Appeasement and the Road to War 1933- 1939 The League of Nations.

Appeasement and the Road to War

1933-1939

The League of Nations

Learning Outcomes: By the end of this presentation you will: Understand the aims of the League of Nations Be able to explain to describe the structure of the League Be able to explain the powers of the League. Understand the what each of the main powers thought of the

League. Have an understanding of the League’s ‘golden age’ in the

1920s. Be able to explain the Leagues attempts at disarming the major

powers. Be capable of explaining the importance of the Manchurian

Crisis.

League of Nations

Aims: To settle quarrels between

countries by peaceful means. To support member countries,

if attacked, through collective security.

To bring about general disarmament of all member countries

Countries would try to work together to solve social and economic problems. Making the world a better place to live.

The league was to act as an international peace keeping body, to ensure lasting peace.

A league’s Covenant of 26 Articles set out the rules for the working of the League.

Membership increased to over 60 countries. Russia and Germany were initially not allowed to join. America refused to become involved.

The Assembly

The Council

The International Court of Justice

The Secretariat

Commissions

The League of Nations

USE PAGE 8 OF CAMERON TEXTBOOK

The Assembly

•Met once a year.

•Each member country sent 1 delegate and had 1 vote.

• It debated and decided on general policy

The Council• Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Germany (1926) had a permanent seat.

•Met regularly to make decisions about peace keeping.

•The Assembly elected 4 other temporary members each year

The International Court of Justice

•Sat at the Hague in Holland.

•Settled legal disputes over boundaries.

•Gave advice on matters of international law

The Secretariat•Carried out various administrative duties

•Recorded decisions of the Assembly

and council.Commissions•On disarmament, slavery,refugees, minorities, mandates, working conditions and health.

• Met regularly

The League of Nations

Powers of the LeagueThe powers of the league

consisted of economic and military sanctions with the added possibility of expulsion from the League.

The members of the League agreed to work together to ensure their collective peace and security

This was called Collective Security

Reactions to the LeagueFranceFrance Felt that the league needed to be

strengthened and were unwilling to disarm because of fear for their own security. They embarked on a series of alliances with the ‘Little Entente’ (Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia) in addition to Poland and Belgium.

ItalyItaly They saw the league as a brake on their expansionist aims and followed a policy to suit themselves, especially over Abyssinia.

USSRUSSR Initially hostile to the League and suspicious of it because they thought it was anti-Soviet, but they did eventually join in 1934.

USAUSA Refused to join the League and retreated into isolation. They did not want to be dragged into another European war.

BritainBritain Reluctant to make League action compulsory and feared a requirement to

take sanctions. They were never wholehearted in their support of the League.

Germany Germany Saw the League as nothing more than a winners’ club. However they came to see the League as a way of removing the ‘unfair’ restrictions placed upon them at Versailles. Finally Hitler simply ignored the League as did most powers by the 1930’s.

The League in Action 1920-1931The Golden Years?

This period is often referred to as the “Golden Years” of the League. It had success in settling a number of international disputes and was praised for it’s humanitarian work.

However this period also saw the League fail to deal properly with several incidents. In addition to this a number of key agreements were made outside the League; showing that member countries perhaps didn’t have complete confidence in the League to maintain security.

The League’s Successes

The League’s Failures

Diplomatic Moves out with the League

Disarmament

Article 8 of the Covenant:

National armaments be reduced to the lowest point consistent with national safety

The arms race was a critical factor in causing the First World War. Therefore, it was hoped, disarmament would reduce the threat of war.

The World Disarmament Conference was organised in 1932, it was attended by Britain, France, Germany and Italy among others.

“…Germany would be perfectly ready to disband her entire military establishment and destroy the small amount of arms remaining to her, if the neighbouring countries will do the same

thing with equal thoroughness….”

Adolf Hitler, 1933

However, the French did not trust Hitler and refused to discuss his offer to limit his army to any size applied equally to the French, Polish and Italian armies.

They believed that regardless of what he said Hitler had every intention of rearming anyway.

The Germans as the only country forcibly disarmed by the treaty of Versailles refused to return to the Disarmament Conference until the other countries agreed to reduce their arms.

Collective security had failed to solve the problem therefore a new approach was needed, that of appeasement.

In 1934 the German Budget was published with a substantial increase in military spending.

Manchuria During the Disarmament

conference an incident occurred in the Far East.

Japan was suffering from severe economic problems and the perception of being treated as a second class nation.

Their solution to these problems was expansion into Manchuria, China.

The incident began with an explosion which did minor damage to the Japanese railway at Mukden in Manchuria.

The Japanese blamed the Chinese and used it as an excuse to occupy the entire province of Manchuria.

It was then announced that Manchuria had become the independent Republic of Manchukuo.

Clearly this was a dispute involving aggression which needed to be resolved by the League

The League did send a commission to investigate and a report was produced one year after the incident.

The League stated that while it recognised provocation, Japan could not be said to have acted in self-defence and therefore refused to recognise Manchukuo.

The great powers were unwilling to use sanctions against Japan, because of the economic problems caused by the Depression, and also because of the difficulty of fighting a war so far from Europe without US involvement.

The Japanese withdrew from the League in 1933, but had shown that a strong power could attack a weak one without fear of the League.

These lessons were learned by others who saw the League as slow to act and willing to go to any lengths to avoid applying sanctions.

Manchuria Questions1. Where is Manchuria?2. Why did Japan want to expand into

Manchuria?3. Explain what happened in Sep 1931.4. Was China really to blame?5. How did Japan react to the incident?6. How did the League deal with the

incident?7. How did Japan react to the League’s

report?8. What message did this give to other

nations about the League?

Conclusion:Why did the League fail to

stop the drift to war?

The main members put self-

interest before collective security

Politicians worried about the cost of

action and its impact on votes. Would the British

public accept British soldiers

fighting and dying in the cause of ‘peace’ if it was

not a vital British interest?

By 1935 ‘League action’ really meant what

Britain and France would do.

Germany, Italy and Japan had left,

the USSR remained

suspicious of League intentions and the US had never joined.

The League of Nations was not a League of ALL

Nations

It was too idealistic

The League was “fatally flawed

from the outset”. It believed all

countries would be peace-

loving and democratic. It was never prepared to

face war-loving dictatorships.