THE MARAVI PEOPLE

Background information

The name maravi was given by the Portuguese. The Maravi came to be known as in AD 1500. The Maravi was called a kingdom others called it an empire and it covered a large area.

Location

The kingdom was located to the South western part of Lake Malawi between Lwangwa Valley in North west and shire highlands to the south of Lake Malawi. Much of it is in Malawi but they are also in Zambia and Mozambique.

 

Theories for the formation of the Maravi Kingdom

 

The Invader theory

This theory means that they used military power and politically organised hence they were able to conquer and establish authority over the people such as the of proto chewa, kalimanjira and khoisan. The weakness of this theory is that there is no theory that the Maravi were politically organised. The protochewa whom they found survived from these immigrants and maintained their religious authority. If this is true some historians have argued that it is not usual when somebodies conquers you can axcept your spiritual authority.

Conflict Theory

Some scholars argue that Maravi Kingdom was established as a result of interaction between Maravi people and the proto chewa.  The interaction between the two created tension as a result of their tension there was arbitration and that led to the establishment of law and order in the kingdom. This led to the creation of the kingdom under Kalonga Mazizi. However the theory does not explain how Karonga emerged over the protochewa.

Trade Theory

It has been advocated by some historians that that the kingdom of Maravi began because of control of long distance trade. As a result of long distance trade the Maravi gained wealth which made them become superior over the indigenous people.

Where did the Maravi people come from?

The Maravi people came from uluba in Zaire. There were troubles in their mother land and they decided to come to Malawi. some of these troubles include shortage of land, famine and quarrels.

The Maravi people were led to Malawi by Kalonga Mazizi. Mazizi was from the Phiri clan. They are thought to have entered Malawi through the north or west after settling in Zambia or Tanzania. However many historians argue that they might have come from the west. The temporaly settled at Kapirintiwa in Dedza where they found the chewa clans such as the Akafula, Batwa, Mwale, Banda and Zimba.

by this time the Banda were already organisedunder a woman called Mangazi who was a rain caller and led to the worship of Mbambe ( god). When arriving their leader was Chidzonzi.

Why did the Chewa Accept the Maravi?

1. They had knowledge on how to run a centralised political system.
2. They were believed to have knowledge of medicine and magic
3. They were good business people

The Move to Mankhamba

After staying at Kapirintiwa for a short period, the Maravi moved to Mankhamba. This place became their secular capital while manthimba became their religious capital. The palace of the king was Manthimba. Manthimba had Mlira cult.They moved because of several factors:

1. Quarrels among themselves
2. They accused each other of witchcraft

Factors for the Growth of the Kingdomgood administration

1. They were successful intrade with the portuguese and the Arabs. they traded in gold, Ivory and cloths. inreturn they got guns and wealth which was distributed to the people.
2. Religion united people. they worshiped a god whom the called Mulungu or chisumphi. this god was worshiped in different cult. These cults were the Mbona cult at khuluvi, Mlira cult in Mankhamba and Nsinja cult.
3. They had good administration.
4. The conquered vast areas.

THE COLD WAR

 Understanding the cold war

 Cold war was a bloodless fight that was there between the two world`s super powers after Second World War. These super powers were Russia and United States of America.

Russia

The Russia this time was under the rule of Stalin. Stalin wanted USSR to have so much power across the globe. Because of this, after Second World War, she began encouraging communism across the globe. She began sending soldiers to supervise voting in European countries so as to make sure that communist parties win in those states. If a communist party has lost, Russia could do all her level best to see to it that the communists are absorbed in the political structure. For example in Hungary, the communist party only managed to get 20% of votes. Russia was very angry with this outcome hence ordered the winning party to include communists in their cabinet. Stalin later in February, 1946, made a speech on which he said that communism and capitalism cannot stay together hence a future was inevitable. Russia continued to foster communism across Eastern Europe to the extent that by 1947, all Eastern Europe countries except Czechoslovakia were communists.

Stalin wanted to have so much power across eastern European countries because she wanted to get resources from the countries under her influence. Countries under the influence of Russia were being referred to as satellite states. A apart from that, she wanted to create a buffer zone for Russian communism. This is to say that she wanted to have countries surrounding her so that western ideas especially capitalism should find itself difficult to penetrate Russia. Russia later organized all her satellite states into a single administration known as Soviet Union (USSR) Western countries became very disappointed with the behaviour of Russia. This was particularly true because at Yalta conference Stalin had promised to allow free elections in Eastern Europe. The behavior of Russia was therefore seen as a new arena for future conflicts

 

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The United States fought along Russia during Second World War because they had a common enemy which was Germany. After the war, there was no more a common enemy. She therefore began to see the weaknesses of Russia and she did not like them, particularly those related to political system. America`s hatred became particularly strong when she saw Russia abolishing elections in eastern Europe because she was afraid that Russia was planning to conquer the world with her communist ideas. America did not like communism because of the following;

1. Communism encouraged nationalism of industries. Nationalism is an economic idea on which all industries are controlled by the government. In short, there is no private control of property. For this reason, countries in Eastern Europe lost their company to Russia. America did not like this because she believed in capitalism which is a system of economy that encourages a private ownership of property.
2. Communism encouraged the use of purges in spreading and maintain communism. Purges were the killing of people who did not believe in communism. America saw this as inhuman.

Because of these fears, America began to foresee a future war. In his letter to the secretary of state, in January 1946, the president of the United States clearly showed his optimism of a future war as captioned below;

“Unless Russia is faced with an iron fist and strong language another war is in the making. Only one language do they understand- “how many (army) divisions have they got?… I am tired of babying the soviets”.

 

This caption of the later was confidential but their hatred grew such that they began even talking about their problems publicly.

 

The iron curtain speech

This was speech that was made by Winston Churchill in Britain. In this speech, Winston claimed that an iron curtain has descended that has divided the world into east and west. He further claimed that at the other side of the curtain there were plagues and problems. He therefore asked western countries to stand firm against communism which he claimed was an enemy of world peace. This speech was heavily criticised in Britain and Russia because some people in these countries believed that the speech was fueling a conflict. In Russia they even reached the extent of calling Churchill a “war monger”, forgetting that there ruler had already given a speech on which he had said that a future was inevitable.

However, the tensions between the west and east grew and this indeed as Winston fore saw resulted into another war. The only difference was that this war did not lead into actual fighting but rather just pure hatred hence known as the cold war. The term cold war was first used by an American journalist in 1948 in an attempt to describe the increasing hostility between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

What caused the cold war?

The hostility which was there between western countries and USSR was mainly caused by three factors; differences in political ideology, failure of the United States to tell USSR about nuclear bomb during second world war, Stalin’s foreign policy and hostility to soviet union by USA and Britain.

Differences in political ideology made war inevitable

This was the main cause of cold war. The west had ideas that they wanted the world to adopt so as the east. In their quest to dominate world politics western countries and USSR ended up to find themselves in a great conflict. The west believed that a good political system is capitalism that encourages individuals to own property. On the other hand, USSR encouraged communism which did not allow private ownership of things. Communism and capitalism were in short the opposite of each other and it was very difficult for them to co-exist, one had to go. In attempt to protect their ideas they ended up in a cold war.

The nuclear bombs caused suspicion

In 1945 before the Second World War came into an end, the United States of America with the help Professor Elbert eastern developed a nuclear bomb. Professor Eistern was Educated in Germany and worked there as a professor of physics. Eistern was a very brilliant scientist and today he is referred to as the father of nuclear physics. By the time he finished his elementary studies, he had already began reading college physics. After college he began teaching at college and he developed the theory of energy as follows;

With this theory, eastern believed that it is possible to harness energy from matter but he simply did not know how. However, many scientists in Germany believed in his theory and began to conduct research on how they can obtain energy from matter as well as how they can produce weapons from the same. However something terrible happened in Germany; Hitler was killing Jews. Professor Eistern being a Jew himself became afraid of his life so he decided to run away from Germany and settle in America. In America he wrote a letter to Roosevelt explaining to him about the possibility of developing a nuclear bomb.  He warned Roosevelt that scientists in Germany were also about to make this discovery and America must make the bomb before Germany does it. Roosevelt therefore gave Eistern resources to develop the bomb. Eistern made the bomb however this time the war was almost over and German scientists had not made the break through. Eisten therefore told Roosevelt that it was not necessary to use the bomb.

The president however did not listen and went forward to use nukes in Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan was a friend of Germany. Thousands and thousands of people died because of this bomb and everybody passing through the field started to get diseases related to radio-activity such as cancer. This alarmed USSR. USSR had never thought of the existence of such weapon of mass destruction. She therefore began to wonder why America did not tell her about such weapon of destruction. With this, USSR completely lost trust in the US and began to look for ways of defending herself from her war partner, the US. She therefore began looking at the US as an enemy and not as a partner as it was before.

 

Stalin`s foreign policies were a threat to peace

Stalin wanted to make Russia extremely strong. For this reason, he embarked on a foreign policy that was very outrageous. He began getting interested in getting hold of much territory as much as possible. He got interested in many German territories as well as of many other areas such as Finland, Poland and Romania. The west was very alarmed of this behavior and began suspecting that Stalin wanted to conquer the whole world hence western countries began developing very hostile attitudes towards Stalin.

Hostility of Britain and United states politicians triggers world politics into cold war

President of the United States used to send weapons to Russia under a system known as Lend – Lease. However, after the death of Roosevelt in April 1945, his successor, Harry Truman decided to stop doing so because he did not trust Stalin. This hostility made Russia to respond by being hostile as well thereby entering the hub of cold war.

DEVELOPMENTS OF COLD WAR

Understanding major developments of cold war

 During the cold war, several developments occurred which ushered super powers into great antagonism. These developments were armed race, Truman doctrine, Marshall Plan,

 New arms race

Hatred which was there between the west and east resulted into arms race.  In this case, countries were making weapons some of which were of mass destruction with an aim of preparing themselves for an eminent war. The arms race particularly began in September, 1949 when it became known that USSR had exploded an atomic bomb. In response, the Americans began producing a hydrogen bomb which much more powerful than the atomic bomb. The advisors of President Truman in April 1950 issued a document known as NSC-68 which shows that they regarded Russians as fanatics would spread communism all over the world at all cost.

Truman doctrine

Truman doctrine was an economic policy that was developed and implemented by Harry Truman, US president of the time. Truman was the vice president of Fredrick Roosevelt and he assumed presidency after the death of Roosevelt. In the Truman doctrine, Truman said that the United States would support all people who were resisting being controlled by armed minorities or foreign government. He was actually referring to countries under communism. The United States therefore began giving aid to whom they called “free people” who needed liberation.  An example of the countries that benefited from this was Greece. Greece received a lot of arms and other supplies to the extent that by 1949, they were able to defeat the communists. The aim of Truman doctrine was to contain communism so that it should not spread any further. The United States was so much into defending its policy of containment and this is also why they also went to Vietnam in the Vietnam War that is yet to be discussed. The United States could no longer be silent on world politics.

Marshall Plan / aid

This policy was launched in June 1947 and it was an extension of the Truman doctrine. Unlike the Truman doctrine, this economic aid offered economic support to everybody who needed it whether capitalist or communist so as to help then reconstruct their countries. At the surface level this was to help in the recovery of Europe but under great scrutiny, this plan was to create a rich Europe that would resist communism. Communism does well in places where there are few people who are filthy rich and the majorities are poor. On the same note, capitalism does well in places where the majorities have wealth to protect. Russian satellites therefore rejected this aid and Russia minister of foreign affairs by the name of Molotov referred to it as dollar imperialism meaning that it was an American idea of controlling countries using money. A person is always a slave of the person who offers him help. However, in his word, American Secretary of State, George Marshall during the launch of the plan said the following;

 “Our policy is not directed against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos”.

 This was just politics at its best because the reality was that the doctrine was pure dollar imperialism.

Incidents of cold war

Incidents cold war are also known as flash points of cold war. Some of the flash points of cold war were the Berlin blockade and airlift, the Hungarian crisis, the Korean war, the Vietnam war and the Cuban crisis.

 The Berlin blockade and cold war

After the Second World War, as agreed at Yalta conference and Potsdam conference, Berlin was occupied and divided into four zones. These were Britain, France, USA and USSR. In controlling their zones, the Americans and Britons were so much determined to see Germany recovering economically as well as politically. This was so because they could not afford assisting for good. The French were not sure but they just followed what Britain was doing. On the other hand, the Russians wanted Germans to continue living in poverty. This made western countries to be suspicious of Russian`s intensions. In 1948, USA, France and Britain amalgamated their zones to make one zone known as West Germany.

With the help of marshal aid, West Germany began to recover and was worthier than East Germany. This made many people to start migrating from East Germany to West Germany. Stalin was very angry with this because he thought it was a deliberate move by western countries to attack Russia. Worse still, in the very same year a new currency was introduced in West Germany. This meant that West Germany and East Germany had two different currencies on which the western currency was stronger. Stalin became very angry and ordered a blockade of all roads and railway lines in Berlin which was deep in East Germany. The west therefore had two options;

1. Withdraw from Berlin, but this meant that they had been defeated by USSR.
2. To airlift materials, but how if Stalin decides to shoot the plane?

The west decided that it was better for them to airlift the commodities than to be defeated and airlift began. Almost every 30 minutes a plane was landing in Berlin. In May, 1947 Stalin realized that his blockade was not helping his cause and he therefore decided to uplift the blockade. This was a very delicate situation because if Stalin had just shot the plane, cold war would have resulted into armed war. In august 1949, West Germany attained the name of federal republic of German. In reaction, in October, 1949, USSR declared East Germany the democratic republic of Germany. The result of this was that the west got a psychological boot of defeating USSR, Germany remained a divided country until unforeseeable future and the west saw the need to coordinate their military efforts thereby forming North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).  Germany remained divided until the collapse of USSR in 1989.

Korean War- 1950 – 1953

Korea had been occupied by Japan. However during the Second World War, North Korea was liberated from Japanese rule by Russia while the south was liberated by America. After the defeat of Japan in the Second World War, North Korea remained under the influence of Russia while South Korea was under influence of The United States. In the southern part there was an ant-communist government while Russia established a communist government in the north. South Korea was not very democratic but still America liked it because it was against communism. The rulers of north korea and south korea; KimII Sung and Syngman Rhee respectively were very hostile to each other. For this reason,1950 war broke out such that by September, 1950, North Korea had gone deep into what South Korea and reduced south korea to to a small corner.

The president of the United States, Harry Truman immediately sent troops to South Korea and pressurized the United Nations Security Council to condemn northern Korea. The United Nations agreed to intervene and sent soldiers to Korea that were comprised of soldiers from eighteen countries including Britain. The majority of the soldiers however were from America. Even the commander general himself was an America and was chosen by President Truman to lead the squad. Read the letter that the commander wrote to President Truman;

 “I have received your announcement of your appointment of me as United Nations Commander. I can only repeat the pledge of my complete personal loyalty to you as well as an absolute devotion to your monumental struggle for peace and good will throughout the world. I hope I will not fail you.”

 Upon reaching Vietnam, the squad was very successful and the North Korean soldiers were driven back to their original boundaries within weeks. However, the American commander began pressing for more conquest such that by October the US forces had reached the Yalu River. This clearly showed that the mission of the war had completely changed; it was now the US against communism and not the UN against North Korea aggression. This resulted into the adjustment of the boundaries again.

China was very disappointed with way the boundaries were pushed into the territory of north korea. She therefore Joined North Korea and helped her push the united nations back into south Korea.

 After these adjustments in boundaries, peace talks began between North Korea and South Korea but fighting continued. In 1952 Truman was replaced by president Eisenhower who was so much kin to end the war. In March 1953, Stalin died and this made the Chinese and Koreans to lose confidence of success hence in July 1953 an armistice was signed and the 38^th parallel was fixed as the boundary between north and South Korea and has remained the same up to date.

 

Vietnam War – 1966 -1975

Vietnam, before the Second World War was under France.  The country was generally in thick forest and however the other part was under cultivation by rice farmers.

 However, during Second World War, Vietnam became under the rule of Japan. A strong anti-Japanese resistance movement (Viet Minh) under a capable communist leader, HO Chi Minh emerged. In 1945, Ho announced that Vietnam had become a republic in the northern part of the country and they were willing to occupy even the southern part.

