British Governments' Disarmament and International Harmony During the 1920's

After WW2, Britain’s domestic life was in upheaval and most people wanted peace and to return to normal, the war also brought on an urge to broaden Britain’s wealth. This meant the new Conservative government was expected to

The era that preceded the formation of the Soviet Union was earmarked with social unrest, famine, and failed governments. After many struggles, many smaller soviet republics joined to form a large conglomerate nation, known as the Soviet Union in 1922. Vladimir Lenin, leader at the time, replaced the failing capitalist government with a communist government. . At the end of WWII, most of Eastern and Central Europe’s countries were being occupied by the soviet army. They came to be controlled by the Soviet government and pulled back behind an “iron Curtain”. Winston Churchill’s famed Iron curtain remark refers to the countries that fell under the spell of the Soviet Union and shut out the western world ways of capitalism. The countries of

They sent 409,500 vehicles, 43% of all soviet tyres, 56% of rails and 1900 locomotives and 58% of high octane fuel and 200 fighter planes, 4 million pairs of boots as well as large quantities of rubber, tin and cloth, respectively. This supports the scheme was a ‘sacrifice’ as some of the supplies sent to the USSR negatively impacted Britain’s supplies. Some including Stalin and the USSR criticised the level of assistance given. Overy argues against criticisms of the supplies by showing that the post-war soviet viewpoint that assistance ‘could have no decisive influence’ and concludes that without the aid, the Russian economy would have been ‘severely hampered’. This seems to dismiss claims that the West had neglected Russia’s needs. He argues that even though western aid accounted for only ‘4% of soviet weapons’ the impact was far greater as ‘food, raw materials, machinery and industrial equipment’ were donated. Both Gilbert and Overy are British historians who would have been biased in favour of the wests position and may have been sceptical of Russia’s claims as both historians were raised during the cold war. But when looking at the views in the official ‘soviet history’ of World War Two, the publication’s context should be considered: the Russians had a vested interest in misrepresenting events due to their post-war situation. After the Second World War the Cold War arose and the USSR were keen to distance

The Canadian foreign policy of the 1930s has been a subject of scholarly inquiry for quite some time .In this paper, we compare the readings of Norman Hillmer,"Defence and Ideology: The Anglo-Canadian Military Alliance in the 1930's "Eayrs, James " A low Dishonest Decade" : Aspects of Canadian External Policy, 1931-1939.

Russia was upset that the US had not opened a second front in Germany, considering they had been attacked by Germany at least twice in 40 years. Russia argued that not opening a second front caused millions of casualties of Russian soldiers. They also felt that the Lend Lease Act, which provided military aid to nations fighting in WWII, had favored Britain and France over them. When the war ended, war material shipments from America to the USSR ceased immediately after the surrender of Germany. Russian politicians in Moscow, pointed to this as proof that the US would not support the USSR post-war. Another cause of tension was Russia’s hatred of capitalism, which was the basis of the US economic system. The Soviet Union accused the U.S. of supporting and interfering in the politics of other

History has shown in what way after the First World War, the Canadian government has responded to several communism uprisings events. The Winnipeg General Strike is one example, which took place in 1919. It was a labour action taken by the workers for better wages and working conditions, for recognition of their unions and for the principle of collective bargaining. Workers were becoming frustrated with the Labour and Trade Unions and united it to make One Big Union. This resulted in a strike that occurred

For many decades, Russia was isolated from other part of the world politically and geographically. During the First World War, Russia’s industrialization was progressing fairly, as they implemented an education reform program to promote literacy among people. The program would have been successful if it was continued without obstacles. They also implemented a program named Stolypin in order to modernize the agriculture, which was bringing successful changes to the country; however, the Stolypin program was not completed because of problems such as War, the absent of a proper parliament institutions ,the corruption and excess of power among the secret police. Ethnicity in Russia groups was also among the problems as the Russian empire was becoming anarchical and it was getting difficult to maintain it due to pressure form the population who felt that their basic need were not being responded while the monarchy was having an extravagant lifestyle (Kennan,1). By 1917, most Russian were now convinced about the fact that Czar Nicholas II was not good enough to help revive the economy in Russia. Also, Corruption in the government was still untouched and the king had already dissolved the Duma because they did not agree to his will. The economy was still backward, without jobs, frustrated people were tired of the conditions that they lived

