International Relations

Question 1

What was the Paris peace conference?

Answer 1

1919 conference at the end of WWI.
30+ countries came to discuss the future of Europe
Treaty of versailles was signed however Germany wasn’t invited
Wilson conducted his 14 point document one of which was creating the League of Nations
Clemenceau and George believed that the LoN would go against their national interests

Question 2

What were the terms of the treaty of Versailles

Answer 2

1. Germany had to take blame for the war.
2. Germany had to pay reparations (payment), which was $6.6 Billion.
3. Germany had its men restricted to 100,000
4. Restrictions on their aircrafts and submarines
5. Saar reigon was given to france
6. Germany could not unite with austria
7. Rhineland was demilitarised

Question 3

Successes of the League of Nations

Answer 3

Prevented war between Sweden and Finland over the Åland Islands, Prevented war between Bulgaria and Greece, created a successful Health Committee (now WHO), created Nansen Passport for refugees

Question 4

What was the rapallo treaty 1922

Answer 4

The USSR and Germany re-established diplomatic relations

Question 5

What was the Dawes Plan 1924?

Answer 5

To avert an economic crisis in Germany, USA lent it the money it needed to honour its reparations

Question 6

What were the Locarno treaties 1925?

Answer 6

Germany accepted its western borders as set out in the treaty of Versailles

Question 7

What was the Kellogg - Briand pact 1928

Answer 7

Agreement between 65 nations to not use force to settle disputes ( not to go to war )

Question 8

What was the young plan 1929

Answer 8

Reduced Germany’s reparations from £6.6billion to 2.2 billion

Question 9

What was the wall street crash? (1929)

Answer 9

The us stock market crashed, wiping out the savings of millions of Americans and causing the collapse of the us banks and businesses

Question 10

What was the Great Depression?

Answer 10

A long period of economic decline where unemployment skyrocketed

Question 11

What was the ‘American loans called in’

Answer 11

When the depression hit in 1929, many us banks started to run out of money so they called in their loans, asking European banks to pay back the money they had borrowed

Question 12

How did Hitler rise to power?

Answer 12

He took advantage of fear surrounding the economy after the Great Depression by capitalising on people’s frustrations and promised solutions and resonated with many Germans

Question 13

Why did fascism become popular after the great depression?

Answer 13

Fascism offered a sense of stability and promised to revive the economy. Fascist leaders such as Mussolini and Hitler capitalised on this by blaming minors groups and promoting nationalism

Question 14

What was the Manchurian crisis 1931?

Answer 14

The Japanese army controlled the south Manchurian railway and they claimed that Chinese troops had attacked the railway, they used this as an excuse to invademanchuria and set up their own governments

Question 15

What was the Abyssinian crisis 1935?

Answer 15

Italy invaded Abyssinia because Italy was economically devastated after the great depression so Mussolini wanted to give his people a victory and he wanted to gain territories in Africa

Question 16

What was the Hoare - laval pact?

Answer 16

Britain and France agreed to give Mussolini 2/3 of Abyssinia in return for calling off his invasion

Question 17

What were Hitler’s actions between 1933 and 1936

Answer 17

Leaving the league in 1933 → he claimed his country wasn’t being treated as equal
Rearmament 1933 -35 → hitter went against the treaty of Versailles and drafted thousands of unemployed workers into the army to reduce unemployment. By 1935, he didn’t hide Germany’s rearmament program.
The Saar 1935 → In 1919 the Saar region was run by the lon and Hitler claimed it should be apart of Germany, nearly 90% of people in the region voted to join Hitler’s Germany, boosting his prestige in his country
Remilitarisation of the Rhineland 1936 → march 1936 he ordered troops into Rhineland and it was a huge gamble. If the British and french were to send troops he would have had to withdraw however they were too busy dealing with Abyssinia

Question 18

What was the Anschluss

Answer 18

Germany wanted to reunitewith Austria 1938

Question 19

What was the Munich agreement 1938

Answer 19

Agreement between Britain, France, Germany and Italy.it allowed Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia

Question 20

What was the Nazi Soviet pact?

Answer 20

Alliance between Hitler and Stalin to avoid fighting as Hitler wanted to invade Poland however he was deeply concerned that Stalin would oppose him since Poland bordered the USSR and Stalin was concerned about Hitler in the 1930s especially after the Munich agreement since he was not consulted about it and chamberlain and daladier were happy to direct Hitler eastwards towards the USSR

Question 21

What was the popular majority view 1937 - 38

Answer 21

Chamberlain kept the specture of war at bay for as long as he could.

