Interwar period EN

Introduction
Turmoil in Europe
International relations
Roaring Twenties
Interwar period
Connected to: China World War II Fascism
Great Depression
Fascism displaces democracy
Spanish Civil War (1936–39) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Great Britain and its
In the context of the history of the 20th century,
Empire
the interwar period was the period between the
French Empire end of the First World War in November 1918 and
Revolt in North Africa Agains…
the beginning of the Second World War in
Germany September 1939.
Weimar Republic
Nazi era, 1933–39 Despite the relatively short period of time, this
period represented an era of signi cant changes Map of ags of the world in 1935.
Italy
worldwide. Petroleum and associated
Regional patterns
mechanisation expanded dramatically leading to the Roaring Twenties (and the Golden
Balkans
East Asia: Japanese dominance Twenties), a period of economic prosperity and growth for the middle class in North America,
Latin America Europe and many other parts of the world. Automobiles, electric lighting, radio broadcasts
Africa and Asia
and more became commonplace among populations in the developed world. The indulgences
End of an era of this era subsequently were followed by the Great Depression, an unprecedented worldwide
See also economic downturn which severely damaged many of the world's largest economies.
Timelines
Politically, this era coincided with the rise of communism, starting in Russia with the October
References Revolution, at the end of World War I, and ended with the rise of fascism, particularly in
Further reading Germany and in Italy. China was in the midst of long period of instability and civil war
Primary sources between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China. The Empires of Britain, France
External links and others faced challenges as imperialism was increasingly viewed negatively in Europe, and
independence movements in British India, French Indochina, Ireland and other regions
gained momentum.

The Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and German empires were dismantled. The Ottoman and
German Empire's colonies were redistributed among the Allies. The far western part of the
Russian Empire broke away: Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland became
independent nations, while Bessarabia (the Republic of Moldova) chose to reunify with
Romania.

The communists in the USSR managed to regain control in Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia. Ireland was split, with the larger part being independent of Britain. In the Middle
East, Egypt and Iraq gained independence. During the Great Depression, Latin American
countries nationalised many foreign companies (particularly American) in a bid to strengthen
their local economies. Japanese, German, Italian and Soviet territorial ambitions led to
expansions of these empires, which set the stage for the subsequent world war.

The German and Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 is considered the start of World
War II and the end of the interwar period.[1]

Turmoil in Europe
Main article: Aftermath of World War I

Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that

ended World War I, the years 1919–24 were marked
by turmoil as affected regions struggled to recover
from the devastation of the First World War and
the destabilising effects of the loss of four large
historic empires: the German Empire, Austro-
Hungarian Empire, Russian Empire and the
Ottoman Empire. There were numerous new
nations in Eastern Europe, most of them small in
size. The United States gained dominance in world
Europe, 1923
nance. Thus, when Germany could no longer
afford war reparations to Britain, France and other
Allies, the Americans came up with the Dawes Plan and Wall Street invested heavily in
Germany, which repaid its reparations to nations that, in turn, used the dollars to pay off
their war debts to Washington. By the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread, with
the second half of the decade known, especially in Germany, as the "Golden Twenties".[2]

International relations
Main article: International relations (1919–1939)

The important stages of interwar diplomacy and international relations included resolutions
of wartime issues, such as reparations owed by Germany and boundaries; American
involvement in European nances and disarmament projects; the expectations and failures of
the League of Nations;[3] the relationships of the new countries to the old; the distrustful
relations of the Soviet Union to the capitalist world; peace and disarmament efforts;
responses to the Great Depression starting in 1929; the collapse of world trade; the collapse
of democratic regimes one by one; the growth of efforts at economic autarky; Japanese
aggressiveness toward China, occupying most of China's Paci c coastline, as well as border
disputes between the Soviet Union and Japanese Empire, leading to multiple clashes along
the Soviet and Japanese occupied Manchurian border; Fascist diplomacy, including the
aggressive moves by Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany; the Spanish Civil War; Italy's
invasion and occupation of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in the Horn of Africa; the appeasement of
Germany's expansionist moves against the German-speaking nation of Austria, the region
inhabitanted by ethnic Germans called the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, the
remilitarization of the Legue of Nations demilitarized zone of the German Rhineland region,
and the last, desperate stages of rearmament as the Second World War increasingly loomed.[4]

