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Ch. 27: Political Experiments of the 1920s
Key Topics:
• Economic and political disorder in the aftermath of World War I
• The Soviet Union's far-reaching political and social experiment
• Mussolini and the fascist seizure of power in Italy
• French determination to enforce the Versailles treaty
• First Labour government and general strike in Britain
• The development of authoritarian governments in all the successor states to the Austrian
Empire Except Czechoslovakia
• Reparations, inflation, political turmoil, and the rise of nazism in the German Weimar
Republic
I. Political and Economic Factors after the Paris Settlement
i. New Governments
a) In 1919, European countries began experimental political regimes
1. sought active support of their citizens
2. sought to solve economic problems caused by WWI
3. Bolskeviks in USSR created an authoritarian state apparatus
4. liberal democracy resulted in vote to women and more men
5. democratically elected parliaments even in previously authoritarian Germany and
Austria-Hungary
6. government responsible to mass electorates
b) The idealistic democratic ideas of Wilson didn't work among the European realities of
economics, aggressive nationalism, and political conservatism
1. many believed parliamentary politics was inherently corrupt or feeble
2. economic and nationalistic problems overcame political ideals
ii. Demands for Revision of the Paris Settlement
a) Throughout the 1920s, nationalist ideas prompted calls to either revise or enforce the Paris
treaties; this contributed to domestic political turmoil across the continent
1. Germany humiliated and haggling over payments
2. eastern European states felt denied self-determination
3. many political figures took advantage of the turmoil to get more domestic votes
iii. Postwar Economic Problems
a) Europe experienced economic problems from war casualties, debt, the creation of new
states, and the decline of colonies.
1. European nations were deep in debt to the US, and other European nations
2. absence of international economic corporations meant nations pursued selfish economic
policies
3. infrastructure, factories, and cities damaged and destroyed
4. new eastern and central European states meant the break up of homogeneous trade and
separation of factories and materials; nationalism hindered cooperation
5. The US and Japan began to penetrate Latin American and Asian markets
iv. New Roles for Government and Labor
a) As a result of supporting the war effort, labor unions gained more recognition and power in
politics; gaining the right to collective bargaining
1. better wages; union leaders given places on high political councils
2. in reaction, European voters became increasingly conservative
II. The Soviet Experiment Begins
i. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was long-lasting and had great political influence
on Europe during the 20th Century.
a) The Communist Party was neither a mass party nor a nationalistic one
1. about 1% of population
2. after 1917, put down widespread domestic opposition
b) The Soviet Union exported communism, producing a fear of communism that greatly
influenced Western Europe and the US during the century.
ii. War Communism
a) The war gave the Bolsheviks the excuse to pursue authoritarian policies and oppress dissent
in order to guarantee the survival of the rebellion after the war
1. Leon Trotsky led the Red Army to suppress internal (White Russian armies) and external
(Allied support) opposition
2. the Cheka was the Bolshevik secret police
3. Lenin declared the Bolshevik party as the vanguard of the Revolution and imposed the
"dictatorship of the proletariat" but in reality centralized political and economic
administration very un-democratically
4. After the war, workers, peasants, and soldiers tried to resist the Bolsheviks, but were
violently suppressed in the Kronstadt Rebellion
iii. The New Economic Policy
a) Lenin implemented the New Economic Policy in 1921 to placate the farmers' unrest; the
policy allowed private enterprise in small business and privately-owned family farms
1. Peasants (the heart of the rebellion) could farm for profit
2. only after 1927 did industrial production return to pre-war output, but this was easily
accomplished, as there were virtually no consumer goods for farmers to purchase before
the war
iv. Stalin Versus Trotsky
a) The New Economic Policy caused tension within the Communist Party, which would serve as
the catalyst for conflict after Lenin's death in 1924. The two sides of the argument were
represented by left-wing Leon Trotsky and right-wing Joseph Stalin.
