Peace Keeping and the League of Nations

GCSE Revision

Versailles Revision

• 1. Clause 231: Germany accepted blame for the damage and loss caused by WW1

• 2. Army: 100,000 men, no submarines, no aeroplanes, 6 battleships, Rhineland demilitarised

• 3. Reparations: £6.6 billion in instalments until 1984 • 4. Lost land: Alsace-Lorraine to France, Saar to France, Malmedy to Belgium,

West Prussia to Poland • 5. League of Nations to be set up • 6. Extra points: Anschluss forbidden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to be

independent states

The League and The USA

• The League of Nations had been Woodrow Wilson’s idea during the Paris Peace Conference.

• However, back in America he was having issues. • The idea of the league wasn’t popular for different reasons. Many Americans

were recent migrants from Germany, and therefore didn’t want to damage the country; some thought that the US should stay out of world disputes; some didn’t like the British and French as they had empires which disagreed with the American belief of freedom; others were simply worried about the economic cost.

• The US Senate voted against the League, and therefore America never actually joined.

Structure of the League• Secretariat: sort of civil service. Kept records of League meetings

and prepared reports. • Permanent Court of International Justice: Settled disputes

between countries. Based in the Hague. Made up of judges from member countries

• The Assembly: the League’s parliament. Every country sent a representative to vote on admitting new members, appointing temporary members, the budget, other ideas put forward by the Council. Met once a year in Geneva. Decisions had to be unanimous

• The Council: a smaller group, met about 5 times a year. Included permanent members (Britain, France, Italy & Japan), temporary members elected for 3 year periods. They could give moral condemnation, economic sanctions and military force

The League’s Commissions

• The Mandates Commission: made sure that Britain or France acted in the interests of the people, not its country’s interests

• The Refugees Committee: helped to return refugees to their original homes after the end of WW1

• The Slavery Commission: worked to abolish slavery around the world

• The Health Committee: attempted to deal with the problem of dangerous diseases and to educate people about health and sanitation

• The ILO: brought together employers, governments and workers’ representatives once a year. Improving working conditions

Methods of Punishment• Moral condemnation: telling a country off,

ineffective, no impact

• Sanctions: refusal of trade, not all countries would agree (USA, Germany)

• Military Force: last resort, the League had no army

Strengths

• The concept of collective security was a popular one. Countries felt safe as part of a large group

• The LoN encouraged international trade. This was very beneficial in rebuilding economies ruined by the cost of WW1

• It was concerned for its member states’ citizens. It worked towards removing slavery and assisting refugees

• Although the Assembly met only once a year, all decisions had to be unanimous. This meant that decisions had the support of all member states

• It was well structured and organised. Within the individual departments were experts in all fields who were willing to share their knowledge

Weaknesses• Relied heavily on good will and persuasion. • Had very little real power and no permanent army • Many nations were missing: America, Germany only joined in 1926 and left in ‘33, Japan left in ‘33, Italy

left in ‘37 • Countries continued to make their own treaties and alliances:

• 1921 Washington Conference: Britain, France & Japan agreed to limit their navies • 1925 Locarno Pact: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia met to

agree on the French and Belgian borders and to demilitarise the Rhine • 1928-29 Kellogg-Briand Pact: 61 countries signed to renounce war as a way of solving international

disputes • No one ever disarmed • The Council had the power of veto and could overall key decisions • The LoN met irregular so decision making was slow • America, the most powerful country in the world, wasn’t involved. • Britain and France were the two main players, but didn’t consider the League to be a priority and

doubted its effectiveness. • The Permanent Court of International Justice could only offer its advice and had no method of ensuring

its advice was followed

Successes• 1921, Sweden and Finland clashed over the Åland Islands • 1925, Greece invaded Bulgaria over a border incident • The League restored order in both cases

• Slave traders in Africa and Burma were attacked and stopped • Four big Swiss companies involved in narcotics trading were

closed down • Economics experts were sent to help Austria and Hungary • The ILO campaigned to persuade countries to adopt a 48 hour

week • The Health Committee worked to reduce the impact of malaria

and leprosy

The Locarno Pact

• In October 1925 representatives from Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia met in Locarno, Switzerland

• Germany accepted the borders with France and Belgium that were laid out in the TofV

• Germany accepted that the Rhineland would remain a demilitarised zone • France and Germany agreed to settle any future disputes through the

League7 • These agreements were met with terrific enthusiasm, and paved the way for

Germany to join the League in 1926

The Kellogg-Briand Pact

• In 1928 65 countries agreed that they had to keep their armies for “self-defence”

• “The parties…condemn war as a means of solving international disputes and reject it as an instrument of policy”

• “The settlement or solution of all disputes…shall only be sought by peaceful means”

The Economic Depression

• The Wall Street Crash started a long depression that quickly caused economic problems throughout the world. It damaged the trade and industry of all countries. This lead to relations between countries being damaged, and important political changes within countries. The optimism of the 1920s evaporated.

• Britain suffered high unemployment, and was unwilling to get involved in international disputes

• Unemployment and poverty in Germany led people to vote for the Nazis, who made no secret of their plan to overturn the TofV

• France began building a series of frontier defences in fear of Germany • The USA was unwilling to support economic sanctions • Economic problems in Italy encouraged Mussolini to try to build an overseas empire • In Japan the depression threatened a complete collapse of the country’s industry,

leading it to invade Manchuria

Why Did Japan Invade Manchuria?