Context → British people were haunted by the memories of world war 1. The country was not united behind the idea of going to war over Czechoslovakia

Question 22

What was the guilty men view 1939 - 48/ popular political

Answer 22

Appeasement was foolish and it strengthened dictators

Context → many people were ashamed of what happened at Munich, when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia attitudes began to turn against appeasement

Question 23

What was the orthodox view 1948 -60s?

Answer 23

Chamberlain had good intentions however appeasement was a mistake

Context → the ‘Churchill factor’ and the Cold War

Question 24

What was the academic revisionist view 1960s -90s?

Answer 24

Chamberlain was in an impossible situation and did his best under the circumstances

Context → radical thinking: traditional views were being questioned and new ideas emerged
The Vietnam war: USA’s dislike of appeasement had drawn them into a war in Vietnam. (Which was going badly) This suggested that appeasement may not have been a bad policy because without it the British may have ended up in the same position

Question 25

What was the academic counter revisionist view 1990s - 2000s?

Answer 25

Chamberlain was apart of the problem, his personality and assumptions meant he could not deal with the situation.
The revisionist
Context → historical debate → a lot of historians didn’t agree with the revisionist view as it let chamberlain off the hook for appeasement

Question 26

Why was appeasement good? (3)

Answer 26

Appeasement was a way of buying time so Britain could strengthen its military.

Some people believed the treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany.

To avoid a war.

Question 27

Why was appeasement a mistake? (2)

Answer 27

It encouraged aggressors to pursue their ambitions and not face consequence

It gave the impression that they could get away with anything
(Which is why Hitler continued invading places and expanding his territory and ultimately Led to the outbreak of World War II)

Question 28

What was the Cold War? (3)

Answer 28

Geopolitical tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States

They both engaged in a nuclear arms race, as well as an economic and military competition

Ideological differences one was Communist one was capitalist

Question 29

Why did tensions rise between the USA and USSR? (2)

Answer 29

Stalin suspicions of the US loans as the USA offered the USSR, 10 billion in loans to ensure they can continue trading in Eastern Europe

Ideological differences

Question 30

What happened at the Yalta conference of February 1945?

Answer 30

So US, the Soviet union in the UK met in Ukraine to talk about what would happen after World War II

Germany was divided into four zones

United States control the southern zone
The United Kingdom controlled the north western zone
France control the south-western zone
USSR controlled the eastern zone

Question 31

What happened at the Potsdam conference in July/August 1945?

Answer 31

The leaders of the USA, uk and Soviet Union met to make plans for Germany. After the war. They decided to demilitarise Germany, hold war crime trials and divide Germany into occupations zones.

Question 32

What were the disagreements at Potsdam?
(Germany, reparations, Eastern Europe)

Answer 32

Germany → Stalin wanted to cripple Germany completely to protect the USSR against future threat. Truman did not want to repeat the mistake of the treaty of Versailles.

Reparations → 20 million Russians had died in the war and the Soviet Union had been devastated so Stalin wanted compensation from Germany. Initially Truman agreed, soon he changed his mind. Stalin was confused about why Truman wanted to protect Germany.

Eastern Europe → at Yalta, Stalin had won, agreement from the allies that he could set up a pro Soviet government in Eastern Europe

Question 33

What was the iron curtain?

Answer 33

A political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas (communism and capitalism)

Question 34

What was the Berlin blockade 1948 - 49?

Answer 34

Soviet attempt to cut off West Berlin from the rest of the world by blocking all land and water routes

Question 35

What was the Berlin airlift?

Answer 35

A response to the Berlin blockade, western allies flew in supplies to West Berlin by plane to support the people and show their commitment to their freedom

Question 36

What were the patterns in the cold was conflict? (3)

Answer 36

Distrust and propaganda
Alliances
Nuclear ‘peace’ and proxy wars

Question 37

What was the Cuban missile crisis 1962?

Answer 37

USSR secretly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba because the USA attempted to invade Cuba to put Castro out of power

USA felt threatened so they established a naval blockade around Cuba, demanding for the removal of the missiles

Question 38

What was the bay of pigs?

Answer 38

Failed military invasion of Cuba in 1961 by the us government, An attempt to overthrow Cuban government of Castro. Kennedy authorised a CIA - backed up plan to help 4000 exiles

Question 39

What did Khrushchev gain and lose from the Cuban missile crisis?

Answer 39

Gain» managed to keep Cuba communist
Loss» didn’t have enough power anymore due to missiles

Question 40

What did Castro gain and lose from the Cuban missile crisis?