Disarmament was high on the popular agenda. The League of Nations played little role in this
effort, but the United States and Britain took the lead. U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans
Hughes sponsored the Washington Naval Conference of 1921 in determining how many
capital ships each major country was allowed. The new allocations were actually followed and
there were no naval races in the 1920s. Britain played a leading role in the 1927 Geneva Naval
Conference and the 1930 London Conference that led to the London Naval Treaty, which
added cruisers and submarines to the list of ship allocations. However the refusal of Japan,
Germany, Italy and the USSR to go along with this led to the meaningless Second London
Naval Treaty of 1936. Naval disarmament had collapsed and the issue became rearming for a
war against Germany and Japan.[5][6]

Roaring Twenties
Main articles: 1920s, Roaring Twenties, Golden Twenties, and Années folles

The "Roaring Twenties" highlighted novel and highly visible social and cultural trends and
innovations. These trends, made possible by sustained economic prosperity, were most
visible in major cities like New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, and London. The Jazz Age began
and Art Deco peaked.[7][8] For women, knee-length skirts and dresses became socially
acceptable, as did bobbed hair with a marcel wave. The young women who pioneered these
trends were called " appers".[9] Not all was new: “normalcy” returned to politics in the wake of
hyper-emotional wartime passions in the United States, France, and Germany.[10] The leftist
revolutions in Finland, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Spain were defeated by
conservatives, but succeeded in Russia, which became the base for Soviet Communism.[11] In
Italy the fascists came to power under Mussolini after threatening a March on Rome in 1922.
[12]

Most independent countries enacted women's suffrage in the interwar era, including Canada
in 1917 (though Quebec held out longer), Britain in 1918, and the United States in 1920. There
were a few major countries that held out until after the Second World War (such as France,
Switzerland and Portugal).[13] Leslie Hume argues:

The women's contribution to the war effort combined with failures of the previous
systems' of Government made it more dif cult than hitherto to maintain that women were,
both by constitution and temperament, un t to vote. If women could work in munitions
factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth.
But the vote was much more than simply a reward for war work; the point was that
women's participation in the war helped to dispel the fears that surrounded women's entry
into the public arena.[14]

In Europe, according to Derek Aldcroft and Steven Morewood, "Nearly all countries
registered some economic progress in the 1920s and most of them managed to regain or
surpass their pre-war income and production levels by the end of the decade." The
Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Greece did especially well, while Eastern
Europe did poorly.[15] In advanced economies the prosperity reached middle class households
and many in the working class. with radio, automobiles, telephones, and electric lighting and
appliances. There was unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and
aspirations, and signi cant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media began to focus on
celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie stars. Major cities built large sports stadiums
for the fans, in addition to palatial cinemas. The mechanization of agriculture continued
apace, producing on expansion of output that lowered prices, and made many farm workers
redundant. Often they moved to nearby industrial towns and cities.

Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place after
1929. The timing varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the
late 1930s.[16] It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th
century.[17] The depression originated in the United States and became worldwide news with
the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday). Between 1929 and 1932,
worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1%
from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession.[18] Some economies started to recover by the
mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted
until the beginning of World War II.[19]

The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries both rich and poor. Personal
income, tax revenue, pro ts, and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more
than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%.
[20] Prices fell sharply, especially for mining and agricultural commodities. Business pro ts fell
sharply as well, with a sharp reduction in new business starts.

Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry.
Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming communities and rural areas
suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%.[21][22][23] Facing plummeting demand with few
alternative sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and
logging suffered the most.[24]

The Weimar Republic in Germany gave way to two episodes of political and economic
turmoil, the rst culminated in the German hyperin ation of 1923 and the failed Beer Hall
Putsch of that same year. The second convulsion, brought on by the worldwide depression
and Germany's disastrous monetary policies, resulted in the further rise of Nazism.[25] In Asia,
Japan became an ever more assertive power, especially with regard to China.[26]

Fascism displaces democracy

Democracy and prosperity largely went together in the 1920s. Economic disaster led to a
distrust in the effectiveness of democracy and its collapse in much of Europe, including the
Baltic and Balkan countries, Poland, Spain, and Portugal. Powerful expansionary dictatorships
emerged in Italy, Japan, and Germany.[27]

While communism was tightly contained in the isolated Soviet Union, fascism took control of
Italy in 1922; as the Great Depression worsened, fascism emerged victorious in Germany, and
played a major role in numerous countries in Europe, and several in Latin America.[28] Fascist
parties sprang up, attuned to local right-wing traditions, but also possessing common
features that typically included extreme militaristic nationalism, a desire for economic self-
containment, threats and aggression toward neighboring countries, oppression of minorities,
a ridicule of democracy while using its techniques to mobilize an angry middle-class base,
and a disgust with cultural liberalism. Fascists believed in power, violence, male superiority,
and a "natural" hierarchy, often led by dictators such as Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler.
Fascism in power meant that liberalism and human rights were discarded, and individual
pursuits and values were subordinated to what the party decided was best.[29]

Spanish Civil War (1936–39)

Main article: Spanish Civil War

To one degree or another, Spain had been unstable politically for centuries, and in 1936-39
was wracked by one of the bloodiest civil wars of the 20th century. The real importance
comes from outside countries. In Spain the conservative and Catholic elements and the army
revolted against the newly elected government, and full-scale civil war erupted. Fascist Italy
and Nazi Germany gave munitions and strong military units to the rebel Nationalists, led by
General Francisco Franco. The Republican (or "Loyalist") government, was on the defensive,
but it received signi cant help from the Soviet Union. Led by Great Britain and France, and
including the United States, most countries remained neutral and refused to provide
armaments to either side. The powerful fear was that this localized con ict would escalate
into a European con agration that no one wanted. [30][31]

The Spanish Civil War was marked by numerous small battles and sieges, and many atrocities,
until the Nationalists won in 1939 by overwhelming the Republican forces. The Soviet Union
provided armaments but never enough to equip the heterogeneous government militias and
the "International Brigades" of outside far-left volunteers. The civil war did not escalate into a
larger con ict, but did become a worldwide ideological battleground that pitted all the
Communists and many socialists and liberals against Catholics, conservatives and fascists.
Worldwide there was a decline in paci sm and a growing sense that another great war was
imminent, and that it would be worth ghting for.[32][33]

Great Britain and its Empire

Main article: Interwar Britain

The changing world order that the war had brought

about, in particular the growth of the United States
and Japan as naval powers, and the rise of
independence movements in India and Ireland,
caused a major reassessment of British imperial
policy.[34] Forced to choose between alignment with
The Second British Empire at its territorial
the United States or Japan, Britain opted not to
peak in 1921
renew its Japanese alliance and instead signed the
1922 Washington Naval Treaty, where Britain
accepted naval parity with the United States. The issue of the empire's security was a serious
concern in Britain, as it was vital to the British pride, its nance, and its trade-oriented
economy.[35][36]

India strongly supported the Empire in the First

World War. It expected a reward, but failed to get
home rule as the Raj kept control in British hands
and feared another rebellion like that of 1857. The
Government of India Act 1919 failed to satisfy
demand for independence. Mounting tension,
particularly in the Punjab region, culminated in the
Amritsar Massacre in 1919. Nationalism surged and
centered in the Congress Party led by Mohandas
Gandhi.[37] In Britain public opinion was divided
over the morality of the massacre, between those George V with the British and Dominion
who saw it as having saved India from anarchy, and prime ministers at the 1926 Imperial
Conference
those who viewed it with revulsion.[38][39]

Egypt had been under de facto British control since the 1880s, despite its nominal ownership
by the Ottoman Empire. In 1922 it was granted formal independence, though it continued to
be a client state following British guidance. Egypt joined the League of Nations. Egypt's King
Faud and his son King Farouk, and their conservative allies, stayed in power with lavish
lifestyles thanks to an informal alliance with Britain who would protect them from both
secular and Muslim radicalism.[40] Iraq, a British mandate since 1920, gained of cial
independence in 1932 when King Faisal agreed to British terms of a military alliance and an
assured ow of oil.[41][42]