 The French however wanted to come back to Vietnam so that they should rule Vietnam again. The United States was very sympathetic to Ho this time because this time the battle seemed as if it was a fight against colonial rule which the United States itself was happy with. However, in 1949 the United States changed its position after realizing that Ho was being assisted by communist china meaning that Ho was a communist and wanted the whole Vietnam to become communist. This made the United States to start supporting France with about $500 million each year in her ambitions of to establish a non-communist government in South Vietnam. The war took about eight years the French were defeated at the battle of Dienbienphu9dyen`byen`-foo`) in1954. After the defeat, France agreed in Geneva, Switzerland to withdraw her troops from Vietnam. The country was therefore divided into the communist North Vietnam and capitalist South Vietnam.  Southern part however was under conservative land owners while the northern part was under Ho. The Geneva conference promised the unification of Vietnam after popular election.

The Americans however were quite sure that the communist would win if the elections were to be held. They therefore prevented the elections from happening. In his writing after the Vietnam War, President Eisenhower of the United States said the following;

“It was generally agreed that in an election was held, Ho Chi Minh would have been elected premier…… at that time  of the fighting, possibly 80 percent of the population would have voted for the communist leader”.

Eisenhower was indeed right, the anti-communist government in the south was very corrupt and it was hated by the populace. However, Ho after seeing that the elections were not taking place, he decided to occupy the southern Vietnam by force. He therefore started a guellila welfaire against the government of southern Vietnam. Guellilar welfare is also known as hit and run war since it does not follow conventional ways of fighting. The viet cong which comprised of guelila fighters from north and south Vietnam began waging war against the government of southern Vietnam. These fighters entered southern Vietnam using the Ho Chi Minh trail.

 China and Russia provided Ho with technical as well as military aid so as to be successful in the war.  By 1965, it became very evident that the government of South Vietnam was about to collapse. For this reason, the USA saw that sending military advisors was not enough, she therefore decided to be directly involved in the war by personally sending troops to Vietnam. She did not want to come in the name of the United Nations because she knew that it would not have been possible for the UN to come as it was the case in Korea.

 The Vietnam War was very expensive on the United States. The United States spent so much money and soldiers to win the war. However, there conventionally trained soldiers stood very little chance to win in the jungle of Vietnam. Soldier of northern Vietnam were very used to the environment hence far much better than the US soldiers. In addition to that, the northern Vietnam soldiers were much disciplined and there fighting morale was very high. This made so many American soldiers to die.

 In 1973, a peace settlement was signed and because of that the United Stets began evacuating its soldiers from Vietnam. The US however had to pull out about half a million troops hence the evacuation process was very gradual. While evacuating, the communists (Vietcong) attacked again. Within two years, North Vietnam managed to get hold of the whole Vietnam and Vietnam became a communist state. The American had indeed been defeated, the super power had lost militarily and the policy of containing communism had been challenged.

 The Cuban missile crisis

Cuba is an island that is about 90 miles from the coast of the United States of America. In may1962, the Soviets announced that they were supplying Cuba with weapons. Cuba received a lot of ammunitions such that by July 19 1962, she had the best armed force in Latin America. The United States however did not argue about this because she they were just conventional weapons. Indeed Russia had never sent nuclear missiles to its satellites before and the American intelligence thought it would be the same with Cuba. USSR however for the first time sent nuclear missiles to Cuba for a reason that Khrushchev in his words in memoirs could explain well;

“(in 1961) we increased our military aid to Cuba. We were sure the Americans would never agree to the existence of Castro`s Cuba. They feared, and we hoped, that socialist Cuba might become a magnet that would attract other Latin America countries to socialism. We had to find an effective deterrent to American interference in the Caribbean.

 

The Caribbean crisis was a triumph of the soviet foreign policy and a personal triumph in my career. Today Cuba exists as an independent socialist country right in front of America. Cuba`s very existence is good propaganda.

 

We behaved with dignity and forced the United States to demobilize and recognize Cuba”

The Americans were however not sure if the soviet union had not put nuclear missiles in Cuba so on 11^th September the very same year, the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy warned the leader of USSR, Khrushchev that America would at all cost prevent Cuba from becoming a nuclear base. USSR assured Kennedy that they had no intensions of sending nukes to Cuba. However, on Sunday 14^th October, 1962, US U2 spy planes flew over Cuba and took detailed pictures of nuclear missile sites in Cuba.

The President of United States, John F Kennedy told the soviets to stop sending the missiles to Cuba as well as remove the ones that were already there. The soviets refused to do so. The Americans therefore sent troops to surround Cuba and stop ship that would be suspected of carrying nuclear missiles. Kennedy further threatened to remove the missiles by force if the soviets were not doing so. For this reason, for ten days, the world became afraid of a nuclear war. This was particularly so because the soviets were not willing to remove the missiles. Lucky enough, on 25^th October the soviet leader by the name of Khrushchev agreed to the missiles. This made both USA and USSR that a nuclear was possible and at the same time they all realized that they were all not ready for such large scale military combat. The two countries therefore agreed not find themselves in such kind of scenario again.  This was to be done by encouraging communication among the two countries. Because of this, they established a telephone link between Moscow and Washington which was known as hot line.

The two countries also agree to start negotiations on nuclear test ban treaty in an attempt to limit the manufacturing on nukes. The two countries became so sure that there cannot be a better future if countries continue piling up nuclear weapons. The Cuban missile crisis was the most serious conflict of cold war because it almost put the world on a nuclear ransom.

 

POST WAR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

After the Second World War, communist and capitalist countries formed economic as well as political alliances. These alliances were being made during the cold war hence worserned relations among countries during the cold war. These alliances underlined political and economic differences that were there between the west and east.

                 

Alliances in the western block

Alliances were made in western block with an aim of attaining unity in Western Europe. Unit was very important this time because countries were alarmed with the spread of communism and the best way to fight against it was to be united. Apart from communism, countries in Europe also had to unite because of the following;

1. Europe was highly destroyed during the second world war. It was therefore necessary for European countries to be united and pull their resources together so that they can build themselves.
2. Individual countries were not strong enough to influence world politics particularly this time when world politics was being championed by the US and USSR
3. Unity would prevent another war. This is so because as they are working together, friendly relations including with Germany would be fostered.
4. Unit was also thought to be a better tool to help Germany gain acceptability as a responsible nation.

Alliances in the eastern block

By 1937, Eastern Europe except for Yugoslavia was under communism. All these communist countries were organized together under USSR. USSR demanded that all these countries join alliances that have been formed there. This was unlike the case of western block.

Russia wanted all its satellite states follow her education, economy and political system. For example in the financial ream, all of the satellite states had to conduct trade with Russia and follow the five year plan. The idea was to prevent the satellite states from being in contact with non-communist countries. All foreign policies as well as armed forces of these satellites countries were being controlled by Russia. In other words, states were not free.

 

SPECIFIC ALLIANCES

Political alliances

1. Truman doctrine: the Truman doctrine began with need to help Greece from becoming a communist state. Greece was actually liberated from the Germans by Britain. However Britain was having problems to maintain law and order. She therefore asked Russia if she can assist. USA quickly come and maintained the law and order because if Russia had come Greece would have become a communist state. Because of this scenario, America assured all countries that were resisting communism that America would provide them aid if they need it. Later on this became part of a policy of containment. This policy helped many countries such as Greece, and turkey to resist communism.
2. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO): This organisation was formed in 1949. It actually started in March 1948 as Brussels defense treaty. Signatories included Britain, Netherlands, France, Belgium,, Holland and Luxemburg. it was formed as an immediate response to the Berlin blockade. However in April 1949 with the coming of other countries namely Portugal, Denmark, Eire, Italy, Norway, USA and Canada it became known as NATO. The main agreement in this organisation was that an attack on one member state was an attack on all the countries. They agreed to put all their armed forces under what they called “joint Nato Command”. This NATO command became known as the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The headquarters of NATO was in Paris. The organisation was looking forward to any possible attack from Russia. However the major challenge affecting this organisation was that it was too weak in that it had few military divisions such that by 1980 it only had 60 divisions while USSR had 102. How could they defeat USSR?Some countries actually did not join or moved out because the US was dominating affairs in the organisation. For example. France moved out of NATO in 1966 because the US was dominating affairs. Some countries were also not members because of differences on attitudes concerning international crisis such as the Sues crisis. There were also conflicting policies the use of the military as seen in the Iran crisis.
3. Communist information bureau (cominiform): this organisation was formed in 1947 with an aim of making sure that all governments of satellite states were following the guidelines given by Moscow. Russia wanted communism in satellite states to be like that of Russia. This organisation also tried to reduce trade with non-communist countries. Yugoslavia joined but she failed to cooperate hence in 1948 she was expelled.  The organisation was however less successful hence in 1955 it was dissolved.
4. Warsaw pact: this today is known as eastern European mutual assistance treaty. Its headquarters is in Warsaw which is a capital city of Poland. It was formed as Warsaw pact in 1955 as a direct response to Nato. It however took time to be formed because at first the communists relied on cominiform but when it proved less successful they decided to form Warsaw pact. Its terms were similar to those of NATO because in both organisations members agreed to defend one another. In other words; they were defending themselves from NATO. There army was under very tight grip of Russia. Yugoslavia did not join this alliance while Albania joined and in 1962 she withdrew her membership. The Warsaw pact did not achieve much. The only time Warsaw functioned was when she attacked her own member, Czechoslovakia because of her reforms. This pact ended when the Soviet Union was dissolved. NATO is still there even up to datE.

Economic alliances

1. Marshall Plan / aid: this alliance was a proposed and implemented by the United States with the aim of helping European countries that were during this time in poverty because of the destruction made Second World War. It was announced in June 1947 by secretary of state for the United States, George marshal. The philosophy behind this was that if the organisation would unify the countries and provide them with finances they needed to develop their economies.  The hidden aim of this alliance though was to stop the spread as it was noted that countries that were poor were the ones that were venerable to communism. So by empowering the poor communism could not spread. Though this fund was meant for the whole Europe, countries in the eastern block did not accept it. This was so because Russia and its satellites viewed it as a means of spreading American influence in Europe. Only 16 countries and three zones of Germany accepted the aid. I order to ease access of the funds, the organisation for  European economic cooperation was formed. This organisation coordinated the funds and it was so successful such that economic recovery speed up in Europe. The other development from the Marshall aid was that it brought about the idea of western European cooperation development. The plan also stopped the spread of communism tough it only lasted for four years, thus from 1948 – 1952.
2. The organisation of European economic cooperation: this organisation was formed in 1952 with an aim of coordinating funds from the Marshall plan but it later became a great step towards economic unity. The OEEC drew an economic plan that was known as the economic recovery plan (ERP). Sixteen countries became permanent members of OEEC. The very successful in that it encouraged trade among member states and it shared aid well to the sixteen countries and the three parts of Germany that were under France, Britain and America.
3. The European Economic Community: This organisation is also known as common market. It officially became an organisation in accordance to the treaty of Rome. The treaty of Rome was signed in cicely in Italy in 1957. The organisation however started functioning in 1958. Members of this organisation were France, West Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. The organisation was however a brain child of Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. These three countries are also known as Benelux. These countries were members of European coal and steel community( ECSC). It was the success of this organisation that prompted the three nations to think of further economic cooperation. The ECSC therefore organised meeting on futher unification which resulted into the signing of the treaty of Rome. In this treaty countries agreed to gradually reduce trade barriers such as tariffs, quotas and customs. To the amazement of the members Britain refused to join with an aim of protecting her economy. In 1961 – 1962 she changed her mind to join but France refused her from joining. It was in 1972 when she became a member.
4. The council for mutual economic assistance ( comecon) : this organisation was formed by USSR in 1949. It was a direct response to OEEC. The aim of comecon was however to help plan the economies of individual countries in eastern bloc. This organisation was however a failure because its members failed to register economic advancement. Countries were actually showing that they were glowing economically but the truth was that they were very poor became their economic indicators were simply a manipulation of figures. This explains why today many USSR satellites have joined EU.

Successes of EEC

1. Within its first five years of her formation it became the biggest exporter of manufactured goods as well as buyer of raw materials.
2. Trade among member states increased.

• Price level of agricultural products was controlled by a special agricultural fund

 

Failures of EEC

1. It was difficult to come up with agricultural policies. For example, should all countries have genetically modified crops or not? Should agricultural products be subsdised?
2. It lacked funds to conduct some of its activities
3. Its name was being constantly changed to reflect its activities. For example, at one time it was called EEC, later European Economic Community (EEC) and later European Union.
4. The joining of poor countries frustrated rich nations. Actually southern part of Europe was poorer than northern part. When the poor countries joined, they began influencing policies in organisation at the expense of the rich nations. Rich nations therefore became frustrated.

 

 

 

 

THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION

What is the United Nations?

 The United Nations is not a country or a world government. It does not collect tax and it does not have citizens. It is simply a forum where countries discuss their challenges. Membership is voluntary. Each member contributes money to the organization so that the organization should run. For example by 1966, the average American could pay 11 cents which was equivalent to a price of buying ice cream. People from poorer countries such as Malawi pay even much less. This noble organization came into existence in October 1945. It was formed to replace the League of Nations which was dissolved in 1946. It was planned by allied powers during the war from 1941 to 1945. A series of meetings were organized to discuss issues surrounding the United Nations.

 

Leaders discuss the future of the world after Second World War

The first meeting that was conducted to discuss the future of our beautiful earth was the Atlantic meeting of August 1941. This meeting was between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (USA) and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain. They met in a battle ship in the Atlantic Ocean where they discussed a number of issues including the setting up of objectives of creating a world without conflicts. Agreements were contained in what we call the Atlantic charter.

Thereafter, another meeting was heard in January 1942 in Washington. In this meeting, representatives of 27 nations signed a declaration which was adopted and endorsed as the Atlantic charter. The meeting stressed on the need for mutual cooperation in the war against axis powers. They also agreed to pursue peace when the war was over. This was called the Washington declaration.

The Moscow meeting followed the declaration. This meeting was heard in October 1943 in Moscow, USSR. Countries that participated were USSR, Britain, China and USA. At this meeting, they agreed to make detailed plans for an international organization that would replace the League of Nations.

In 1944, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference was heard. Dumbarton is a place in Washington in the USA. This conference was organized to make a detailed plan of the new organization to be formed as agreed in Moscow. The meeting fine-tuned ideas of having international body to replace the league. These powers agreed to on the main structure of the organization except the voting procedures. The countries that met here were the ones that would form the Security Council in the future.

In February, 1945, the Yalta Conference was heard by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. They melt at Yalta in Russia where they agreed;

1. That all nations that have declared war on the axis powers by 1^st March, 1945 should be eligible to join the organization.
2. On how voting would be done.
3. That USA, Russia, Britain, France and China should be permanent members.
4. That a meeting to prepare rules of the organization should be heard at Francisco in USA.

Finally the San Francisco conference of April 1945 was heard. 50 countries drafted a charter which set up aims (Poland joined later) of the United Nations Organization. The charter was prepared and signed in June 1945. The UNO formally came into existence on October 24, 1945.

AIMS OF THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION

 “we the people of the united nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our life time has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human right, in the dignity and worth of the human kind, in the equal rights of men and women and nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,…….”.

from the quotation, it is very likely to notice the following aims of the United Nations;

1. To preserve peace and eliminate war. This objective included all forms of war whether world based, civil or among countries. It is unfortunate to know that the UNO has already failed to eliminate war. Several wars have taken place since the UNO was formed. It is even more unfortunate that most of these wars are championed by founding members of UNO. For example, for the past ten years, The United States of America alone has waged war on Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. All these wars have been waged without the blessings of the United Nations Organization.
2. Encouraging economic, social, scientific, educational and cultural progress. This has been very successful in that the United Nations has assisted many people. People without home have been given shelter and those without food have been given food to eat. The United Nations has even established the United Nations University so as to promote education.
3. To promote rights. The United Nations is indeed very committed to promote human rights. United Nations contact countries that are violating people`s rights to stop doing so. If the country does not change, economic as well as military sanctions are given. For example when it was rumored that Malawi had imprisoned two men because they were gays, the United Nations Secretary General came to Malawi and negotiated their release with President Bingu

ORGANS OF UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION

The united nations has the general assembly, security council, secretariat, international court of justice, The Trusteeship council and the Economic and Social Council.

