Resources:
- Walsh 240-2, 244-45 (Depression) & 248-9 (Disarmament)
- See gcsehistory.org.uk on the breakdown of co-operation in the 1930s
Economic conditions and international agreements helped the League achieve success in the 1920s
- The Washington Naval Agreement 1921
- The Rapallo Treaty
- The Dawes Plan, 1924
- The Spirit of Locarno and the Locarno Honeymoon 1925
- Kellog-Briand Pact 1928
- The Young Plan, 1929
- General Economic Recovery
World Depression undermined the basis of collective security
The following video is not about the emergence of dictators in Italy (1922), Germany (1933) and the far East (1931), but it does provide a great insight into the conditions that explain the rise of those dictatorships:
Depression was a key reason for the Manchurian and the Abyssinian crises of 1931-33 and 1934-36. It also goes some way towards explaining the failure of the 1932 Disarmament Conference at Geneva.
Failure of the Geneva Disarmament Conference, 1932-34, and the German withdrawal from the League of Nations
John D. Claire has an excellent little summary of the League’s repeated attempts to bring about general disarmament. (Disarmament as one of the League’s 4 key aims (SIDE – Stop Wars; Improve Lives; Disaramament; Enforce Treaty of Versailles)).
The reason for the failure of the Geneva Disarmament Conference was due to Germany’s refusal to be treated differently from the other nations – either they had to disarm to its level or it should be allowed to re-arm to theirs. Talks staggered on until 1937 but the Conference was really over when Hitler took Germany out of the Conference and out of the League of Nations in October 1933.
Genear
Excerpt from the Road to War series.
RGS History 