The Twenty Years Crisis Revision Notes

The Twenty Years Crisis: Paris Peace Settlement and its Breakdown 1919-39

Lecture:

The Paris Peace Treaties:

• Versailles (28 June 1919) – Germany

• St Germain-en-Laye (10 Sep 1919) – Austria

• Neuilly-sur-Seine (27 Nov 1919) – Bulgaria

• Trianon (2 June 1920) – Hungary

• Sevres (10 Aug 1920) – Ottoman Empire

  • Replaced by Lousanne (1923)

A Democratic Peace:

• Based on Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points and national self-determination

• The Weimar Republic was established, forging a democratically run Germany

• Created the League of Nations, based on a belief in collective security

  • America did not join the League of Nations, drastically weakening it from the start

Weaknesses of Paris Settlement:

• The League of Nations was linked to vindictive treaties

  • Germany saw it as a hostile measure

  • Germany were not included in the LoN

• US and Italy alienated

• Bolshevik menace

  • European countries wanted to maintain a fairly strong Germany to act as a buffer against the communist ideology in the East

• Austria and Hungary reduced, reliant on Germany in central Europe

• Turkey later showed the settlement could be broken

  • Chanak Crisis, 1922

    • Turkish troops threatened to attack British and French troops guarding a neutral zone

    • British handled the situation badly; contributed to the downfall of Lloyd George; Canada acted diplomatically independently of the UK

Treaty of Versailles:

• Too harsh?

  • Loss of German colonies

  • Loss of German European territory

  • Rhineland demilitarised

  • Anschluss with Austria forbidden

  • Armed forces limited and no air force allowed

  • War guilt clause

  • Reparations to the allies

• Or too lenient?

  • The Rhineland was not separated from Germany (subsequently remilitarised in 1936)

  • Anschluss with Austria later occurred (1938)

  • Military restrictions were broken (Rapallo, 1922)

  • Germany could pay the reparations bill

  • Germany maintained its status as a major European power

The Locarno Era:

• Treaty of Locarno 1925

  • Fixed Western borders and created a system of arbitration on the East

• Kellogg-Briand pact 1928

  • Outlawed war as means to resolve disputes

Eastern Europe:

• Paris settlement created the Polish corridor

• Britain unwilling to guarantee Eastern borders at Locarno

• France made separate treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia

  • Little entente states

The Slump:

• US retreated deeper into isolation; public opinion was that they should have no involvement in European disputes

  • Smoot-Hawley tariff, June 1930

    • Raised tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods

• Briand Plan for European federation failed

• Stresemann died October 1929; Briand, March 1932

  • Two influential individuals in the pursuit of European peaceful coexistence and restoration of Germany

• Collapse of Kreditanstalt (Vienna, July, 1931)

  • This led to high German unemployment which in turn led to the German populace to seek political recovery from more extreme parties; rise of the Nazi party

Japanese Aggression:

• Anglo-Japanese alliance allowed to lapse

• Invaded Manchuria (1931)

• Left League of Nations (1933)

• Announced intention to withdraw from naval agreement (1934)

• Formed Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany (Nov, 1936)

• Invaded China (1937)

Italian Aggression:

• The Stresa Front (1934)

  • Britain, France and Italy signed a pact to not allow Germany to change any decree of the Treaty of Versailles

• The Abyssinian Crisis (1935)

  • Undermined the credibility of the League of Nations

  • Encouraged Italy to ally itself with Nazi Germany

  • Ended the peace in Europe

• The Rome-Berlin Axis (1936)

  • Promoted the alliance as a defensive movement against communism

German Aggression:

• The Rise of Hitler (1933)

• Anglo-German Naval Agreement (Jun 1935)

  • Hitler attempted to ease relations between Britain and Germany and isolate the Soviet Union

    • However the UK and USSR were also, at the same time, attempting to isolate and surround Nazi Germany

• Remilitarisation of Rhineland (March 1936)

  • Directly violated the terms of the treaty of Versailles

• Anschluss (1938)

  • Directly violated terms of the treaty of Versailles

• Sudetenland (Sep 1938)

• Poland (Sep 1939)

The French Response:

• Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance (May 1935)

  • Similar to the alliance prior to the First world war

• Relations with the Little Entente

• Relations with Britain

Appeasement:

• Reasons for Appeasement; European factors:

  • Initiative already lost, 1934-36

    • Weakness of the League of Nations

  • Ignorance of Nazism

  • Problems of Eastern Europe

  • Weakness of France

  • Lack of alternatives

    • Only feasible alternative to appeasement was an Anglo-Soviet alliance and many people preferred the Nazi’s to the Soviets

    • Britain did not want to cripple Germany; Germany needed to remain a strong central European power to deter the spread of communism

• Reasons for Appeasement; Domestic Factors:

  • ...

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