The Interwar Years
Following the Great War, a global influenza pandemic swept around the world from 1918-1920. It was aided by the famine and ill-health left by the Great War and was spread to distant locations by ships.
This disease was known as “Spanish Flu”, even though its origins were likely in the United States
There are no conclusive totals of the number of people who died from the flu epidemic ranging from 50-130 million people. By comparison, the Great War cost some 17 million dead.
“Surrealist” Art - The Tilled Field , Joan Miro 1932
Trauma is like a dream-like state. The mind copes with the aftermath of the war with art. We see a rise of a new artistic style. Surrealist art - dreamy/nightmare art.
Ubu Imperator - Max Earnst, 1923
The Persistence of Memory - Salvador Dali, 1931
Bauhaus - 1919-1933 Walter Gropius
Sought to redesign the world in lots of ways. Using chrome plated steels as opposed to wood. Vibrant colors.
Art Deco
Started in the 1920s. Stainless steel. Stylistic hues on building. Futuristic architecture. Bring in inspo from Egyptian, Greek, or Roman. The empire state building. Appealing to the future and very strong contrast in colors and forms.
The “Jazz Age” began in the United States in the 1920s and spread to Europe and other parts of the world.
In the case of Europe, Jazz was brought by African-American servicemen who had found wartime life in France more acceptable than in the United States, and returned after the war.
They brought their culture and music to Paris and began a cultural revolution there.
Harlem renaissance
The “Flapper”
The Growth of Radio and Aviation
Both had the ability to shorten time and distances, creating and connecting empires.
Radio and film became the preferred means of mass entertainment and information.
1927 - Charles Lindberg, transatlantic solo flight
Silent Film Stars of the 1920s
Al Jolson
Clara Bow
Buster Keaton
Rudolph Valentino
Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan
1927 first film with voices
Automobiles
Increasingly popular and affordable thanks to assembly lines and mass production.
Allowed for greater mobility - especially between rural and urban areas.
Like aviation, automobiles became symbols of industrial nationalism.
—> The world was still troubled following the Great War
The map of Europe was redrawn after the Great War, creating new countries.
Germany lost territories and Austria-Hungary was broken up into several new states including Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Germany’s war debt, stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles, was too much for it to bear and it defaulted on its payments in 1923.
In 1923, France and BElgium invaded and occupied the German Ruhr region.
This territory was Germany's industrial heartland. It contained coal mines as well as numerous factories.
The occupation would last until Germany paid its debt.
Predictably, Germany resented the occupation as it not only crippled the nation's economy, but the occupation by French and Belgian troops was considered a further insult to Germany following the War.
The United States offered the Dawes Plan, where money was loaned to GErmany to allow it to pay its war debts, regain the Ruhr, and rebuild its economy.
The money Germany repaid would then eventually be paid back to the United States in the form of repayments by other nations, and by Germany itself.
However, it also meant that many national economies became tied together and helped lead to financial collapse in 1929.
The Dawes Plan helped to stabilize the German Weimar Republic, which was a representative government.
It was led by the Social Democrat party and helped ensure that German militarism would not be a threat again.
The Weimar government had serious economic troubles at first. As the 1920s progressed, it appeared to become more stable
However, it struggled during its existence with extreme inflation of its currency, political fighting, and extremist groups who were still very angry over the Treaty of Versailles.
The Weimar Republic was ultimately doomed by the Great Depression of 1929.
In Italy in 1922, Benito Bussolini and the Fascist Party gained power.
Although Italy had been part of the Entente forces in the Great War, they were denied colonial spoils after the war.
The Fascists believed in a return to the days of the Roman Empire, and also in a philosophy of class unity and military power under a nationalistic government.
FAscism relied on the idea of totalitarianism. This meant complete government control through the agency of a single person, a dictator, or political party
Italian fascism promoted itself as being progressive and beneficial to its people. Mussolini was seen worldwide as a strong leader who was able to utilize Italy’s industry and manpower to promote a modern state.
Following the Bolshevik Revolution, V.I. Lenin led the country until his death in 1924.
He was eventually succeeded by Joseph Stalin, a Georgian, who demanded rapid industrialization through a series of Five Year Plans.
Stalin's plans for industrializing Russia could not be sustained, and his campaigns of mass starvation and purges, or imprisonment and execution of political rivals and their supporters cost Russia tens of millions of people prior to WW2.
Japan had been largely left untouched by the Great War and had gained Germany’s Pacific colonies through the Treaty of Versailles.
As its economy remained more separate from that of the Western powers, it was free to look to expand its own empire and its military.
In 1926, Hirohito became the emperor
Japan turned its attention to the west, and in 1931 created a puppet state in Manchuria that they called Manchukuo.
This would later be used as a major base during the invasion of China in 1937.
1929
Due to several factors, the global economic system collapsed in late 1929, beginning what became known as the “Great Depression”.
Although the crisis was centered in the western world, its effects were felt globally, especially when protective tariffs were emplaced.