The Interwar period is generally defined as the years between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, ranging from 1918 to 1939. The period is usually further divided into the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. The European interwar economy began when the countries in Western Europe were struggling to recover from the devastation caused by the First World War, while also dealing with economic depression and the rise of fascism. Fascism was a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived .