Germany, he brought economic prosperity, as he successfully fought off hyperinflation by means of internal changing internal policies and having foreign policies to help the cause. Stresemann brought to Germany a social and economical ‘flowering.’ Stresemann also successfully created more jobs for the demoralized people, yet, in 1929 the Wall Street crash which triggered a worldwide economic depression brought the Golden age of the Weimar Republic to a halt, it ruined Stresemann’s show. Essentially, by the end of 1922 even thought the Italians hadn’t fully set an accomplished regime under Mussolini considering it was a fairly new practise, yet, what they did have was a strong foundation which had the potential to drive the Italians for the next 20 years. On the other hand the Germans did not have a solid government but, just utter chaos. It was soon to come though under Stresemann’s regime, yet it only lasted up until 1929, which meant that the Golden stance of the Weimar Republic only lasted for 5 years which was not enough to make it an accomplished setup. Although, before going too far people have to realize that the Germans left the war on the ‘losing’ side of the war, and were forced into signing a treaty which they didn’t believe in. The war left the Germans with the worst end of the deal. This meant that the German politicians were faced with the much harder task than their Italian counterparts. The fact that Stresemann managed to control the situation create a better Germany in terms of economy, jobs and so on by 1929 meant that the Germans had accomplished a lot by this time. What was most recognizable in the politics aspect was that Germany did result to foreign help after the war, for example, the Dawes Plan, Locarno, and the Young’s Plan, however, the Italians on the other hand did not result to much external help, and it almost seemed that they had too much pride to protect. In conclusion the Germans were willing to face their gaps and close them, unlike the ‘lazy’ Italians (who Mussolini claimed were) just kept sweeping their dirt and issue under the mat hoping for it to suddenly disappear, this made the Germans ambitions effective.                                          The next aspect that must be analyzed in order to differentiate the situations in Germany and Italy in the outlined time span can be determined by the comparisons of their economic conditions. In Italy by the end of the World War 1 3,000,000 men were de-militarized and de-mobilized after the war period, thus this led to widespread unemployment. By November 1919 2,000,000 men were unemployed. This together with the poverty of the South (e.g. landless peasants) and a huge inflation of about 560% led to a very tense situation in the land. On the other hand in Germany a combination of the occupation of the French in the Ruhr land (their industrial land) stopped mass production of raw materials, which also led to unemployment, affected the German income. In addition to the unemployment in the Ruhr was the unemployment of soldiers who fought in the war. On top of this all was the reparations that the German government had to pay, their debts, welfares, medical fees for the injured, and re-compensations to families. The Germans were in need of more money; money that was beyond their reach, eventually they resulted to printing more money which they hoped would pay for what they wanted and result in not having to pay for the reparations as their currency was now worthless. The German hope for settling everything else within their country was a dream comes true even though the middle class were upset, but, the Germans were not excused from paying the reparations. As a result of these financial problems Gustav Stresemann and Hjalmar Schacht (finance minister) replaced Ebert. Under Stresemann the Germans successfully agreed to Locarno which would secure German boundaries, and then signed the Dawes Plan and the Young’s Plan with the USA, whereby the Americans would invest and loan money to Germany so that reparations could be paid; which meant that all money owed to other countries would be paid in turn. The Young’s Plan on the other hand was an American plan as well whereby the Germans would be given 2 billion Pounds to pay for the reparations and it would eventually be paid back over a 59 year period. This provided economic prosperity and growth which wasn’t seen in Italy at this time, international intervention and a change in leadership had helped the Germans achieve more in this field in comparison to the Italians who were better off to start in comparison to the Germans. It was mentioned that the Italians faced an inflation of about 560%, although it must be remembered that the German inflation surpassed this over the years, in addition to this the German inflation had begun earlier than the Italian inflation in the year 1923, the Stresemann’s ability to change the currency to Rentenmarks, and then Gold Marks to revive the German economy was a risk, yet it paid off, the Italians on the other hand seemed to have taken a conservative measure towards their economy or arguably nothing at all. All was fine until the Wall Street Crash of 1929, when the Germans were asked to return the money loaned as the Americans had to finance their own economic wellbeing.                                                Thirdly and lastly, the social situation in both countries is to be analyzed and looked into. In Italy the people were not satisfied as 700,000 men were lost in the war and 1,000,000 men wounded at battle and most permanently handicapped for life. The families were upset as the war had changed the way an average family elsewhere would life, as wounded and handicapped fathers couldn’t work, and those who went to fight the war now found it incredibly hard to find jobs as the war had changed the mannerism of jobs as women were now introduced into the job ‘culture’. On top of this the Italians were unsatisfied about the fact that there wasn’t any unity in society between the ‘rich’ north and the ‘poor’ and ‘uncivilized’ south. But ultimately, all Italians believed that the Treaty of Versailles didn’t give them enough to justify their entry into the war, they felt cheated.  As part of the Treaty of Versailles they had claimed South Tirol, Istria, and Trieste. However they had not received Dalmatia, Fiume and the Aegean Islands as they hoped to have.  