League of Nations

The main institution intended to bring peace and stability and resolve disputes was the League of Nations, created in 1919.^[3] The League was weakened by the non-participation of the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union, as well as (later) of Japan. It could not handle the refusal of major countries, especially Japan and Italy, to accept adverse decisions. Historians agree it was ineffective in major disputes.^[4][5]

A series of international crises strained the League to its limits, the earliest being the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan was censured and quit the League.^[6] This was soon followed by the Abyssinian Crisis of 1934-36, in which Italy invaded Ethiopia (Abyssinia), one of the two independent African nations. The League tried to enforce economic sanctions upon Italy, but to no avail. The incident highlighted French and British weaknesses, exemplified by their reluctance to alienate Italy and lose it as a counterweight against Hitler's Germany. The limited actions taken by the Western powers pushed Mussolini's Italy towards alliance with Hitler's Germany.^[7] The Abyssinian war showed the world how ineffective the League was at solving disputes. It played no role in dealing with the Spanish Civil War. The league also could not resolve other smaller conflicts involving major European nations, such as the Rif War between Spain and Morocco separatists.^[8]

Disarmament

The Washington Naval Conference, also known as the Washington Arms Conference or the Washington Disarmament Conference, was a military conference called by U.S. President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington, under the Chairmanship of Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. Conducted outside the auspice of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations: the United States, Japan, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal. Soviet Russia was not invited. The conference focused on resolving misunderstandings or conflicts regarding interests in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. The main achievement was a series of naval disarmament postals agreed to by all the participants, which lasted for a decade. These resulted in three major treaties – Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty (the Washington Naval Treaty), the Nine-Power Treaty – and a number of smaller agreements.^[9][10]

Britain now took the lead. The successful London Naval Treaty of 1930 continued the warship limitations among the major powers first set out in 1922. The treaties of 1922-30 preserved peace during the 1920s but were not renewed, as the world scene turned increasingly negative starting in 1931.^[11][12]

The peaceful spirit of Locarno

The seven international treaties negotiated at Locarno in 1925 by the major powers in Europe (not including the Soviet Union) significantly strengthened the legitimacy of Germany, paving the way to its return to the role of a major power and membership in the League of Nations in 1926, with a permanent seat on its council. The Locarno Treaties marked a dramatic improvement in the political climate of western Europe in 1924–1930. They promoted expectations for continued peaceful settlements, often called the "spirit of Locarno". This spirit was made concrete when Germany joined the League in 1926, and the withdrawal of Allied troops occupying Germany's Rhineland.^[13]

Historian Sally Marks says:

"Henceforth the spirit of Locarno would reign, substituting conciliation for enforcement as the basis for peace. Yet for some peace remained a desperate hope rather than an actuality. A few men knew that the spirit of Locarno was a fragile foundation on which to build a lasting peace."^[14]

Nazi Germany had no use for a peaceful spirit. It repudiated Locarno by sending troops into the demilitarized Rhineland on 7 March 1936.^[15]

Outlawing war

Fourteen major nations were the first to sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact in Paris in 1928

The Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928 resulted from a proposal drafted by the United States and France that, in effect, outlawed war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them". Most nations readily signed up and used the occasion to promote the goal of peaceful foreign policies. The only issue was the actual formula of the renunciation of all wars – the French wanted the definition restricted to wars of aggression, while the Americans insisted it should include all kinds of warfare. Historian Harold Josephson notes that the Pact has been ridiculed for its moralism and legalism and lack of influence on foreign policy. He argues that it instead led to a more activist American foreign policy. Its central provisions renouncing the use of war, and promoting peaceful settlement of disputes and the use of collective force to prevent aggression, were incorporated into the UN Charter and other treaties. Although civil wars continued, wars between established states have been rare since 1945, with a few exceptions in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.^[16]

In the United States, much energetic grass-roots support came from women's organizations and Protestant churches.^[17]

Criminalizing poison gas

Poison gas became the focus of a worldwide crusade in the 1920s. Poison gas did not win battles, and the generals did not want it. The soldiers hated it far more intensely than bullets or explosive shells. By 1918, chemical shells made up 35 per cent of French ammunition supplies, 25 per cent of British, and 20 per cent of the American stock. The "Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous, or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare" (Geneva Protocol) was issued in 1925, and was accepted as policy by all major countries.^[18][19]

