Dieselpunk Lexicon Part 9: Interbellum Period

In my last post I wrote about the Diesel Era, which stretched from roughly World War One through the Korean War. Buried within this Era was the Interbellum Period or Interwar Period.

The Interbellum Period had clear starting and ending dates. It began on November 11, 1918, which the day the Armistice went in effect and hostilities stopped in World War One, and ended on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. This roughly twenty year period of time saw dramatic upheavals, politically and economically, across the globe.

The Interbellum Period saw peace and prosperity. In the 1920s, the US economy flourished. The UK and France both recovered from the devastation of the war. Democracy appeared in Japan with the Taisho Democracy and in Germany with the November Revolution and Weimar Republic. Plus, voting rights for women were granted in both the UK and the US. There was a cultural renaissance across the globe.

However, the Interbellum Period also saw chaos. The world economy collapsed in 1928 resulting in the Great Depression. The Dust Bowl smothered the central regions of the US during the 1930s. In 1922 Benito Mussolini rose to power and established the first fascist dictatorship in 1925. By 1933 both the Japanese and German democracies had been replaced with fascist dictatorships. Russia saw starvation partially caused by collectivization, the rise of Stalin, purges of anyone he thought might oppose him, and the terror of the Soviet Gulags.