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Failure of the League of Nations and WW2
Causes of World War One
Some causes of World War 1
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Russia and the Alliance System:
How did Russia protect itself?
Firstly, Russia was seen as strong. However, it’s economic backwardness and poor transport means that it wasn’t. Therefore, it tried to advance its international position without showing weakness.
Disagreement with Germany and Austria:
Russia signed ‘The Three Emperors’ League” in 1881, pledging neutrality if one of remaining two are attacked. In 1887, Austria was stopping Russian advances into Balkan and Germany approved of this stopping. Also, Germany did not renew the Reinsurance neutrality treaty with Russia in 1890.
This ruined relations between Russia and Germany and Austria.
The move towards France:
In 1914 when WWI broke out, Russia fought with Britain and France because
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Firstly, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 formed the League of Nations. The League promised avoidance of war, disarmament, improved trade, work and living conditions. After a WWI, British people and many others supported the League of Nations. However it is notable that the League of Nations did not have its own armed forces as well as lacked the joining of USA.
Early success:
The League of Nations had a promising start, settling the disputes of Germany and Poland over Upper Silesia and Sweden and Finland over the Aaland islands in 1921. This was used to by the League of Nations Union to promote international relations and collective security.
The League of Nations Union:
Even though membership to the League of Nations union was a quarter million by the 1920s and hit 1 million in 1931, many conservatives distrusted the pacifist sentiment of the League of Nations Union. Even Austen Chamberlain who helped the League of Nations Union said that the executive committee had ‘some of the worst cranks I have ever known”. Despite popularity, conservatives also questioned the ability of the League of Nations to solve disputes due to lack of armed forces and key countries’ support. When the Geneva protocol to place economic sanctions of any state refusing the League’s decision was created, the Conservative government refused to sign it. Germany joined the League in 1926. However, it has to be kept in mind that
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It seemed to be the end of Franco-German hostility. There was hope for improvements in international relations and it was expressed y many as “the spirit of Locarno”. With hindsight, we can point out threat there was no real substance in the Locarno agreements. However to really understand the 1920s rather than the 1930, we need to understand why Locarno was welcomed by France, Germany and Britain.
What the Locarno treaties said:
1 Guarantee of borders in the West:
The treaty of Mutual Guarantee by which Germany and Belgium, and Germany and France promised not to go to war with each other and to settle all disputes peacefully. Borders set by the Treaty of Versailles were guaranteed as well as the demilitarisation of the Rhineland. Britain and Italy promised military aid if either party was attacked.
2 Germany’s eastern frontiers: some treaties suggested that at an unspecified date, frontiers could be adjusted to Germany’s favour as long s it was negotiated and consulted by France.
3 French alliances:
Alliances between France and Poland, and France and Czechoslovakia were restated. They would come to the aid of the other party if they ere victim of a German
from international affairs in the 1920s quieted the call for isolationism at home, such as its refusal to join the League of Nations or the International Court of Justice (in 1922 and 1927), failure to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and other isolationist policy like the restrictions on immigration and raised tariffs on European goods.
This feeling spread widely throughout Europe during the 19th and 10th centuries and caused many problems. The Slavic people of Bosnia and Herzegovina wanted to break away from Austria-Hungary and unify with other Slavic nations. Russia as a Slavic nation backed up the two countries in this matter, therefore causing tensions between Austria-Hungary and itself. Nationalism was also a source of anger between France and Germany as France resented its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). Alliances between European nations can also be considered an underlying cause of World War I. As a result of the Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, the Triple Entente (understanding) was formed between France, Britain, and Russia.
Many countries between 1879 and 1914 had signed a number of alliances, but some were still verbal or simply from years before. The two of the most important alliances being the Triple Alliance, which was between Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy and the Triple Entente, which was France, Russia, and Great Britain. German historian I. Geiss believes that the Triple Alliance was a German attempt to become a world power, not a world peacekeeper. Although these alliances were not militarily binding, they did place a "moral obligation" upon each other in time of war. This was to become very important because it would mean that some countries would have no option but to declare war if one of the countries they were allied to was threatened.
The appeasement allowed fascist countries to take advantage of their pacifist intentions as demonstrated the failure of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was intended to resolve international disputes peacefully, however its concept of appeasement demonstrated its place as a ‘toothless tiger’ in events such as the invasion of Manchuria (1931.) Allied intervention in Russia in 1919 was ignored by the League, Italy ignored the League in 1923, the League failed to deal with issues outside of Europe and several issues were not allowed to be presented to the league such as: Allied debts, relations between Britain and Egypt, and between China and the great powers. Due to the appeasement policy, Germany and Italy now realised that the democracies were seeking to avoid confrontation, so both countries continued to ‘test the limits.’ As a result of the appeasement, the impact of Abyssinia proved the concept of collective security and the Stresa front had failed. Consquently, this motivated war as it encouraged Hitler that he could get away with acts of aggression, transformed Italy into Germany’s partner as furthermore the Hoare-Laval plan made it clear Britain and France preferred to seek peaceful resolutions rather than engage in conflict. Hence, the appeasement policy was responsible for
France feared Germany, Germany had a preponderant military, so to counterbalance the German - British alliance, France agreed the Franco-Russian alliance.
