CONFLICT & TENSION 1B

• Armistice ended WWI, Germany's surrender

  11th November 1918
• Armistice


  Ended WWI, Germany's surrender
• Leaders of the Big Three (David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson) met in Paris to discuss the Peace Settlement


  January 1919
• Aims of the Big Three leaders

  • Clemenceau (revenge)
  • Wilson (idealist, 14 Points for a better world)
  • Lloyd George (realist)
• Treaty of Versailles signed (LAMB)


  June 28th 1919
• None of the Big Three were happy with the Treaty of Versailles
• Wilson couldn't persuade Americans to join the League of Nations (isolationism)
• Lloyd-George treated like a hero, French furious with Clemenceau
• Widespread fury in Germany, Kapp Putsch in Mar 1920, reparations causes hyperinflation in 1923
• Poland created from land taken from Germany – made Germans angry living under a new government
• Other peace treaties signed

  • Austria (St Germain, 1919)
  • Bulgaria (Neuilly, 1919)
  • Hungary (Trianon 1920)
  • Turkey (Sevres 1920)
• Sevres causes rebellion in Turkey, Britain and France replace it with Lausanne in 1923 to stop war
• Treaties were strong because

  • Reparations were needed to rebuild France
  • Disputes over Alsace-Lorraine were settled
  • Countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia were now independent
• Treaties were weak because

  • Poland was weakened with no natural defences
  • The economies of Austria and Hungary collapsed with reparations in 1921
  • Germans felt angry and humiliated by Versailles
• League of Nations


  Set up as part of Wilson's 14 Points, aimed to prevent war (collective security), encourage disarmament, improve living and working conditions and tackle deadly diseases
• Countries part of the League of Nations

  • 42 countries at first (not America, Russia or Germany!)
  • Grew to 58 by 1934 (Germany accepted in 1926, Russia in 1934)
• League of Nations structure

  Permanent Council made up of Britain, France, Italy and Japan – had to agree unanimously before action was taken
• League of Nations actions

  • Covenant to deal with aggression through Mitigation, Moral condemnation, Money (economic sanctions)
  • Didn't have an army to back up decisions
• League of Nations successes in the 1920s

  • Slavery Commission and Health Commission enjoyed success
  • Opium Control Board and the Economic Commission failed to deal with the Great Depression in 1929
• League of Nations successes in preventing conflict

  • Succeeded in the Aaland Islands in 1921 and the Upper Silesian Plebiscite in 1921
  • Failed in Vilna 1921 and Corfu 1923
• League couldn't encourage disarmament, countries signed treaties outside it eg Washington Arms Conference 1921-22, Locarno 1925 and Kellogg-Briand 1928
• Great Depression starts in October 1929, sees countries follow dictators eg Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, Japanese army generals in Japan
• Reasons dictators were popular

  • Promised riches and military glory to desperate people
• Manchurian Crisis in 1932, Mukden Incident, Japanese invasion, Lytton Report, Japan resign from League
• Abyssinia Crisis 1935, Mussolini invades, uses chemical weapons, League put in weak economic sanctions, Hoare-Laval Pact discredits the League
• Manchuria and Abyssinia show other dictators eg Hitler the League will not react to aggression
• Reasons Hitler was popular in Germany

  • Promised Lebensraum, Overturn ToV, Unite Germans, Destroy Communism, and Rearm Germany (LOUDR)
• In 1934 Hitler attempted Anschluss with Austria during the Dollfuss Affair but was blocked by Mussolini
• In 1935 he won back the Saar coalfields with a plebiscite that saw 90 per cent of people wanting to rejoin Germany
• In 1935 he revealed to the world that he had rearmed Germany in secret, breaking the ToV limit of 100,000
• In 1936 he took a huge risk in remilitarising the Rhineland, France let him, overturned ToV land loss
• In 1938 he united with Austria with Anschluss, overturned ToV ban on Anschluss
• In May 1938 he invaded the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia, claiming Germans were persecuted
• In September 1938, Chamberlain and Daladier agree to let Hitler take the rest of Czechoslovakia without asking the Czech leader at the Munich Conference – "Peace in Our Time"
• By early 1939 Hitler had invaded all of Czechoslovakia, Russian leader Stalin realises he can't trust Britain and France
• In August 1939 Hitler signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with his sworn enemy, Communist Russian leader, Stalin. Stalin agrees not to attack Germany if they invade Poland – Hitler now free to invade Poland
• Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war and WWII started


  September 1st 1939
• Reasons WWII started


  • Britain and France appeased Hitler
  • Treaty of Versailles was so harsh that it angered Germans and gave dictators such as Hitler a chance at power
  • Great Depression led to people electing dictators promising to make their countries strong again
  • The League of Nations was weak
  • Adolf Hitler acted aggressively throughout the 1930s
  • The Nazi-Soviet Pact