conflict and tension- the League of Nations and international peace Flashcards

Question

successes of the international labour organisation in the league of nations

Answer 1

- 1922 recommended banning the use of white lead in paint as it was poisonous - 1930 helped greece set up social insurance to help people who were unemployed because of an illness - 1928 77 countries agreed to set minimum wage - in Tanganyika, Africa slave labour was being used to build a new railway, but conditions were so bad that 50% of workers died, the league challenged this and reduced death rate to 4%

Answer 2

- 1919 tried to stop children under 14 from getting a job, this suggestion was not adopted by many because they thought it would cost too much money - 1935 suggested that the working day should be limited to 8 hours when members voted on this issue only 4 voted in favour of if, saying it would cost industries too much, similarly, the suggestion that workers should be paid for their holidays was unpopular, one member even said that it would be industrial suicide

Answer 3

to return prisoners of war home and support refugees by improving camp conditions, finding new homes, or returning them to their own countries once the threat of conflict had passed

Answer 4

- 1921 the league helped free around 427,000 out of 500,000 prisoners of war still imprisoned from ww1 and returned them to their homelands - 1917 revolution led to civil war in russia, by 1921, 1.5 million people had fled russia to refugee camps and the league helped them find new homes - 1922 turkey clashed with greece and the violence forced people to flee to refugee camps, the league set up refugee campus and sent doctors to help treat diseases such as cholera and smallpox in these camps, homes were found for 600,000 greeks fleeing from turkey between 1919 and 1923 - created nansen passport, a document that could be used as identification by refugees

Answer 5

-1933 the league tried to appoint a high commissioner for refugees who were mainly jewish fleeing from germany. germany rejected this proposal so a unanimous vote couldn’t be reached and the motion was defeated

Answer 6

organised raids on the camps of slave traders in Sierra Leone, setting 200,000 people free. in 1927 sierra leone announced that slavery was to be abolished altogether

Answer 7

- austria and hungary had lost the war and were trying to rebuild their economies; the league sent financial experts to help so that the two countries would not go bankrupt - developed codes for importing and exporting so that all members were following the same rules

Answer 8

when global depression hit after 1929, this commission was unable to cope

Answer 9

regulated transport developed during the war in order to keep people safe

Answer 10

- introduced shipping lanes which meant that fewer collisions occurred - produced an international highway code so that cad drivers followed the same traffic rules wherever they travelled

Answer 11

- started an international campaign to kill mosquitoes which spread diseases such malaria and yellow fever - worked with the government in russia to organise an education programme to teach people about how the disease typhus was spread - sent doctors to look after refugees in turkey and helped improve living conditions in refugee camps in the 1920s - the health committee was later renamed the world health organisation which still exists today

Answer 12

- to stop the cultivation and distribution of opium | - after 1925 the board became the permanent central narcotics board and tackled other drugs as well

Answer 13

- introduced a system where companies had to have a certificate to say that they were allowed to import opium for medical purposes - blacklisted four large companies which were involved in trading illegal drugs

Answer 14

-some historians claim that key members of the league were not really dedicated to stopping the sale of opium as they made large amounts of money from it

Answer 15

in 1920 after ww1 countries that had been in austria hungary’s empire were given independence. lots of new countries were created including poland and lithuania. vilna was to be the capital of lithuania but the majority of people living there wanted to be polish. a polish army took control of the city and lithuania asked the league for help. the league told poland to remove its army, but was refused. france saw poland as a potential ally against germany and refused to help. britain would not send troops without the support of other countries. so the first time the league was asked to settle a dispute they did nothing and poland took vilna

Answer 16

1921-1925. Upper Silesia was on the border between Germany and Poland at the end of the First World War and both Germans and Poles were living there. Both nations wanted to claim the area, as it was important to iron and steel production. In 1921 a plebiscite [a vote in which the whole country takes part was organised to decide who would own Upper Silesia. Britain and France sent troops to police voting stations and to make sure the vote was fair and calm. Germany won 60 per cent of the votes, but Poland claimed that many of the people who voted for Germany no longer lived in Upper Silesia. They complained and the League of Nations decided to split Upper Silesia into regions according to how the people had voted. Germany received most of the rural areas, while Poland received the industrial zones. The outcome was accepted by both Germany and Poland, and the League made sure that the partition went smoothly by ensuring that rail links, water and electricity were still supplied to each side of Upper Silesia. However, the final settlement was considered unfair by the Poles; they received roughly half the population of Upper Silesia, but only a third of the land. Around half a million Poles were now in confirmed German territory. The Germans weren't fully satisfied either. They lost three quarters of the coal mines they had owned prior to the settlement - a valuable source of income. In 1922 the German government complained to the League and was awarded the right to import coal at a heavily discounted rate. When this agreement ended in 1925 relations between Germany and Poland worsened.

