19181941

19181941 is a historiographical label used to describe the period spanning the end of World War I in 1918 through the early years of World War II in 1941. It is not a formal era, but a way to group overlapping political, economic, and social developments that shaped the interwar world and the transition to broader global conflict.

In the immediate aftermath of World War I, empires collapsed and new states emerged, with treaties redrawing borders in Europe and the Middle East. The 1920s saw attempts to stabilize economies and establish international governance, yet nationalist movements and ideological conflicts continued to rise. The Great Depression of the 1930s deepened economic hardship and contributed to political radicalization in many countries.

From the mid-1930s, militarism and expansionism intensified. Germany, under the Nazi regime, pursued rearmament and aggressive territorial aims; Italy, under Mussolini, sought imperial expansion; and Japan expanded its military influence in Asia. Conflicts such as the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War foreshadowed broader confrontation. The period culminated in the outbreak of World War II in 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland, and by 1941 the war had expanded significantly with events such as the German invasion of the Soviet Union and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into the conflict.

Scholars use the 1918–1941 window to analyze how postwar settlement, economic crises, and ideological clashes shaped the conditions that led to World War II and the subsequent postwar order.