In Palestine, Britain was presented with the problem of mediating between the Arabs and
increasing numbers of Jews. The 1917 Balfour Declaration, which had been incorporated into
the terms of the mandate, stated that a national home for the Jewish people would be
established in Palestine, and Jewish immigration allowed up to a limit that would be
determined by the mandatory power. This led to increasing con ict with the Arab population,
who openly revolted in 1936. As the threat of war with Germany increased during the 1930s,
Britain judged the support of Arabs as more important than the establishment of a Jewish
homeland, and shifted to a pro-Arab stance, limiting Jewish immigration and in turn
triggering a Jewish insurgency.[43]

The Dominions (Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland)
were self-governing and gained semi-independence in the World War. Britain still controlled
foreign policy and defence. The right of the Dominions to set their own foreign policy was
recognised in 1923 and formalised by the 1931 Statute of Westminster. Ireland effectively
broke all ties with London in 1937.[44]

French Empire
Main articles: Interwar France and French colonial
empire

French census statistics from 1931 show an imperial

population, outside of France itself, of 64.3 million
people living on 11.9 million square kilometers. Of
the total population, 39.1 million lived in Africa and
24.5 million lived in Asia; 700,000 lived in the
The French Empire during the Interwar
Caribbean area or islands in the South Paci c. The
period.
largest colonies were Indochina with 21.5 million (in
ve separate colonies), Algeria with 6.6 million,
Morocco, with 5.4 million, and West Africa with 14.6 million in nine colonies. The total
includes 1.9 million Europeans, and 350,000 "assimilated" natives.[45]

Revolt in North Africa Against Spain and France

Main article: Rif War

The Berber independence leader Abd el-Krim (1882-1963) organized armed resistance against
the Spanish and French for control of Morocco. The Spanish had faced unrest off and on from
the 1890s, but in 1921 Spanish forces were massacred at the Battle of Annual El-Krim founded
an independent Rif Republic that operated until 1926 but had no international recognition.
Paris and Madrid agreed to collaborate to destroy it. They sent in 200,000 soldiers, forcing
el-Krim to surrender in 1926; he was exiled in the Paci c until 1947. Morocco became quiet,
and in 1936 became the base from which Francisco Franco launched his revolt against Madrid.
[46]

Germany
Main articles: Weimar Republic and History of Germany

Weimar Republic
The humiliating peace terms in the Treaty of Versailles provoked bitter indignation
throughout Germany, and seriously weakened the new democratic regime. The Treaty
stripped Germany of all of its overseas colonies, of Alsace and Lorraine, and of predominantly
Polish districts. The Allied armies occupied industrial sectors in western Germany including
the Rhineland, and Germany was not allowed to have a real army, navy, or air force.
Reparations were demanded, especially by France, involving shipments of raw materials, as
well as annual payments.[47]

When Germany defaulted on its reparation payments, French and Belgian troops occupied
the heavily industrialised Ruhr district (January 1923). The German government encouraged
the population of the Ruhr to passive resistance: shops would not sell goods to the foreign
soldiers, coal mines would not dig for the foreign troops, trams in which members of the
occupation army had taken seat would be left abandoned in the middle of the street. The
German government printed vast quantities of paper money, causing hyperin ation, which
also damaged the French economy. The passive resistance proved effective, insofar as the
occupation became a loss-making deal for the French government. But the hyperin ation
caused many prudent savers to lose all the money they had saved. Weimar added new
internal enemies every year, as anti-democratic Nazis, Nationalists, and Communists battled
each other in the streets. See 1920s German in ation.[48]

Germany was the rst state to establish diplomatic relations with the new Soviet Union.
Under the Treaty of Rapallo, Germany accorded the Soviet Union de jure recognition, and the
two signatories mutually cancelled all pre-war debts and renounced war claims. In October
1925 the Treaty of Locarno was signed by Germany, France, Belgium, Britain, and Italy; it
recognised Germany's borders with France and Belgium. Moreover, Britain, Italy, and Belgium
undertook to assist France in the case that German troops marched into the demilitarised
Rhineland. Locarno paved the way for Germany's admission to the League of Nations in 1926.
[49]

