12.1 Recovering from World War I

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe World War I’s immediate aftermath
• List the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles
• Describe how economic issues in Germany helped lead to the rise of the National Socialists
• Analyze World War I’s effects on the economies of Europe, the United States, East Asia, and Latin America
• Describe international efforts to prevent future global wars

Two major and competing forces took shape following World War I. One was disillusionment as the sheer horror of the war was finally understood. The other was the tantalizing idea that society had learned from the war and could build a better tomorrow, freed from the senselessness of war, through new institutions such as the League of Nations. Or, in the case of Russia, a new society would be based on more equitable principles. The reality turned out to be far from the ideal.