Protecting power

In the interwar period, the diplomatic role of an official protecting power was formalized in the Geneva Convention of 1929. Protecting powers were allowed to inspect prisoner of war camps, interview prisoners in private, communicate freely with prisoners, and supply books for the prison library. However, a suggestion by the International Committee of the Red Cross that it be made responsible for ensuring compliance with the treaty was rejected.^[20]

Great Britain

Britain was a troubled giant that was less of a dominant diplomatic force in the 1920s than before. It often had to give way to the United States, which frequently exercised its financial superiority.^[21] The main themes of British foreign policy include a role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, where Prime Minister Lloyd George worked hard to moderate French demands for revenge.^[22] He was partly successful, but Britain repeatedly had to restrain the French regarding Germany.^[23] Britain was an active member of the new League of Nations, but repeated frustration was the main result.^[24][25]

Politically the coalition government headed by Lloyd George, a Liberal, depended primarily on Conservative Party support. He increasingly antagonized his dwindling base of Liberals supporters by working mostly with Conservatives, and he antagonized his main base of Conservative supporters by foreign policy miscues. The Chanak Crisis of 1922 brought Britain to the brink of war with Turkey, but the Dominions were opposed and the British military was hesitant. Lloyd George's aggressive policy was rejected in favour of peace and he lost control of the coalition. He was replaced as prime minister and never held power again.^[26][27]

Britain maintained close relationships with France and the United States, rejected isolationism, and sought world peace through naval arms limitation treaties.^[12] It sought peace with Germany through the Locarno treaties of 1925. A main goal was to restore Germany to a prosperous and peaceful state.^[28]

The Dominions (Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand) achieved virtual independence in foreign policy in 1931, though each depended heavily upon British naval protection. After 1931 trade policy favoured the Commonwealth with tariffs against the U.S. and others. Relations with the independent Irish Free State remained chilly, with a trade war underway in 1932-1937.^[29]

The success at Locarno in handling the German question encouraged Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain, working with France and Italy, to find a master solution to the diplomatic problems of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. It proved impossible to overcome mutual antagonisms, because Chamberlain's program was flawed by his misperceptions and fallacious judgments.^[30]

Disarmament was high on the agenda, and Britain played a major role following the American lead in the Washington Naval Conference of 1921. The goal was naval disarmament of the major powers and it worked until 1933. Then disarmament collapsed and the issue became the risk of war with Germany.^[31]

Britain faced a large debt of money to the US Treasury it borrowed to fight the war. Washington refused to cancel the debt but in 1923 the British renegotiated its £978 million war debt. It promised regular payments of £34 million for ten years then £40 million for 52 years, at a reduced interest rate. Britain supported the international solution to German payments through the Dawes Plan, which stabilized Germany's economy sufficiently to allow it to borrow from New York banks in order to pay reparations – money that England and France then used to pay against war debts owed to the US.^[32][33] In 1931, all German payments ended as a result of the Great Depression, and in 1932 Britain suspended its payments to the US. The German and British debts were finally repaid in 1952.^[34]

France

The main goal of French foreign policy between the wars was the diplomatic response to the demands of the French army in the 1920s and 1930s to form alliances against the German threat, especially with Britain and with smaller countries in central Europe.^[45][46][47]

Fascism

Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism in Europe shortly after the First World War. It dominated Italy (1923–1943) and Nazi Germany (1933-1945) and played a role in other countries. It was based in tightly organised local groups, all controlled from the top. It violently opposed to liberalism, Marxism, and anarchism, and tried to control all aspects of society. The foreign policy Militaristic and aggressive. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were critical allies in the second world war. Japan, with an authoritarian government that did not have a well-mobilised popular base, was allied with them to form the Axis.^[60]

Fascists saw World War I as a revolution that brought massive changes to the nature of war, society, the state, and technology. The advent of total war and the total mass mobilization of society had broken down the distinction between civilians and combatants. A "military citizenship" arose in which all citizens were involved with the military in some manner during the war. The war had resulted in the rise of a powerful state capable of mobilizing millions of people to serve on the front lines and providing economic production and logistics to support them, as well as having unprecedented authority to intervene in the lives of citizens.^[61]

Fascists argue that liberal democracy is obsolete, and they regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties. Opposition parties or organizations or publications are not tolerated.^[62] Such a state is led by a strong leader—such as a dictator his fascist party—to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society without dissent. Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence and warfare as tools that can achieve national rejuvenation.^[63]

Hitler re-militarised Germany's Rhineland district in 1936 in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles which said no troops would be stationed there. France and Britain did nothing.^[64] Hitler discovered that threats and bold moves paid off, and he escalated demands against Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Finally Britain and France declared war after his invasion of Poland in September 1939. The Second World War had begun.^[65]

Germany

Germany, stripped of its overseas colonies, its Polish regions in the east and Alsace-Lorraine in the West, became a republic in 1919. It was committed to democracy and modernity, but faced internal challenges from the far left and the far right, and external pressures from France.

