GV 103 International Relations 2009-10

Week 3:

World War One and the League of Nations

Lecture Content

So today some of the topics I want to consider are:

Shape of the international structure leading up to WW1 Events that mark the start of the War The Post War settlement Fundamentals of the League of Nations Theoretical Interpretations

Why start here?

It is really WW1 that shapes the territorial shape of Europe as we know it today.

After WW1 international relations emerges as an area of academic study

20th Century sees development of international organisations

Concert of Europe

Large scale multilateral negotiations - through medium of conferences, method through which interstate co-operation grew. known as the Concert of Europe.

Arrangement developed to guarantee the sovereignty of the states of Europe underpinned by the Great powers of the time - France, Russia, Britain, Austro-Hungary and Prussia.

Key features

The balance of system depended upon fact that no single member was able to outmatch the power of all the other states combined.

These powers dominated the continent and therefore made the rules for the conduct of relations in Europe.

Negotiated away any disputes between themselves.

Where they could not do so then war was of course a possibility.

Threats of war grew as the system aged.

Threatening war almost became the way of signifying that a state was seriously concerned about an issue.

Elements & understandings

Great power assumption for guaranteeing the ‘Peace of Europe’.

Great powers adopting some particular norms and attitudes:

respect for treaties non-interference in internal affairs of other states no unilateral actions on territorial issues (at least in Europe) Participation in all major decisions - unanimity rule basis

Equal status for all of the great powers.

Hague Peace Conferences

1899 & 1907 Hague Peace Conferences

Important most notably:

Introduced non-European states (principally South American)

All states were treated with formal equality, in contrast to the ‘Great Powers’ of the Concert.

Hague Conference also moved beyond military and state diplomatic matters to address issues such as international migration and movement.

International Rivalry and Pressures

States are industrialising at an extremely rapid rate. Populations and politics are generating huge internal pressures.

Colonial competition as the British, French, Austrians, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese compete for territorial control across Africa and the Far East.

Some empires are in decay - Austro-Hungaria and the Hapsburgs as is Turkish. Russia becoming less able to control its population and territory.

Industrialised economics increasingly important as tool of power. United States and Japan growing at rapid rate.

German unification creates a large state at heart of Europe with big large population, rapidly industrialising, colonial desires and ill at ease with its neighbours.

Start of World War 1

Issuing of demands and ultimatums by various parties

Mobilisation by all the large powers.

The application of long developed war plans .

German invasion of France across Belgium (that brings in the British) and war with Russiain the East.

State of Europe 1918

In Russia and the Tsar deposed and violent civil war.

France is broke. Male population decimated, industrially exhausted and generally humiliated.

Britain population and society changed for ever, is bankrupt. Dependent on its empire.

US drawn into the war in 1917. Is economically rich and getting richer.

Germany’s internal political order is dashed - Kaiser abdicated . Militarily undefeated. Only after signing of Versailles Treaty that defeat is institutionalised.

Both Ottoman and Hapsburg Empires have collapsed giving light to demands for self-determination.

The League of Nations

Driven by Woodrow Wilson

Followed from Versailles Treaty

An ‘idealist’ construction

US non-participation

Compromise on internationally agreeable and domestically acceptable in US Congress

League of Nations -1

Collective security Key feature underpinning whole League

Renunciation of use of force

Rests on notion that all states will mobilise to defeat ANY state that attacks another.

Article 10 League Members..... ‘undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League’

A mechanism that is slow to operate, if it can at all, by which time it is to late to reverse aggression

League of Nations -2

Crisis management in case of conflict a 3 month ‘cooling off period’

Disarmament League was forum for disarmament negotiations - naval

forces

Could not be enforced in worsening political atmosphere of 1930’s

League of Nations -3

Trusteeship

Disposal of German colonial territories to be administered on behalf of the League

Britain: Iraq, Palestine, Trans-Jordan, Tanganyika

France: Lebanon and SyriaBritain and France joint control of

Cameroons and Togoland

Belgium: Rwanda/BurundiS. Africa: Namibia

League of Nations - 4

Justiciable Disputes Covenant required members to peacefully settle disputes either by arbitration or

judgement.

Managed by special ad-hoc commissions and bodies created by the Council.

A Permanent Court of International Justice was also created. The Court was designed to deal with any disputes referred to it by conflicting parties or the Council for advisory

opinions.

Social and Economic issues Article 23 accepts that problems with trafficking of people and narcotics

should be addressed by the international community - through the League.

‘specialist technical agencies’ included International Labour Organisation, Communications and Transit Organisation, Economic and Financial Organisation and International Health Organisation

Theoretical Interpretations

IR emerged as area of study around WW1

Reflected views and opinions of time

Explanations for WW1 revolved around belief that leaders of autocratic states of the time, unfettered by restraining forces, (Russia, Germany, Austria) bore responsibility for war because they made short-sighted and egotistically informed decisions that forced war.

Leaders from triumphant liberal states pushed for creation of democratic states, believing these were less prone to war.

Creation of international institution would better regulate interstate relations, making them more transparent. An international authority might more effectively promote peaceful relations between than states could.

The time of ‘utopian liberalism’.