Transcript Slide 1

Key words:
Ruhr
Hyperinflation
Monday, July 20, 2015
How did the Nazi Party develop
in the later 1920s?
To make decisions based on the scenario
Stresemann faced
To understand what Stresemann did to try to
improve Germany
To evaluate the success of these changes
Topic 2: Peacemaking 1918–1919 and
the League of Nations
Key issue: How did the Treaty of Versailles establish peace?
• The Paris Peace Conference: the aims of Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Woodrow
Wilson: the Fourteen Points
• The main terms of the Treaty of Versailles: Diktat; territorial changes; military
restrictions, war guilt and reparations
• The strengths and weaknesses of the Treaty of Versailles: why Germany objected
to it.
Key issue: Why did the League of Nations fail in its aim to keep peace?
• Membership 1919–1939: why and how it changed; implications for the LoN
• Organisation, powers and peace keeping role: the Assembly; the Council; the
Permanent Court of Justice; military and economic sanctions
• The Manchurian Crisis 1931–1933: events; action taken by the League; effect on
the League as a peace keeping force
• The Abyssinian Crisis 1935–1936: events; action taken by the League; effect on the
League as a peacekeeping force
• The reasons for the collapse of the League.
• Topic 3: Hitler’s foreign policy and the origins of the Second World War
Describe how the League of Nations tried to
solve the Abyssinian Crisis. (4 marks)
In 1918 France wanted Germany to pay for
causing the war. Describe how the War Guilt
Clause and the Reparations Settlement tried to
achieve this. (4 marks)
In 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia. Although the
Abyssinian emperor Haile Selassie went to the
League himself to ask for help, all the League
did was to ban arms sales, which did Abyssinia
more harm than Italy. A League commission
offered Italy part of Abyssinia, but Italy invaded
anyway. Far from stopping Italy, Britain and
France tried to make a secret pact to give
Abyssinia to Italy.
Describe the main features of the Fourteen
At the end of the First World War, the Treaty of
Points . (4 marks)
Versailles took land away from Germany and
gave it to other countries. Describe these
changes. (4 marks)
The League also had great weaknesses.
1.
The three most powerful countries in the world were not members.
The USA did not want to join (most Americans were isolationist). The
Russians refused to join (they were Communists and hated Britain and
France). Germany was not allowed to join until 1925. This was not a
problem in the 1920s, when the League dealt mainly with small
countries like Sweden and Finland (Aaland Islands, 1921), Turkey
(Mosul, 1924) and Bulgaria and Greece (1925). But, without the three
world powers, the League was too weak to make a big country do as it
wished (for instance, Italy over Corfu in 1923).
2.
Another weakness was that the League’s organisation was a
muddle. The Assembly could only make a decision by a unanimous
vote (so it never made any decisions), and on the Council, all the
permanent members had a veto. The Conference of Ambassadors kept
over-ruling the decisions of the Council. The Secretariat was
understaffed and always in a terrible muddle. When there was a crisis,
no-one could agree.
3.
Finally, the League’s greatest weakness came from the fact that it
was set up by the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty had many flaws (for
example, reparations) – but the League was supposed to enforce it.
Also, the Treaty was hated, especially by the Germans and the
Americans, so the League was hated too.
Source – origin, purpose
Own knowledge
Do you agree? Why/why not?
Do you agree that the lack of an armed
force was the main weakness of the
League of Nations when it was set up in
1920?
Hitler had three aims:
1. To abolish the Treaty of Versailles
The Germans hated it, especially:
•Tiny armed forces,
•The Saar was under League of Nations control,
•The Rhineland was demilitarised,
•Anschluss (union) with Austria was forbidden,
•Germans were forced to live in Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) and Poland,
•Danzig was under League of Nations control.
The Treaty was a constant reminder to the Germans of their humiliation in World War I. Hitler did not accept that
the German army had lost the war, and he was determined to make Germany great again.
2. To expand German territory
The German population was growing. Hitler said that the German nation needed more Lebensraum (‘living
space’) . He was determined to get Lebensraum by conquering land in eastern Europe.
This was connected with his belief that the Aryan race was genetically superior and destined to rule over
others. Hitler believed he had the right to invade eastern Europe and make the Slav peoples (such as the Poles
and the Russians) Germany's slaves.
2. To defeat Communism
The Nazis were Fascists: the exact opposite of the Communists who ruled Russia.
Hitler blamed the Communists for Germany's defeat in World War One, and he feared that the Communists were
trying to take over Germany.
He was determined to destroy Communism, and this meant a war with Russia.
From Mein Kampf, written by
Adolf Hitler in 1924.
Source – origin, purpose
Own knowledge
We demand equality of rights
for the German people in its
dealings with other
nations. We demand the
abolition of the Treaty of
Versailles.
Do you agree that these were
Hitler’s main aims in foreign
policy in the 1930s?
Do you agree? Why/why not?
David Lloyd George
He was Prime Minister of Great Britain.
He said he would ‘make Germany pay’ – because he
knew that was what the British people wanted to hear.
He wanted ‘justice’, but he did not want revenge. He
said that the peace must not be harsh – that would
just cause another war in a few years time. He tried to
get a ‘halfway point’ – a compromise between Wilson
and Clemenceau.
He ALSO wanted to expand the British Empire, maintain
British control of the seas, and increase Britain's trade
Source B From an election speech
by Lloyd George, made at Bristol
on 11 December 1918.
Source – origin, purpose
Own knowledge
“We propose to demand the whole
cost of the war from Germany.
Germany must pay to the last
penny.”
Do you agree that this was Lloyd
George’s main aim at the Paris
Peace Conference in 1919?
Do you agree? Why/why not?
1. No more secret agreements ("Open covenants openly arrived at").
2. Free navigation of all seas.
3. An end to all economic barriers between countries.
4. Countries to reduce weapon numbers.
5. All decisions regarding the colonies should be impartial
6. The German Army is to be removed from Russia. Russia should be left to
develop her own political set-up.
7. Belgium should be independent like before the war.
8. France should be fully liberated and allowed to recover Alsace-Lorraine
9. All Italians are to be allowed to live in Italy. Italy's borders are to "along
clearly recognisable lines of nationality."
10. Self-determination should be allowed for all those living in Austria-Hungary.
11. Self-determination and guarantees of independence should be allowed for
the Balkan states.
12. The Turkish people should be governed by the Turkish government. NonTurks in the old Turkish Empire should govern themselves.
13. An independent Poland should be created which should have access to the
sea.
14. A League of Nations should be set up to guarantee the political and
territorial independence of all states.
From a speech in January 1918
by President Woodrow Wilson to
American politicians, explaining
his Fourteen Points.
“Peoples and territory must not
be passed from country to
country. This peace must make
every territorial settlement for
the benefit of the people who live
there, not because of claims or
deals made by other countries.”
Source B suggests that President
Wilson wanted self determination
for all peoples after the First
World War.
Do you agree that this was
Wilson’s main aim at the Paris
Peace Conference in 1919?
Source – origin, purpose
Own knowledge
Do you agree? Why/why not?
10 mark questions
a) Which part of the Treaty of Versailles made the
German people more angry:
• the land taken from Germany
• reparations?
b) Which was the more important reason why the League
of Nations failed to solve the Abyssinian Crisis:
• the actions of Britain and France
• the absence of the USA from the League of Nations?
c) Which event undermined the League of Nations more:
• The Manchurian Crisis
• The Abyssinian Crisis?