The general assembly

The general assembly can be equated to a parliament only that UNO is not a government. Issues ranging from peace to development are discussed in this branch. It meets regularly each year for three months and the meetings are known as sessions. Every member is free to use French, English, Chinese, Spanish and Russian in during the discussions. There are people who interpret languages so that members should understand each other in the assembly. In 1945, there were 51 members. By 1995, the number was over 150 members. It is responsible for electing non-permanent members of the Security Council and it also controls the budget of UNO. Any member is represented by one vote it requires 2 third majorities to pass very important agreements while less important issues require 50 + 1. Very important issues include admitting members, sanctions and constitutional changes. Even if the super power rejects, the resolution is passed at the same time, even if the general assembly agrees, the Security Council has to pass. If they veto, it is not implemented. The general assembly is also responsible for electing the secretary general of United Nations Organization.

 Security Council

This organ was set to deal with issues of peace and security. It is the most powerful organ and its members meet frequently. Unlike the general assembly, the members do not meet regularly but are called in time of crisis. The Security Council began with eleven members. Five were permanent and these were Britain, USA, France, Soviet Union and China. Others are elected for two terms. Other members have now increased to 10. Decisions need 9 of 15 members but must include all five permanent members. Permanent powers have power to veto which allows them to block decisions in their favour. This however is disadvantageous in that it makes UNO fail resolve conflicts involving bigger powers. It has the uniting for peace resolution which states that if the Security Council proposals were vetoed, the general assembly could meet within 24 hours to decide what action to take. This was first introduced in 1950 at the Korean War. This resolution therefore does not appear on the UNO charter.

 

The secretariat

This organ consists of the secretary general and staff. The staff is more like the civil service of the United Nations organization with about 50 000 employees. These carry administrative work such as translating languages, providing minutes and drafting agenda. It is headed by the secretary general. The first African secretary general was Boutros Boutros – Ghali from 1991 to 1996 from Egypt. The first secretary general for the United Nations was Trygive lie of Norway who was replaced by Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden in 1953. Dag Hammarskjold died in Africa on September 1961 on a peace mission.

The secretary general is expected to have no personal agenda to achieve other than the decision of the United Nations. The following people have served as secretary generals for the UN up to date;

1. Trygvie Lies from Norway (1946-52)
2. Dag Hammarskjold from Sweden (1952-61)
3. U Thant from Burma (1961-71)
4. Kurt Waldheim from Austria (1971-81)
5. Perz de Cuellar from Peru (1981-91)
6. Boutros Boutros Ghali from Egypt (1991-96)
7. Koffi Annan from Ghana (1996-2006)
8. Ban ki Moon from South Korea (2006 – to date)

 

The International Court of Justice

This organ is a judicial one. It has 15 judges with different nationalities that operate in its headquarters at Hague in Netherlands. When three judges have been employed, three also retire in a term of three years. The organ solves disputes among nations. For to hear the case, both nations must be willing to be tried under the international court. If one country is not happy, the hearing is not done. An example of the cases on which the international court decided was the fishing ground issue between England and Norway. The court is however less effective because countries can choose to take its ruling or not no wonder other countries have been ignoring her decisions. For example, Albania and England had a conflict on fishing. Albania was convicted and judged to pay £1 million to England but she did not pay the money. South Africa was also asked to give independence to Namibia but she did not. Apart from hearing cases, the court also gives legal advice to other UN organs.

 

The Trusteeship council

This organ was established to deal with trust territories. Trust territories were former colonies that were under the supervision of the United Nations organization under the terms of trusteeship agreement. The trusteeship agreement shows who is to govern the territory and how it would be governed. The country that governs the territory was known as the administrative power. The organ finished its work in 1990 because the mandates got independence. The council had eight member nations. Four nations administer trust territories while the other four do not. Each member of the council has one vote and decisions were made by simple majority.

The Economic and Social Council

The economic and social council is commonly known as the ECOSOC. It addresses issues such as health, education, trade and job opportunities. Diseases, poverty and ignorance are very bad. They are the major cause of all conflicts across the globe. It is sad however to know that two thirds of people across the globe live in such environment. The ECOSOC is therefore very important in our societies. It has twenty seven members that elected by the general assembly. One third of the 27 members retire each and every year. This body meets twice a year and it has 30 specialized agencies. These specialized agencies are international labour organization, the food and agricultural organization, world health organization, UNESCO, UNICEF and the human rights commission.

The International labour organization is in short known as ILO. It provides help to countries trying to improve the working condition of its workers. Its headquarters is in Geneva. The principle is that every person is entitled to a job. The other principle is that there should be equal opportunity for everybody to get a job, there should be minimum standards of descent working conditions and workers should have right to unite into a union for collective bargaining.

The other specialized agency is the Food and agricultural Organization. This organization is commonly known as FAO. It encourages farmers to use science in agriculture so that they should be having bumper yield each harvesting season. It also introduces a variety of crops across the globe and it also encourages scientific research in agriculture by providing cash to new agricultural research projects. However its largest concern is to deal with hunger caused by natural disasters. Hunger is an enemy of development. People who do not have food cannot contribute to development. FAO therefore plays a very vital role in socio-economic development of communities. The headquarters of FAO is Rome

The world health organization is yet another organ of the United Nations Organization. It was established with the aim of freeing people from diseases by fighting epidemics. This fight is done by promoting good health habits such as safe sex and hygiene. The organization also provides money to train health personnel. At the same time, UNO keeps countries informed of new drags. This is particularly true because it is the world health organization that certifies drags. Fighting epidemics is very important because it is only healthy people who can contribute a lot to development of any society and be able to pursue happiness. As Socrates said, happiness is the highest good hence we must fight all things that prevent people from pursuing happiness.

The United Nations Education and Social Fund (UNESCO) has its headquarters is in Paris in France. It fosters cooperation between scientists, scholars and artists.

United Nations International Children Emergency Fund is commonly known as UNICEF. After First World War, many children were homeless or orphans as an after moth of the war. As such, in 1946, the United Nations Organization found UNICEF to help these children. It was not meant of be permanent hence the word emergence. In 1953 UNICEF became permanent. Since then UNICEF has given food, shelter, medicine and counseling to millions of mothers and children in over 100 countries across the globe. It targets diseases such as tuberculosis and yaws. Yaws is a disease that makes people to have sores the whole body and when it has not been treated in time a person can be crippled. Yet it is very simple to cure it, it only need a single dose of penicillin. UNICEF fights against these diseases together with WHO.

The Human Rights Commission ensures that all governments treat their people in a civilized manner. It formed UDHR in 1948. The universal declaration of human rights was adopted on December 10, 1948. Since then, the world has always cerebrated human rights day on 10^th December. The universal declaration of human rights is one of the finest achievements of human kind. The declaration is part of the constitutions of many countries, it has helped people to change their views towards slavery, forced labour, racing and stereotyping.

 

 SUCCESSES OF THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION

 United Nations Organisation has been more successful than the league but it was only successful on crises that did not involve greater powers. One of the crisis on which the United Nations Organization was successful was the Suez crisis of 1956. The Suez Canal was constructed by Egypt, France and Britain and was opened in 1869. Most of the shares were owned by France and Britain. Egyptian president by the name of Nasa, nationalized the canal without the approval of France and Britain. This was illegal hence Britain and France protested and sent troops to protect their interests. Israel joined the conflict by invading Egypt with the aim of overthrowing Nasa. United Nations Organization condemned the invasion and ordered the invaders to withdraw which they agreed to do hence the conflict was resolved.

The other crisis where the United Nations Organization was successful was the Congo crisis of 1960 – 1964.Congo was under Belgium before independence. Belgium was very bitter with the concept of granting independence to the local people hence left the power to the locals abruptly. This brought about power vacuum in independent Congo which led to chaos. Patrice Lumumba was supposed to be the president however Moise Tshombe declared Katanga independent of DRC. Lumumba appealed to UNO and UNO sent a force of about 20, 0000 soldiers to restore order and negotiations. A special fund was set up for the recovery and development.

The United Nations was also very successful in the Kashmir crisis of 1947 to 1965. Kashmir is a border between India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan were at first one country. On the day of independence, the Muslims began to feel that they will be marginalized by the dominant Hindus in the independent India. They therefore wanted a country of their own. Come 1947, the country was split among religious lines, Pakistan Muslim and India Hindu. Mahatma Gandhi who was the centre of Indian fight for independence tried to lobby the Muslims to break away but they did not listen to the extent that they even killed him. After they had gained separate independence, there conflict emerged again but this time over the control of Kashmir, thus in 1947 and war began. The UN negotiated a cease fire in 1948. UN sent soldiers to avoid cross boarder crisis and the for sixteen years the UN policed the ceasefire. Negotiations were supposed to continue but Pakistan got fade with the discussions and decided to invade the Indian controlled Kashmir in 1965. The war broke up again until when USSR negotiated a Tashkent agreement. However the problem is still there so the UNO still have work to do.

Why was the United Nations organization successful?

 

The UNO spends a lot of time and resources on economic and social issues than the league.

This is particularly true because UNO has so many organs targeting so many human problems among the member states. This ensures that the organization mobilizes a lot of resources that impact directly on peoples` lives. Examples of these organs are the world food organization, world health organization and UNICEF. These organs target problems such as epidemics, endemics and hunger. The organs are just so specialized that they find it very easy to do their work.

The United Nations Organization Promotes human rights

Human rights are all the things that people are entitled to have. For example people have a right to pursue happiness, right to vote, right to education and right to participate in economic activities. Right to education has made it possible for people to become well learnt to the extent that there are able to prevent diseases such as HIV aids. Apart from that, economic literacy education has made many people to improve their economic levels thereby reducing global poverty. These rights are just so many and each right brings about either economic development, peace, health or cultural development. These rights are embedded in what we call the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which all member states have agreed to follow.

The proceedings of the United Nations allow quick response to crisis

The United Nations has a very good way of discussing and solving issues in the general assembly and the Security Council. This has made problem solving to be easier and more efficient for the United Nations than the League of Nations. For example, unlike the League of Nations, the United Nations has the uniting for peace resolution. This resolution provides that when there is a stalemate in the Security Council, the issue must be taken to the general assembly unlike the unanimous voting in the League of Nations. This ensures that more decisions are passed by the organization no wonder UNO has made the world a better place for living as compared to the way the world was during the influence of League of Nations.

The United Nations truly represents the world

The United Nations is a more of a genuine world body than the League of Nations because of its wider membership than the league. By 1993, the United Nations Organization had 183 members while the league never had more than 50 members. This therefore means that any decision made in the United Nation represents world opinion. If any leader opposes the decisions of the United Nations it means him or is against world opinion, no wonder the United Nations condemns countries that oppose its opinion over issues. This therefore forces countries to comply with the decisions made by the United Nations thereby making it successful. In addition to that, both USA and USSR are still members of the organization unlike the league which did not include all great powers. Presence of great powers in United Nations gives the organization prestige and more financial assistance.

The secretary generals do not come from super powers

The United Nations has also become very successful because its secretary general does not come from super powers. This ensures that smaller countries should have faith in the organization if in any case they are at logger heads with greater powers. Unlike the United Nations, the league was French-British affair no wonder countries dished it. In addition to that, secretary generals from smaller countries are considered neutral when super powers are in a conflict thereby easy for both sides to reconcile and take necessary advice given by the secretary general.

The united Nation Secretary General has more power

When people are in a fight and somebody would like to stop them, the person who is stopping them must have power to do so. This power can be physical or psychological. If he or she doesn’t have, the people will continue to fight and may even beat him. The same applies to countries, when countries are in problems and the secretary general of any organization want to pull those people together, he or she must have power to do so. The secretary general of the United Nations has the mandate to comment over conflict and solve them amicably as compared to the league. The secretary is very respected by all member states such that when he or gives an insight on a conflict, countries easily abides to it no wonder the United Nations has been more successful than the league.

FAILURES OF UNO

UNO fails to solve the Hungarian rising

The Hungarian rising of 1956 was a cold war event. USSR army conquered Eastern Europe up to Berlin. USSR did not withdraw from these countries after WWII. Instead It imposed communism in these countries. After some years, some of these countries began to demand a government of their choice. In Hungary, a new government was looking for independence from Russia. The Hungarian government started to loosen its grip on the private life of people. USSR mobilized troops to Hungary to crush the status quo because less control of peoples` lives was a war against communism and USSR could not tolerate such in subordination. USSR wanted the government to have a very tight over the country. USSR crushed the rising. Hungarian government appealed to UNO`s security council but it did not help and the issue was not taken the general assembly. Russia strictly vetoed the appeal and the UNO was powerless. This clearly showed smaller nations that they could not expect just solutions from the United Nations if they are in conflict with the permanent members of the Security Council.

UNO fails to handle the Czechoslovakia rising of 1968.

a new government in Czechoslovakia wanted to make some reforms. The same happened. In Czechoslovakia, people were allowed to challenge the communist party and multiparty was allowed. They also wanted freedom of expression and expand trade to the west. They wanted democracy with communism. This was a challenge to Russia. Russia from the Warsaw pact sent soldiers who picked leaders to Moscow to meet the soviet leader. When the leaders came back, they said the reforms were bad hence they reversed them. While in Moscow they appealed to UNO for support but with no help.

 

Reasons for the failure of the United Nations

1. Cold war  crippled the smooth running of UNO.
2. Most countries seem to support their regional integrations than to depend on UNO. The problem of depending on regional integration has reduced importance of UNO because countries tend to put a lot of faith in such regional organization. for example, NATO, WARSAW PACT.
3. Most countries tend to vote by their blocks in the General Assembly and not on merit.
4. UNO has economic problems especially because most countries do not want to pay their membership.
5. Most big countries who pay more want to have a bigger say than other smaller countries who pay little.
6. UN has problems on steps to intervene international crisis.
7. The right to veto by permanent members of the security council in the UNO makes decision making slow.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

FACTORS LEADING TO SECOND WORLD WAR

 Historians have not been able to find the exact causes of Second World War. However some historians believe that the war was mainly caused by Adolf Hitler. For example, Historian H.R. Trevour-Roper states:

“The Second World war was Hitler’s personal war in many senses. He intended it, he prepared for it and he chose the moment for the launching of it: and for three years, in the main, he planned its course”.

On the other hand, some Historians argue that we cannot attribute Second World War to one person. This debate is still there such that it is difficult to know the real causes of Second World War. However all historians agree that there were several events and circumstances that historians suggest contributed to the outbreak of second world.

 The Versailles peace treaty was too harsh

 The Versailles peace settlement was very controversial such that some historians argue that it was the main cause of Second World War. The resolutions that were made at Versailles peace settlement were so harsh on the Germans hence the Germans were bitter with it and the countries that made the resolutions and impose them on Germany. For example, the 6600million pounds reparation was too high, Germany was told to reduce its army size while other countries were re-arming. The Versailles war guilty clause war weird and the Germans lost territories in Europe and overseas. These terms were harsh because major players went to the conference with different altitudes and aims. Britain did not want to punish Germany severely so that Germany should recover economically because Germany was a market for British goods. However, Lloyd George who was the leader of Britain had just won elections in which his campaign slogan was “hang the Kaiser”. Therefore what Lloyd was doing at the conference was against his electoral slogan. As for USA, she had an idealistic president called Woodrow Wilson who wanted to do the right thing. He wanted a lenient and just peace. Woodrow said, “if we over punish Germany, there will be another war”. On the other hand, France wanted to ruin Germany so that it should not threaten her again. Clemenceau said that he had seen France defeated Germany twice in his life time. He therefore could not afford to see Germany becoming strong again. As such, the terms of the Versailles peace settlement were harsh on Germany.

The Germans were not asked to represent and defend themselves at the conference. This was against the law of natural justice which demands people to speak for themselves at a hearing. The Germans therefore regarded the peace settlement as a dictate meaning that it had just been imposed on them. This explains why when Hitler was conducting campaigns, he made it clear that he will destroy the Versailles peace treaty and he indeed lived to that. Upon assuming power, he moved away from the disarmament conference and he began to re-militarise Rhine land which the Versailles treaty demilitarized as a sign of peace. Hitler claimed that Rhine land was part of Germany and he should therefore get hold of it. The League of Nations, Britain, France and even the United States of America did not react to his aggression. The most risky thing Hitler ever did in his political career was to re-militarise Rhine land since his military base was still weak. After seeing that nobody had done anything, Hitler was motivated to effect the Anschluss which was the union between Germany and Austria. This was against the Versailles agreement of self-determination. He also took Germans in Sudetenland and finally attacked Poland thereby triggering the Second World War. By 1939, most of the Versailles agreements had been breached or removed constitutionally hence some historians regard the Versailles peace treaty as a never solved puzzle.

