How successful was the League in the 1930s?

Question 1

Problems with the League during the 1930s: Manchurian crisis 1931-33

Answer 1

Problem: Japan invaded Manchuria (in China)
Response: After a long delay, no action was taken
Effect: Made the League seem weak and ineffective

Question 2

Problems with the League during the 1930s: Disarmament conference 1932-34

Answer 2

Problem: Germany complained that only it had disarmed
Response: League couldn’t get other members to disarm
Effect: Germany left the L and began to rearm openly, League members such as Britain and France no longer tried to stop it and L members also began to rearm themselves.

Question 3

Problems with the League during the 1930s: Abyssinian crisis 1935-36

Answer 3

Problem: Italy invaded Abyssinia
Response: League members couldn’t agree effective sanctions against Italy. Britain and France tried to do a secret deal to give most of Abyssinia to Italy.
Effect: League was seen as powerless and irrelevant

Question 4

When did the American stock market crash?

Answer 4

1929

Question 5

How did countries around the world try to deal with the economic depression in the 1930s?

Answer 5

• Some countries tried to protect their own industries by putting TARIFFS on imports
• But this just meant their trading partners did the same thing and trade got even worse
• Many countries like Germany, Japan, Italy and Britain started to rearm (build up their armed forced) to give jobs to the unemployed
• These new armies caused alarm and tension

Question 6

How did the economic depression impact the USA?

Answer 6

• One way the League could stop one country invading another was to use economic sanctions
• But the Depression made the USA unwilling to help in this because economic sanctions would makes its own economy even worse

Question 7

How did the economic depression impact Japan?

Answer 7

• The Depression threatened to bankrupt Japan
• Main export was silk to the USA, but the USA was buying less silk
• Japan had less money to buy food and raw materials
• Japan’s leaders (who were all army generals) decided to build an empire by taking over weaker countries that had the raw material Japan needed
• Started by invading Manchuria in 1931

Question 8

How did the economic depression impact Britain?

Answer 8

• Britain was one of the leaders of the LON
• Like the USA, it was unwilling to sort out international disputes while its economy was bad
• When Japan invaded Manchuria it did nothing
• It didn’t support economic sanctions against Japan and didn’t send troops to protect Manchuria

Question 9

How did the economic depression impact Germany?

Answer 9

• Very bad for Germany
• Unemployment, poverty and chaos
• Germany’s weak leaders seemed unable to do anything
• Germans elected Hitler to lead them
• He openly planned to invade Germany’s neighbours and to win back land that Germany had lost in WW1

Question 10

How did the economic depression impact Italy?

Answer 10

Economic problems encouraged Mussolini to try build an overseas empire to distract people’s attention from the difficulties the government faced.