International Arms-ControlAgreements

- 1920s & 1930s -

Wilson’s Fourteen Points

1. “Open covenants of peace . . . .”2. “Absolute freedom of navigation upon the

seas . . . .”3. “The removal . . . of all economic barriers

and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions . . . .”

4. “ . . . that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.”

5. “ . . . absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, . . . .”

Fourteen Points (continued)

6. “The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia . . . .”

7. “Belgium . . . must be evacuated and restored, . . . .”

8. “All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, . . . .”

9. “A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy . . . .”

10. “The peoples of Austria-Hungary . . . should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.”

Fourteen Points (continued)

11. “Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; . . . .”

12. “The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an . . . unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations . . . .”

Fourteen Points (continued)

13. “An independent Polish state should be erected . . . .”

14. “A general association of nations must be formed . . . for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity . . . .”

League of Nations

Goals of the League of Nations

• disarmament

• preventing war through collective security

• settling disputes between countries through negotiation diplomacy

• improving global welfare

The League of Nations was weak:

depended on the Great Powers to:

• enforce its resolutions

• maintain economic sanctions ordered

• provide an army, when needed, for the League to use

There were a series of treaties negotiated in 1919 that concluded the hostilities of the Great War:

• Treaty of Versailles with Germany

• Treaty of Saint Germain with Austria

• Treaty of Trianon with Hungary

• Treaty of Sèvres with Turkey

• Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria

Treaty of Versailles

[Image source: http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/versailles.htm]

[Image source: http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versailles.html]

The Treaty of Saint Germain, 10th September 1919, officially registered the breakup of the Habsburg empire, recognizing the independence of . . .

Czechoslovakia

Poland

Hungary

Kingdom ofthe Serbs*

*Yugoslavia

The Treaty ofTrianon*dividedHungaryamongfivenations –two ofthemnew.

[Image source: http://parizs.tripod.com/trianon/hungtria.jpg]

*Signed 4th June 1920

The Treaty of Sèvres, signed 10th August 1920, dealt with issues of international importance,

such as the navigation of the Dardanelles.

[Image source: http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versailles.html]

The Treaty of Neuilly, 27th November 1919, gave portions of Bulgaria to neighbouring nations.

• [Image source:

Territories ceded by Bulgaria to neighbouring countries after World War ITerritory ceded to Bulgaria by Turkey in 1915 and taken from Bulgaria after World War IBoundaries of modern Bulgaria

SenatorWilliam E.

Borah (R-ID) urged the major

Allied nations from the recent war to gather in an effort to slowthe arms race.

Washington Naval Conference- November 1921 to February 1922 -

• aka International Conference on Naval Limitation– a result of the naval construction rivalry between Great Britain, Japan and the United States

• portrayed as an alternative to League of Nations

• convened on Armistice Day*

*11th November

Washington Naval Conference Attendees

Major Naval Powers:

• Great Britain

• United States

• Japan

• France

• Italy

Other nations in attendance:

• Belgium

• the Netherlands

• Portugal

• China

(Had concerns about territories in the Pacific, but were not parties to the disarmament discussions.)

Conspicuously absent: Soviet Russia and the defeated Central Powers. (They were not invited.)

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes proposed scrapping nearly two million tons of warships and a lengthy “holiday” on the construction of new capital ships.

Washington Naval Conference resulted in a number of agreements:

• Four-Power Pact

• Shantung Treaty

• Nine-Power Treaty

• Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty

• Five-Power Supplementary Treaty

• Six-Power Pact

• Yap Island Agreement

Four-Power Pact- 13th December 1921 -

Britain, France, Japan and the United States:

• agreed to submit disputes among themselves over Pacific issues to a conference for resolution, and

• pledged mutual respect for the possessions and mandates of other signatories in the Pacific

Shantung (Shandong)

Treaty - 4th February1922 -

• the territory of Kiaochow in Shantung (Shandong) province was returned by Japan to China

– the area had been “leased” to Germany in 1898, but was seized by Japan at the outbreak of war in 1914

Nine-Power Treaty- 6th February 1922 -

“Desiring to adopt a policy designed to . . .

• stabilize conditions in the Far East, to . . .

• safeguard the rights and interests of China, and to . . .

• promote intercourse between China and the other Powers upon the basis of equality of opportunity; . . . .”

- Paragraph 2.

Nine-Power Treaty Signatories

• United States

• Belgium

• Great Britain

• France

• Kingdom of Italy

• Empire of Japan

• The Netherlands

• Portugal

Republic of China

Washington Naval Treaty- 6th February 1922 -

• aka the Five-Powers Act or the Five-Powers Naval Limitation Treaty

• Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States — pledged adherence to limitations on the tonnage of capital ships and accepted a moratorium on new naval construction

All signatories pledged to maintain a balance in their respective capital* fleets under a predetermined ratio:

• Great Britain

• United States

• Japan

• France

• Italy

*Capital ships were those vessels exceeding 10,000 tons or bearing guns in excess of an eight-inch caliber, effectively denoting battleships and aircraft carriers.

Five-Power Supplemental Treaty

• the major Allied naval powers* agreed on a series of rules for the use of submarines in future warfare and also outlawed the use of poisonous gases as a military weapon

*Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy

Six-Power Pact

• the Big Five Nations plus China agreed to the allocation among themselves of former German cable routes in the Pacific

Yap Island Agreement

• the United States and Japan agreed on provisions for U.S. use of the Pacific island as a distribution point for the transpacific cable

In the following months, the U.S. Senate ratified all of the treaties from the Washington Conference. However, a reservation was attached to the Four-Power Pact stating that no agreement had been approved that required the “commitment of armed force” by the United States.

British journalist Hector C. Bywater

predicted awar between the

United States and Japan

in 1925!

Geneva Naval Conference of 1927- 20th June to 4th August 1927 -

• attended by second-rank diplomats (France and Italy did not attend at all)

• the United States sought to extend the 5:5:3 ratio to lesser vessels- the British and Japanese agreed in principle, but cited special circumstances exempting them from strict adherence

• the delegates adjourned without reaching any agreement

Kellog-Briand Pact- 1929 -

• “. . . condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.” (Article I)

• “. . . the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts . . ., shall never be sought except by pacific means.” (Article II)

Kellog-Briand Pact Signatories

• United States*

• Germany

• Kingdom of Belgium

• France

• Great Britain

• Kingdom of Italy

• Empire of Japan

• Poland

• Czechoslovakia

*Ratified by the Senate 16th January and signed by Calvin Coolidge the next day.

London Naval Conference- 22nd January 22nd 1930 -

• http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1517.html

Second London Naval Treaty of 1936

[Image source: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USNatWar/USN-King-1.html]

[Image source: http://www.allthingsbeautiful.com/

all_things_beautiful/]

[Image source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/images/pogo-enemy.jpg]

Artist: Talburt in the Washington News

[Image source: http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/fdr/1937/37_12.html]