We explain what the International Disarmament Conference was between 1932 and 1933. In addition, what were its objectives and results.
What was the International Disarmament Conference?
The International Disarmament Conference was a convention that was held in 1932 and 1933, with the objective of create a plan to limit military power and stop the increase in tensions that were occurring in the context of the interwar period . The conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, and was attended by delegates from more than 60 countries.
During the 1920s, from the Nations Society it was promotedIn the idea that the powers should limit their military development to prevent problems between countries with violence and become uncontrollable wars (such as World War I). In this context, all member countries were called to participate in a conference to discuss how to establish limitations to the military resources of each country.
However, the conference managed to meet only in the 1930s, when the international situation of the interwar period was increasingly tense. The International Disarmament Conference ended focusing its debates specifically around the disarmament of Germany, where Adolf Hitler had assumed as a chancellor and was promoting an aggressive policy of national rearme.
The International Disarmament Conference of 1932-1933 was a failure . France and the United Kingdom tried to maintain military restrictions on Germany and, consequently, Hitler ordered their ambassadors to retire from the conference. In the following years, all nations continued to invest in the development of the quantity and quality of war technology and, before the end of the decade, World War II began.
The historical context
Since the end of the 19th century, the main powers had invested a large number of their resources in the growth of the quantity and quality of war technology. World War I (1914-1918) demonstrated the devastating consequences of these policies and the conflicts generated in the short and medium term.
In that context, during the 1920s different initiatives to prevent it from giving a military conflict again with such a level of destruction . The Treaty of Versailles (1920) limited the war capacity of Germany (declared guilty of the First World War).
The creation of the Society of Nations aimed to open diplomacy, arbitration and international cooperation channels, to prevent conflicts between countries from reaching the armed struggle.
However, during the first years, Germany was prohibited from participating in the Society of Nations. In 1925, the Locarno Pact that established the inviolability of the borders between France and Germany was signed (the border rape had been one of the causes of World War I) and the demilitarization of Rhineland (the border area of both powers). With the fulfillment of these conditions, the German Empire was admitted as a member of the Nations Society, in 1926.
Since 1926, The Nations Society created a specific commission to work for the international disarmament . It was composed of delegates from the United States, Germany and the Soviet Union. Delegates sought to generate agreements and establish possible limitations to arms development. However, the German issue became the main conflict to address.
Versailles’s treaty had greatly limited the warlike capacity of the German Empire. This left the country in great inequality of conditions compared to the rest of the European powers. When admitted within the Nations Society, Germany sought to recognize the injustice of this inequality and its need to balance war forces. Before the Disarmament Commission, the German delegates requested that arms equity be for the decrease in war resources of the rest of the powers or permission to expand German resources.
What was discussed at the disarmament conference?
When the disarmament conference was convened in 1932, the German issue imposed on the rest of the issues to be addressed. At that time, In Germany internal policy had been radicalized and Nazism was on the rise . The new delegates claimed for the German rearmament and, when they were denied, they retired from the negotiations. This paralyzed any agreement and stressed international relations.
France, the United Kingdom and the United States offered a commitment to renounce the use of force and, together with Italy, They signed an agreement to generate a system that would guarantee the security of Germany . With these proposals, the German delegates agreed to resume the negotiations and the conference was summoned again for 1933.
However, Hitler had assumed power in Germany and his position on rearme became increasingly aggressive . On the other hand, the different powers began to have increasingly divergent postures. Italy wanted to limit the influence of the Society of the Nations and create an exclusively European organization, which allows it to raise its prestige in opposition to the other non -European powers. France ended up denying to ratify the proposed agreement with the other powers to guarantee the security of Germany.
In this context, the powers proposed to maintain war restrictions for Germany. In response, Germany retired from the conference, resigned from its membership in the Nations Society and began a national rearme policy .
Results of the International Disarmament Conference
The International Disarmament Conference failed in its attempt to limit the war resources of the powers. The Nations Society also failed in its objective of generating diplomatic routes for conflict resolution and preventing opposite interests from leading to the outbreak of war.
In 1939, the German troops invaded Poland and began World War II.
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References
- McDougall, Walter A. (2023). “World Disarms Conference. ” British Encyclopedia.
https://www.britannica.com/ - Steiner, Ha (1933). The Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 168 (1), 212–219
