If any of the triple alliance attacks either Russia or France, the other will send aid. Russia and France made this treaty because the triple alliance was too powerful to take them on individually. The whole thing went downhill when Russia not France began mobilizing their troops. When Russia began mobilizing, the Germans Callics of the Austro-Hungarian empire decided to declare war on both Russia and its ally France. Even after the Germans declared war, France did not wish to engage in war.
On the 6 July 1914 Germany had given Austria a “blank check”, which stated the support of Germany towards Austria. The “blank check” enraged the UK, which sent a telegram to Germany declaring that the UK would support France. The “blank check” was no accident, therefore, the tensions and ally system of WWI began before the war, meaning that war was yet to come. Although, Austria was crippled from past events solely wanted to destroy Serbia. Massie states that Austria believes it’s fractured and disintegrated state will be cured by annihilating the source of all of its problems, Serbia.
Churchill believed that in order to guarantee the security of Czechoslovakia, Europe should have held Germany back and Britain and France should have worked together as an alliance. George F. Kennan, an American Secretary of State during the cold war also disagreed with the Munich Agreement. Kennan thought that Chamberlain and Daladier only agreed with Germany’s proposal only because they didn’t want to participate in war. Chamberlain and Daladier wanted to maintain the peace in Europe. (Document 6) As written in The Origins of the Second World War, by A.J.P.
He wanted to punish Germany and weaken them for what they have caused to European countries and wanted them to pay for the reparations so that France can rebuild itself. Meanwhile, Woodrow Wilson wanted to make a fair treat to end the war. He didn’t want a harsh peace and was more sensible than Clemenceau and David George. Woodrow wanted justice to be paid. He issued Fourteen points which talks about what he wanted and his views that could avoid another start of
Explain why Castlereagh opposed harsh treatment of France at the Congress of Vienna (12) Castlereagh, the foreign secretary in the Liverpool government, played the role of conciliator at the Congress of Vienna. His main objective was to maintain a peaceful relationship with France so that trade could continue after being disrupted by the Napoleonic war; he did this through the introduction of the congress system in which the idea of balancing power between the powers was put forward. Firstly, Castlereagh wanted lasting peace not only with France but with the other powers. However, his main concern lay with France as too much violence towards them may have caused revenge attacks. They achieved this by penalizing France with indemnities; however, they didn’t embitter France to want to fight for revenge.
To avoid war in the years 1935 to 1938, Britain and France turned a blind eye to small acts of aggression and expansion, the United States went along with this policy. Even though Roosevelt knew of the threat the Fascist proposed he was still worried about the majority of the isolationist throughout the country. Testing the waters in 1937 he spoke about the democracies teaming up and trying to “quarantine” the problem. The public did not take to well on this idea, and he quickly dropped the subject. Even though that speech failed Roosevelt somehow managed to argue for neutrality but at the same time convince Congress to start building up the arms and increase the military and naval budget by nearly two-thirds in 1938.
Stresemann recognised that Germany had no real option in the Ruhr, but also realised that any move that seemed to be surrendering would be hugely unpopular. In September 1923, he called off ‘passive resistance’ in the Ruhr, and promised to start paying reparations again. He made sure that there would be no repeat of the Ruhr occupation with the Locarno Pact of 1925, which, with British support, was a guarantee by the European Great Powers that there would not be a repetition, in return for the permanent demilitarization of the Rhineland. This led to Germany being accepted to join the council of the League of Nations, as he managed to ease French concerns about a German
Collective security would be applied if the League’s assembly was unable to solve the problem; it would impose moral pressure, then economic sanctions, to force the country that was deemed to be in the wrong to comply its decisions. However, collective security failed years after, when the League faced major conflicts years later, it started to prove the world that collective security was no longer a principle to rely on. The failure of collective security played a key role as a cause to WW2. The term collective security was coined in the 1920s, but the concept that each nation's security depended upon that of all other nations, that peace was universal and indivisible was shaped by Woodrow Wilson (U.S President) at the end of the of the World War One (1918). His idealistic idea was appreciated by many countries in Europe and was later implemented in the covenant of League of Nations at the end of 1920s.
The creation of the European Union in 1952 was due to the fact that Europeans wanted to create a better future and for another world war to never happen again. European integration and economic prosperity were key reasons why the EU was created. There are two main views on integration-the intergovernmentalist and the neo-functionalist discussions on how the EU functions. The quote “The history of the European Union shows that, at its heart, it is a Franco-German partnership…the EU is not a supranational organization”, is one prime example of how an intergovernmentlist views the EU. Based on the theory of intergovernmentalism, the Franco-German partnership is the most vital and important in regard to power and influence in the EU, because both France and Germany are the founding members of the European Union, having strong economies and both have strong influence upon EU legislation due to these factors.
Druga Gymnasia- Ib Diploma program | Why did collective security fail to keep peace between 1920 and 1935? | | | | 25/5/12012 | Berina Beširović III1 IB | The League of Nation`s major aim was consisted of four optimistic elements that were planned to bring prosperity for Europe: encourage cooperation, stop aggression, disarmament and improvement of social conditions. The basis for success in these aims was maintaining collective security which was what League wanted to provide securing peace and stability in Europe. Even though League had both strengths and weaknesses it did not avert its own policy of collective security from failing which automatically meant road to new war. This essay examines the reasons why collective security failed in years 1920-1935, and reasons for the failure can be grouped in four big categories: internal issues of collective security, external issues, impact of Great Depression and final decline due to events of 1930s.