The Italians were frustrated and this fact was used to stimulate and propagandize nationalists and patriots. The ex-servicemen became an important ingredient in fascist combat groups. Furthermore, the people were dissatisfied about the government as a result of them not being able to handle the situation after World War 1 they had expected their ‘patriotic’ government to be firmer and stronger about the views and thoughts of the people as they were a medium of representation of the people at the Treaty of Versailles, therefore the people had felt let down by their leaders. Moreover in the Fiume Incident which occurred in September of 1919 (to be explained later), the late intervention of the government into the incident proved to the people the ‘weaknesses’ of their government and the loss of patriotism in the government. The Fiume Incident was an incident whereby the writer and war hero D’Annunzio (together with 2600 Legionaries) occupied the town of Fiume in September 1919. They transferred it into a city state and established an authoritarian government. There wasn’t any reaction from the Italian government until December of 1920 when a troop attacked and seized power in the city. The people saw the late reaction as a weakness of the government and they viewed the incident as ‘unpatriotic’ of the government. However a further incident made the people even more angered when the city of Fiume was later internationalized. In 1929 it was acquired by the Italian government under the authorization of the Yugoslavian government. This showed the determination of the people in obtaining what they wanted even though it was initially rejected in the international front. There is no doubt that the Germans had arguably attained more success, yet, successes like this by the Italians as well shouldn’t be ‘swept under the carpet’ like the Italian attitudes.  The General Strike of 1922 is the event in which the crises in Italian politics continued at the advantage of the fascists. The ‘squadristi’ was very active against the socialist’s in the general strike of the August 1922. The strike was basically organized and ill-led and it collapsed within 24 hours, although it was undermined as it was let down the fascists got the credit for ‘saving’ the country. The squadristi continued the struggle against the socialists. By October they burnt down 500 weaknesses meeting place and broken about meetings (especially In Milan and Bologna). Their manner of managing the socialists with the Italian Squadristi can be compared to the Freikorp of Germany who fought socialism in their nation. In 1920 over 2000 strikes occurred (280 in Milan in 1919) many of the wealthy landowners and industrialists feared a Bolshevik style takeover, in the south peasants began to seize land. They were ready to turn to someone that could restore order in the country. However, in Germany there was no doubt that the Germans blamed many government officials, branded them as November Criminals for the war and it’s outcomes; nothing to this scale was ever experienced from a social class despite the threat of socialism which was known to be the ‘red plague’.  Yet, we must draw our attention to an event like many other rebellions which attempted to install power through force, the Kapp Putsch was no different as the Chancellor at the time, Ebert didn’t support the cause, which in turn showed the weakness and how uncoordinated the government was.                 In Germany on the other hand, the social condition was simply chaos. A mixture of governmental issues, the war, the post war issues, the inflation, the economy, social reactions, and the outcomes of the Treaty of Versailles all resulted to create a complete negative sensation which set out to disturb social order. The Germans like the Italians were angry about the fact that the war had shook families and caused problems for them as injured and handicapped fathers couldn’t work to bring food to the table, other were also unemployed after the war. However unlike the Italians, the Germans had more to be angry about after the Treaty of Versailles had, disarmed Germany, gave the Germans the ‘guilt of war’ clause, and had forced the Germans to pay for reparations on top of their falling economy. The resulting hyperinflation hadn’t affected the poor who didn’t have money to begin with, and did not affect the rich as they had properties elsewhere; however it had successfully managed to squeeze the middle class who were dependant on the money they had in local banks that lost money as the value of the Mark dropped. The people in the middle class were particularly angry about it as their life savings were lost, furthermore, the war bonds which they invested in were now worthless considering the value of the money after the inflation. The money that was invested in the war bonds by the people meant nothing. The people were disappointed, and had felt cheated by their government. This meant that both the Italians and Germans shared the same hard feelings towards their governments; however the German people faced an issue which would change their lives forever. The people of Germany and Italy at this time also were separated as they had many different political beliefs and could never synchronize with the same ideologies.  Others believed that by restoring Germany into Prussia they could enjoy life the way they had been before the Franco-Prussian war.  People of both countries also feared a Socialist revolution and were insecure about it. However The Germans saw the light by the end of the tunnel under Stresemann, this was an element that the Italians had never got to experience. The Economy was getting better, the government was steady and more people were being employed as more jobs were created.  The people of Germany also faced further problems despite the mentioned as trading couldn’t occur and were limited with the resources they had as they were experienced an embargo, also the cold winters during which time had caused many fatalities and as a result affected many of the homeless who faced the adverse affects of the hyperinflation.  Moreover, what the Germans faced that the Italians didn’t have to encounter was the Ruhr crises of 1923. The Italians did not have to deal with another nation in a situation whereby the public were being affected as jobs were lost; people were injured in small fights against the French, and not producing goods from the industrial region. In conclusion it can be seen how much more the Germans had to face in relation to that of which the Italians faced to eventually obtain success.                         In conclusion, in the extract above the nature of events after the war has been outlined, it is noticeable that the Germans had faced events over the time period whereby their situation after the war had been worse as the magnitude of the event they encountered was comparable despite the similarity in nature, thus, the Germans has done better than the Italians. One may ask what that means. Well it simply means that the Germans had to work harder than the Italians to live through inflation higher than 560%, to see a glimmer of the Golden Age of the Weimar, to unlock the impositions of the Treaty of Versailles peacefully through an international treaty otherwise known as Locarno and lastly to have even lived through 5 stable years under Gustav Stresemann with high expectations. Many historians today do support this theory as in-depth analysis shows that if the governing body of post-war Italy had been in charge of Germany, instead of Ebert and particularly Stresemann, the achievements of Germany would not have been seen. The fruit wouldn’t have been seen, the apple would not have been eaten.