The world would now be required to accept socialism, Leninism, and eventually Stalinism, as part of the European landscape.

With the defeat of Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire; the shift in the balance of power moved toward the only major participant not devastated on its own soil by war -- the United States. The U.S. grew in economic power after Versailles, assisting not only its former allies in rebuilding, but also a crucial and profitable effort to help finance Germany's rebuilding and aid the new Weimar Republic. However, because of the failure of the war to achieve the ideals of peace and unity promised by President Woodrow Wilson, America shifted to an isolationist foreign policy -- it was deemed acceptable to be economically aggressive, but politically neutral. Until the stock market crash of 1929 and resultant Depression, the U.S. enjoyed a decade of relative prosperity and limelight due to...
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