Question

Compare and contrast the periods of time between the two World Wars and the period before that.

Answer 1

Throughout modern Western culture, the Interwar Era (1918–1939) is considered to be the era between the end of World War I and the start of World War II. This is also called the inter-war period or interbellum period.
In much of the world, this time was characterized by instability as Europe struggled to recover from the First World War devastation. Especially in North America the first half of this time was one of great prosperity (the Roaring Twenties), but with the start of the Great Depression in 1929 this changed dramatically. It was at this time that two periods of political and economic instability were followed by the Weimar Republic in Germany, the first ending with the German hyperinflation of 1923 and the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch of that year. The second seizure, caused by the worldwide depression, led to the rise of Nazism. In Asia, Japan has become an increasingly assertive power, particularly in China.

The interwar period was marked by a radical shift in the international order, away from the pre-World War I Europe balance of power. One of the key institutions designed to bring stability was the League of Nations, founded after the First World War with the goal of sustaining world security and peace and fostering economic growth among member countries. The League was undermined by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, the Soviet Union, and Mussolini's Italy's bellicosity, and the United States ' non-participation, leading many to question its effectiveness and legitimacy.

The League was stretched to its limits by a number of international crises, the earliest being the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the 1935/36 Abyssinian crisis in which Italy occupied Abyssinia, one of the only independent African nations at the time. The League tried, but to no avail, to enforce economic sanctions against Italy. The incident revealed the vulnerability of France and Britain, exemplified by their inability to alienate Italy and risk it as their ally. The Western powers ' restricted actions forced Mussolini's Italy anyway into coalition with Hitler's Germany. The Abyssinian war showed Hitler how fragile the League was and supported the Rhineland's re-militarization in flagrant disregard of the Versailles Treaty. It was the first in a series of offensive actions that resulted in the September 1939 invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II.