Impossible Peace: The Time Between World Wars

For four years during WWI, a life was lost every 25 seconds. After the carnage, a new age of prosperity and celebration was expected. However, that it would not be so simple. The economy and society had a lot of recovering to do.

In effort to keep peace, treaties were proposed to keep the aggressors of World War 1 under-armed. The ratio of military power was drastically in favor of the US and Great Britain. This might have successfully kept peace, if it was only given a chance.

Exchange rates and floundering economies were not the only things influencing how and where people lived. The motor-car and other technological advances were transformative, though some clung tight to the past...

As Paris lurched into 1929, it seemed on the surface (to those with deep pockets) that the party would go on forever. However, few saw the impending future claiming that these people were just hiding away from a harsh reality.

In the 20's there seemed to be some good candidates for leadership in Europe. But where were these people when the great depression hits, effecting the lives of people around the world?

As the effect of the depression in the US became clear, Japanese businessmen began to think that the America would never recover. They then set their focus on East Asia, where the invasion of Manchuria had doubled the size of the Japanese empire.

No one knows for sure if early action would have stopped Adolph Hitler's ambition. But we do know that inaction certainly didn't. Buy why did neighboring countries refuse to act early? One word: Appeasement.

Some saw the idea of appeasement as the salvation of peace. Some were so blinded by it, that they either didn't see, or ignored, Hitler's all to obvious strategic manipulation of territories.