Nazi era, 1933–39

Main articles: Nazi Germany and Causes of World War II

Hitler came to power in January 1933, and inaugurated an aggressive power designed to give
Germany economic and political domination across central Europe. He did not attempt to
recover the lost colonies. Until August 1939, the Nazis denounced Communists and the Soviet
Union as the greatest enemy, along with the Jews.[50]

Hitler's diplomatic strategy in the 1930s was to

make seemingly reasonable demands, threatening
war if they were not met. When opponents tried to
appease him, he accepted the gains that were
offered, then went to the next target. That
aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out
of the League of Nations (1933), rejected the
Versailles Treaty, and began to re-arm (1935), won
back the Saar (1935), remilitarized the Rhineland
(1936), formed an alliance ("axis") with Mussolini's
Italy (1936), sent massive military aid to Franco in
the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), seized Austria
(1938), took over Czechoslovakia after the British
and French appeasement of the Munich Agreement
of 1938, formed a peace pact with Joseph Stalin's
Soviet Union in August 1939, and nally invaded
Poland in September 1939. Britain and France
declared war and World War II began – somewhat
sooner than the Nazis expected or were ready for.
[51]
A Japanese poster promoting the Axis
cooperation in 1938.

After establishing the "Rome-Berlin axis" with

Benito Mussolini, and signing the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan – which was joined by Italy
a year later in 1937 – Hitler felt able to take the offensive in foreign policy. On 12 March 1938,
German troops marched into Austria, where an attempted Nazi coup had been unsuccessful
in 1934. When Austrian-born Hitler entered Vienna, he was greeted by loud cheers. Four
weeks later, 99% of Austrians voted in favour of the annexation (Anschluss) of their country
Austria to the German Reich. After Austria, Hitler turned to Czechoslovakia, where the
3.5 million-strong Sudeten German minority was demanding equal rights and self-
government.[52][53]

At the Munich Conference of September 1938, Hitler, the Italian leader Benito Mussolini,
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier
agreed upon the cession of Sudeten territory to the German Reich by Czechoslovakia. Hitler
thereupon declared that all of German Reich's territorial claims had been ful lled. However,
hardly six months after the Munich Agreement, in March 1939, Hitler used the smoldering
quarrel between Slovaks and Czechs as a pretext for taking over the rest of Czechoslovakia as
the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In the same month, he secured the return of
Memel from Lithuania to Germany. Chamberlain was forced to acknowledge that his policy of
appeasement towards Hitler had failed.[54][55]

Italy
Main articles: Second Italo-Ethiopian War and Italian invasion of Albania

In 1922, the leader of the Italian fascist movement, Benito

Mussolini, became Prime Minister of Italy after the March on Rome.
Mussolini resolved the question of sovereignty over the
Dodecanese at the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which formalized
Italian administration of both Libya and the Dodecanese Islands, in
return for a payment to Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman
Empire, though he failed in an attempt to extract a mandate of a
portion of Iraq from Britain. Ambitions of Fascist Italy in
Europe in 1936. The map
The month following the rati cation of the Lausanne treaty, shows territories to
Mussolini ordered the invasion of the Greek island of Corfu after become sovereign or
the Corfu incident. The Italian press supported the move, noting dependency territory (in
dark-green) and client
that Corfu had been a Venetian possession for four hundred years.
states (in light-green).
The matter was taken by Greece to the League of Nations, where
Mussolini was convinced by Britain to evacuate Italian troops, in
return for reparations from Greece. The confrontation led Britain
and Italy to resolve the question of Jubaland in 1924, which was
merged into Italian Somaliland.[56]

