In this thesis I primarily studied the influence of foreign policy on the development of relations between Japanese political parties and the military in the interwar period. I studied the way in which political parties and military affected each other and which factors influenced the distribution of power on Japanese political scene. Furthermore I tried to show how these relations contributed to the rise of power of political parties and to their subsequent downfall, and how they affected the militarization of Japanese state and it's consequent course towards World War II. Therefore I focused the thesis on 1921 - 1936 period, in which the key events that formed the shape of Japanese state, at least until the end of World War II, took place.

In the early years of the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire began to crumble due to external wars and internal rebellions dating from about 1908. Due to European influence at the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire lost much of its territory in 1919, including Palestine and Syria, comprised of modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Iraq. The European powers incited rebellion among the Middle Eastern peoples to the end of aiding their cause in the portions of the war fought in the Middle East. In return, they promised the Arabs independent nations; in the Treaty of Versailles, the regions were indeed freed from Ottoman rule. The European Allies, however, considered it their responsibility to guide these fledgling independent states; aided by the conclusions of the secretive Sykes-Picot Agreement, as well as preexisting assumptions of the inadequacies of the newly-formed nations to effectively self-rule, the League of Nations decided to create a mandatory system, dividing the regions between Britain and France. Syria and Lebanon fell under French control, and despite the outward appearance of good intentions on the part of the French and British, they were quite imperious in their role as mandatory powers. The Europeans, under the guidance of Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France, carved the region into nations that did little to reflect the ethnic and cultural divisions of the region. Dissenters from the Arab world were quickly dealt with, as in the case of Faysal, who argued for the unity and independence of Syria and Lebanon; he eventually lost and was forced to leave Syria, but became the first king of Iraq under British mandate. Popular opinion in Europe tended towards the idea of Arab nations being less civilized, and many nations were more concerned with the status of Germany than with developing an unprejudiced policy towards the Arab nations. Thus those in control of the mandate quickly fell back on old assumptions and past experiences with the region. In this way, inequalities developed that would prove to have a profound impact on regional politics.

At the turn of the century agrarian parties emerged in large parts of Europe. The parties had one thing in common: they stood up for the social, economic, cultural, and political interests of the agrarian society. The Swedish agrarian parties - 1 Bondeförbundet ' and 'Jordbrukarnas Riksförbund1 - were formed between 1913 and 1915.In this study the agrarian parties are not considered to be class parties. Instead, they are described as traditional parties, defending the old agrarian community against expansive industrialization. Their potential voters belonged to various social strata in the agrarian community, and their political programme, often characterized by a markedly negative view of modern society and by cultural protectionism, is summarized here under the term agrarianism. Agrarianism seen as a political theory and an applicable ideology had features in common with Conservatism as well as with Fascism and Socialism. Liberal values, however, were kept in the background.A modernization perspective is adopted in order to demonstrate that the agrarian parties were in fact traditional parties. It is assumed that regional variation in the electoral support of the agrarian parties reflects the modernization process, and, consequently, that the parties were weaker in industrial areas and stronger in socially and economically backward areas.The empirical studies show that the Agrarian parties stand out as traditional parties rather than class parties. Their voter support was stronger in areas where the historical and economic development was characterized by stagnation and conservatism, as well as in areas where social mobilization advanced slowly. In more industrialized and modernized areas conditions were quite the opposite. A study of Swedish interwar agrarianism with special regard to regional variations in party strength proves the agrarian parties to be the inheritors of a way of life formed by centuries of agrarian traditions. / digitalisering@umu

