Between 2 Wars - Season 1

After the War to End All Wars, there's more of two things. More nations and more wars. Wars of independence, civil wars, ethnic wars, ideological wars and just plain old wars. In the first Prelude to the Between 2 Wars series, covering the years 1919-1939 from WWI to WWII chronologically, we look at the rise of nationalism out of the ruins of The Great War. Indy Neidell and Spartacus take you on a historical journey through 20 years of dawn, light, and dusk back into the darkness of war.

As World War One ends the dying takes on new proportions when the Spanish Flu ravages the world. A whole generation of young people that should be starting their adult life is instead decimated at a devastating rate. The suffering at the end of 1918 will have consequences that last until this day.

The year 1919 was the year when the world took the first step into the age of mass communication. Wartime developments now create the aviation industry, mass produced cars, broadcast media and... more guns.

On what was only recently the Eastern Front of World War One there is no end to war. Russia is at war with itself while it tries to reconquer the former territories of the Russian Empire. These new countries are also at war with themselves and each other, while they fight the Bolshevik Russian armies invading their young borders. Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Romania, wherever you look in Eastern Europe there is war, more war... endless war.

The Paris Peace Conference gets underway while the world continues to go up in flames. In 1919 it seems like every corner of the world is plagued by revolutions, strikes, protests, oppression, ethnic violence, massacres, or war.

The fledgling democracy in Germany struggles to survive as the German Revolution escalates into a downright civil war. In one of the German States Bavaria, Adolf Hitler appears on the stage within the context of the Bavarian Soviet Revolution.

In 1920 the Bolshevik Russian Red army has more or less routed the Russian counter revolutionary White Armies. Their attention now turns to the West. Lenin wants to take the communist revolution to Germany, France and the United Kingdom. To get there he has to go through Poland though, and he hasn't counted with Józef Piłsudski, the leader of the Polish Republic.

Germany is usually associated with the rise of right wing extremism in the interwar years, but in 1920 almost the entire German citizenry unites to stop the reactionary forces from destroying their brand new democracy during the Lüttwitz Kapp Putsch. Meanwhile in Munich Adolf Hitler makes his next move to create the Nazi movement, while Lenin prepares the International socialist revolution in Russia.

In 1920, the colonial powers of the British Empire and France reverse course on their commitment to grant independence to the peoples of the Middle East. In a game to grab the oil fields of Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and to control the Suez Canal they tighten their grip on the region, with far ranging consequences that will shape the world well into the 21st century.

When many of the fighting men of The Great War return home addicted to drugs and infected with venereal disease, their sweethearts have decided that it's time for some serious changes! It's time for women's liberation!

After an unpopular war and facing unrest at home, the US returns to isolationism after half a century of gradually opening up to the world. On the home front, prohibition gives rise to more problems of the very kinds it meant to solve; crime and debauchery, and one the biggest crooks is in the White House.

In 1921 the Second Polish Republic expands to the borders it will have until it is overrun by the Germans and Soviets in September of 1939. Through conquest, popular uprisings, plebiscite, and the Treaty of Versailles Poland incorporates land from her neighboring nations.

In 1922, when Italy is in political chaos, reeling from the effects of The Great War and labour unrest, one man makes a violent grab for power. He is the prominent journalist and leader of a new radical, reactionary, oppressive, and murderous movement. He is Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini and he calls his movement Fascism.

When the Ottoman empire is torn apart by the Treaty of Sevres, ethnic conflicts in the old empire that have been boiling for almost a century lead to war between Greece and the parts of the Empire that will soon become the Republic of Turkey. A war that will have lasting effect on the world as both sides proceed to carry out stunning actions of ethnic violence, which is shockingly also sanctioned by international treaty after the fact.

When Germany spirals into hyperinflation and the French occupy the Ruhr, Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff make a grab for power.

As Lenin's health starts to fail, the struggle to become his successor picks up speed with Stalin maneuvering closer and closer to power. The outcome of this struggle will define a century of world events.

