Depression and threats to international peace and collective security, Manchuria (1931 to 1933) and Abyssinia (1935 to 1936)

1.7.1 The Great Depression and Threat to International Peace

• Many nations had been greatly weakened after the First World War, especially Germany and Britain which prior to the war where the economic powerhouses of Europe
• The world markets and trade had suffered greatly due to the disorder in Russia and Eastern Europe
• Political and social turmoil, war debts and government deficits which where a result of the First World War played a major role in the depression
• Since nations where struggling to survive, this lead to a new mentality. Nations stopped co-operating with trade and cut themselves off from their neighbours. 
• Nations started to care only about themselves, spending all the money and resources they had on domestic problems and no longer cared about word problems
• International agreements where no longer the focus
• The sense of excitement and optimism which had resulted from the Locarno Treaty was gone
• The result was the production of many aggressive states, it was no longer about helping each other out but rather an attitude of survival of the fittest
• The Great Depression bought Hitler into power in Germany. Hitler's main goal was to destroy the Versailles Treaty as he argued that the only solution to Germany's economic problems was to expand its territory to get more resources. This was a great threat to peacekeeping.
• The nations who had previously supported collective security could no longer afford to do so and lost interest in the idea

1.7.2 Manchuria 1931-1933

• Japan was the largest industrial power in Asia due its large exports with the rest of the world. Its wealth depended heavily on its exports of manufactured goods with the USA
• Japan had few natural resources and had a huge population growth which lead to the country being unable to feed itself
• When the American markets collapsed it had disastrous consequences for Japan, massive unemployment and starvation resulted 
• The nationalist groups in Japan wanted the government to take action in order to save its population. 
• The main goal of these nationalist groups was to take over Manchuria, a Chinese province which had many different natural resources. Manchuria had become an independent region as a result of the civil war in China.
• The fact that Japan had greatly invested economically in Manchuria and had kept troops in the city of Port Arthur to protect its interests made the decision to invade the province easy
• Japan invaded Manchuria under the pretext that her population and property had been attacked by the Chinese, although this was made up by the radical nationalists 
• Japan already had quite a lot of control over China as throughout the 20th century Japan had sought to increase its power in China 
• Since China was in civil war and the government was weak, it could not prevent the Japanese from taking over Manchuria
• Due to the agreement in the Washington conference in 1922, non of the major powers had bases in Asia to stop Japan from taking over Manchuria and even if they could they probably would not have been interested to intervene due to their own economic situations
• The Chinese were quickly defeated and in 1932 Japan established the puppet state of Manchukuo
• The League of Nations asked Japan to withdraw its troops from Manchuria and when Japan refused to do so it dropped out of the League

1.7.3 Italy

• Until the rise of Hitler Italy had an important role in Europe 
• It had been part of the League of Nations
• It had signed the Locarno Treaty
• It had also defended the Versailles Treaty 
• However with the rise of Hitler Italy started to realise that it could lose the power it had within Europe
• Furthermore, Germany wanted South Tyrol back. It had been given to Italy in the Treaty of Versailles but it was an all german speaking region and this went against self-determination. 
• Mussolini decided to meet with France and the UK as these where also nations worried about the power Germany could potentially have on Europe. 
• The three countries agreed to resist any German attempt to modify the terms of the Versailles settlement by force
• If this agreement had continued, it may have been able to restrain Hitler

1.7.4 Abyssinia 1935-1936

• With the rise of Hitler Mussolini realised that Italy had no longer an important role within Europe
• Mussolini had always wanted Italy to have a big role in world affairs
• When Italy started to lose its power in Europe, Mussolini wanted to conquer more territory else where
• One of his ambitions was to have Italian colonies within Africa
• Abyssinia was the only unclaimed African territory left and so Mussolini set out to conquer it
• In addition Mussolini was interested economically in the region as he believed that there were oil deposits within it
• The economic benefits and the creation of  a new Italian Empire was enough to convince Mussolini to attack
• The invasion started in October 1935
• 51 States voted to impose economic sanctions on Italy
• However these were largely ineffective as these sanctions did not include oil nor stele and the UK did not close the Suez Canal to Italian shipping, furthermore Germany and the USA did not impose any sanctions
• France and Britain found themselves in a complex situation. The League was suppose to make peace its main priority which would involve making the sanctions a lot more harsh however it also had to consider the fact that they needed Italy to keep the Stresa Front (this was an agreement made in 1935 by Britain, France and Italy to maintain the Locarno agreement and support the independence of Austria) 
• The big threat to Britain and France was Germany and the support of Italy was vital and therefore the need to stay in good terms with Italy was important
• In the end they accomplished neither 
• France and Britain tried to compromise in the Hoare-Level Pact (named after the French prime minister and the British foreign secretary) 
• The compromise involved giving Italy two thirds of Abyssinia including the most fertile land and leave the rest as an independent state
• However the compromise never took place as it was leaked to the press and was greatly criticised and protested by the public
• To stop Italy, France and Britain would have had to use force and neither France nor Britain was prepared to start a conflict to that level with Italy
• The war ended in May 1936 with Italy taking over the all of Abyssinia 
• This was damaged the idea of collective security and of the League itself. It was a sign that the League had lost its power.