10: Interwar Diplomacy and the Crisis of Capitalism (1920s) Flashcards
Sun Yat Sen
Sun Yat-sen, was a Chinese statesman, physician, and political philosopher, who served as the first provisional president of the Republic of Chinae is called the “Father of the Nation” in the Republic of China, and the “Forerunner of the Revolution” in the People’s Republic of China for his instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty during the Xinhai Revolution.
Sun is considered to be one of the greatest leaders of modern China, but his political life was one of constant struggle and frequent exile. After the success of the revolution in 1911, he quickly resigned as president of the newly founded Republic of China and relinquished it to Yuan Shikai. He soon went to exile in Japan for safety but returned to found a revolutionary government in the South as a challenge to the warlords who controlled much of the nation. In 1923, he invited representatives of the Communist International to Canton o re-organize his party and formed a brittle alliance with the Chinese Communist Party. He did not live to see his party unify the country under his successor, Chiang Kai-shek, in the Northern Expedition.
Sun’s chief legacy is his political philosophy known as the Three Principles of the People: Mínzú (nationalism/independence from foreign domination), Mínquán (“rights of the people”/democracy), and Mínshēng (people’s livelihood/”communitarianism”/”welfare”).
Washington Conference
Washington Conference, also called Washington Naval Conference, was an international conference called by the United States to limit the naval arms race and to work out security agreements in the Pacific area. Held in Washington, D.C., the conference resulted in the drafting and signing of several major and minor treaty agreements.
The Four-Power Pact, signed by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and France on December 13, 1921, stipulated that all the signatories would be consulted in the event of a controversy between any two of them over “any Pacific question.”
The Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty, which was signed by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy on February 6, 1922, grew out of the opening proposal at the conference to scrap almost 1.9 million tons of warships belonging to the great powers. This bold disarmament proposal astonished the assembled delegates, but it was indeed enacted in a modified form.A detailed agreement was reached that fixed the respective numbers and tonnages of capital ships to be possessed by the navies of each of the contracting nations. The respective ratios of capital ships to be held by each of the signatories was fixed at 5 each for the United States and Great Britain, 3 for Japan, and 1.67 each for France and Italy.The Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty halted the post-World War I race in building warships and even reversed the trend.
The Naval Limitation Treaty remained in force until the mid-1930s. At that time Japan demanded equality with the United States and Great Britain in regard to the size and number of its capital ships. When this demand was rejected by the other contracting nations, Japan gave advance notice of its intention to terminate the treaty, which thus expired at the end of 1936.
Hoover
Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Great Depression.
After the outbreak of World War I, he became the head of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, an international relief organization that provided food to occupied Belgium. When the U.S. entered the war, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to lead the Food Administration, and Hoover became known as the country’s “food czar”.Later he led the federal response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
Hoover won the Republican nomination in the 1928 presidential election, and defeated Democratic candidateIn 1929. Hoover assumed the presidency during a period of widespread economic stability. However, during his first year in office, the stock market crashed, signaling the onset of the Great Depression. It dominated Hoover’s presidency and he responded by pursuing a series of economic policies in an attempt to lift the economy. Hoover staunchly opposed any intervention from the federal government in the US economy.
In the midst of the economic crisis, Hoover was decisively defeated by Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election.He strongly criticized Roosevelt’s foreign policy and New Deal domestic agenda. In the 1940s and 1950s, public opinion of Hoover improved largely due to his service in various assignments for presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, including chairing the influential Hoover Commission, appointed to recommend administrative changes in the Federal Government of the United States
March on Rome
The March on Rome (Marcia su Roma) was an organized mass demonstration and a coup d’état in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned an insurrection, to take place on 28 October. When fascist demonstrators and Blackshirt paramilitaries entered Rome, Prime Minister Luigi Facta wished to declare a state of siege, but this was overruled by King Victor Emmanuel III. On the following day, 29 October 1922, the King appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister, thereby transferring political power to the fascists without armed conflict.
The march itself was composed of fewer than 30,000 men, but the King in part feared a civil war since the squadristi had already taken control of the Po plain and most of the country, while Fascism was no longer seen as a threat to the establishment. Mussolini was asked to form his cabinet on 29 October 1922, while some 25,000 Blackshirts were parading in Rome. The March on Rome was not the seizure of power which Fascism later celebrated but rather the precipitating force behind a transfer of power within the framework of the constitution. This transition was made possible by the surrender of public authorities in the face of fascist intimidation.
Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti as an Italian socialist politician. On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Fascists committed fraud in the recently held elections, and denounced the violence they used to gain votes. Eleven days later he was kidnapped and killed by Fascists. The presumed fraud in the 1924 electionswas not the only cause of his murder. Matteotti also publicly condemned the alliance of the socialist trade unions and the fascist counterpart. Yet, the most important aspect, and probably the main reason for his murder, was that he found out the evidence of bribes from Sinclair Oil in favour to Mussolini, in order to get permission for the petroleum reservoir exploitation in North Africa.