During the late 1920s, imperial expansion became an increasingly

favoured theme in Mussolini's speeches.[57] Amongst Mussolini's
aims were that Italy had to become the dominant power in the
Mediterranean that would be able to challenge France or Britain, as Maximum extent of
well as attain access to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.[57] Mussolini Imperial Italy
alleged that Italy required uncontested access to the world's oceans
and shipping lanes to ensure its national sovereignty.[58] This was elaborated on in a document
he later drew up in 1939 called "The March to the Oceans", and included in the of cial records
of a meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism.[58] This text asserted that maritime position
determined a nation's independence: countries with free access to the high seas were
independent; while those who lacked this, were not. Italy, which only had access to an inland
sea without French and British acquiescence, was only a "semi-independent nation", and
alleged to be a "prisoner in the Mediterranean":[58]

The bars of this prison are Corsica, Tunisia, Malta, and Cyprus. The guards of this prison
are Gibraltar and Suez. Corsica is a pistol pointed at the heart of Italy; Tunisia at Sicily.
Malta and Cyprus constitute a threat to all our positions in the eastern and western
Mediterrean. Greece, Turkey, and Egypt have been ready to form a chain with Great Britain
and to complete the politico-military encirclement of Italy. Thus Greece, Turkey, and Egypt
must be considered vital enemies of Italy's expansion ... The aim of Italian policy, which
cannot have, and does not have continental objectives of a European territorial nature
except Albania, is rst of all to break the bars of this prison ... Once the bars are broken,
Italian policy can only have one motto – to march to the oceans.
— Benito Mussolini, The March to the Oceans[58]
In the Balkans, the Fascist regime claimed Dalmatia and held ambitions over Albania, Slovenia,
Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vardar Macedonia, and Greece based on the precedent of
previous Roman dominance in these regions.[59] Dalmatia and Slovenia were to be directly
annexed into Italy while the remainder of the Balkans was to be transformed into Italian
client states.[60] The regime also sought to establish protective patron-client relationships
with Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.[59]

In both 1932 and 1935, Italy demanded a League of Nations mandate of the former German
Cameroon and a free hand in Ethiopia from France in return for Italian support against
Germany (see Stresa Front).[61] This was refused by French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot,
who was not yet suf ciently worried about the prospect of a German resurgence.[61] The failed
resolution of the Abyssinia Crisis led to the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, in which Italy
annexed Ethiopia to its empire.

Italy's stance towards Spain shifted between the 1920s and the 1930s. The Fascist regime in
the 1920s held deep antagonism towards Spain due to Miguel Primo de Rivera's pro-French
foreign policy. In 1926, Mussolini began aiding the Catalan separatist movement, which was
led by Francesc Macià, against the Spanish government.[62] With the rise of the left-wing
Republican government replacing the Spanish monarchy, Spanish monarchists and fascists
repeatedly approached Italy for aid in overthrowing the Republican government, in which
Italy agreed to support them in order to establish a pro-Italian government in Spain.[62] In July
1936, Francisco Franco of the Nationalist faction in the Spanish Civil War requested Italian
support against the ruling Republican faction, and guaranteed that, if Italy supported the
Nationalists, "future relations would be more than friendly" and that Italian support "would
have permitted the in uence of Rome to prevail over that of Berlin in the future politics of
Spain".[63] Italy intervened in the civil war with the intention of occupying the Balearic Islands
and creating a client state in Spain.[64] Italy sought the control of the Balearic Islands due to its
strategic position – Italy could use the islands as a base to disrupt the lines of communication
between France and its North African colonies and between British Gibraltar and Malta.[65]
After the victory by Franco and the Nationalists in the war, Allied intelligence was informed
that Italy was pressuring Spain to permit an Italian occupation of the Balearic Islands.[66]

After the United Kingdom signed the Anglo-Italian Easter Accords

in 1938, Mussolini and foreign minister Ciano issued demands for
concessions in the Mediterranean by France, particularly regarding
Djibouti, Tunisia and the French-run Suez Canal.[67] Three weeks
later, Mussolini told Ciano that he intended for Italy to demand an
Italian takeover of Albania.[67] Mussolini professed that Italy would
only be able to "breathe easily" if it had acquired a contiguous Italian newspaper in
colonial domain in Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans, Tunisia that represented
Italians living in the French
and when ten million Italians had settled in them.[57] In 1938, Italy
protectorate of Tunisia.
demanded a sphere of in uence in the Suez Canal in Egypt,
speci cally demanding that the French-dominated Suez Canal
Company accept an Italian representative on its board of directors.[68] Italy opposed the
French monopoly over the Suez Canal because, under the French-dominated Suez Canal
Company, all Italian merchant traf c to its colony of Italian East Africa was forced to pay tolls
on entering the canal.[68]

