IREU 202 Diplomatic History lecture 4

IREU 202 Diplomatic History

lecture 4

Dr. S. BARIŞ GÜLMEZURL: https://royalholloway.academia.edu/barisgulmez

Email: [email protected]

Exercises from last week

•The economic, social and political effects of the Great Depression?

•What is appeasement policy? Who were the main appeasers?

•What were the 5 main nation-state policies during 1930s?

•What is unilateral action?

GERMANY’sunilateral actions

•reintroduced conscription in 16 March 1935 violating the treaty of Versailles,

•remilitarised Rhineland in 1936 violating both the Versailles Treaty and Locarno treaty,

•sent 6500 troops and air support to Spanish nationalists to overthrow the Republican government in 1936

•denounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 18 June 1935•denounced the 10-year non-aggression treaty with Poland signed in 26 January 1934

•incorporated Austria into the German Reich in 1938 •invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland•Acquired a small territory called Memel from Lithuania in 23 March 1939 by threat.

Italian Fascism•Anti-liberalism•Anti-Capitalism•Economi self-sufficiency, protectionist economic policies

•Anti-Marxism•Anti-Communism•Ultra-nationalism•Not necessarily anti-semitism or racism though...•Irredentism: Fascists believed they had a right to invade weaker states

Italian Fascism•Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)•Journalist in Trento (in Austria-Hungary)•Had strong anti-Austrian Italian nationalism•Became member of the Italian Socialist Party.•Expelled after opposing the Socialist pacifism after the WWI.

•Founder of the Italian Fascist movement (National Fascist Party)

•Elected Prime Minister (1922)•Became Il Duce, the dictator of Italy in 1925 dismissing democracy.

Italian Fascism

•Italian Fascism was very pragmatic.•Not necessarily based on a certain ideology•Mussolini was influenced by Nietzsche•He ordered Giovanni Gentile write the book of italian fascism

•However, no attachment to strong ideologies such as Marxism or Leninism.

•Successful as a grassroots initiative•Claimed to be the voice of the oppressed in Italy.

Italian Fascism•According to Hobsbawm (1995),

•Mussolini’s fascism was only successfully spread to other countries after Hitler took over in 1933.

•Hitler’s Nazism was the main driving force behind the spread of fascism all over the world.

•Otherwise, Mussolini’s fascism could not have found allies outside Italy

•Although Mussolini came to power earlier than Hitler, he had to embrace Hitler’s policies.

•Anti-semitism was not apparent in Mussolini’s policies before he formed alliance with Hitler.

Examples of Italian unilateral actions

•remilitarised Dodecanese islands in 1934•occupied an Ethiopian territory, the Wal Wal Oasis 80 km inside Ethiopian frontier in November 1934

•invaded entire Ethiopia in 1936•provided military assistance to General Franco in Spanish Civil War

•Undermined non-intervention agreement regarding the civil war

•invaded Albania in 7 April 1939•provided financial and military assistance to terrorist groups to destabilise Yugoslavia (USTASA assasinated the king Alexander)

The Soviet Union•The Soviets saw the Nazi expansion as a primary security threat

•Called for all «peace-loving» states to unite against Nazis.

•Joined the League of Nations in 1934•The Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov became the ardent supporter of collective security on behlaf of the USSR.

•The USSR started to be officially recognized by other countries.

•The US recognized the USSR in 1933•The USSR was seen as a «lesser evil» than Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

The Soviet Union•Europeans and Americans desired a war between the Germans and the Soviets to finish each other off.

•However, Germany was still seen as the enemy number one.•A poll in the US (January 1939):

Poll question: If a war breaks out between Germany and the USSR, whom will you support?83% of the US public prefered the Soviets over Germans.A highly unexpected answer from the most anti-communist nation in the world (Hobsbawm 1995)This reflects the extent of the fear against Nazi Germany.

The Soviet Union•Yet, Europeans did not necessarily desire an alliance with the Soviets.

•They did not invite the USSR to the Munich Agreement.

•Europeans invited the USSR to the collective security talks only after Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia (too late).

•The Soviets never desired an alliance with Europeans either.

•They just needed temporary partnership in order to deter Germany

•The Soviets also sought contact with Germany as well.

•Balance of power.

