Frederick William shared this view and was unwilling to potentially cause a war with such a powerful state. This caused the Frankfurt Parliament to fail because Prussia did not grasp the opportunity to unite and neither did the King, therefore Germany remained divided. Although he desired power, William IV was not willing to put himself and Prussia under control of the Frankfurt Parliament as he distrusted ‘the gentlemen of Frankfurt’. This meant that the Parliament had no real leader, and so lost support because people distrusted the parliament as an influential figure stated he would not be associated with them. This aided in causing the failure of the Parliament because with no real leader, no one could influence the masses or help to make decisions.
“Complacent and ultimately harmful to British Interests” How far do you agree with this opinion of GB foreign policy in years 1925-1929? Between the years 1925-1929 British concerns on foreign policy were primarily on the basis of preserving peace and easing the Franco-Germany tensions, defence of Britain, maintaining the status quo, and healing the economy. The terrible losses of the First World War made both politicians and public recoil from the prospect of another war. Thus, Britain seemed to have everything to lose and nothing to gain from a major war, therefore the emphasis on preserving peace were made quite clearly throughout foreign policy as well as compromise, conciliation and concession to prevent any aggression. However some historians would say that Britain was too complacent when it came to foreign policy, and as soon as they believed they had reached satisfactory targets, they wouldn’t go any further, and so risk harming British interests.
Even Lloyd George, who took a much tougher political approach towards the reparations, received criticism. Also, at the beginning of the period, Keynes was unsuccessful and his view of the Treaty of Versailles had very little influence at all. However, there was an acceptance during the 1920s that the Weimar Republic, a new democratic Germany, had emerged. There was perhaps, a realisation that the permanent peace of Europe should be based on mutually accepted agreements. In addition, the British governments under Prime Ministers such as Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Baldwin and
However, Madison did not sign the bill into law because he believed that it wasn’t constitutional even though it would desperately help the United States. Federalists believed that the Constitution was open to interpretation and used the Elastic Clause to support their beliefs (Doc D). During one of the numerous wars between the British and the French the federal government imposed the Embargo Act (Doc E) to cease the trade between both countries to show America’s neutrality. This act harmed the United States more than helped because in New England, which contained mainly federalists, there main way of life was through trading with Europe so they had an economic down turn for as long as the war was going on. During the War of 1812, the Federalists held the Hartford Convention (Doc E) because they were against the war because they were again struggling to trade with Europe.
The Defeat of the Treaty of Versailles It was not the power of the opposition forces, liberal or conservative, of the U.S. that led to the final defeat of the Treaty of Versailles, but rather the political ignorance, inability and inflexibility of the President, Woodrow Wilson. With the surrender of Germany after WW1, it presented many different ways to create peace. Wilson in 1918 offered his plans for peace in the "Fourteen Points", the most important of which he believed was Article X, the League of Nations. One year later, Wilson led the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles to reach an international pact that included the points. However, the U.S. was never to sign the treaty or join the League of Nations Woodrow Wilson's ideas for peace were well rooted in thought, but in politically applying his ideas, he made unchangeable mistakes.
The Pilgrimage of grace failed for many reasons, however, I think it failed mainly due to poor leadership. This is because Robert Aske accepted the King’s pardon at the River Don and trusted that Henry was going to discuss their grievances in court. When they accepted the pardon they dispersed back to their homes, which meant that when Henry didn’t do anything about their grievances then it would be difficult for all the rebels to regroup. The rebellion was regionalised to the North of the country and was too far away from London go back after just coming back. M.L Bush said that ‘It was interconnected regional rebellions rather than one fluid movement’ because once the rebels had gone back to where they lived dotted across the North of England they would all have to meet up rather than go down to London in one group.
In source 3, Watkins develops this point further by commenting that ‘Britain would not survive the peace with the kind of government it has possessed before the war’. This clearly shows how people realised the Conservatives were not a suitable government maintaining peace in Britain after the war. The view of the Conservatives unpopularity is further supported by Source 1 as despite it being written by an up-and-coming Conservative, his account of the election was witnessed first-hand so may have some weight to historians. Similarly with Source 2, Attlee was
The legislation limited Northwestern Europe and Scandinavia to 142,483 people, and Southern and Eastern Europe to 18,439 people due to their involvement in the War. All other nations were limited to a mere 3,745 (History Matters). President Calvin Coolidge justified the Immigration Act of 1924 by stating that the tensions of WWI, which were still fresh in the minds of Europeans, could cause conflict in the U.S. For that reason, he thought that limiting the amount of immigrants from that area could reduce potential ethnic struggles between them in America. However, the limitations statistics simply did not back that statement up. When the Act did not keep enough unwanted immigrants from entry, the President decided to include a mandatory literacy test for immigrants 16 years or older.
The Treaty of Versailles made to keep the peace after World War 1 was weak and had many faults, like Article 231 which unfairly blamed Germany for World War 1. The League of Nations created by the Treaty of Versailles also was ineffectual due to its “lack of teeth.” For there to be stability in Europe international diplomacy needed to achieve strong social, economic and political foundations. Stability in Europe was dependent on international diplomacy following the Treaty of Versailles. These agreements and pacts were to build a new, better foundation of peace. Interpretations B, C and D suggest this never happened, instead only an illusion of peace was formed.
The Membership of the League had a poor start. First, the idea of the League came from Woodrow Wilson. But the USA refused to join. This left Britain and France, but they weren't strong enough to carry out the duties of the League after WW1. It was often the cases of self interest that these two nations resorted too.