♥Class 4N1 -} English

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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HISTORY SEQ NOTES: DISARMAMENT
E.g. How far had hopes for disarmament succeeded by 1930?
Success:
1) The Treaty of Versailles disarmed Germany to a level that was way below its original strength prior to WWI (army down to 100,000; dismantled airforce; navy included only 6 battleships and smaller ships)
2) Naval disarmament through 3 conferences – Washington Conference in 1921, Geneva Conference in 1927; London Conference in 1930 where countries agreed to keep to the ratio of battleships dictated at the conferences e.g. Britain to have ratio of 7 battleships and Japan to have ratio of 3 battleships.
3) 65 Countries signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928 agreeing not to wage war over the next five years except in self-defence à relieve tension and made it easier for countries to accept disarmament.
Failures:
1) Germany was able to exploit the loopholes in the TOV. Trained an army of 100,000 “officers”, thereby giving them the opportunity to secretly train more soldiers. In fact, in the 1930s, Hitler had begun his plans to rearm and this led to many countries rushing to rearm as well for fear of Germany starting another war.
2) The naval conferences showed the disunity of the member countries. Many countries were unwilling to accept the terms for naval disarmament and at the Geneva Conference, no agreement was made as Italy and France refused to attend.
3) The Treaty of Mutual Assistance and the General Protocol proposed by the LON to get member countries to disarm and bring their conflicts to the LON failed as countries did not trust each other and had little faith in the LON.
4) The Kellogg-Briand Pact sounded impressive but countries exploited it by maintaining that wars were carried out of self-defence.
5) Disarmament can only succeed if there was trust between the countries. The First World War had robbed the countries of trust and many were reluctant to disarm. For instance, France often quoted the need to protect itself from Germany as the reason for not disarming.
6)
7) Conclusion:
- Seemed hopeful at the beginning but eventually it was not carried out.
- All the various disarmament conferences and agreements only worked at the problem on a superficial level; it failed to address the root problem which was the lack of trust amongst countries.
- So long as there was distrust, disarmament could never be carried out.
- Likewise, all that was needed for disarmament to fail was the presence of leaders with ambitions to conquer others such as Hitler who were able to exploit the weaknesses within the various disarmament treaties for their own benefit.
- By the early 1930s, Europe was on the road to war.

HISTORY SEQ NOTES: LEAGUE OF NATIONS
E.g. How successful was the LON?
Success:
1) Very successful in handling humanitarian issues such as significantly reducing outbreaks of leprosy worldwide. Improved living conditions in poorer countries as well as improved working conditions and wages.
2) Managed to solve disputes among the countries, especially disputes on a smaller basis. Examples included Sweden accepting the verdict from LON to give the Aaland Islands to Finland.

Failures:
1) Unable to handle disputes on a larger scale such as making Italy withdraw from Corfu islands until Greece gave in to Italy’s demands.
2) Unable to carry out disarmament successfully as nations refused to turn up or agree to the terms stated during the various disarmament conferences such as Italy’s and France’s refusal to attend the Geneva Conference in 1927.
3) Failed to inspire trust from its member countries as members had the freedom to leave the League as and when it fit their motives. Difficulty in enforcing verdicts as the League had no army (depend on members to supply), could only enforce sanctions but this would only work if the member countries comply. Worse, countries such as the U.S were not included in the LON though it championed for the creation of such a League. This made it difficult for the League to get the fullest support from the rest.
Conclusion:
- League did provide hope for the nations at the beginning especially when all nations were looking forward to collective security after WWI.
- Unfortunately, LON could only be as successful as the members want it to be as its resources were from its members.
- It had its successes and failures but overall, it would be considered unsuccessful as it had limited success in the most important missions it was set up for which was to bring peace and collective security to all.

