Ragon

1(b) ‘Hitler was able to carry
out his expansionist foreign policy because the League of Nations was too weak.’
Do you agree? Explain your answer. (13m)

I agree to the extent that the League of Nations were
unable to stop Hitler, but I do not agree that it was entirely the League’s
fault.

The League of Nations was created
at the end of World War One as “an organisation of all the major nations in the
world which would solve problems in the future by talking, and not by war. However
the League was only effective when all the countries contributed, otherwise it
is all talk and no action. The main reasons why the league was weak was because
of circumstances, the three great powers were not members of the League. Furthermore,
even thought Japan was a member of the League, it refused to treat all races
equal, this made the league look like the Europeans ran it, as most of its members
were from Europe. There was no army or police force to ensure that all
countries would obey the League. All it could do was to impose economic sanctions
against a country.

At that time when Germany carried
out its expansionist foreign policy, Britain was recovering from the Great
Depression and was unwilling to stand up against Hitler. Britain was also using
the appeasement policy to prevent war that will spill any British blood. After
the First World War, Britain and France suffered large numbers of casualties. Throughout
France and Britain, there were people who felt that the Treaty of Versailles
was too harsh on Germany. Because of their mindset, they did not protest when
Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles. When Germany marched its troops into
Rhineland, these people said that the Germans were entering their “own backyard”
and did noting to stop it.

When Hitler saw the reluctance of
Britain and France to go to war against him, and the uselessness of the League
of Nations, he believed that he could redraw the map of Germany without being
attacked.

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