THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Interwar Period

A Peace of Exhaustion

The world in 1920

The First World War is over, but the world of 1920 is exhausted, grieving and unstable. Some 15 to 22 million soldiers and civilians died in the war and tens of millions more in the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic.

Four empires, German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman, have collapsed, and new states such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia fill central Europe. The Treaty of Versailles came into force in January, blaming Germany and making it pay reparations, and the new League of Nations meets in Geneva, though the United States has refused to join. Russia is in the final stage of a brutal civil war that the Bolsheviks under Lenin are winning; their Red Army is stopped outside Warsaw in August. Britain and France, the victors, have taken Germany's colonies and the Ottoman Arab lands as League 'mandates', bringing the British Empire to its greatest size. Meanwhile nationalists from Ireland and Egypt to India and China are demanding independence, and in America women have just won the vote.

Open the map in 1920

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Former German colonies have been handed out as League of Nations mandates: South West Africa to South Africa, Tanganyika to Britain, and Ruanda-Urundi to Belgium. The Union of South Africa is led by Prime Minister Jan Smuts, Belgium rules the Congo, and the British South Africa Company still administers the Rhodesias. Kenya became a British Crown colony in 1920, and Portugal holds Angola and Mozambique.

Northern Africa

Egypt, still a British protectorate under Sultan Fuad I, was shaken by the 1919 revolution led by Saad Zaghloul and will win nominal independence in 1922. Germany's Kamerun and Togoland have been split between Britain and France, which also rules the Maghreb and huge federations in West and Equatorial Africa. Italy struggles against Senussi resistance in Libya. Ethiopia is ruled by Empress Zewditu, with her cousin Ras Tafari (the future Haile Selassie) as regent and heir.

Europe

The peace treaties have redrawn Europe: Germany, now the Weimar Republic under President Friedrich Ebert, lost territory and its army; Austria and Hungary are small separate states, and the Treaty of Trianon (June 1920) stripped Hungary of two-thirds of its land; Admiral Horthy rules Hungary as regent. New or restored states include Poland (Jozef Pilsudski), Czechoslovakia (President Tomas Masaryk), Yugoslavia, Finland and the Baltic states. The Poles defeat the Red Army at Warsaw in August 1920, the last White army is evacuated from Crimea in November, and Ireland is fighting its War of Independence against Britain.

Middle East & South Asia

The Ottoman Empire is being dismantled: Sultan Mehmed VI signed the harsh Treaty of Sevres in August 1920 in Allied-occupied Constantinople, while Mustafa Kemal's rival nationalist government in Ankara fights on against Greek and Allied forces. At San Remo the Allies gave Britain mandates over Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq, where a major revolt breaks out) and France mandates over Syria and Lebanon; French troops crushed King Faisal's Arab kingdom in Damascus in July. Sharif Hussein is King of the Hejaz, Ibn Saud rules Nejd, Persia is under Ahmad Shah, and Afghanistan under Amir Amanullah Khan won full independence in 1919. In India, under Viceroy Lord Chelmsford, Gandhi launches the Non-Cooperation Movement after the 1919 Amritsar massacre.

Northern & Central Asia

The Red Army is conquering Central Asia: in 1920 the khan of Khiva and the emir of Bukhara were overthrown and replaced by Soviet-backed 'people's republics', while Muslim Basmachi rebels resist. White leader Admiral Kolchak was executed in Irkutsk in February, and Siberia falls to the Bolsheviks, who set up a buffer Far Eastern Republic while Japanese troops still occupy parts of the Russian Far East. A Kirghiz (Kazakh) autonomous republic is created on the steppe.

East Asia

China has broken up into the Warlord Era: a weak government in Beijing under President Xu Shichang is fought over by northern militarist cliques, Zhang Zuolin rules Manchuria, and Sun Yat-sen leads a rival government in Guangzhou. The May Fourth Movement of 1919 sparked a wave of nationalism after the Versailles treaty gave Germany's Shandong rights to Japan. Japan, under Emperor Taisho and Prime Minister Hara Takashi, is a victor and a League Council member and rules Korea, where it brutally suppressed the March First independence movement of 1919. Tibet under the 13th Dalai Lama is de facto independent, while Chinese troops have reoccupied Mongolia.

Southeast Asia

Colonial rule continues unchanged: France governs Indochina, Britain rules Burma and Malaya, the Dutch rule the East Indies, where the Communist Party of Indonesia is founded in 1920, and the United States administers the Philippines under a mostly Filipino legislature. Siam, under King Vajiravudh, joined the Allies in 1917 and gained a seat at the League of Nations.

Northern North America

Canada, whose 60,000 war dead gave it a separate signature on the Versailles treaty, is led by Arthur Meighen from July 1920 after Robert Borden retired; the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 reflected postwar unrest. Newfoundland remains a separate dominion, Alaska a US territory, and Greenland a Danish colony.

Southern North America

The United States, under the ailing Woodrow Wilson, has rejected the Versailles treaty and the League; Prohibition began in January 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the vote in August, and Warren Harding won the November election promising a 'return to normalcy'. Mexico's Revolution winds down: President Carranza was overthrown and killed in May 1920, and Alvaro Obregon became president in December. US Marines occupy Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

Northern South America

Brazil is governed by President Epitacio Pessoa under a republic dominated by coffee planters. Augusto Leguia has seized power in Peru, beginning an eleven-year rule, a July 1920 coup in Bolivia brings Bautista Saavedra to power, and Juan Vicente Gomez continues his dictatorship in Venezuela, where oil is starting to flow. Colombia is led by Marco Fidel Suarez.

Southern Cone

Argentina is governed by Hipolito Yrigoyen, its first president elected under universal male suffrage, and remains wealthy from exports, though strikes were violently repressed in 1919. Chile elects the reformer Arturo Alessandri in 1920 as its nitrate economy suffers from the invention of synthetic nitrates. Uruguay, under Baltasar Brum, is a stable democracy, and Paraguay is led by Manuel Gondra.

Australasia & Oceania

Australia, under Prime Minister Billy Hughes, lost about 60,000 men in the war and now holds former German New Guinea as a League mandate. New Zealand, under William Massey, administers Western Samoa, Britain, Australia and New Zealand share Nauru, and Japan rules the former German islands of Micronesia as the South Seas Mandate. Hawaii is a US territory.

Events

  1. Russian Revolutions; the Bolsheviks seize power; the US enters the war
  2. Armistice ends the First World War; influenza pandemic kills tens of millions
  3. Treaty of Versailles signed; Amritsar massacre in India; May Fourth Movement in China
  4. League of Nations founded; US Prohibition begins
  5. San Remo conference assigns Middle East mandates to Britain and France
  6. Poland defeats the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw
  7. Treaty of Sevres imposed on the Ottoman Empire; Turkish nationalists fight on from Ankara

Moments of this period

More chapters

Sources