HISTORY SEQ NOTES: TREATY OF VERSAILLES
E.g. How far do you agree that the main intention of the TOV was to punish Germany? / To what extent would you agree that the TOV was a harsh peace? / How far would you agree that the reaction of the Germans towards the TOV was unreasonable?
Intentions of the TOV:
1) Punish Germany/ take revenge/ appease the people
- Germany started WWI and this war had a devastating effect on the affected countries, in particular France as much of the fighting took place on French soil.
- In order to appease the people who suffered the loss of their loved ones and the disruption to their lives, the Allied countries had to ensure that Germany would be punished severely. In fact, many of the French people were pressing Clemenceau for revenge.
- Others, like Britain, though sympathetic towards Germany, could not afford to be seen as being too careful with German feelings, were also forced to endorse a harsh TOV.
- Evidence is shown in the terms of the Treaty in particular, forcing Germany to accept all blame for starting a war under the War Guilt Clause. This was the first time a country had been expected to take up all the blame à Hence, Germany had to pay all the war reparations as compensation for all the war damages. This amounted to 6650 million pounds, an astronomical amount for a country that was also not spared from the effects of war. This would cripple Germany’s economy.
6) Prevent another war from happening
- TOV was to ensure that Germany would never start another war like WWI.
- To do that, Germany’s military might must be brought down to a level where it would not be capable of starting another war on such a major level.
- Thus, the terms of the TOV made it impossible for Germany to start another war by limiting its military capacity in the following ways: army to be restricted to 100,000 and no conscription, navy restricted to15, 000 men and 6 battleships, no submarines, tanks and planes.
10) Allow colonies to have self-determination
- Germany’s colonies were to be run by the Allied countries under mandates till they were ready to be independent.
- Examples included New Guinea to be run by Australia, Samoa by New Zealand.
- Removal of colonies from Germany would weaken Germany’s strength and capability to start another war.

*Were the Germans’ reactions to the TOV unreasonable?
What were the reactions?
- Germans called TOV a ‘diktat’ as they were not represented at the discussions and they felt that the TOV was too harsh.
- Felt that the treaty was forced upon them; reacted very negatively towards it; new German foreign minister resigned instead of signing it and many more delegates maintained that they were forced under compulsion to sign the treaty. German public regarded the Weimar government who signed the TOV as ‘November Criminals’ and did not support them.

Reasonable?
- Yes, as the TOV could indeed be regarded as harsh (see terms above). It would cripple Germany’s economy and some of the terms were indeed humiliating. All these would have implications on the quality of living for the Germans.
Unreasonable?
- Yes, as the TOV was meant to ensure that Germany could never start another war, therefore it would need to enforce severe terms otherwise history would repeat itself.
- The Allied countries ensured that some of the terms of the TOV remained within reasonable limits such as providing loans to help Germany to rebuild its economy so as to pay off the reparations (Dawes and Young Plan)
- The land taken away from Germany through the TOV was significantly lesser than what Germany took from Russia during the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. For instance, Germany lost all the lands taken during the Brest-Litovsk Treaty but all these lands did not belong to Germany in the first place!
- Another example was the taking away of Alsace-Lorraine from Germany by France. This originally belonged to France!

HISTORY SEQ NOTES: INTERNATIONAL AID
E.g. How successful was international aid/ efforts to help Germany recover/ Stresemann’s reforms?
Stresemann’s Reforms:
1) Introduced a new currency, the Rentenmark to overcome the problem of excessive printing that was carried out by the Weimar government before he came to power. (*excessive printing had led to the German currency to become worthless and people losing their savings overnight. Furthermore, it became difficult to pay the reparations with a worthless currency) à stabilise the economy at home; restore people and other countries’ confidence in the German currency so as to encourage investment
2) Reduced government spending so as to direct the scarce monetary resources to building the country’s economy and to areas that needed these money more à manage own resources.
3) Improved Germany’s relationship with other countries in particularly, Britain and France (signed the Locarno Pact in 1925 – respect the borders of each other); he also managed to persuade the U.S to lend Germany 4,000 million pounds worth of loans à made it easier to persuade other countries to consider reducing reparations and not to be so harsh on Germany. Loans from U.S went into setting up government building schemes such as theatres, airfields thus providing much needed employment for the Germans.
4) Signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact (agreed not to go to war) – helped reduce spending on defence and improve relations with other countries à same as 3.
5) Responsible for getting the U.S to implement the Dawes Plan in 1924 and the Young Plan in 1929 à reduce reparations significantly as well as loans to rebuild German economy (details below)
International Aid:
1) Dawes Plan – created by Parker Gilbert; Germany to pay less money; U.S to lend money; Ruhr to be returned; Germany to give gold to Parker to invest and all interest would go to repaying the reparations à made reparations more manageable as it would not lose value as easily as paper currency.
2) Young Plan – cut German reparations to a quarter; fifty-nine more years to pay off the reparations à much more achievable than during the Dawes Plan
(Conclusion)
- Germany still could not meet requirements
- By 1932, only paid a small amount but had borrowed over 4,000 million pounds and only managed to repay 370 million pounds worth of loans.
- Significant amount of money saved went into secret rearming! (under Hitler) By the 1930s, Young Plan was abandoned.
- Looked hopeful at the start but it did not bear out eventually. International Aid also tied German economy to the world’s; 1929 Great Depression made Germany’s economic woes worse.

4N1 speaks

8:28:00 PM