The League of Nations

A conflict of such level of importance had never happened before. This is, World War I. After this disastrous event, many leaders of that time thought it was necessary to have an international organization that would have the task of preventing this type of catastrophe by maintaining peace and resolving international conflicts when these occurred. Woodrow Wilson claimed his Fourteen Points should serve as the basis for this organization. So the League of Nations was formed in Geneva, Switzerland, since this country hadn’t fought in the War; consequently, it was neutral.

Its constitution contemplated collective security and arbitration as a way of resolving dispute peacefully. If any country opted for war, the League had three ways of controlling its behavior:
- Call on the states in the League’s Assembly to discuss the problem in order and peace and reach a decision.
- Warn the attacker nation that she would need to leave another nation’s territory or face the consequences.
- If the states in argument didn’t listen to the Assembly’s decision, the League could begin economic sanctions, so the aggressor would have to do as the League said (angry people in the aggressor state would force the government to accept the League’s decision). If this didn’t work, physical sanctions could be used. The League could use military force, although it had actually no armed forces available in its disposal, and no member of the League had to provide them in order to join. Plus, most of the countries were devastated after World War I. As a result, it could not threaten anybody and any country would be aware of this limitation.
Some negative aspects of the League of Nations:
- The United States, the most powerful nation, did not join the League, so this blew its reputation.
- Germany was not allowed to the League because one of the punishments in the Treaty of Versailles was not to be considered as a member of any international organization. This was negative in the sense that the League could not apply any of its sanctions to Germany.
- Russia was not allowed either, given that its communist government scared Western Europe
Three of the world’s greatest nations did not support the League. Britain and France, the two most powerful members, were suffering financially and militarily after the War and neither of them wanted to get in any fights that did not involve Western Europe.
Failures and successes of this League can be considered when the League could or could not avoid wars. So while it was valid, the League of Nations managed to avoid some wars and others it couldn’t. The League of Nations succeeded noticing wars in the border disputes between Bulgaria-Greece (1925), Iraq-Turkey (1925-26) and Poland-Lithuania (1927).
In a social level, teams were sent to the Third World to dig fresh water wells, the Health Organization started a campaign to eradicate leprosy; women’s status, refugee work and child slave labor were improved, drugs were controlled, famine was relieved, but most important, problems were being informed, so people knew they existed and should do something about it.

This was just the start for an organization as the United Nations to be created and try ti bring to the world peace.

1929: Vatican City becomes a sovereign state, the Lateran Treaty between the Vatican and Mussolini

It is important to know about the Church’s history because of its significance on those times and nowadays. In the XIX century, a problem occurred between Italy and the Vatican City that later in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty is solved, representing a benefit for the Vatican, because the treaty restored all their power and with this, the Vatican is independent
The Vatican is what is known as an ecclesiastical state ruled by the Pope. It is a walled, sovereign territory located in Rome, Italy. It has a population of 800 individuals, and is an area of approximately 440,000 m². The Vatican City is considered the main Episcopal See of about 1.2 billion Catholics around the world.
Italy, before the XX century, was divided in many independent states as Naples, Modena, the Papal States, the duchies of Parma, the kingdom Sardinian-Piedmontese and Tuscany. But then, Italy unified as a country and for that they take some of the pile of lands that belonged to the Vatican. The Italian state was probably “invading” the Vatican because it was an independent state like the others, and their lands supposedly cannot be taken. But the Italian state took lands from the Vatican not only for the unification, also they take their lands because Garibaldi -the leader of the Italian unification- did not agree with the Church’s power, and, consequently, by having so much lands the Church had a lot of material power. The ones that supported the Vatican in this “invasion” were the Swiss; from there comes the Pope’s Swiss Guard.
After the unification, there were two oppositions: the unified Italian states, and the Vatican/Church that weren’t in the capacity to fight with them.

In 1929, Benito Mussolini, the prime minister of Italy, signed, along with Pope Pius XI, the Lateran Treaty. This treaty gives the Pope the power of the Vatican again, making it an independent state once more. But, it was not the same as in Middle Ages or now, because when the Pope gets the power again, it is known that, effectively, the Vatican was not occupying the same important position that used to have in that time, -when the Pope has control of all Rome- because there were other places inside Rome that were more significant –for people that lived there- than this clerical City.

That’s why the Vatican has their own head of State, that is the Pope, and the Pope delegates his government functions to the State’s Secretary. The Vatican has their own diplomatics –that are the Apostolic Nuncios of the Holy See- as any other country.
It’s important to know why the Vatican is an independent state inside Italy. This would help you to understand and know better this religion, and also get some fundamental knowledge that would help you in any occasion of your life.