b) Trotsky's Position (right wing)
1. rapid industrialization
2. collectivization of agriculture
3. revolutions must occur outside Russia (spread communism to ensure its survival)
4. 1927 exiled to Siberia, 1929 moved to Mexico
c) Stalin's Rise (left wing)
1. relatively slow industrialization
2. decentralized economic planning - modest free enterprise and small landholdings
3. "socialism in one country": no need to depend on revolutions occurring outside Russia
4. was party general secretary, gaining the support of the lower levels of the party
apparatus
5. supported Nikolai Bukhari (editor of Pravda (Truth))
6. continuation of Lenin's NEP
v. The Third International: created 1919, to make the Bolshevik model of socialism, as
developed by Lenin, the rule for all socialist parties outside the Soviet Union
a) Western social democrats had viewed the Bolsheviks as marginal Marxist extremists
b) the Bolsheviks regarded (Western) reformist social democrats as a major enemy and sought
to destroy democratic socialism because it accommodated to the parliamentary system
(compromised)
c) the Third International of the European socialist movement, or Comintern, imposed its
Twenty-one Conditions on any socialist party that wished to join. Requirements included:
1. acknowledge Moscow's leadership
2. reject reformist/revisionist socialism
3. adopting the Communist Party name
4. agitate/spread propaganda EVERYWHERE and ALL THE TIME
d) Every major European socialist party split; communists modeled after the Soviets; social
democrats pursuing social reform and liberal parliamentary politics
e) Conflict between the social democrats and communists strengthened the right-wing
vi. Women and the Family in the Early Soviet Union: Utopian projections about women and
family life under communism were assumed to reflect the reality in the USSR but in reality few
held to these liberating views.
a) Alexandra Kollantai, in Communism and the Family, repudiated the traditional family,
seeking to liberate both men and women:
1. more (NOT total) sexual freedom
2. sharing of household tasks
3. families based on love and comradeship.
b) both Italian fascists and German Nazi's contrasted with the Soviets by promoting the
traditional views of women and family
c) Family Legislation from Reform to Repression: Legislation allowed for more freedom and
rights for women, but the revolution also disrupted Soviet family life significantly.
Legislation:
1. made divorce easier; divorces often meant the abandonment of wives
2. secularized marriage
3. gave legitimate and illegitimate children equal rights
4. legalized abortion; the birthrate fell, aborted and abandoned children increased
5. gave more educational opportunities to women
6. protected women in the workplace and within marriage; domestic violence increased
7. women could obtain high positions in the Communist Party and more women voted
8. the economic shortage of consumer goods most directly affected wives, who often had
to stand in long lines for food
III. The Fascist Experiments in Italy: Italy, under Benito Mussolini, witnessed the first
authoritarian political experiment in western Europe that arose in part from fears of the spread of
Bolshevism
i. Fascism:
1. right-wing
2. single-party dictatorships in the inter-war period
3. antidemocratic; antiparliamentary
4. anti-Marxist
5. often anti-Semitic
6. supported middle class
7. rejected liberal ideals.
ii. used nationalism to consolidate all classes and political parties; "the fascist state is allembracing"
iii. The Rise of Mussolini: Mussolini changed from being a socialist to supporting Italian
nationalism--and himself.
1. leader of the socialist Italian "Fasci di Combattimento", and editor of socialist newspaper
Avanti.
2. 1914 supported joining the Allies, and pushed for a nationalistic rebellion to transform
Italy's weak liberal state
3. established the newspaper "Il Popolo d'Italia", served in the army, and was an excellent
(sly) politician
b) Postwar Italian Political Turmoil: Political and social turmoil in Italy in the post-war
period led many to believe that a communist revolution would occur, and the government
needed to be reformed
1. Gabriele D'Annunzio, an ultranationalist writer, voiced his discontent, and temporarily
took over Fiume
2. 1919-1921, strikes and peasant riots reigned
3. The Socialist Party (not yet split with communists) and Catholic Popular Party gained
seats in the Chamber of deputies, producing deadlock
c) Early Fascist Organization: Mussolini decided to support the strong upper and middle
classes by targeting socialists, who espoused internationalism and working class interests
1. Mussolini's followers formed local squads of terrorists to terrorize Socialists, attack
strikers and farmworkers, and even turned to serious arson and murder--the law
enforcement ignored.
2. Eventually, they controlled the local government in much of northern Italy
d) March on Rome: October 1922, the Black Shirt March of Mussolini and his followers
intimidated King Victor Emmanuel III to appoint Mussolini Prime Minister.
