International Arms-Control
Agreements
- 1920s & 1930s -
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
1. “Open covenants of peace . . . .”
2. “Absolute freedom of navigation upon the
seas . . . .”
3. “The removal . . . of all economic barriers
and the establishment of an equality of
trade conditions . . . .”
4. “ . . . that national armaments will be
reduced to the lowest point consistent with
domestic safety.”
5. “ . . . absolutely impartial adjustment of
all colonial claims, . . . .”
Fourteen Points (continued)
6. “The evacuation of all Russian territory and such
a settlement of all questions affecting Russia . . .
.”
7. “Belgium . . . must be evacuated and restored, . . .
.”
8. “All French territory should be freed and the
invaded portions restored, . . . .”
9. “A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy . . . .”
10. “The peoples of Austria-Hungary . . . should be
accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous
development.”
Fourteen Points (continued)
11. “Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be
evacuated; occupied territories restored; . . . .”
12. “The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman
Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty,
but the other nationalities which are now under
Turkish rule should be assured an . . . unmolested
opportunity of autonomous development, and the
Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a
free passage to the ships and commerce of all
nations . . . .”
Fourteen Points (continued)
13. “An independent Polish state should
be erected . . . .”
14. “A general association of nations
must be formed . . . for the purpose of
affording mutual guarantees of
political independence and territorial
integrity . . . .”
League of Nations
Goals of the League of Nations
• disarmament
• preventing war through collective
security
• settling disputes between countries
through negotiation diplomacy
• improving global welfare
The League of Nations was weak:
depended on the Great Powers to:
• enforce its resolutions
• maintain economic sanctions ordered
• provide an army, when needed, for the
League to use
There were a series of treaties
negotiated in 1919 that concluded
the hostilities of the Great War:
•
•
•
•
•
Treaty of Versailles with Germany
Treaty of Saint Germain with Austria
Treaty of Trianon with Hungary
Treaty of Sèvres with Turkey
Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria
Treaty of Versailles
[Image source: http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/versailles.htm]
[Image source: http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versailles.html]
The Treaty of Saint Germain, 10th September 1919,
officially registered the breakup of the Habsburg
empire, recognizing the independence of . . .
Poland
Hungary
Kingdom of
the Serbs*
*Yugoslavia
The Treaty of
Trianon*
divided
Hungary
among
five
nations –
two of
them
new.
*Signed 4th
June 1920
[Image source: http://parizs.tripod.com/trianon/hungtria.jpg]
The Treaty of Sèvres, signed 10th August 1920,
dealt with issues of international importance,
such as the navigation of the Dardanelles.
[Image source: http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versailles.html]
The Treaty of Neuilly, 27th November 1919, gave
portions of Bulgaria to neighbouring nations.
• [Image source:
Territories ceded by Bulgaria to neighbouring countries after World War I
Territory ceded to Bulgaria by Turkey in 1915 and taken from Bulgaria after World War I
Boundaries of modern Bulgaria
Senator
William E.
Borah (R-ID)
urged the major
Allied nations
from the recent
war to gather in
an effort to slow
the arms race.
Washington Naval Conference
- November 1921 to February 1922 -
• aka International Conference on Naval
Limitation
– a result of the naval construction rivalry
between Great Britain, Japan and the
United States
• portrayed as an alternative to League of
Nations
• convened on Armistice Day*
*11th November
Washington Naval Conference Attendees
Major Naval Powers:
• Great Britain
• United States
• Japan
• France
• Italy
Other nations in attendance:
• Belgium
• the Netherlands
• Portugal
• China
(Had concerns about territories
in the Pacific, but were not
parties to the disarmament
discussions.)
Conspicuously absent: Soviet Russia and the
defeated Central Powers. (They were not invited.)
Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes
proposed scrapping nearly two million
tons of warships and a lengthy “holiday”
on the construction of new capital ships.
