Download Study Guide for Prescribed Subject One: 1918-1936

Guide for Prescribed Subject One: Peacemaking, Peacekeeping,
International Relations 1918-1936
I. Summary
Scope and setting: the period begins with the end of World War I and addresses
diplomatic developments up to the middle of the Great Depression. Major events include the
Treaty of Versailles and related post-WWI treaties, the creation of the League of Nations and the
Weimar Republic, the Great Depression and the rise of totalitarianism. The period may be
divided into two segments: one of postwar crisis but increasing stability to 1929; and one of
growing crisis and the collapse of collective security after 1929. The period ends with the
collapse of the League of Nations in the Ethiopia Crisis, and the descent into international
conflict and western appeasement marked by the Spanish Civil War.
The period begins with the postwar treaties, which redrew Europe’s boundaries and
redirected trade and power relationships. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the
isolation of the USSR and the punishment of Germany hurt postwar reconstruction efforts and
made trade difficult. The immediate postwar years saw repeated economic crises and trade
conflicts. Prosperity returned in the mid-20s, but geopolitical questions remained. Aggressive
rising states (Italy, Japan, the USSR and Hitler’s Germany) threatened the status quo powers
(Britain and France). In India and China, nationalist movements were beginning to challenge
imperial control. Still, by mid-decade stability and prosperity was returning to the international
system.
The Great Depression changed the balance in Europe and the world. The crisis,
beginning in the US stock market, spread to global financial systems by 1931 and led to a
collapse of consumer demand. Unemployment followed in industrial economies; agricultural
economies were plagued by low farm prices. The global crisis undermined democracies because
the unemployed backed radical parties of the right or left. Furthermore, it convinced aggressive
nationalist states that the only way forward was to seize a global resource base on the model of
the French and British empires. They used their arms industries to stimulate demand and reduce
unemployment, and their expanding militaries to conquer territories and secure critical resources.
This set them on a path to collision with the “status quo” powers – Britain, France and the United
States. Unfortunately for the sake of world order, the policies of the status quo powers were
generally unsuccessful. American isolationism removed US power from the equation for much
of the period, and the British and French paid more attention to their restive imperial domains.
In the 1920s, they were slow to allow Germany a constructive role in European affairs, helping
pave the way for Hitler’s rise to power. In the 1930s they were slow to respond to the totalitarian
challenge, allowing the fascists time to arm and threaten the global system. By 1936 the world
was well on its way to World War II.
1918 Wilson’s 14 Points
End of Great War
1919 Treaty of Versailles (Germany)
Treaty of St.-Germain (Austria)
Treaty of Neuilly (Bulgaria)
League of Nations founded
D’Annunzio seizes port of Fiume in Italian nationalist demonstration
Spartacist Rising in Germany fails; Rosa Luxemburg killed
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
Bela Kun’s Communist Revolution in Hungary; collapses in White Terror
Amritsar Massacre in India; British fear mass rising against Raj, shoot demonstrators
May 4th Movement: Chinese students lead anti-Japanese boycott and nationalist revival
Armenian Genocide: Turkey carries out pogrom against Christian minority
Greco-Turkish War begins
Irish War of Independence begins
Kapp Putsch: nationalists in Germany fail to topple Weimar Republic
Horthy established authoritarian state in Hungary
Palestine Riots: fighting between Arab and Jewish factions under British Mandate
Shiite Revolt in Mesopotamia (British Iraq)
Polish-Soviet War (1920-21)
Treaty of Trianon (Hungary)
French defeat Arabs in Syria
Treaty of Sevres (Turkey)
Silesian Crisis (Poland/Germany)
Aland Islands Crisis (Sweden/Finland)
Rif War (Spain v. Moroccan rebels)
End of Russian Civil War
Kronstadt Rebellion
New Economic Policy
Chinese Communist Party founded
Abdullah crowned in Transjordan, Faisal in Iraq
Italian Fascist Party founded
Irish independence
March on Rome; Mussolini comes to power
5 Power Naval Disarmament Treaty: limits placed on capital ship construction
Treaty of Rapallo (Germany/Russia) raises fears in west.
