19201921

19201921 refers to the two-year interval spanning 1920 and 1921, a transitional phase in the wake of World War I. It was marked by the consolidation of new international arrangements, border realignments, and the emergence of policies and movements that would shape interwar politics and society.

International diplomacy and institutions formed a central axis of the period. The League of Nations was established in 1920 as part of the postwar settlement, intended to prevent future conflicts, though the United States did not join. The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) addressed the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, a settlement later superseded by Lausanne in 1923. In the United States, the 19th Amendment, granting women’s suffrage, was ratified in 1920. The Washington Naval Conference began in 1921 to discuss naval disarmament and security in the Pacific.

Regional and national developments further defined the era. In Ireland, the War of Independence continued and culminated in the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in December 1921, laying groundwork for the Irish Free State. In Eastern Europe, the Polish–Soviet War ended in 1921 with the Treaty of Riga, shaping borders in the region. Within the Soviet Union, the New Economic Policy was introduced in 1921 to stabilize the postwar economy and signal a shift away from prior wartime policies. China saw the founding of the Communist Party of China in 1921, marking the start of organized leftist politics there. In science and medicine, the discovery of insulin by Banting and Best in 1921 opened new avenues for treatment, while the 1921–22 famine in the Volga region underscored the human cost of upheaval. These developments collectively illustrate the era’s mix of diplomacy, national consolidation, and social change that characterized the early interwar period.