Taken from the Pearson Baccalaureate History Companion
Causes of World War II in Europe: Failure of Collective Security
Time
Event
Significance
1919
Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of St Germain
1920
Establishment of the
League of Nations
Treaty of Rapallo between
Germany and the USSR
1922
1923
French occupation of the
Ruhr
1924
Introduction of the Dawes plan Locarno Treaties
1925
1926
1928
1929
1932
1933
Germany admitted to the
League of Nations
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Introduction of the Young
Plan
Wall Street Crash
Lausanne Conference of reparations payments
Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
Pinned the blame for the damage incurred on Germany …show more content…
France
• Like Britain, did not attempt to use the League of Nations in response to the series of crises in the late 1930s, undermining the principle of ‘collective security’
• Failed to support the Czechs in 1938
• Followed a defensive strategy focused on the Maginot line
• Did not work hard enough for an agreement with the USSR
USSR
• Stalin had purged his armies in the 1930s and was militarily weakened; it was in the Soviet interest to work for a delay in a war with Germany
• Stalin believed that the Western powers’ policy of appeasement was predominantly anti-communist
• As the USSR was not invited to the Munich Conference and attempts to find an agreement in 1939 by Britain and France appeared half-hearted, Stalin saw that his interests were best served by an agreement with Germany
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact unleashed World War II by allowing Hitler to invade