1. In the election of 1921, Italians voted Mussolini and 34 followers into the Chamber of
Deputies
iv. The Fascists in Power: Mussolini's success was the result of the impotence of his rivals, his
political prowess, his power over the masses, and sheer ruthlessness
1. 1922 November 23, Mussolini was granted one year of dictatorial authority
b) Repression of Opposition: Mussolini consolidated his power slowly over the years, forming
a single-party dictatorial state, with government militia suppressing dissent
1. 1924: changed election law to ensure fascist majority--ending legitimate parliamentary
life
2. 1926: all other political parties were dissolved; Mussolini could rule by decree
3. 1924: Giacomo Matteotti murdered by fascist thugs
4. Fascist Party propaganda created a cult of personality around Mussolini, and many
believed he had saved them from Bolshevism
5. dissenters were exiled or murdered
c) Accord with the Vatican: Through the Lateran Accord of February 1929, in which the
Roman Catholic Church and the Italian State made peace, Mussolini gained
respectability/legitimacy.
1. Catholicism became the religion of the nation
v. Motherhood for the Nation in Fascist Italy: The fascists encouraged a traditional view of
motherhood and women in the home, discouraging women in the workforce, to the end that
many working women worked in unskilled jobs, or not at all.
1. outlawed contraception and abortion
2. 25% of the workforce was female
3. laws limited women's ability to work in skilled labor
IV. Joyless Victors:
i. Both France and Britain, while free form overt unrest, were troubled democracies: victory did
not bring either good life and peace
ii. France: The Search for Security
a) Immediately after the war, France elected a conservative, largely military Chamber of
Deputies, nicknamed the "Blue Horizon Chamber." They sought to achieve future security
against Germany and Russia. However, domestic policy drifted and the political turnstile
remained active (few politicians served more than one term before being replaced)
b) New Alliances: France sought to make alliances with the smaller Eastern European states to
secure itself against Russia and Germany while Russia and Germany informally allied.
1. France was the leading European power and sought to strictly enforce the Paris treaties
against Germany and Russia.
2. France allied with Poland and the Little Entente--Czechoslovakia, Romania, and
Yugoslavia--but the eastern pacts gave no real security against Russia or Germany
3. 1922: Rapallo treaty between Germany and Russia established diplomatic and economic
relations and created secret military exchanges.
c) Quest for Reparations: After forcing Germany to pay reparations, France's economy was
hurt by inflation, allowing the leftist coalition Cartel des Gauches to gain control in 1924
until the conservatives returned in 1926.
1. Raymond Poincare, the French conservative PM, forced Germany to pay war
reparations by occupying Germany's borderland Ruhr district--the largest industrial
region of Germany. This hurt the German economy
2. The English disagreed with the French's heavy-handedness and sympathized with the
Germans
3. Inflation from the reparations hurt Germany and France
4. In 1924, Cartel des Gauches, a coalition of leftist parties, led by Edouard Herriot, gained
power. It recognized the USSR and adopted a more conciliatory policy toward Germany.
5. Aristide Briand championed the League of Nations and restraint on the part of France
6. The conservatives regained power in 1926 and remained in power; France's economy did
well until 1931
iii. Great Britain: Economic Confusion
a) World War I hurt the British economy and profoundly changed British politics and the
political system.
1. 1918, the electorate expanded to include all men over 21 and all women over 30
2. a coalition cabinet of Liberal, Conservative, and Labour ministries directed the war
effort--the Labour Party gained legitimacy, but was also divided
3. under Liberal PM David Lloyd George, the Liberal Party split between him and Herbert
Asquith
4. the coalition remained through the peace conference and domestic reconstruction.
5. depression of the British economy resulted in unemployment and increased government
insurance, degrading many British people as they had to rely on government handouts
b) The First Labour Government: 1923: Ramsay MacDonald was the PM of the first Labour
ministry in Britain, and established the Party as legitimate.
1. The Labour Party was socialistic, but not Marxist, and proposed social reform.
c) The General Strike of 1926: Economic reforms under Conservative PM Stanley Baldwin
prompted a non-violent general strike throughout Britain that resulted in more socialist
policies. Causes/Results:
1. 1925: reestablished the gold standard in trade, attempting to create monetary stability
2. cut wages, hurting coal miners and prompting a general strike in May 1926
3. results: government gave new housing and reforms in the poor laws
4. standard of living of most British workers overall improved
d) Empire: Britain's dominions, Canada and Australia, as well as India, gained more power
after WWI.
