European+Diplomacy+During+the+Interwar+Years

Wes Aschinger European Diplomacy Mr. Hinze per 8 December 8 2009

European Diplomacy during the Interwar years

During the interwar years in Europe, diplomacy was common. The government officials of primary countries in Europe conducted many different negotiations. The reasons for negotiating with the other powers were to prevent the Second World War from happening. The government officials created treaties like the Treaty of Versailles and the Dawes Plan, and made the League of Nations. There were also crises and conflict during the interwar years like the Abyssinia Crisis. The treaties, crisis’s, and creation of the League of Nations were put into place during the interwar years to stop another war that was the size of the first world war but instead helped create the tension between the world powers to help fuel the beginning of the disastrous second world war that effected of the European countries and world powers.

The Treaty of Versailles was the main mistake that the government officials made for Europe. The treaty was crucial reason to why diplomacy was unsuccessful during the interwar period. The negotiation was created to be a Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany. Although this document ended the First World War it left Germany in a debt to the allied powers making it almost impossible to pay back. The allied powers did not want to destroy the nation; however they wanted to weaken the country so they could not cause another war, especially not a world war. The treaty sent Germany into the worst inflation in history. This obviously did not teach them a lesson; all it did was make Germany angry and made them want to get revenge on the allied countries.

The allied forces saw that their first attempt to weaken Germany and not destroy the country (The Treaty of Versailles) was failing. The treaty just destroyed the German economy and started to split the country apart because they could not pay the reparations for the First World War The allied power’s government officials attempted to correct the mistake of the Treaty of Versailles by making the Dawes Plan. The Dawes Plan meant that America would give money to Germany so that they could build up their economy and then Germany could then pay back the money they earned through their new economy. The Dawes Plan helped the economy of Germany but it also gave them the money from what they had made to fuel their want for revenge and help start the Second World War.

A conflict that showed how bad European diplomacy was during the interwar years. The Abyssinia Crisis was a diplomatic crisis caused in the League of Nations, proving that the League of Nations was a failure of the world powers during the interwar years. The crisis was between the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Ethiopia. It was started as a result to fascist Italy allying itself with Nazi Germany. The crisis was originated in the Walwal incident. It was a skirmish between the Somalis (who were in Italian service) and a force of Abyssinians.

Through the major three events, groups and treaties (Treaty of Versailles, Dawes plan, League of Nations, and Abyssinia Crisis) you can see that the diplomacy was a major failure. The failure created the hatred that Germany held against the Allied Forces. The events, groups, and treaties created by the world power’s government officials not only failed but it created the tension between the European countries. The tension that Germany brought to the Allied Forces and the European countries were caused do to the failure of the government officials brought the start to the Second World War.