What obstacles to lasting peace did European leaders face?
AAS ESTABLISHED PATTERNS OF THOUGHT AND CULTURE were further challenged and mangled by the ferocious impact of World War I, so too was the political fabric stretched and torn. The Versailles settlement had established a shaky truce, not a solid peace. After the war, leaders faced a gigantic task as they sought to create a stable international order within the general context of intellectual crisis, slow economic growth, and political turmoil.
“German Women Protest the Colored Occupation on the Rhine”In 1923, the French army occupied the industrial district of the Ruhr in Germany in an effort to force reparations payments. The occupying forces included colonial troops from West Africa, and Germans responded with a racist propaganda campaign that cast the West African soldiers as uncivilized savages. (Private Collection/© Galerie Bilderwelt/Bridgeman Images)