Walter Rathenau, German Foreign Minister, assassinated
New constitution creates Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Greco-Turkish War ends with expulsion of Greeks from Smyrna
Ruhr Crisis: French troops occupy to force reparations
Munich Putsch: Nazis fail to take Bavarian government
Treaty of Sevres/Lausanne sets Turkish borders
Gustav Stresemann elected in coalition government in Germany
Kanto Earthquake devastates Japan, leads to widespread anti-Korean violence
Ataturk creates new Turkish state
Height of German inflation crisis
Death of Lenin: power struggle begins in Soviet Politburo
Matteoti Murder: Mussolini tightens dictatorship in Italy
Whampoa Academy founded in China, origin of Nationalist Army
Dawes Plan addresses inflation crisis but ties Germany to American economy
Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
Locarno Treaty: Britain, France sign deal to bring Germany back into diplomatic system
War of the Stray Dog: Greek-Bulgarian border clash resolved by League of Nations
Britain returns to the gold standard: the pound is overvalued, hurting exports
Pilsudski Coup in Poland ends Polish democracy
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
Northern Expedition: Nationalists occupy north China
Start of Chinese Civil War
Germany joins League of Nations
Emperor Hirohito crowned in Japan
Shanghai Massacre, Nationalists attack CCP
Geneva Naval Conference: great powers accept construction limits on smaller warships
Start of Nanking Decade: Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-Shek) consolidates power in China
Britain severs ties with USSR
Trotsky expelled from CPSU
Jinan Incident: clash between Japan and Nationalist China
Jiangxi Soviet formed by communists in Chinese countryside
Kellogg-Briand Pact outlaws war, promises new era of peace
First Five-Year Plan in USSR
Hitler defeated in presidential election
Mussolini signs Lateran Treaty normalizing relations with the Vatican
Geneva Convention addresses prisoners of war
French begin construction of Maginot Line
Palestine Riots, Jews and Arabs clash
Trotsky exiled, Stalin’s power in USSR consolidating, but still limited
Gustav Stresemann dies of a stroke
Wall Street Crash
Salt March; Gandhi leads mass demonstration against British rule in India
London Naval Conference Treaty: regulations limit submarine warfare, shipbuilding
French troops depart Rhineland
Jiang Jieshi launches 1st Extermination campaign against communists
Smoot-Hawley Tariff: US protectionism leads to trade war
Nazis get 18% of vote in Reichstag elections, largest party share
Gandhi travels to Britain to negotiate on home rule for India
British White Paper restricts Jewish immigration to Israel
Spanish Republic declared
Austrian bank collapse leads to international financial crisis; Depression deepens
Mukden Incident: Japanese Kwantung Army occupies Manchuria
Lytton Commission blames Japan; Japan condemns the ruling
Gandhi arrested, but his campaign for swaraj self-rule continues
Heinrich Bruning’s government falls in Germany; replaced by Franz van Papen
Battle of Shanghai: Japanese Army fights Chinese Nationalists
Stimson Doctrine announced – US refuses to recognize Japanese control of Manchuria
Japanese declare puppet state of Manchukuo
Street fighting between communists and Nazis in Germany
Aristide Briand, moderate French foreign minister, dies
Unemployment in US ~33%
Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
Reichstag Fire: Hitler seizes power over state
Oxford Union, a debating society, resolves not to “fight for king and country”
Hundred Days: first round of New Deal legislation
Japan and Germany quit League of Nations
US leaves gold standard
Jiang launches 5th Extermination Campaign
Dollfuss establishes dictatorship in Austria
Vatican signs an accord with Hitler
US and USSR renew diplomatic ties, severed since 1917
Holodomor, or Ukrainian Famine, caused by Soviet collectivization policies
1934 Germany signs 10-year Nonaggression Pact with Poland
Political crisis in France; far right attempts to overthrow the government
Night of the Long Knives: Hitler purges the Nazi Party
Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss assassinated in failed coup attempt by Austrian Nazi Party
Soviets join League of Nations
King Alexander of Yugoslavia assassinated while visiting France
Louis Barthou, moderate French foreign minister, dies in same incident
Long March begins: Chinese Communists flee Nationalist army in march to Yenan
Kirov Murder: Stalin eliminates a rival and launches the Show Trials to purge Party
Abyssinian Crisis: Italy launches aggression against Ethiopia
