Military History: Interwar Years: New World Order

The First World War marked a decisive change in the way that the peoples of Europe and North America understood their world. There was the pre-war world, the First World War, and the post-war world. Formerly, families were whole, communities were often prosperous, and optimism for the new century was widespread. The First World War changed all that. In people's memories, the past seemed still brighter; the future, more worrisome. The conflict also decisively changed the way the world's economic and political systems worked.

Britain's economic supremacy was gone. Now, the United States and Japan were the world's major industrial and trading nations, while Russia, thanks to the revolution, was excluded from world markets. For many years the economies of the major European combatants would suffer from war damage and war debts. The latter were largely owed to the United States and paid out of German reparation payments. Internationally, governments raised tariff barriers to protect their domestic markets.

Punch, 2 April 1919 (cartoon by Bernard Partridge). © Chinook Multimedia, Inc.

"The Peril Without."

Russia is portrayed as a rogue state stalking the democracies.

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"Overweighted."

"PRESIDENT WILSON: 'HERE'S YOUR OLIVE BRANCH. NOW GET BUSY.'

DOVE OF PEACE: 'OF COURSE I WANT TO PLEASE EVERYBODY; BUT ISN'T THIS A BIT THICK?'"

Intended to promote lasting peace, the League of Nations turned out to have little influence over international affairs. The League’s first major weakness was the refusal of the United States to join. Even though American President Woodrow Wilson was a key architect of the organization, the U.S. Congress failed to ratify American participation in the League.

Punch, 26 March 1919 (cartoon by L. Raven-Hill).