Conflict and Tension

• Impact of WW1 on France

  -1 million casualties

  -2 million homeless

  -750,000 homes destroyed

  -4,800km of road

  -2,300 factories

  -large areas of farmland
• Impact of WW1 on Britain

  -Nearly one million casualties

  -Great loss of men in communities

  -Damaged buildings and 100 killed from air attacks

  -Owed £1 million to USA
• Impact of WW1 on Germany

  -Almost two million casualties

  -Damage from air attacks

  -Ports blocked by Britain caused widespread starvation
• Impact of WW1 on Russia

  -Nearly two million casualties

  -Gave up areas of land on western borders- 1/3 to Germany
• Impact of WW1 on USA

  -Approx. 100,000 casualties

  -Gave supplies to other countries who now owed them
• Aims of Georges Clemenceau

  -Land (including Alsace-Lorraine) and money

  -Smaller German army

  -Security on the border

  -Revenge
• Aims of David-Lloyd George

  -Germany to have a smaller navy than Britain

  -Punishment (not too much though because he thought if they were treated too harshly they'd want revenge)
• Aims of Woodrow Wilson

  -Peace

  -Had ideas for the future called '14 points' (included League of Nations)
• What Georges Clemenceau got

  -Reparations

  -Alsace-Lorraine and other land

  -German colonies

  -Tiny German army

  -Border security through demilitarised Rhineland
• What David-Lloyd George got

  -Bigger navy

  -German colonies
• What Woodrow Wilson got

  -League of Nations, but USA Senate refused to join
• Terms of the ToV- Land

  -10% of Germany's land

  -Germany's African colonies were given to the LoN to control as a mandate (so Britain and France controlled them)

  -16% of coalfields

  -1/2 iron and steel industry

  -12.5% of population

  -anschluss was forbidden
• Terms of ToV- Army

  -100,000 soliders, volunteers

  -No aircraft, submarines, tanks

  -6 ships

  -Demilitarised Rhineland

  -Saar ally-occupied (under LoN control) for 15 years
• Terms of ToV- Money

  -Germany was set to pay £6.6 billion over 42 years
• Terms of ToV- Blame

  Clause 231, the War Guilt Clause, justified blaming Germany for the war and setting the repirations
• Germany felt:


  -Forced to sign (threatened with war, only agreed when Britain and France invaded)

  -Pride hurt by Clause 231

  -Loss of land and population would destroy economy

  -Innocent Germans were misplaced
• Results of ToV in Germany

  -revolts

  -Wiemar Constitution drawn up, with rules for a new democratic Germany

  -Jan 1923, Germany misses a reparations payment and France invades the Rhur, a key German industrial area

  -Nov '23, Hyperinflation takes effect e.g. a bread loft costs 200,000 million marks

  -Aug '24, America lends 800 million marks to help rebuild their economy, 'The Dawes Plan
• Strengths of the ToV

  -League of Nations

  -Re-shaped Europe

  -Britain and the USA were allies
• Weaknesses of the ToV

  -Failed peace, mostly about revenge

  -Different leaders couldn't agree

  -A reason for WW2

  -How LAMB affected Germans

  -Land was fought over

  -Germany's economy was ruined

  -USA didn't join, Germany and Russia not asked to join League of Nations
• Aims of the League of Nations

  -All major nations would join

  -Members would disarm

  -Disputes taken to the League and any decision accepted

  -Protect each other if attacked: The Covenant

  -A member breaks The Covenant: faces sanctions, invasion
• The Assembly


  -Met once a year, like a world council

  -Each country had one vote, decisions were unanimous
• The Council


  -Smaller, met in crisis

  -Had four permanent members (Japan, Britain, France and Italy) and four non-permanent members

  -each member had a veto to stop what they wanted
• Sanctions


  -Moral- condemned actions

  -Economic- Stopped trade

  -Military- Sent armed troops from Britain and France as League didn't have its own
• Secretariat


  -Based in Geneva

  -Handled reporting, statistics, administration
• Disarmament Commission


  Attempted to persuade members to reduce weapons
• Special Committees


  -E.g. Health Organisation

  -Looked into world problems
• International Labour Organisation


  Improved working conditions, women's rights, helped refugees
• Permanent Court of Justice

  -15 judges

  -Helped with legal conflicts
• Why didn't USA join?