Japan renounces Washington Naval Treaty
1935 Hitler announces re-armament
Stanley Baldwin forms Conservative Government in Britain
Anglo-German Naval Agreement allows Germany 35% of British fleet strength
Stresa Front: UK, France and Italy agree to respect independence of Austria
Franco-Italian Agreement: France and Italy agree to respect each other’s rights in Africa
Hoare-Laval Pact: Britain and France agree to accept Mussolini’s claims in Africa
Government of India Act: Britain experiments with home rule for India
Nuremberg Laws go into effect, discriminating against Germany’s Jews
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
Mao, now head of CCP, calls for United Front in China against Japan
1936 Army coup fails in Japan
Germany militarizes Rhineland; Allies do nothing
Leon Blum forms United Front, a center-left coalition, in France
Arab revolt in Palestine
Italy annexes Ethiopia
Spanish Civil War begins
Show Trials begin in Moscow; Stalin purges Communist Party
Mussolini and Hitler sign Rome-Berlin Axis
Germany and Japan sign Anti-Comintern Pact targeting USSR
Xian Incident: Jiang forced to form 2nd United Front with communists against Japan
II. Key Terms
Peacemaking: ending conflict by means of treaties, ceasefires and other agreements.
Peacekeeping: the process of maintaining the peace through diplomacy, political
settlements, enforcement of laws and international agreements, etc.
International Relations: the interactions between states over international questions,
such as borders, trade, security and the movement of people. The central question in
international relations in this period was the rise of aggressive powers like Germany (see
The German Question below).
14 Points: Wilson’s platform for a postwar settlement. Major elements included open
treaties, freedom of the seas, arms reduction, self-determination, restoration of AlsaceLorraine, a free Poland and the formation of a League of Nations. The self-determination
clause led to many difficulties at Versailles as a multitude of nations arrived to assert
competing claims.
Treaty of Versailles: 1919 treaty imposed on Germany to end WWI. Terms included
loss of territory, reparations, demilitarization of the Rhineland, creation of a “Polish
Corridor” isolating Prussia from Germany, limits on Germany’s army, navy and air force
and international control of the coal-rich Saar Valley. The treaty is viewed by historians
as deeply flawed. France pushed for harsh terms, Britain acquiesced on reparations, the
US never ratified the treaty and Italy felt short-changed. Germany was not consulted – its
leaders were presented with a completed treaty. Rather than build a lasting peace, the
treaty encouraged another round of conflict. As France’s Marshal Foch said: “we don’t
have peace - we have a twenty year truce.”
Mandate System: the provision in the postwar treaties granting control of some colonial
territories to victorious powers under the League’s mandate. Britain and France were the
primary beneficiaries. The major territories in the system were the former German
colonies and the Middle Eastern territories of the Ottoman Empire. The mandate system
demonstrated the imperialist agenda of the Allied Powers, although it was designed to be
temporary. In practice, some mandates (Iraq, Palestine, Syria) began to develop limited
self-government, though the colonial powers controlled their foreign policies and major
resources (like oil). The mandate system allowed imperialism to reach its peak but also
stretched the resources of the imperial states, making it harder for them to act in Europe.
League of Nations: a collective security organization created to keep the peace after
WWI. Main elements: a Council dominated by big powers, an Assembly of all members,
and special bodies to deal with various international problems. The League was based on
collective security – the principle of bringing joint action to stop aggression before it
could lead to a major war. It was dominated by Britain and France and tended to support
status quo imperialism. Weaknesses included absences in membership (USSR to 1934,
Germany to 1925 and after 1933, Japan after 1933 and the US) and the unwillingness of
Britain and France to use the League against great powers like Japan and Italy. It was
most effective at dealing with disputes among small powers (Aland Islands, Silesia 1920;
Stray Dog 1925). But it was unsuccessful in dealing with great powers. As Mussolini
said, “the League is very well when the sparrows shout, but no good at all when the
eagles fall out.” By the end of the Italo-Ethiopian War, the League was moribund.