Answer 17

1921. Both Sweden and Finland claimed the land Islands, which were between the two countries, and threatened war on each other. The League investigated each country's claim. They decided that the islands should go to Finland. However, Finland was not allowed to build forts on the islands, so that they could not be used as a base from which to attack Sweden. Sweden agreed to these terms, so the League had successfully avoided war.

Answer 18

After the war the boundaries of Greece and Albania were still to be agreed upon. The League gave the job to an Italian general named Tellini, but while he was surveying an area of Greece, Tellini and his team were murdered. At the time, Italy was ruled by a dictator named Benito Mussolini. When he heard about what had happened he was furious and blamed the Greek government. He demanded that the murderers should be executed and that he should be paid compensation, but the Greeks did not know who had murdered Tellini and his team. On 31 August Mussolini invaded and occupied Corfu, killing fifteen people. Greece appealed to the League, who condemned Mussolini's act of aggression but agreed that Greece should pay the compensation. The League would look after this money and it would be awarded to Italy once the killers were found. Mussolini still wasn't satisfied. He complained to the Conference of Ambassadors, a group of powerful countries including Britain, France and Japan, and persuaded them to undermine the League. Greece was forced to apologise and pay compensation directly to Italy. Mussolini did withdraw his troops from Corfu. In this instance, when a large country had threatened a smaller one with military action, the League had proved that they could be ignored and overturned by other international groups.