Eastern Europe

A major result of the First World War was the breakup of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires, as well as partial losses to the German Empire. A surge of ethnic nationalism created a series of new states in Eastern Europe, validated by the Versailles Treaty of 1919. Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan tried to do the same but were later retaken by the Bolsheviks in Russia. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia became entirely new nations. Austria and Hungary survived with much smaller territories based on their German and Hungarian core populations.^[92]

Poland was reconstituted after the partitions of the 1790s had divided it between Germany, Austria, and Russia. Romania, Bulgaria and Albania survived the tumble, but their borders were adjusted. All the countries were heavily rural, with little industry and only a few urban centers. Nationalism was the dominant force but most of the countries had ethnic or religious minorities who felt threatened by majority elements. Nearly all became democratic in the 1920s, but all of them (except Czechoslovakia and Finland) gave up democracy during the depression years of the 1930s, in favor of autocratic or strong-man or single party states. The new states were unable to form stable military alliances, and one by one were too weak to stand up against Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, which took them over between 1938 and 1945.^[93]

Greece

Greek troops occupied Smyrna area and also areas north of Constantinople.

In Greece, the site of several revanchist wars in the years prior to the First World War, the divided international loyalties of the political elite reached a crisis over entering the World War against its historic enemy, the Ottoman Empire. During what was known as the National Schism, a pro-British, liberal, and nationalist movement led by Eleftherios Venizelos struggled with the conservative and pro-German monarch Constantine I for control.

Greek troops seized Smyrna and a large sector of western Anatonia in 1919. They had British support. In 1920, the Ottoman government agreed to the Treaty of Sèvres; it stipulated that in five years time a plebiscite would be held in Smyrna on whether the region would join Greece. However, Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, overthrew the Ottoman government and tried to expel the Greeks in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). A major Greek offensive ground to a halt in 1921, and by 1922 Greek troops were in retreat. The Turkish forces recaptured Smyrna and drove out all the Greek forces. The war with Turkey ended with an agreement to stage massive ethnic exchange, with 1.1 million ethnic Greek Christians who had lived in what was now Turkey (and perhaps could not speak Greek) moving back to Greece, and 380,000 Muslims moving to Turkey.^[98]

Soviet Union

Popular Front

Main article: Popular Front

Communists and parties on the left were increasingly threatened by the growth of the Nazi movement. Hitler came to power in January 1933 and rapidly consolidated his control over Germany, destroyed the communist and socialist movements in Germany, and rejected the restraints imposed by the Versailles treaty. Stalin in 1934 reversed his decision in 1928 to attack socialists, and introduced his new plan: the "popular front." It was a coalition of anti-fascist parties usually organized by the local Communists acting under instructions from the Comintern.^[121] The new policy was to work with all parties on the left and center in a multiparty coalition against fascism and Nazi Germany in particular. The new slogan was: "The People's Front Against Fascism and War". Under this policy, communist parties were instructed to form broad alliances with all anti-fascist parties with the aim of both securing social advance at home and a military alliance with the USSR to isolate the fascist dictatorships.^[122] The "Popular Fronts" thus formed proved to be successful in only a few countries, and only for a few years each, forming the government in France, Chile and Spain, and also China.^[123] It was not a political success elsewhere. The Popular Front approach played a major role in Resistance movements in France and other countries conquered by Germany after 1939. After the war it played a major role in French and Italian politics.^[124]

Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking hands after the signing of the pact in Moscow in August 1939.