Disarmament: the effort by the great powers to reduce military arsenals and rivalries,
mostly in the 1920s in the field of naval construction. The major disarmament
conferences are Washington (1922), Geneva (1927) and London (1930). Supporters
argue that these conferences promoted peace by reducing the tensions caused by naval
arms races – one of the causes of the Great War. Churchill and others argued that the
limits affected the status quo powers and allowed rising powers like Japan to achieve
near-parity with the US and Britain. These conferences provide an example of the
apparent success of peacekeeping and peacemaking efforts before the Depression, before
the collapse of these efforts in the 1930s.
Weimar Republic: a multiparty democracy formed in Germany after WWI. Weimar
begins the period as a chaotic state under pressure from the right and left, and nearly falls
during the inflation crisis of 1923. In the mid-20s the situation stabilizes thanks to the
able leadership of Gustav Stresemann, the Dawes Plan and the compromises of French
diplomats like Barthou and Briand. But after 1929 the Great Depression undercuts the
Republic. Unemployment raises the specter of a communist revolution, so Franz von
Papen invites Hitler to form a government. Once he holds constitutional executive
power, he engineers the Reichstag Fire to seize total control of the state.
Fascism: a political ideology emphasizing national identity, strong leadership by a single
charismatic dictator, aggressive militarism and an alliance of the state with big business.
Fascism is opposed to communism and to a lesser extent, liberal democracy. The leading
fascist states of this period are Italy, Germany, Japan and Franco’s Spain.
Imperialism: a political system in which a metropolitan power controls many territories
around the world, usually under a system of indirect rule and divisa et impera (divide and
rule). The leading imperial states are Britain and France, though the Netherlands and
other small states also have empires. In this period the imperialist states have reached
their zenith and are being threatened by rising powers like Germany, Japan and Italy.
Nationalism: a rising force in many states, based on the idea of organizing politics
around a national identity. In India, the Congress Party increasingly builds an all-India
sense of identity as a weapon to drive out the British Raj. In China the Guomindang or
Nationalist Party is consolidating its control. In Italy, Germany and Spain nationalism
becomes a force in the rise of the authoritarian and totalitarian governments of Mussolini,
Hitler and France. Note that Hitler refers to National Socialism, which combines
aggressive nationalism with a big-state approach to social problems. Nationalists form a
threat to the old imperial states of France and Britain.
Communism: the revolutionary ideology of the Soviet Union, the Chinese Communist
party and Bela Kun’s Hungarian Republic, among others. Communism calls for
leadership by a communist party, state control of the economy to provide economic
equality, and the revolutionary overthrow of capitalist and imperialist powers. Under
Stalin, Russian Communism shifted from advocating revolution around the world to
“socialism in one country” – which meant consolidating Stalin’s hold over the USSR.
Note that “socialism” is sometimes used as a synonym for communism, so you have to
examine the usage carefully.
Isolationism: a political sentiment in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, arguing
that the US should avoid entanglement in international conflicts. Isolationism stemmed
from disillusion in America over the Great War’s purpose and outcome. Strongest in the
Midwest, isolationism helped keep defense spending low and tied the hands of presidents
in some international agreements. The failure of the US to ratify the Versailles Treaty is
often considered an example of isolationism, though this is arguable. Some historians
feel that the withdrawal of the US from international commitments, in association with
Britain’s postwar weakness, undermined the League of Nations and led to a more
defensive French foreign policy. Others have argued that the US remained engaged via
dollar diplomacy and other agreements – the Dawes Plan, the 5 Power Naval Treaty, e.g.
Still another view holds that US participation in the League and other agreements would
only have made it more difficult to find common ground for collective action. The
Neutrality Acts (see below) are a good example of America isolationism.
