The World between Two World Wars

The World between Two World Wars

Learning Objectives

To acquaint ourselves with

• The post-World War I developments leading to the Great Depression.

• The unjust provisions of Treaty of Versailles and the rise of fascist governments led by Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany.

• Anti-colonial struggles and the decolonisation process in the colonized world: Case Studies of Indo-French in South-East Asia and India in South Asia.

• European Colonisation in Africa – The case of Britain in South Africa.

• Independence struggles and political developments in South America

Introduction

The First World War shattered the global capitalist system based on European imperialism. The European powers were gravely weakened by the War, financially and politically. The conflict between the workers and the ruling classes that controlled the government became intense. As a result of this Fascism emerged in Italy and Germany. Anti-colonial struggles got intensified as the colonial powers were weakened by the War.

As we saw in the last chapter, the crisis in the Western world had led to the outbreak of World War I. We now turn to the social and political developments in the world after the end of the War.