 The League of Nations was too weak

 Many historians suggest that if the League of Nations was strong, there would not have been the Second World War. This is so because the league failed to effect the disarmament policy which was essential in preventing the world from another scourge of war. The league also failed to deal with the aggressors such as Hitler thereby taming war leaders. If the league had controlled these aggressors, the world would not have been ushered into another war. Apart from that, soon after first world war, countries started signing alliances such as “little entente” which was between Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslovakia. There were also Franco-Belgium and Franco-polish secret alliances which were between France with Belgium and Poland respectively. This meant that Germany was now surrounded by enemies. This was just like the alliance system in first world war no wonder having realized this; German signed Rapallo treaty with Russia so that she should also have an ally for in case she gets into trouble. Countries began forming alliances because they had lost trust in the League of Nations. The trust was lost because;

1. The league was linked with the Versailles peace settlement. This was so because the League of Nations was formed from one of the resolutions of the Versailles peace conference which was patronized by countries that won the First World War only. Smaller nations and Germany therefore thought that the League of Nations was there to favour the countries that won the First World War and that it was defending a peace that was not perfect. A perfect peace settlement is the one that has been greed by all parties not the one that has been imposed on countries that had lost the war. Such a peace leaves wounds in people`s hearts such that such people may start preparing a revenge just exactly as it was seen later on.
2. Some major powers were not members. Some of these members were USA, Germany and Russia. USA did not join the League of Nations because the Americans had reverted to the policy of splendid isolation which meant non-involvement in European affairs. I addition to that, the Americans did not like the concept of their president moving out of the United States as symbol of prestige. Woodrow Wilson was the first American president to move out of the United States, a brave act that made him lose his position soon after returning from the Versailles peace conference. Germany at first was not allowed to join until 1926 – 1934 and the Russians also joined the league in 1934. Failure of USA to join was a big psychological and financial set back to the league.
3. The actions of the conference of ambassadors. This conference was set to handle issues of disarmament up to the time the league would start working. Contrary, the ambassadors continued to work even after the league had started working. This led to a situation where the ambassadors could oppose the decisions made by the league. Countries therefore began to doubt the position of the League of Nations on issues of disarmament.
4. Weakness in the league`s covenant. The League of Nations covenant demanded unanimous voting for a decision to be made. This meant that if one country says no to a decision, the decision could not be carried out. This made it difficult for the league to pass a decision since it was difficult to reach a unanimous decision. In addition to that, the league did not have a standing army to impose military sanctions. This made it difficult for the league to enforce its decisions because some countries could refuse to send their soldiers.
5. The league was seen as a British French affair. This attitude came about because amongst the countries that formed the league, Britain and France were the only ones dominating and still in the league. Italy who was also a prominent member of the league was not active. This made countries to isolate themselves from the league. Furthermore by 1925 Britain became less interested in the league because she was favouring the Locarno treaty over the League of Nations. This made France to be the main member of the League of Nations.
6. The league failed to check aggressors. For example in 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, an area in northern China. China appealed to the league for hearing of the conflict. The league did not assist because the major members of the league did not consider it to be a serious issue. This allowed China to know that she did not count much in the league and that her problems would not be taken seriously. This made the Chinese to lose confidence in the league. As this was not enough, In 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia, an independent African state. Italy invaded Ethiopian so as to colonise it. Ethiopians stood for their land and defeated Italy. This made Italy lose its prestige in Europe hence Mussolini was not happy and he decided to wage another war where Italy would prove its superiority over Ethiopia. He therefore invaded Ethiopia; the league condemned Italy, imposed economic sanctions on it. All League of Nations countries could not sale arms or raw materials to Italy. Few member countries cooperated. Worse still, the economic sanctions did not include oil, coal and steel. If she was denied oil she would have backed down because she highly relied on imported oil. Britain thought over punishing Mussolini would force Mussolini to partner with Hitler. Mussolini was angry with the sanctions hence little by little Mussolini and Hitler became friends. Smaller nations therefore saw that the league could not protect them if they are in conflict with big nations hence they lost faith in the league. Hitler also became convinced that the league could not attack him if he decides to break the Versailles treaty.

 The appeasement policy tamed another war

 Appeasement policy was a policy to prevent the world from another scourge of war with aggressing powers by giving away to their reasonable demands. This policy was being implemented by Britain and later France. In Britain this policy was championed by Neville chamberlain who was a prime minister for Britain in 1937.There were two phases in the implementation of this policy namely phase one and phase two.

Phase one started from 1920s and ended in 1937. In this phase western countries believed that another world war must be prevented at all cost, even if it meant breaking some of the agreements of the Versailles conference. The countries were too afraid to face another war. Some of the breaches that Britain and France accepted were the invasion of Ethiopian and Manchuria and re-militarisation of Rhine land. Britain was okay with the re-militilisation of Rhine-land because she thought that Rhine land was part of Germany hence Germany could occupy it. The western powers even deceived themselves that it was necessary for Germany to have a better defense mechanism.

Phase two began in 1937 and ended in 1939. When chamberlain became prime minister of Britain, He believed that Britain could find out what Germany wanted which could be given to Hitler after peaceful negotiations. He though it was possible to control and civilize Hitler. In this regard, chamberlain saw that Hitler wanted Czechoslovakia and he gave it to him. Later Hitler demanded Poland but chamberlain could not afford it anymore. Hitler became furious and he invaded Poland. Britain and France thought this policy was good but in honest term it glorified war and indeed many historians today agree that it contributed to the outbreak of Second World War.

 The western powers thought this policy was justifiable because;

1. It was important to avoid another war because it would be more devastating. Actually during the First World War, many people died and property was destroyed. By this time military science was even more developed hence giving a picture of more people dying if another war began. The western powers therefore saw it wise to preserve peace no matter what it would cost.
2. Many people thought Germany and Italy had genuine grievances. The Versailles peace treaty was too harsh on Germany and Italy. These two countries lost so many things ranging from territory to military strength. It was therefore thought necessary to loosen up things on Germany and Italy so that they should be fairly treated.
3. The league was helpless so the only way to peace was contact between nations. The weakness of the league can indeed be seen in the way countries lost trust in it. It was therefore thought as important to solve problems among nations by discussions and not the agreements of the Versailles treaty that the League of Nations was protecting.
4. Fear for Russian communism. In Russia communism was becoming very strong and it was spreading to many parts of the world. The western powers did not communism because it was an enemy of mercantilism, a business system that western powers relied upon. The western powers were afraid that Germany would also become communist if they become harsh on her hence they let her go away with her aggression.
5. People in Britain were not prepared for a full scale war. At this time many people in Britain had not forgotten the pains of First World War. Many people lost their daughters, sons, husbands just to mention a few because of war. Such people were not emotionally ready to see their country going into another war hence it was necessary to prevent another war.
6. Britain thought economic cooperation with Germany would be good for both. Actually Britain so many economic opportunities in Germany. However, trade cannot take place among countries that are not in good terms. Britain therefore began to befriend Germany by agreeing to some of her demands that were somehow reasonable.

 German rearmament program was a threat to peace

 Germany was not allowed to have a navy, sub marine, air force and more than 100000 soldiers. The Weimar republic accepted this term however in meincapf, Hitler made it clear that he did not agree with this term and that he would restore German army. He indeed put the dream in action after coming to power in 1933. In 1933 in Geneva, a disarmament conference was held to discuss the armed strength of France and Germany. Germany wanted armed equality with France and the French refused. The British were willing to strengthen the defense force of Britain to become equal to France who was by then reaming itself. The disagreements in the conference made Hitler to pull out of the conference in 1934 and the League of Nations. He started reaming Germany such that by 1935, German expenditure in the army and air force doubled. Britain thought a stronger army was good for German security. Britain signed an Anglo German naval agreement which allowed the Germans to build their naval base to be equal to 35% of the British naval force. France was not consulted hence tension began to develop between France and Britain.

German re-militarization of the Rhine land was the most import point in stopping Hitler from fueling Second World War

 In the year 1936, Hitler re-militarized Rhine land. This was Hitler`s biggest risk because it was a direct threat to French security and the German army was too weak, it did not even have an air force. Hitler was surprised not to see the French reacting. Indeed in his words Hitler said:

 “if the French had then marched into the Rhine land, we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs, for the military resources at our disposal would have been wholly inadequate for even a moderate resistance.”

France was unwilling to challenge France because in few months’ time, there would be general elections in France hence each politician could not go to field in order to avoid losing popularity during the elections. Britain on the other hand claimed that Rhine land was part of Germany hence she deserved to occupy it. France was completely put off by this since she could not go to war alone without the support of Britain. The League of Nations was busy with the invasion of Ethiopia by Italy. The league just condemned Hitler and did not give him any sanctions. Hitler`s big gamble had paid and this promised him a future of unlimited aggression possibilities. The western powers had lost their last chance to check Hitler without serious risk for war.

 

Spanish civil war gave Hitler false hope

 The Spanish civil war broke in 1936 and ended in 1936. It was fought in Spain between the communist who were held by the republicans against what they called the left wing rebels under General Francisco Franco. Russians assisted the republicans and communists while Hitler and Mussolini helped Francisco Franco by offering her more than 100000 troops, military plains and other supplies. France and Britain did not help either side. General Franco won the war and Hitler and Mussolini saw that Britain and France were just too passive states that could not coordinate to fight against fascism. To them these democracies were just too tired to stand for the ideas hence democracy was now supposed to be thrown in the dust bin of History. Hitler and Mussolini became even more close friends. The Rome- Berlin pact was signed between Mussolini and Hitler where they agreed to help one another in implementing foreign policies.

 

 

The German occupation of Austria in 1938

In 1938, Hitler made yet another drama, he annexed Austria. After the First World War, Austria became independent from the Austria –Hungary Empire. It was very difficult for this small newly formed country to survive. As such, historians argue that Germans living in Austria sought union with Germany. An Anschluss was therefore renewed between Germany and Austria. It was a breach to the Versailles declaration of determinism however Hitler argued that Austrians were Germans. Hitler was born in Austria and grew up in Austria. Soldiers therefore manipulated the votes hence 99.75% of the votes were for Anschluss which was indeed signed. Many historians also suggest that Hitler was also interested in Austria because it had gold deposits. This did not come by surprise when Hitler gained gold worthy $100 million from Austria.

Occupation of Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia was a country made up of people with many nationalities and it was created by the Versailles treaty. Hitler claimed that there were 3 million Germans in Sudetenland Mountains in Czechoslovakia. Hitler argued that the Germans in Czech needed real self-rule, thus they should be part of Germany so that there should be one Germany for Germans just as one England for the English people. In Sudetenland, the leader of the Germans was called Henlein. Hitler ordered Henlein to cause trouble in in Sudetenland. Hitler therefore made noise that Sudetenland Germans were being abused. Hitler threatened war if the situation if no solution was found. Chamberlain decided to move in in order to resolve this calmly and three meetings were held to allow self-governance for Sudetenland. Hitler did want Sudetenland to be independent but rather to join Germany however he accepted the results. On May 29^th September, 1938, Hitler, Mussolini, Deladier of France and Chamberlain meet to discuss the future of Sudetenland; this was the second Munich conference. Czechs were ordered to hand Sudetenland to Germany. In third Munich conference Hitler was allowed to occupy the whole Czechoslovakia. The impacts of these conferences were;

1. Germany gained a lot of territory.
2. The policy of appeasement came to abrupt end.
3. In Britain, public opinion changed because of this so called “naked aggression”.
4. People wanted their leaders to stand firm against aggressors

The invasion of Poland sparks the Second World War

Hitler believed that Prussia and the Polish Corridor were supposed to be given to Germany. During the Versailles peace conference, Poland was given a a corridor of land through Prussia. This meant that Poland had direct access to the Baltic sea at the port of Danzig. Danzig was an independent city under the protection of the League of Nations. 90% of the people in the corridor were polish while many people at Danzig were German.  As such, in March, 1939, Hitler demanded that she should be given Danzig and he also wanted to get hold of the Polish Corridor. People in Britain and Poland said no. Poles new that an invasion was coming. Britain promised to assist the poles. However the most eminent question here was; who will Russia support? To the surprise of the western powers, Russia signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, thus the Nazi-soviet pact with USSR in august 1939. This pact granted division of Poland. Now Hitler was now ready to invade Poland and indeed on 1^st September, 1939, Germany sent a full scale invasion of Poland. On 3^rd September, Britain sent an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Germany from Poland. Six hours later, the French did the same. Germany ignored. Britain and France declared war, thus WWII had begun 21 years after the First World War, thus the war that people thought would be the war to end all wars. Hitler was surprised that a war had really begun.

The behaviour of USSR in the interwar period bred another war

Many historians argue that the soviet made war inevitable by signing the Nazi soviet pact with Germany instead of allaying with the west. This argument is coming in without considering that USSR made no effort for the relation. In 1939, USSR suggested an agreement with France and Britain. Unfortunately these two countries were not willing to cooperate with USSR. The only way in which USSR could be assured of security on its boarders was therefore to sign Nazi soviet pact so as to buy time for its invasion from Germany. This was indeed true because in 1941, Germany attacked Russia in what historians call operation Barbarossa. The pact was of benefit to Germany because it took away the possibility of a two war front for Germany.

 Failure of the League of Nations

1. It failed to preserve peace.
2. It could not control aggressor countries. For example;:

• In 1931 Japan withdrew from the league after invading Manchuria in China.
• In 1933 Germany withdrew and it started rearming, thereby disregarding the disarmament clause in the Versailles Treaty.
• In 1936 Italy withdrew from the league after invading Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in Africa.
1. The league did not include defeated powers.

 

 Effects of Second World War

 World War II was tremendously destructive

 The Second World War is the most enormous destructive war in human history. More than 40 million people died. Homes and industries were destroyed and 21 million people were were homeless.  In quoting American Historian Gordon Write, Perry writes, “ the physical property was unprecedented………… in soviet Union, 1700 cities and towns and 70, 000 villages had been devastated; so we are 70 per cent of the industrial installations and 60 per cent of the transportation facilities in the invaded areas. In Berlin, 75 per cent of the houses were destroyed or severely damaged; someone estimated that to clear the city`s rubble would require the use of ten fifty car-car freight trains per day for sixty years. In some cities (for example, Dusseldorf), 95 per cent of the homes were uninhabitable. In France and the Low Countries as well as in Germany, most water ways and habours were blocked, most bridges destroyed, much of the railway system temporarily unusable. In England, whole sections of central London and other industrial cities had been laid to waste by incendiary bombs. Almost everywhere on the continent, industrial and agricultural production was down by more than half; food, clothing, and consumer necessities were in desperately short supply; circuits of trade had been almost totally disrupted. Except for a few oases like Sweden and Switzerland, Europe seemed destined to be, at least for some years, a vast dilapidated and poorhouse.”

 

The Allied powers occupied Germany and Japan

After Japan and Germany lost the war, America, Russia, France, Britain and France occupied these countries. Much of Japan was occupied by the United States of America. On the other hand, Germany was divided among the fore-mentioned four states. The United States, Britain and France combined their territory to form West Germany while the part under USSR was called East Germany. These divisions remained for a long period.

 

Decolonization of third world countries

 During the Second World War both westerners and people from third world countries could die. This meant that Europeans were not superior to from third world countries. Europeans used social Darwinism in colonizing others in which they thought they were better than the local people. The Japanese proved the theory wrong by clearly attacking the westerners. Independence movements began to appear across the globe. The colonial masters were also weak because of the war hence could not suppress the demands for independence. This led to the granting of independence to so many third world countries though of course some got their independence through blood.

Nationalism declined in Western Europe

The occurrence of Second World War had shown people in Western Europe the dangers of extreme nationalism. Nationalism is a beautiful thing however if taken too seriously leads to holocaust and segregation as seen in Germany where 6 million Jews were killed in the name of nationalism. For this reason, western countries no longer saw nobility in the concept of nationalism. In addition to that, there need to strengthen their economies and fear from Russian influence took them away from pursuing nationalism.

