Week 3: TheFailure of the League of Nations

Lecture 3

1. The consolidation of the Paris Peace system (1920-1929)

The League of Nations (1920) / principles

New peace system elaborated in Paris

Created by the treaty of Versailles

➢ Universal Organization (42 Founding members, maximum 58)

○ Not every country could be part of it
○ Germany and Russia joined later
○ US refused to join
➢ Based on the principles of Collective security : international law, collective action
(sanctions, use of force against agressions), objectif = disarmament
➢ Based in Geneva (Europe)
○ Mainly European countries but also China, latin America...
➢ Languages: French / English
○ French dominated the international system until the war
○ English became more influential after WWI

The League of Nations (1920) / organs

Had many organs

➢ First organ : General Assembly where all States were gathering together
○ One meeting per year ⇒ september
➢ Council ⇒ not all countries were members (limited)
○ Permanent members (great powers = F, B, I, Japan)
○ non permanent (rotating) members
➢ Secretariat (based in Geneva) to run administrative tasks
➢ Permanent Court of International Justice (based in The Hague)

Great Powers politics after 1920/

➢ US:
○ Isolationist (refused to be part of the Treaty of Versailles despite the efforts of
Wilson's⇒ Senate refused, dollar diplomacy)
○ Liberal
○ worried by the rise of Japan in the pacific area
➢ UK:
○ Opportunistic (balance of power, splendid power, sea power, colonial Empire)
○ Liberal
 ○ worried by communism and by the weakening of Germany (John Maynard
Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919)
➢ France:
○ worried about a possible revenge of Germany (Jacques Bainville, The Political
Consequences of the Peace 1920)
■ Book= the disparation of the austrian empire will lead to the reinforcement
of the German influence in central Europe
○ alliances with the East
➢ Russia, Germany, Italy, Hungary: revisionist
○ R= also weakened and not part of parsi peace system
○ G= got smaller with treaty of Versailles
○ I= after war⇒ increased territory but didn’t get as much as wanted⇒
disappointed
○ H= dominating a large part of austrian-hungarian empire before 1914/1918,
became very small
➢ Japan: new Pacific power
○ More powerful after WWI because during WWI Japan was able to occupy a lot of
islands in the pacific area which were German

The problems of the peace

➢ Civil war in Russia (1917-1921)

○ 1917: doble revolution
■ 1: destroyed russian empire
■ 2nd: made Russia a communis/ Bolshevik country
○ 1917-1921: very long war on russian territory where the Bolsheviks were fighting
against revolutionary forces ⇒ civil war
○ Also war between Russia and Poland ⇒ P won and expanded its territory
➢ Rise of fascism (Mussolini in Italy, 1922)
○ Reason why became leader of empire: Italian population disappointed from
peace treaty because didn’t get every territory it wanted⇒ Mussolini wanted to
revise the treaty
➢ US / Japan rivalry : naval conference in Washington (1921-1922)
○ results: balance of power between 5 sea powers (US, UK, Japan, France, Italy)
○ Goal: control sea powers in the world
○ US and UK more ships that France, Italy
➢ Treaty of Rapallo (made between Germany-Russia, 1922)
○ 2 countries excluded from Paris conference
○ Decided to make a partnership (committed themselves not to pay debts towards
each other, military cooperation)
■ Good for Germany because had a limited army due to WWI
■ Reason why Germany was powerful when Hitler came to power
➢ Reparations:
○ 132 bn Gold Marks (1921)
 ■ Amount fixed in conference but problem: had to force Germany to pay
because guilty for WWI
○ Occupation of the Ruhr by France (1923)
○ Dawes Plan (1924), Young Plan (1928)
■ American got involved in the financial problem⇒ Germany has to pay 132
bn Gold Mark
■ Dawes proposed to borrow money to Germany so that Germany could
pay its debts towards the Allies so that they can pay their debts towards
US
■ Young plan: reschedule the debts so that the plan could be supported by
German economy
■ Germany never paid their debts because crisis of 1929, US accepted

The ‘Spirit of Locarno’

Kind of detente

➢ Locarno Treaty (1925)

○ Objectif: secure the Western borders of Germany (give some secure guarantee)
○ But easter borders were still opened = problem
○ consequence:
➢ Entry of Germany in the League of Nations / Franco-German reconciliation (1926)
➢ Briand-Kellogg Pact (1928) (treaty)= prohibits war
○ Political commitment
○ Important because League of Nations didn’t prohibit war, was still allowed
➢ During the general assembly of League of Nations, Briand proposed to create the
European integration (Briand, 1929) ⇒ new, never made before
➢ Evacuation of Rhinelandby allied troops (1930)
○ Germans still had to demilitarize the left Bank of the Rhine but after 1930 ⇒ no
allies on German territory anymore

Aristide Briand = partly president of the Council

Gustav Stresemann = Chancellor of Germany
⇒ started reconciliation / peace between France and Germany ⇒ Germany entered League of
Nations

2. The world economic crisis of 1929 and WWII

The Great Depression

Wall Street crash (october 1929)

= crash of stock market of USA ⇒ eco, soc, pol consequences
➔ Financial crisis (collapse of banks / credit crunch) ⇒ economy stopped
 ➔ Economic crisis (bc reduction in consumer spending / investment / prices / production =
deflation)
➔ Social / political crisis : unemployment, rise of nationalism
◆ Germany wanted to get rid of democracy because had failed ⇒ failure of liberal
economic system
◆ Japan
➔ End of reparations / debts (1931-1932)
◆ Germany couldn’t pay debts so end of reparations
◆ USA didn’t receive the money from allied bc didn’t receive from Germany
➔ Protectionism (London economic Conference, 1933)
◆ Solution to crisis: recover inside the national order
➔ National solutions = Keynesianism
● F. D. Roosevelt came to power and launched the « New deal » ⇒ want
to increase public deficit in order to relaunch the economy
● New policy ⇒ Not liberal but helped to recover very progressively in USA
◆ autarky (Germany, Japan)
● Meaning countries became nationalist ⇒ wanted to produce their own
goods and be less dependent from the market and importations
● Didn’t have colonies
◆ colonial Empires (France, Britain)
● Could rely on them
◆ communism (USSR)
● = all economy ruled by the State ⇒ everything was nationalized,
collectivized ⇒ Staline launched process of industrialization⇒ used
resources of agriculture to finance a very speedy process of
industrialization

