Peace In Their Time

Support for an intervention into Siberia begins to build momentum as apprehensions over the new Bolshevik government in Russia grow. But it's the appearance of tens of thousands of armed Czechs in the region that really knocks down any barriers to sending an armed force in.    Bibliography for this episode:  Morley, James William The Japanese Thrust Into Siberia, 1918 Columbia University Press, 19...

This week begins a 3-part miniseries within a miniseries covering in detail Japan's involvement in the Siberian Expedition, a haphazard military intervention into Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. But it's the twists and turns of actually getting the venture off the ground that are the most insightful bits of history, as the conflicts and cross-purposes of the Japanese elites were on full...

What went up eventually came down, and the wartime boom for Japan's economy ended not long after the hostilities. Japan entered the 20s far more uncertain than it had been just a generation ago, as the world was fast changing. The people in both the cities and countryside demanded more rights and material benefits, and the elites were slow to oblige them. This set the stage for the Taisho era to b...

The Meiji era is concluded this week, and the transition to the Emperor Taisho ushers in a new period of experimentation in Japanese life. Taisho himself was incapacitated with medical ailments for most of his reign, and the throne did not present the solid center it had under Meiji. In addition, the genro which had formed the core of Japan's leadership began aging out, and Ito's constitution turn...

Years before they swept over East Asia in the 30s and 40s, the Japanese... well they swept over East Asia before then too. Seeing overseas possessions as the next logical step towards making their own nation secure, Japan started going to war with the neighbors. Fortune smiled on them in these years and they humbled empires far larger than they.    Bibliography for this episode:  McClain, James L ...

Having successfully resisted becoming colonized by the Europeans, Japan was now free to makes its own destiny and pursue new ambitions. But before that nation could look abroad, it first had a couple of "to-dos" on the domestic front. The first was straightforward, make a modern economy. The other was to reform the government and create a constitution. This was a little trickier, and the end resul...

After a long break from focusing on one particular nation, today starts the introduction to Japan! They're a special case in history, as they're the only nation outside of Europe to dodge being colonized and become a Great Power in their own right (and even then the other Powers were reluctant to acknowledge that special status). Which for our purposes on this show meant that East Asia was one of...

Today we wrap up introducing the colonial empires of France and the UK with the most restive of their conquests, the Middle East. In the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire, the two nations would lay the groundwork for the region's future instability and long years of military occupations for themselves. All the greatest hits are here, with Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq all being affected...

We've come to the penultimate episode on our tour of the big world empires, and this week we're covering the sprawling French presence in the western half of the African continent. The experience for the colonized was mixed to say the least, but for France the region was a source of vital raw materials and manpower. That last bit, the manpower, was critical to France's status as a competitive powe...

The British might have had the biggest and most influential of the colonial empires, but they were far from alone. Today we take a look at the Netherland's massive Dutch East Indies colony and France's big holding in East Asia, Indochina. Both were resource-rich areas that made fine possessions for their colonial masters. For the people actually living there though, the change to European rule was...

The sun might not have set on the British Empire, but it is on my coverage of it. This week is a sweeping overview of the remaining big pieces of the empire, and their importance to the UK and how they affected the metropole. And also I zero in on Egypt for a bit, because they put up a spirited effort to not be a part of the empire, while the Brits were very insistent on being involved in that cou...

With the campaigns for Indian independence in the post-WWI years a bust, India settles into an uneasy kind of calm. The British might not have been able to properly grasp it, but lines had been crossed and the Indian people had placed themselves on a trajectory towards autonomy and separation. This was reflected not just in the political relationship with the UK, but the economic one as well. And...

Imperial overreach happens to everybody eventually, and the British rule in India during and after WWI became oppressive enough that their subjects began agitating for radical changes in their relationship. The independence movement there began in earnest in the post-war years, and yes this is where Ghandi enters the picture. The British don't take it very well and double-down on the very oppressi...

The British Empire as we knew it wouldn't have been possible without its cornerstone, India. Turns out adding an entire subcontinent's worth of human and material wealth can turn a relatively small island nation into a global power. In both world wars India proved to be critical to Britain's success, and that importance weighed heavily on the minds of the Britons who ruled there. For the next few...

I've stressed in past episodes the importance of France and the United Kingdom in putting together a peaceful world order in the 1920s. That preeminence was a result of both countries acquiring gigantic empires reaching into every part of the globe, and today we're going to start covering those empires and how they played into the decisions of their rulers. In this episode we're covering the Briti...

We conclude our little tour of central Europe with Greece. Like their neighbors, they struggled over territorial claims and reconciling their adopted monarchy. But their greater ambitions only lead them into one disaster after another, and reduced their regional ambitions into that of another grasping state in south-central Europe, dependent on the fragile peace to keep outside aggressors at bay. ...

In the big histories of the 30s and 40s, Bulgaria doesn't get mentioned a whole lot. And the reason for that is because they were effectively kneecapped by their neighbors! The Balkans in the early 1900s was a scramble for land, and despite trying their hardest, the Bulgarians were the odd man out. Once an assertive country, they would wallow in the throes of internal chaos. And like Hungary, they...

Say what you will about all the dysfunction across Europe in the 1920s, at least all the nations I've been covering have survived after some... uh, adjustments. Yugoslavia though? Not so much. Yugoslavia's story in this episode might be the most familiar, simply because the same issues of sectarianism sprung up again within living memory. And now you'll get some context for that as today I'll be c...

On the continued Central European overview I stop in on Romania and Albania! Romania is a fun one because unlike a lot of other countries, they managed to get pretty much everything they ever wanted in the aftermath of WWI. It shouldn't come as a surprise though that this came at the cost of antagonizing several neighbors, which included the Soviet Union. Albania on the other hand was so wracked b...

It's a double feature today as I cover the former imperial partners Austria and Hungary. Their mutual defeat in the Great War ruined both and left them at the tender mercies of both their former subjects and enemies. After initial bursts of social upheaval that so characterized the early 20s in Europe, the pair would settle politically into right-wing dominance, making them future playthings of th...

Out of all the unlucky nations I cover on this podcast, probably none had it quite like Poland. After over a century of non-existence, the interwar era saw the Polish nation birth itself back into being. Born in conflict, this version of Poland would never quite find its footing, whilst being wedged between two large nations who would love to partition the country yet again. But as I'll cover, muc...

Overviews ahoy! Today we start a miniseries doing quick coverage of notable events in the long string of European nations that found themselves stuck between the two future Axis powers and the Soviet Union. This area would eventually become the killing fields of Europe, and knowledge of local histories is important to understand how each place fit into the bigger picture. Today I'll be focusing on...

The last episode on Nazis for a while! Fresh out of prison, Hitler has to reckon with a changed Germany in the back half of the 20s. After recovering from a cataclysmic economic collapse, nobody seemed receptive to a political message predicated on violence and social upheaval. This should be the time that the Nazi party disbands and Hitler fades back into obscurity, but he and his gang were a stu...

I would say it's funny that such a half-baked coup actually went ahead, except we all know how this ends up. This should have been the end for Hitler, yet the failings of Weimar meant that he'd eventually get his (much more important) second act.  Bibliography for this episode:  Kershaw, Ian Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris W.W. Norton & Company, Inc 1998 Toland, John Adolf Hitler, Volume 1 Doubleday & C...

With his own micro-party on hand, Hitler became able to devote his time to his true calling: making a nuisance of himself. And it worked too, as his public persona brought him an expanded group of underlings and the interest of larger figures in the ultra-right scene of Munich.    Bibliography for this episode:  Kershaw, Ian Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris W.W. Norton & Company, Inc 1998 Toland, John Ad...