The United Nations was formed

In 1944, when it became eminent that Germany had lost the war, Russia, Britain, China and the United States of America conducted several meeting to form an international body that would replace the League of Nations in preventing the world from another scourge of war. In 1945, representatives from 50 countries drafted the United Nations Charter. It was hoped that this newly formed organization would allow people across the globe to pursue happiness.

Western Europe lost its dominance in world affairs

After the Second World War western European nations were heavily destroyed. As such, western European nations turned to rebuilding themselves and they withdraw from influencing world politics and economics. Now major issues across the globe were being done by Russia and the United States of America. Up to date, The United States of America is very influential in world politics and economics. In his word, one of the greatest Malawian historian, Octavian Kadzitche say; “to be the president of the United States of America is more like being the world president”. America indeed dominates in all world affairs.

Eastern Europe came under the Dominance of Soviet Union

Before the Second World War many parts of Eastern Europe were independent. However after the war, Russia forced all countries in east Europe to become communists. By 1948, communist soldiers were in control of all governments in Eastern Europe. In so doing, all countries in Eastern Europe in one way or the other was under the control of Russia.

Germans were pushed out of homes

Soon after the Second World War, many people across the globe developed resentment against Germans. They were angry with their last for conquering the world and racism. People in Russia and Poland therefore began to chase the Germans out of their country and were forced to go to West Germany. It has been estimated that 10 million Germans were pushed to West Germany.

Germany lost its territories

After losing the war, Germany became weak and a lot of territories were taken from her.     

 

Massive urban redevelopment

Second World War destroyed a lot of infrastructure especially in Europe where most of the fighting took place. For this reason, soon after the war, countries began to engage themselves in massive urban redevelopment program where houses and other buildings were being built. Roads and bridges were also being constructed.

The united States of America and Soviet Union became world`s super powers

At the end of Second World War, two countries were found in good state, these were Russia and the United States of America. Russia had the largest army on earth while America had the Atomic bomb. This made these countries not just great powers as it was the case of Britain in First World War but rather world super powers. These countries however did not maintain their friendship after the war since there was no longer a common enemy. There cannot be us without them to hate so says the epigram. The hatred that emerged between these two nations is what historians today call cold war.

 

The Atomic age begins

During the Second World War, Professor Einstein produced an atomic bomb. This was the mostly deadly weapon the world had ever seen. The one that was thrown at Hiroshima in 1945 killed over 160 000 people. After that, many other nations learnt how to make the bomb. Right now there are enough nukes to wipe away the face of earth. Though nuclear weapons are seen as a threat to life, some historians argue that there have not been another major war because countries are afraid of nuclear war hence the nukes have detained another war.

FASCISM IN JAPAN

Japan for long period of time was a closed country. It did not want to be involved with any European country. They even did not want western missionaries to enter their land. They hated the missionaries because the pattern of politics these days showed that the flag always bible in most parts of the world. This is to say that Europeans were using Christian missionaries to make people meek so that they can easily colonise them. Furthermore, Christianity in japan was seen as an enemy of progress. For example, during renaissance, the Roman Catholic Church killed many progressive thinkers because they opposed beliefs that were not scientifically correct. For example, Galee Galileo was killed because he argued that the earth is not the centre of the universe as the church leaders were preaching. For these reasons, Japan resisted any form of western intervention including Christianity.

The Americans were however so much interested in establishing trade ties with Japan. After realizing that it was not possible to establish trade relations with japan peacefully, in 184, the American sent troops under Theodore Perre to Japan in order to force her open up her markets. Japan indeed began opening up her door and she began enjoying fruits of industrialisation that the west had. This made Japan to become strong than before both politically and economically. For this reason, from 1900 onwards western countries began to recognize that there was an economic giant in the east by the name of Japan.

 

Domestic affairs in Japan – 1900 – 1918

In the period from 1900 to 1918, industries in japan began to rise rapidly. For this reason, japan began to export and import large quantity commodities in large numbers. The imports were generally raw materials while the exports were largely finished good. For example, during First World War, Japan was supplying European markets in Asia with weapons and ships. This made her economy to be much better than before.

The prosperity of japan made her even to have a better military base. For this reason, in 1904 and 1905 japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. This became news in Europe considering that a big European country was defeated by a small country.

Domestic affairs in japan – 1918 – 1921

While other countries were busy fighting in First World War, japan was busy doing business. For this reason, after First World War she became very rich to the extent that her level of industrialisation became second to the United States. However, in 1921, there was an economic depression in Japan which was worsened by the 1929 world depression.

The economic decline of Japan made its citizens to start questioning the competency of their leaders and most people were very much convinced that they had very bad leaders. For this reason, in 1921, there prime minister was assassinated.

The political parties that were there were very disunited to solve the crisis. For this reason, fascist ideas began to spread across the country. Junior military officers began to feel that it was only a military dictatorship type of government that would establish a strong purposeful Japan. In March 1921, a coup d`etat pronounced as “koo dey`taa” was staged was staged which resulted into the formation of a fascist government. With this they hoped to create country that would not just develop but also expand.

Factors for Japan to become a fascist state

The Japanese decided to embrace fascism because to them democracy proved to be a weak form of government. To them, democracy allowed weak people to be in power. These weak leaders could not defend the country hence some people so it necessary to have strong fascist leaders who would protect the interests of japan. One of the incidents in which democratic leaders failed to protect international interests of japan was the Manchuria invasion by the Chinese.

Democratic leaders also proved too weak to solve economic problems in japan. There was poverty and gross unemployment in Japan and weak leaders that democracy breed could not save the day. Some citizens therefore thought better leaders in the name of dictators were needed for the country to heal.

There were also many social problems in Japan; politicians were corrupt and they could easily accept bribes. There was also industrial unrest. All these in the eyes of some Japanese needed fascist leader to solve them.

Elements of Japanese fascism

1. There was ruthless suppression of Marxists :
2. There was strict control of education
3. Government opponents were assassinated
4. High production of ammunitions
5. They had an aggressive foreign policy: in this case, they wanted to get more control of things as much as possible. For example, she wanted to control trade in the pacific. This saw her bombing the United States naval base in Hawaii on 7^th December, 1941 which was her rival in pacific trade. By this time, the friend of Japan, Germany, was about to finish conquering Europe. For this results asked herself; “if Germany can conquer Europe, why can’t I also conquer the pacific?” with this in mind she went forward attacking the United States. This was a miss calculation because Germany failed to conquer the whole Europe. The American were at the same time very furious and the dropped two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This the first time the world so a weapon capable of destroying things to that extent. The Americans thereafter re-introduced democracy in japan.

FASCISM IN GERMANY

Understanding fascism

Fascism was a political idea of ruling people using force. It exists even today. In Germany, fascism began 1933.Germany beginning from 1918 had democracy. However in 1933, the country had no choice but to adopt fascism also known as dictatorship type of government. Fascism in Germany was known as Nazism because it was implemented by a political party called Nazi.

The period of democracy experimentation

Soon after people had seen that Germany was losing the First World War, people began to lose their confidence in their rulers. Public opinion was now against their ruler.  Because of this, on 9^th November, 1918, Kaiser William the second was abducted in Germany. The social democratic party under the leadership of Fredrick Elbert took over government. In January 1919 first German democratic elections were conducted in which Fredrick Elbert with his party commanded victory and he became the president of Germany. In the very same year a democratic constitution was made. The constitution was known as the Weimar constitution because it was drafted in a town called Weimar. The republic was thereafter also called the Weimar republic. This republic to not stand long, it collapsed in 1933.

Why did the Weimar republic collapse?

1. It accepted the unpopular terms of the Versailles peace conference. People in Germany looked upon the terms of the Versailles peace conference as very humiliating hence they were unpopular in Germany. For example, the Germans did not accept that they were the ones that caused the First World War. The Weimar republic however went ahead to accept all the terms of the Versailles peace conference. This angered people hence members of the Weimar republic were given all kinds of names such as the November criminals because they accepted the armistice in 1919. The Germans argued that the Weimar republic stabbed them at the back, thus the Germans did not lose First World War but they were just betrayed by the Weimar republic.
2. The Germans did not believe in democracy: This was so because Germany was not found using democracy. It was blood shed that saw their nation moving from one glory to another. Therefore having a democratic government was seen as a set back to the progress of Germany. For this reason, people did not really like the democratic weimer republic.
3. The parliamentary system of government had so many problems: This was attributed to the fact that parliamentary democracy had so many weaknesses. For example, it was very difficult to reach majority in parliament and procedures for running the country were also not clear. The Germans had the proportional representative government in which seats in parliament are divided in relation to the number of votes that each country had during elections. There were so many parties in Germany hence no party won majority in the German parliament known as Reichstag. This resulted into political crisis that made people question democratic government. Malawi follows the first the post system in which we vote for members of parliament and the president. Other countries such as Liberia follow majoritarianism system.
4. Political parties did not have enough experience of democratic governance
5. The weimer republic failed to solve social problems: These problems were in terms of political stability and economic development. In terms of political stability, the government failed to solve political violence. For example, in 1919, their was the spartacist rebellion in which many people were assassinated. Violence was particularly growing because of the emergence of private armies. The weimer republic did not check this. For example, the Nazi had their private army called SA.

On the side of economic challenges, there were a number of issues that needed to be solved but the weimer republic failed to do. These were as follows;

1. Bankruptcy due to the destruction of industries during the first world war
2. Poor social services
3. Over dependency on donations
4. This was the alarming rise in the prices of commodities. It is worse than inflation. There was inflation in Germany because of devaluation of their currency. Table… shows exchange rates for Germany.

Exchange rates for German currency

Year	Amount in British pound	Exchange rate in marks
1914	1	15
1922	1	260

 

Gustav Stressman   

 Gustav Stresemann was the chancellor of Germany between 1924 and 1929. In September, 1923, Gustav became leader of Germany. French troops withdrew from Ruhr, with the new government resuming a promise of payment for reparations. The Weimar Republic enjoyed a short period of prosperity.

1. The old currency was replaced by the new one.
2. Under the 1924 Dawes Plan large amounts of USA money became available to help recovery. She was paying 2500 marks per year to countries affected by First World War. The German government did not know how to pay these reparations while building Germany thereby reflecting into economic misery in Germany. However take note that from 1923 to 1929, the economy of Germany improved because of the Dawes and young plan by a chancellor by the name of Gustav Stresemann. In Dawes plan, the American government gave Germany £40, million to rebuild its economy. Thereafter in 1929, the young plan was introduced in which the reparations were reduced from £6600 million to £200 million to be paid in 59 years.
3. Industries were revived and new factories built. By 1928 only 650,000 men were unemployed.
4. Foreign affairs showed a similar improvement:-

• Germany began to be accepted as a Great Power instead of a defeated “naughty boy” of the world.
• Germany regained prestige with the Locarno of 1925 (not to change boundary).
• In 1926 Germany was accepted as a member of the League of Nations and was given a permanent seat in the Security Council.
• In 1928, Germany signed the Kellogg Pact (renouncing war as a means of settling disputes).

Gustav attained this by winning confidence of foreign governments as well as introducing a new German currency.

What did Gustav Do to Win International Confidence on Germany?

1. He signed the Locarno treaty: The Locarno treaty was signed in 1925. In this treat countries agreed that Germany would have permanent frontiers with Belgium and France. It was also agreed that if Germany waned to change its eastern boarder she had to do so peacefully. The results of this treaty were as follows;
2. Europe was pacified
3. The German eastern frontiers became uncertain. This was so because the treaty allowed Germany to get territories t will. This was a clear indication that the super powers wronged Germany at the Versailles peace conference.
4. The terms of the Versailles peace conference were rendered useless.
5. He made Germany join the league of nations
6. He signed the kellog- Brand pact. The kellog – brand pact was a treaty that was signed in 1928 by 68 countries with an aim of denouncing war as a means of settling disputes.

However, the Gustav worked so hard to improve Germany, his success was short lived. This was so because of the economic crisis of 1929 and the death of Gustav. Gustav was the only leader who was willing to cooperate with the international community in solving German problems. This happened at a wrong time. The situation made the Germans got tired of democracy and they began to be attracted to dictators and in this case Adolf Hitler. For this reason, Hitler became the new chancellor of Germany. In 1933, Nazi party won majority in the Reichstag hence formed government. In 1934 after the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler became both the president and chancellor of Germany. He belonged to the Nazi Party.

 

The origin of Nazi Party

It started in 1919 as German Workers` Party  by Antony Drexler. During this time this part was advocating maxism. Maxims was a system of economy where everything belongs to the government. Thus no private ownership of property. In the very same year, Adolf Hitler joined the party.  In 1920 the party was renamed to National Socialist German Workers Party. In German language it was called Nazi meaning the status quo.

The party became very popular in Germany. This was so because the party was very committed to solving German problems and at the very same time Adolf Hitler was an orator. An orator was a person who had excellent communication skills. Adolf Hitler was a kind of man who could make people even cry when he was speaking. People believed in him and they began looking up to him to solve German problems. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi had one appear; to foster nationalist thinking in people. Hitler told people their history. People were very angry to see that their history was full of defeats and failures yet they were a very capable nation. People became very angry at themselves. Hitler told them that they were not to blame for the German problems, he told them that the following were the ones that were directly responsible for the German problems;

1. Versailles treaty
2. The communist
3. The allies
4. The November criminals
5. The Jews

He told his people that Germans were superiors and not failures; it’s just that they were betrayed. He therefore told his people that he would get into power at all cost. Indeed he tried to do so by staging the munic behll pustich in 1923 that ended up as failure as people were not ready to shed blood for the nation. Hitler was sentenced to 5years imprisonment with hard labour of which he only served nine months. During his prison life he wrote a book titled “mein kampt” in which he expressed the type of Germany he wanted. In this book he clearly indicated that Nazi was supposed to come to power. However use of force had failed him so he decided to use democracy though himself was not a democrat. He therefore used democracy has a tool to get into power and thereafter destroy it.  From 1924 to 1933 the Nazi party participated in democratic elections but was not successful. In 1933, they won more seats but still more they did not win majority. For this reason Hitler became the chancellor of Germany. In the very same year, another election was conducted and Hitler manipulated the results in order to have majority votes.

 

What made the Nazi and Hitler popular in Germany?

1. They promised people that they would enhance prosperity: Hitler was to do this by getting rid of all the people responsible for German problems. These were the Jews, communists, November criminals, Jesuits and Jews. H believe that if gets rid of these people, the Germans will have a lot of land and jobs to develop themselves hence prospering would rise in Germany.
2. He promised to bring law and order in Germany: Hitler told his people that democracy failed to bring law and order in the country. Parties had private armies and could instigate violence anyhow. He therefore promised to take care of this.
3. He promised the people that he would denounce the Versailles peace treaty: Most people in Germany hated the treaty hence this was very welcome to most people.
4. They opposed communism: This made many wealthy and land owners to like them.
5. The Nazi private army offered jobs to young people : Young people therefore liked him and so him as a solution to their problems.
6. Hitler because he was a good speaker / Orator: He could express very bad ideas as if they were good and people loved him for that.

 

 

The nature of German socialism

The German socialism was made up of four principles, totalitarianism, a way of life, militarism and the master race theory.

1. Totalitarianism: this principle stated that a government must be able to control ever aspect of human life. Everything including religion must be under the control of the state.
2. A way of life: in this principle it was stated that Nazism was a way of living and not just a political idea. All people had to be taught on how they can restore the pride of Germany.
3. Militarism: in this principle the Nazi agreed that they would use force to achieve their ambitions.
4. The master race theory: this theory stated that across the globe there are two groups of people; the Aryans and the non-Aryans. To them the Germans who were tall blonde, beautiful and handsome were the Aryans. They were the master race and they were supposed to rule the entire world.

 

Any other race such as the blacks, slaves, coloured and even Jews were inferior and were supposed to be German slaves. This theory was faulted by intellectuals because across the globe there are only three races;

1. Caucasian race
2. Mongloid race

• Negros race

Hitler’s policies

Hitler had very different policies from the ones he found in government. Most of these policies were not supported by the democratic constitution. He therefore started manipulating the constitution. On 23 March, 1933, the enabling act was passed. This law was passed out of intimidation. Members of the rhechistag were harassed by Nazi`s private arm – SA and SS. These soldiers threatened members of the Reichstag that they would be killed if they did not pass the enabling act.

