Context
The inter-war years refer to the pivotal 20 years that fell between the end of
the First World War and the Second World
War. The effects of World War One were profound for
Europe. Ten million were killed and twice that number wounded in what has been
dubbed the first modern war. All of the wars of the hundred years leading up to
World War One had claimed a total of only four and one-half million lives.
During the Great War, the French averaged a death each minute. The destruction
of a generation in Europe left many of those lucky enough to survive
psychologically scarred, and many would find it hard to lead normal lives.
In addition to the toll taken on European life, both the victorious Allies and
the defeated Central Powers were saddled with enormous national debts, which
contributed to the financial insecurity that was to plague all of Europe during
the inter-war period. The land of Europe was physically devastated, and the
three great European empires--Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman--were
toppled by the war and lay in ruins. Soldiers of both sides returned home to
this devastation and found only rampant unemployment and despair. The
widespread destruction led to internal political conflict and social instability
in almost every nation in Europe during the inter-war period.
The diplomatic results of the First World War greatly determined the nature of
European affairs during the inter-war years. The Paris Peace
Conference dismantled large blocs of territory in
Eastern Europe and drew the boundaries for new, independent states. These new
states were in many cases not economically viable, due to the destruction of the
war, and past reliance on the economies of the empires. Additionally, these
countries were unused to democracy and independence, and many were divided
internally by factions and antagonistic ethnic groups. Moreover, the rise of
radical political groups meant a wider spectrum of political ideologies
clamoring for acceptance. The ideologies of both fascism and communism
attracted more followers during the inter-war years than ever before. All of
this made the task of good government difficult, if not impossible, throughout
Eastern Europe. Instability and poorly operating, often-dictatorial governments
were typical of these states, making them easy targets for a rearmed Germany
during the late 1930s.
Germany, for its part, was crippled not only by the war, but also by the
settlement of the war, in which it was scapegoated as the conflict's aggressor.
The Treaty of Versailles provided for the military and
economic dismemberment of the German states, along with the requirement of
impossible reparations payments to Britain, France, and the other allied
nations. France, having suffered the greatest destruction at the hands of the
Germans during World War One, was adamant about keeping Germany weak, and
demanded reparations without exception in the years following the Great War.
Due in great part to these efforts, Germany suffered through starvation, mass
unemployment, and rampant inflation, all made unbearable by the Great
Depression. Naturally, Germans reacted bitterly
toward their foreign oppressors and dreamed of a return to the glory of the
German Empire. It was this dream which permitted the ascension of Adolf
Hitler and the Nazi Party to power in Germany, promising a future of glory
and European domination. Under the Nazis, Germany rearmed and began a program
of European conquest, which at first was permitted by the former Allies, in
hopes of avoiding a second war. However, it soon became clear that Germany's
intentions were dangerous to European security, and just twenty years after the
"War to End all Wars," Europe fell again into devastating conflict.
