The Interwar Period is the era between the end of World War I (1918) and the start of World War II (1939), when an unsustainable peace settlement, the Great Depression, ongoing imperialism, and the rise of fascist and totalitarian regimes set up the second global conflict.
The Interwar Period is the roughly 21 years between the end of World War I in 1918 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Think of it less as a peaceful break and more as a fuse burning between two explosions. The Treaty of Versailles left Germany humiliated and economically crushed, the League of Nations mandate system handed former German colonies to Britain and France (so empires didn't end, they got reshuffled), and the Great Depression wrecked economies worldwide starting in 1929.
For AP World, the era is really a story about how governments responded to crisis. The Soviet Union ran its economy through Five Year Plans, the United States tried the New Deal, and Italy and Germany built fascist corporatist economies. Meanwhile, anti-imperial resistance grew, from the Indian National Congress to strikes against French rule in West Africa, and Japan expanded into Manchuria (Manchukuo). All of these threads converge in the causes of World War II.
This term sits at the heart of Unit 7 (Global Conflict, 1900-Present) and ties together four CED topics at once. Topic 7.4 covers interwar economies (LO 7.4.A asks you to explain how different governments responded to economic crisis after 1900), Topic 7.5 covers unresolved tensions and territorial changes (LO 7.5.A), Topic 7.6 covers the causes of World War II (LO 7.6.A), and Topic 7.9 asks you to weigh the relative significance of causes of global conflict (LO 7.9.A). If you can explain the Interwar Period well, you've basically built the causation argument for WWII that the exam loves. It's also a goldmine for the continuity-and-change skill, since imperial powers kept their colonies even as resistance movements gained steam.
Keep studying AP World Unit 7
Treaty of Versailles (Unit 7)
The treaty that opens the Interwar Period also poisons it. The CED calls the post-WWI peace settlement 'unsustainable,' and German resentment over its terms is the soil where Nazism grows.
Great Depression (Unit 7)
The 1929 economic collapse is the midpoint crisis of the era. It explains why governments everywhere, from the New Deal to fascist corporatism to Soviet Five Year Plans, suddenly took control of their economies.
Fascism (Unit 7)
Fascist regimes in Italy and Germany are the Interwar Period's most dangerous product. Economic desperation plus wounded national pride gave Mussolini and Hitler their openings, and their aggressive militarism is the CED's headline cause of WWII.
Anti-Imperial Resistance (Units 7-8)
While Europe stumbled, colonized peoples pushed back. The Indian National Congress and West African strikes against French rule during these years foreshadow the decolonization wave you'll trace in Unit 8.
Multiple-choice and short-answer questions usually use the Interwar Period as a setting and ask you to explain a development inside it. Practice questions ask things like which event triggered the global economic crisis (the 1929 stock market crash and Great Depression), what economic strategies Western nations adopted to fight unemployment (government intervention, like the New Deal), and how interwar economic instability compares to earlier eras like the Industrial Revolution. For FRQs, this era is prime causation territory. A classic LEQ task is explaining the relative significance of causes of World War II, which means ranking the Versailles settlement, the Depression, imperialism, and fascist aggression against each other rather than just listing them. No released FRQ uses 'Interwar Period' verbatim, but the era's content is exactly what LO 7.6.A and 7.9.A causation prompts are built on.
The Great Depression is one event inside the Interwar Period, not a synonym for it. The Interwar Period runs 1918-1939 and includes the Versailles settlement, the mandate system, anti-imperial resistance, and the rise of fascism. The Depression starts in 1929 and is the economic crisis that accelerates everything else. If a question asks about the whole era, don't answer with only the Depression.
The Interwar Period spans 1918 to 1939, from the end of World War I to the start of World War II.
The CED identifies four causes of WWII rooted in this era: the unsustainable Versailles peace settlement, the Great Depression, continued imperialist aspirations, and the rise of fascist and totalitarian regimes, especially Nazi Germany.
Governments responded to interwar economic crisis by intervening in their economies, through the New Deal in the US, Five Year Plans in the USSR, and fascist corporatist economies in Italy and Germany.
Imperialism continued during the interwar years, with former German colonies transferred to Britain and France as League of Nations mandates and Japan expanding into Manchukuo.
Anti-imperial resistance grew at the same time, including the Indian National Congress and strikes against French rule in West Africa.
On the exam, the Interwar Period is your toolbox for causation arguments about World War II under LO 7.6.A and LO 7.9.A.
It's the era between World War I ending in 1918 and World War II starting in 1939, covered mainly in Topics 7.4-7.6. It's defined by the Versailles settlement, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, and continued imperialism alongside growing anti-imperial resistance.
Not really. There was no world war, but imperial powers expanded (Japan seized Manchuria to create Manchukuo), fascist regimes used aggressive militarism, and colonized peoples resisted through movements like the Indian National Congress. The AP exam treats the era as the buildup to WWII, not a calm intermission.
No. The Great Depression (starting in 1929) is one major crisis within the larger Interwar Period (1918-1939). The Depression matters because it pushed governments into the economy, through the New Deal, Soviet Five Year Plans, and fascist corporatism, and it helped fascists gain power.
Four things, all rooted in the Interwar Period: the unsustainable peace settlement after WWI, the global economic crisis from the Great Depression, continued imperialist aspirations, and especially the rise of fascist and totalitarian regimes leading to Nazi Germany's aggressive militarism under Hitler.
No, mostly the opposite. Western and Japanese imperial states kept their colonial holdings and sometimes gained territory, like former German colonies becoming British and French League of Nations mandates. The big decolonization wave doesn't hit until after WWII, in Unit 8.
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