Washington Naval Conference
resulted in a number of agreements:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Four-Power Pact
Shantung Treaty
Nine-Power Treaty
Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty
Five-Power Supplementary Treaty
Six-Power Pact
Yap Island Agreement
Four-Power Pact
- 13th December 1921 -
Britain, France, Japan and the United States:
• agreed to submit disputes among themselves
over Pacific issues to a conference for
resolution, and
• pledged mutual respect for the possessions
and mandates of other signatories in the
Pacific
Shantung
(Shandong)
Treaty
- 4th February1922 -
• the territory of Kiaochow in Shantung
(Shandong) province was returned by Japan
to China
– the area had been “leased” to Germany in
1898, but was seized by Japan at the
outbreak of war in 1914
Nine-Power Treaty
- 6th February 1922 -
“Desiring to adopt a policy designed to . . .
• stabilize conditions in the Far East, to . . .
• safeguard the rights and interests of China,
and to . . .
• promote intercourse between China and the
other Powers upon the basis of equality of
opportunity; . . . .”
- Paragraph 2.
Nine-Power Treaty Signatories
•
•
•
•
United States
Belgium
Great Britain
France
•
•
•
•
Kingdom of Italy
Empire of Japan
The Netherlands
Portugal
Republic of China
Washington Naval Treaty
- 6th February 1922 • aka the Five-Powers Act or the Five-Powers
Naval Limitation Treaty
• Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the
United States — pledged adherence to
limitations on the tonnage of capital ships
and accepted a moratorium on new naval
construction
All signatories pledged to maintain a
balance in their respective capital* fleets
under a predetermined ratio:
•
•
•
•
•
Great Britain
United States
Japan
France
Italy
*Capital ships were those vessels exceeding 10,000 tons or bearing guns in excess
of an eight-inch caliber, effectively denoting battleships and aircraft carriers.
Five-Power Supplemental Treaty
• the major Allied naval powers* agreed
on a series of rules for the use of
submarines in future warfare and also
outlawed the use of poisonous gases as
a military weapon
*Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy
Six-Power Pact
• the Big Five Nations plus China agreed
to the allocation among themselves of
former German cable routes in the
Pacific
Yap Island Agreement
• the United States and Japan agreed on
provisions for U.S. use of the Pacific
island as a distribution point for the
transpacific cable
In the following months, the U.S.
Senate ratified all of the treaties from
the
Washington
Conference.
However, a reservation was attached
to the Four-Power Pact stating that
no agreement had been approved
that required the “commitment of
armed force” by the United States.
British
journalist
Hector C.
Bywater
predicted a
war between the
United States
and Japan
in 1925!
Geneva Naval Conference of 1927
- 20th June to 4th August 1927 -
• attended by second-rank diplomats (France
and Italy did not attend at all)
• the United States sought to extend the 5:5:3
ratio to lesser vessels
- the British and Japanese agreed in
principle, but cited special circumstances
exempting them from strict adherence
• the delegates adjourned without reaching
any agreement
Kellog-Briand Pact
- 1929 -
• “. . . condemn recourse to war for the
solution of international controversies, and
renounce it, as an instrument of national
policy in their relations with one another.”
(Article I)
• “. . . the settlement or solution of all disputes
or conflicts . . ., shall never be sought except
by pacific means.” (Article II)
Kellog-Briand Pact Signatories
• United States*
• Germany
• Kingdom of
Belgium
• France
•
•
•
•
•
Great Britain
Kingdom of Italy
Empire of Japan
Poland
Czechoslovakia
*Ratified by the Senate 16th January and signed by
Calvin Coolidge the next day.
London Naval Conference
- 22nd January 22nd 1930 -
• http://www.u-shistory.com/pages/h1517.html
Second London Naval Treaty of 1936
[Image source: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USNatWar/USN-King-1.html]
[Image source:
http://www.allthingsbeautiful.com/a
ll_things_beautiful/]
[Image source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/images/pogo-enemy.jpg]
Artist: Talburt in the Washington News
[Image source: http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/fdr/1937/37_12.html]