1929: Wall Street cash – The Great Depression

In October, 1929; one of the worst economic crisis happened. The New York stock market collapsed. It’s important to know about this economic crisis that overwhelmed the world.
In the years before the crash, it’s known that USA’s economy was growing very fast. It was considered the most important and efficient manufacturing country in the world. Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Soviet Union and Great Britain produce less things that the ones that USA could produce by itself.
In 1929, the incomes of USA started declining. The most successful factories were the most affected. Also, the prices for the exportation of some products started waning and people start suffering from the economic crisis. Most of the world’s economy depended from the USA’s economy, so that’s why this crash is very catastrophic and important.
The principal consequences that the depression bring:
- European businesses went bankrupt
- Africa’s raw materials sale declined
- Declines in price and exportation of Latin American products.
- Declines the price of wool in Australia and New Zealand, and the price of Canadian grain falls.
- The Japanese silk trade also declines.
This depression affected principally Germany. In that time, Germany was in a little political crisis with Weimar, and with the crash, everything got worst. Also, this depression helped Adolf Hitler develop his political party, the Nazi Party. Because of the crisis, the people were unfocused on what they need to do, while Hitler was enlarging his Party gaining seats in the Parliament. Also, people weren’t happy with democracy so they start supporting Communism.
Great Britain suffered drastically because it is a country that always had a good economy, and with the great depression the levels of productivity were decreasing a lot. For example, the ship building buckled. Also, in comparison, with the crash Britain now was producing only 7% of what they used to produce in 1914.
One country that didn’t suffer a lot with the Great Depression was France. France was just organizing their economy and they didn’t depend of USA’s economy, because they were first stabling and investing money to develop their country well and then they would focus on a better economical progress. Also, throughout the years, this crash affected France’s economy someway because the trade levels were decreasing and not so much countries were buying their products.
Is important to know the principal crisis that the world suffered because this would help you understand all the history. It also makes you think that a considerable crisis related to money also brings very bad political consequences for the future. Everything’s connected, and is important to make people know why things happened like the way they happened.

Lives of Women after World War I

Between the years 1919 and 1939, many changes happened, especially because of the World War I consequences. One of these, were the ones within the lives of women because it conceded them a new role on society. After the war, women were somehow more open to live; from using short and comfortable dresses, loose hair and frequenting cafes or drive cars to be able to vote freely for the first time. That way, women's emancipation became one of the greatest facts of the period between world wars.
Many European countries granted the right to vote for women in the years following the First World War. This was the first great triumph of the emancipation of women, already began in the late nineteenth century. This emancipation had three basic objectives: the right to education, vocational training and legal equality for married women.
Some countries were gradually modifying some aspects within the laws given like in the cases of private property, and secondary school teachings because sometimes they were only for the women of the bourgeoisie. Likewise, being a teacher or governess, became a prestigious and valued activity for everyone.
In the struggle for women's voting rights, the suffrage movement had an important role. The most important and radical one were the English, who appeared in 1851 when a group of women held a public petition in Sheffield advocating for the women to vote freely. This attempt was the beginning of a long way in seeking support from everyone, especially from the parliamentarians, in which years later in 1861, when submitting a petition to the House of Lords, it would be flatly denied.
In 1903, the campaign for female suffrage got intense with the founding of the Women's Social and Political Union, sponsored by Pankhurst and her daughters. Tired of so many negative responses, the suffragettes went on to direct the fight and adopted the tactic of interrupting speeches by ministers and presented at meetings of the Liberal Party to put forward their demands. In addition, it also turned to sabotage, the burning of shops and public establishments and private homes attacks on leading politicians and parliamentarians, including also the traditional methods of advertising such as rallies and manifestations.
This is how, women achieved after a series of years, the liberty of expression and could vote freely and for the first time and could leave behind quotes such as “women are not that intelligent as men for understanding politics” or “politics would isolate women from domestic duties”.

The Expansion of the Crisis

In the same way that, between 1922 and 1929, U.S. investments and loans were the engine of European prosperity, the U.S. crisis in the 1930s, dragged many countries in Europe and around the world. The connections of the international economy made the U.S. internal situation had an impact on other countries in the world but especially Europe.
The mechanisms for expansion of the crisis were many: first of all, the decline of prices in American products put companies around the world in serious difficulties because they could not compete with them. Second, the decline in U.S. demand for imports fell sharply, hurting exporters from other countries around the world. And finally, the problems of American banks caused a dramatic decline in their lending and investments in Europe. In addition, U.S. investors asked many of its capital back, stimulating the extension of the banking crisis in Europe.
The banking crisis was then, the first "symptom" of the global recession. Although some European banks were forced to close in 1930, the situation worsened in May 1931 with the collapse of the Creditanstalt, Austria's largest bank. The interbank lending crisis spread to the entire financial system, affecting especially Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Germany. But the severeness of the recession was very different from country to country, although they had all cut their production and seen the increase unemployment. For example, in Germany, people had been living since the end of the Great War a critical situation but it worsened when its inflation rose to very high levels, industrial production decreased and unemployment affected a large crowd of workers.
In the other hand, in the UK, the recession was not that severe, but the impossibility of maintaining the pound as a reference currency did break the international monetary system. The British government had to suspend gold convertibility of pounds in September 1931, causing 30% more devaluation in currency.
Moreover, France was an example of a country known as the "golden block", which kept their exchange rates. By keeping unchanged the price of their currencies while others devalued, the country lost competitiveness in the international market.
Finally, the main cause of the decline in trade was the rise of protectionism in major countries. The adoption of protective tariffs by the United States in 1930 was considered a declaration of trade war, which was answered by most governments with more protectionist measures. Consequently, each country’s attempts to solve their problems beside the rest, the deep reduction in the demand and a trade confrontation between Europe and the United States, sank the international trade.
In conclusion, the decline in trade implied the expansion of the crisis around countries which exported food and raw materials from Latin America and Asia, where sales fell dramatically. So, the decline in their loans made impossible to return the money to the U.S. bank and forced them to reduce their demand for industrialized countries. That way, once again the crisis nurtured the crisis.