In 1938–1939, the Soviet Union attempted to form strong military alliances with Germany's enemies, including France, and Great Britain. The effort failed, and the last stage unfolded to the astonishment of the world: Stalin and Hitler came to terms. Historian François Furet says, "The pact signed in Moscow by Ribbentrop and Molotov on 23 August 1939 inaugurated the alliance between the USSR and Nazi Germany. It was presented as an alliance and not just a nonaggression pact." The secret covenants agreed on a mutual division of Poland, and split up Eastern Europe, with the USSR taking over the Baltic states.^[125] The USSR helped supply oil and munitions to Germany as its armies rolled across Western Europe in May–June 1940. Despite repeated warnings, Stalin refused to believe that Hitler was planning an all-out war on the USSR. It came in June 1941.^[126]

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War exposed political divisions across Europe. The right and the Catholics supported the Nationalists as a way to stop the expansion of Bolshevism. On the left, including labor unions, students and intellectuals, the war represented a necessary battle to stop the spread of fascism and support the cause of the Spanish Republicans. Antiwar and pacifist sentiment was strong in many countries, leading to warnings that the Civil War had the potential of escalating into a second world war.^[136] In this respect, the war was an indicator of the growing instability across Europe.^[137]

The Spanish Civil War involved tens of thousands of outsiders from right and left who came to fight.^[138] Italy sent infantry regiments; Germany sent its air force.^[139]

Communist elements around the world, working through Popular Front collaborations with anti-fascist parties but supervised by Moscow, sent volunteers to the "International Brigades."^[140] Most of these volunteers were Communist party members, typically with a dedication of their time, energy, and lives To an idealistic cause.^[141] Many writers and intellectuals on the left became involved, including Ernest Hemingway, who supported the Republican cause, and George Orwell, who reversed himself and turned sharply anti-Communist.^[142] Moscow also sent along a cadre of agents from their secret police force, NKVD and GUM. Their mission was to enforce solidarity and the party line, and to identify and execute left-wing anarchists whose agenda threatened the Stalinist line.^[143][144] The Spanish government in 1937 shipped its entire gold supply (worth over $500 million at the time) to Moscow for safekeeping. This gave Stalin leverage over the Spanish government, as he controlled the payments for all sales of arms to Spain. The gold was never returned.^[145]

Britain and France led a coalition of 27 nations that promised non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War, including an embargo on all arms to Spain. The United States unofficially went along. Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union signed on officially, but ignored the embargo. The attempted suppression of imported materials was largely ineffective, however, and France especially facilitated large shipments to Republican troops. The League of Nations did not try to act.

As the Spanish Civil War progressed, most governments maintained diplomatic relations with the Republicans, but as the Nationalists' imminent victory became apparent, the western democracies had to quickly readjust their diplomacy to prevent a permanent allegiance of the new Spanish government to the eventual Axis Powers. The French government, previously a tentative sympathizer of the Republican cause, formed the Bérard-Jordana Agreement with the Spanish Nationalists on 25 February 1939, formally recognizing Franco's government as the legitimate government of Spain.^[146][147] Philippe Pétain, the eventual leader of Vichy France, became France's ambassador to Francoist Spain.^[148] The British government recognized the Franco government on the same day, and the United States government followed suit on 7 April 1939.^[147] The Franco government maintained an ambiguous stance between the western democracies and the European fascists and joined the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact on 24 March 1939.^{[149][150][151]} However, the Spanish government, put off by the German-Soviet cooperation in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939,^[152] ultimately declined open membership in the Axis Powers and maintained neutrality in World War II, although Spanish volunteers were allowed to fight for the Axis cause as part of the German 250th Infantry Division.^[153][154]

Brazil

In Brazil, the largest country, a liberal revolution of 1930 overthrew the oligarchic coffee plantation owners and brought to power an urban middle class that had business interests that promoted industrialization and modernization. Aggressive promotion of new industry turned around the economy by 1933, and encouraged American investors' support. Brazil's leaders in the 1920s and 1930s decided that Argentina's implicit foreign policy goal was to isolate Portuguese-speaking Brazil from Spanish-speaking neighbors, thus facilitating the expansion of Argentine economic and political influence in South America. Even worse, was the fear that a more powerful Argentine Army would launch a surprise attack on the weaker Brazilian Army. To counter this threat, Brazil forged closer links with the United States. Meanwhile, Argentina moved in the opposite direction. During World War II, Brazil was a staunch ally of the United States and sent its military to Europe. The United States provided over $100 million in Lend-Lease grants, in return for free rent on air bases used to transport American soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic, and naval bases for anti-submarine operations. In sharp contrast, Argentina was officially neutral and at times favored Germany.^[160][161]

