Term
| Wilson's plan for postwar arrangement |
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Definition
| Progressive ideas stemming from USA's domestic policy translated into foreign policy. Wilson's idealism largely welcome, but met with apprehension from Allies. Key points: self-determination, open agreements, free trade, democracy. Also: abolition of secret treaties, a reduction in armaments, an adjustment in colonial claims in the interests of both native peoples and colonists, and freedom of the seas.The report was made as negotiation points, and later the Fourteen Points were accepted by France and Italy on November 1, 1918. Britain later signed off on all of the points except the freedom of the seas.The speech was delivered 10 months before the Armistice with Germany and became the basis for the terms of the German surrender, as negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The 14 points are split into Diplomatic, Territorial issues and the League of Nations. |
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Term
| Lloyd George's government |
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Definition
| Prime Minister 1916 - 1922. Liberal. Major figure, at the helm in Versailles. Father of the modern welfare state. Partitioning of Ireland. |
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Term
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Definition
| The Treaty of Versailles (French: Traité de Versailles) was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties.[7] Although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required "Germany [to] accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage" during the war (the other members of the Central Powers signed treaties containing similar articles). This article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers.The result of these competing and sometimes conflicting goals among the victors was a compromise that left no one content: Germany was neither pacified nor conciliated, nor was it permanently weakened. The problems that arose from the treaty would lead to the Locarno Treaties, which improved relations between Germany and the other European Powers, and the re-negotiation of the reparation system resulting in the Dawes Plan, the Young Plan, and the indefinite postponement of reparations at the Lausanne Conference of 1932. |
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Term
| fall of L. George, Baldwin – Ramsay MacDonald – Baldwin again |
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Definition
The fall of George came with his criticque of the coalition government's handling of the Chanak crisis. They were disgusted by Lloyd George's Anglo-Irish Treaty and fearful he was about to go to war with Turkey. With his government fatally compromised, Lloyd George resigned.
22 May 1923
Conservative Stanley Baldwin becomes prime minister
Conservative Stanley Baldwin became prime minister, with Neville Chamberlain as chancellor of the exchequer, after Andrew Bonar Law resigned due to ill health. Baldwin proposed to abandon free trade, hoping that tariff reform would help to beat unemployment - an unpopular measure. Following the elections of December 1923, the reunited Liberals joined Labour to extinguish tariff reform by a vote of no confidence. Baldwin resigned.
Ramsay Macdonald becomes the first Labour prime minister
After the vote of no confidence that saw Stanley Baldwin resign as prime minister, the leader of the largest opposition party, Ramsay Macdonald, was called on to form a minority Labour government. Labour was unable to realise its more radical ambitions because of its reliance on Liberal support. This helped Macdonald allay fears that a party representing the working class must be revolutionary, but disappointed many supporters on the left.
Conservatives win a landslide election following the 'Zinoviev Letter'
In February 1924, the Labour government formally recognised the Soviet Union, despite nervousness about Communist ambitions. In October, MI5 intercepted an apparently seditious letter from a Soviet official to British communists. Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald agreed to the suppression of the 'Zinoviev letter', but it was leaked just before the election. Stanley Baldwin's Conservatives won by a landslide. Labour's share of the vote actually increased, but the Liberals were totally eclipsed. |
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Term
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Definition
The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland, on 5–16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, and return normalizing relations with defeated Germany (which was, by this time, the Weimar Republic).
Locarno divided borders in Europe into two categories: western, which were guaranteed by Locarno treaties, and eastern borders of Germany with Poland, which were open for revision, thus leading to Germany's renewed claims to the German-populated Free City of Danzig and mixed ethnic Polish territories approved by the League of Nations including the Polish Corridor, and Upper Silesia.
At least one of the main reasons Britain promoted the Locarno Pact of 1925, besides to promote Franco-German reconciliation, was because of the understanding that if Franco-German relations improved, France would gradually abandon the Cordon sanitaire, as the French alliance system in Eastern Europe was known between the wars.[7] If France were to abandon its allies in Eastern Europe, the Poles and Czechoslovaks, having no Great Power to protect them from Germany, would be forced to adjust to German demands; in the British viewpoint, they would be expected to peacefully hand over the territories claimed by Germany such as the Sudetenland, the Polish Corridor, and the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland).[8] In this way, promoting territorial revisionism in Eastern Europe in Germany’s favor was one of the principal British objects of Locarno.
The Locarno Treaties were regarded as the keystone of the improved western European diplomatic climate of 1924–1930, introducing a hope for international peace, typically called the "spirit of Locarno". This spirit was seen in Germany's admission to the League of Nations in 1926, the international organization established under the Versailles treaty to promote world peace and co-operation, and in the subsequent withdrawal (completed in June 1930) of Allied troops from Germany's western Rhineland.
In contrast, in Poland, the public humiliation received by Polish diplomats was one of the contributing factors to the fall of the Grabski cabinet. Locarno contributed to the worsening of the atmosphere between Poland and France (despite the French-Polish alliance), and introduced distrust between Poland and Western countries.[9] Locarno divided borders in Europe in two categories: those guaranteed by Locarno, and others, which were free for revision. |
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Term
| the Balfour Declaration (1917, 1926) |
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Definition
1. 'Balfour Declaration' gives British support to a Jewish homeland in Palestine
In a letter to a leading member of the British Jewish community, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour stated the British government's support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, the first such declaration by a world power. It is believed that similar promises were made to the Arabs prior to the publication of the Balfour Declaration in correspondence between Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, British high commissioner in Egypt, and the Hashemite Hussein Ibn Ali, the Sharif of Mecca.
