A period of significant change followed World War I. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles fully blamed Germany for the war and sought to punish it by assessing reparations of more than $33 billion and physically shrinking the country. New countries emerged through the redrawing of Europe’s maps. Massive physical rebuilding was necessary in former combat areas in Europe, while the United States emerged as a major player in world politics and a creditor nation on the brink of prosperity. The economic repercussions of the treaty proved devastating in Germany, where economic instability and mistrust of the new government opened the door for the rise of the Nazi Party. In Asia, Japan was growing in both political and military power, positioning itself as a force throughout the Pacific. Yet in the 1920s and 1930s, hope still prevailed that no such conflict would ever occur again, underscored by international efforts to both prevent war and intervene in aggression before it rose to the status of war.            

All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/12-1-recovering-from-world-war-i            

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