Border disputes and warfare

Small-scale border disputes were common,^[162] but only one spiralled out of control, leading to a major war: the Chaco War in 1932-1935. Two small countries, Bolivia (with 2.2 million people) and Paraguay (with only 900,000) fought grueling battles over control of the Gran Chaco, a large but long-neglected border region where oil had recently been discovered. Bolivia, heavy oil, but needed a port on rivers controlled by Paraguay to export it. Bolivia used authoritarian methods to raise a large, well-equipped army. However, its soldiers were accustomed to high altitudes and became sickly in the low-lying disease infested Chaco jungles.^[163] Paraguay, employing émigré Russian officers, had much better planning and logistics, and was generally more successful militarily. About 28,000 soldiers and all were killed, unclear whose soldiers?. Paraguay was awarded about three fourths of the disputed territory in a peace treaty brokered by Argentina and four other South American nations. Frustrated Bolivian veterans formed a political party, staged a coup and ruled for three years until they in turn were overthrown by the next coup^[164]

Egypt

In December 1921, demonstrations again led to violence. In deference to the growing nationalism and at the suggestion of the High Commissioner, Lord Allenby, the UK unilaterally declared Egyptian independence on 28 February 1922. Britain, however, continued in control of what was renamed the Kingdom of Egypt. Britain guided the king and retained control of the Canal Zone, Sudan and Egypt's external and military affairs. King Fuad died in 1936 and King Farouk inherited the throne at the age of sixteen. Alarmed by the Second Italo-Abyssinian War when Italy invaded Ethiopia, he signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, requiring Britain to withdraw all troops from Egypt by 1949, except at the Suez Canal. During World War II, British troops used Egypt as its primary base for all Allied operations throughout the region. British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal area in 1947, but nationalist, anti-British feelings continued to grow after the war.^[165]

Japan

In Japan, the Army increasingly took control of the government, assassinated opposing leaders, suppressed the left, and promoted a highly aggressive foreign policy with respect to China.^[166] Japanese policy angered the United States, Britain, France, and the Netherlands.^[167] Japanese nationalism was the primary inspiration, coupled with a disdain for democracy.^[168] The extreme right became influential throughout the Japanese government and society, notably within the Kwantung Army, which was stationed in Manchuria along the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railroad. During the Manchurian Incident of 1931, radical army officers conquered Manchuria from local officials and set up the puppet government of Manchukuo there without permission from the Japanese government. International criticism of Japan following the invasion led to Japan withdrawing from the League of Nations.^[169][170]

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in 1942, after conquest of the colonies of the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands.

Japan's expansionist vision grew increasingly bold. Many of Japan's political elite aspired to have Japan acquire new territory for resource extraction and settlement of surplus population.^[171] These ambitions led to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. After their victory in the Chinese capital, the Japanese military committed the infamous Nanking Massacre. The Japanese military failed to destroy the Chinese government led by Chiang Kai-shek, which retreated to remote areas. The conflict was a stalemate that lasted until 1945.^[172] Japan's war aim was to establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a vast pan-Asian union under Japanese domination.^[173] Hirohito's role in Japan's foreign wars remains a subject of controversy, with various historians portraying him as either a powerless figurehead or an enabler and supporter of Japanese militarism.^[174] The United States grew increasingly worried about the Philippines, an American colony, within easy range of Japan and started looking for ways to contain Japanese expansion.^[175]

American public and elite opinion—including even the isolationists—strongly opposed Japan's invasion of China in 1937. President Roosevelt imposed increasingly stringent economic sanctions intended to deprive Japan of the oil and steel it needed to continue its war in China. Japan reacted by forging an alliance with Germany and Italy in 1940, known as the Tripartite Pact, which worsened its relations with the US. In July 1941, the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands froze all Japanese assets and cut off oil shipments—Japan had little oil of its own.^[176]

China

The Chinese revolution of 1911 that overthrew the last Emperor resulted in a decade of chaotic conditions, with power held by regional warlords with no functioning national government. A series of economic boycotts, aimed especially at the dominant intruder Great Britain, effectively ended European domination of China. Sun Yat-sen, the ideological leader of the revolution against the old Chinese Empire, established a revolutionary base in south China, and tried but failed to unite the fragmented nation. With assistance from the Communist International based in the USSR, he entered into an alliance with the fledgling Chinese Communist Party. After Sun's death in 1925, his protégé, Chiang Kai-shek was in control of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party or KMT) and brought most of south and central China under its rule the Northern Expedition military campaign of 1926–1927. Having defeated the warlords in south and central China by military force, Chiang was able to secure the nominal allegiance of the warlords in the North. In 1927, Chiang turned on the communists and relentlessly chased the CPC armies and its leaders from their bases in southern and eastern China. In 1934, driven from their mountain bases such as the Chinese Soviet Republic, the CPC forces embarked on the Long March across China's most desolate terrain to the northwest, where the survivors established a guerrilla base at Yan'an in Shaanxi Province. During the Long March, the communists reorganized under a new leader, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), who looked to the peasants—not the small industrial proletariat—for his party's base.^{[177][178][179]}

