InNo+Roads+to+War+Notes+Nicholas+Lim+1.12.11

= = = The "New Era": Hopes For Peace In 1929 =
 * 1929 many people in the world believed that they were entering a period of long-lasting peace.

= Locarno and the "New Era" =
 * This peace was questioned first in 1925 in Swiss town of Locarno, that some **problems from the Great War had not been settled.**
 * Germany and France were still on bad terms.
 * Resulted in a group of agreements known as the **Locarno Treaties**.
 * Mentioned that France, Belgium and Germany would **respect each others borders.**
 * Germany would **never attack France and Belgium** vice versa.
 * Britain and Italy enforce the terms.
 * Other Locarno treaties signed such as France promising **support to Poland and Czechoslovakia** if Germany quarreled.
 * All agreed never to go to war if dispute occurred, removed many suspicions between Germany and neighbors removed.

= Friendship between nations = = = = The League of Nations =
 * Seemed like "New Era" begun, all but two countries fought, a border clash between Paraguay and Bolivia quickly ended.
 * Signed **Kellogg-Briand Pact,** created by United States and France Foreign Ministers.
 * Agreed not to use war to solve disputes.
 * 65 countries signed this.
 * Other peace agreements also made in 1929
 * **USSR signed Eastern Pact with 6 of neighbor states not to fight using war.**
 * Friendship pacts between countries who had quarrels recently.
 * 1929 was the 19th anniversary of the League of Nations.
 * **Wanted to achieve world peace**, countries who joined the League had to sign a promise not to go t war with other members of the league.
 * Those who disobeyed would be attacked by the joint forces of other members of the league, this was known as collective security.
 * Three peace-keeping actions they could take
 * Impose **economic sanctions,** refusing trade with the attacker
 * Use legal means to deal with a dispute in **League's Permanent Court of International Justice**
 * Impose military sanctions, forming an army to fight off the attacker.
 * Dealt with nine disputes in first 10 years and settled 7 without using sanctions.
 * Had several departments doing valuable work, such as the **Disarmament Commission.**
 * Persuaded member nations to use less weapons and rely more on collective security.
 * Great hopes in first **disarmament conference in Geneva 1932.**

= The Limitations of the League =
 * Had some serious limitations.
 * United States and USSR was not a member.
 * Some members lacked enthusiasm such as Germany who looked on the league as a **"club of victors"**
 * Leagues ability to keep peace not fully tested in 1929, disputes never involved major powers.
 * Despite limitations, the **League was well regarded by people all over he world.**

= The Great Depression = = The Great Depression =
 * October 1929, **share prices of Wall Street stock crashed** and thousands of American firms went bankrupt, millions of share-holders ruined.
 * **Spread to other countries**, trade, profits, factories, businesses and jobs all plummeted.
 * Governments hit hardest tried to protect people with new economic policies, raising custom duties on foreign goods. (Also known as **protectionism**)
 * Wanted to boost demand for own goods instead of relying on foreign ones, hoped to create more jobs.
 * Acted more selfishly to protect themselves and ideas of world co-operation fell behind.
 * Caused unrest among people people started to blame governments for this.
 * **Supported extreme political parties** which promised to help them, led to collapse of democratic governments in Germany and Japan.

= The Problem of Empires =
 * Great Depression led to **division of world into powers** which had large empires and those who didn't.
 * Some countries envied British and French empires while others thought it unfair, such as the Italians.
 * **Japan, Germany and Italy wanted more similar goals** and the Great Depression began to increase the resentment of Italy, Japan and Germany.
 * Further more, Britain and France avoided the worst effects of the Great Depression by increasing trade with their empires.
 * Soon Italy Japan and Germany thought it was best to add more colonies to reduce the effect of the Depression even if they had to attack people for it.
 * Large empires caused problems when the colonies native people want independence, resulting in violent clashes.
 * To subdue them, Britain and France spend large amounts of money to keep military forces inside and also meant that they could not fully support the aim for world peace and disarmament.

= Japan, Manchuria and The League =
 * Japan invaded Manchuria, part of the territory of fellow member China.

= The attraction of Manchuria. =
 * Manchuria has are of 192,000 sq km, 28 million people, three times as large as Japan, unrivaled natural resources.
 * Will lead to large investment
 * By 1931 Japan controlled most of Manchuria's economy, its most important mines, railways, factories and ports.
 * Kept large army there to protect the possessions.
 * When Great Depression struck, Army officers **discussed the possibility of conquering Manchuria** to recover from the Depression.

