Explain why relations with Britain, France and Italy changed in the years 1933-37
Explain why relations with Britain, France and Italy changed in the years 1933-37 (12 marks)
From 1933-36, relations between French foreign minister Pierre Laval, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini were good. In June 1933, Mussolini tried to keep on good terms with Britain and France, so he invited them to a meeting in Rome to sign the Four Powers Pact. In 1935, due to German resistance to the treaty of Versailles, the three countries also made an agreement called the Stresa Front its aim was to reaffirm the Locarno Treaties and to declare the independence of Austria. After the Abyssinian crisis however, their relations were broken as both France and Britain opposed it, proposing the Hoare-Lavel pact instead to end the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. When that was no longer possible, Mussolini sided with Hitler and signed the Rome-Berlin Axis.
The Abyssinian crisis was the event that ruined the relations for Britain and France with Italy. Italy, seeing 3 years earlier, Japan invade Manchuria and not be stopped by the League of Nations and also being one of the permanent members of the league, was fairly confident their invasion would not be questioned. Britain and France took matters into their own hands instead of letting the league deal with it (questioning their faith in the league) and constructed the Hoare-Laval pact in December 1935, which was a proposal by British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and French Prime Minister Pierre Laval for ending the Second Italo-Abyssinian War by agreeing to give them parts of Abyssinia. When the news of the pact was leaked however, both Britain and France dissasociated itself with it.
Less than a year later, Italy formed an alliance with Germany, which further isolated them from Britain and France as Germany was plotting against them to revise the terms of the treaty of Versailles. This alliance was called the Rome-Berlin axis and it was a military and political pact
From 1933-36, relations between French foreign minister Pierre Laval, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini were good. In June 1933, Mussolini tried to keep on good terms with Britain and France, so he invited them to a meeting in Rome to sign the Four Powers Pact. In 1935, due to German resistance to the treaty of Versailles, the three countries also made an agreement called the Stresa Front its aim was to reaffirm the Locarno Treaties and to declare the independence of Austria. After the Abyssinian crisis however, their relations were broken as both France and Britain opposed it, proposing the Hoare-Lavel pact instead to end the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. When that was no longer possible, Mussolini sided with Hitler and signed the Rome-Berlin Axis.
The Abyssinian crisis was the event that ruined the relations for Britain and France with Italy. Italy, seeing 3 years earlier, Japan invade Manchuria and not be stopped by the League of Nations and also being one of the permanent members of the league, was fairly confident their invasion would not be questioned. Britain and France took matters into their own hands instead of letting the league deal with it (questioning their faith in the league) and constructed the Hoare-Laval pact in December 1935, which was a proposal by British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and French Prime Minister Pierre Laval for ending the Second Italo-Abyssinian War by agreeing to give them parts of Abyssinia. When the news of the pact was leaked however, both Britain and France dissasociated itself with it.
Less than a year later, Italy formed an alliance with Germany, which further isolated them from Britain and France as Germany was plotting against them to revise the terms of the treaty of Versailles. This alliance was called the Rome-Berlin axis and it was a military and political pact