World Disarmament Conference: Difference between revisions
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#REDIRECT [[Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments]] |
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{{Morefootnotes|date=December 2018}} |
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{{See also|Conference on disarmament (disambiguation)}} |
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[[File:World Disarmament Conference Low.jpg|thumb|End of conference, [[David Low (cartoonist)|David Low]], 1937.]] |
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The '''Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments''' of 1932–1934 (sometimes '''World Disarmament Conference''' or '''Geneva Disarmament Conference''') was a failed effort by member states of the [[League of Nations]], together with the [[United States]], to actualize the ideology of [[disarmament]]. It took place in the Swiss city of [[Geneva]], 1932 to 1934.<ref>Philip John Noel-Baker, ''First World Disarmament Conference and Why It Failed'' (1979)</ref> |
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== Background == |
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The first effort at international arms limitation was made at the [[Hague Conferences]] of 1901 and 1907, which had failed in their primary objective. Although many contemporary commentators (and [[Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles]]) had blamed the outbreak of the [[First World War]] on the war guilt of Germany, historians writing in the 1930s began to emphasize the quick arms race preceding 1914. Further, all the major powers except the [[United States|US]] had committed themselves to disarmament in both the [[Treaty of Versailles]] and the [[Covenant of the League of Nations]]. A substantial international non-governmental campaign to promote disarmament also developed in the 1920s and early 1930s. |
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A preparatory commission was initiated by the League in 1925; by 1931, there was sufficient support to hold a conference, which duly began under the chairmanship of former [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|British Foreign Secretary]] [[Arthur Henderson]]. The motivation behind the talks can be summed up by an extract from the message President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] sent to the conference: "If all nations will agree wholly to eliminate from possession and use the weapons which make possible a successful attack, defences automatically will become impregnable and the frontiers and independence of every nation will become secure."<ref>United States Department of State, ''Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy 1931—1941'' (United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1943) pp. 180—181</ref> |
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== Negotiations == |
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{{Expand section|date=December 2018}} |
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The talks were beset by a number of difficulties from the outset. Germany immediately demanded to be allowed 'military equality' or it would leave. The French, for their part, were equally insistent that German military inferiority was their only insurance from future conflict as serious as they had endured in the First World War. Britain and the U.S. were unprepared to offer the additional security commitments that France requested in exchange for limitation of French armaments. After 10 months of negotiations, France, Britain and Italy announced, Germany and the other States disarmed by the Versailles Treaty should be insured equality in a system which gives security to all nations."<ref> Davies, 2004.</ref> The parties could not agree on what constituted "offensive" and "defensive" weapons. |
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The talks broke down and [[Hitler]] withdrew Germany from both the Conference and the [[League of Nations]] in October 1933. The 1930s had proved far too self-interested an international period to accommodate multilateral action in favour of pacifism.{{clarify|date=December 2018}} |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
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==Further reading== |
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* Davies, Thomas,. "France and the World Disarmament Conference of 1932–34." ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' 15.4 (2004): 765-780. [http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/19047/3/Davies%20Article.pdf online] |
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* Noel-Baker, Philip John. ''First World Disarmament Conference and Why It Failed'' (1979) |
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* Temperley, A.C. ''The Whispering Gallery Of Europe'' (1938), highly influential account [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.216023 online] |
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* BUCKLEY, Thomas, ''The United States and the Washington Conference, 1921-1922'', The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1970. |
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* FANNING, Richard Ward, ''Peace and Disarmament, Naval Rivalry and Arms Control, 1922-1933'', The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 1995. |
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* GOOCH, John, ''Mussolini and his generals : the armed forces and fascist foreign policy, 1922-1940'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York, 2007. |
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* KITCHING, Carolyn, ''Britain and the Geneva Disarmament Conference'', Palgrave MacMillan, Houndmills, New York, 2003 |
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* O’NEILL, Robert John, ''The German Army and the Nazi Party, 1933-1939'', Cassel, London, 1966. |
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* PEDEN, George, ''British rearmament and the treasury : 1932-1939'', Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1979. |
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== External links == |
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* [https://www.americanforeignrelations.com/A-D/Arms-Control-and-Disarmament-Between-the-world-wars-1919-1939.html "Arms Control and Disarmament - Between the world wars, 1919–1939" American Foreign Relations website] (''accessed 2018-12-27'') |
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{{Interwar Naval Arms Limitation}} |
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[[Category:League of Nations]] |
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[[Category:Arms control]] |
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[[Category:Diplomatic conferences in Switzerland]] |
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[[Category:20th-century diplomatic conferences]] |
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[[Category:1932 in international relations]] |
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[[Category:1933 in international relations]] |
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[[Category:1934 in international relations]] |
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[[Category:1932 conferences]] |
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[[Category:1933 conferences]] |
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[[Category:1934 conferences]] |
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