In response to China’s appeals, the League sent out the Lord Lytton commission to examine the situation in Manchuria. In the following year, Japan took over Manchuria. For instance, in 1931, Japan went to war with China. However, the lack of strength through an army, structure, and America’s presence, all combined to undermine the effectiveness of the League, leading to incompetent peace initiatives. The League of Nationsįounded on the hopes of peace and collective security, the League of Nations was instituted at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Consequently, the Treaty of Versailles was a direct cause of the growing hostility of Germany and the start of WWII. Britain was forced to declare war on Germany when Hitler invaded Poland. In addition, Hitler forced an Anschluss, union, with Austria, and began invading nearby European countries, completely disregarding any pleas for peace. The process of rearmament began with the production of U-boats, tanks, planes, and conscription. With Hitler in power, Germany’s resentment towards the Treaty of Versailles took shape. The harsh clauses only drove Germans to a common cause of revenge and reclamation. Rather than rebuilding Germany in a manner befitting its economic and social state, and thereby garnering the German people’s respect and securing a long-lasting peace, the Allies stirred German resentment into a frenzy.
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Promises of reclaiming territory, remilitarization and regaining a reputation again among the world powers after such a humiliating defeat and peace, initiated nationalism among Germans, and even allowed them to overlook the radical and irrational views of Nazism. Ultimately, Germans began to desire an authoritarian leadership which they unfortunately found in Adolf Hitler. Furthermore, the war guilt clause, the reparation payments, and the limits on Germany’s army provided a stage for radical right-wing parties. Many Germans began to blame the socialists and liberals of the Weimar Republic for yielding to a dishonorable peace. Such turmoil in the economy increased social unrest. Unemployment shot up and money became worthless. The burdensome weight of the reparations along with an inflationary period and the Great Depression led to a massive instability of the German economy. During the summer of 1919, many clauses were written in the treaty under which Germany was forced to give up land to surrounding nations, all of Germany’s colonies were put under League of Nations control, Germany’s army was cut to 100 000 men and 6 battleships, the land west of the Rhine River was demilitarized, Germany was forced to accept the blame for beginning the war, and Germany was to pay war reparations. Naturally, the Allies felt it necessary to weaken Germany as to not give Germany the ability to upset the peace and order in Europe again. In restoring peace to the suffering and damaged nations of Europe, the most important treaty written was the Treaty of Versailles. Therefore, the peace initiatives following the First World War were successful only to a limited extent. Considering a contemporary viewpoint, the efforts made were detrimental to relations between countries around the world, causing hostilities to escalate again. However, these attempts only had short-term success. The peace initiatives following WWI were made with the hopes of achieving instant resolutions.