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The Great War had left a lasting impact not only both on the world, in general, and on Europe, specifically. The winning side utterly dismantled the Vienna system of international relations, which was created after the Napoleonic wars and generally preserved for a century. This development owed much to the fact that many of the states previously forming the backbone of this system ceased existing as great powers. Germany lost some of its territories populated with ethnic minorities, such as Czechs or Poles, to the newly-founded nation-states. The multiethnic Hapsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary ceased existing, as the multitude of national states took its place.
Finally, the Russian Empire, unable to withstand the challenges of total war, collapsed in the revolutions of 1917, to emerge as the Soviet Union after losing both Finland and Poland. Thus, the general trend of the after-war years was the dismantling of multiethnic empires and the establishment of new nation-states. However, if Europe became national rather than imperial, imperialism still triumphed in the colonies or under the guise of the League of Nations, with influential ideologies of fascism of communism either endorsing or challenging it.
World War I might have led to the dissolution of the old continental empires in Europe, but this seemingly decline did not affect the colonial empires of Britain and France. If anything, the Great War made colonial empires both larger and more ruthless in their exercise of power overseas. Instead of promoting self-determination in Africa and Asia, as they did in Europe, victorious powers divided non-European territories of the defeated enemies between themselves, as when refusing to return German-colonized parts of China (Karl, 380). The post-war world also supplied the great powers with the new means to extend imperial control.
The League of Nations – the organization, ironically stressing the national principle in its name – became a vehicle for imperialism sanctioning de facto colonial establishments under the guise of the mandate system. British rule over mandatory Iraq proved especially brutal, as the Royal Qir Force used bombarded villages and tribes for essentially policing purposes – “to put down unrest and subversive activities” (Satia, 16). Hence, World War I might have ended the old continental empires of Europe, but imperialism itself still flourished in the old and new forms alike.
One of the notable developments testifying that the influence of imperialism was at its high point after the war was the emergence of the new ideologies stressing the struggle for dominance. Italian fascism was the earliest and one of the most prominent among those, and its main point revolved around the unshakable duty to the state in its perpetual struggle for power with other states. The chief ideologist and the leader of Italian fascists emphasized that the existence of a well-ordered state implies “expansion, potential if not actual” (Mussolini, 13).
As a consequence, the fascist state would not limit itself “enforcing order and keeping the peace,” as in the liberal ideology, but aimed for the successful acquisition of new territories abroad (Mussolini, 13). While fascism declared the realization of human spiritual potential its main goal, the primary manifestation of this realization was to be found in vigorous territorial expansion under the guidance of an imperialist state. Thus, aside from creating the new means of exercising imperial authority, the aftermath of the Great War, but also shaped new ideologies that endorsed imperialism more fully than ever before.
However, World War I also created new challenges to the existing hierarchies of wealth and power, the most notable of which was communism. While the communist ideology, as outlined by Marx and Engels, was already decades old by the early 20th century, it saw little practical application and only offered “purely abstract” answers (Lenin, 18). However, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia created the first state explicitly based on Communist ideology and true to the Marxian vision of “abolishing the bourgeois state” (Lenin, 8).
The Soviet Union did not become a perfect reflection of the Communist Manifesto but was, nevertheless, the first self-proclaimed socialist state “committed to a vague, ambitious, war-conditioned vision of anti-liberal modernity” (Kotkin, 113). Thus, while the Great War strengthened imperialism to an unprecedented degree, it also reinforced the ideologies that challenged the existing structures of power and wealth by raising them from abstract ideas to practical application.
As one can see, World War I not so much eliminated as refashioned the imperialism of old. Although continental empires of Europe dissolved and gave way to the rise of nation-states, colonial empires became stronger than ever. The winners either took the colonies of the defeated powers directly or governed them under the mandates from the League of Nations, which became the new means of exercising imperial authority. Italian fascism, with its endorsement of state-driven territorial expansion, was a new and refined ideological manifestation of post-war imperialism. However, the ideologies challenging the old hierarchies of wealth and power also rose from abstract principles to practical application, as demonstrated by the communism in the Soviet Union.
Works Cited
Karl, Rebecca E. “The Shadow of Democracy.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 78, no. 2, 2019, pp. 379–387.
Kotkin, Stephen. “Modern Times: The Soviet Union and the Interwar Conjuncture.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, vol. 2, no. 1, 2001, pp. 111-164.
Lenin. V.I. “The State and Revolution.” Adobe PDF File.
Mussolini, Benito. Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions. Ardita Publishers, 1935.
Satia, Priya. “The Defense of Inhumanity: Air Control and the British Idea of Arabia.” The American Historical Review, vol. 111, no 1, 2006, pp. 16-51.
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