World War I ended in 1918, and World War II broke out in 1939, which means that there were twenty one years between the two wars. These were not easy or prosperous years in many parts of the world, thanks to the effects of the Spanish Flu outbreak and the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

In addition, reparations and conditions forced on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles created an environment of devastation and destitution. These conditions created the foundations for Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, and many historians feel that the Treaty of Versailles was one of the major underlying causes of World War II. There can be no denying that the two wars were linked, with Britain and her allies emerging victorious from both conflicts.

The horrors of the both world wars have been written into the annals of history. The stories of Hitler's Holocaust and death camps can never be forgotten, and neither can the trench warfare endured by soldiers on the Western Front. The fact that the world faced this magnitude of horror in such a relatively short time, between 1914 and 1945, makes the first half of the twentieth century renowned as a time of tragedy.