The German Question: during this period the leading political question was Germany’s
postwar status. Treated as a defeated and second-class power at Versailles, Germany was
a resentful country between the wars. Policy in the west wavered between punishment
and compromise. France pushed hard for reparations and limits on German power, but
after the 1925 Locarno Treaty the attitude of the western allies began to shift. Efforts
were made to allow Germany to play a constructive role in European politics, but these
may have been too little, too late. By the time of the Great Depression a significant
percentage of Germans supported Hitler’s campaign to revise the Versailles Treaty. The
imperialist powers, Britain and France, were too distracted by internal problems and
threats to their empires to respond forcefully at first. By the mid-30s they were moving
towards a policy of appeasement, in which Germany would receive concessions in
exchange for peacefully accepting the new political order. This only enabled Hitler to
begin building his war machine. By 1936, European leaders are moving towards a
restoration of Germany’s status as a great power.
The Ruhr Crisis: in 1923, after a series of German defaults on reparations, France
invoke its treaty rights to occupy the Ruhr. French President Poincare had been
frustrated by the failure of the US and Britain to endorse more moderate sanctions. The
occupation led to widespread outrage in Germany, acts of sabotage and an inflation crisis.
The government of Gustav Stresemann declared a state of emergency amid antigovernment coups, including the Munich Putsch by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
France withdrew from the Ruhr only after the Locarno Pact of 1925.
The “Locarno Spring”: after 1925, European tensions eased temporarily as leaders
expressed a “Spirit of Locarno” emphasizing greater international cooperation. Between
1925 and 1928 Germany appeared to be moving into a constructive European framework,
though suspicion remained. The Great Depression led to the breakdown of this spirit, and
by 1929 the old pattern of mistrust was taking hold again. One element of this period
was the dominance by moderate leaders – Stresemann of Germany, Briand and Barthou
of France, among others.
The Chinese Civil War: a period of internal conflict in China running through this
historical era. In 1918, China was a weak country under the control of warlord generals,
with no working central government. The Chinese Nationalist Party or Guomindang was
founded in 1912 to provide the basis for national strength and unity. During the 1920s it
built its political and military strength until it could launch the Northern Expedition of
1926, in association with the Chinese Communist Party. Following the success of this
move, Guomindang leader Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-Shek) attacked the CCP in the
Shanghai Massacre of 1927. Between 1927 and 1936, Jiang attempted to wipe out the
communists in a series of extermination campaigns. He never succeeded, though he
forced the CCP into the edges of China in the Long March. This phase of the Civil War
ends with the Xian Incident of 1936, in which a United Front is declared against Japan.
During the civil war, China was unable to deal firmly with Japanese aggression.
The Manchurian Crisis/Mukden Crisis: a 1931 incident caused by Japanese militarists
(acting on their own) to provoke a clash in Manchuria so that Japan could occupy and
annex the territory as part of their Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. The League
was called to respond and sent the Lytton Commission to investigate. The Commission
reported that Japan was likely to blame. Japan condemned this ruling and walked out of
the League 2 years later. This crisis provided the first sign that collective security was
unable to restrain aggressive militarist expansionism.
The Italo-Ethiopian War: a 1934-1936 incident provoked by Mussolini’s Italy,
beginning with a clash at an oasis on the border of Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland.
Mussolini, hoping to build a Nova Roma or new imperial state by conquering East Africa,
invaded with tanks, aircraft and poison gas. The Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie,
appealed to the League, but the League refused to apply serious pressure to Italy (it could
have embargoed Italy’s oil supply). Britain and France hoped to court Mussolini as a
counterbalance against Germany, but this failure led to the death of the League. After
1936 it was no longer a serious institution for collective security.
The Rhineland: the border provinces of western Germany. After Versailles Germany
was forbidden to keep troops in this region, meaning that the French could easily invade
Germany at any time. The attached Saarland region was held under a League mandate
until a plebiscite in 1935 restored it to German control. In 1936, Hitler gambled that he
could restore control of the region by defying the treaty. He ordered the still inferior
German Army to occupy the Rhineland. France and Britain chose to accept this action,
in part because they feared a war, in part because they were distracted by the Depression
and in part because many saw some justice in the German claim. Hitler’s victory in the
Rhineland strengthened his domestic agenda to rearm and encouraged further aggression.