The Alliances not only contributed to war breaking out; it made the war last longer and become on a much larger scale; major political disputes would inevitably cause a large conflict. The alliances caused suspicion, fear, and tension among nations. The two camps were the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary). When countries formed alliances with each other it gave them protection, if a country was threatened or under attack then the alliance would come to that country’s aid. Countries made an alliance when they both needed protection from a stronger country. When Austria-Hungary had heard about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand they went to war with Serbia which resulted in a chain reaction of countries going to war with one another, and when countries teamed up to support their attacked friends when war came, it meant that a number of nations would fight, not only the two involved in a dispute. The division of...
The alliance system ideated by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck kept peace in Europe but its main aim was, however, to forestall the possibility that, in the event of war, Germany would have to fight it on two fronts (basically France and Russia). This was achieved by diplomatically isolating France so that its dream of recapturing its lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine couldn't be fulfilled. This was done by, firstly, the creation of the League of the Three Emperors or Dreikaiserbund. It was first projected as a meeting of the monarchs of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia in 1872 and confirmed the following year, the 22nd of October 1873. Here, the very general and formless agreement was given a more solid form by military agreements promising to help any country attacked by a fourth party. And all this even though that there was mutual rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary in the Balkans. This proved to be a concrete way to isolate France for as E. Eyck mentions, "the League ensured that neither Austria-Hungary nor Russia was available as an ally for France". At this point, Bismarck didn't consider Britain as a potential French ally as they had a long history of rivalry. Secondly, in 1887 the Reinsurance Treaty was signed with Russia in which it promised to support Russia's claims to the strait and to remain neutral in the event of war unless it attacked Austria-Hungary, the same with Russia, who promised to remain neutral unless it attacked France.
This riled Serbian nationalism, and thus caused them to look to their Russian allies whom were already angered by the move that was in direct defiance of the 1879 Treaty of Berlin between the two powers that had agreed upon keeping status quo in the Balkans. Russia’s desires for influence in the area and an increase in Pan Slav nationalism were becoming even more obviously at odds with Austria Hungary desires for control over the Balkans 9 their 49% Slav empire depended to dampening such nationalism). Thus a great power issue was created, a nd the two countries seemed to be on the brink of war. The opposition of Both Great Britain and France left the economically weak Russia wit... ... middle of paper ... ...
The League of Nations sounds like a superhero team and in a sense, the goal that The League was trying to achieve could have been something straight out of a comic book. Originally proposed by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I, The League was born after some alterations. The League of Nations’ main intention was to bring an end to the war and prevent another one of the same atrocious proportions from happening in the future. Forty zealous countries joined this fight, but the most powerful country of all was not among them: The United States of America. While many Americans agreed with the goal of The League, many did not and those that did not were ones in power. The portion of the “mission statement” for The League that caused
The League of Nations was an international organisation formed in 1920 with its primary objective being to uphold world peace and promote collective security. This was based on the idea that if one of the League’s members was invaded, the other countries would stand up against the aggressor together. The League had a variety of successes, including settling the Aaland Islands dispute between Sweden and Finland, as well as failures, such as the Corfu incident between Greece and Italy.
middle of paper ... ...government. The sexy of the sexy. The clause was another that was harsh on Germany, but you. could see the allies reasoning behind it.
Wilson won the Nobel Prize for his creation but the United States never joined the league because of isolationist pressure in Congress. In another meeting the leaders decided which countries were going to have the most power in the United Nations. Stalin did not want small countries to have much of a say in the United Nations, but Churchill did. The two argued constantly about this with no solution in site.
In 1871 two new major states of Europe had been formed—the German Empire and the kingdom of Italy. The new German Empire, under the hand of Otto von Bismarck, was steered carefully, always with an eye upon France, for the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) had left France thirsting for revenge and for recovery of the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. 2
Evaluation of The League of Nations in the 1920's The League of Nations was formed for one main reason: to ensure that a war like world war one NEVER broke out again. It wanted to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security, as well as raise living conditions of men and women worldwide. It planned to do this by having a Covenant that all nations should follow, whether or not they were in the League. The Covenant was: To promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security: 1.
The League of Nations has been seen as a seriously flawed international organisation and its failure to prevent World War Two has been well documented. Provide something of an alternative perspective by identifying and highlighting important policy-areas in which the League made valuable progress.