• 1) loss of silk trade due to economic depression • 2) desire for an empire from Japan’s nationalist government • 3) need for space for their growing population • 4) Manchuria was full of excellent natural resources

• Japan couldn’t afford to import food after the Wall Street Crash, and felt as though its government had been pushed around by Western governments. Army leaders believed the only way of showing Japan’s strength and solving its economic problems was territorial conquest.

The Manchurian Crisis

• In September 1931 there was an explosion on the Southern Manchurian Railway. The Japanese military claimed this was an act of Chinese sabotage. The Chinese claimed all their soldiers were in the barracks at the time.

• The Japanese seized the opportunity to take full control of Manchuria and force the Chinese to withdraw from the area.

• In February 1932 the Japanese set up a puppet government. Manchuria was renamed Manchukuo and the last Chinese Emperor, Pu Yi, was put in control of the province.

• The Chinese appealed to the League

What The League Did

• In December 1931 the League appointed a commission led by Lord Lytton to investigate. He did not go to Manchuria until April 1932, and did not report until October.

• His report stated that Japan was the aggressor and should leave.

• On 24th February 1933 the Assembly voted that Japan should leave Manchuria. Japan walked out of the meeting

• Japan stayed in Manchuria, and left the League in 1933 after it couldn’t agree on economic sanctions or an arms sales ban.

• Japan went on to invade and conquer Jehol (next to Manchuria)

A Spectacular Failure

• The Manchurian Crisis showed: • The League was slow, with reports taking almost a year • A country could get its own way if it ignored the League • “collective security” was useless against big countries –

especially during the Great Depression • Even the great powers within the League (Japan was on the

Council) were happy to ignore it

Background To Abyssinia

• In 1896 Italian troops had tried to invade Abyssinia but had been defeated by a poorly equipped army of tribesmen. Mussolini wanted revenge for this humiliating defeat, and had his eye on the fertile lands and mineral wealth of Abyssinia. Most importantly he wanted glory and conquest, with his dictator style of leadership needing military victories.

• By the early 1930s Italy was suffering acutely from the Depression. Wages were already some of the lowest in Europe and between 1929 and 1933 industrial production fell by 25%. The numbers of unemployed rose from 300,000 to well over a million. Mussolini decided that a successful war at home would strengthen his position at home and boost his popularity.

The Attack On Abyssinia

• In December 1934 there was a dispute between Italian and Ethiopian soldiers at the Wal-Wal oasis – 50 miles inside Abyssinia. Mussolini took this as his cue and claimed this was actaully Italian territory. He began preparing the Italian army for an invasion of Abyssinia, which took place in 1935.

• The Abyssinian emperor Haile Selassie appealed to the League for help

What The League Did

• After the invasion, the League imposed economic sanctions on Italy. However, these sanctions were not extended to include basic war materials such as coal, iron and oil. A sanction on these materials would have ended the invasion in 1 week.

• However, Britain and France were aware that Mussolini and Hitler had the same ideas and were worried that the two would team up to conquer Europe.

• Furthermore, any sanctions laid out by the League would only affect member countries. If they forbade the sale of basic war materials, there would be nothing stopping Germany or America still selling them.

Britain and France’s Weakness

• Britain and France were unwilling to risk provoking Italy more than was necessary. This was because Britain and France were still convinced that it was possible to stop Italy joining forces with Germany.

• In 1935 Mussolini met the British and French Prime Ministers in the Italian town of Stresa. Here they condemned German breaches of the Treaty of Versailles. The Stresa Pact was a vague agreement, and Mussolini believed he could use force outside of Europe and this would be OK

• He believed that in return for his support against Germany he could attack Abyssinia without condemnation.

• In June 1935 The British signed a treaty with Germany over the strength of their navy. The decision was to allow a German navy that was 35% of the British navy. This also allowed Germany to have submarines. The French and Italians were angered by this as they hadn’t been consulted but it breached the Treaty of Versailles

The Hoare-Laval Plan

• In December 1935 the British Foreign Secretary and the French Prime Minister agreed to hand over a large part of Abyssinia to the Italians – more than the Italians had even captured up to that point. The logic was that Britain and France were economically and militarily unprepared for war and that Mussolini should not be provoked if at all possible. When the news of the plan became public, Hoare was forced to resign.

• After the collapse of the Plan, Britain and France, and therefore the League, finally began to take a tougher line against Italian aggression. In March 1936 the League finally decided to ban the sale of oil and petrol to Italy, but by this time it was too late

The Aftermath• On 5 May 1936, Italian troops entered Addis Ababa. The Italian

forces had bombed civilians and used poison gas during the campaign. Haile Selassie was granted asylum by a reluctant British government, anxious to mend its fences with Mussolini. Italy had successfully conquered Abyssinia but only 3,500 Italian colonists ever settled there.

• The League had failed and on 15th July all sanctions against Italy ended. The Abyssinian crisis marked the end of the LoN as an important international organisation

• No one would take it seriously in the future, especially Hitler who was not impressed at the confused and feeble response of Britain and France.

• Mussolini was angered by British and French opposition, and in November 1936 he signed the Rome-Berlin Axis with Hitler, linking the 2 fascist states.

Why The League of Nations Failed

• French and British – always being selfish • Absent powers – the USA never joined • Ineffective sanctions – LoN always took a weak

approach • Lack of armed forces – no military strength • Unfair treaty – reassessed ToV as too harsh • Reaching points slowly – poor organisation and too

slow • European club – Euro-centric and lacked power