Weak Nations
History: Cambridge International GCSE The Twentieth Century (Option B), topic 3.2.5
A Weak International System in the 1930s
During the 1930s, Hitler was able to gain power due to the weakness of the international system.
The absence of the US
- The US was driven by an isolationist policy.
- This meant it deliberately did not get involved in European politics.
- E.g. the US did not join the League of Nations.
The absence of the USSR
- During the 1930s, Stalin was consolidating his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
- It largely stayed out of European affairs.
League of Nations
- The League of Nations was a weak and ineffective peacekeeping body.
- The League of Nations did not have a military body to enforce its decisions.
A lack of united action
- Some historians say Britain, France, and the USSR didn’t work together.
- If they had, they might have stopped Hitler from invading Poland.
- and therefore WW2
- This outlook is arguably naive.
- This outlook doesn’t take the contemporary dynamics into account.
- Britain refused to cooperate with a communist state.
Weak international structures
- Overy (1989): “What really permitted Hitler to go further, to ‘accelerate the pace’, was the fundamental weakness of the international structure into which he burst.”
Test yourself on Weak Nations
What was the international peacekeeping body in the 1920s and 1930s?