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Dorian Granizo
Versailles Treaty and events of the 1920's…
Why, in spite of early successes, did the League of Nations fail to prevent the outbreak of
the second world war?
Timeline of Events
1. January 18 1919: Peace conference opens in Versailles. The ultimate treaty was
deliberated by the foreign ministers of each nation. David Lloyd George
represented Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau represented France, and
Woodrow Wilson represented USA.
2. April 29 1919: The constitution of the League of Nations is accepted at the
Parisians Peace Conference. The League is designed to avoid the outbreak of war
once again. The declaration of the existence of the League was integrated into the
final treaty.
3. June 28 1919: Treaty of Versailles is signed by Germany finally declaring the
reparations that Germany must pay. With Germany's acceptance of the Treaty
also came the acceptance of Austria, Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria of their own
respective treaties.
4. January 1 1920: Foreign cultural traditions come to Germany indicated by the
growing demonstrations of Jazz music with the father being the Paul Whiteman
Band. This spread becomes popular but so does the opposition to the movement.
5. February 24 1920: Adolf Hitler joined the German Workers' party as a spy for the
army and then he became its leader. The party ultimately evolved into the
National Socialist German Workers' Party and this began the concept that Jews
were the source of all of Germany's wrongs and evils.
6. March 13 1920: The Berlin Kapp Putusch. The Erhardt Brigade went into Berlin
in an attempt to force their control over the Weimar Republic.
7. 1920: League of Nations hold its first meeting. The most powerful and influential
nation in the world, The United States of America, was not present as this
meeting. Hurting the image of the League. Wilson though a strong supporter of
the concept of the League of Nations was president with a flopped congress and
therefore could not receive the ratification of the US' integration into the League.
It is US regulation that the Senate must approve of any and all treaties that the US
accepts and therefore without the congress Wilson was powerless to push his idea.
It did not help that Wilson had suffered from a stroke earlier in his term and could
not push for strongly for his ideology. (expanded)
8. 1921: The voting on the treaty to determine whether Upper Silesia would join
either Germany or Poland. The voting was very close, and rioting broke out on
both sides, the league stepped in after the conflict was settled by an outside force
and then divided the region between Germany and Poland. The different regions
of Upper Silesia were split in there desire to become part of either Germany or
Poland due to their split majority ethnicities in either region but there was also
pressure from both Germany and Poland for them to join. Silesia was a major
source of resources for both nations and all this pressure made the region a very
hostile area. Ultimately the ICRC had to intervene to stop the violence and the
League had to settle the legislative issue and only the legislative issue. (expand)
9. 1921: The Aaland Islands were property of Finland but there was a large
consensus that wished for the ownership of the region to be turned over to
Sweden. There was some unrest but the league stepped in and after settling the
violence they determined that the Islands would remain under Finland but would
be disarmed.
10. March 8th 1922: The founding of the first Nazi youth organization. This fell apart
with the Hitler's arrest but was reinvented following his rise to power. The new
organization was titled Hitler Youth.
11. 1921-1922: The Washington Naval Conference was held which developed
various agreements such as the four, five and nine power treaties. The Five Power
Treaty was between the USA, Britain, France, Japan, and Italy, the Four power
agreement was between the USA, Britain, France, and Japan, and the Nine power
agreement was between USA, Britain, France, Japan, Italy and four smaller
nations that agreed upon the open door policy to China.
12. April 1922: The Rapallo Treaty was formed between Germany and the USSR in
retaliation to the formation of the League with their exclusion. This stated that
each nation would renounce all territorial and financial claims against the other
and diplomatically recognize one another. This also set good trade agreements
between these nations.
13. October- 1922: Mussolini's March on Rome that was his take over of the region.
It was supposed to demonstrate the power of his government and that his army
had muscles.
14. April 16 1922: In the Rapallo Treaty both nations agree that any open questions
resulting from the war are settled and that any claims due to the Versailles-Treaty
on behalf of the Soviet Union were erased. This angered France due to the fact
that they wanted to push pre-war debts to upon Germany to shove them back into
the dark ages.
15. January 1923: Germany did not deliver a shipment of telephone poles which
started the crisis. As a condition of the Versailles treaty Germany was forced the
admit guilt and accept responsibility for the entire war and therefore pay
ridiculously high reparation payments. And when they didn't send the telephone
poles France and Belgium saw it as a breaking of the treaty and used it as a an
excuse to occupy the Ruhr. This resulted in French and Belgian forces occupying
Germany’s main industrial region. (expand)
16. September 1923: The Weimar Republic reaches its economic limit and in
response the new chancellor, Gustav Streseman, ends the passive resistance.