What provisions were in the enabling act?

1. The government could enact laws in the absence of the Reichstag in the next four years.
2. Government could ignore the constitution where need be
3. The government could sign treaties without consent of the parliament.
4. The chancellor would be able to make laws without consulting the Reichstag. With this in mind, every word of the chancellor was the law. This was so because Hitler claimed that the leader is always right. Hitler therefore took the title of furhler which meant ruler.

 

How the Nazi consolidated their power

1. Use of Gestapo/Storm troopers: The Gestapo were the police. They could arrests citizens whom they had suspected and send them to camps.
2. Concentration camps: Political prisoners like the Jews, Socialists, Communists, trade unionists, churchmen and anyone else brave enough to criticize the Nazis was being sent to these camps.
3. Enabling laws: This Act meant that Hitler could make laws without consulting the Reichstag (parliament).
4. Use of propaganda: The man behind this was Josef Goebbels who decided what the German public should and should not hear. His publicity was aimed at making Hitler Popular with the people even if it meant telling people lies.

Hitler`s domestic policies

1. He banned all political parties except Nazi
2. Separate state governments became powerless. Most of the functions of these states were taken by Nazi special commissioner who was appointed by the government to control officials in the states considering that Germany was a federal state. As of today Germany has 16 states.
3. All Jews and opponents were removed from the civil service
4. All German workers became members of the German workers front and all trade unions were abolished.
5. The economic life of the state was highly controlled by the government
6. Communication was controlled by the minister of propaganda and public enlightenment. During this time such a minister was Joseph Goebbels. All the means of communication beginning from radios to newspapers were highly monitored.
7. He manipulated religion whereby he forced all churches had to be under the government.
8. Germany became a police state
9. Indoctrination was encouraged in education sector. Indoctrination is a type of learning where students just memorise ideas without thinking. This is not learning. In real learning people need to have an opportunity to think independently as we do in Malawi.

Manipulation of education

Hitler manipulated education so as to achieve his goals. All subjects were manipulated. For example in history, learners were taught topics that glorified war such as the Greek wars, Franco-Prussian war and the First World War. The aim was took make learners appreciate that war was the best solution in solving life challenges.

Science was also manipulated. In this case, Biology learners were taught that the Germans had the best genes in the world. In mathematics, all examples and problems were to be done in relation to the military. For example, when teaching additional mathematics, instead of saying 1 + 1 = 2, the teachers used to say 1 tank + 1 tank = 2 tanks. In chemistry and physics, the syllabus emphasized on weapon manufacturing. No wonder the first man to produce an atomic bomb was a German

 

Manipulation of the church

1. The Roman Catholic Church: at first the Catholic Church signed an agreement with Hitler that they would not be interfered with in Germany. In response, the Catholic Church agreed to dissolve its political party known as the catholic centre Party and never to involve themselves in politics. However, later on Hitler bloke this agreement when he dissolved the catholic Youth League because he claimed it interfered with his youth league. The church protested and he responded by closing catholic schools. In 1937, pope pius xi, issued an encyclical in which he condemned the Nazi government on which he claimed that the Nazi government was becoming hostile to Jesus Christ and his church. Hitler still did not change and he sent thousands of priests and nuns to concentration camps. The priest he hated the most were the Jesuits because they were very vigilant in defending Christ and the church. Most of the priests sent to concentration camps were Jesuits. About 800 priests were sent to concentration camps. Hitler did not want to attack the pope because the Vatican city was created by his friend Benito Mussolini. An attack on pope would mean an attack on his friend.

1. Protestants: Hitler was not happy with the defragmentation of the protestant churches. He therefore wanted to organize them together to form one church known as the Reich church on where a Nazi would be a bishop. Most pastors were not happy with this and some of them protested and were sent to concentration camps.

Hitler and the Jews

Hitler did not like the Jews. This was so because of several reasons. The first one was because the Jews did not contribute to the freedom they were enjoying in Germany. The Jews did not participate in first world war. When the German were sacrificing their lives at war, the Jews were busy making money at home. They were asked to contribute their wealth towards the war but they resisted because they claimed that their god did not allow them participate in any kind of war. Hitler therefore did not see any reason why such kind of people was to be part f the German land. He wanted real patriots and not religious fanatics.

Secondly, Hitler did not like the Jews because the Jews were very segregate. Beginning from the bible up to Germany, the Jews could not mix up with other people. They considered themselves superior. They could not even marry people of other races or tribes. This was annoying for Hitler. Hitler did not see a country that could be built with such level of segregation. He therefore wanted them out of the surface of the earth.

For these reasons, in 1935, Nuremburg laws were passed which were a set of laws that denied the Jews German citizenship. Some of the clauses in the Nuremburg laws were as follows;

1. Germans were not to marry jews
2. Property of the jews must be destroyed
3. The jewish synagogues were to be destroyed
4. Jews were to be sent to concertration camps

After these laws were formulated, the government encouraged people to follow the rules. The government asked people to do so by example.

 

Hitler`s foreign policy

The aim of Hitler’s foreign policy was to restore the military strength of Germany, to expand German empire, destroy the terms of Versailles peace conference and to create a living space for Germans. The German living space was also known as lebensraum. Hitler attained his wishes by doing the following;

1. He withdrew Germany from the disarmament conference and the League of Nations. This decision was actually done in 1933 after the disarmament conference refused Hitler to expand his armed force. For this reason, in 1935, he introduced forced recruitment of soldiers. This made the German army to have over half a million soldiers. These soldiers were highly equipped with weaponry that Hitler ordered for production. With such an improvement in his military strength Hitler began frustrating the world. His first action was the occupation of a demilitarised area called the Rhine land. No any country opposed him. For this reason, Hitler new that he can demand anything across the globe without action from super powers. Because of this, he now became very aggressive towards breaking the terms of the League of Nations. In October, 1936, Hitler together with Mussolini signed the Rome-Berlin act. Thereafter she signed she signed the anti-commintern pact with Italy and japan. On 12 November, 1938, Germany army entered Austria and the Anschluss was reached. Anschluss was the union between Germany and Austria.
2. On 1^st October, 1938, he demanded occupation of Sudetenland which was part of a country called Czechoslovakia. He claimed that there were Germans in this area and he wanted to unify them with the main German race in Germany. Fortunately for him, there were disorders in the country between the Czechs and Slovakians. Hitler therefore occupied the whole Czechoslovakia. She claimed that she did this to protect the Slovakians.
3. Germany signed the Nazi soviet pact between Germany and Italy on 24^th august, 1939.
4. On 1^st September, 1939, Germany attacked Poland. Britain and France were very angry with discussion hence they asked Hitler to withdraw. He did not believe that France and Britain would declare war on her over a small country as Poland. She therefore refused. Britain and France therefore declared war on Germany and Hitler was surprised. This marked the beginning of the Second World War.

 

 

 

THE INTER-WAR PERIOD – RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS

What were Russian revolutions?

Russian revolutions were an overthrow of Russian governments by citizens of the same. Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was one of the seven world super powers. However, she started experiencing so many problems that resulted into revolutions.

The biggest problem that Russia had this time was slow industrialization. Industrialization is a development of industry on an extensive scale using scientific ideas. In Russia scientific reasoning was very behind and this hindered industrialization. Russia also had leaders that could not lead her to industrialization. For example, in the early phase of 20^th century, Russia was under the rule of Tsar (Czar) Nicolas II.

Tsar Nicholas II was a leader of high self-confidence but at the same time easy to manipulate by people who were strong than him. This made him to be highly manipulated to the extent that Russia started to experience many problems that resulted into the 1905 revolution.

The 1905 revolution

On 20^th January, 1905, a group of Russians went led by father Gapon went to present a petition to the government. A petition is a compilation of signatures that is done in order to exert moral authority in support of a specific cause. It is one of the rights that we as living things have. Instead of welcoming these people peacefully, the government received them with bullets. This angered workers and peasants hence they indulged in several riots. A collection of these riots is what historians now call the 1905 revolution.

 

What caused the 1905 revolution?

1. Poor working conditions: Actually this time there were about 10 – 15 million workers in Russia. These workers were working in very bad environments and their pay was so low. For this reason, the workers decided to revolt.
2. Lack of political freedom: people in France and Britain were free. The Russians therefore also wanted to emulate them. Just like the French and Britons, they also wanted to have a parliament which they called Duma that would be able to protect their rights and attend to their everyday life problems.
3. Slow industrialisation: Russia had both human and natural resources for her to industrialise. However, the government did not have a political will to industrialise the country. This can indeed be seen by poor quality scientific education that the government promoted. This was so because the government manipulated education to prevent the creation of critical citizens that would have pioneered industrialization. This frustrated the general populace of Russia.
4. Shortage of land among peasants: a peasant farmer is a person who cultivates enough food and can sell some after a harvest. Most peasants in Russia did not have enough land to cultivate their crops. Most of the good land was given to rich people. This was particularly true after the government had put the peasants into communities in an attempt to redistribute the land. People did not like this project hence revolted against it.
5. The defeat of Russia in Russo-Japanese war: Russo-Japanese war was a war between Russia and japan that was fought in 1905. Russia lost this war and this angered the Russian populace. Many citizens were angered on how possible was it for a small island like japan could defeat a giant state like Russia. This made Russian populace to argue that they lost the war because their leaders were too weak to make a strong army. They therefore wanted their leaders out of their offices.

 

Results of the 1905 Russian revolution

The 1905 revolution brought about a promise for a Russia that people wanted to have. These promises were shown in what was known as October manifesto. The October manifesto promised people that working conditions in Russia would be improved, people will have political freedom, there would be an elected parliament (Duma) in Russia and that the press would also have more freedom.

These promises were so much appealing to the Russian populace but unfortunately Tsar Nicholas II continued to issue decrees which were not in line with the manifesto. For example, he said that he and he alone was in control of the armed forces and foreign policy. The Duma was also not a true representative of the people in that it was just like a rubber stamp.

 

How did the Russian duma work?

The first Russian duma met in May 1906. This duma was so much into changing the state of Russian social problems such that it came up with very nice reforms. The Tsar was not happy with the reforms that the duma demanded hence Tsar dissolved it. In 1907 Russia had another duma that was also dissolved. Unlike the 1^st and 2^nd duma, the third duma finished its term. This was so because the third duma was not truly representing the needs of people. It just acted as a rubber stamp for the Tsar. Actually the third duma members won elections because Tsar manipulated voting. The Tsar prevented all his opponents from becoming part of the duma. The fourth duma just like the 3^rd finished it term from 1912 to 1917. Another revolution thereafter came because Russia democracy, but it was a democracy as defined by Nicholas.

 The Russian revolutions of 1917

In the year 1917, there were two revolutions in Russia. If we are to use the Gregorian calendar that we use here in Malawi, these revolutions were done in March and November. If we are to use the Juistian calendar, these revolutions were the February and October. Juistian was one of the emperors of the Byzantine Empire while Gregory was a Christian priest.

Among the two revolutions, the one that was more of a modern revolution was the march revolution because it established a republic, it established a parliament based on western life and it guaranteed people`s freedom of speech and participation in political activities.

 

What were the causes of March / February revolution?

1. Shortage of land: After the 1905 revolution, the government promised people that it would redistribute land so that peasants would also have enough land. The government however did not implement this. Government officials and rich peasants known as Kulaks were the ones that had a lot of land. This disappointed the poor who were in majority and they began to organize themselves for a revolution.
2. First World War: Russia joined the First World War when the country was too poor to go to war. For this reason, the resources that would have been used to improve the lives of the people were used to finance the war. The Russian populace did not like this.
3. Unemployment: there were so many economically active people who did not have jobs. Economically active people are people who are strong enough to earn a living. These people wanted a leader who would create more jobs in Russia.

 Results of the March / February revolution

The March revolution was generally more successful than the 1905 revolution. This was so because many people were tired of oppression and this made them speak with one voice which was not the case of 1905 revolution. It brought forward the following changes;

1. It led to the abduction of Nicholas the II and the establishment of a republic.
2. People were guaranteed with liberty to speech
3. Political parties were guaranteed liberty to function across the country
4. It established a duma
5. It formed a provisional government.

 The provisional government

The provisional government was formed by prince Lvov with an aim of putting forward leaders who would lead the country into elections so as to establish a democratic government in Russia. This government was led by Alexander Kerensky. This government however did not meet the expectations of the people hence another revolution known as the November revolution was staged. The mistakes that the provisional government made were as follows;

1. It continued the war
2. It took long to conduct elections
3. Land was not redistributed

 The November / October Revolution

This revolution was staged by a group of people known as the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were this time led by Lenin.  The Bolsheviks believed that Russia would become an economic giant in the world if she adopted the idea of a Jewish great thinker by the name of Carl Max. Carl max believed that a country can make great economic strides if she adopts maxims / communism. Carl Max clearly indicated that if a country wants to become a communist state, it must pass through stages of development.

 Carl Max`s Level of Society Development

Carl max believed that societies do not grow randomly; they grow from one level to another. These levels are as follows:

1^st level: this level is where a community has what Carl max called traditional communism. This level is characterized by the communal ownership of means of production. All countries have passed this level.

2^nd Level: this stage has also passed. It was particular common in the middle ages when feudalism was common.

3^rd Level: this level was characterized by slavery and slave trade. Land lords were using fellow human beings to work for them without payment as well as with poor working conditions.

4^th Level: this level is where a country becomes a capitalist state. In this level, means of production are under the control of individuals. Carl max argued that at this level workers were exploited and competition among corporations was high.

5^th Level:  this level is where a country has now become a socialist state. In this case, some things are owned by the state while others by individuals.

6^th Level: this he argued was the last level of community development. In this level the community becomes a communist. Carl max wanted this level of development for communities because it cleats a classless society which in the long run prevents conflicts in societies. This level of development has never been achieved by any community before.

 

How did the Bolsheviks consolidate communism in Russia?

The Bolsheviks took a number of steps in consolidating their power in Russia. The first step was the signing of Brest Litovisk Treaty with Germany in 1918. This was a peace treaty.  The other means used was to force in forcing people to do what they wanted. They had a police known Cheka which was used against people who were against communism or bolshevism. The Bolsheviks also consolidated power by redistributing land to peasants. This was captured in their slogan; “bread, peace and land.”

 

Policies implemented by the Bolsheviks that made communism work in Russia

The Bolsheviks used what they called war communism in order to make communism work in Russia. In this approach, the Bolsheviks had the following policies;

1. The government was for responsible controlling all factories
2. The government was responsible for planning and organizing production of things
3. The government had to encouraged discipline among workers
4. The government was supposed to require people to surrender their harvest to the government
5. People were to be given food in ratios
6. Free enterprise was not to be allowed across the country.

 

Effects of war Communism

• There was disruption in communication and this led to low supply of raw materials hence  production was only 15% of the 1913.
• Food became scarce because peasants were not happy that their food would be taken away.
• From 1917 prices increased 100 times. This made money to lose its value.

Most of the Russians did not like this hence they objected this. For this reason, in 1921 Lenin formulated the new economic plan so as to reform war communism.

The new economic policy

This policy came into being in 1921. The aim of this policy was to partially restore capitalism in Russia. The Bolsheviks realized that many people in Russia hated communism was because many rich people lost their businesses and peasants surrendered their land to the government. People`s anger became even more pronounced in 1921 when there was hunger across Russia. The government therefore loosen up its grip on people to have what carl Max described as socialism. This plan therefore offered the following changes;

1. Peasants were allowed to sell their surplus yields at a profit.
2. Small factories were given back to the private sector. Most of these factories had less than 20 employees.
3. Private trading of small goods was legalized
4. In 1923 a new currency was released that ended inflation.

 

The Russian civil war

This civil war happened from 1918 to 1920. It was between the pro-communist group known as the reds and a group of people that was against communism known as the whites. The whites wanted the loyal family to continue ruling Russia and they were also very sympathetic at the large factory owners who had lost their companies as well as the peasants who had lost their land because of communism. Rich peasants in Russia were known as kulaks. The whites were therefore supported by capitalist countries such as Britain and America during the war.