The local Albanian chieftain who in 1922 had himself proclaimed king as Zog I, failed to create
a strong state.[69] Albanian society was deeply divided by religion and language, with disputed
borders and an undeveloped rural economy. In 1939, Italy invaded and captured Albania and
made it a part of the Italian Empire as a separate kingdom in personal union with the Italian
crown. Italy had long built strong links with the Albanian leadership and considered it rmly
within its sphere of in uence. Mussolini wanted a spectacular success over a smaller
neighbour to match Germany's absorption of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Italian King Victor
Emmanuel III took the Albanian crown, and a fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci was
established to rule over Albania.[70]

Regional patterns
Balkans
Main article: Interwar Romania

The Great Depression destabilised Romania. The early 1930s were marked by social unrest,
high unemployment, and strikes. In several instances, the Romanian government violently
repressed strikes and riots, notably the 1929 miners' strike in Valea Jiului and the strike in the
Griviţa railroad workshops. In the mid-1930s, the Romanian economy recovered and the
industry grew signi cantly, although about 80% of Romanians were still employed in
agriculture. French economic and political in uence was predominant in the early 1920s but
then Germany became more dominant, especially in the 1930s.[71]

East Asia: Japanese dominance

The Japanese modelled their industrial economy closely on the most advanced European
models. They started with textiles, railways, and shipping, expanding to electricity and
machinery. The most serious weakness was a shortage of raw materials. Industry ran short of
copper, and coal became a net importer. A deep aw in the aggressive military strategy was a
heavy dependence on imports including 100 percent of the aluminum, 85 percent of the iron
ore, and especially 79 percent of the oil supplies. It was one thing to go to war with China or
Russia, but quite another to be in con ict with the key suppliers, especially the United States,
Britain, and the Netherlands, which supply the oil and iron.[72]

Japan joined the Allies of the First World War in order to make territorial gains. Together, with
the British Empire, it divided up Germany's territories scattered in the Paci c and on the
China coast; they did not amount to very much. The other Allies pushed back hard against
Japan's efforts to dominate China through the Twenty-One Demands of 1915. Its occupation
of Siberia proved unproductive. Japan's wartime diplomacy and limited military action had
produced few results, and at the Paris Versailles peace conference. at the end of the war,
Japan frustrated in its ambitions. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, its demands for racial
parity, and an increasing diplomatic isolation. The 1902 alliance with Britain was not renewed
in 1922 because of heavy pressure on Britain from Canada and the United States. In the 1920s
Japanese diplomacy was rooted in an largely liberal democratic political system, and favored
internationalism. By 1930, however, Japan was rapidly reversing itself, rejecting democracy at
home, as the Army seized more and more power, and rejecting internationalism and
liberalism. By the late 1930s it had joined the Axis military alliance with Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy.[73]

In 1930, the London disarmament conference angered the Japanese Army and Navy. Japan's
navy demanded parity with the United States and Britain, but was rejected and the
conference kept the 1921 ratios. Japan was required to scrap a capital ship. Extremists
assassinated Japan's prime minister and the military took more power, leading to the rapid
decline in democracy.[74]

Japan seizes Manchuria

In September 1931, the Japanese Army—acting on its own without government approval—
seized control of Manchuria, an anarchic area that China had not controlled in decades. It set
up a puppet government of Manchukuo. Britain and France effectively control the League of
Nations, which issued the Lytton Report in 1932, saying that Japan had genuine grievances,
but it acted illegally in seizing the entire province. Japan quit the League, Britain took no
action. The US Secretary of State announces that it would not recognize Japan's conquest as
legitimate. Germany welcomed Japan's actions.[75][76]

