Conflict and tension

• The Treaty of St Germain dealt with Austria, forcing them to reduce their army to 30,000 men and forbidding them from ever joining with Germany
• The Treaty of Neuilly dealt with Bulgaria, forcing them to pay £100 million in war damages and reducing their army to 20,000 men
• The Treaty of Trianon dealt with Hungary, reducing their army to 30,000 men and forbidding them from using conscription
• The Treaty of Sevres dealt with Turkey, forcing them to lose land to Greece and reducing their army to 50,000 men
• The League of Nations was formed to maintain peace and security in the world by countries acting together to stop war, through collective security
• The League initially had 42 members (eventually rising to 59) who joined, it was the first time a group of countries on this scale had joined together to try and keep peace
• If any nation in the world stepped out of line then the league could issue sanctions against them, including moral, economic and military sanctions
• However, the League of Nations did not have its own army which would make the military sanction very difficult to use
• The League of Nations included some big powers like Britain, France, Italy and Japan, but not all powerful countries joined, including the USA, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey and Russia
• The League of Nations helped free around 427,000 prisoners of war after WW1 and returned them to their homeland
• The League of Nations failed to help many Jews who were trying to escape Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and many would later die in Nazi Death Camps
• The Health Commission of the League of Nations was later renamed the World Health Organisation, which still exists today
• The League of Nations managed to get 77 countries to agree to a minimum wage through the International Labour Organisation
• However, the League of Nations failed to stop children under the age of 14 from working, as not all members would agree to this
• Neither Sweden nor Finland could come to a decision, as to who owned the islands and in 1921 they asked the League to make a decision on their behalf
• The Treaty of Versailles had given the people of Upper Silesia the right to have a vote, on whether they wanted to be part of Germany or be part of Poland
• In this vote, 700,000 voted for Germany and 500,000 for Poland. The closeness of the vote resulted in rioting between those who wanted Upper Silesia to be made part of Germany and those who wanted to be part of Poland
• In 1931 Japan wanted to extend its empire and move into the nearby territory of Manchuria. There are a number of different reasons for this, including a lack of raw materials and a growing population
• In September 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria. By February 1932 Japan had successfully taken over Manchuria
• The League of Nations then decided to act on this, to investigate if Japan were wrong to invade Manchuria. They set up a Commission (investigation) into what happened, called the Lytton Commission
• The Lytton Report said that Japan had no right to invade Manchuria and found no evidence that China had blown up the railway. The LON gave Japan a moral sanction and said they should leave Manchuria
• Mussolini wanted to increase the size of his empire and Abyssinia was one of the few African countries which had yet to be conquered and it was next to the Italian owned Somaliland
• In 1935 despite signs that the League would use sanctions against Italy, Mussolini decided to invade Abyssinia in October 1935
• The LON issued a moral stance which said Italy were in the wrong and should leave Abyssinia. In order to work, sanctions had to be introduced at once
• In December 1935 Sir Samuel Hoare (British Minister) and French PM, Pierre Laval, drafted a secret agreement to solve the crisis. The Hoare-Laval Pact would have given Italy two thirds of Abyssinia, as long as the fighting stopped
• In May 1936 the Italians captured Addis Ababa the Abyssinian capital. In June the Abyssinian leader Haile Selassie, thode a personal appeal to the League for more help, but the war was over, as the LON could not issue a military sanction, as it did not have an army
• Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Almost immediately he began secretly building up Germany's army and weapons
• In 1934 he increased the size of the army, began building warships and created a German air force. Conscription was also introduced in 1935
• By March 1935, Hitler felt strong enough to go public on Nazi Germany's military expansion - which broke the terms of the Versailles Treaty
• In June 1935 the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was signed. This allowed Germany to have a navy 1/3rd of the size of Britain's navy and an equal amount of submarines
• In January 1935 a plebiscite (vote) was held in the Saar to decide whether it should remain under the control of the League of Nations, return to Germany or whether it should join France
• The return of the Saar to Germany was not illegal. Hitler had kept within the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which had provided the option of a vote after 15 years
• In March 1936 Hitler marched 32,000 soldiers back into the Rhineland. However, Hitler at this stage did not want a war and so told his generals to "retreat with their tails between their legs," if Germany faced opposition from France or the LON
• Britain were the other power who could have prevented this, however, they had now decided the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh. They said that Germany were after all only marching into their own back garden
• The League of Nations did not act as they were dealing with the Abyssinia crisis, which was taking up most of their time and attention
• Britain had now decided the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh
• Germany were after all only marching into their own back garden
• Hitler's plebiscite (Vote)

  1. Hitler asked the German people if they felt him taking back the Rhineland was the right thing to do

  2. 98.8% of the people voted "Yes"
• This showed that Hitler had the support of the German people and saw him grow in confidence, to challenge other areas of the Treaty of Versailles