1. In India, the Congress Party, led by Mohandas Gandhi, gained widespread support, and
there was talk of eventual self-government for India. India gained the right to impose
tariffs(end of free trade for British in India)
e) Ireland: Ireland's demand for home rule led to warfare against Britain and civil war within
Ireland for full Irish independence
1. 1914: Irish Home Rule Bill was postponed by WWI
2. 1916 April, Irish nationalist uprising in Dublin; British execute nationalist leaders
3. The extremist Sinn Fein "Ourselves Alone" became the new leader of the nationalistic
movement
4. 1918: the Sinn Fein won the majority of the Irish parliamentary seats, and established a
Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament) instead of going to the Westminster Parliament
5. 1919 January 21, declared Irish independence; the Irish Republican Army (IRA) became
the military wing of the Sinn Fein; Eamon De Valera was the first president of the Sinn
Fein
6. guerrilla war between IRA and the British army supported by Blacks and Tans
7. December 1921 treaty created the Irish Free State as a British dominion, with Ulster
(Northern Ireland) remaining in the UK of GB and Northern Ireland, with provisions for
home rule
8. civil war between Irish moderates and diehards until 1923
9. 1924: Dail Eireann abolished the oath of allegiance to the monarch
10. 1949 (after WWII), Ireland declared itself the wholly independent republic of Eire.
iv. The Coming of Radio: The BBC
a) The radio was invented in the 1890s and the BBC was founded in 1922, with a broadcasting
monopoly granted by the British government. Unlike American radio, the BBC had no
advertisements and, instead of appealing to popular culture, sought to improve British
cultural life with news, classical music, and classic British literature and plays. Payment for
a radio license when purchasing a radio funded the BBC. The BBC also created British
fascination with the Royal Family, and set the tradition for royal speeches on the BBC when
King George V broadcast the first royal Christmas speech in 1932. The BBC sought to be
above politics, in stark contrast to the emerging European authoritarian governments that
used total control of the radio for their own political purposes.
V. Trials of the Successor States in Eastern Europe
i. The challenge for Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the other successor states was to
create new parliamentary governments that would function in a satisfactory and stable
manner, with both power and responsibility.
1. Britain and France saw these new eastern states as embodying national selfdetermination and as a buffer against Bolshevism
2. Another question was how long the conservative institutions could tolerate the liberal
experiments
ii. Economic and Ethnic Pressures
a) Immense postwar economic difficulties stopped the eastern states from becoming
financially independent, and ethnic tensions hurt trade and promoted authoritarianism
1. the states traded with Germany rather than each other
2. being largely poor and rural meant that they had a great trade deficit for manufactured
goods
3. political groups were unwilling to compromise to other minorities and so succumbed to
domestic authoritarian government
4. these problems and tensions continued to plague this area, reemerging most notably in
the 1990s
iii. Poland: Democracy to Military Rule
1. Poland, having been partitioned for 100 years, was severely divided by class, economic
interests, and region (each region had different laws, economies, electoral practices,
administrative systems, etc.), resulting in a deadlocked Parliament and weak executive.
2. In 1926, Marshal Josef Pilsudski carried out a military coup, and the country remained
under military rule after his death in 1935
iv. Czechoslovakia: A Viable Democratic Experiment
a) Czechoslovakia escaped self-imposed authoritarian government, although ethnic tensions
eventually spelled its doom.
1. possessed a strong industrial base, a substantial middle class, and a tradition of liberal
values
2. Thomas Masaryk was a gifted leader
3. although the Czechs and Slovaks cooperated, there were tensions
4. also tensions with Poles, Magyars, and Germans in the Sudetenland
5. 1938, the great powers gave the Sudetenland to Hitler to appease Germany, and he
occupied much of Czechoslovakia, giving parts to Poland and Hungary and operating a
Slovak puppet state
v. Hungary: Turmoil and Authoritarianism
a) Hungarian politics was in turmoil
1. 1919: Bela Kun established the Hungarian Soviet Republic, which was overthrown by
the Romanian army (with permission from the Allies). Thousands of Hungarians were
executed in the aftermath
2. Admiral Miklos Horthy was regent of Hungary until 1944
3. 1920s: Count Stephan Bethlen presided over an ineffective parliamentary government
4. 1932: General Julius Gombos used election fraud and established a tradition of antiSemitism
b) The Hungarian economy was stagnant
vi. Austria: Political Turmoil and Nazi Conquest
a) Austria experienced economic stagnation and also struggled between the conservative
Christian Socialists and the leftist Social Democrats, and later the German nazis.
