7.4 The Economy in the Interwar Period

World War I fundamentally reshaped global politics, society, and culture. It destroyed empires, transformed economies, and shattered faith in progress. Four major empires, the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian, collapsed under the strain of war and revolution. In Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution withdrew the nation from the conflict through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The creation of new states such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia reflected self-determination, though ethnic divisions remained unresolved.