The League of Nations

Background:

·        Achievement of peace through collective security

·        Collective Security: common action against an aggressor

·        One of Wilson’s 14 points

The League was a Failure because:

·        The USA never joined

·        No provision for force – no army to give it clout

·        Suspected by many as simply enforcing the terms of the Treaty of Versailles

·        Looked upon as being run by colonial powers – Britain and France

The only clout it had was economic sanctions put on aggressors to halt trade. This only would work if everybody was involved.

Examples of failures:

·        1931 - Japan invades Manchuria, League fails to halt aggressor

·        1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia, half heated sanctions did not work as the USA kept trade with Italy in oil and steel

Britain Between the Wars:

• After WWI, Britain had amassed a huge debt, suffered heavy causalities and lost its naval supremacy
• This led to a rise in Pacifism in Britain, especially from the young, to never have another war
• Many industrial problems, layoffs, deflation, the cost of living fell, people on welfare.
• Consumer demands fell, so industrial production suffered
• Unions and strikes began to play major roles in politics and daily life
• The labor Party became the official opposition in Britain
• British protest would a contest of votes, no street violence
• The British Empire now classed its colonies as Dominions (Canada, India and Australia)
• The 1926 Balfour declaration gave the Dominions equal status and created the Commonwealth of Nations
• 1931 – The Statute of Westminster made the dominions completely independent of the British parliament
• Britain’s main foreign policy goal was now to rebuild their economy based on global trade with her Dominions, giving them independence, instead of basic exploitation.

France Between the Wars:

• It took until 1925 to rebuild destroyed France
• Heavily depended on reparation payments from Germany
• Were still very afraid of Germany even in its weakened state
• Built the Maginot Line, a series of steel and concrete forts along the French border stretching from Belgium to Switzerland
• French government was very fractionalized and weak
• The Socialists and Communists actually formed a coalition government in 1936 called the Front Populaire
• Many demonstrations and riots in the streets did not allow for any political unity.

Alliances/Peace Movements to 1936 in Europe

1. France:   - Germany a permanent threat

-         Failed to get a guarantee of assistance from the USA so turned to Eastern Europe

-         Established the Little Entente with Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia

-         This surrounded Germany and made France feel safer

2.  USSR:             - an outcast, fears German plans in the Balkans

-         1922 Treaty of Rapallo – Germany and the USSR agree not to collect reparations from one another. For runner of Non-aggression pact. USSR tries to make treaties with France and Britain, but rejected.

3.  Italy:            - Germany tries to Anschluss (unification of Austria with Germany)

-         1935 Stress Front (conference) Britain, France, and Italy work together to prevent this from happening because Italy fears a common boarder with Germany even though they are both fascist.

Disarmament and Negotiation

1922 – Washington Conference – Agreement to limit size of navies

1925 – Larcarno Treaty – Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy agree to respect each others boarders – Germany admitted to the League of Nations – optimism

1928 – Kellogg/Briand pact: 15 nations agree to renounce war except in self-defense

1932/34 – Geneva Disarmament Conference – 60 nations including the USA and USSR. Hitler withdraws with the obvious attempt at rearming, outlook bleak.

1935 – Anglo German Naval Treaty – Britain and Germany agree on naval restriction, which are contrary to the Versailles Treaty. Britain’s reason was that Germany was going to rearm anyways, so try and put some kind of limit on it, or have some control.