Homework 1; term 2

1. What attempts were made at improving international relations in the 1920s and 30s, and how successful were they?

- The League of Nations was an attempt made at improving international relations, specifically by promoting collective security. However, they had many problems and were unable to attain this aim. For example, the main world powers were never in it at the same time. The US never joined because they were reluctant to go to war. Germany was in from 1926 until 1933, and then after that USSR joined in 1934, and Italy left in 1935. Also, there was a perception that it was run by Great Britain and France, which were victors of WWI. This was because France and Great Britain made "mandates" out of the middle east, and took colonies away from Germany in Africa and Pacific. Also, there was the Worldwide economic crisis of 1929, when the US stock market collapsed, and the US cut off their loans to Germany. The crisis then spread to Europe and Asia, and the countries begin focusing on the domestic issues more than the foreign policy issues. There was a lack of will to enforce the collective security after this point.

2. Knowing what you know now, what could the international community have done differently to make collective security more effective in the 1920s and 30s?

-Well, based upon the League of Nations, I think it would have been important that everyone actually was together in it at the same time. If they all joined and stayed apart of it, and worked together as a group, I think that this idea of collective security would have been much more effective than it actually was. Obviously it didn't work at this point in time, because everyone was so scattered around- there wasn't much security in the league of nations due to the fact that nobody joined at the same time.