Japan's army in China was a virtually autonomous unit that was not well controlled by Tokyo. It sought to control all of Manchuria and indeed was ambitious toward moving deep into China. It seized Manchuria in September 1931 and set up Puyi as head of the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932. The League of Nations denounced Japan, and Tokyo quit the League. The United States and Britain refused to recognize the conquest, but made no military moves at this point. The Japanese began to push from south of the Great Wall into northern China and the coastal provinces. In 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army, still largely independent of Tokyo, clashed with Chinese forces in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident outside Beijing.^[180]

A full-scale war now began—the Second Sino-Japanese War.^[181] Japan held enormous advantages in wealth, technology, firepower, mobility and organizational strength. China had a very large, poor, population with a weak nation government and a large, poorly equipped and poorly trained army. China did enjoy the sympathy of most of the world, especially the United States and Britain, but they did not intervene.^[182] Shanghai fell after a three-month battle and Japan took control virtually all the coastal cities. The capital of Nanjing fell in December 1937. It was followed by an orgy of mass murders and rapes known as the Nanjing Massacre. Chiang moved his national capital to remote Chongqing. Japan set up a second puppet government, the Wang Jingwei regime, based in Nanjing. The United States took the lead in expressing outrage, and began plans to systematically aid Chiang's regime by a long supply line through Indochina while demanding that Japan withdraw. Japan took control of Indochina from France in 1941, cutting the main supply line, and escalating the conflict toward a war with the United States and Britain.^[183][184]

Wars

• Turkish War of Independence
  • Greco-Turkish War (May 1919 – October 1922)
  • Turkish–Armenian War (September–December 1920)
  • Franco-Turkish War (December 1918 – October 1921)
  • Royalist and separatist revolts (1919–1923)
• Unification of Saudi Arabia
  • Rashidi-Saudi War (1903–1921)
  • Kuwait-Saudi War (1919–1920)
  • Hejaz-Saudi War (1919–1925)
  • Transjordan-Saudi War (1922–1924)
• Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 – March 1921)
• Irish War of Independence (January 1919 – July 1921)
• Iraqi revolt against the British (1920)
• Rif War (1920–1927)
• Pacification of Libya (1923–1932)

Timelines

• Timeline of the 2nd millennium
• Timeline of the Great Depression
• Timeline of the 20th century, since 1900
• Timeline of events preceding World War II
  • Events preceding World War II in Europe
  • Events preceding World War II in Asia
• Diplomatic history of World War I
• Diplomatic history of World War II

