Collapse of The League of Nations (CAT)

Question 1

Who signed the Locarno treaties in 1925?

Answer 1

• Gustav stresemann and Aristide Briand
• Germany and France
• it was later signed by Britain, Italy, belgium and Czechoslovakia as they agreed not to go to war on each other

Question 2

What are the terms in the Locarno treaties?

Answer 2

• Germany would accept borders given by treaty of Versailles

* France and Germany would work together to settle disputes peacefully

Question 3

Why was the Locarno treaty significant for Germans?

Answer 3

• it prevented them being invaded
• they had felt weak and vulnerable after the treaty of Versailles had been signed
• this gave them security

Question 4

When was the Kellogg Briand pact signed?

Answer 4

1928

Question 5

What was the Kellogg Briand pact?

Answer 5

• 65 countries met and signed an agreement to not use war as a way to solve disputes
• this agreement took place outside of the league
• individual countries acted which showed the league wasn’t necessarily in control

Question 6

When did the Rapallo treaty take place

Answer 6

1922

Question 7

What happened in the Rapallo treaty?

Answer 7

• Russia and Germany met to agree that Russia should have land returned from WW1
• they agreed to cooperate in the future
• again not organised by league

Question 8

When did the Washington arms conference take place?

Answer 8

•1921-1922

Question 9

What happened in the Washington arms conference?

Answer 9

• major countries met to discuss how big navies should be
• league not involved even though disarmament was a key aim for the league
• Britain France and Japan attended as separate countries which showed their priorities

Question 10

In 1933 how many Americans were unemployed?

Answer 10

15 million

Question 11

How did extreme parties make the most of the Wall Street crash?

Answer 11

• Hitler offered simple solutions such as “freedom, bread, work” which appealed to many people
• in a dictatorship the government runs everything which means they were more likely to look after people such as the unemployed
• they promised to take land by force for space, food and resources
• they used promise of overseas war victories to distract people from their problems at home
• dictators found victims to blame for their problems

Question 12

How did the Great Depression affect the league?

Answer 12

• the league has no army so required countries’ armies to fight for it
• Countries didn’t want to pay for the expense of war so there was little threat to dictators
• economic sanctions were useless as countries weren’t willing to stop trading with others

Question 13

When was the Manchurian crisis?

Answer 13

1931

Question 14

How did Japan invade China?

Answer 14

• the Japanese army staged the Mukden incident
• they set of a bomb on their own railway and used it to blame china
• they then saw this as a good reason to invade China
• they took over Manchuria and put Pu Yo in charge as a puppet ruler

Question 15

Why did japan want Manchuria?

Answer 15

• Japan suffered in the Great Depression
• Manchuria has fertile farmland, industry and natural resources
• China were weakening
• people of Japan were desperate for Japan to be strong away so started supporting the army

Question 16

Why were the league reluctant to react to the Manchuria crisis?

Answer 16

• many people believed japan owned the area
• Britain and France thought it was too far away to be a concern
• japan was a large power in the league, many people choice the Japanese version of events
• some people thought it was good japan were trying to reintroduce order into the region
• members of the league couldn’t afford to send troops to China
• Japan’s main trade partner was USA so economic sanctions didn’t affect them
• Russia which was the closest country couldn’t be called upon as it wasn’t in the league

Question 17

What did the league do?

Answer 17

• they put an investigation together and found japan guilty
• they confronted them but japan ignored them and left the league
• japan went on to invade the rest of China

Question 18

What were the impacts of the Manchuria crisis?

Answer 18

•Mussolini and butler were shown that the league was weak and could be overturned

Question 19

Why did Mussolini want to invade Abyssinia?

Answer 19

• he has promised his people he’d build a new Roman Empire
• Italy had colonies surrounding it so he could launch an attack from there
• France and Britain has colonies in Africa so they couldn’t get too angry st Italy for doing the same
• Abyssinia was rich in natural resources and had good land for grazing animals
• Mussolini wanted revenge against Abyssinia from a previous battle to restore pride
• he was confident the league wouldn’t stop him
• France and Britain wanted to keep Italy as an ally against Hitler as they had signed the Stresa front agreeing to team up on Hitler

Question 20

When did Italy invade Abyssinia?

Answer 20

1935

Question 21

How did Mussolini invade abyssinia?

Answer 21

• Mussolini ordered soldiers to attack Abyssinians at Wal Wal
• the league tried to intervene but found it difficult to stop Mussolini

Question 22

What was the significance of the Hoare laval Pact in the Abyssinia crisis?

Answer 22

• Samuel Hoare and Lierre Laval secretly met Mussolini and made a number of secret agreements
• they said Mussolini could take all the fertile land in Abyssinia
• the Italians took this as green light so bombed the villages and used chemical weapons
• this was soon leaked to the press showing that Britain and France had undermined the league

Question 23

Why did the league fail in Abyssinia?

Answer 23

• failure to close the Suez Canal- they didn’t want to upset Mussolini so let him go the short way
• the Hoare-Laval Pact- showed Britain and France were willing to undermine the league to please powerful countries
• trade sanctions against Italy- the league failed to ban trade if oil and coal to Italy as they were scared it would affect their economy
• trade sanctions against Italy- the league banned members from selling weapons to Abyssinia so they couldn’t defend themselves

Question 24

Why was the League of Nations destined to fail?

Answer 24

• the league had no army
• ideas were too ambitious
• decision making was made slow by unanimous decisions and vetos
• the leagues structure was complex
• powerful countries such as USA, Germany and USSR didn’t join
• trade sanctions didn’t always work as countries could still trade with USA
• moral condemnation didn’t scare powerful countries
• Great Depression meant countries were concerned with their own problems
• depression caused extreme leaders to come to power