Answer 19

``` 1925. When Greek soldiers were killed on the Bulgarian border, Greece invaded. Bulgaria appealed to the League for help. The League condemned the Greeks and ordered them to withdraw troops and pay compensation. Greece thought that the League was being hypocritical, as Mussolini had got away with similar actions in Corfu in 1923. However, Greece was a small country and unwilling to risk poor relations with powerful members of the League such as Britain and France, so they obeyed. ```

Answer 20

1929. In 1929 the American economy crashed. The country was plunged into a devastating depression. This would last throughout the 1930s. America traded with countries across the world and had lent a lot of money during and after the war, so global economies were also affected. The whole world faced economic depression and in desperate times people lost faith in their governments. Some people turned to extremist parties such as the Nazis in Germany who promised to make Germany strong again by overturning the Treaty of Versailles. The League was powerless to do anything to help people or to control these new party leaders who were willing to resort to violence to get their own way.

Answer 21

in the early 1920s the relationship between germany and france was still very hostile. france was rebuilding after the war and germany was rebuilding after the treaty of versailles. france had even invaded germany when it had failed to make a reperations pay in 1923

Answer 22

in 1925 the german foreign minister, Gustav Stressmann, invited the french foreign minister, Aristide Briand to meet and sign a treaty to help improve relations between the two countries.

Answer 23

germany and since they were not a member of the league of nations the meetings were organised independently

Answer 24

locarno in switzerland

Answer 25

france and german representatives met to discuss and they signed 7 treaties in which germany officially accepted the borders that the treaty of versailles had defined, giving up any claim on areas such as alsace lorraine. they also agreed to work together to try settle disputes peacefully

Answer 26

france, germany, britain, italy, belgium, czechoslovakia

Answer 27

not to go to war with the others even if one of the countries broke the treaty they would support the country which was involved.

Answer 28

because many felt it represented the end to german resentment of the treaty versailles and signed voluntarily rather than the diktat of 1919. other countries saw it as germany trying to become a peaceful nation and relations improved so much than in 1926 germany was allowed to join the league of nations.

Answer 29

65 countries met in paris in 1928 where they signed an agreement saying g that they would not use war as a way to solve disputes. the first countries that were involved was germany france and the usa and since two of these members were not members of the league this took place outside of the league

Answer 30

because both pacts had nothing to do with the league of nations so they were doing nothing important at this time

Answer 31

in 1929 a financial crisis known as the wall street crash hit america hard and thousands of businesses went bankrupt and banks collapsed

Answer 32

by 1933 around 15 million americans were unemployed and many had lost there homes. this time was called the great depression and lasted through the 1930s. it left people desperate and afraid

Answer 33

with families starving people started to search for answers to their problems. sometimes they turned to the policies of extremists such as the fascists in italy and the nazis in germans

Answer 34

- hitler was very skilled at offering solutions using simple slogans such as ‘freedom, bread, work’. compared to the complex solutions that other parties offered these were very pleasing - in a dictatorship the government runs everything so that meant they were more likely to take care of people such as the unemployed - the promised to take land by force so that their populations would have space, food and resources - they used promise of victories in wars overseas to distract people from problems at home. such victories would restore national pride and the population would support the government more. this meant hitler and mussolini looked at expanding their borders - dictators found people to blame for their problems for example hitler said germanys problems were caused by jews and the treaty of versailles this encouraged racism and so countries were more likely to turn against eachother

Answer 35

hitler and mussolini were not afraid to use violence to get what they wanted. they were no interested in collective security and weren’t scared by moral condemnation. to fight aggressive dictators the league would need an army and since it didn’t have one it would have to ask it’s members to use their armies but they were all suffering due to the depression. the only sanctions the league could impose were economic and in a time of economic crisis countries werent willing to stop trading with others as this would create more unemployment and hurt their own people

Answer 36

japan was suffering in the great depression. much of its economy was based on exporting silk to rich countries like the usa but silk was a luxury item and people cut back on luxuries due to the depression so the japanese industry was in decline and many people were unemployed. by 1932 silk was worth 1/5 of what it used to be

Answer 37

- manchuria was geographically close to japan - japan already had large industries such as the south manchurian railway and kwantung army in the area and this made the invasion easier - there was a history of confusion of who owned the area; russia japan and china had all claimed it in the past and in 1931 it was ruled by a chinese warlord but his power was weakening - japan was scafed china might kick out japanese industry - japan had fought russia in 1905 and so they were old enemies and so this would upset them and also distract the japanese people from domestic problems - the japanese army was getting stronger and stronger

Answer 38

1) on the 18th september 1931 there was an explosion on the south manchurian railway. the japanese army claimed that the train had been attacked by chinese soldiers who had also shot at the railway guards 2) the chinese denied this. they said that all their soldiers had been asleep at the time 3) the kwantung army used the events as an excuse to take over manchuria 4) the people of japan were delighted by this victory and celebrated on the streets 5) in 1932 japan renames manchuria, manchukuo. they put Pu Yi an ex chinese emperor in charge as a puppet ruler so japan could control him

Answer 39

although it was a clear case of japanese aggression the league didn’t want a big fight and many people felt that japan was owed manchuria and the chinese had even signed treaties that japan had economic rights in the region. china and japan were far away from the leagues headquarters and britain and france felt that the incident was too far away to be of real concern. japan had been a powerful member of the league and they claimed that chinese had attacked first so people chose to believe the japanese version of events so they didn’t have to get involved

Answer 40

the league issued a moral condemnation and told japan to withdraw its troops but when japan refused to there was really very little the league could do

Answer 41

- members of the league couldn’t afford to send troops so far away to fight someone’s battles and france and britain were still fighting the depression - the league could issue economic sanctions but there wasn’t a lot they could do as japan could still trade with the usa - the nearest powerful country to manchuria was the ussr and since they had not been able to join the league of nations they could not be called upon to help

Answer 42

the league put together a commission of inquiry led by the british politician named Lord Lytton. Lytton went to the area and investigated and then put together a report which was published in october 1932. it concluded what people already knew- japan was in the wrong. the leagues findings were official but japan still ignored them and left the league. in feb 1933 the japanese invaded Jehol another chinese region. they then used these bases to invade the rest of the country in 1937. in 1938 most major chinese cities were controlled by the japanese army

Answer 43

the league had failed. one of its own members ignored it and acted with aggression. the league had acted slowly and had achieved nothing. long term damage to the league was limited and many people believed that if there was a problem involving european countries the league could still deal with it. at the time many people didn’t see the failure of the league as a ‘fatal blow’ but looking back this failure to stop an act of war and in italy and germany Mussolini and Hitler began to wonder if they might be able to get around the league too.

Answer 44

as a fascist dictator mussolini had promised people to rebuild the ancient roman empires. britain and france had added much of africa to their own empires and mussolini felt that abyssinia, as an independent nation, would be an ideal target for an invasion. he didn’t think that britain and france would object as they took so many colonies themselves. he though the invasion would be easy as italy already owned small colonies bordering abyssinia, eritrea and somaliland. mussolini could build bases in these countries and launch his attack from there. abyssinia would be good for italys economy as it was rich in natural resources. in 1896 italy had tried and failed to take it and had faced a humiliating defeat as they expected an easy victory against an underdeveloped country. mussolini was sure that he could invade abyssinia without the league taking action as he had dealings with the league during the corfu crisis in 1923 and was also a lot more confident after the leagues failure in manchuria. mussolini was also convinced that britain and france wouldn’t stop him as in 1935 they signed an agreement called the Stresa Front agreeing to unite against hitler. france was afraid that hitler might invade them and gave mussolini the impression they would do anything to keep italy as an ally against hitler

Answer 45

mussolini’s opportunity came in december 1934 when italian soldiers clashed with abyssinians at Wal Wal, 150 abyssinians and two italians were killed, the league tried to intervene but found it difficult to stop mussolini as both parties were members of the league but italy was intent on war. in jan 1935 the french foreign minister Pierre Laval met with mussolini and made a number of secret agreements. france promised italy to to interfere in Somaliland and Eritrea and gave it land in Chad but laval also promised mussolini a deal with abyssinia however he saw fit. in spite of moral condemnation from the league, mussolini’s troops entered abyssinian on 3rd of october 1935. the italians bombed tribal villages of abyssinia and used chemical weapons to terrorise the people into surrendering. the only resistance was the abyssinian army and some soldiers armed with nothing more than spears. on 30th of june 1935 Haile Selassie, the abyssinian emperor had addressed the league in geneva warning it of the effect it’s failure to deal with mussolini would have. but the league did nothing when on the 5th of may 1936 italian troops took the abyssinian capital, Addis Ababa: the league of nations had once against failed and from this point on peoples faith on the league was ruined.

Answer 46

Members of the League were forbidden from importing Italian goods and from selling weapons to Italy. However, it took two months to decide what else to ban, and when the decision was made, trade sanctions didn't include oil, steel, iron or coal. The British were worried that banning the trade in coal would cause unemployment in British mining areas, and the League felt that banning oil was pointless because countries like the USA and the USSR would continue to supply Mussolini. Mussolini later said that if coal and oil had been banned he would have had to stop his invasion, as he needed these to fuel war machines such as tanks.

Answer 47