1. both the Social Democrats and Christian Socialists used small armies to terrorize each
other
2. 1934: Christian Socialist chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss outlawed all political parties
except his own Fatherland Front: consisting of the Christian Socialists, the agrarians,
and the paramilitary groups.
3. 1934: Kurt von Schuschnigg was chancellor of Austria after Dollfuss's death and until
Hitler annexed Austria in 1938
vii. Southeastern Europe: Royal Dictatorships: extreme ethnic tensions
a) Yugoslavia
1. founded by Corfu Agreement of 1917, the "Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes"
2. The Serbs (Orthodox, considered corrupt) dominated over the Croats (Roman Catholic,
better educated) and clashed violently.
3. Bosnia-Herzegovina had Serbs, Croats, and Muslims
4. political parties represented ethnicities (except for the multi-ethnic Communist Party)
5. 1929: royal dictatorship under King Alexander I (a Serb) and a regency for his son after
his assassination in 1934
b) Romania and Bulgaria
1. Romania: King Carol II
2. Bulgaria: King Boris III
3. believed an illiberal regime would prevent a more extreme antiparliamentary movement
from coming to power, and also quiet ethnic discontent
c) Greece
1. parliamentary monarchy floundered amid military coups and calls for a republic
2. 1936: General John Metaxas instituted a dictatorship, ending parliamentary life in
Greece
VI. The Weimar Republic in Germany
i. The Weimar Republic was permanently associated with the punitive measures of the Versailles
Treaty, and gave nationalists and military figures ammunition against the liberal Social
Democrats. All Germans desired to revise the Paris settlements in some way
a) The Weimar republic was created in August 1919, headed by the Social Democrats, and
accepted the Versailles treaty under threat of invasion
ii. Constitutional Plans
a) Positive: very enlightened
1. guaranteed civil liberties
2. direct election (universal suffrage) of Reichstag and President
b) Negative: allowed minorities to gain dictatorial power
1. proportional representation for all elections (small parties gain power)
2. chancellor appointed/removed by president (no responsibility to people)
3. Article 48: basically allowed temporary presidential dictatorship in time of emergency
iii. Lack of Broad Popular Support
a) Many politicians and bureaucrats supported a constitutional monarchy and had hated the
Social Democrats before the war
b) The officer corps was suspicious and resentful of the new government and Paris
agreements, and wanted to modify both
c) Economic instability also plagued the Weimar
1. 1920 March, right-wing Kapp Putsch insurrection in Berlin, along with a general strike
2. strikes in the Ruhr
3. violence, assassinations on both sides
d) War Reparations:
1. 1921 May, reparations bill for 132 billion gold marks only accepted after new allied
threats of occupation
iv. Invasion of the Ruhr and Inflation: Inflation brought on the major crisis of the period
a) The immense rise in prices and subsequent depreciation of the German mark were caused
by:
1. borrowing to finance the war
2. paying the postwar deficit
3. paying reparations
4. subsidizing the large number of unemployed workers
b) 1923 January, the French invasion of the Ruhr prompted a German response of passive
resistance, producing cataclysmic inflation.
1. unemployment raised government costs while lowering tax revenue
2. paper money became literally worthless
3. the middle class was hit hardest, losing all saving, pensions, investments, etc.
4. debtors, speculators, and farmers benefited from the inflation--farmers from a return to
bartering (however, the farmers, unable to sell their goods, also suffered from severe
debt)
c) All this contributed to the German desire for order and security at any cost.
v. Hitler's Early Career
a) Adolf Hitler was born in1889 in Austria. In Vienna he absorbed ideas of German
nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism, and came to hate Marxism.
b) After WWI he lived in Munich and joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party
(the Nazis). The Party's platform was outlined in the Twenty-five Points, and included
1. repudiation of the Versailles treaty
2. unification of Austria and Germany
3. exclusion of Jews from German citizenship
4. agrarian reform
5. state administration of the giant cartels
6. return to small retail shops
c) The Nazis redefined socialism to be the subordination of all economic enterprise to the
welfare of the nation, which broadly appealed to almost all nationalistic Germans
d) The Nazis organized the SA under Captain Ernst Roehm--the chief Nazi instrument of
terror and intimidation, which attacked socialists and communists. The Social Democrats
and Communist Parties had less effective armies; this showed the general contempt for law
in Germany
e) 1923 Novermber 9, Hitler and some followers attempted a putsch (overthrow of government)
and were arrested and tried for treason. Hitler used his arrest to make himself a national
figure.
