INTERANTIONAL RELATIONS

• Armistice


  Agreement to end fighting
• Armistice agreed between allies and Germany to end WW1 fighting

  11/11/18
• Peace treaty


  Official end of WW1
• Peace treaty signed


  June 1919
• The Treaty of Versailles was signed in a hall of mirrors
• The Big Three


  • American, French and British leaders
  • Wilson (USA)
  • Clemenceau (France)
  • Lloyd-George (Britain)
• Woodrow Wilson's aims


  • International cooperation
  • Disarmament
  • Freedom with no empires
  • League of nations to control the world
  • Self-determination
• George Clemenceau's aims


  • Punish Germany for WW1
  • Get Germany to pay reparations
  • Thought the British were inconsistent
  • Wanted France secure from German threat
• David Lloyd George's aims


  • To help Germany rebuild so it could be a strong trading partner
  • For Germany to pay reparations
  • Wanted British Empire to stay strong
  • Didn't want Germany to keep its navy
• Types of terms in the Treaty of Versailles


  • Territorial
  • Economic
  • Military
  • Punishment
• Germans felt 'stabbed in the back' by the Treaty of Versailles, which Hitler used to blame Jewish politicians when he came to power
• League of Nations


  Wilson's idea to prevent war and promote peace
• Aims of the League of Nations


  • Disarmament (which was impossible because countries already felt vulnerable)
  • Collective Security (countries working together to strengthen them)
• How the League could punish countries


  • Moral condemnation
  • Sanctions
  • Military force (but the League had no army!)
• Council of the League of Nations


  Main decision making body, met 5 times a year, grievances could be arbitrated, Britain France Italy Japan, power to veto
• Assembly of the League of Nations

  Parliament, met once a year, voted on issues but everyone had to agree
• Commissions of the League of Nations


  Tackled international problems like refugees
• Court of International Justice of the League of Nations

  Helped settle disputes between countries
• The League was weakened because the US didn't agree with it and chose not to join, and Britain and France were left in charge but had no money or will to have a major impact
• The League was successful in the early 1920s in helping 400,000 displaced people and containing the influenza outbreak
• The League was tested in 1921 with the Finland and Sweden island dispute and the Upper Silesia dispute between Germany and Poland, which it settled effectively
• The League failed when Poland seized Vilna from Lithuania, as the UK and France wanted future Polish help so didn't help Lithuania
• The League helped Hungary and Austria by providing financial aid, preventing anarchy
• The League failed the major test of the Corfu incident, as Mussolini captured Corfu and the UK and France couldn't agree on a response
• The League successfully punished Greece appropriately in 1925 when they recreated the Corfu incident
• The Washington Conference in 1921 saw Britain, France, USA and Japan agree to limit navies
• The Dawes Plan in 1924 saw the USA lend money to Germany to help it recover
• The Young Plan in 1929 reduced Germany's reparation burden
• The Locarno Treaties in 1925 saw Germany agree to its Western borders, but didn't mention its Eastern borders with Poland
• The League may have appeared successful in the 1920s, but this was only because of the catastrophes of the 1930s
• The League was weak because the US chose not to join, and Britain and France were not powerful enough, and it failed in the Corfu incident with no progress on international cooperation
• Great Depression


  1929 Wall Street crash, worldwide economic depression with unemployment and poverty
• Measures introduced due to the Great Depression


  • Protectionism - taxes on goods, but global trade reduced
  • Rearmament - more military equipment which led to fear and arms race
  • US loans - cancelled loans helped the Nazis
• Powerful dictatorships emerged as a result of the Great Depression, including Germany under Hitler, Italy under Mussolini, and Japan's military dictatorship
• In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, blamed China, and the League ordered withdrawal, but Japan could veto the decision and walked out of the League, which lost all authority
• In 1935, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia, and Britain and France made a deal with Italy (Hoare-Laval pact) instead of intervening, which Italy later betrayed to make a deal with Hitler (Rome-Berlin Axis)
• Hitler rose to power and became leader

  1933
• Hitler became dictator


  1934
• Hitler announced rearmament, wanting to build the army from only 100,000 men


  1935
• In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, Germany and Italy supported the Fascists, and Germany bombed and killed hundreds in Guernica, highlighting the inability of Britain and France to act