how and why did international tensions remain high 1920-23 Flashcards
why international tensions remained high
-US isolationism
-Attitudes towards Russia
-German hyperinflation
-Ruhr crisis
-Britain and Frances attitudes towards
-Corfu incident
-Border disputes
US isolationism
-Public opinion in the USA was divided on the issue of whether the USA should join the League of Nations.
-Most Democratic Party senators supported internationalism.
-Most Republican Party senators argued in favour of isolationasim - that the USA should keep out of public international affairs unless its own interests were at stake.
- USA decided to favour isolationasim because the Republican Party held a majority of the senate. November 1919, the US Senate refused to allow the USA to join the League of Nations. The USA was determined not to be involved in another war and believed that the terms of the peace settlement made the future conflict inevitable.
-The USA’s decision not to ratify the Paris peace settlement and, instead, to make a separate peace with Germany in 1921 had a profound effect on relations between European countries .
-In particular it contributed to France’s already significant feelings of insecurity.The French now had no guarantee of American support in the event of an attack by a resurgent Germany.
-Furthermore Britain was clearly seeking to withdraw from European affairs and to focus primarily on its relations with Australia , Canada and New Zealand.Britain argued that disarmament was the key to future peace within Europe , France which was fearful of a revival of German power was against it.
-To the British, it appeared that France posed a greater threat to future peace than Germany. As a result, there seemed little likelihood that Britain would guarantee French security. This left France isolated and consequently even more determined to prevent Germany’s post-war recovery.
Attitudes towards Russia
-Russia which was now under communist rule was viewed with fear/suspicion by its former allies.
-Many governments feared revolution in their countries in the post war years.
-Many Western European powers and Japan were concerned over the potential spread of communism and became involved in Russian Civil war in attempt to prevent Lenin’s Bolsheviks winning control of Russia.
-For France this situation meant the loss of another potential ally against Germany.
what were the factors that led to the increase in international tensions from 1920-23?
- Enforcing the ToV
-German hyperinflation
-Ruhr crisis
-Anglo-french differences (short term , able to come to a compromise)
over upper silesia
reparations
poland
disarmament
-Corfu incident
-Chanak crisis - TUrkey rise of mustafa kemal
German hyperinflation
Passive resistance certainly hindered French operations in the Ruhr and raised international tensions still higher, but it also triggered hyperinflation in Germany. To subsidize the strikers and compensate for the lost tax revenues from the Ruhr, the government printed ever larger sums of money.
-The value of the German mark continued to sink rapidly, and by August it was worthless. From 4.2 marks to the dollar in July 1914 it had risen to 4.2 trillion marks by 15 November 1923. This completed the impoverishment of the large number of the middle classes who were dependent on fixed incomes, war bonds and pensions.
Ruhr Crisis
-In 1923 angered by Germany’s failure to make reparations payments , French and Belgium troops occupied the Ruhr (one of Germany’s most important industrial regions) With the aim of seizing coal and timber by way of payment.
- The government ordered a policy of passive resistance , which effectively paralysed industry in the Ruhr as miners and factory employees refused to work.
-Although the French and Belgians largely failed to seize goods from German factories and mines , the economic effect of the loss of output from such a vital industrial region was catastrophic for Germany , which further fuelled its rising inflation.
Attitudes towards Germany
-Relations between Britain and France were strained as a result of their different attitudes towards Germany’s recovery.
-Britain was keen to re-establish trading partners with Germany and encouraged Germany’s economic revival.
-France on the other hand was determined to keep Germany as week as possible for as long as possible .
-Britain opposed France’s actions in the Ruhr , considering them an act of war.
The corfu incident
- In August 1923 , Four italians were killed while engaged in a LON attempt to resolve a border dispute between Greece and Albania.
-Mussolini believed that Greece was responsible for the deaths and ordered Italian troops to bombard and occupy , the Greek island of Corfu.
-Greece appealed to the LON which ordered Italian troops to withdraw from Corfu.
-Mussolini refused to accept the Leagues authority and the occupation continued until Greece paid a substantial amount of compensation.
-Britain and France saw Mussolini as a useful ally against the threat of communism , however his refusal to abide by the decisions made at the Paris peace Conference was a cause of concern throughout Europe.
The Fiume crisis
-In March 1923, Italian troops took possession of the Adriatic port of Fiume. This action was in defiance of the Paris peace settlement , which had declared Fiume a free city to be used jointly by Italy and Yugoslavia.
other disputes and tensions
-Elsewhere in Europe other border disputes arising from decisions made at the Paris peace conference soon occurred.
-Turkey defied the peace settlement when its troops retook some land in 1922 including Smyrna and parts of Anatolia that were awarded to Greece by the treaty of Sevres.
-By doing this Turkey became the first country to successfully challenge the post-war settlement.
-In 1923 a revised treaty - the Treaty of Lausanne - replaced the orginal.As a result Turkey regained some land it hads lost including ; Smyrna , Thrace , the Aegean islands of imbros , Tenedos. This helped restore Turkish national pride.
-Tensions also increased between The USA and Japan. Japanese power in East Asia had grown enormously after ww1 and its expansion in East Asia was of grave concern to the western powers , which were keen to protect and extend their own trading activities in the region.
-The USA increasingly viewed Japan as a threat to its open door policy in China.
