Estonia won the Estonian War of Independence against both Soviet Russia and the German Freikorps and Baltische Landeswehr volunteers.

Executive power was held by a government headed by a State Elder, separate from the office of Prime Minister, and both answerable to the parliament.

[1] In 1921, Estonia became a full member of the League of Nations and developed successful economic relations with many countries, including the Soviet Union.

The backbone of the Estonian economy became agricultural exports to the West, due to tens of thousands of small farm holdings being established as a result of land reforms that ended the Baltic German economic dominance.

Communism persisted as a threat to stability in the early 1920s but receded after a failed December 1924 Estonian coup d'état attempt.

Päts' goal was to organize the nation not by political views into parties, but by vocation into respective corporate chambers, in a way similar to in Fascist Italy,[5] following the same line as Austria, Portugal and many other countries of Europe.

On 24 September 1939, the Soviet Union threatened Estonia with war unless allowed to establish military bases in the country — an ultimatum with which the Estonian government complied.