f) During his short stay in prison he dictated Mein Kampf, which outlined his key political
views
1. anti-Semitism
2. opposition to Bolshevism
3. expansion eastward to achieve "living space"
4. recovery of German military might
g) Hitler also decided to make himself the leader to transform Germany, and to pursue power
through legal means
vi. The Stresemann Years: Gustav Stresemann helped Germany recover from its uncontrollable
inflation and sought to reestablish Germany respectability and economic recovery, with the
goal of future German eastward expansion.
a) Gustav Stressemann was chancellor Aug-Nov 1923, and later foreign minister. He sought to
reconstruct the republic.
b) Hjalmar Schacht, banker, worked with Stresemann to introduce a new German currency,
the Rentenmark
c) 1924: Dawes Plan lowered the annual reparations payments required
d) 1925: the last French troops left the Ruhr
e) Fieldmarshal Paul von Hindenburg became president. He was conservative, and the new
political and economic stability, increase in employment, and general prosperity gave
conservatives more legitimacy.
f) Stresemann was conciliatory in foreign affairs, but aimed to recover German-speaking
territories lost to Poland and Czechoslovakia and perhaps unite with Austria, after
Germany recovered.
vii. Locarno: The Locarno Agreements made Europe happy and gave a premature sense of security
and hope, while tensions remained, tensions that would erupt during the Great Depression of
the 1930s!
a) The Locarno Agreements of October 1925 were led by Austen Chamberlain of Britain,
Aristide Briande of France, and Stresemann of Germany.
1. established the German western border and gave Italy a role in preserving the border
2. no agreement was reached about Germany's eastern border
3. Germany signed treaties of arbitration with Poland and Czechoslovakia
4. France strengthened its ties with the Little Entente
5. Germany gained membership in the League of Nations
b) The Locarno Agreement had both positive and negative effects on the European nations
1. Germany: achieved respectability and security against another Ruhr invasion, but
remained unreconciled on the eastern settlement, and continued clandestine military
connections with the Soviet Union, which had begun with the Treaty of Rapallo
2. Britain: was allowed to be an arbitrator in Continental affairs (no longer alienated), but
also showed its unwillingness to uphold the Paris settlement in the east
3. Italy: was recognized as a great power
4. France: secured its western frontier against Germany and maintained its allies in the
east, but acknowledged that it required outside help (Britain and Italy) to control
Germany
c) Chamberlain, Dawes, Briand, and Stresemann won Nobel Peace Prizes
d) The Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 condemned war as an instrument of national policy
e) the Young Plan, which lowered German reparations payment, reflected German hatred of
reparations
f) American loans gave Europe money to return to prosperity, and future war could have been
avoided if not for the Great Depression of the 1930s.
VII. In Perspective:
At the close of the 1920s, Europe appeared finally to have emerged from the difficulties of the World
War I era.
• The Soviet Union, regarded in the West as a communist menace, was isolated by the other powers and
had withdrawn into its own internal power struggles.
• Elsewhere, the initial resentments over the Versailles peace settlement seemed to have abated.
• The major powers were cooperating.
• Democracy was still functioning in Germany.
• The Labour Party was about to form its second ministry in Britain.
• France had settled into a less assertive international role.
• Mussolini's fascism in Italy seemed to have little relevance to the rest of the Continent.
• The successor states (eastern Europe) had not fulfilled the democratic hopes of the Paris conference,
but their troubles were their own.
The European economy seemed finally to be on an even keel.
• The frightening inflation of the early years of the decade was over, and unemployment had eased.
• American capital was flowing into the Continent.
• The reparations payments had been systematized by the Young Plan.
Yet this economic and political stability proved illusory and temporary. What brought it to an end was
the deepest economic depression in the modern history of the West. As governments and electorates responded
to the economic collapse, the search for liberty yielded in more than one instance to a search for security. The
political experiments of the 1920s gave way to the political tragedies of the 1930s.