Specialty scholarly studies

• Bell, P.M.H. The Origins of the Second World War in Europe (2014).
• Blumenthal, Henry. Illusion and Reality in Franco-American Diplomacy, 1914–1945 (1986)
• Boyce, Robert. French Foreign and Defence Policy, 1918-1940: The Decline and Fall of a Great Power (1998)
• Brendon, Piers. The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s (2000) comprehensive global political history; 816pp excerpt
• Burgwyn, H. James. Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918-1940 (1997).
• Dailey, Andy. Move to Global War (2015) 205pp; textbook on coming of WWII. excerpt on Japan's expansion
• Dailey, Andy, and David G. Williamson. Peacemaking, Peacekeeping: International Relations 1918-36 (2012) 244pp; textbook, heavily illustrated with diagrams and contemporary photographs and colour posters.
• Dallek, Robert. Franklin D. Roosevelt and American foreign policy, 1932-1945 (1979) online
• Davis, Richard. Anglo-French Relations before the Second World War: Appeasement and Crisis (2001)
• Doerr, Paul W. British Foreign Policy, 1919-1939 (Manchester UP, 1998), university-level textbook.
• Doumanis, Nicholas, ed. The Oxford Handbook of European History, 1914-1945 (2016) excerpt
• Dunn, J.S. The Crowe Memorandum: Sir Eyre Crowe and Foreign Office Perceptions of Germany, 1918-1925 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012). excerpt Archived 2020-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, on British policy toward Germany
• Easum, Chester V. Half-Century of Conflict (1951) cover 1900-1950; 929pp textbook focused on wars & diplomacy
• Eichengreen, Barry. Elusive stability: essays in the history of international finance, 1919-1939 (Cambridge UP, 1993).
• Eloranta, Jari. "Why did the League of Nations fail?." Cliometrica 5.1 (2011): 27-52. online on League of Nations
• Gardner, Lloyd C. Safe for Democracy: The Anglo-American Response to Revolution, 1913-1923 (1987) focus on Lloyd George and Wilson
• Gilbert, Felix, and Gordon Craig, eds. The Diplomats, 1919-1939 (1963). scholarly essays on key diplomats.
• Grant, Jonathan A. Between Depression and Disarmament: The International Armaments Business, 1919-1939 (Cambridge UP, 2018). Online review
• Howland, Charles P. Survey of American Foreign Relations, 1930 (1931) wide-ranging overview late 1920s
• Hucker, Daniel. Public Opinion and the End of Appeasement in Britain and France. (Routledge, 2016).
• Hughes, Michael. British Foreign Secretaries in an Uncertain World, 1919-1939 (Psychology Press, 2006).
• Kagan Robert. The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941 (Knopf, 2023) excerpt
• Kaiser, David E. (1980). Economic Diplomacy and the Origins of the Second World War: Germany, Britain, France, and Eastern Europe, 1930-1939. Princeton UP.
• Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500-2000 (1987), stress on economic and military factors
• Macnair, Harley F. & Donald Lach. Modern Far Eastern International Relations. (2nd ed 1955) 1950 edition online free, 780pp; focus on 1900-1950
• Marks, Sally (2002). The Ebbing of European Ascendancy: An International History of the World 1914-1945. Oxford University Press. pp. 121–342.
• Medlicott, W. N. British foreign policy since Versailles, 1919-1963 (1968), 364pp.
• Meiser, Jeffrey W. Power and Restraint: The Rise of the United States, 1898--1941 (Georgetown UP, 2015).
• Møller, Jørgen, Alexander Schmotz, and Svend-Erik Skaaning. "Economic crisis and democratic breakdown in the interwar years: a reassessment." Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung (2015): 301-318. online
• Mowat, C. L. (1968). The New Cambridge Modern History, Vol. 12: The Shifting Balance of World Forces, 1898-1945 (2nd ed.). - 25 chapters; 845pp
• Mowat, R.B. A History Of European Diplomacy 1914-1925 (1927) online free; scholarly history 452pp
• Mulder, Nicholas. The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War (2022) excerpt
• Nekrich, Aleksandr Moiseevich. Pariahs, partners, predators: German-Soviet relations, 1922-1941 (Columbia University Press, 1997).
• Overy, Richard J. The Origins of the Second World War (1987). excerpt
• Paine, S. C. M. The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949 (2014) excerpt, focus on China, Japan and Russia
• Pereboom, Maarten L. Democracies at the Turning Point: Britain, France and the End of the Postwar Order, 1928-1933 (1997).
• Petrie, Charles. Diplomatic History, 1713-1933 (1946) online free; detailed summary
• Piahanau, Aliaksandr, ed. Great Power Policies Towards Central Europe, 1914-1945 online free
• Pons, Silvio, and Stephen A. Smith, eds. The Cambridge History of Communism (Volume 1): World Revolution and Socialism in One Country, 1917-1941 (2017) excerpt
• Salzmann, Stephanie C. Great Britain, Germany and the Soviet Union: Rapallo and after, 1922-1934 (Royal Historical Society, 2002) full text online
• Service, Robert. Comrades: A World History of Communism (2007).
• Seton-Watson, Hugh. Eastern Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1941 (1945) online
• Somervell, D.C. (1936). The Reign of King George V. - 550pp; old-fashioned coverage of Britain, 1910–35
• Sontag, Raymond James. "Between the Wars." Pacific Historical Review 29.1 (1960): 1-17 online.
• Spender, J.A. Great Britain: empire and commonwealth, 1886-1935 (1936) pp 575–838.
• Steiner, Zara. The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919-1933 (2007) 960pp; comprehensive coverage excerpt
• Steiner, Zara. The Triumph of the Dark: European International History 1933–1939 (2013) 1222pp comprehensive coverage; excerpt
• Takeuchi, Tatsuji. War and Diplomacy in The Japanese Empire (1935) online; scholarly coverage
• Thorne, Christopher G. The limits of foreign policy; the West, the League, and the Far Eastern crisis of 1931-1933 (1972) online
• Tooze, Adam. The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 (2014) emphasis on economics excerpt.
• Ulam, Adam B. Expansion and coexistence: Soviet foreign policy, 1917–73 (2nd ed 1974) online
• Watt, Donald Cameron. How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War (1989) online
• Weinberg, Gerhard L. Hitler's Foreign Policy 1933-1939: The Road to World War II (2010)
• Williams, Andrew J. "France, Britain and the United States in the 1930s until the Fall of France." in Williams, ed., France, Britain and the United States in the Twentieth Century 1900–1940 (2014). 133-171.