``` The Suez Canal was built to connect the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. It was owned by the British and French and meant that they could travel to Eastern Africa or Asia without having to go all the way around the Cape of Africa. Britain and France could have closed the canal to stop Mussolini moving troops and supplies to invade Abyssinia, but they didn't as they wanted to avoid upsetting Mussolini. They were worried that Mussolini would unite with Hitler so they tried to keep him on their side. ```

Answer 48

Britain and France sent their foreign ministers, Pierre Laval and Samuel Hoare, to come up with a settlement to offer Italy. In December 1935 they met in secret and agreed that Italy would be given areas in Abyssinia. Abyssinia would be reduced to half its size, and the land it would keep would be mainly mountain regions, while Italy would gain the fertile areas. This land was not theirs to give and they did not discuss their plan with Italy or Abyssinia. Details of the Hoare-Laval Pact were leaked to the press, and public outcry followed. The two politicians were forced to resign, but the damage had been done: they had proved that Britain and France were willing to undermine the League for their own self- interest.

Answer 49

``` The League banned members from selling arms to Abyssinia as well as to Italy. Abyssinia was left with nothing to defend itself with against Mussolini's modern army. ```

Answer 50

``` In May 1936 Italy left the League of Nations. This left just Britain, France and the USSR (which had joined in 1934) to run the League. However, Britain and France had shown that they were more interested in their own welfare than protecting the Covenant of the League. Many historians say that from this time on no one really respected the League and its days as the international police force had ended. Small countries knew that the League would not protect them from invasion, and aggressive dictators such as Mussolini and Hitler realised that it was powerless to stop them starting a war. ```

Answer 51

- the league had no army - the league had very ambitious plans and ideals which some could argue were too ambitious - the league only met once a year, the council could veto proposals and decisions had to be unanimous so decision making was very slow - the leagues structure was complex and there weren’t enough people to carry out decisions that were made - american refused to join and other powerful countries such as germany and the ussr were not allowed to join when the league was formed - trade sanctions didn’t work because people could still trade with the countries not in the league - powerful countries weren’t scared of moral condemnation so the leagues sanctions were useless - the great depression meant countries were concerned with their own problems - depression meant people turned to extremists who gave simple solutions to peoples problems - the league was slow to act in the manchurian crisis - the british and french were too worried about keeping italy as an ally against hitler they didn’t do anything during the abyssinian crisis