History Revision

Aug 1914 – Nov 1918 The cost of WW1 to Britain - $35,334,012,000 (highest of all the allied powers) and 994,138 British people died.
April 1919 Treaty of Versailles – Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war (Clause 231) and pay £6,600 million in reparations. She was forbidden to have submarines or an air force and could only have a navy of six battleships and an Army of just 100,000 men. She also lost territory to Britain and France.
The League of Nations – an international organisation designed to preserve the peace and solve international disputes by arbitration; based on a system of collective security (article 10). 42 countries joined at the start and by the 1930s this became 60. The covenant of the League of Nations was agreed as part of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 held at Versailles – it aimed to stop war, improve people’s lives and jobs, disarm and enforce the Treaty of Versailles). In May 1920, the US Senate voted against Versailles (due to isolationism) and did not join.
Summer 1919 John Maynard Keynes published ‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’ – said that the Treaty of Versailles was ‘economic insanity’ and an example of a ‘Carthaginian Peace’. It sold 60,000 copies in the first 2 months, 100,000 copies in the first 6 months and was translated into 14 languages.
Aug 1919 – 1934 ‘Ten Year Rule’ – British spending was only £102 million on defence in 1932, compared to £760 million in 1919 – 1920.
March 1921 Anglo-Soviet trade agreement – stopped the blockade of Soviet Russia to resume trade with its people.
In the 1920s Germany had 50% greater population than France and 4 times France’s heavy industry
Between 1920 and 1922 there were no fewer 23 summit conferences held to discuss the reparations problem.
March 1921 – 1922 Washington Disarmament Conference – set Capital ships to the ratio: USA 5; Britain