The death of Matteotti sparked widespread criticism of Fascism. A general strike was threatened in retaliationSince Mussolini’s government did not collapse and the King refused to dismiss him, all the anti-fascists (except for the Communist Party of Italy) started to abandon the Chamber of Deputies.They thought to force the Crown to act against Mussolini, but on the contrary this strengthened Mussolini. After a few weeks of confusion, Mussolini gained a favourable vote by the Senate of the Kingdom, and tried to defuse the tension with a speech. Despite pressure from the opposition, Victor Emmanuel III refused to dismiss Mussolini, since the Government was supported by a large majority of the Chamber of Deputies and almost all the Senate of the Kingdom. Moreover, he feared that compelling Mussolini to resign could be considered a coup d’état, that eventually could lead to a civil war between the Army and the Blackshirts.
During the autumn of 1924, the extremist wing of the Fascist Party threatened Mussolini with a coup, and dealt with him on the night of San Silvestro of 1924. Mussolini devised a counter-maneuver, and on 3 January 1925 he gave a famous speech both attacking anti-fascists and confirming that he, and only he, was the leader of Fascism. He challenged the anti-fascists to prosecute him, and claimed proudly that Fascism was the “superb passion of the best youth of Italy” and grimly that “all the violence” was his responsibility, because he had created the climate of violence. This speech is considered the very beginning of the dictatorship in Italy.
Kapp Putsch
The Kapp Putsch was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp its goal was to undo the German Revolution of 1918–1919 that replaced the federal constitutional monarchy with the Weimar Repubic, overthrow the Weimar Republic, and establish an autocratic government in its place. It was supported by parts of the Reichswehr, as well as nationalist and monarchist factions.
Although the legitimate German government was forced to flee the city, the coup failed after a few days, when large sections of the German population joined a general strike called by the government. Most civil servants refused to cooperate with Kapp and his allies. Despite its failure, the Putsch had significant consequences for the future of the Weimar Republic. It was also one of the direct causes of the Ruhr uprising a few weeks later, which the government suppressed by military force, after having dealt leniently with leaders of the Putsch. These events polarized the German electorate, resulting in a shift in the majority after the June 1920 Reichstag elections.
Ebert
was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925. In 1914, shortly after he assumed leadership, the party became deeply divided over Ebert’s support of war loans to finance the German war effort in World War I. A moderate social democrat, Ebert was in favour of the Burgfrieden, a political policy that sought to suppress squabbles over domestic issues among political parties during wartime in order to concentrate all forces in society on the successful conclusion of the war effort.
Ebert was a pivotal figure in the German Revolution of 1918–19. When Germany became a republic at the end of World War I, he became its first chancellor. His policies at that time were primarily aimed at restoring peace and order in Germany and suppressing the left. To accomplish these goals, he allied himself with conservative and nationalistic political forces, in particular the leadership of the military under General Wilhelm Groener and the right-wing Freikorps. With their help, Ebert’s government crushed a number of socialist and communist uprisings as well as those from the right, including the Kapp Putsch, a legacy that has made him a controversial historical figure.
Rathenau
Walther Rathenau was a Jewish-German industrialist, writer and liberal politician. During the First World War, he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau served as German Foreign Minister (February to June 1922) of the Weimar Republic.
Rathenau initiated the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo, which removed major obstacles to trading with Soviet Russia. Although Russia was already aiding Germany’s secret rearmament programme, right-wing nationalist groups branded Rathenau a revolutionary, also resenting his background as a successful Jewish businessman.
Two months after the signing of the treaty, Rathenau was assassinated by the right-wing terrorist group Organisation Consul in Berlin. Some members of the public viewed Rathenau as a democratic martyr; after the Nazis came to power in 1933 they banned all commemoration of him.
Stresemann
Gustav Stresemann was a German statesman who served as chancellor in 1923and as foreign minister from 1923 to 1929, during the Weimar Republic. His most notable achievement was the reconciliation between Germany and France, for which he and French Prime Minister Aristide Briand received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. During a period of political instability and fragile, short-lived governments, he was the most influential cabinet member in most of the Weimar Republic’s existence.
Germany signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact in August 1928. It renounced the use of violence to resolve international conflicts. Although Stresemann did not propose the pact, Germany’s adherence convinced many people that Weimar Germany was a Germany that could be reasoned with. This new insight was instrumental in the Young Plan of February 1929 which led to more reductions in German reparations payment.
Briand
Aristide Briand was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliation politics during the interwar period.
In 1926, he received the Nobel Peace Prize along with German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann for the realization of the Locarno Treaties, which aimed at reconciliation between France and Germany after the First World War. To avoid another worldwide conflict, he was instrumental in the agreement known as the Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1929. However, all his efforts were compromised by the rise of nationalistic and revanchist ideas like Nazism and Fascism following the Great Depression.
Cartel des gauches
The Cartel of the Left was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party, the socialist French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO), and other smaller left-republican parties that formed on two occasions.