Rearmament: Hitler’s policy, announced in 1935, of rebuilding Germany’s military.
The three main elements were the Wehrmacht (army, previously limited to 100,000 men),
Kriegsmarine (navy, limited in battleship construction) and Luftwaffe (air force,
previously forbidden. Since it took 2-4 years to develop the industrial capacity for mass
production of a modern military, this gave Germany a strategic advantage in 1939-1941,
before its rivals’ arms programs picked up steam. The major impact of rearmament in
this period was to inflate Germany’s diplomatic influence. Britain and France became
reluctant to challenge Germany for fear of starting a second world war.
Spanish Civil War: a conflict in Spain beginning in 1936, which served to define the
struggle between left and right in Europe. The roots of the conflict lie in the opposition
of right-wing groups, which backed traditional Spain’s leadership by landed classes and
the Church, and the left-wing, which wanted radical reforms to benefit workers, minority
groups and peasants. In 1931 a Republic is declare, abolishing the old monarchy.
Elections favored a center-left coalition which began addressing questions like the
demands of national groups like the Basques and Catalans for local autonomy. In 1936
elements of the Army, backed by fascist groups like the Falange Party, rose against the
government. They became known as the Nationalists, and they fought for three years to
defeat the Republican government. The conflict drew global attention, as bands of
volunteers (the International Brigades) joined the Republicans and the Fascist powers
(Germany and Italy) backed the Nationalists. The Soviets also sided with the Republic.
British and French policy would focus on trying to contain the conflict and prevent the
outbreak of a general war.
Neutrality Acts: a series of laws passed by the American Congress in the 1930s to keep
us out of another unnecessary war. Passed as a backlash against US involvement in the
Great War, they prevented the president from selling arms to, or intervening on behalf of,
“belligerents” in a war. The effect of these Acts was to limit the president’s ability to
help states facing nationalist aggression – notably Spain and Ethiopia. Aggressive
powers were encouraged by US inaction, notably in the Pacific. Roosevelt only
succeeded in repealing the Acts in 1941.
III. Analysis
What was the impact of the Paris Peace Settlement?
The body of leaders who met in Versailles in 1919 addressed the questions of the war in the
traditional fashion. Despite Wilson’s idealist calls for self-determination, territory was
distributed on the basis of power realities. Allied nations were rewarded and the Central Powers
were punished. The essential problems were that the settlement created revisionist states eager
to challenge the boundaries laid out at Versailles. Germany was not the only example: Greece,
Italy, Hungary, Japan and Russia also sought aggressive territorial expansion. This might not
have been a crisis if the Versailles powers had been able to enforce the terms of the settlement,
but the war weakened Britain and France, creating openings for aggression. In the mid-20s
efforts were made to redress the shortcomings of Versailles, but these were insufficient for the
challenges ahead. The Great Depression signaled the start of a general crisis.
What was the role of the League in the interwar period?
The League was an important international institution. During the 1920s it successfully
negotiated small conflicts – the Silesian Crisis, the Aland Islands dispute and the War of the
Stray Dog. Its specialized bodies dealt with important issues like leprosy, slavery, refugees,
reconstruction and international labor issues. But the League was weakened by the absence of
several great powers – the US, Germany, Japan and the USSR. These absences made the
resolution of issues difficult, especially when they took place within the sphere of influence of an
absent member – effectively creating grey zones for international peacekeeping. The
membership problem meant that too much burden was placed on Britain and France, countries
with their own imperial agendas, more interested in protecting their empires than fighting wars
for peace. The League was weakened by the Great Depression and the Manchurian Crisis, and
mortally wounded by the Ethiopian Crisis. Nevertheless, the principles of the League would
survive and find new form in the United Nations.
Why didn’t Britain halt the aggression of rising powers?
