Interwar Period

What was the world like during this time? Did WW1 leave countries in shambles? How shitty was the Weimar Republic. Is it as bad as /pol/ make it out to be? Lastly was the Treaty of Versilles really that terrible or was it more the perception of the treaty?

>What was the world like during this time?
Aside from the Great Depression and the rise of the Soviets it was a relatively good time for Europe and the US.
>Did WW1 leave countries in shambles?
Economically and socially, yes, but if you mean it literally that was only the case for Belgium and northwestern France.
>How shitty was the Weimar Republic. Is it as bad as /pol/ make it out to be?
No, it wasn't nearly as bad. It was actually a good thing, the only real problems being the Versailles Treaty, the Great Depression and the rise of the political extremes.
>Lastly was the Treaty of Versilles really that terrible or was it more the perception of the treaty?
I guess if it weren't for the Great Depression it would have been bearable economically, but the main thing it did was humiliate and weaken Germany which was rightfully seen as unjust by the Germans and led to a resentful sentiment, as politicians predicted when the treaty was made.

>the only real problems being the Versailles Treaty
No, the only problem was Kraut autism, aka printing shitload of money to pay workers not to work and to pay reparations

>being concerned more about the well being and recovery of your nation instead that of your enemies
>Kraut autism
Well, what else is there to expect from Veeky Forums...
Bomber Harris do it again, I guess, amirite? XD

>the only real problems being the Versailles Treaty, the Great Depression and the rise of the political extremes.

"The only real problem were all these catastrophic problems that lead to worldwide disaster. Not really a big deal, the history books lied to you."

>being concerned more about the well being and recovery of your nation instead that of your enemies
>letting your economy collapse is well being

This. It's literally fucking your own people to pay debts.

taking money from your people so they are poor>printing money and letting your economy collapse so people are even more poor

The 1920s were comfy as fuck compared to the 1910s.

The voting franchise was expanded throughout the West. Middle classes were influential in elections for the first time in history, increasing prosperity lead to widespread car ownership in Western Europe, Australia, Argentina, Canada, USA, NZ, as well as increasing urbanization which led to some feelings of social alienation and nostalgia for rural life.

In Weimar Germany there was a terrible period of hyperinflation, but by 1924 the crisis had been solved and the economy was booming again. The movie scene exploded with productions like Metropolis, while young people in Europe took to dancing the new styles of music coming from abroad like jazz, tango and charleston.

In many ways the 1920s were similar to the 1990s. It was an interbellum decade of relative peace, democratization, and economic prosperity where people just wanted to have fun.

It was the Great Depression starting in 1929 that led to this whole decade being retroactively repudiated by both leftists and rightists. Suddenly the cultural changes became evidence of "Jewish degeneracy" to the Nazis, and the rising middle class prosperity had taken a toll, being labeled as "burgeois decadence" by the Communists.

The peak of democratization occured by 1922.

Government forms in 1922:
Blue = Full Democracy
Light Blue = Limited Democracy
Brown = Military Rule
Red = Communism
Purple = Absolute Monarchies
Yellow = Other types of One Party State
China = Anarchy / Civil War

By 1927 the rising tide of authoritarianism was evident.

>Czechoslovakia
>full democracy
top kek, it was authoritarian one at best, state terrorism and political terror wasnt a problem for Masaryk.

And by 1937 many of the world's democracies had dissappeared.

Wasn't the occupation only the Ruhr a major catalyst for the hyperinflation in Germany?

Or am I confusing it with something else?

What does this map show exactly? Farmer density?

Weimar Germany was pretty bad in terms of morality in Berlin, I think, but in the other parts of Germany things were not as bad.

That's my impression.
"That middle eastern kingdom was pretty comfy at the time, other than facing a great plague that killed a third of the population, a Crusade that slaughtered their second largest city and a Mongol invasion"

Percentage of the workforce that works in agriculture. Here's the key. Don't know why it's in a separate image.

Less Green = More urban population

t.

>Japan
>Absolute monarchy
Taisho was pretty inactive as emperor and Japan was a constitutional monarchy with an parliamentary democracy

The line is blurry. He had many attributions of an absolute monarch.
Likewise, the "limited democracies" in this map are in many cases more democratic than the "full democracies" they simply didn't have female suffrage.

It's far from a perfect map, it's there to give a general idea of what things looked like.

>as predicted by politicians
Reminder that Foch was actually complaining about how lenient the treaty was.