The Cartel des gauches, formed primarily between the Radical-Socialist Party and the SFIO, was created in 1923 as a counterweight to the conservative alliance which had won the 1919 elections with 70% of the seats. Due to the division of the right-wing, the Cartel won the elections on 11 May 1924, after the French government’s failure to collect German reparations even after occupying the Ruhr.
The right-wing then won the 1928 legislative elections and in 1932 the second Cartel won a majority of seats, but its parties had not agreed upon forming a coalition for government. This parliamentary majority, distinct from the electoral majority, was weak. This parliamentary instability, coupled with the Stavisky Affair, provided a pretext for the 6 February 1934 riots organized by far right leagues. The following day, the Radical-Socialist president of the Council Édouard Daladier was forced to resign due to pressure by the rioters. This prompted the creation of left-wing anti-fascist coalitions, which eventually led to the formation of the Popular Front, which won the elections in 1936, bringing to power Léon Blum.
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwinwas a British Conservative statesman who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as Prime Minister on three occassions.
In 1931, with the onset of the Great Depression, Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government, most of whose ministers were Conservatives, and which won an enormous majority at the 1931 general election. As Lord President of the Council and one of four Conservatives among the small ten-member Cabinet, Baldwin took over many of the Prime Minister’s duties when MacDonald’s health deteriorated. This government saw an Act delivering increased self-government for India, a measure opposed by Churchill and by many rank-and-file Conservatives The Statute of Westminster 1931 gave Dominion status to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, while taking the first step towards the Commonwealth of Nations.
In 1935, Baldwin replaced MacDonald as prime minister and won the 1935 general election with another large majority. During this time, he oversaw the beginning of British rearmament and the abdication of King Edward VIII. Baldwin’s third government saw a number of crises in foreign affairs, including the public uproar over the Hoare–Laval Pact, the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Baldwin retired in 1937 and was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain.
For the final decade of his life and for many years afterwards he was vilified for having presided over high unemployment in the 1930s and as one of the “Guilty Men” who had tried to appease Adolf Hitler and who had supposedly not rearmed sufficiently to prepare for the Second World War.
Austen Chamberlain
Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain was a British statesmanHe served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (twice) and was briefly Conservative Party leader before serving as Foreign Secretary.
Chamberlain returned to office in H. H. Asquith’s wartime coalition government in May 1915, as Secretary of State for India, but resigned to take responsibility for the disastrous Kut Campaign, the besieging of an 8,000 strong British Army garrison in the town of Kut, 160 kilometres (100 mi) south of Baghdad, by the Ottoman Army. He again returned to office in David Lloyd George’s coalition government, once again serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Hhe served an important term as Foreign Secretary in Stanley Baldwin’s Second Government (1924–9), during which he negotiated the Locarno Pact (1925), aimed at preventing war between France and Germany, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was one of the few MPs supporting Winston Churchill’s appeals for rearmament against the German threat in the 1930s.
Great Strikes
Great Strikes: In 1925 the British Prime Minister Baldwin had to deal with the crisis in the coal industry when the mine-owners announced that they intended to reduce the miner’s wages. The UK Strike of 1926 was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 3 May 1926 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for coal miners.
Baldwin decided to intervene, and his government supplied the necessary money to bring the miners’ wages back to their previous level, but the Government stated that this subsidy to the miners’ wages would only last 9 months. In the meantime he set up a Royal Commission under the chairmanship of Sir Herbert Samuel, to look into the problems of the Mining Industry. After the General Strike, for several months the miners continued to maintain resistance, but by October 1926 hardship forced many men back. By the end of November most miners were back at work. However, many were victimised and remained unemployed for many years. Those that were employed were forced to accept longer hours, lower wages, and district wage agreements.
Generally, the 20s were a period of high unemployment and a lot of strikes. This was also the case in the United Stated, with the great railroad strike of 1922, a nationwide railroad shop workers strike which caused a national outcry. The strike eventually died out as many shopmen made deals with the railroads on the local level.
Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory.
As a young man, he spent six years in exile working closely with fellow exiles Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. After the revolution of February 1917, he returned to Moscow, where his Bolshevik credentials earned him a high rank in the party, and after the October Revolution became editor of their newspaper Pravda. Within the Bolshevik Party, Bukharin was initially a left communist, but gradually moved to the right from 1921. By late 1924, this stance had positioned Bukharin favourably as Joseph Stalin’s chief ally, with Bukharin soon elaborating Stalin’s new theory and policy of Socialism in One Country. Together, Bukharin and Stalin ousted Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev from the party at the 15th Communist Party Congress in December 1927. From 1926 to 1929, Bukharin enjoyed great power as General Secretary of the Comintern’s executive committee.
Stalin’s decision to proceed with collectivisation drove the two men apart, and Bukharin was expelled from the Politburo in 1929. When the Great Purge began in 1936, some of Bukharin’s letters, conversations and tapped phone-calls indicated disloyalty. Arrested in February 1937, Bukharin was charged with conspiring to overthrow the Soviet state. After a show trial that alienated many Western communist sympathisers, he was executed in March 1938.
