X. Interwar Diplomacy and the Crisis of Capitalism

Question 0

Washington Conference

Answer 0

1921-22
Naval Conference to freeze the balance of power in Asia. China, Japan, US, UK. 5:3:1.67 (US/UK:Japan:France/Italy)
Japan dissatisfied

Question 1

Sun Yat Sen

Answer 1

leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party. known as the father of modern China. Influential in overthrowing the Qing (Manchu) dynasty (1911/12), he served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China (1911–12) and later as de facto ruler (1923–25).

Question 2

Hoover

Answer 2

U.S. President - his administration proved unable to alleviate widespread joblessness, homelessness, and hunger in his own country during the early years of the Great Depression. Signed into law (against the advice of many leading economists) the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised many import duties so high that foreign countries could not sell goods in the United States; as a result, those countries could not—or would not—purchase American goods at a time when the need for sales abroad had never been greater.

Question 3

March on Rome

Answer 3

March on Rome, the insurrection by which Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in late October 1922. The March marked the beginning of fascist rule and meant the doom of the preceding parliamentary regimes of socialists and liberals.

Question 4

Matteotti

Answer 4

Italian Socialist leader whose assassination by Fascists shocked world opinion and shook Benito Mussolini’s regime. The Matteotti Crisis, as the event came to be known, initially threatened to bring about the downfall of the Fascists but instead ended with Mussolini as the absolute dictator of Italy.

Question 5

Kapp Putsch

Answer 5

1920. The first consequence of the Treaty of Versailles was the Kapp Putsch, a coup d’état against the republic by radical nationalists, a part of the Reichswehr, and the Freikorps, which were to be disbanded under the provisions of the peace treaty. The coup of March 13, 1920, was led by Wolfgang Kapp, a provincial bureaucrat who planned a restoration of the monarchy. Within four days, a general strike by labour unions and the refusal by civil servants to follow Kapp’s orders led to the coup’s collapse. Ebert’s dream of a reconciliation between the army and the Social Democrats was shattered.

Question 6

Ebert

Answer 6

leader of the Social Democratic movement in Germany and a moderate socialist, who was a leader in bringing about the constitution of the Weimar Republic, which attempted to unite Germany after its defeat in World War I. He was president of the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1925

Question 7

Rathenau

Answer 7

Instrumental in beginning reparations payments under the Treaty of Versailles obligations and in breaking Germany’s diplomatic isolation.

Question 8

Stresemann

Answer 8

German Chancellor 1923, FM 1924-9
Restored Germany’s international status post-WW1 by following a policy of reconciliation and negotiation, along with Briand. He aimed to restore Germany to an equal status in international politics and its former position by meeting the reparations payments.

Question 9

Briand

Answer 9

Prime Minister of France, advocate of the League of Nations and collective security. Secured the Locarno Pact to normalise relations between Germany and her former enemies and the Kellogg-Briand Pact to outlaw war.

Question 10

Austen Chamberlain

Answer 10

British foreign secretary from 1924-9 who helped bring about the 1925 Locarno pact

Question 11

Great Strike

Answer 11

1926 general strike in GB. Lasted 9 days, an unsuccessful attempt to force British government to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions of coal mines. Had a huge effect on the British coal mining industry.

Question 12

Bukharin

Answer 12

a Soviet political leader, editor of Pravda, supporter of New Economic Policy which endeared him to Stalin. General Secretary of the executive committee of Comintern. Executed in 1938 after a trial that alienated many Western supporters of the USSR