Recent comments in /f/history

fvb955cd t1_j39htz8 wrote

They are, but you're discounting the tactical implications of a modern, western army force stationed in the enemy capital, and allied to that enemy. The RPF was superior to the Rwandan army, but it wasn't superior to the French army. The french had the effect of making Kigali like an impenetrable castle that the RPF had to work around until the military situation was so favorable towards the RPF, and international condemnation of the Rwandan government so strong that France could no politically act as a major force multiplier, except to evacuate the perpetrators of the genocide.

1

fvb955cd t1_j393x0m wrote

There are also allegations that Kagame and the RPF didn't really want American intervention, and were pushing against intervention with soft politics in the US. The UN means some degree of stasis being placed on both sides, and the RPF, at the expense of civilian casualties in the ethnic cleansing, was routing the government forces very successfully, and did successfully push the government into a total, French protected rout out of Rwanda. Leading to Kagame's total control over the country to this day. Put a full UN mission in place and you conceivably just kick the can

1

calijnaar t1_j38gtn4 wrote

The Weimar Republic certainly had some issues right from its foundation, and there are some serious failure points that contributed to its demise, but claiminbg that it was doomed to end the way it did really seems like an attempt to deflect blame.

The Weimar Republic did not fall prey to an inevitable doom, it was overthrown by a fascist coup when the nazis managed to persudade/coerce non-fascist right wing and centre parties to support them.

The desire to create a kind of Ersatzkaiser in the person of the president certainly played a role in the rise of the nazis. Hindenburg had far reaching powers and was persudaded to wield them in the nazi's interest. Given that the nazis were not reluctant to actually break the constitution it's not entirely clear that having more checks and balances in place to prevent abuses of power by the president would ultimately have prevented Hitler's dictatoship, but there would probably not have been as clear a path, especially without an absolute majority in the Reichstag which the nazis failed to achieve again and again.

But there were problems long before the nazi's rise ever began: the military kept a prominent role in post-World War I Germany, starting with the fact that Hindenburg did become president, but also apparent in the establishment of the stab-in-the-back legend which shifted the blame for the lost war from the military to civilian politicians (and was later used to great effect by the nazis), and the leniency towards the Freikorps, even after attempted coups and assassinations of prominent politicians. The militant right was allowed to establish itself in the new state.

Yes, there were also militants on the left, and coup attempts like the Spartakus rising and the uprising of the Red Ruhr Army, but those were suppressed more vigorously, including the killing of prominent leaders like Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Not only was there an imbalance from the beginning, but this also lead to rifts between the more moderate SPD and the more radical left which did not happen at the other end of the spectrum. This later allowed the nazis the find allies in the moderate right and also prevented the moderate and radical left from forming a united front against the fascist takeover.

So there were potential breaking points from the start, and growing economic problems did not help to alleviate the situation, but saying that the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the nazi dictatorship were already inevitable in 1918 seems like gross oversimplification at best

3

calijnaar t1_j38cqpn wrote

The Enabling Act was passed by the Reichstag, that was not the president's doing. And while one could argue that the Enabling Act was not in itself a breach of the Weimar constitution, the actual circumstances under which the Act was passed were highly dubious, and almost certainly illegal and a breach of the Weimar constitution. To achieve the necessary two thords majority while also maintaining the necessary quorum of two thirds of the representatives, the nazis had all communist representatives and quite a few SPD representatives arrested, then changed the quorum rules so that only those absent with an excuse counted as absent and then illegally had armed SA present during the actual vote. While the Weimar constituion could certainly had weaknesses that made the establishment of a dictatorship easier, in the end even the somewhat feeble rules that were in place were breached and it seems unlikely that stronger constitutional safeguards would have been much use once Hitler had become chancellor.

2

Gl0balCD t1_j3851yh wrote

It was equivalent to about $270 b USD today (history.com). They had the ability to pay this, but the logistics were another thing. It was not easy to pay out quickly without crashing the German economy, thus the Dawes and Young plans were established.

The fact that they did pay it off after 70 years does indicate the abilities to pay, just not all at once. No one ever expected to receive reparations in one lump sum

The reparations were the same as Germany imposed on France in 1871, matched by inflation. The 1871 reparations were the same as the Napoleonic reparations, adjusted for inflation. You really can't understate the tit-for-tat of Franco-German relations during this time.

3