Collapse of The League of Nations (CAT) Flashcards
1
Q
Who signed the Locarno treaties in 1925?
A
- Gustav stresemann and Aristide Briand
- Germany and France
- it was later signed by Britain, Italy, belgium and Czechoslovakia as they agreed not to go to war on each other
2
Q
What are the terms in the Locarno treaties?
A
- Germany would accept borders given by treaty of Versailles
* France and Germany would work together to settle disputes peacefully
3
Q
Why was the Locarno treaty significant for Germans?
A
- it prevented them being invaded
- they had felt weak and vulnerable after the treaty of Versailles had been signed
- this gave them security
4
Q
When was the Kellogg Briand pact signed?
A
1928
5
Q
What was the Kellogg Briand pact?
A
- 65 countries met and signed an agreement to not use war as a way to solve disputes
- this agreement took place outside of the league
- individual countries acted which showed the league wasn’t necessarily in control
6
Q
When did the Rapallo treaty take place
A
1922
7
Q
What happened in the Rapallo treaty?
A
- Russia and Germany met to agree that Russia should have land returned from WW1
- they agreed to cooperate in the future
- again not organised by league
8
Q
When did the Washington arms conference take place?
A
•1921-1922
9
Q
What happened in the Washington arms conference?
A
- major countries met to discuss how big navies should be
- league not involved even though disarmament was a key aim for the league
- Britain France and Japan attended as separate countries which showed their priorities
10
Q
In 1933 how many Americans were unemployed?
A
15 million
11
Q
How did extreme parties make the most of the Wall Street crash?
A
- Hitler offered simple solutions such as “freedom, bread, work” which appealed to many people
- in a dictatorship the government runs everything which means they were more likely to look after people such as the unemployed
- they promised to take land by force for space, food and resources
- they used promise of overseas war victories to distract people from their problems at home
- dictators found victims to blame for their problems
12
Q
How did the Great Depression affect the league?
A
- the league has no army so required countries’ armies to fight for it
- Countries didn’t want to pay for the expense of war so there was little threat to dictators
- economic sanctions were useless as countries weren’t willing to stop trading with others
13
Q
When was the Manchurian crisis?
A
1931
14
Q
How did Japan invade China?
A
- the Japanese army staged the Mukden incident
- they set of a bomb on their own railway and used it to blame china
- they then saw this as a good reason to invade China
- they took over Manchuria and put Pu Yo in charge as a puppet ruler
15
Q
Why did japan want Manchuria?
A
- Japan suffered in the Great Depression
- Manchuria has fertile farmland, industry and natural resources
- China were weakening
- people of Japan were desperate for Japan to be strong away so started supporting the army
16
Q
Why were the league reluctant to react to the Manchuria crisis?
A
- many people believed japan owned the area
- Britain and France thought it was too far away to be a concern
- japan was a large power in the league, many people choice the Japanese version of events
- some people thought it was good japan were trying to reintroduce order into the region
- members of the league couldn’t afford to send troops to China
- Japan’s main trade partner was USA so economic sanctions didn’t affect them
- Russia which was the closest country couldn’t be called upon as it wasn’t in the league
17
Q
What did the league do?
A
- they put an investigation together and found japan guilty
- they confronted them but japan ignored them and left the league
- japan went on to invade the rest of China
18
Q
What were the impacts of the Manchuria crisis?
A
•Mussolini and butler were shown that the league was weak and could be overturned
19
Q
Why did Mussolini want to invade Abyssinia?
A
- he has promised his people he’d build a new Roman Empire
- Italy had colonies surrounding it so he could launch an attack from there
- France and Britain has colonies in Africa so they couldn’t get too angry st Italy for doing the same
- Abyssinia was rich in natural resources and had good land for grazing animals
- Mussolini wanted revenge against Abyssinia from a previous battle to restore pride
- he was confident the league wouldn’t stop him
- France and Britain wanted to keep Italy as an ally against Hitler as they had signed the Stresa front agreeing to team up on Hitler
20
Q
When did Italy invade Abyssinia?
A
1935
21
Q
How did Mussolini invade abyssinia?
A
- Mussolini ordered soldiers to attack Abyssinians at Wal Wal
- the league tried to intervene but found it difficult to stop Mussolini
22
Q
What was the significance of the Hoare laval Pact in the Abyssinia crisis?
A
- Samuel Hoare and Lierre Laval secretly met Mussolini and made a number of secret agreements
- they said Mussolini could take all the fertile land in Abyssinia
- the Italians took this as green light so bombed the villages and used chemical weapons
- this was soon leaked to the press showing that Britain and France had undermined the league
23
Q
Why did the league fail in Abyssinia?
A
- failure to close the Suez Canal- they didn’t want to upset Mussolini so let him go the short way
- the Hoare-Laval Pact- showed Britain and France were willing to undermine the league to please powerful countries
- trade sanctions against Italy- the league failed to ban trade if oil and coal to Italy as they were scared it would affect their economy
- trade sanctions against Italy- the league banned members from selling weapons to Abyssinia so they couldn’t defend themselves
24
Q
Why was the League of Nations destined to fail?
A
- the league had no army
- ideas were too ambitious
- decision making was made slow by unanimous decisions and vetos
- the leagues structure was complex
- powerful countries such as USA, Germany and USSR didn’t join
- trade sanctions didn’t always work as countries could still trade with USA
- moral condemnation didn’t scare powerful countries
- Great Depression meant countries were concerned with their own problems
- depression caused extreme leaders to come to power
