Homework 1

1. What attempts were made at improving international relations in the 1920s and 30s and how successful were they?
In the 1920s and 30s the world attempted to improve international relations. These attempts were hardly successful. One of the first attempts made was a committee for promoting collective security, the League of Nations. It had few successes, but the successes were outnumbered by a vast collection of failures that seemed to happen on after another. The League itself made few attempts. The attempts it did make never really sufficed to anything, with a select few successes in less-powerful countries in the world. The attempts made to solve issues in the major world powers such as the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, the USSR, China, Italy, and Japan could have been better. But the problem in the league was that the world powers were never apart of the committee at the same time. This prevented agreements from being agreed upon by all the countries. Events such as the invasion of the Rhineland by Germany never even had attempts made to fix. The events of the Ethiopian invasion by Italy had an attempt at economic sanctions, but was not upheld. No attempts were made to stop Japan from invading Manchuria. Appeasement was the attempt being used for Germany and Japan. It was successful for Japan and Germany, but not for the rest of the world who would be forced to suffer at the hands of Germany and Japan.

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?

If the US joined the league of nations that came from Wilson's fourteen points, the attempts made might have actually worked. There would have been a way to enforce an economic sanction on Italy for oil, which was not possible with the US not in the league since the US was Italy's main supplier of oil. Also, there would have been more strength in the league in general to enforce it's attempts at collective security.
The League also could have cracked a whip down on Germany when she broke agreements from the treaty of versailles. Especially during the militirization of the Rhineland. A simple group of troops sent from GB or France would have forced Germany to retreat and give up on the Rhineland. Appeasement should never have been employed as way to promote collective security because it only provoked Germany and Japan to continue with their actions.