Flashcards · 2147 · Topic 2

Core content: Option B – The twentieth century: international relations since 1919 flashcards

34 cards on Topic 2, subtopics 2.1 to 2.6. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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2.1 Was the Treaty of Versailles Fair?

What did each of the “Big Three” want at the Paris Peace Conference?: Wilson (USA): a moderate peace based on his Fourteen Points. Lloyd George (Britain): a peace firm enough for British opinion but not crippling. Clemenceau (France): Germany permanently weakened for French security.
When was the Treaty of Versailles signed?: 28 June 1919, five years to the day after the assassination at Sarajevo.
What military terms did the Treaty of Versailles impose on Germany?: Army limited to 100,000 men, no conscription, no air force, no submarines, only six battleships, and the Rhineland demilitarised.
What territory did Germany lose under the Treaty of Versailles?: Alsace-Lorraine to France, land to Poland (including the Polish Corridor), all its colonies, and Danzig became a free city. The Saar was run by the League for 15 years, and union with Austria was forbidden.
What was Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles?: The “war guilt” clause: Germany accepted responsibility for the war, which was the basis for reparations. Reparations were set in 1921 at £6,600 million.
Was the Treaty of Versailles fair? Give one argument each way: Fair: Germany had caused huge destruction and imposed a harsh treaty on Russia at Brest-Litovsk (1918). Unfair: it was a dictated peace (Diktat), and the resentment it caused was later exploited by Nazi propaganda.

2.2 To What Extent Was the League of Nations a Success?

What were the aims of the League of Nations?: To keep peace through collective security, encourage disarmament, and improve working and living conditions worldwide.
Give two successes of the League of Nations in the 1920s: It settled the Åland Islands dispute (1921) and the Greek–Bulgarian border clash (1925). Its agencies did useful work on refugees, health and labour conditions.
Why did the Manchurian crisis (1931–33) weaken the League?: Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. The League’s Lytton Report condemned Japan, but Japan simply left the League (1933) and kept Manchuria. No action was taken.
Why did the Abyssinian crisis (1935–36) discredit the League?: Italy invaded Abyssinia. Sanctions excluded oil and the Suez Canal stayed open, and the secret Hoare–Laval Pact showed Britain and France were willing to hand Italy much of Abyssinia.
What were the structural weaknesses of the League of Nations?: The USA never joined; it had no army of its own and relied on members to act; decisions needed unanimity; and major powers left or ignored it (Japan and Germany left in 1933, Italy in 1937).

2.3 How Far Was Hitler’s Foreign Policy to Blame for the Outbreak of War in Europe in 1939?

What were Hitler’s main foreign policy aims?: To overturn the Treaty of Versailles, unite all German-speaking people in one state, and win “living space” (Lebensraum) in eastern Europe.
List Hitler’s main foreign policy steps, 1936–39: Remilitarised the Rhineland (March 1936); Anschluss with Austria (March 1938); gained the Sudetenland at Munich (September 1938); occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia (March 1939); invaded Poland (1 September 1939).
What was the Munich Agreement (September 1938)?: Britain (Chamberlain), France (Daladier), Italy and Germany agreed that Germany could take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was not invited.
What was the Nazi–Soviet Pact (August 1939) and why did it matter?: A non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR with a secret plan to divide Poland. It meant Hitler could invade Poland without fearing a war with the USSR.
Why did Britain follow a policy of appeasement?: Memories of the First World War, a belief that Versailles had been too harsh, fear of communism, British unreadiness for war, and lack of support from the Empire and the USA.
How should you answer “How far was Hitler’s foreign policy to blame for war in 1939?”: Weigh Hitler’s actions against other factors: appeasement, the League’s weakness and the collapse of collective security, and the Nazi–Soviet Pact. Then give a clear judgement.

2.4 Who Was to Blame for the Cold War?

What were the Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July–August 1945) conferences?: Wartime conferences of the Allied leaders that agreed to divide Germany into zones. By Potsdam, with Truman replacing Roosevelt, disagreement over Germany and Eastern Europe was growing.
What was the “Iron Curtain” speech?: Churchill’s speech at Fulton, Missouri (March 1946), saying an iron curtain had descended across Europe, dividing the Soviet-controlled East from the West.
What were the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (1947)?: The Truman Doctrine pledged US support to countries resisting communism. The Marshall Plan gave economic aid to rebuild Europe so that communism would be less attractive.
What was the Berlin Blockade (1948–49)?: The USSR cut road, rail and canal links to West Berlin. The West supplied the city by air (the Berlin Airlift) until the blockade was lifted in May 1949. NATO was formed in April 1949.
What are the three main historical views on who caused the Cold War?: Traditional: Soviet expansionism. Revisionist: US economic and nuclear pressure. Post-revisionist: mutual misunderstanding and mistrust on both sides.

2.5 How Effectively Did the United States Contain the Spread of Communism?

Which three case studies does the containment enquiry use?: Korea (to 1953), Cuba (the revolution and the 1962 missile crisis) and US involvement in Vietnam.
How did the USA respond to the invasion of South Korea in June 1950?: It took the issue to the UN, which sent forces under the US general MacArthur. After the Inchon landing they pushed north, but China entered the war in late 1950. An armistice in July 1953 left the border near the 38th parallel.
What was the Bay of Pigs invasion (April 1961)?: A failed invasion of Cuba by CIA-trained Cuban exiles, approved by Kennedy, intended to overthrow Fidel Castro. It pushed Castro closer to the USSR.
How was the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962) resolved?: Kennedy imposed a naval quarantine. Khrushchev removed the missiles in return for a US pledge not to invade Cuba and a secret agreement to remove US missiles from Turkey.
What was the domino theory?: The belief that if one country in a region fell to communism, its neighbours would follow. It was used to justify US involvement in Vietnam.
Give the key stages of US involvement in Vietnam: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964); combat troops and bombing (Rolling Thunder) from 1965; the Tet Offensive (1968) turned US opinion; Nixon’s Vietnamisation; Paris Peace Accords (1973); Saigon fell in 1975.

2.6 How Secure Was the USSR’s Control Over Eastern Europe, 1948–c.1989?

How did the USSR control Eastern Europe?: Politically through loyal communist governments; economically through Comecon (1949); and militarily through the Warsaw Pact (1955) and direct intervention.
What happened in Hungary in 1956?: Imre Nagy’s government announced Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact. Soviet tanks crushed the rising in November 1956 and Nagy was later executed.
Why was the Berlin Wall built in 1961?: To stop East Germans escaping to the West through West Berlin, which was draining East Germany of skilled workers.
What was the Prague Spring (1968)?: Alexander Dubček’s reforms in Czechoslovakia, “socialism with a human face”. Warsaw Pact forces invaded in August 1968. The Brezhnev Doctrine claimed the right to intervene to protect communism.
What was Solidarity?: An independent trade union formed in Poland in 1980, led by Lech Wałęsa, from the Gdańsk shipyard strikes. Martial law was imposed in 1981, but Solidarity won elections in 1989.
Why did Soviet control of Eastern Europe collapse in 1989?: Gorbachev’s reforms (glasnost and perestroika) and his refusal to use force to keep communist governments in power, alongside economic weakness. The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989.