JohnsonK2013+INO-+Roads+to+War+January+11+2011+(Part+1)

= Roads to War Part 1 = Wiki messed up the format again...

= Awesome =

toc toc

= Notes =

1. The 'New Era': Hopes for Peace in 1929
- People were hopeful that the world was entering a long period of peace

Locarno and the 'New Era'
- Hopes were raised by the meeting of leading European statesmen - Result of conference: Locarno Treaties
 * Swiss town of Locarno
 * discussed problems that were not solved after WWI
 * most difficult: Germany and France were still on bad terms after the war
 * French and Belgian armies occupied Germany's Ruhr Valley because Germany was unable to pay for the damage caused to France and Belgium
 * between France, Germany and Belgium
 * agreeing to respect each other's borders
 * Britain and Italy agreed to make sure the terms were not broken
 * France promised to support Poland and Czechoslovakia if they ever got into a fight with Germany
 * All other countries agreed to not enter war if a dispute took place
 * This removed suspicions between Germany and her neighbors

Friendship between Nations
- 1929, 'new era' - Kellogg-Briand Pact - USSR 1929 Eastern Pact with 6 of her neighboring states
 * all but Paraguay and Bolivia were at peace but that was soon over
 * agreement by USA and France, Kellogg and Briand
 * not to use war as a way to solve problems

The League of Nations
- 1929, 10th anniversary of the first peace keeping organization, League of Nations - to help achieve this, countries joined the League had to sign a promise not to go to war with any other members of the League - the rules stated that I would do anything to maintain the peace - during the first 10 years, LoN was asked to deal with 9 disputes
 * 2 aims: to keep peace between nations and to make the world a better place for all people
 * also agreed if other members are in war, they would defend the invaded country
 * collective security
 * but only 3 peace-keeping actions that they could realistically consider taking
 * deal with an argument by legal means, in the League's Permanent Court of International Justice
 * impose economic sanctions on an attacker
 * all other members would refuse to trade with the attacker
 * most extreme course of action: impose military sanctions against the attacker
 * forming a LoN army from the members and fight off the attacker
 * solved without having to use sanctions
 * had a number of special departments which by 1929 were doing valuable work to improve the world
 * Disarmament Commission which persuaded members to reduce their weapons
 * great hopes were aroused when the Commission announced that 60 nations would meet in Geneva in 1932
 * first ever disarmament conference

Limitations of the League
- First: not every nation belonged to the League - Second: some members lacked enthusiasm - Third: the disputes solved by LoN did not involve world's major powers - Despite its limitations, LoN was an established feature of the world
 * USA: 'policy of isolations' from affairs of Europe, did not want to get involved
 * USSR: communist leaders saw LoN as a club of 'capitalists' opposing communism
 * 2 major powers did not belong to LoN = serious weakness
 * Germany: 'club of victors'
 * no proof yet that LoN could settle disputes between majors powers
 * no proof that sanctions could stop a war
 * highly regarded by people
 * British: 400,000 joined the LoN Union to show support

The Great Depression
- 1929 breakdown in the world's economy - spread to other countries - how did this affect world peace - 2nd way: Depression causing unrest among the people - Unemployment --> people blamed the govt.
 * stock exchange in NY dropped
 * thousands went bankrut and share-holders were ruined
 * countries trade dwindled, profits fell, people became unemployed
 * first: govts.used new economic policies
 * protectionism: aim to boost the demand for goods made in their own countries by keeping out foreign goods
 * hoped to create more job
 * Italy: kept out foreign goods entirely, making themselves self-sufficient
 * these harmed international relations
 * social unrest -> mass unemployment
 * Germany: 6M out of 64M unemployed
 * 1/2 of Japan's factories were idle while starvation occurred
 * Europe: poverty
 * people gave support to extreme political parties
 * Germany, Japan: led to the collapse of democratic govt.
 * anti-democratic govts. came to power
 * quickly acted aggressively towards other countries hoping to improve the situation

The Problem of Empires
- The Depression added on to the problem -- the division of the world into powers which owned large empires and those which did not - countries envied France and Britain - Depression increased the resentment of Italy, Japan and Germany - Large empires also = problem (Britain France)
 * Britain and France enlarged their empires by taking over German colonies as "mandates"
 * governing them on trust for the LoN
 * ruled 1/3 of the world
 * Italians who won the war wanted more land in Africa, thought it was unfair
 * Japanese had given some German islands but they were small
 * Germans were mad that they lost their whole empire
 * but Britain and France were able to increase their trade
 * Italy, Japan and Germany began to think about adding colonies to their own empire
 * even taking land from other countries
 * native people were demanding the right to govern themselves
 * led to violent clashes
 * Britain and France wanted to keep a large army in the colonies
 * expensive
 * not supporting world peace and disarmament