= Japan Invades Manchuria =
 * The Kwantung army disobeyed the Japanese government and plotted to take over Manchuria, the blew up a section of the South Manchurian Railway during the night of 18 September 1931.
 * Using this excuse, **they launched an attack on Manchuria.**
 * China asked for help and the League of Nations order Japan to withdraw troops.
 * The Japanese government agreed but the Kwantung army continued to advance into Manchuria.
 * By end of 1931 it had occupied the entire province.
 * The government **lost control over the Kwantung Army** in this situation.

= The League and Manchuria =
 * When Japan attacked Manchuria, **no member of the League wanted to use sanctions**.
 * Great Depression damaged economy, nobody wanted to refuse trade
 * Most powerful members doubted they could enforce the sanctions.
 * Tried to **restore peace using persuasion**
 * In October 1932, the League tried to satisfy both China and Japan
 * Suggested that Japan should leave while Manchuria continues as a semi-independent country instead of completely returning to China.
 * Before any progress, Japan resigned and went on to occupy Chinese province of Jehol.
 * This **damaged the League's reputation** and by the end of 1933 even the League's strongest supporters had doubt about its ability to maintain world peace.

= The Revival Of Germany, 1933-35 =
 * While Japan occupied Manchuria, elections in Germany during 1930-1932 brought the Nazi Party to power and allowed its leader Adolf Hitler to become Chancellor of Germany by January 1933.

= Hitler's Foreign Policy Aims =
 * The **Nazi Party** was set up in 1919 after the Great War.
 * They refused to believe Germany was defeated and blamed this on the government ministers calling them cowards.
 * Got even more furious when the Treaty of Versailles was signed.
 * When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 he had **three aims**.
 * Tear up Treaty of Versailles
 * United all German-speaking people in to one country (known as "Greater Germany"
 * Aimed to give all Germans **"lebensraum"** or "living space" as Germany was overcrowded.
 * To achieve this, they had to take over land on the east of Germany such as USSR and Poland.

= Re-armament =
 * Needed a large army to conquer or threaten to conquer the land wanted.
 * Weakened by Treaty of Versailles and had to defy treaty to increase army size.
 * **Secretly issued plans** to increase the army by three times, to 300,000 men, 1000 aircraft were to be built and secretly train pilots in civilian flying clubs.
 * Also asked for barracks, airfields and fortifications to be built.
 * Hitler **withdrew from the Disarmament Conference** and League on the same year.
 * After two years, the German forces re-armed in secret and by March 1935, the new air force Luftwaffe had 2500 aircraft while the army had 300,000 men.
 * Decided that there was no longer any need to re-arm in secrecy.
 * To further increase army to 550,000 men, he announced that there would be compulsory military services for all men.

= Reactions to German re-armament =
 * During the re-armament between 1933-1935, **Hitler could have easily been stopped** by any major power who wanted to force them to obey the Treaty of Versailles.
 * The British lost money in the depression, had their own problems in the empire and did not want to spend money on the armed forces to intervene with Europe's issues.
 * The French were also unwilling to stop it and only put money into defending France with the Maginot Line, heavily armed concrete forts built along the French and German border.
 * Italy came close to taking action when Hitler tried to overthrow the Austrian government, killing the Chancellor.
 * They expected Hitler would try to control Austria and united with Germany, to prevent this, Italian leader Mussolini placed army units in threatening positions between the borders of Italy and Austria.
 * Clear warning that such attempts were not allowed and Hitler had to abandon all plans.
 * Hitler's announcement for compulsory military service continued to **shock the European powers but resulted in no action**.
 * Tried to solve this by calling Prime Ministers of France, Britain and Italy to meet at Stresa in Italy and form the **Stresa Front**.
 * **Issued a protest** to Hitler asking him to stop re-arming.
 * They **did not take any action** for the whole time and by April 1935 the peace seemed unstable with events in Manchuria and Germany showing up.

= Summary = The League of Nations was able to bring about peace and solved problems without war. This peace was disturbed when the American economy crashed and the Great Depression came. Japan tried to get out of this by occupying Manchuria and the League was unable to stop them, leading to people doubting them. Meanwhile, Germany's leader was Adolf Hitler who wanted re-arm, expand and rebuild Germany, even though major powers saw this happening, they did nothing to stop it.

= Questions =
 * 1) What could the League of Nations have done differently to avoid the Manchuria conflict?
 * 2) Do you think Great Britain and France were being too selfish during these times? If so, why?
 * 3) What would happen if any of the world's major powers stopped Germany from re-armament?
 * 4) If the Great Depression never affected other countries, would the "new era" of peace have continued?
 * 5) What were some good and bad ideas of the League of Nations? Explain.

= Crossword = This is a crossword I made that helps cover the topics of the notes above.

Puzzle: http://www.variety-games.com/CW/Puzzles/2020084530116192132-puzzle.htm Solution: http://www.variety-games.com/CW/Puzzles/2020084530116192132-solution.htm