Ideology in the 1930’s

To work a system needs to have common values ⇒ here not the case

➢ Liberalism : UK, France, US

○ Western democracy
➢ Fascism / Nationalism : Italy (Mussolini, 1922), Germany (Hitler, 1933), Spain (Franco,
1936), Japan (1931), etc.
➢ Communism : Komintern (1919), USSR (Stalin), Communists in China (Mao Zedong)
○ Communism prohibited by Hitler in Germany
○ International movements

Japan’s expansion

Reason why WWII started

Japan conquered lot of US islands in pacific (ex: Philippines = american colony)
 ➢ Annexation of Manchuria (1931)
○ Because China had a powerful economy so wanted this territory
➢ Withdrawal from the League of Nations after the annexation(1933)
➢ Started war in China (1937)
○ Occupied huge part of China
➢ Indochina (1940-1941)
○ When France was defeated by germany, the Japanese occupied Indochina
○ French administration remained in power but Japanese troops were present
○ To stop Japanese expansions⇒ American made an oil embargo against them
○ Revenge: Japan attacked USA: thought if they made quick war against USA,
they could have a peace deal where they could consolidate a sphere of influence
in Asia
➢ Neutrality Pact with USSR (1941)
○ In order to make war only against US and not USSR
➢ Attacked the US in Pearl Harbor (7 Décember 1941)
○ Military base with US ships for fleet⇒ attacked ⇒ lead to WWI in Pacific area
between US and Japan
○ War could have been limited in pacific area between Japan and US but Hitler
declared war against US just after the attack of Pearl harbor
○ Instead of having 2 seperate wars (pacific war US-Japan and European war) ⇒
WWII (Us made first war to Germany and then to Japan)
➢ Midway (1942)
○ Battle of rivalry⇒ naval battle in pacific
➢ Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)
○ US launched atomic bomb on japan to force Japanese to capitulate ⇒ war ended
in pacific area

Europe (I) / Hitler contained

-When Hitler arrived at power he was part of the Great Powers⇒ Germany became a threat to
the other European powers
-Other countries decided to make a collision against him, had no allies except poland ⇒ isolated

➢ German threat: Hitler arrives to power and decides to withdraws from the League of
Nations (1933) and to launch a rearmament (1935 ⇒ first violation of the Versaille treaty
but no reaction from the Allies
Germany and Italy left League of Nations but USSR joined
➢ Franco-Soviet rapprochement (alliance): the USSR joins the League of Nations (1934),
Franco-soviet Treaty to prevent the German expansion (1935)
➢ Stresa Front (1935) : France – Britain – Italy
○ Collision against Hitler⇒ from the beginning isolated
➢ Germany isolated but Anglo-German naval agreement (1935)
○ Hitler committed himself to limit his navy to ⅓ of british fleet
 ○ Agreement important for Hitler because he didn’t want war against Britain, just
sharing influence

Europe (II) / Axis expansion

Italy wanted to become more powerful and Mussolini wanted to consolidate italian empire

➢ Italy invades Ethiopia (1935-1936) last independent country in Africa, others already
colonized
➢ Italy sanctioned by the League of Nations but not successful because Italy continued
war against Ethiopia
➢ Italy became closer to Germany⇒ formation of the Rome-Berlin Axis (1936)
○ Alliance against West and Soviet Union (fascist / nationalist values)
➢ Spanish civil war (1936-1939)
○ Between fascists of Franco and the communists/republicans which were
supported by USSR⇒ Franco won⇒ Spain became closer to fascist values
➢ German expansion:
○ remilitarization of Rhineland (1936)
■ Demilitarized after WWI and occupied by allies till 1930⇒ Hitler came to
power when it was not occupied anymore so remilitarized
○ Austria and Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) (1938) ⇒ wanted all german
speaking population
○ dismantlement of Czechoslovakia (March 1939)
➢ Hitler-Stalin Pact (1939)= German-Soviet Pact
○ France and USSR = pact but Staline disappointed to be excluded from Munich
Conference
○ Hitler (eventhough anti-communist) ⇒ tried to make peace with Staline
■ Sharing territories of Eastern Europe⇒ Staline occupy eastern Poland &
bartik states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonie)
○ France and Britain entered war against Germany

Czechoslovakia = Tchecoslovaquie

Europe (III) / WWII

➢ Hitler invades Poland (1939) and the West (1940) ⇒ successful

➢ Battle of Britain (1940)
➢ Hitler attacks the Balkans and the Soviet Union (1941)
➢ Turning point :
○ El Alamein (1942)
■ Axes troops tried to conquer Egypt but were stopped in El Alamein ⇒
able to reconquer
○ Axes troops also stopped in Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad
○ Stalingrad (1943)
 ■ Turning point of war because Germany started to lose territory ⇒ lost war
➢ Italy defeated (1943) ⇒ recoquer by Allied
➢ Allied landing in Normandy (1944) ⇒ recoquer France
➢ Invasion of Germany (1945) by USSR with Red Army

Deportation, Holocaust

- Jewish people persecuted from nazis all across the world

- New foundation was created: ONU