AP® World History: Modern · Unit 7 · Topic 7.9
From 1914 to 1945 as One Chain
Many historians treat 1914 to 1945 as one continuous conflict because the peace that ended World War I never actually settled the problems that caused it, so they resurfaced as the Great Depression, fascism, and World War II.
The chain starts with the Treaty of Versailles. It redrew borders, created new states out of empires, and punished Germany with reparations and territorial losses, but it didn't actually resolve who belonged where or satisfy anyone. Germans resented the terms as humiliating, new countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia contained ethnic minorities who wanted out, and the Balkans stayed a patchwork of rival nationalisms. That fragile settlement met the Great Depression in 1929, and economic collapse discredited the governments that had signed onto it. Mass unemployment made radical solutions look reasonable. Fascist and militarist movements in Germany, Italy, and Japan offered nationalism and territorial expansion as the cure, and by 1939 Germany's invasion of Poland reopened the war that 1919 had only paused.
Three ingredients keep reappearing at every flashpoint: unresolved borders left over from an earlier settlement, economic collapse that destroys faith in existing leaders, and aggressive nationalism that points to an enemy and a fix. The Balkans show this most starkly: the region changes hands repeatedly from the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, through Austro-Hungarian and then Ottoman collapse, Serbian and Croatian rivalries during World War I, Axis occupation and partisan resistance in World War II, and Soviet-aligned communist takeover by 1945. Germany and Japan show the same pattern in industrial form, losing or resenting their postwar status, collapsing economically, then mobilizing nationalist grievance into conquest.
By 1945 this chain had burned out every old power. Britain and France were drained, Germany, Italy, and Japan were defeated and discredited, and only the United States and the Soviet Union stood with real military and economic weight left. That left two systems, capitalist and communist, to shape the postwar world, setting up the Cold War as the next chapter.
Key terms
- Treaty of Versailles
- The 1919 peace settlement that redrew borders and blamed and punished Germany without resolving underlying nationalist tensions.
- Great Depression
- The severe global economic collapse beginning in 1929 that discredited existing governments and fueled radical politics.
- Fascism
- An authoritarian, intensely nationalist political movement, seen in Italy, Germany, and militarist Japan, that promised strength through conquest.
- Balkans
- The southeastern European region of competing ethnic nationalisms that changed hands repeatedly between 1912 and 1945.
- Cold War
- The postwar rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, the only two powers left with major strength after 1945.
Watch it explained
- How it worksShow me the chain from Versailles to the Depression to fascism to 1939 as a branching diagram.
- How it worksHow do the same three ingredients, nationalism, economic collapse and unresolved borders, keep reappearing?
- Worked exampleTrace one region, the Balkans, from 1912 to 1945 and count how many times it changes hands.
- Ties togetherHow does the end of this period set up a Cold War between the only two powers left standing?
Check yourself
End of topic.