This was evidently a great success as shortly after Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This defeat, and the ending of continuous years of war, undoubtedly formed the basis of Castlereagh’s policies as his time as Foreign Minister. Castlereagh foreign policy was geared towards sustaining peace that Europe had not experienced in quite some time. Because of this, his foreign policy was largely centred on trying to appease and creating allies and alliances to ensure greater stability in Europe. Unlike Castlereagh, Canning came to office as Foreign Minister in 1822 to 1827 and was largely able to experience the stability of peacetime among Europe.
Oliver Cromwell held many negotiation sessions with King Charles l who characteristically quibbled whilst opening new negotiations with the Scots. King Charles l continually refused to come to any sort of agreement with the opposition and therefore made it virtually impossible for any peace settlement to work. Parliament sent out a delegation to negotiate peace, but Charles was feeling stronger and refused to talk. But there was a peace party within Parliament that was willing to compromise with the king in order to bring the civil war to an end. Both sides were seizing the estates of their enemies to finance the war effort, creating even more political chaos.
Clemenceau resented Wilson’s generous attitude towards Germany and Lloyd George’s desire to not treat Germany too harshly. He said “if they British are so anxious to appease Germany they should look overseas and make colonial, naval or commercial concessions”. These disagreements left the big three unsatisfied and ultimately left them with a weak mere shadow of a perhaps great treaty due to their own arrogance and. It contained many faults and weaknesses. The treaty of Versailles greatly humiliated Germany forcing it to accept soul responsibility for the war.
Edward IV's reigns had faced many problems because of Warwick. Firstly Warwick believed Edward had not rewarded him enough by giving him the captain of Calais. Whilst other nobles such as William Herbert were also rewarded with high titles such as Lieutenant of South Wales. This had begun to create problems between Warwick and Edward, to add to insult Edward would not let Clarence marry Warwickshire daughter Isabel. As a result Edward decided to remove the Archbishop of York who had approved the marriage.
However, many other factors played a role in the demise of the Parliament such as the fact that they were ill-organised, the lack of popular support and their inability to enforce decisions. Frederick William IV was partially responsible for the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament as he was unwilling to accept the ‘crown from the gutter’. William IV was aware that acceptance of the leadership may lead to war with Austria. Austria had no wish to see a united Germany and wanted to keep it weak and divided in order to dominate. Frederick William shared this view and was unwilling to potentially cause a war with such a powerful state.
Henry had a very aggressive policy on France throughout his rein until he eventually decided on trying to become the peacemaker of Europe. Henry wanted to regain the lost territory in northern France so he could be seen as a Great War lord with visions of honour and glory but also to challenge Henry V’s title of the last great English warrior. The first sign of this aim being put into place is the first French war from 1512-1514. However the first expedition on June 1512 was a disastrous failure as Ferdinand of Aragon didn’t hold up his end of the deal for an allied invasion. This shows Henrys naivety in foreign policy and the other European powers were using him to benefit themselves whilst sending him to his downfall.
In turn this would destroy Britain commercially and their industrial economy allowing Napoleon to take over Britain however did not work and left Napoleon worse off then he was before. His next mistake was the Peninsular war and as a result weakened his empire even more by the Spanish guerrillas, Germans, and Italians turning against him. Lastly his third mistake lost him most of his soldiers and the tactic used to defeat him was the scorched-earth policy, by the Russians. These mistakes greatly weakened Napoleons Empire. The empire was then declared war on by Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Austria.
It was not the strength of the opposing forces, both liberal and conservative, but rather the stubbornness of Wilson that led to the defeat in the Treaty of Versailles. Wilson himself was an incredibly stubborn man and was the main reason the treaty failed in his hands. His inability to compromise caused him to loose support within the Democratic Party, thus resulting in the Senate defeat of the
With Liverpool gone from office the Tories had lost the only thing that was keeping the different factions together. With him gone old arguments and grudges soon came out into the open. It also meant that the Tory party was now weakened, as it had no united leadership and was unable to settle on a stable arrangement in which all members were agreed. After Liverpool, Canning became Prime Minister and although he had a good plan for improving the country he lost most of his cabinet when Peel, Wellington and five other ministers resigned because they didn’t like his foreign policy or his pro-Catholic feelings. This meant that he had to draft in Whig party members to fill the gaps, which then reduced the Tory presence in Cabinet.
Some may argue that no one wanted war. Winston Churchill stated that the Great Powers slid over the brink into a war nobody wanted. (Doc I). Russia and France were forced into war because Germany declared war on Russia 1 August 1914 and war on France 3 August 1914. Therefore, it may be true that countries that did not want war were forced into it, however, “nobody” is inaccurate due to the fact that Germany wanted war.