Historians argue that the 1917 Russian Revolution represents a major turning point in world history. Two specific pieces of evidence that support this argument is that the Revolution led to the spread of communism with the formation of the USSR and the emergence of Russia as a world power. Both of the pieces support the argument. The Revolution led to the formation of the USSR, otherwise known as the world’s first nation to base its government on the teachings and writings of Karl Marx. This event would not only be groundbreaking for Russia, but the entire globe. The formation of a communist nation meant a new battle was about to start -- the battle between communism and capitalism. The formation of the USSR would directly lead to the Cold

This would mean that wartime coalition ministers from all major parties were far more willing to cooperate with each other. Paul Addison (1975) argued that pre-war and wartime conditions led to a unique situation in post war Britain which led to a coming together of thinking in politics and society. This was strongly influenced by the Beveridge Report’s ‘Five Giants’. As mentioned before, this cooperation was also aided by the fact that fears of an extreme Labour government in 1945 had been disproved, meaning that key policy makers in the Conservative Government could be seen to be ‘One Nation Tories’; keen to build on national cooperation to maintain and essential post war consensus. Another fundamental aspect of post war consensus was the idea of the necessity of a ‘Big Government’; many Conservatives were now convinced of the government intervention in social and economic policies, resulting in them being far more in tune with public opinion and so accepted Labour's welfare policies such as Keynesian economics. With regard to Winston Churchill, his government were seen to indeed follow Keynesian economics, but

The Russian history before and during the Second World War affected the policy of containment because the Russians wanted to establish security and expand their territories. The policy of containment was a policy of the United States to use vast strategies that can prevent the spread of communism. This policy helped the Soviets with its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. In 1826-1828, the Second Russo-Persian War emerges and Russia extends its rule over the Caucasus mountains. In 1853, the Crimean war breaks out between Russia and France and concludes the Treaty of Paris of 1856,...... Russia established political borders with the Qing Empire and Japan. Russia gained positions on the Baltic Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Russia wanted to seize territory for ambitions of private officials and religious conviction. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Romanovs developed an absolutist system of government. However, Russia wanted to become an Empire for the conquest of Siberia, for vast territory and richness in fur. Incorporation of the fertile land in Ukraine, and victory in a prolonged war with Sweden. Russia established many expansionist fronts southwest to the Black Sea, south into the Caucasus and Turkestan, and east into Manchuria where there success depended on annexing territories. This led Russia to invade the Ottoman territories and Walachia in 1853. The United States committed itself to the policy of containment to prevent any

Churchill then created the Moscow Declaration which kept the US, UK, USSR, and China from allying themselves with Nazi Germany. Then in July, two Jewish escapees went to Churchill and explained the concentration camps to him and the true fighting back from Britain began (Bbc.co.uk, 2017 par. 4). British citizens were saviors during the war because they truly felt bad for the victims of the Holocaust and proved it with their well planned and effective attacks on the Axis powers. Although the British had their fair share of wins, after the war Britain was no longer seen as the great superpower it was and was replaced by the USA on the world radar.

To the Bolsheviks disappointment, the new government kept Russian involvement in The Great War and the two front war stayed persistent for Germany. With Lenin seeking passage into Russia and the government showing no intention of letting him, it wasn’t until Germany’s financial support that he able to sneak into the country via train.

It was in the weary war years of Mackenzie King in the 1930’s when the development of Canadian foreign policy started to take shape. Before that period Canada did not have an independent foreign policy with no international presence whatsoever and Canadian people saw themselves as part of the British dynasty. The first period in the formulation of Canadian foreign policy was in fact the ‘absence’ of policy and it was World War 1 which gave birth to foreign policy. Sixty thousand Canadians were lost which left Canadians wary of international development especially when there were very few military objectives. Canada had minimal control over her own troops and negotiations with the British were a challenge. Our troops were under control of the British and negotiating with the British was challenging. Looking back, there was almost a sense of absurdity about WW1. Therefore, Canadians came out of WW1 with a stronger than ever desire for independence. The Statute of Westminster, 1931, was the last of the Imperial Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain applicable to all dominions. It granted Canada,

The foreign policy failures of British governments in the years 1959 to 1964 were due to a lack of realism about Britain’s position in the post-war world

At the very end of World War 2, the British people is craving for a change in the economic and social policies of their country. In fact, the Great Depression and pre-war Conservative governments were very disappointing : Chamberlain's (from 1937 to 1940) and Churchill's (from 1940 to 1945) governments were practically only based on foreign policy (because of the war and the progressive degradation of the British Empire), and were considered responsible for not enough preparing Britain to war ; moreover, the Great Depression's various governments (Labour as well as Tories) were blamed because they did not assure the people's, and particularly the working-class'