Collective security and appeasement (1933–1940)
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Question
Define collective security.
Answer
The idea that peace is kept by all League members acting together against any aggressor, using moral pressure, sanctions, or force as a last resort.
Question
Define appeasement.
Answer
Making concessions to an aggressive power to satisfy its grievances and avoid war; the British policy toward Hitler in the 1930s.
Question
What was the Manchurian Crisis (1931–33) and why did it matter?
Answer
Japan seized Manchuria; the League condemned it but took no real action, exposing collective security as toothless.
Question
What was the Abyssinian Crisis (1935–36)?
Answer
Mussolini's Italy invaded Abyssinia; the League's weak sanctions (no oil, Suez open) marked the death blow to collective security.
Question
What was the Hoare-Laval Pact (1935)?
Answer
A secret British-French plan to give Mussolini most of Abyssinia; when leaked it destroyed the League's credibility.
Question
What was the Munich Agreement (1938)?
Answer
Britain, France, Germany and Italy agreed to give Germany the Sudetenland; the high point of appeasement.
Question
What ended appeasement and when?
Answer
Hitler's occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia (Prague, March 1939) broke the Munich promise; Britain then guaranteed Poland.
Question
List the motives for appeasement (SAME GIVE).
Answer
Slaughter of WWI remembered, Armed forces unready, Money short, Empire overstretched, German grievances seen as fair, Ideological fear of USSR, Voters wanted peace, Earn time to rearm.
Question
Why was the Suez Canal left open during the Abyssinian Crisis?
Answer
Britain feared closing it would push Italy toward Hitler; this national-interest choice shows why collective security failed.
Question
What is the historiographical debate over appeasement?
Answer
Was it a realistic policy that bought time to rearm given weakness, or a cowardly blunder that rewarded aggression and emboldened Hitler?
Question
Compare collective security and appeasement.
Answer
Collective security = all states confront an aggressor together (failed over Abyssinia). Appeasement = negotiate concessions directly (peaked at Munich).
Question
What was the Polish Guarantee (1939)?
Answer
A British-French promise to defend Poland, marking the shift from appeasement to deterrence; war followed Germany's invasion in September 1939.
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German and Italian expansion (1933–1940)
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