Disarmament Its all about trust!

Lesson Agenda

O By the end of today’s lesson you would be able to:

O Appreciate the principles behind disarmament

O Why did disarmament fail?

O Practice inference skills

Why Disarmament?

O Disarmament arose out of the strong desire among the Western powers to stop the ability of states to wage war.

O What is Disarmament?

O It is the dismantling of armed forces and the breaking up of weapons. It is also the placing of a nation in a position where war is not possible.

Principles of Disarmament

O It was the key part of collective security.

O The leaders at the Paris Peace Conference felt that Disarmament was the only way to create a safer world.

O Unfortunately it was very difficult to achieve

Disarmament among nations

O German Disarmament:

O The treaty of Versailles ordered Germany to be disarmed.

O Germany disarmed slowly and took advantage

of the loopholes in the treaty of Versailles.

O It did not make sense to have an army that consisted mainly of officers.

O Hence the Nazi government in power was secretively training people to be ordinary soldiers.

Disarmament and the rest of the world

O The League of Nations sort to reduce arms and weapons around the world as well.

O They did this through concluding several treaties and arranging for regular disarmament conferences. These were:

O Washington Naval Conference – 1921-1922O Treaty of Locarno – 1925O Kellogg-Briand Pact -1928

Reasons why Disarmament failed

O Despite the best intentions, disarmament failed. This was because:

O Though nations thought about collective security yet their main focus was individual security.

O The big problem was trust, as we have seen that the lack of trust was the long term cause to WWI.

O Governments felt that, as individual nations they needed a level of arms. They all provided various, reasons why they needed armaments.

O Thus there prevailed the lack of trust and hostility

Background to Disarmament talks

O Following the end of World War I, the United States, Great Britain, and Japan all commenced capital ship construction.

O In the United States, this took the form of five new battleships and four battle cruisers,

O The Royal Navy was preparing to build its series of G3 Battle cruisers and N3 Battleships.

O For the Japanese, the post-war naval construction began with a program calling for eight new battleships and eight new battle cruisers.

Background to Disarmament Talks

O This building spree led to concern that a new naval arms race, similar to the pre-war Anglo-German competition, was about to begin.

Disarmament around the world

O Washington Naval Conference: 1921 – 1922

O The aim of this conference was to get the major naval powers to disarm.

O The rivalry among the great powers had resulted in an

expensive naval arms race that could not be sustained.

O The USA invited Britain, France, Italy and Japan. Here they agreed to reduce the size of their navies. The most important of the treaties was the Five Power Naval Limitation Treaty.

Disarmament around the world

O Accordingly the countries agreed to maintain a balance in their respective fleets.

O Though there were some objections from

the Japanese pertaining to the ratio 1:3.

O Britain and the USA agreed not to improve their facilities in the Pacific and to set up their bases at away from the striking distance of Japan, Japan agreed to it.

Disarmament around the world

O Japan also agreed not to:

O develop bases on Formosa and;

O the Pacific Islands which had been received as mandates from The League of Nations.

Disarmament around the world

O The Locarno Pact 1925:- O Germany had proposed this pact and signed by the

former allied powers. Germany agreed to respect its new Western boundaries.

O However, no guarantee was offered for the Eastern

borders with Poland.

O Germany agreed not to remilitarise Rhineland, which improved Germany’s relations with her former enemies.

O This also enabled Germany, membership in the League of Nations – improved hopes for a peaceful Europe.

Disarmament around the World

O The Kellogg Briand Pact 1928:

O This Pact was jointly initiated by the French and the US leaders.

O signed in August 1928 by 15 nations.

O This included all the major powers of the day Soon, more than 60 countries joined.

O They agreed not to resort to war to achieve their political and economic ambitions.

Lesson Recall O What was the key principles of

disarmament?

O What were the main agreements of the Washington Conference of 1921-22

Essay PracticeO Was military reduction the main reason

why the Germans found it difficult to accept the treaty of Versailles?

OutlineO Introduction: Make a general point to

introduce the essay…

O Germany found it difficult to accept the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which called for a reduction of its armaments, however there were other reasons, namely the loss of territories and the heavy war reparations.

OutlineO Para 1 – Given factor: (Military reduction/ disarmament)

O Had negative effect on Germany…why? (F)

O Germany has a small army. The armed forces do not have any artillery and limited submarines. They do not have the capacity to defend themselves. (E)

O These restrictions were imposed on Germany by the Western powers so that could not compete with Britain and France (Eg.)

O Link: Germans could not accept this becauseO Their defenses vulnerable to attack from the Western

powers.O Although disarmament was for all countries at Paris Peace

Conference, only Germany was forced to disarm. This made it difficult for the Germans to accept the Treaty terms.

Outline – Lets work it out together

O Para 2: Heavy war reparationsO Germany was forced to accept Article 231 of the

treaty which was called the “war guilt” clause. This clause meant that they had to bear the full responsibility for the cost of the war.

O As a result Germany was forced to repay a debt of 6.6 billion pounds to the Western powers that were involved in the war.

O Another requirement of the treaty was that Germany can only repay using physical assets as well as natural resources such as coal.

O This had an equally adverse effect on Germany as these reparations caused economic problems in Germany. Such as inflation and high unemployment.

Outline – Let’s work it out together

O Para 3: Loss of Territories

O Resulting from the treaty, Germany was split into 2 halves in the north. The portion which was in the middle was known as the Polish Corridor and it contained many German citizens. These citizens were now under the control of Poland. They felt unsafe and vulnerable in this region.

O These citizens pressurised the government to return to German control. Additionally, Germany loss territories which contained natural resources. These resources were used to build up its economy.

O Therefore, it was difficult for the Germans to accept the treaty of Versailles as it meant a loss of national pride. It also meant that there was a loss of important sources of natural resources which could been used to support the German economy.

Outline – Weigh and Link

O Which do you think is the main reason?O Military reductionO Territorial reductionO Heavy war reparations

O Clue: analyze using which factor and the most impact…

OutlineO Model conclusion:

O The main reason why the Germans found the Treaty of Versailles difficult to accept was the heavy reparations it had to pay. Although they were angered by territorial loss and military reductions, these only affected the nation’s pride.

O Reparations on the other hand affected Germans daily lives adversely. The devastation of the economy meant high levels of unemployment and inflation which the German government was not able to rectify as they were forced to pay war debts.