Britain was still the primary world power in the 1930s. Decisive action might have made a
difference in the major crises. But in each case, Britain did not promote a vigorous policy. In
Manchuria, Britain was reluctant to take on a locally powerful Japanese navy for the sake of
China. The Lytton Commission took a legal approach, one not backed up by force. Japan was
allowed to withdraw with impunity. In Ethiopia, Britain and France rejected an oil embargo in
the hope that they could form a front (the Stresa Front) with Italy against Nazi Germany. This
collapsed when Mussolini switched sides, forming the Rome-Berlin Axis. By 1936, Britain was
concerned about being caught in a wider war for which it was not yet prepared. When Germany
militarized the Rhineland, Britain restrained France from acting even though a quick push would
have forced Hitler to retreat. As the Spanish Civil War intensified, Britain moved to quarantine
the conflict, at least on paper. It looked the other way as Italy, Germany and the USSR
intervened in Spain, so that it could avoid taking a side that might lead to war.
IV. Historiography
Some of the things you should consider as part of the historiographic element of the test include:
 Change over time
 Comparison and contrast
 Historical processes, such as cause-and-effect relationships
In addition, historical sources can help you to understand and interpret events.
Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World: MacMillan argues that
the leaders assembled at Versailles were hampered by a vast ignorance of many of the conditions
they would face. Wilson preached self-determination, but had little idea of the ethnic complexity
of Europe. His Greek experts, for example, were professors of classical Greece from Princeton.
The big four – Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Orlando – tended to make deals based on
political expedience. Wilson sacrificed many points to ensure the League of Nations, only to
lose US ratification of the treaty because he was too inflexible. Clemenceau tried to whittle
German strength down for the next expected confrontation and Orlando left when he felt the
treaty was becoming unacceptable to Italian nationalists. But the overriding fact of the
conference was the tendency of events to spiral out of control. The decision-makers in Paris did
not have the resources to enforce every decree, so the Treaty became a series of compromises
that pleased no one fully.
Niall Ferguson, The War of the World: Ferguson argues that British moral weakness and an
overriding concern to protect the empire led British administrations of the 1930s to cave in to
aggression. Painting the conflict as largely ethnic-based, Slav v. Teuton v. Latin, Ferguson
shows how the cycle leading to war was part of a long and general decline of European
civilization. Having reached its peak in the 19th century, the European nations were now
preparing to tear Europe apart. Britain’s weakness demonstrated the moral collapse of the
European order.
Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm: Churchill sees the war caused by the shortsightedness of politicians, who failed to recognize the threat of German power and employed
short-term expedients when they should have been making hard decisions. For example, the
Dawes Plan and naval agreements seemed to settle conflicts and ease tensions, but they were
actually creating long-term vulnerabilities. America’s easy money policy with Germany created
a bubble economy that would burst in 1929, and the London Naval Agreement of 1930
needlessly tied Britain’s hands. Resolute action in 1933 or 1936 would have stopped the fascists
in their tracks – but fear of war in the democracies made any confrontation political suicide.
Liaquat Ahamed, Lords of Finance: Ahamed sees the decisions of 4 central bankers in the US,
France, Britain and Germany as crucial to understanding the financial troubles of the period. In
essence, strict adherence to a gold standard deepened the Depression and contributed to
radicalism in Germany. France pursued policies of economic vengeance, Germany inflated its
way out of reparations, Britain set the pound at too high a value and the US insisted on collecting
war debts. These effects distorted markets and imposed severe strains on the global economy.
When the crash came, it destroyed confidence in Germany and led directly to the triumph of the
Nazis.
Note how things develop over time generally in three periods:
Postwar chaos, 1919-1923
Relative stability, 1924-1928
Depression and the rise of fascism, 1929-1936
Some things to avoid:
Do not say WWI led to the Great Depression! Ten years passed between the two events.
Do not say the League was a total failure! Note relative success to 1928 and failure
afterward. Account for the gradual change in the League’s fortunes.
Do not discuss the Anschluss or the Munich Conference – they occurred later.