Toward conquest of China

The civilian government in Tokyo tried to minimize the Army's aggression in Manchuria, and
announced it was withdrawing. On the contrary, the Army completed the conquest of
Manchuria, and the civilian cabinet resigned. The political parties were divided on the issue of
military expansion. The new Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi tried to negotiate with China,
but was assassinated in the May 15 Incident in 1932, which Ushered in an era of
ultranationalism led by the Army and supported by patriotic societies. It ended civilian rule in
Japan until after 1945.[77]

The Army, however, was itself divided into cliques and factions with different strategic
viewpoints. One faction saw The Soviet Union is the main enemy, the other sought to build a
mighty empire based in Manchuria and northern China. The Navy, while smaller and less
in uential, was also factionalized. Large-scale warfare, known as the Second Sino-Japanese
War, began in August 1937, with naval and infantry attacks focused on Shanghai, which
quickly spread to other major cities. There were numerous large-scale atrocities against
Chinese civilians, such as the Nanking Massacre in December 1937, with mass murder and
mass rape. By 1939 military lines had stabilized, with Japan in control of almost all of the
major Chinese cities and industrial areas. A puppet government was set up.[78] In the U.S.,
government and public opinion—even including those who were isolationist regarding Europe
—was resolutely opposed to Japan and gave strong support to China. Meanwhile, the Japanese
Army fared badly in large battles with Soviet forces in Mongolia at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol
in summer 1939. The USSR was too powerful. Tokyo and Moscow signed a nonaggression
treaty in April 1941, as the militarists turned their attention to the European colonies to the
south which had urgently needed oil elds.[79]

Latin America
The Great Depression posed a great challenge to the region. The collapse of the world
economy meant that the demand for raw materials drastically declined, undermining many of
the economies of Latin America. Intellectuals and government leaders in Latin America
turned their backs on the older economic policies and turned toward import substitution
industrialization. The goal was to create self-suf cient economies, which would have their
own industrial sectors and large middle classes and which would be immune to the ups and
downs of the global economy. Despite the potential threats to United States commercial
interests, the Roosevelt administration (1933–1945) understood that the United States could
not wholly oppose import substitution. Roosevelt implemented a Good Neighbor policy and
allowed the nationalization of some American companies in Latin America. Mexican President
Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized American oil companies, out of which he created Pemex.
Cárdenas also oversaw the redistribution of a quantity of land, ful lling the hopes of many
since the start of the Mexican Revolution. The Platt Amendment was also repealed, freeing
Cuba from legal and of cial interference of the United States in its politics. The Second World
War also brought the United States and most Latin American nations together, with
Argentina the main hold out.[80]

During the Interwar period United States policy makers continued to be concerned over
German in uence in Latin America.[81][82] Some analyst grossly exagerated the in uence of
Germans in South America even after the First World War when German in uence somewhat
declined.[82][83] As the in uence of United States grew all-over the Americas Germany
concentrated its foreign policy efforts in the Southern Cone countries where US in uence
was weaker and larger German communities were at place.[81]

The contrary ideals of indigenismo and hispanismo held sway among intellectuals in Spanish-
speaking America during the interwar period. In Argentina the gaucho genre ourished. A
rejection of "Western universalist" in uences were in vougue across Latin America.[81] This last
tendency was in part inspired by the translation into Spanish of the book Decline of the West
in 1923.[81]

Sports
Sports became increasingly popular, drawing enthusiastic fans to large stadia.[84] The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) worked to encourage Olympic ideals and
participation. Following the 1922 Latin American Games in Rio de Janeiro, the IOC helped to
establish national Olympic committees and prepare for future competition. In Brazil,
however, sporting and political rivalries slowed progress as opposing factions fought for
control of international sport. The 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris and the 1928 Summer
Olympics games in Amsterdam saw greatly increased participation from Latin American
athletes.[85]

English and Scottish engineers had brought futebol (soccer) to Brazil in the late 19th century.
The International Committee of the YMCA of North America and the Playground Association
of America played major roles in training coaches.[86] Across the globe after 1912, the
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) played the chief role in the
transformation of association football into a global game, working with national and regional
organizations, and setting up the rules and customs, and establishing championships such as
the World Cup.[87]

Africa and Asia

End of an era
The interwar period ended in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and the
start of World War II.[1]

See also

References

Further reading

External links

History of Europe

Categories

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