Answer 40

Gain» kept control of the American companies that he nationalised during his revolution
Loss » lost the missiles

Question 41

What did Kennedy gain + lose from the Cuban missile crisis?

Answer 41

Gain» stood up to Khrushchev and the ‘hawks’ in his own government
Losses» Didn’t manage to out Castro and lost his missiles in turkey

Question 42

What was the nuclear test ban treaty?

Answer 42

Happened in 1963, between Khrushchev and Kennedy. Khrushchev had to remove missiles from Cuba and Kennedy had to remove missiles from turkey

Question 43

What was the Vietnam war?

Answer 43

A proxy war for USA and USSR where the us entered Vietnam with the principle purpose of preventing a communist takeover of the region

North Vietnam was supported by USSR and south Vietnam was supported by USA

Question 44

Which tactics were used by the Vietcong?

Answer 44

Guerrilla warfare → surprise attacks and hit and run tactics against a larger more conventional forces

Question 45

How did America lose the war?

Answer 45

They were no match for the guerrilla warfare tactics, they lacked clear objective and the Vietcong were fully supported by their people whereas the war led to a loss of public support back in the us. Also, many American soldiers in the Vietnam war were juvenile and inexperienced which meant they lacked the necessary training and maturity to handle the complexities and pressures of was effectively.

Question 46

What was the domino theory?

Answer 46

If one country fell into communism, all the surrounding countries would follow like a row of Dominos

Question 47

What was the Truman Doctrine?

Answer 47

The USA provided aid to countries threatened by soviet expansionism,
It was an attempt to prevent communism worldwide and stopping the USSR from expanding its sphere of influence

Question 48

Long term causes of the cold war

Answer 48

NATO was formed (an alliance between 30 countries to protect eachother against the soviet union)
Warsaw Pact was formed as a military alliance as a response to NATO by the Soviet Union
Humanity learned to create nuclear energy
Economic crisis in Russia, caused millions of Soviets to go unemployed

Question 49

What was the tet offensive?

Answer 49

A major military campaign during the Vietnam war where north Vietnamese forces launched a series of surprise attacks on south Vietnam

Question 50

What was the my Lai massacre 1968?

Answer 50

American soliders from the Charlie company killed unarmed Vietnamese Civilians they claimed they were following orders to eliminate Vietcong sympathisers however they violated the terms and resulted in the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians

Question 51

What was the US orthodox view? (Late 1940s - early 1960s)

Answer 51

The Soviet Union was to blame
Context → the red scare in the USA

Question 52

What was the US revisionist view? (Mid 1960s - mid 1970s)

Answer 52

The USA was to blame
Context → the Cuban revolution (the USA behaved more like an aggressive, empire building tower than a force for good
→ the Vietnam war: THE USA had supported a corrupt regime in Vietnam, killed tens of thousands of civilians with bombing raids, used, chemical weapons and neglected its poorest citizens at home

Question 53

What was the post-revisionist view? (Early 1970s - 1989)

Answer 53

The Cold War was caused by the USA and USSR they reacted to the actions of the other side, and those reactions were largely based on misunderstanding and mistrust

Context: show me historians were challenging, both orthodox and revisionist historian for being too simplistic and blaming one side or the other
Also, ideological differences made them fear each other

Question 54

What was the new cold war historians view? (1989 onwards)

Answer 54

They still couldn’t be sure as access to Soviet archives left historians divided

Throughout the Cold War, Soviet archives had been off-limits to US historians
In the USA, the debate started to reflect the way politics inside the country had become polarised on the Ronald Reagan son felt he had been reckless and taking unnecessary risks by being too aggressive towards the USSR

Question 55

What were the effects of the building of Berlin Wall in 1961 on international relations?

Answer 55

The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, intensified the division between east and west Berlin, as it created a physical barrier between the two symbolising, the Cold War struggle. The wall symbolised the division between the capitalist and Communist blocks and restricted movement, separated families and heighten tensions between the two sides. It also solidified the division of Germany became a powerful symbol of the Cold War struggle.

Question 56

What were the origins of the US involvement in Vietnam from 1954 to 1965?

Answer 56

The US became involved in Vietnam due to the spread of communism and the fear of the domino effect in Southeast Asia. Additionally, the US supported South Vietnam as a way to counter the influence of north Vietnam and the Soviet union

Question 57

How did the Vietnam war impact international relations?

Answer 57

The Vietnam war created tensions between the US and the Soviet union, divided nations and sparked global protests