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Curated playlist

Former countries of the interwar period

  • Federal State of AustriaHow did a government that resisted Hitler end up handing Austria to him?
  • Second Spanish RepublicThe Second Spanish Republic went through eight prime ministers and nineteen cabinets in eight years.
  • Italian EritreaItalian Eritrea began with a shipping company's business deal, not an army. It began at Assab Bay in 1869.
  • Italian SomalilandItalian Somaliland briefly put all Somali-speaking territory under a single ruler in 1940.
  • Mandate for Syria and the LebanonFrance split its Syria and Lebanon mandate into six states within months. The lines followed sectarian divisions.
  • Italian East AfricaIn 1936 Mussolini declared Ethiopia Italian, creating Italian East Africa. It lasted barely five years.
  • Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)An admiral with no fleet ruled landlocked Hungary for a monarchy with no king.
  • Kingdom of ItalyOn the 26th of October 1860, at the town of Teano, the revolutionary general Giuseppe Garibaldi shook the hand of Victor Emmanuel II and hailed him as King of Italy. Garibaldi was a republican. With that gesture he gave up his hopes for an…
  • ManchukuoChina's last emperor once ruled Manchukuo, a state where he held no real power. Japan ran it from 1932 to 1945.
  • Weimar RepublicGermany's Weimar Republic was proclaimed twice on one day in 1918. The second declaration came two hours later.
  • Territory of the Saar BasinIn a 1935 vote, 90.8% of Saar Basin voters chose to rejoin Germany. Turnout was 98% of eligible voters.
  • Korea under Japanese ruleKorea's king secretly sent three envoys to The Hague in 1907, but delegates refused them entry.
  • Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet RepublicThe Transcaucasian republic was born from a Soviet invasion and helped found the USSR.
  • Ottoman EmpireThe last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI, was a direct male-line descendant of the empire's first sultan, Osman I.
  • Free City of DanzigWhat was the Free City of Danzig?
  • Second Polish RepublicJózef Piłsudski left a German prison and became Poland's leader within a week.
  • Emirate of AfghanistanThe Emirate of Afghanistan began in 1823 with a defeat by the Sikh Empire.

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