Conflict and Tension 1918–1939: overview

This wider world depth study examines the international attempts to build peace after the First World War, the failure of collective security, and the diplomatic crises of the 1930s that led to the Second World War. It focuses on peacemaking, the League of Nations, Hitler's foreign policy, and appeasement.

The four topic areas

1. Peacemaking 1919 (H2.1)

The Paris Peace Conference produced the Treaty of Versailles for Germany. The Big Three had conflicting aims: Wilson (USA) wanted a just peace based on his Fourteen Points including a League of Nations; Lloyd George (Britain) wanted a moderate peace satisfying British public opinion; Clemenceau (France) wanted harsh terms. Germany received: the war guilt clause (Article 231); reparations (£6.6 billion); loss of territory; limits on the army; no air force. Germans called it a "diktat." The seeds of future conflict were planted.

2. The League of Nations 1919–1939 (H2.2)

The League embodied Wilson's vision but was fatally weakened: the USA never joined. The League's structure could impose moral condemnation, economic sanctions, or military action — but it had no army; sanctions required unanimous agreement. The League's successes were in the 1920s (Aaland Islands, Upper Silesia). Its failures in the 1930s — Manchuria (1931), Abyssinia (1935–36) — exposed its impotence.

3. Hitler's foreign policy 1933–1939 (H2.3)

Hitler's aims: destroy Versailles; expand German territory (Lebensraum); unite German-speaking peoples; rebuild German military power. His method: gradualism — each step individually defensible, each testing whether the democracies would resist. Key steps: Rhineland remilitarisation (1936); Anschluss with Austria (1938); Sudetenland (Munich Agreement 1938); Czechoslovakia occupation (1939); invasion of Poland (September 1939).

4. Appeasement 1937–1939 (H2.4)

Appeasement — giving Hitler what he demanded to preserve peace — was pursued by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. The Munich Agreement (September 1938) gave Hitler the Sudetenland in exchange for a promise of "no further territorial demands." Chamberlain claimed "peace for our time." Arguments for: Britain not ready for war; buying time for rearmament. Arguments against: rewarded aggression; failed anyway — Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.

Key vocabulary

Paris Peace Conference; Big Three; Fourteen Points; War Guilt Clause; reparations; diktat; League of Nations; collective security; sanctions; Manchuria; Abyssinia; Rhineland; Anschluss; Sudetenland; appeasement; Munich Agreement; Nazi-Soviet Pact.