1921, 1922, 1923 Wishlist

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So… now that we got 1919 and 1920 recorded I’m about to start writing on the scripts for the next years. I’m doing this chronologically, so it makes a lot of sense to only focus on a couple of years at a time. ]

The series is structured in three segments (not strictly divided in episodes, but mentally this is how we do it):

World Events (war, international developments, economy, and natural events)
Zeitgeist (political movements, ideology, and significant cultural influences)
Technology (development, innovation, inventions, and impact on war and civil life)

I know that many of you are passionate about hearing more about some stuff, so I wanted to give you a chance to tell me about anything you’d especially see us cover. It’s also a great help of for me when choosing what parts of the story we shall tell. Obviously we won’t be able to cover everything, so it’s even more important to have good choices, especially for the not so obvious events.

If you suggest something, please tell me what year and what segment you think it belongs.

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Aviation.

Specifically, two ideas, both of which probably fit best under “Technology.”

One is looking at side-by-side development comparisons between military and civilian aviation. WW1 saw a massive jump in designs (Bleriot XI to Junkers J.1, for example), but looking at the interwar period, it is clear that the military collectively dragged feet on advancing. Airlines, ocean-crossing flights, and air races pushed civil air from nonexistent, to outperforming frontline fighters. The C-47 of Normandy fame was thanks to the civil market. The development of the Spitfire traces directly to the Schneider Trophy.

Obviously, this angle on the broad topic of interwar aviation would be more “birds eye view” than detailed, but hopefully allows those who are not aviation fans to better see why there are canvas skinned Swordfish biplanes and fixed-wheel “Val” dive bombers still in service late into the war.

The other suggestion, somewhat obviously, would be the aviators who pushed the limits. Men and women like aviators Alcock and Brown, Earhart, Wiley Post, and “Wrong Way” Corrigan, races like Schneider, MacRobertson, and Bendix, and designers like Reginald Mitchell and Glen Curtiss.

I realize that most (if not all) of my examples for both suggestions are outside the “1921, 22, 23” scope. If acceptable, just file these away until you guys get to the late '20s and the '30s.

I doubt it would make any sense to do either as a multiple episode sub-series, but since aviation played a huge roll in WW2, knowing how we got from the World War One Flying Ace in his Sopwith Camel to the Spitfire, B-17, and the Stuka may help some viewers

Looking forward to the first episode.

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How about having a look at the roaring twenties? Arguably it lead to the Great Depression and hyperinflation in Weimar Germany.

I’d love to see some stuff about what’s happening in China at this point in time too.

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I apologize if this is a bit vague, but it’s hard to know what do you want to know, if you don’t know :wink:
But I really would like to hear more about those things(across the mentioned period):
Domestic politics of Germany(Whether it’s a World Event or Zeitgeist, I’m not certain)" This point extends throughout the rest of the years I suppose
What was going on the territory of the former Russian Empire - Independence movements and Civil war. (World events)

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The Washington naval treaty might be worth a look.

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  • Greco-Turkish War, Treaty of Lausanne, the first compulsory population exchange in history, 20 years before WW2

  • The arts, the culture in general, immediately after WW1, Surrealism, German Expressionism etc

  • Interwar Middle East; colonialism, new states and mandates, the first Jewish-Palestinian clashes etc

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  • The June coup in Bulgaria (1923) where the nationalists successfully overthrew the agrarian dictatorship.
  • The September uprising in Bulgaria (1923) when the socialists tried to regain power. Less successful, but this leads to one of the biggest terrorist acts on European soil later (1925).
  • The birth of the IMRO.
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Important connection to Aircraft in early 1920s would be Aircraft Carriers. British, U.S. and Japan continued with experiments on Carriers from end of WW 1 into 1930s.

Not as important as above, but maybe interesting to mention briefly the Airship (Zeppelin) Aircraft Carriers by U.S. 1917-1930s, see Wikipedia link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_aircraft_carrier (a bit of dead end though).

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Billy Mitchell’s (in)famous sinking of the old battleship Indiana with aircraft delivered bombs was in 1920 too.

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I concur. The WNT bridges all three, though Tech and World Events most evidently. Especially if they discuss (briefly) the rapidfire development of the Dreadnaught-style.

Without the WNT, aircraft carriers and submarines wouldn’t have gotten pushed as much. Example would be Lexington and Saratoga in the US. Laid down as cruisers, canceled but converted to carriers with light cruiser guns. Thinking was “eh, if the whole airplane thing fails, at least we’ve got a couple fast gunships.”

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Since basically half of WW2 is the Pacific, the developments of carriers must be discussed.

I’d say parasite aircraft programs like Akron and Macon would fit in the “developments” suggestion, along with the Soviet’s “Zveno” project, the German’s “Mistel,” the Bitish “Short Mao Composite,” and the Japanese “Ohka.”

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The rise of a new revolutionary movement known as Fascism (shudders).

It would be very interesting to see the early days of Fascist movements of Mussolini and a certain Austrian WWI vet roaming in Munich. It would also be great if you look at the way Fascism operated at the time and how it took some elements from Marxist ideologies (Mussolini was a former socialist). The episode that I am personally waiting for is the attempted coup by A. Hitler against the Weimar Government in 1923.

One could also look at the situation in Weimar Germany and Italy which lead to the acceptance of these movements in the first place. This is a very important part of the story that must definitely be addressed, especially the further we distance from the 1920s and the 1930s.

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I would like to see tank development during the interwar years. Although it is a bit slow during the 1920s, it would still be interesting.

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You should definitely mention the Corfu incident of 1923, a world event.

It was part of a larger unresolved dispute regarding the Greek-Albanian border. The Italian arbitrator was killed by unknown assailants, and fascist Italy occupied (!) the island of Corfu and amazingly, got the League of Nations to to force Greece to give Italy reparations, despite the disproportionate response. Interestingly, France chose not to protest it likely because they were doing the same thing by occupying the Ruhr in Germany.

It will be useful as part of the general theme of the failure of the League of Nations to enforce peace and justice.

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I’d like to know more about the British Empire’s hold on its colonies during this time, and more specifically, how the situation in Europe after WW1 forced the British Empire to loosen their rein on the colonies, leading to the conquest of Hong Kong, Singapore and other colonies in South East Asia, thus eventually paving the way to the independence of former colonies after WW2 ended.

Another thing that would interest me is the many conflicts occuring in the Soviet Union during this time and how it led to Stalin’s rise to power

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Don’t forget the Irish war for independence and eventual civil war. Also, correct me if I am wrong here, but wasn’t it incompetence on the part of the British that lead to the conquest of the Far East colonies?

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Yes it was,

Perhaps @NormanStewart 's suggestion be put together with my request as well. An episode that focuses on British Empire’s incompetence in managing itself after WW1

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I shouldn’t even have to bring up the League of Nations or the Russian Civil War (and Western intervention), but how about the Polish-Soviet War?

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I would recommend that you mention Klaipėda Revolt.

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Site news.

Following recommendations from the forum, the between the wars series has now been expanded into a 500 episode extravaganza which is due to shortly start broadcasting continuously on youtube for the next 10 years. Indy has been chained to the Chair of Wisdom and Snake and Angel are being held hostage in a fortress in Spartacus’ garden built entirely from military history books pending completion of the series. Having discovered a secret cache of Adolf Hitler’s “special” vitamin pills to sustain him, Indy is now filming 24 hours a day and none of them will be released for a toilet break until Indy has produced a detailed analysis of how Britain’s decision to leave the gold standard in the 1920s triggered a series of events directly leading to the 1969 soccer war between El Salvador and Honduras.

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