-Hopes for a better Europe soared in 1925 when representatives from 7 European nations signed a series of treaties at Locarno, Switzerland.

-These treaties settled Germany’s disputed borders with France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

-In the spiritof optimism, the great powers pursued disarmament, the reduction of armed forces and weapons. The US, Britain, France, and Japan agreed to limit their navy but not their army.

-People around the world put their hopes in the League of Nations. From its headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland, the League encouraged and tried to get its members to make a commitment to stopping aggression.

A Dangerous Imbalance
-One major problem was overproduction.
-Improved technology and farming methods also contributed to higher output.
-At the same time, industrial workers won higher wages, which raised the price of manufacturing goods.

Crash and Collapse
-Eager investors acquired stocks through margin buying.
-The stock market crash triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s, a painful time of global economic collapse.

Global Impact
-The US imposed the high tariffs in its history.
-As the depression dragged on, many people lost faith in the ability of democratic governments to solve problems.
-Misery and hopelessness created fertile ground for extremities who promised radical solutions.

economics
-The Great Depression intensified the nation’s economic’s woes.
-As the crisis worsened, Britain set up a coalition government made up of leaders from all three major political parties.
-The coalition government provided some unemployment benefits to ease the worst problems. Despite such efforts, millions of people suffered great hardships.

politics
-During the 1920s, the Labor Party surpassed the Liberal party in strength.
-The middle class, however, firmly backed the Conservative Party, which held power during much of this period.
-After the general strike, Conservatives passed legislation limiting the power of workers to strike.

foreign affairs
-Irish nationals fought for their independence.
-In 1931, four former colonies - Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa- became fully self-governing dominions within the newly formed British Commonwealth of Nations.
-Despite challenges from nationalist, Britain retained its colonies.
-Almost from the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, British leaders wanted to relax the treaty’s harsh treatment of Germany.

economics
-The French economy recovered fairly quickly, thanks in part to German reparations and to territories gained from Germany.
-The Great Depression did not hurt France as much as it did some countries because French industry was not as centralized in the hands of big businesses.

politics
-During the postwar years, France was again ruled by a series of coalition governments.
-Democracy survived, but the country lacked strong leadership that could respond to the clamor for change.

foreign affairs
-France’s chief concern after the war was securing its borders against Germany.
-To prevent a third invasion, France built massive fortifications along the border of France and Germany. The Maginot Line, as this defensive “wall” was called, offered a false sense of security.

Radioactivity
-By the early 1900s, the Polish-born French scientist Marie Curie and others were experimenting with radioactivity.
-As scientists studied radioactivity further, they discovered that it could change atoms of one element into atoms of another.
-Such findings proved that atoms were not solid and indivisible.

Relativity
-By 1905, the German-born physicist Albert Einstein advanced his theories of relativity.
-Einstein argued that measurements of space and time are not absolute but are determined by many factors, some of them unknown.

Probing the Mind
-The Austrian physician Sigmund Freud suggested that the subconscious mind drives much human behavior.
-Freud said that, in a civilized society, leaned values such as morality help people repress, or check, powerful urges.
-An individual feels constant tension between repressed drives and social training. This tension caused psychological and physical illnesses.

In the early 1900s, many western artists rejected traditional styles. Instead of trying to reproduce the real world, they explored other dimensions of color, line, and shape.

CUBISM
-Before the war, the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and his friend Georges Barque had created a revolutionary new style called cubism.
-They broke 3-D objects into fragments and composed them into complex patterns of angles and planes.
-Later, the Russian Vasily Kandinsky and the German Paul Klee moved even further away from representing reality. Their artwork was abstract, composed of lines, colors, and shape with no recognizable subject matter at all.

DADA
During and after the war, dada burst onto the Paris art world. Dada was a a revolt against civilization.
-Cubism and dada helped inspire surrealism, a movement that attempted to portray the workings of the unconscious mind.

Architecture
-Architects, too, rejected classical traditions and developed new styles to match and industrial, urbanized world.
-The famous Bauhaus school in Germany influenced architects by blending science and technology with design.