Describe the Role of the Conferences and Treaties in Contributing to a “perception of Global Stability” but Also Contributing to the Outbreak of World War Ii.
Describe the role of the conferences and treaties in contributing to a “perception of global stability” but also contributing to the outbreak of World War II.
World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. Negotiated among the Allied powers with little participation by Germany, its 15 parts and 440 articles reassigned German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations. Really the British and French wanted revenge and restitution paid. Germany under protest signed the treaty. There were terrorist’s attacks and assignations of politicians. Germany’s borders had been redrawn and their army/navy sizes greatly reduced. The U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty, and the U.S. government took no responsibility for most of its provisions (Staff, 2009).
“The hope that national self-determination would create a secure and contented Eastern Europe in place of the former multinational empires was soon dashed. The French predicted that German revisionism would begin here and the region’s instability and bitterness helped to poison post-war international relations. All the new states were dissatisfied with their frontiers, whilst the ethnic kaleidoscope resulting from centuries of wars, migrations and inter-marriage meant that none was a truly national entity, each containing minorities that were resented and feared. The peacemakers did establish a system of protection for these minorities, partly to encourage their assimilation and partly to avoid their supplying neighbouring kin-states with an excuse to disrupt the new order. But then they washed their hands, passing responsibility to the League. Hitler’s exploitation of the Sudetenland Germans in his 1938 dismantling of Czechoslovakia represented the nightmare they sought to avoid, whilst Balfour’s sardonic comment summarises the insoluble nature of the problems: “General Edward A. Plunkett’s (1870-1926) solution of our eastern