The 19th century throws all kinds of terror and unfortune on China, which not long before was the most powerful nation in the world. While many other Western, Asian and even American nations seek to gain influence in China through politics, wars and trade, China itself tries to hold on to its glory days.

One man tries to reunite China, he is Sun Yat Sen but he shall not see his work come to fruition.

Modernization caused a communication revolution in the 1920's with the mass adaptation of the Radio, with all sorts concequences for the entertainment industry as well as the political game.

The rise of the media superstar and the rise of Naziism had a lot to do with each other. The early death of one of the first media superstars, Rudolph Valentino in 1926 shows us exactly how and why.

In 1926 Chiang Kai-shek manages to turn the Kuomintang into his own private army, and the events are befuddling...

In 1927 the US is finally back to it's pre-WWI economic greatness, at least measured by the stock market. But all is not well with the finances in the land of the free and home of the brave.

With thousands of planes left over from World War One, hobby pilots and entrepreneurs set out to create the modern airline industry. Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and many more set record after record, while airplane manufacturers start the creation of passenger, freight planes, and a new generation of aerial weapons.

When the world goes into economic overdrive in the second half of the 1920s, contrary to popular belief Germany rises with the tide - it is the Goldener Zwanziger, the Golden Twenties.

In 1929 it's been nothing but growth for the US economy for years, at least if you judge by the New York Stock Exchange. But all that glitters is not gold, and when the gilding comes off this bubble it sinks like a lead ballon.

Formed in the ashes of the Great War, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes is already facing some pretty difficult birth pangs.

As 1929 approaches, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes spirals closer and closer to collapse. When the parliament descends into murderous chaos, it is up to King Alexander to decide what to do...

After the Great War, the British empire is at its peak in terms of population and size. However, resistance against colonialism is starting to brew in the British colonies and dominions.

When Mussolini wants to solidify Italy's North African Colonies, he faces massive opposition by one man- Omar Mukhtar, the Lion of the Desert.

In Japan, there has been a gradual increase of militarism since The Great War and in 1931 the country goes to war again when they Invade Chinese Manchuria based on a false flag terrorist strike at the Mukden railway junction.

Contrary to popular belief it is not so much reparations themselves that puts the first stepping stone in place for the Nazis to rise to power. Instead it is the cancellation of war reparations, or more correctly put; the measures that 'The Hunger Chancellor" Heinrich Brüning implements to get reparations cancelled that pushes Germany over the financial brink and into the hands of Hitler and Goebbels.

Stalin has to deal with the consequences of forcibly changing the Soviet Union from an agrarian economy into a modern industrialized society as his first five-years plan reaches its final year.

After Chancellor Brüning has run Germany's economy into the ground, the country is once again going to the polls. It's a wild brawl between reason and madness, populism and stability, and democracy and tyranny focused on who will unite Germany if Germany even can be united again...

What do you get when you combine vigorous grain-tax policies, bad harvests with Stalins fear and animosity for the rural population of Ukraine? A man-created murder famine, designed to kill millions of Ukrainian men, women and children.

Democracy finds itself in a crisis as the 1930s take off. On a global scale, Fascist or otherwise authoritarian and repressive movements and governments seek to destroy the pillars of liberal society.

Hitlers rise to power, also known as the Machtergreifung, was riddled with physical and mental manipulation, political games and an exploitation of the Democratic system. This episode follows the events leading up to the Nazi takeover of Germany.

The American economy is in a state of despair. Mass unemployment and poverty sweep the lands. In 1933, a new President is elected, promising to change things for the better. His name is Franklin D. Roosevelt.

America is very unprepared for rising tensions in The Pacific and Europe. US President Franklin Roosevelt tries his best to re-arm the American Army and Navy, but the isolationist opposition is a fierce obstacle.

After Hitler seized power in Germany in January 1933, he rapidly transformed the Democratic Weimar Republic into a repressive, totalitarian and racist state. In 1934, Germany became Nazi Germany.