17. November 1923: The Beer Hall Putsch which was Hitler’s attempt to overthrow
the Weimar government of Ebert and establish a right wing nationalistic one in its
stead but he failed and was arrested.
18. 1924: The Dawes Plan presented by the US lowered the annual payments of
Germany's reparation payments and provided them with loans which allowed
them to have more time to pay the debt. This added to the Republic's economic
situation and ended Germany’s isolation by allowing its involvement in
international relations.
19. June 1924: Socialist Giacomo Matteotti disappears after speaking against Benito
Mussolini and his fascist party. His body was found in a shallow grave three days
later.
20. October 5 - October 16 1925: Locarno agreement is signed in London and
declared that Germany could become part of the League of Nations. This also
deemed that that Germany had to accept the Rhineland territory and would remain
a de-militarized zone.
21. 1925: Border disputes threaten to escalate into a war between Bulgaria and
Greece. After the incidental murder of a Greek citizen at the hands of Bulgarian
border guards Greece pushes their forces into Bulgaria and is met with resistance
but just that. The League stepped in and settled the legislative conflict while
leaving any violence to be settled by the respective nations. It was ordered that
Greece was to remove their troops in Bulgaria as well as pay for all damages and
fatalities that may have occurred. (expand)
22. April 1926: Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Treaty of Berlin in which
each pledged neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for
the next five years. This is considered an extension of their relations and as so a
continuation of the concepts of the Treaty of Rapallo.
23. September 1926: Germany is finally entered into the Leagues of Nations. This
does add to the image of the League but the weakened power of Germany does
not make them a terrifically valuable addition.
24. 1928: The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed. This was a treaty between 65 nations
and was an agreement to renounce war and to find other means to resolve conflict
other than the killing of one another. This treaty was still highly unsuccessful as
demonstrated with time. This was a perfect treaty in theory. It was simple and
concise. To simply not wage war against each other and if no nation enters a war
no nation's allies will enter the war and therefore international conflict can be
avoided. However this was useless because to adhere to the regulations of this
pact nations that entered conflict just simply didn't state that it was a war. And
when they did there was nothing that could be done to stop them. (expand)
25. 1929: The Young Plan is put into effect and was another economic strategy to
replace the Dawes Plan and had a similar concept. To lower the reparation
payments that Germany would need to pay and to extend loans to Germany to
assist with their payments.
Background Information Regarding the League
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Collective security – The central policy of the League in which an attack on one
member nation was considered an attack on all and would be treated in such a
fashion.
Peace over war- The League’s ultimate goal was to ensure the maintaining of
peace among all its member nations but also among the entire world. To
accomplish this they would go about issues with diplomacy but that would not
always work when confronted by violence.
The mandate system- Countries that were considered under the Mandate system
were to be overseen by a more powerful of more stable nation. However, there
were no specific requirements that the overseeing nations had to assist the
Mandatory countries to have them reach ultimate stability of democracy.
Successes
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The league helped solve a border dispute between Bulgaria and Greece, which
otherwise could have escalated to a war.
The treaty settling the Upper Silesian conflict that said that the people there would
vote on whether or not they would join with either Germany or Poland. The
voting was very close in the decision to become part of either Germany or of
Poland and when rioting broke out on both sides the League stepped in and they
divided the land between Germany and Poland.
Problems
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The League did not have any enforcement power to follow through with their
suggestions on how to fix the issues. They could only provide economic sanctions
and even at that they could only suggest. They could not enforce anything.
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They were weak in the eyes of other nations of the international community. This
was due in part to their inability to act. This made the world see that the League
was powerless and could only function if all nations were in a state of agreement.
The United states was one of the nations that was better off economically and
yielded power in the international world but the decision of the United States
Congress was to not become part of the League. This cost the League some of the
power they needed. Russia and Germany were also not members of the League
due to their violent natures and this hindered the efficiency of the League.
Thesis
Even though the League of Nations was primarily successful in the settling of
small conflicts such as the border disputes between Greece and Bulgaria, the assisting of
the prisoners of War with their destabilization of their lives in society, and the settling of
the Upper Silesia conflict, the League of Nations was ultimately proven ineffective with
the brake out of WWII. The League was ineffective in stopping this conflict due to its
lack of enforcement power, its inability to demonstrate control or dominance, and the
lack of the US presence in the League that also hindered its controlling abilities.