1917 - Bolshevik revolt Nov. 6 by Lenin and Trotsky overthrew Czar Nicholas and established a Communist government in Russia. After the death of Lenin in 1924, Joseph Stalin rose to power and drove Trotsky out of the government by 1927.
1918 - new states of Lithuania (Feb. 16), Estonia (Feb. 24), Czechoslovakia (Oct. 18), Poland (Nov. 11), Republic of Austria (Nov. 13), Republic of Hungary (Nov. 16), Latvia (Nov. 18), Yugoslavia (Nov. 24)
1919 - Republic of Ireland proclaimed Jan. 21 by the Sinn Fein ("we ourselves") party led by President Eamon de Valera; the Lloyd George government sent "Black and Tan" volunteers to suppress the revolt of the Irish Republican Army; the Home Rule Act of 1920 created a Protestant Northern Ireland in Ulster and a Catholic Southern Irish Free State, each with its own parliament, confirmed by the Treaty of Dec. 6, 1921, negotiated by Sinn Fein's Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, but rejected by De Valera who gained control of the Irish Republican Army in 1922 and caused the deaths of Giffith and Collins in August.
1919 - Benito Mussolini formed March 23 his first combat group, the "fascio di combattimento" that would grow into the Fascist Party and rule Italy after the "march on Rome" Oct. 28, 1922.
1919 - China's May 4 Movement of students in Peking protested the failure of the Versailles conference to return the former German concession of Shantung that instead went to Japan, and led to the creation of the Chinese Communist Party.
1919 - Germany's Weimar Constitution July 31 created a republic with a parliamentary Reichstag in Berlin, but many opposed the Republic, including the Freikorps of dissatisfied German soldiers under Ernst Rohm centered in the Bavarian city of Munich, and the German Worker's Party that Adolph Hiter joined and turned into the National Socialist, or Nazi, Party by Aug. 1920.
1920 - League of Nations offically began Jan. 10, but without the United States.
1920 - Treaty of Sevres Aug. 10 carved up the former Ottoman Empire in the Middle East into new mandates controlled by Britain and France: Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine (that was opened to Jewish settlement in accordance with the
Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917, giving British support to the Zionist movement founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897 and led by Chaim Weizmann. The Treaty denied independence sought by the Arabs led by King Hussein who had helped the British fight the Turks and who had sent Prince Feisal to the Versailles peace conference. The Ottoman Empire was replaced by the new Republic of Turkey Oct. 29, 1923, led by President Mustapha Kemal.
1920 - Mahatma Gandhi and the National Congress in India began Sept. 8 the first passive resistance campaign against British rule, but Gandhi arrested 1922, released from prison 1924 and led second campaign 1930 but was again arrested and imprisoned, led third campaign 1933 until the Government of India Act was passed in 1934.
1920 - Treaty of Rapallo Nov. 12 rejected Italy's claim to Fiume and made Fiume an independent city under Gabriele D'Annunzio Sept. 12
1921 - Germany forced to accept on May 11 the $32 billion reparations schedule established by the London Conference; but collapse of the mark in August and severe inflation prevented Germany from making the payments of $500 million per year plus 26% of German exports
1923 - France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr Jan. 11 after Germany defaulted on coal reparations payments; Hitler's "beer hall putsch Nov. 8 failed to overthrow the Bavarian government and Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in prison (served 1 year) and wrote Mein Kampf.
1923 - Ethiopia admitted to League of Nations Sept. 28, but most of Africa remained dominated by colonial powers as class B mandates: Britain controlled Egypt and South Africa and the former German colonies in East Africa; Belgium ruled the Congo; France ruled Algiers; Spain and France partitioned Morocco; Italy ruled Libya.
1924 - Geneva Protocol was proposed Oct. 2 by the British Labor government of Ramsay MacDonald to require compulsory arbitrationof all disputes, in recognition of the weakness of the League of Nations without the U.S., Russia, or Germany. The Protocol was rejected by the new Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin in 1925, and replaced by the Locarno plan of Briand and Stresemann.
1925 - Locarno Treaties Dec. 1 admitted Germany into a system of European collective security based on a guarantee of borders and arbitration of disputes; Germany led by the "good" Gustav Stresemann was admitted into the League of Nations (Sept. 8, 1926) and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand prophysied a new "Spirit of Locarno" would keep the peace.