  -Americans hated the idea

  -Already unhappy with WW1

  -Wanted separation from Europe, isolationism

  -Had own problems

  -Cost involved
• Some League successes-


  -Attacked slave traders in Africa and Burma and freed 200,000 slaves

  -closed down four big Swiss drug companies which were selling drugs

  -set up camps and fed Turkish refugees

  -took home half a million POWs

  -stopped Greece invading Bulgaria
• Some League failures-


  -Disarmament Commission (1926) failed because Germany demanded equality of armaments with everyone else

  -Commission on Armaments (1921) failed because Britain objected to disarmament

  -Kellog-Briand Pact

  -Manchurian and Abyssinian Crisis
• The Locarno Treaty


  -In 1925, German foreign minister Gustav Streissman invited French foreign minister Aristide Briand to meet and sign a treaty to improve relations

  -Signed treaties that said Germany accepted the loss of land from the ToV, France and Germany would solve disputes through the League

  -Happened outside of the League as Germany was not a member

  -But enabled Germany to be a member
• Greece invading Bulgaria


  -Greece and Bulgaria shared a border

  -in 1925 patrolling sentries shot at each other, Greek soldier killed

  -Greece invaded Bulgaria

  -Bulgaria appealed to the League, which ordered the fighting stop and Greeks leave

  -After sending experts to the area, decided Greece was to blame and it was fined £45,000

  -both nations accepted the League's decision
• Poland and Lithuania and Vilna

  -Poland and Lithuania were new countries created by the post war treaties

  -Vilna was the capital of Lithuania but it had a largely Polish population

  -In 1920 a private Polish army took control of it

  -Lithuania appealed to the League, who asked Poland to withdraw

  -Poland refused, troops should have been sent in but France didn't want to upset Poland because they were an ally against Germany and Britain wouldn't act alone

  -So the League did nothing and the Polish kept controlling Vilna
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact


  -In 1928 65 countries met in Paris and signed a peace agreement

  -Outside the League as the first involved were Germany, France and the USA

  -Showed League couldn't make practical solutions on its own

  -however later it was just ignored
• Manchurian Crisis- Intro


  -Manchuria was in north-east Asia

  -It had rich resources of coal, minerals, lots of land and agriculture

  -Japan had already taken over four areas of land in China, but wanted Manchuria the most

  -They had already built the South Manchurian Railway there
• Manchurian Crisis- What happened?

  -On September 31st 1931, an explosion was reported at the railway

  -Japan claimed aggression by China, who denied it

  -But Japan invaded and took over in months

  -In February they had set up a puppet government and renamed the area Manchukuo
• Manchurian Crisis- What did the League do?

  -China appealed to the League, and Japan claimed defence

  -The League hesitated because Japan was a major member and they had previously agreed Manchuria was an area of Japanese influence with trade rights

  -But Japan had used military aggression

  -Economic sanctions weren't used because of the Depression but a commission was set up when Japan ignored moral sanctions
• Manchurian Crisis- How did it end?

  -Lord Lytton from Britain was sent to Manchuria and wrote a fair report on the situation

  -It took months, finished a year after the crisis started

  -It favoured China. All but Japan accepted it.

  -They left the League in 1933 after refusing to back down. In 1937 they began a complete invasion of China.

  -League looked weak
• Abyssinian Crisis- Intro


  -Abyssinia was a poor, underdeveloped country in north-east Africa. It was next to Italian colonies.

  -Italy had attempted to invade in 1896 but failed at the Battle of Adowan where 6,000 Italians were killed and the army's reputation was ruined

  -But Italy still wanted to invade