The Age of Catastrophe: A History of the West 1914–1945
The Age of Catastrophe is a thousand-plus page history of Western Europe set between World War One and World War Two. This book will pass as a “popular” history but in detail tends to be more academic than popular. There are no photographs or illustrations, and little or no attempt at the more fun parts of what makes up history— music, movies, theater, the arts and sciences, and the peccadillos of the rich and famous. And as for academics, while The Age of Catastrophe does provide endnotes, author Heinrich Winkler states many facts that go unreferenced.
The Age of Catastrophe is organized into four major sections: WWI, Armistice to Economic Crisis 1918–1933, Democracies and Dictatorships 1933–1939, The Second World War and The Holocaust.
Stewart Spencer’s translation from German does not alleviate Winkler’s dense writing, often resulting in long sentences with many clauses. There is also the occasional questionable word choice; the most striking example is his choice of the word “multiracial” where “multiethnic” would be less alarming. Consider that The Age of Catastrophe starts of in 1914 with Germany invading Belgium, committing atrocities on the populace. Winkler at this point asks how Germany, a nation that is culturally part of the West, so easily refused to respect the West’s ideals of human rights.
Aspects of European history addressed in The Age of Catastrophe are war, politics, and economics. Winkler advances from country to country, from year to year relentlessly, on the politics and economics of various European republics, empires and nations. The overall result is beneficial, the reader gets a good feel for concurrent events across Europe, and at no time will need to check back to ask, “What year is this?” or “What country is this?”
Another failing as a popular history is that Winkler does not provide any historical background for political figures; he only addresses what a particular historical actor did in the context of the year and country covered, and that person might not ever be mentioned again. As a consequence there are many historical figures introduced who will not be familiar to American readers.
Though with respect to significant figures on the world stage, the repeated revisiting of European nations year after year enables keeping up with individual actions, as for example with Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. It is interesting to note that in the more democratic nations, the presidents and prime ministers have (at most) a few terms in office, so will be introduced in one iteration to be replaced by successors in the next, almost indistinguishable from the minor historical figures.
And now, back to 1914. Both sides expected “The Great War” as WWI was called before WWII, to be over quickly and made plans to cut up their opponent’s territories. However, the war was not over quickly, becoming a meat grinder of attrition. Lenin, on Germany’s payroll during WWI, was sent to Russia in 1917 to take Russia out of the war. Russia had experienced a number of failed revolutions prior to Lenin’s return and was currently undergoing another that when joined by Lenin succeeded. The monarchy was overthrown, and Russia was taken out of the war.
Though there was relief on Germany’s eastern front in 1917 with the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, by 1918 there was increased pressure from America’s intervention with fresh troops and supplies. After a campaign rout in 1918, Germany’s General Ludendorff emotionally collapsed and gave up the fight. German military resolve became incoherent, and with naval mutinies and shipyard strikes, the government collapsed. An Armistice was declared November 11, 1918.
The Kaiser, the Emperor of Germany abdicated and fled to Holland, leaving General Ludendorff as the ruler of a fractious Germany that fell into near-revolution that did not quite reach the status of full civil war. Germany’s non-military leaders considered reorganizing along democratic lines, though at the time seen as a radical move, they believed that if Germany turned to democracy it would get better peace terms.
After Germany’s surrender, Germany wasn’t invited to the peace treaty negotiations at Versailles. And though U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was a member of the negotiations, and perhaps one of the most idealistic (or merciful) members, he was ignored by the British and the French negotiators. In consequence, Germany got the major portion of blame, and was assigned the greater part of the reparations. John Maynard Keynes, a representative of Great Britain at the negotiations, noted the internal contradictions of the treaty were unresolvable and resigned soon afterward.
The principal contradiction noted was that Germany was assigned high war reparations while removing its ability to pay. To no one’s surprise, Germany was not happy with the terms of the treaty though it didn’t have much choice (or more accurately, Germany had “Hobson’s Choice”: sign or be occupied).
Europe’s political boundaries changed significantly. The Austro-Hungarian Empire split into Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. The Russian empire split into Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and other nations. Turkey became a nation out of the most politically cohesive parts of the defunct Ottoman Empire.
As a provision of the treaty, former German colonies were handed off to the victorious allies, the plan was for each colony to be protected under a League of Nations mandate and placed under guardianship by an allied nation. Upper Silesia, an area between Germany and Poland, was mixed ethnically and its peoples held resentment for each other, which resulted in insurgencies and fighting by paramilitaries. The League of Nations divided the region between Germany and Poland, though as Germany saw it, to Poland’s favor.
Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles but did not accept blame; many in Germany would rather believe their loss was due to being “stabbed in the back” by Marxists, Bolsheviks, and Jews. It is widely believed today that the Treaty of Versailles laid the groundwork for Hitler’s ascent to power. (As an aside, in a Twitter response to the question, If you could go back in time and kill baby Hitler, would you?—In response at least one tweeter tweeted that they would instead to go back and renegotiate the Treaty of Versailles.)
Given that Germany was restarting from a collapsed dictatorial regime, it was unoccupied, and had difficulty transitioning to democracy. There were ongoing insurrections, strikes, and agitation by communists. For a short period of time Bavaria was run by German communists.
Representing in Germany’s first democratic election, there were more than a dozen different parties and women allowed to vote for the first time. The seat of government moved to Weimar as the city deemed safer than Berlin. The Social Democratic party received the majority vote, however as representation was proportional there remained opponents in key positions of power, intent on keeping the legacy of prewar state. The first order of business for the new government was to end the strikes, and end the strikes, they did. One thousand German strikers killed by German troops in 1919.
There were many provinces and regions besides Upper Silesia that had significance in the restructuring post WWI due to their mixed ethnic populations: Carinthia, Gorizia, Istria, Anatolia, Styria, Carniola, Transleithania, Galicia, Livonia, Dalmatia, Courland, and the Sudetenland. The end of WWI saw mass relocations of ethnic minorities through special votes called plebiscites. Plebiscites were conducted under the auspices of the League of Nations and were intended to protect minorities by creating autonomous regions within nations; however, the protection of minorities was seen as an infringement of their host nations’ sovereignty and often resulted in their treating ethnic minorities as second-class citizens.
Winkler points out that though plebiscites were intended to create more homogeneous nations, they instead were early examples of “ethnic cleansing”—though this was not solely due to The League of Nations, as for example, Turkey “ethnically cleansed” itself of more than a million Armenians on its own initiative. To no surprise this era saw anti-colonial unrest. Great Britain’s ill treatment of India and Ireland led to the radicalization of Gandhi, and to an independent Ireland.
There was little evidence that the Great War would be “The War to End All Wars.” Hungary became the Hungarian Soviet Republic and went to war against Czechoslovakia, and in turn was attacked by Romania, which occupied Budapest. After Romania was ordered out by the Allies, Budapest was re-occupied by a right-wing authoritarian regime.
Greece went to war with Turkey over Anatolia but was pushed back. The Russian (Red) Army marched into Estonia but was repelled. The Russian Army then marched into Latvia’s capital Riga but was repelled. Lithuania turned Bolshevik without Russian troops but was invaded by Russian troops anyway, which were then pushed out by Polish troops. Russia went to war with Poland. Russia invaded the southern Ukraine but was pushed out by the White Russians, though the Reds later recaptured that region.
It may not be well known to Americans that the U.S. intervened in the Russian civil war, sending 7,000 troops to protect the Trans-Siberian railway and weapons stores, and later supported Czechoslovak troops against the “White” Russians (wiki “Czechoslovak Legion”). War-weariness and lack of success led to America’s withdrawal from Russia in 1920. America never joined the League of Nations due to Congress’ unwillingness to recognize its new position as a world power. President Wilson, to counter Congress’ intransigence attempted to take his message directly to the people, and campaigned across America. Wilson suffered a stroke from exhaustion and never recovered.
The Age of Catastrophe also touches briefly on significant political events in the U.S. after WWI. Fear that communist terrorists were mixing in with refugees led to “Palmer Raids” conducted by the FBI in order to catch “leftist” immigrants, and to the deportation of recent immigrants (not all of which were terrorists). By 1921 Congress had reduced legal immigration by more than half. Other events mentioned include prohibition, women’s right to vote, President Harding’s Teapot Dome scandal, the Scopes Monkey Trial, the rise of the KKK, and the postwar manufacturing boom, which led to the “roaring twenties.”
Returning the focus to Russia, Lenin’s party, the Bolsheviks succeeded in gaining control of the government in 1917 but had to consolidate their power, and did not transition to their new government smoothly. The end of the Russian civil war in 1920 did not mean peace, as there were still revolts by peasants. The Russian government responded against its populace with mass terror, and readers should Google “red terror” for more information. A crop failure in Russia led to mass starvation and an estimated four to five million deaths, with the Russian government doing little or nothing to intervene, as those who starved were considered anti-Bolshevik.
All in all, what is presented in The Age of Catastrophe is not too much different from what would be found in school textbooks except with longer sentences, tinier print, bigger words, no pictures, and few (if any) cultural highlights. And while the politics of each nation is detailed and complex, not all events may be of equal interest. If readers were interested in Europe between WWI and WWII, this book might be more useful as a compendium, rather than read straight through.