Part One - The Interwar Period: 1919-1939

From the ashes of the Russian Empire rose the Soviet Union: the world’s first socialist power. Considered a pariah by most of the world, the new nation set about industrializing, as well as spreading socialism around the world, by whatever means.

Part One - The Interwar Period: 1919-1939

Like Italy, the Japanese had fought alongside the Entente, and felt that they had been cheated from promised territory at Versailles. This combined with rising militarism and expansionism to see Japan becoming arguably the most aggressive of the major powers, being embroiled in a large scale war in China in 1936.

Part One - The Interwar Period: 1919-1939

The United States entered the 1920s with a rocky start, but soon began a period of unprecedented prosperity. This was all to end in 1929 with the crash of the Wall Street stock market and the country spent the following decade trying to correct the economic damage, and taking an isolationist stance toward the increasingly tense international situation.

Part One - The Interwar Period: 1919-1939

Italy had fought with the Entente in the Great War, but felt it had been cheated at Versailles. In 1924 Benito Mussolini and his Fascists seized power, and soon Italy set about a grandiose plan to recapture the glory of Imperial Rome.

Part One - The Interwar Period: 1919-1939

The Third Republic had emerged battered but triumphant from the Great War, but prosperity was not in store during the coming years. Rather they would experience political turmoil and stagnation, emerging at the dawn of a new war in a weakened state.

Part One: The Interwar Period 1919-1939

The Weimar Republic entered the interwar period in turmoil, and despite the stabilization of the late 1920s would not survive the Great Depression, falling to National Socialism. Remilitarization would then commence, leading the world again to the brink of war.

Part One - The Interwar Period 1919-1939

The British Empire had reached its greatest extent, but the seeds of discord had been sown during the Great War.