Episode List

After the War to End All Wars, there's more of two things. More nations and more wars. Wars of independence, civil wars, ethnic wars, ideological wars and just plain old wars. In the first Prelude to the Between 2 Wars series, covering the years 1919-1939 from WWI to WWII chronologically, we look at the rise of nationalism out of the ruins of The Great War. Indy Neidell and Spartacus take you on a historical journey through 20 years of dawn, light, and dusk back into the darkness of war.

As World War One ends the dying takes on new proportions when the Spanish Flu ravages the world. A whole generation of young people that should be starting their adult life is instead decimated at a devastating rate. The suffering at the end of 1918 will have consequences that last until this day.

The year 1919 was the year when the world took the first step into the age of mass communication. Wartime developments now create the aviation industry, mass produced cars, broadcast media and... more guns.

On what was only recently the Eastern Front of World War One there is no end to war. Russia is at war with itself while it tries to reconquer the former territories of the Russian Empire. These new countries are also at war with themselves and each other, while they fight the Bolshevik Russian armies invading their young borders. Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Romania, wherever you look in Eastern Europe there is war, more war... endless war.

The Paris Peace Conference gets underway while the world continues to go up in flames. In 1919 it seems like every corner of the world is plagued by revolutions, strikes, protests, oppression, ethnic violence, massacres, or war.

The fledgling democracy in Germany struggles to survive as the German Revolution escalates into a downright civil war. In one of the German States Bavaria, Adolf Hitler appears on the stage within the context of the Bavarian Soviet Revolution.

In 1920 the Bolshevik Russian Red army has more or less routed the Russian counter revolutionary White Armies. Their attention now turns to the West. Lenin wants to take the communist revolution to Germany, France and the United Kingdom. To get there he has to go through Poland though, and he hasn't counted with Józef Piłsudski, the leader of the Polish Republic.

Germany is usually associated with the rise of right wing extremism in the interwar years, but in 1920 almost the entire German citizenry unites to stop the reactionary forces from destroying their brand new democracy during the Lüttwitz Kapp Putsch. Meanwhile in Munich Adolf Hitler makes his next move to create the Nazi movement, while Lenin prepares the International socialist revolution in Russia.

In 1920, the colonial powers of the British Empire and France reverse course on their commitment to grant independence to the peoples of the Middle East. In a game to grab the oil fields of Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and to control the Suez Canal they tighten their grip on the region, with far ranging consequences that will shape the world well into the 21st century.

When many of the fighting men of The Great War return home addicted to drugs and infected with venereal disease, their sweethearts have decided that it's time for some serious changes! It's time for women's liberation!

After an unpopular war and facing unrest at home, the US returns to isolationism after half a century of gradually opening up to the world. On the home front, prohibition gives rise to more problems of the very kinds it meant to solve; crime and debauchery, and one the biggest crooks is in the White House.

In 1921 the Second Polish Republic expands to the borders it will have until it is overrun by the Germans and Soviets in September of 1939. Through conquest, popular uprisings, plebiscite, and the Treaty of Versailles Poland incorporates land from her neighboring nations.

In 1922, when Italy is in political chaos, reeling from the effects of The Great War and labour unrest, one man makes a violent grab for power. He is the prominent journalist and leader of a new radical, reactionary, oppressive, and murderous movement. He is Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini and he calls his movement Fascism.

When the Ottoman empire is torn apart by the Treaty of Sevres, ethnic conflicts in the old empire that have been boiling for almost a century lead to war between Greece and the parts of the Empire that will soon become the Republic of Turkey. A war that will have lasting effect on the world as both sides proceed to carry out stunning actions of ethnic violence, which is shockingly also sanctioned by international treaty after the fact.

When Germany spirals into hyperinflation and the French occupy the Ruhr, Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff make a grab for power.

As Lenin's health starts to fail, the struggle to become his successor picks up speed with Stalin maneuvering closer and closer to power. The outcome of this struggle will define a century of world events.

The 19th century throws all kinds of terror and unfortune on China, which not long before was the most powerful nation in the world. While many other Western, Asian and even American nations seek to gain influence in China through politics, wars and trade, China itself tries to hold on to its glory days.

One man tries to reunite China, he is Sun Yat Sen but he shall not see his work come to fruition.

Modernization caused a communication revolution in the 1920's with the mass adaptation of the Radio, with all sorts concequences for the entertainment industry as well as the political game.

The rise of the media superstar and the rise of Naziism had a lot to do with each other. The early death of one of the first media superstars, Rudolph Valentino in 1926 shows us exactly how and why.