The whites however lost the war. This was so because many people in Europe did not like them. They were so much hated such that the general European populace began to discourage their governments from helping the whites. This was so because of the following factors;

1. The whites were killing prisoners of war ruthlessly
2. The whites generally did place high value on humanity
3. The whites were ruthlessly confiscating food from peasants.

In the year 1922, USSR was formed. USSR was an abbreviation that stood for Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. The USSR was made up of about 15 countries. The federation ended in 1991.Two years after the formation of USSR, the Russian leader, Lenin, passed away. This created a dilemma as on who was to take over power. There were several people in USSR who were strong enough to take over power. These were Leon – Trotsky (commander of the reds), Kamenev, Bukharih, Joseph Stalin and Zinoviev. Among all these powerful men, the most powerful and likely successors of Lenin were Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin.

Leon Trotsky

Leon came from a family of jewish farmers. Throughout out his youth, Leon had been a rebel. Thereafter he became a journalist, an orator and lastly a commander of reds. He was the man who engineered the Bolshevik takeover of November, 1917. He was a favourite of Lenin such that Lenin even indicated in his will that he wanted him to rule Russia after his death. Stain however saw the will in advance and did not disclose this to the public because he was also interested in becoming the leader. Trotsky was not just an enemy of Stalin, he was also hated by fellow committee members of the communist party because he very brilliant. Trotsky was so brilliant in organising the party and making people join the party. His brilliance made him to be very boastful and people hated him for it.

 

Joseph Stalin

Joseph stalin grew up in geogia. He became a rebel while he was still a scholarship student in one of the best schools in the area. This made stalin mature into one of the greatest rebels for the Bolsheviks. In 1922 he was appointed the secretary general of the communist party. This position gave him power tin the party such that by the time of the death of Lenin, he was so powerful in the party such that not even Trotsky would successfully challenge him. They struggled for power with Trotsky however by 1927 the struggle came to an end. In 1929, on Stalin’s fiftieth birthday Stalin was formally hailed as “ great wise father”.  This was the beginning of the “cult of personality”. Stalin was therefore no longer seen as a mortal being but a church leader.

In his government, Stalin was so much determined to make USSR become an industrial power as well food self-sufficient.  Self-sufficiency was necessary for USSR because she was cut off from the western community so she had to find a way of sustaining herself. These objectives were to be achieved by the collectivization program and five year plans. Collectivization was the creation of large estates while five year plans were the assigning of development agenda to a set of five years.

Collectivization

In this program, Stalin took all land from peasants and form large estates. Stalin considered this necessary because he wanted USSR to start using machines in agriculture. Machines could however not be used in fragmented land. He therefore consolidated all the farms. This program however received a lot of resistance from both and rich peasants because they did not want to lose their land. Stalin therefore decided to start using force. In this case, some rich peasants were sent to camps and those that were still adamant were killed.

The results of this program were that there was chaos in most rural areas. The chaos resulted into famine that led to the death of 10 million people in USSR. Apart from that, kulaks killed their animals and best farmers were liquidated.

The five year plans

In this program Stalin used to give a set of five years to an industrial activity. The program was for both heavy and light industries.

The 1^st  five year plan: this was done from 1928 to 1932. Its area of focus was heavy industries such as electricity and construction of dams. The plan was that to finish this level by 1933 but Stalin claimed and declared it complete by 1932. The truth however was that this level was not done, it was just propaganda.

The 2^nd five year plan: this began in 1932 and ended in 1937.this plan also put emphasis on heavy industry such that by 1940, USSR had surpassed Britain in Iron and steel production.

 The 3^rd five year plan: it started in 1937 and came to an end in 1941.  Its area of focus was consumer goods but later the focus changed to heavy industry again because of peace threats. This was so because in 1941 USSR was attacked by Germany in what was known as operation Barbarossa. This attacked made her to start producing weapons such as Jet fighters and tankers.

The 4^th five year plan: this plan came into being after second world war from 1946 to 1950. It therefore focused on both light and heavy industries. The aim was to improve living standards.

The 5^th five year plan: this was put into action in 1951. Stalin however died before it came to an end hence the plan was not fully implemented as USSR stopped implementing it in the very same year of his death, 1953. The idea of having five year plans however continued until 1986 when USSR started to become very collapse. By the time of his death, Stalin managed to modernise Russia.

 A modern society is one that has modern machines, modern weapons, schools, sufficient food and many industries.

The Purges

• From 1934 Stalin used purges against all possible ant-Stalinist. Opponents in the politburo were dismissed from their posts and some members of the Communist Party were tried. He shot or sent members of the Communist party to concentration camps in Siberia. The army officers as well as army generals were arrested. Millions of Russian citizens just disappeared, most sent to Siberia. At the beginning of 1939, the great purges ended almost as suddenly as they had begun.
• It is also possible that he did this  in order to strengthen his power.

 Stalin’s Foreign Policy 

Stalin was tried to improve international relations through;

• Russia joined the League of Nations in 1934
• Signed an agreement with France to protect Czechoslovakia
• Sighed signed the Soviet-Nazi Pact with Hitler in 1939.

 

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Origins of the League of Nations

 The League of Nations was formed on 10^th January, 1920. Its headquarters was in Geneva in Switzerland.

 Aims of the League of Nations

1. To maintain world peace through international cooperation and try to stop quarrel at the earliest stages.
2. To foster economic and social development in member states. This was to be done by giving out loans, stamping out diseases and resettling refugees.

 The structure of the League of Nations

1. The general assembly: this was like the parliament of the League of Nations. All member states met once a year in this organ to discuss issues. It had 52 members and each member was represented in the assembly. The functions of the general assembly were to make policies, pass budget of the league and accept new membership applications. Voting in the assembly was unanimous. This means that every member in the assembly had to accept for a motion to be carried. Each member had one vote.
2. The Security Council: this branch of the league was mandated to look at disputes among nations or in nations. Voting in the Security Council was also unanimous. Not all countries were members of the Security Council. There were two categories of the members of the Security Council and these were permanent and non-permanent members. In 1920, the league only had 4 permanent members and these were France, Britain, japan and Italy. In 1926 Germany also joined the league and she became a member of the Security Council. In 1934, USSR was also given the status quo. The United States of America did join the league. This was so because Wilson was booted out of office for leaving the American land for Europe. Americans did not want a president like Wilson who could make America lose its prestige by leaving the county. In addition, America did not join the league because she did not agree with some of the terms of the Versailles peace conference that formed the foundation of the league. USSR joined the league after Germany had left hence membership in the security council never exceeded 5 countries. On the side of non-permanent members, in 1920 there were six non-permanent members in the league and in 1926 there were nine members. The non-permanent members were elected from small powers every 3 years.
3. Secretariat: The secretariat of the league was in Geneva, Switzerland. Its functions were taking care of paper work of the league, preparing agenda and writing reports.t It was headed by a secretary general. Throughout its life it had three secretary generals. The first secretary general was Eric Drummond from United Kingdom who took leadership from 1920 to 1933. The second secretary general was Joseph Avenol from France who provided leadership from 1933 to 1940. In 1940 Sean Lester from Ireland took over until 1946 when it got dissolved.
4. The permanent court of justice: it was formed in 1929 with an aim of making decision on legal issues. Its headquarters was in Hague in Netherlands.  The court was made up of 15 judges from different countries.
5. Committees and commissions:  committees are a group of people delegated to consider some matter on a permanent basis. On the other hand, a commission is a group of people delegated to consider some matter on a temporary basis. The league had refugees committee, health committee and the International Labour Organization. On commission she had the reparations commission, the disarmament commission, the mandates commission and the slavery commission. The reparations committee was responsible for coming up with the reparation figure for Germany. The reparation commission ended in 1921 after coming up with a figure of £6600, 000,000 as reparation for Germany. The refugee committee was responsible for responsible for finding homes for people who have been displaced by the First World War. This commission however became a committee because of the increase in demand for its work in the inter war period.

The mandate commission was responsible for overseeing the process of handing over territories that were under Germany and Ottoman Empire into countries that had been given mandate/ authority to administer such territories. These territories were in three categories. The first category was for the countries that were about to receive independence. Most of the countries under this category were under Ottoman Empire and they included countries such as Iraq and Iran.

The second category was for countries whose independence were not certain. These countries were under Germany. These countries were Tanzania, Togo, Namibia and Cameroon. It was not certain that these countries would not receive independence because the inhabitants were not ready for independence. Having a country is more than just having a few intellectual elites running affairs. It is about having a population of civilized minds that would be able to control land. At this time, countries in this group were not civilised enough to run a modern state.

The last group was for poor countries that were spacely populated. The major challenge with these countries was backwardness. These territories were therefore supposed to be developed before being granted independence. These countries included Rwanda, Burundi and some parts of east Africa under Germany. Take note that before 1961, Burundi and Rwanda were one country known as Rwanda-urundi under Germany. After the first world war Rwanda-urundi went to Belgium. Belgium just like Germany was ruling rwanda-urundi using the divide and rule policy. This was done by giving contrasting opportunities to the native people staying in the same. In 1960, it was decided in a referendum that these two countries must be separated.

The slavery committee was responsible for ending slave trade in European countries. Slavery is a shame to human kind hence it was supposed to come to an end. It is unfortunate though that slavery is still there even today.

Successes of the League of Nations

The League of Nations in general terms, it had many failures than successes. It failed its core objective of maintaining world peace. The world went into Second World War in the watch of the league.Though many historians recognize the failure of the league, historians are well aware that the league had some successes. These were as follows;

 1. The league managed to solve disputes that involved small nations. These were some of the disputes;

 A. 1920 Sweden and Finland Dispute : A dispute arose between Sweden and Finland over the sovereignty of the Aaland Island in the Gulf of Bothnia. The League sent a committee of enquiry which concluded that   the Island should go to Finland.

 B. 1921 Germany and Poland Dispute : The league was called to settle the frontier dispute between Poland and Germany in Upper Silesia. The league decided that the frontier should go through Upper Silesia but that the area should be an economic unit supervised by the league for 15 years.

 C. 1925 Greece and Bulgaria Dispute : Greece invaded Bulgaria. The league ordered a ceasefire and after investigating, a decision was made and Greece was to blame and reparations were fixed.

2. Most of its commissions and committees were a success. For example, the International Labour Organisation managed to set up a minimum number of working hours for improvement of working condition. It also promoted better wages and proper housing for workers. The refugee commission also managed to resettle poles. The poles were prisoners of war.

 

Failures of the League of Nations

The league of nationals encountered several failures. Some of these failures are as follows;

 1. 1922 Poland and Lithunia Dispute : In 1922 there was a dispute between Poland and Lithunia over the territory of Vilna. The league believed that Vilna should go to Lithunia but the ambassadors’ conference intervened on the side of Poland.

 2. 1925 Italy and Greece Dispute: Italy occupied Corfu which was under Greece. In spite of the league’s decision to punish Italy, the conference of ambassadors intervened on the side of Italy. Greece was ordered to pay an indemnity.

 3. 1931 Mukden Incident : Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931. China appealed to the league who asked Japan to withdraw. Japan refused and the question of sanctions to compel Japan to respect the wishes of the league was never raised. In October, 1933 Japan resigned from the league.

 4. 1935 Italy’s Invasion of Ethiopia : In 1934, 4 Italians were killed in the border clash between Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland. Italy demanded compensation and Ethiopia appealed to the League of Nation. In October 1935, the league condemned Italy and applied ineffective economic sanctions such as imports of from, exports to and loans were banned. This ban was only partial since oil, coal and steel were being exported to Italy and Italy resigned from the league in 1937 and the sanctions were discredited.

 5. 1932 Disarmament Conference : The league called for the disarmament conference in February, 1932 in Geneva with the aim encouraging countries to reduce their level of military forces. At the conference Germany under Adolf Hitler asked for the equality of Germany army with that of France. France urged other nations not to accept this. So the league told Germany to wait for 8 years. In October, 1933, Hitler withdrew from the conference and from the league.

 6. 1933 – 1939 Militarization : When Germany came out of the disarmament conference, she started to raise her army. Other nations followed suit. From 1935 the league witnessed several events happening without intervening. Some of these events were as the Germany militarization of Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. It was finally dissolved in 1946.

 Reasons for the failure of the League

1. People did not like it: people did not like the league because it was considered as a body for victorious powers. For this reason, smaller countries did not respect the league, an orgnisation that was supposed to unite countries ended up dividing countries into super powers and weak nations. This crippled the league as it had no support from other countries.
2. It did not have a standing army: a standing army is a defense force that has been employed for full time military service. The League of Nations did not have a standing army. Whenever it needed soldiers it had to ask countries to send soldiers. It was very difficult to get soldiers this way thereby crippling the league.
3. Most of its decisions were being challenged by the ambassadors’ conference: the ambassadors’ conference was set up at Versailles peace conference with the aim of scrutinising the activities of the league. Most of the times this organization acted in opposition to the league hence making it weak. For example, in1923 when Italy invaded Greece, the league of nations condemned Italy for the invasion but the ambassadors conference opposed the league`s decision.
4. Big powers were not members of the league during certain period: This was so because super powers were moving out of the league once they have been frustrated. For example, Germany joined the league then later moved out. She even moved out aggressively breaking apart each and every term of the Versailles peace conference that the league was trying to protect. United States of America and Russia refused to join the league.
5. The great depression of 1929: in 1929, American economy collapsed. There is a saying that when America gets a cold, the whole world sneezes. Indeed, the economic meltdown in America led to economic crisis across the globe up to 1932. The League of Nations failed to solve the crisis hence giving a chance to dictators to come into power thereby out forward the right people who contributed to the outbreak of Second World War.
6. Some countries were passive: Some members of the league were not that much active for the league to succeed. For example, Britain and France were the only major powers but they were not enthusiastic supporters of the league. Some countries such as Japan became even aggressive.
7. The league was centered in Europe: The league was so much seen as a European body yet it was supposed to represent the world.
8. The league was a club for victorious powers: The league did not allow countries that had lost to join in its formulation stage hence it was viewed as a club for victorious powers.
9. The league had structural weaknesses: The league had weak structures and rules, for instance, unanimous voting of members was required for most decisions yet it was difficult to achieve. The court of the league could not make or force states to appear before it. For instance, Italy refused to appear before the court.
10. The league was being undermined by fascist governments: Fascists governments especially Germany Japan and Italy were not obeying the league. For example, in 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria which was part of china. When the league condemned her, she withdrew from the league and continued the inversion.

CAUSES OF FIRST WORLD WAR

Why call it First World War?

The First World War began in 1914 and it ended in 1918. It called a world war because of the following reasons;

1. Many countries were involved
2. It was very devastating

Before 1939 the First World War was known as the war to end all wars because people thought the world would not go to another war after learning from the devastation it caused.

 Causes of First World War

The First World War was a product of several factors. These causes can be divided into major causes and minor causes. The major causes of First World War were nationalism, secret alliances, imperialism and arms race and militarism. The minor causes were Moroccan crisis and the Anglo-Boer war. 

1. Nationalism

Nationalism is a love for one`s nation and willingness to sacrifice for it. Many people in countries such as Italy, France and Germany were having this love for their nations. For this reason, people in other countries that have not yet formed their nation also wanted to have a nation of their own.

A nation is a country that has people with one history. For example, Germany was for the Germans and England for the English.  Nationalism therefore united as well as divided people across the globe. It united people in that it made people with same history to come together. However, the problem was that after forming a nation, they could also find themselves to be different again. For example, the slaves were a nation however within them there were also sub nations such Croats and Montenegrins. What this simply means is that the concept of nationalism is self-destructive since there is nothing really like a nation. The concept of a nation is just an idea and it does not exist in a real world. Its something that people can only imagine.

However, many people during this time did not know that a nation is just an idea. For this reason, Serbia demanded self-rule which she managed to attain.  This made other slave nations to demand joining with Serbia so that they can also have a nation of their own.  This sparked World War 1 when in 1914 a Bosnian boy by the name of gavrillo princip assassinated the leader of Austria- Hungary archduke Franz Ferdinand during his visit to Bosnia Herzegovina.