The Soviet Union’ unilateral acts

•The USSR has its own irredentist/aggressive motives.•The Soviets realized that the war was coming and in order to guarantee peace with Nazis, the USSR undermined the LoN by signing a non-aggression pact with Germany in 23 August 1939 (Molotov-Ribbentrop pact).

•This shocked Europans who never calculated such a move from the USSR.

•According to Europeans, Nazi Germany was the eternal enemy of the Soviets.

•It was not...•The Soviets occupied Bessarabia in Romania in 28 June 1939•During the WWII: although having announced its neutrality, the Soviets invaded Northern Bukoviana, another Romanian territory

Examples of unilateral actionJapan

•denounced the 1922 Washington treaty which limited its navy

•increased the size of its military fleet to 14.000, while it should be no more than 8000

•invaded Manchuria in 1931•Left League of Nations in 1933•İnvaded China in 1937

Why Japanese invasion of Manchuria could not be

prevented•League of Nations not capable•Italy had no interest in far east•Germany thought that maybe it could use Japan’s unilateralism as a precedent to justify its activities in Europe (It encouraged Hitler to act unilaterally)

•The Soviet Union was concerned over Japan but did not want to stand against it alone.

•French too afraid to weaken its position against Germany by focusing its energy to far east

•Britain had no intention to act•The US: isolationism•This showed «the limits of foreign policy»•No united action against aggressors. This opened the way for many unilateral action until the WWII.

Examples of unilateral actionHungary

•The loser of the WWI. •Lost too much land to neighbours•Bandwagoned German and Italian aggressions to reclaim the lost territories

•unilaterally repudiated the provisions of the treaty of Trianon

•occupied approximately 12.000 square km of Czechoslovakian land heavily populated by Hungarians

•occupied sub-Carpathian Ruthenia in Czechoslovakia

Unilateral acts of Appeasers•France unilaterally changed the provision of the «bases of agreement» signed with Italy (1931) (parity in ship construction)

•Britain undermined its commitments over the «Stresa front» and signed a bilateral agreement with Germany in 1935.

•Romania undermined its committments arising out of «little entente» signed in 1921 which binds Romania to come to the aid of Czechoslovakia if attacked.

•Poland invaded Zaolzie area in Czechoslovakia in 1 October 1938 right after the Munich agreement was signed, and the next day it invaded the Czechoslovakian part of Teschen region

exception•Montreux convention on international straits (1936)•Turkey concerned over Italian revisionism•Militarization of the Dodecanese•Mussolini’s speeches about reclaiming Antalya and its environment

•Turkey managed to revise the provisions of the Lausanne Treaty

•Sovereignty of the straits granted back to Turkey•Turkey’s multilateralism facilitated diplomatic success as it was seen as a blessing in the time of unilateral actions.

•The political chaos granted Turkey a «relative autonomy» in its Foreign Policy

Turkish Foreign Policy after Lausanne

•From recognition to reconstruction•Peace motto respected....•Turkey concerned over Italian revisionism..•Mussolini overly announced his will to reclaim Italy’s territories in Asia and militarize the Dodecanese...

•Turkish efforts to deter Italian through bilateral and multilateral pacts (BoP)

•Turkey feared a possible Greek and Bulgarian alliance with Italians

•Turks acted first...

Non-aggression Pacts•Series of friendship pacts...•Entente Cordiale with Greece (common frontier over the Thrace against Italians)

•Non-aggression pact with Yugoslavia and Romania..

•Balkan pact (1934): greater pact with Gr, Yugos, Ro, TR•Bulgaria: (backed by IT) territorial claims over Macedonia and Western Thrace

•Turks feared possible attack from Bulgaria...•Greece did not extend the pact to protect each other against Italian attack,

•Probably Greece expected Italian attack to Turkey but Italy attacked Greece (1940)... (Hale 2001:46)

Desire for Regional Pact

•Ultimate Turkish objective: pact with FR, UK, IT, USSR and Balkans...

•Establish a security corridor in Europe•Never happened

•France and Britain appeased•Atatürk was even ready to partner up with Soviets and Germany to deter Italy

Round up•Great Depression•Economic hopelessness stimulated extreme political formations

•5 state policies during the 1930s.•Unilateral action as the ultimate way to conduct foreign policy

•Anarchy, self-help: Realist assumptions•No balance of power: The effects of great depression; countries appeased or bandwagoned rather than balanced.

•The age of dictators...

Next Week...

•Spanish civil war