Establishing Peace
Efforts in Disarmament in the 1920s:
How far were efforts for disarmament a success / failure in the 1920s and 30s?
Success
Military Disarmament – Geneva
Protocol and Kellogg-Briand Pact
The League of Nations decided to work
towards military disarmament by getting
countries to agree to not going to war.
Failure
Preference for Individual Security by
most countries
While most countries did care about
collective security and disarmament, their
main focus was on the individual security
of their nations.
The Geneva Protocol agreed that nations
would bring their disputes for arbitration
There was a still a lack of trust and old
to the League of Nations and not go to
hostilities which still existed among
war while this was going on.
countries. While they all agreed that
disarmament was a good collective plan,
In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact signed
they still believed that individual nations
by 65 nations, proposed no war over the needed a certain level of arms.
next five years except in the case of selfHence, disarmament failed because
defence.
most countries only paid lip service
This form of disarmament did have some towards the idea and did not want to
success because there was no war for
actually put it into action as they feared
the next five years and it was widely
and distrusted other nations and believed
accepted by most countries including the in defending their nations against
most powerful one of all, the United
possible foreign threats.
States, giving the agreement a certain
The failure of German Disarmament
amount of legitimacy.
According to the Treaty of Versailles,
Germany was ordered to disarm and cut
down its troops and weapons.
Washington Naval Conference
Kellogg-Briand Pact
However, the Germans disarmed slowly
and took advantages of loopholes in the
Treaty. For example, they trained all their
limited number of troops as officers
because they were secretly training their
ordinary soldiers elsewhere, making their
army an army of 100,000 officers with
many more soldiers training secretly in
other parts of Germany.
Hence disarmament failed because it
was not closely monitored by the League
of Nations as Germany was able to take
advantage and re-arm itself secretly
instead of reducing its troop numbers
and weapons.
© TWSS Humanities Department 2010 / Elective History / Miss Elodie Sng
Naval Disarmament (Washington
Naval Conference, Geneva
Conference, London Conference)
Naval disarmament was easier to
achieve because not many countries had
navies although it was difficult to get
nations to agree to limit their navies.
No More War Demonstration, 1920s
After several rounds of negotiations,
targets were set by agreeing to a ratio of
shipbuilding between nations to keep the
number of ships built by each nation in
balance. The same proportions were
applied to smaller warships and the
nations involved could build submarines
at a low level.
Although it seemed that naval
disarmament was successful as it had
set out targets for countries to limit their
navies, there was little or no monitoring
and some of the countries involved
refused to attend subsequent
conferences.
Military Disarmament – Treaty of
Mutual Assistance
In 1923, the League of Nations
suggested a Treaty of Mutual Assistance
where countries would agree to limit their
arms but the League would come to their
assistance if they were attacked.
Unfortunately, this was a failure because
few countries agreed to it as they did not
think the League of Nations, which had
no armed force of its own, would have
the power to render military assistance to
them if the need arose.
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Please take note that you have to work out the weighing portion on your own.
When doing so, take note that you have to focus on answering HOW FAR was
disarmament a success or a failure and WHY...
© TWSS Humanities Department 2010 / Elective History / Miss Elodie Sng