Austria is very divided in the 1930s. Austrian Nationalism opposes the idea of a Greater German Reich, which triggers the emergence of Austrofascism. They find themselves in a violent struggle against Nazis, Communists, Democrats and Socialists.

King Aleksandar has been working to forge a single Yugoslav identity in his troubled Balkan state. But ethnic nationalism still runs strong, and a shadowy fascist movement fiercely committed to destroying Yugoslavia is emerging.

In February 1934, France threatens to go down the same political rabbit hole as Germany: anti-Semitic Fascism, but the French extremists are not quite as well organized as the Nazis.

Czechoslovakia is holding on to democracy by a thread. It even looks like they might be able to integrate the German Czechoslovakians, but Hitler's rise to power changes everything.

The Second Polish Republic emerged victorious from the Polish-Soviet War in 1921. But the shine of independence is quickly rubbing off as the new state finds itself burdened with sever economic, political, and social problems. There is one man who sees it as his destiny to save his ailing nation. That man is Józef Piłsudski. But will his undemocratic Sanacja regime be able to solve Poland's problems?

From 1927 to 1934, the Chinese Communists lived in a state within the National Chinese State led by Chiang Kai-Shek. In 1935, the Nationalists strike and the Communists follow their leader Mao Zedong on a Long March Northwards.

After European Empires were done scrambling for Africa, not much of the African continent was left to be ruled by its native people, or to be colonised for other colony-hungry European powers. However, the Kingdom of Abyssinia is one of the countries that made it through the scramble alive. That is, until Benito Mussolini shifts the Italian focus to East-Africa once more.

After more than twenty years of colonial management, promises made but few promises kept and ethnic & cultural clashes in the area, unrest in the middle east erupts in violence. A series of movements originate in this time, with long lasting consequences.

Spain in the early 1930's was practically Europe in Microcosm, with numerous political and ideological movements clashing in debate and open battles on the streets of Spain. All of this worsened in 1936 as Spain slowly descends into Civil War.

The Berlin Olympics in 1936 were a masterfully played piece of Nazi Propaganda, where they framed their race as physically superior and their ideology as modern, organised and cultured while also ostensibly downplaying their anti-internationalism racism and anti-semitism. But the Germans didn't embrace sports for friendly competition. They did so for something very different.

1937 marks the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. And wether or not this is the 'actual' starting point of World War Two, it definitely was a devastating conflict which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions.

The Nazi economy appears to do well during the 1930s. But this is largely myth, as the German economy under Hitler is based on a self destructive, ideologically or selfishly fuelled irrationality driven by conquest and criminal practice.

With the increasing aggression of Italy, Japan, and Germany in the 1930s, the League of Nations is becoming increasingly ineffective in regulating international disputes. Britain and France adopt a diplomatic strategy of appeasement to hold off all-out war and buy some crucial time. But will it work, and can Adolf Hitler's territorial ambitions be contained?

Under the yoke of economic depression and more and more authoritarian rulers, Western women face renewed misogyny, patriarchy, and decreasing independence. But not all women think this is such a bad thing.

After years of gradually increasing persecution, the Nazi's institute a nationwide pogrom on the night of November 9, 1938. It will signal the end of Jewish life in Germany.

In 1938, Stalin has his military leadership purged, and has thousands of his comrades killed or locked up. The reasons as to why he did it are still open for debate.

After years of political violence and strife, a military coup in 1936 finally brings Spain into all-out civil war. Mass executions and revolutionary upheaval, as the eyes of the world focus on the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1939, two bitter rivals sign a non-aggression pact. But the treaty is something more than just a simple pledge of neutrality. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union have also secretly agreed on how they will carve up Eastern Europe between them.

In this final episode of Season 1 of Between Two Wars we examine what caused the world to stand on the brink of total war in just two decades after the War to End All Wars. Events that end with three words through a phone line: "Grandmother is dead," words that launch World War II.