WORLD HISTORY: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN 1919-33 – Part 1
- The League of Nations (1920): It settled a number of international disputes, however, its authority remained weakened as many states signed agreements independently of the League.
- The Washington Conferences (1921-22): The purpose of these meetings was to improve relations between USA and Japan as USA was increasingly suspicious of growing Japanese influence in the East and China.
- The Genoa Conference (1922): It hoped to solve the problems of Franco-German hostility (as the Germans were threatening to stop paying reparations), European war debts to USA and resuming diplomatic relations with Russia. It failed.
- The Dawes Plan (1924): It was agreed that Germany should pay annually only what they could reasonably afford until she becomes more prosperous. A foreign loan, mostly from USA, was granted to Germany. The French agreed to withdraw troops from the Ruhr. The plan was successful.
- The Locarno Treaties (1925): These were a number of treaties involving Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The most important one was that Germany, France, and Belgium promised to respect their joint frontiers.
- The Young Plan (1929): It reduced the reparations to be paid by Germany which were to be paid over next 59 years.
- The World Disarmament Conference (1932-33): None of the members of League of Nations, other than Germany had taken any move towards disarmament. Thus, the conference met to try and work out a formula for scaling down armaments. However, it failed in its purpose and Germany withdrew from the League.
Thus, it can be seen that the above attempts had only limited success in improving international relations.