Another group of people fighting for nationalism were the Greeks and buglers. These two nations were already a nation but what they simply wanted was to preserve their nations. However their biggest problem was that these countries had a very weak military base. This simply meant that they could not defend their countries from military attack.  For this reason, in 1912 they formed the Balkan league that would act as a collective military grouping against the Ottoman Empire.  This was in response to the 1908revolution that occurred in ottoman revolution in which young people that were calling them Young Turks who revolted against corruption and poor leadership in Ottoman Empire. This therefore meant that if these young turks were successful, ottoman empire would become strong again and get hold of the countries that had attained independence. To avoid these, the countries formed the Balkan league. This clearly meant that they had declared war on Ottoman Empire no wonder the area found itself in several wars that historians refer to as the Balkan wars. 

The Balkan Wars

The first Balkan war was fought in 1912. Greece, Montenegro and Bulgeria formed the Balkan league to fight the Young Turk movement while it was still weak. The Balkan league was successful and they gained territory. However they went into conflict themselves on how to share the spoils of war. The issue was solved at the London conference. Bulgaria was however not satisfied with the results of the London conference since she wanted Macedonia which was given to Serbia. This made Bulgaria to attach Serbia and other members assisted Serbia thereby defeating Bulgaria. This became what was known as the Second Balkan War in which Britain also came to the rescue of Serbia. The Balkan wars lead to the following;

1. Serbian became strong as a result of the territories she benefited from the Balkan wars. She was therefore determined to cause more conflicts among the Serbs and Croats in the Austria-Hungarian Empire.
2. Austria became worried of the strength of Serbian and she was looking forward to a war where she would eliminate Serbia.
3. Germany began to think that the involvement of Britain in the Balkan issues meant that she was not in a strong relationship with France and Russia.

Secret alliances were secret confederations that were formed in Europe. Countries were making agreements to help each other in times of war as well as for economic cooperation. The beginning of secret alliances can be traced back to the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 to 1871. In this war, Prussia defeated France and Austria and took away Alsace and Lorrain from her.

Germany was successful under the leadership of Chancellor Autovon Bismark. This victory brought shock in Europe. British Prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, argued;

“The balance of power has been entirely destroyed.”

With those words he expressed his fear that this was a beginning of massive conquest by Germany. However the fear was unfounded as Germany had no plans to conquer other lands.

This victory simply brought about the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Germans were however not sure if the war was indeed over; they feared that France would come back in the future to avenge for the loss.

However, France was weak those days which meant that if she wanted to avenge she would come with assistance from other countries.  In an attempt to prevent France from having a friend in Europe, the German chancellor by the name of Otto Van Bismarck decided to form alliances so that France should be isolated in Europe. For this reason, in 1872, the first secret political alliance was form in Europe and it was known as the three emperors’ league. The countries that formed this alliance were Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary. Britain did not join this alliance and Germany did not mind about her not joining because this time Britain was practicing splendid isolation meaning non-involvement in European affairs.

In 1879 Russian withdraw from the three emperors league hence Germany signed a dual alliance with Austria hangar. Russia withdrew this time because she could not be friends with Austria Hungary. This is so because she wanted slave people in Austria hangar to be independent. To compensate for the loss of Russia, Germany signed triple alliance which included Italy. Italy however was not a strong country; she lacked elements of a super power. For example, she could not discipline other countries. In 1884, Otto von Bismarck managed to get Russia on board by signing the reinsurance treaty with Russia.

In 884, and 1885 Germany made another big blander of inviting countries across the globe to share colonies. This a very big mistake because by doing so, Germany announced herself as a champion of colonies which was not true. Countries thought Germany was not in the right position to champion partition of colonies as she had never even been involved in the voyages of discovery. Britain and France were the ones that had many colonies. English was the world`s most dominant language and French was the second, nobody cared about German language. This kind of conduct by Germany angered other countries because they thought Germany had started to consider herself as a super power a status that they were jealousy of and were not willing to accept.

In 1893, France and Russia formed another secret alliance called dual entente which was a friendly alliance. This was so because Germany did not renew the reinsurance treaty which was renewable every three years. This was so because in 1890 Germany had a new Kaiser and this new leader dismissed Otto von Bismarck. This was so because the new Kaiser believed that there was no need for alliances for a strong country like Germany to exist. This therefore meant that Russia did not have allies to advance her interest in the Balkans.

Upon seeing the behavior of Germany, France became very scared of Germany. She therefore decided to find allies in the event that she has been attacked by Germany. This alliance was known as entente cordialle which was signed in 1904 with Britain. In 1907 Triple entente was signed among Britain, France and Russia. The word “entente” means informal alliance. The political alliances made countries to feel secure and ready to go to war. This made war likely because of the following reasons;

1. They divide Europe into two rival camps. Great powers of Europe except for turkey were involved in these alliances. Turkey was internally weak this time hence was known as the sickman of Europe
2. According to the agreements, if one of them was at war then it meant all of them except Turkey was at war.
3. The agreements were secretive and this created fear and suspicion among countries.

2. Imperialism

Imperialism is a policy of extending a country`s authority by gaining territory or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other counties. This began as early as 15^th century during the voyages of discovery. Countries began to scramble for territories which crated tension in Europe. Counties were practicing imperialism for three reasons namely,

1. Economic motive: in this case, countries were colonising other countries in order to create markets for their commodities as well extract resources from their colony. This made colonialism very important such that countries had to compete to gain as many colonies as possible. Wherever there is competition there is conflict no wonder countries began quarrelling for territories.
2. Nationalism motive: in this scenario, countries were colonizing other countries with an aim of bringing glory to their country. A country with many colonies was thus considered superior to a country with no or few colonies. Such a political atmosphere made some countries to start fighting for colonies thereby fueling the First World War.
3. Political and diplomatic motive: in this case European leaders were colonizing areas in order to enhance their morale. Leaders felt safe with the colonies because they knew that they have human resource for in case war broke out thereby making war certain.

 3. Arms race and militarism

This was the competition in the number of weapons that a country could possess. For a country to have many weapons is not a problem but the problem comes when you have just acquired too many weapons such that it produces a feeling in you to use them since you have lost a lot of money in purchasing them. Arms race was done by buying or/and producing many sophisicated weapons as well as recruiting more soldiers. Between 1900 and 1914, all super powers had significantly increased their average military expenditure. For example in 1914 Germany had increased her army from 400000 to 850, 000.

The competition was even more in the navy especially between Britain and Germany. In 1906 Britain launched a battle ship called the M.H.S. Dreadnought. Germany challenged Britain by building more battleships for her High Sea Fleet. Germany also built the unterseebooten also known as the U-boats. Table 2.1 summarizes naval holdings by Britain and Germany in 1914.

Table 2.1

Type	Britain	Germany
Dreadnoughts	20	13
Older battleships	40	22
Battle cruiser	58	7
Light cruiser	44	34
Destroyers, MTBs	300	144
Submarines	78	28

On the same note, militarism is a belief that great things in life can be achieved using force or intimidation. This was a very bad belief especially this time where many weapons had already been acquired by most of the European nations. This environment ended up with the Germans producing their war plan called the Schlieffen Plan that shown how France would be attacked through Belgium. In France their war plan was called Xvii Plan. Take note however that no country planned for a world war. They all thought it would just be a small war.

 4. Moroccan crisis

Morocco was a British colony. However, Britain had signed dual entente with France. Kaiser William the second therefore wanted to use morocco as a centre for testing the strength of entente cordialle. For this reason, in 1905, William went to morocco and told the sultan of morocco that if they decide to seek independence from Britain, Germany would support them. Britain was very furious with this and it led to what historian call the first Moroccan crisis. The crisis was settled in Spain in 1906 at the Algeciras conference where they agree the following;

1. Britain, Germany, France and Spain should have an equal control of the state banks of morocco
2. Morocco was still a British colony.

In 1911, there was a rebellion against a new sultan in morocco. France sent troops to Fez so as to protect its embassy. Germany saw this as a move by France to frustrate its interests in morocco. The German therefore sent a gun boat to Agadir. This crisis is known as the Second Moroccan crisis. Many people thought was had become eminent but the Germans withdraw after France had promised them Brazzaville. This increased tension between France and Germany.

 5. The Anglo-Boer war

The Anglo-Boer war was a war between Britain and people from Denmark that were staying in South Africa. It was fought from 1899 to 1902. Of these, wars, the second one was the most destructive and it led to the colonization of the Dutch states. The Germans were supporting the Boers. This confirmed a rumour that was circulating that Germany wanted to dominate world politics. Indeed this is what Germany that she was supposed to hence she hated Britain  because she viewed her as a future enemy. Britain sometimes wanted to cooperate with Germany but Germany was never interested. The Anglo-Boer war therefore made Britain and Germany better enemies thereby making a major war eminent.

 Results of First World War

The First World War has profound effects in countries. Some of the effects are as follows;

1. Germany and her allies lost the war ( The Central Powers): They signed an armistice ( treaty) to put the war to an end.
2. A world body is formed :A body to prevent the world from going into another scourge of war was created. This organisation was known as the League of Nations
3. The war killed and injured people : The first world war so ten million people dead and 21 million people were wounded. Europe almost became a vast graveyard. Young people who were needed to spearhead development in their respective countries died during the war. Even those who did not die or wounded went home with post-traumatic stress.
4. Industries in Europe were destroyed
5. The war revolutionized warfare : The First World War saw changes in warfare. More advanced weapons began to appear. For example, sabers and rifles were replaced with by rapid-firing machine guns. Tanks, aircrafts, submarines and poison gas were also introduced.

   6.It led to the creation of new states : New states were created as a result of the wreckage caused by the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empires, the collapse of tsarism in Russia and the defeat of Germany.

   The Woodrow Wilson suggested that borders be redrawn so that races rule themselves. The choice of own government was known as ‘self-determination’. Self-determination led to the creation os new states and these were as follows;

   • Ancient state of Poland
   • Finland
   • Estonia
   • Latvia and Lithuania.
   • New states of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
   • Turkish territories in the middle east to be under League of Nations
   • Austria became a separate state but its wish to join together with Germany (the Anschluss) was forbidden by France and Britain.
6. Versailles peace treaty was signed : Countries signed to an armistice to end the First World War in 11^th November in 1918. This explains why every year on 11^th November the world celebrates world peace. Countries that had won the world war met in a French town called Versailles (pronounced as ver-sai) from January to June 1919 to decide the future of the world.

The most influential statesmen found there were known as the big three. These were the American president Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George, a British prime minister and Clemenceau, leader of France. The president of Italy left the conference because delegates in the conference did not want her get territories that she was promised. The three big three leaders came to the Versailles peace conference with different interest that reflected the reasons for their involvement in First World War. For example, the United States of America joined the First World War because of three known reasons namely;

1. To defend democracy
2. It was rumoured that Germany was encouraging Mexico to attack the United States. This was so because in in 1846 to 1848, there was war between the United States and Mexico. Mexico lost the war and its two territories; New Mexico and Arizona. It was rumoured that Germany told Mexico that if she attacks the US, Germany will give her the areas back once she has won the war.
3. Germany sunk a US civilian ship and the united states wanted to avenge for this

 

On the other hand, Britain mainly joined First World War with the aim of punishing Germany. Britons were generally not happy with the conduct of Germany in international politics and they wanted her to pay. No wonder Lloyd George became a prime minister in Britain because he promised people that he would hang Kaiser once he gets into power. However at the Versailles conference he was just moderate because destroying Germany meant that its trade with the same was also destroyed. Lloyd therefore wanted Germany to be moderately punished.

On that side of the French, Clemenceau had seen his country attacked by Germany twice in his life time.  He therefore wanted Germany to be ruthlessly punished. This was disappointment to Germany because Germany accepted the armistice because she thought they would respect the fourteen points of Woodrow Wilson that did not show elements of tribulation.

  

Woodrow Wilson`s fourteen points

Woodrow Wilson was a democrat and a professor of political science. He believed in a better world that would be run by democratic principles. For this reason, he left America for Europe so that he would participate in creating a better world. He was the first American president to leave American soil as president. The Americans did not allow their presidents to leave the soil no wonder he was voted out of office as soon as he returned home.

Wilson wrote very outstanding points that were supposed to be the focal area of discussion during the Versailles conference. Some of these points were accepted for implementation while others not. The points that were accepted were later referred to as terms or agreements of the Versailles conference. The points brought forward by Wilson were as follows;

1. End of secret diplomacies. This point was rejected by the members of the conference because they were still interested in such kind of interaction.
2. Absolute freedom of navigation. This point was also rejected. The members still wanted to control what today we call international waters.
3. Equality of trade conditions. This point was also rejected. This was particularly true because members wanted to continue protecting their merchants. In this case, countries were deliberately putting policies that restricted foreign investment in their countries. Wilson wanted this to come to an end.
4. Countries must be disarmed. The big three partially accepted this point. It was a partial acceptance in that it was only Germany that had to disarm. Woodrow Wilson however wanted all countries to disarm. France and Britain singled out Germany only because they wanted to weaken her. For this reason, the armed force for Britain was supposed to have 100000 soldiers only.
5. Right to self-determination. This point was partially accepted in that it was only applicable to the Germans. Arabs and Africans were not allowed.
6. Evacuation of all Russian territories by Germany. This point was completely accepted.
7. Belgium should be completely freed. This point was completely accepted.
8. France should receive back Alsace and Lorrain. This point was adopted.
9. Italy should receive proper national boundaries. This provision was partially accepted.
10. Self-determination for people of Austria Hungary. This point was accepted thereby leading to the formation of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
11. Roman, Serbia and Montenegro to be evacuated and Serbia to be given access to the sea. This point was accepted.
12. Self-determination for the people under the Ottoman Empire. This was adopted.
13. Creation of independent Poland. It was accepted.
14. Formation of an international peace organization. This was adopted.

Apart from the agreements that were made in relation to Wilson`s fourteen points, the big three also agreed to punish Germany. In this scenario, Germany had to accept the war guilty clause and pay reparations for the war, article 231. In 1921, the reparations were paged at £6,600,000,000 pounds. Apart from this, Germany had to lose some of its territories in Europe such as Alsace and Lorrain. She also lost some of her colonies such as Tanzania, togo and Namibia.

 German response to the terms of Versailles peace settlement

1. The Germans regarded the resolutions of the Versailles conference as a Diktat. By diktat they meant that it was just dictated to them. This was indeed true. Germany never defended herself at the conference as she was not asked to represent herself.
2. The Germans also did not look at the terms as binding because they believed that the terms were signed by wrong people. Two representatives of the newly elected Weimer republic that were brought to Versailles to sign the terms on behalf of the government were not the right people to sign. They wanted to terms to be signed by the admirals or generals who led Germany into war.
3. The Germans also complained that the disarmament term was too prohibitive on the side of Germany as compared to other countries. She argued that 100, 000 troops were not enough to keep law and order for Germany especially considering the size of the army of Britain and France. Many historians argue that the German concern was justified as disarmament was only for Germany.
4. Right to determination was very partial as it did not apply to the Germans.
5. The Germans objected the war guilty clause because it looked at Germany as the only country that caused the First World War.  Some historians argue that the victorious powers did this deliberately so that she could be the only country that would pay the reparations.
6. They also objected that the reparations were too high and were considered to be a humiliation. Many critics such as J.M. Keynes argue that the reparations of 6600 million pounds were too high for Germany.
7. The Germans also claimed that they accepted armistice in November 1918 because they had been promised the 14 points of Woodrow Wilson. However this was not a valid objection because they were given the terms in January, 1918 they objected them because they thought they would win the war.

Terms of the Versailles peace treaty

1. The attempt to weaken Germany

The treaty makers agreed that it was necessary to make Germany weak as a way of preventing future wars. This was to be achieved by doing the following things;The Rhineland was to be occupied by the allies for a certain time.A 50km belt on the East Germany was to be kept clear of all military defenses.The Germany army was to be reduced to 100,000 men, a small navy, no air force and no submarines.

2. The Punishment of Germany 

The Saar which was a source of coal for Germany was to be administered by the League of Nations for 15 years. Meanwhile the coal mines were to be given to France.All German colonies to become mandated territories. Germany lost all her pacific Islands and all her sphere of influence in Asia and Africa.Germany must pay for the damage she caused. These were known as reparations. The reparations were to be paid to the allies, mainly in kind, for the property destroyed in occupied lands. For example, they had to give ships for ships destroyed, farm machinery, automotive equipment e.t.c.Alsace and Lorraine which Germany had taken from France was given back to her.Germany had to accept the War Guilt Clause. This was an attempt by allied to place the blame for the war solely on Germany.