This paper analyzes the Swedish labor market during the interwar and early postwar period within the framework of modern labor market theory. The development of unemployment during this period - according to the commonly cited source of labor union reports - represents a conundrum for research. The unemployment rate rose after the initial diverse shock of 1921 and stayed at a permanently higher level for the rest of the interwar period. This development was reversed after World War Two when the unemployment rate decreased and stayed permanently low for the rest of the postwar period until the oil price chock of the 1970s. In a first step the available sources of unemployment statistics is investigated and compared. The general conclusion is that the labor union reports overestimate the level of economy wide unemployment while being a reasonably good indicator of movements in the rate. While no assertion of absolute levels can be made the conclusion might be drawn that the equilibrium level of unemployment decreased from a higher interwar level down to a substantially lower postwar one. The paper then turns to the overarching question of the possible mainsprings of this development. The concept of the warranted wage - defined as total factor productivity growth divided by the labor share - have been used to explained the development of unemployment in the OECD from the 1970s. The theory pertains that movements in the bargained wage above or below the warranted wage will render movements in the equilibrium unemployment rate. This theoretical framework is used to analyze the Swedish inter- and early postwar experience. The warranted wage in the manufacturing sector and the whole economy is respectively estimated using historical national accounts and growth accounting. The development is then compared to the progress of real labor costs. The conclusion is that the 1920s experienced a negative growth in the warranted wage - and while real labor cost decreased during the period - wages were not cut enough in order to keep profits unchanged for firms. The opposite can be concluded for the succeeding 1930s and 1940s which instead saw a positive evolution of the warranted wage with real labor costs not growing at the same rate. The movements of real labor costs in relation to the warranted wage thus makes this factor a plausible candidate for explaining movements in the unemployment rate during the period understudy.

in English This Master's Thesis deals with guidebooks about Paris published in France, Czechoslovakia and the United States of America between the years 1918-1939. It analyses how the French capital city is presented in the guidebooks and how far the representation differs according to the country of publishing. The first two chapters deal with the modern history of tourism up until the interwar period and with the formation of major collections of guidebooks. The following chapters use a comparative perspective to analyse three major aspects of tourist guidebooks about Paris: itineraries; recommended places and monuments (the so-called "must- sees"); and global images of Paris. The analysis reveals that the country of publishing had only a limited impact on the content of the guidebooks; rather, the books largely respected established rules and patterns within the genre. Key words: tourism, guidebook, Paris, interwar period, representation, image of the city Résumé en français Ce mémoire de master analyse des guides touristiques de Paris publiés en France, en Tchécoslovaquie et aux États-Unis entre 1918 et 1939. Le mémoire étudie de quelle façon la capitale de la France était présentée dans les guides et quelles étaient les différences de cette représentation en fonction du pays d'origine publiant...

Ce travail tente de dégager le rôle de la représentation du délire dans la transformation du genre romanesque en Europe entre les années 1920 et les années 1940. L’étude s’intéresse donc aux crises d’hallucination et de délire qui ponctuent la narration dans plusieurs grands romans de langues anglaise [le chapitre 15 d’Ulysse de James Joyce et Mrs Dalloway de Virginia Woolf], allemande [Die Blendung d’Elias Canetti, Berlin Alexanderplatz d’Alfred Döblin et Le Loup des steppes de Hermann Hesse] et française [Voyage au bout de la nuit, Mort à crédit, Guignol’s band de Louis-Ferdinand Céline et Moravagine de Blaise Cendrars]. Si le délire romanesque est un enjeu dans ces années, c’est que son identification pose problème : les limites entre le réel et le délire sont en effet souvent brouillées. Dans certains romans, la prolifération du délire est telle qu’elle peut faire vaciller l’ensemble de la narration, le récit pouvant être interprété dans sa globalité comme le fruit d’un délire. Cette transformation n’est pas sans lien avec la révolution du champ de la psychopathologie qui bouleverse l’époque : les romanciers connaissent souvent assez bien les modes d’observation psychiatrique et s’intéressent de près à la psychanalyse, déjà très reconnue. Reste que le délire romanesque se dérobe aux lectures médicales : composé d’éléments hétérogènes et parfois impossibles, obéissant à des changements imprévisibles et déroutants, il échappe à une logique strictement individuelle, et ouvre à une représentation des troubles de l’époque. Introduisant une brèche dans la frontière entre fiction et réalité, il devient un espace politique où le roman s’interroge sur ses propres pouvoirs. / This study highlights the role of the representation of delirium in the transformation of the European novel between the 1920s and the 1940s. Of central importance are the hallucinatory and delirious episodes that punctuate the narration in several major novels in English [chapter 15 of Ulysses of James Joyce and Mrs Dalloway of Virginia Woolf], German [Die Blendung of Elias Canetti, Berlin Alexanderplatz of Alfred Döblin and Steppenwolf of Hermann Hesse] and French [Journey to the end of night, Death on the installment plan, Guignol’s band of Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Moravagine of Blaise Cendrars]. Delirium is an issue in these years because it can no longer be easily defined: the line between reality and delirium has become blurred. In some novels, the proliferation of delirium is so prevalent that it destabilizes the narration itself, inviting the reader to interpret the whole story as the result of delirium. This transformation is doubtless linked to the revolution of psychopathology that deeply affects the period: the novelists know, often well, the methods of psychiatric observation and follow closely psychoanalysis, which by this time was well established. But fictional delirium eludes purely medical readings: composed of heterogeneous and sometimes impossible elements, submitted to unpredictable and puzzling changes, it resists a singular explanation, and serves as a window into the troubles of the time. By breaching the boundary between fiction and reality, fictional delirium becomes a political space where the novel puts into question its own powers.