2. 19 October 1926
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa are recognised as autonomous
In 1923, a dominion's right to make a treaty with a foreign power had been accepted. The Imperial Conference in London went further towards legally defining a dominion by recognising that the dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) were autonomous and equal in status, a decision that was later affirmed by the 1931 Statute of Westminster. |
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Term
| The Statute of Westminster |
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Definition
| The Statute of Westminster, 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and separate versions of it are now domestic law within Australia and Canada; it has been repealed in New Zealand and implicitly by subsequent laws in former Commonwealth realms. Passed on 11 December 1931, the act, either immediately or upon ratification, effectively both established the legislative independence of the self-governing Dominions of the British Empire from the United Kingdom and bound them all to seek each other's approval for changes to monarchical titles and the common line of succession. It thus became a statutory embodiment of the principles of equality and common allegiance to the Crown set out in the Balfour Declaration of 1926. It thus had the effect of making the Dominions sovereign nations. |
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Term
| Imperial Preference / Ottawa conference 1932 |
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Definition
| Tariff system of preferrence installed. |
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Term
| Foreign Policy 1918-1931: Palestine, Transjordan, Middle East in general |
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Definition
1917: Balfour declaration no.1 grants Jews a 'homeland' in Palestine Britain is given mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine
The mandate system was conceived by US President Woodrow Wilson. France and Britain were commanded to govern their mandates in the interests of their inhabitants, until these territories were ready to be admitted to the League of Nations. The British took over two areas that had previously formed part of the now defunct Ottoman Empire. |
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Term
| Foreign Policy 1918-1931: India |
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Definition
| Montagu-Chelmsford reforms: towards a 'gradual development of independent institutions'. Nationalists not pleased, Conservatives in opposition. This instituted dyarchy, with 'reserved' and 'transferred' subjects. Rowlatt Acts - extended state of emergency and subsequent measures - indefinite detention, suppression of press. Unanimously opposed by Indian Congress, Gandhi protested against that. 1919 - Government of India Act: Materialized the Mont/Chelm reforms. Dyarchy, extended franchise. In 1922, Rowlat Acts were suppressed. 1930 - Salt Satyagraha: 'Salt march' opposing British monopoly on salt production, starting the movement for Indian Independence. |
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Term
| Foreign Policy 1918-1931: Europe |
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Definition
| Engagement in Soviet Civil War - support for the Whites. Proxy conflict with France, but after Geneva thawing of relations. London Conferece - making France abandon the Ruhr - support for Germany. Decreasing demands on war reparations. |
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Term
| Britain's postwar military policy |
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Definition
| 1919 - Ten Year Rule - large decrease in military spending. Also Washington Naval Conference 1922 - naval disarmament. |
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Definition
| 1922. Britain almost goes to war with Turkey, but some dominions refuse to back this up - shock for Whitehall. Lloyd George's intention to wage the war anyway costs him his seat. |
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Term
| Relations to France following the WWI |
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Definition
| A proxy conflict in the Greco-Turkish war: France backed Turkey, Britain Greece. Then, France occupied the Ruhr - Britain backs Germany. Then in the London Conference Britain makes France cede a huge portion of their demands for reparations. However, they later - 1924 - worked on th Geneva Protocol. |
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Term
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Definition
| The Geneva Protocol, (Protocol for the pacific settlement of international disputes) was a proposal to the League of Nations presented by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and his French counterpart Édouard Herriot. It set up compulsory arbitration of disputes, and a created a method to determine who was the aggressor in international conflicts. All legal disputes between nations would be submitted to the World Court. It called for a disarmament conference in 1925. Any government which refused to comply in a dispute would be named an aggressor. Any victim of aggression was to receive immediate assistance from the League members. McDonald lost power and the new Conservatives government condemned the proposal, fearing it would lead to conflict with the United States. Washington also opposed it, and so did all the British dominions. The proposal was tabled in 1925 and never went into effect. |
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Term
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Definition
| A government ruling limiting military budget based on the assumption that there would be no major conflict in following ten years. Adopted in 1919. |
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Definition
| 1943 - the first meeting involving FDR, Churchill and Stalin. The decision to attack Germany from the Western front rather than via the Mediterranean was made here. |
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Term
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Definition
| 1945: The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held from February 4 to 11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. |
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Term
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Definition
| 1945: July to August. The aim of the conference (USSR, USA, GB) was to settle the postwar arrangement and clarify the way the defeated Nazi Germany would be administered afterwards. Towards the end of the conference, the ultimatum to Japan was issued an ultimatum: Japan was given an ultimatum to surrender (in the name of the United States, Great Britain and China) or meet "prompt and utter destruction", which did not mention the new bomb. Prime minister Kantarō Suzuki did not respond. |
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Term
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Definition
| 1941. The Lend-Lease policy, formally titled "An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States", (Pub.L. 77–11, H.R. 1776, 55 Stat. 31, enacted March 11, 1941)[1] was a program under which the United States supplied Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the USSR and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941 and ended in September 1945. In general the aid was free, although some hardware (such as ships) were returned after the war. In return, the U.S. was given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war. |
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