Contemporary accounts

• Cambon, Jules, ed The Foreign Policy Of The Powers (1935) Essays by experts that cover France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States Online free
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1937 Vol-1 (1938) online; vol 2 on Spanish Civil War: online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1936 (1937) online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1935 vol I (1936); online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1932 (1933);online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1929 (1930); online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1928 (1929); online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1927 (1928); online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1925 (1927); online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1924 (1928); online
• Toynbee, Arnold J. Survey Of International Affairs 1920-23 (1927); online

Historiography

• Adamthwaite, Anthony. "‘A Low Dishonest Decade’?." in Nicholas Doumanis, ed. The Oxford Handbook of European History, 1914-1945 (2016): 207-222.
• Cornelissen, Christoph, and Arndt Weinrich, eds. Writing the Great War - The Historiography of World War I from 1918 to the Present (2020) free download; full coverage for major countries.
• Gomes, Leonard. German Reparations, 1919-1932: A Historical Survey (Springer, 2010).
• Jackson, Peter. "Post‐War Politics and the Historiography of French Strategy and Diplomacy Before the Second World War." History Compass 4.5 (2006): 870-905.
• Jacobson, Jon. "Strategies of French foreign policy after World War I." Journal of Modern History 55.1 (1983): 78-95. online
• Kennedy, Ross A. "Four new takes on Wilson, World War I, and the making of the post-war order." Journal of Strategic Studies (2018): 1-13.
• Marks. Sally. "Mistakes and Myths: The Allies, Germany, and the Versailles Treaty, 1918–1921" Journal of Modern History 85#3 (2013), pp. 632–659 online
• Pedersen, Susan. "Back to the League of Nations." American Historical Review 112.4 (2007): 1091-1117. online
• Trachtenberg, Marc. "Versailles after sixty years." Journal of Contemporary History 17.3 (1982): 487-506. online

Maps

• Banks, Arthur. A World Atlas Of Military History 1861-1945 (1988) pp 95–100.
• Catchpole, Brian. Map History of the Modern World (1982) pp 26–66.
• Haywood, John. Atlas of world history (1997) online free
• Horrabin, J.F. An Atlas of Empire (1937) 70 maps of all the world's colonies
• O'Brien, Patrick, ed. Philips' Atlas World History (2005)
• Rand McNally Atlas of World History (1983), maps #76-81. Published in Britain as the Hamlyn Historical Atlas online free

Primary sources

• Adamthwaite, Anthony P. ed. The Lost Peace, International Relations in Europe, 1918-1939 (1981) 236pp; excerpts from 69 documents
• Berber, F.J. ed. Locarno A Collection Of Documents (1936) online; useful English translations of 76 major diplomic documents 1919-36, with a biased anti-French introduction by Nazi Germany's Foreign Minister.
• Degras, Jane T. The Communist International, 1919-43 (3 Vols. 1956); documents; online volume 1 (1919-22); volume 2 (1923-28) and volume 3 (1929-1943)
• Kertesz, G.A. ed Documents in the Political History of the European Continent 1815-1939 (1968), pp 385–507; 200 short documents
• Maisky, Ivan. The Maisky Diaries: The Wartime Revelations of Stalin's Ambassador in London edited by Gabriel Gorodetsky, (Yale UP, 2016); highly revealing commentary 1932-43; excerpts; abridged from 3 volume Yale edition; online review
• Temperley, A.C. The Whispering Gallery Of Europe (1938), revealing British memoir of disarmament conference of 1932-34. online