In this diploma thesis Prague Advertisement in the Interwar Period its author Ondřej Štěpánek deals with a so far almost neglected topic - advertisement in Prague in years 1918 -1939. After outlining the development of advertisement in these two decades in the whole newly constituted state, the author focuses on regional specifics in the capital city that were set by local regulations. He mainly addressed the legality of individual advertising means, especially those in public spaces, and he also described producers of advertisement in Prague. The author concludes that advertisement made a large progress in the respective period, particularly during the late 1920s and the first half of the 1930s. Advertising companies had to deal with many restrictions and prohibitions brought by the new legislation. This diploma thesis provides new insight in the research of the advertisement history, especially in the area of the development of advertising agencies.

The purpose of this essay is to study articles from the newspaper Tidevarvet during the newspapers first years 1923-1924, and the newspapers last year, 1936. The main focus will be on the topics about women’s right and the peace issue.  The main research questions are the following: What is Tidevarvets opinions on the topics of peace and the women´s issue? Did these opinions change from the newspapers start in 1923 to it´s final year in 1936? Can their opinions somehow be reflected in the modern convention about human rights? The method that is used is a qualitative content analysis. Some of the articles in todays convention of human rights can be seen in the newspaper. Tidevarvet were a production of it´s time, were the topics of the time dominated the discussion. The suffragette movement was a big subject in the newspapers first years, when the women just two years before had ben given the right to vote. But when the war in Europe was approaching in the newspapers later years, the issues of peace became more dominant.

The national politics of interwar Poland aimed at the full assimilation of the national minorities, including Ukrainians who lived in the occupied region of Eastern Galicia. This thesis studies the political basis, tools and outcomes of polonization policy during the period between 1918 and 1939 on the territory of Eastern Galicia and its main city Lviv. Deep analysis of Polish and Ukrainian political doctrines, Polish legislation, books, articles and periodical of the interwar period, as well as of modern historiography (both Polish and Ukrainian) resulted in developing of a comprehensive understanding of why the policy of polonization, aimed on population of Eastern Galicia failed to change historical Ukrainian identity. The data gathered in the analysis proves that the Polish government used tremendously rigid, if not brutal, tools of assimilation, and it resulted in rejection of the Polish national identity by Ukrainians. Moreover, confidence in the fact that Ukrainians are nothing more than underdeveloped Poles-to-be rise led to the rise of Ukrainian radical nationalism on the eve of the Second World War. Keywords Ukraine, Poland, National Identity, Assimilation, Polonization, Interwar Period

This diploma thesis deals with the analysis of British foreign policy towards Germany since the end of the first world war until the outbreak of Great Depression through the policy of appeasement. Theoretical part presents various understanding of the concept of appeasement and identifies several criteria of appeasement based on which the British policy towards Germany is subsequently assessed during defined historical period. The main part of the thesis contains a description and analysis of the attitude of the Great Britain towards Germany in selected foreign policy events through the concept of appeasement. The main goal of this thesis is to answer the research question whether Great Britain applied a policy of appeasement towards Germany already during the 1920s.