Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Interwar years (1918-1936)
- Treaties
- Versaille Treaty
- germany lost
territories in Europe: Alsace Lorraine, the
Saar, west prussia
- collonies taken away
- Demilitarized (rhineland) (100,000 troops max.)
- War guilt
- Reparations
- creation of league (1920 -> same day as Versailles Treaty came into operation
- Genoa Conference 1922
- war debts to USA
- reparations to france
- attempts to diminish tensions
created by German reluctance to
continue to pay reparations
- failed: 1923 Germany did not pay its
reparations ; France militarized the
Ruhr
- Dawes Plan 1924 London
- attempt to break deadlock
- Americans chaired by US
rep. Dawes
- 800m marks to Germany
from US
- France removed military
presence from Ruhr
- German economy rebuilt;
reparation payments
continue to France
- Locarno Treaty 1925
- Germany, France and Belgium
promised to respect borders
- No guarantees for German borders
with Poland and Czechoslavakia
- France would help Czech.
and Poland if Germany
attacked
- Western boundaries protected;
eastern boundaries not
guaranteed
- Mussolini was anoyed that their border
with austria was not guaranteed
- Kellogg- Briand Pact 1928
- Proposal from
French:France and USA
sign pact denouncing war
- expand to international
community = 65 countries
signed
- utopian = no sanctions against
breaches included; Japan attacked
China in 1931
- League of Nations weakened by
individual initiatives
- Young Plan 1929
- aim: settle remaining issue of payment of
repapartions during a period of great ecomic growth
- reduce reparations to 2000 million;
Keynes proposal at Versailles proved
correct: reparations were punitive
- Wall Street Crash = economic instability;
economic situation changes = 6million
Germans unemplyed = political instability
- World Disarmamnent Conf. 1932 - 33 Geneva
- aim: scale
down
armaments
- League's Covenants: all would reduce arms
but only Germany had complied {stressman]
- rise of Nazis
worries
France
- Germany wants
to rearm; wants
to build army to
equal France's
forces; UK and
Italy sympathises
so Germany
leaves
conference
- Germany withdraws from
the League of nations
- How the interwar period was a time of tension and growing
confrontation threatening peace
- 1. so many different treaties weakens the power of
diplomacy=no core; no unified response to violations of
the Covenant = League failed in its mission to restore peace
- 2. Germany's economic situation weak; reparations punitive;
unemployment excessive = leads to te rise of nazi policy = coming
topower of a leader who promises an end to he suffering and the
humiliation
- 3. Hitler blamed Allied powers for economic situation = justifying
war; pretext for war = presents them as germany's enemy
- 4. The USA's refusal to join the League of Nations = isolationist policy = positions itself as a player in the
European stage: Kellogg-Briand; Dawes; Keynes economic policy = ? factor in weakening the League and
in the failure to maintain peace.
- League of Nations
- Success
- The establishment of new orgs. ie. Int'l
Labour Org which improved labour conditions,
the halth org cobatted typhus and the refugee
org POW return home
- Political disputes resolved. ie. some minor quarrels
- Failure
- About the league
- Considered Woodrow Wilson's
Brainchild however it was the result
of multiple statesmen coming
together to discuss post-war
- Two main aims
- Maintain peace through collective security
- Encourage International co-operation