3. Japan, Manchuria and the League, 1931-33
- Viscount Cecil, Chief British representative of LoN thought the world was entering a new era of peace
 * he was intelligent and well-informed statesmen but he was proven wrong within a week
 * Japan decided to invade Manchuria
 * eventually had SE Asia under control

Attraction of Manchuria
- Japan was interested in Manchuria the most than all other newly gained colonies - 1931, controlled most of Manchuria's economy - Unrest caused by the Depression spread to the army
 * investment in railways, shipping, mining, forestry, steel manufacture, agriculture, and in cattle raising
 * also kept a large army in Kwantung in S.Manchuria
 * army officers began to talk about conquering foreign land
 * better to start with Manchuria since they already had armies there and already owned the railway

Japan Invades Manchuria
- 18 September 1931 - China immediately asked LoN for help - while they agreed, the Kwantung army continued to advance into Manchuria
 * Japanese soldiers blew up a section of the railway at Shenyang
 * they blamed on the Chinese
 * LoN's first order was to order Japan to withdraw their troops
 * Japan delegate to LoN and agreed to this demand
 * claimed that the invasion was caused by the work of 'some military hot-heads'
 * end of 1931: controlled the entire province
 * made it a semi-independent state: Manzhouguo (Manchukuo)
 * govt. had lost control of the army

The League and Manchuria
- Persuasion did not work so they could use economic sanctions - 1931-32 no members wanted to use it against japan - Commission of Enquiry, was sent to Manchuria to investigate the crisis - this attempt was approved by the League - the Affair damaged the reputation of LoN
 * the Depression already damaged trade and nobody wanted to damage it further
 * powerful members of LoN doubted they could even enforce the sanctions
 * tried to produce a report in Oct. 1932 trying to satisfy both China and Japan
 * report suggested that the Japanese should leave Manchuria but stay as a semi-independent state
 * before further progress could be made, Japan resigned from the League and went on controlling areas in China
 * even the strongest members doubted the ability to maintain world peace

4. The Revival of Germany 1933-35
- Extreme right-wing Nazi Party massively increased its share of the vote
 * Adolf hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933

Hitler's Foreign Policy Aims
- strong views about Germany's place in the world - Germans felt that the Treaty was unfair and harsh - Hitler's 3 Basic aims in his foreign policy
 * refused to believe that German army had been beaten
 * blamed govt. ministers
 * angrier when in July 1919: Treaty of Versailles
 * Poles and Czechs were allowed their own countries but German speaking people of Austria were not allowed to united with Germany
 * the transfer of German land to neighboring states = more Germans under foreign rule
 * aimed to tear up the Treaty of Versailles
 * unite all Germans
 * give Germans "lebensraum"
 * living space
 * need more land, probably from USSR and Poland

Re-armament
- Hitler needed large armed forces to achieve his aims - 1933 Hitler announced a secret plan to increase the armed forces - nest 2 year: re-armed in secret
 * Treaty limited German army to 100,000 men
 * abolished air forces, submarines and only 6 warships
 * 300,000 men
 * build 1000 aircraft and secretly train pilots
 * later in 1933 Hitler withdrew from the Geneva Disarmament Conference and LoN
 * by march 1935, new air force, Luftwaffle, had 2500 aircraft
 * 300,000 men
 * 16 March, no longer need to re-arm in secrecy
 * compulsory military service for all men, 550,000 soldiers

Reactions to German Re-armament
- When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, Germany was crippled by the Depression - Did not happen - French were unwilling to halt the re-armament by force - Italy tried - Hitler's announcement of compulsory military service alarmed the other European countries - April 1935 uneasy peace
 * armed forces were weak
 * political turmoil
 * the re-armament could've been stopped
 * British had their own problems
 * did not want to be deeply involved with European affairs
 * did not want to spend more money during Depression
 * put their efforts into defending France with the Maginot Line
 * fort along the borders of Germany and France
 * when Nazis in Austria tried to overthrow the Austrian govt and killing the Chancellor, people thought Hitler would unite Austria with Germany
 * Mussolini places forces on the border of Austria and Italy
 * clear warning
 * Hitler abandoned the any plans he might have had to take over Austria
 * but took no military action
 * France, Britain and Italy met at Stresa in Italy to form Stresa Front
 * issued a protest against Hitler's re-armament plans
 * Manchuria and Germany showed the world that they were not ready for international law
 * nobody was going to try to make them do so

= Summary = After the war, people believed that the world was entering a new era of long-term peace but they were wrong. The Great Depression caused issues between countries and lowered the relationship. League of Nation seemed to be able to solve small problems but there weren't any big problems involving big countries to prove LoN useful. The Manchuria Incident and Germany's Re-armament led by Japan and Hitler proved LoN too weak to solve big issues.

= Questions = 1. How did the Great Depression affect world peace? 2. Was the League of Nations successful in general? 3. Why did the League of Nations fail at dealing with the two problems caused by Japan and Germany? 4. Who led the re-armament of Germany? 5. What are sanctions?