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Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details EMPIRE and EUROPE: A REASSESSMENT of BRITISH FOREIGN POLICIES 1919-1925 Christopher Thomas Crook Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Sussex October 2017 ii I hereby declare that this thesis has not and will not be submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree: Signature: [Christopher Thomas Crook] ORCID iD 0000-0002-8515-0491 iii Empire and Europe: A Reassessment of British Foreign Policies 1919-1925 Summary This thesis is a reassessment of British foreign policies from the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 until the Treaties of Locarno in 1925. It initially argues that much of the historiography of this period is unbalanced in its judgement of the different governments because it views them from a teleological perspective that fails to differentiate this period from the inter-war years as a whole. The problem with this approach is that the rise of Hitler and the causes of the Second World War became so dominant in such analyses that most issues within these years have only been judged within that wider context. The thesis argues that an assessment of the foreign policies between 1919 and 1925 must take greater account of all the diplomatic, military and economic difficulties in the years after the Great War, and also recognise the degree of stability achieved by the end of 1925. The difficulties included the expansion of the British Empire as a result of Versailles, ongoing financial and economic problems including wartime debts, the complexities of the Irish negotiations, and the major European issues that had not been resolved at Versailles. Britain was still a great power and its foreign policies are analysed both as an imperial power, including the newly acquired territories in the Middle East, and as a major European power. After an analysis of primary and secondary sources, it is argued that despite all the difficulties, and the seeds of long-term decline in imperial matters, British foreign policies contributed to greater stability in international affairs by the end of 1925. This is especially true of the achievements at Locarno in respect of Germany’s western borders and in establishing Germany as an equal diplomatic partner. There were also no obvious new diplomatic hostages to fortune. Whether Britain and other powers could build on this greater stability after 1925 is a different issue, but that should not detract from recognition of the achievements during these six years. iv Acknowledgements In thanking my supervisors, I accept that it is unusual to have to thank five different supervisors, admittedly over seven years. I realise that the first three all moved on to ‘greater things’ but while thanking Eugene Michael, Saul Dubow, Paul Betts and Clive Webb, my very special thanks are to Stephen Burman who took over during my fourth year and was a great supervisor and gave me continual academic and personal support. My thanks also go to the staff at the libraries of both the University of Sussex and the National Archives at Kew for their professional help. I must thank my wife Margaret for all her support and patience over the ten years I have been working on my M.A. and D. Phil. at Sussex, and our sons Jonathan and Andrew for their different computer and historical support. However, this thesis is dedicated to our beloved teenage grand- children, Katie, James and Holly. Their great-grandfather, my father, was killed in Tunisia in November 1942 during the Second World War; this thesis is dedicated to the three of them, in the hope that the international diplomats of the 2020s and 2030s provide greater longer- term stability for them, and their generation, than the diplomats of the totality of the inter-war years provided for my parents and their generation. v Contents: Page Introduction, Methodology and Historiography 1 - Scope of the Thesis - The Significance of the Years 1919 to 1925 - How to Measure the Success of the Governments - The Role of the Individual in Foreign Policy - The Use of Primary Source Material - The Use of Secondary Sources - The Structure of the Thesis Chapter One Continuities and Discontinuities: The Background to These Years 39 - Edwardian Britain - The Great War - Peace Negotiations in Paris - Ireland Chapter Two Domestic Influences on Foreign Policies 59 - Party Political Differences - Economic Constraints - Military Constraints Chapter Three Global Challenges 85 - The United States - Russia - The British Imperial Role - The Suez Canal and India - New Responsibilities in the Middle East vi - Dominion Developments, especially related to Canada Chapter Four The Washington Naval Conference 115 Chapter Five European Stability 126 - The League of Nations - France: Britain’s Wartime Ally - Germany: Britain’s Wartime Enemy - Poland within Eastern Europe Chapter Six The European Road to Locarno: 1923-1925 158 - 1923…A Turning Point? - 1924 : The Dawes Report and the London and Geneva Conferences - The Twelve Months Leading to Locarno - The Locarno Conference Chapter Seven Unfinished Business: 1926 and Beyond 181 Chapter Eight Conclusions 193 Bibliography 200 1 Introduction, Methodology and Historiography ‘This country has a double status. In the first place it is an integral part of Europe just as much as is France or Germany; secondly it is the centre and nucleus of a world-wide confederation, the other members of which are the Dominions.’1 Scope of the Thesis This thesis is an attempt to reassess the conduct and success of British foreign policy between 1919 and 1925. It is an exercise that raises three preliminary tasks. The first is to justify why this period has been chosen; the second concerns the definition of success as the criterion against which to assess the conduct of policy, and the third is the methodological discussion about the ability of individuals, in this case, of politicians, diplomats or civil servants to affect the policy decisions. In this Introduction these three issues will be addressed in turn, followed by a discussion of the sources for this thesis, both primary and secondary. This will involve a review of the relevant literature and an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses and suitability of these sources in relation to the objectives of the thesis. The Introduction concludes with an outline of the structure of the succeeding chapters of the thesis. 1From the writings of James Headlam-Morley, academic historian and classicist, and a temporary member of the Foreign Office, including the Paris Conference. FO 371/11064/W1252/9/98, cited by Erik Goldstein in Michael L. Dockerill and Brian J. C. McKercher (eds.), Diplomacy and World Power: Studies in British Foreign Policy 1890-1950 (Cambridge: CUP, 1996), p.121. 2 The Significance of the Years 1919 to 1925: Historical research projects may be periodised in a variety of ways. The critical factor in determining periodisation is how it relates to the objectives of the research. To take one relevant example, the ‘inter-war years’ is a commonly used period in twentieth century historiography; it is typically defined in British history as the years from 1918 or 1919 to 1939 or 1940, and it has become a standard period for diplomatic, military, political and economic history. The problem with this definition is that histories of this period have taken as their primary objective an explanation of the causes and events which led to the rise of Hitler and the devastation of the Second World War. This objective has been so dominant in the historiography that the major events of the two decades tend to be analysed only insofar as they contribute to answering that research question, with the consequence that the understanding of this period has been approached in teleological fashion. This has led some aspects of these years to be overemphasised and others to be disregarded. Consequently, even though the inter-war years periodisation is suitable for the dominant research question, it has distorted the historiography of specific periods within the inter-war years. This becomes clear if we focus on 1919 to 1925 because doing so will generate alternative interpretations, such as that argued for in this thesis. This thesis argues that the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919 is an appropriate starting date for a reassessment of foreign policies in the 1920s. The Paris Peace Conference, and the resulting treaty signed at Versailles,2 have been extensively researched and reassessed in the last twenty years, initially by a group of mainly American academics who published their results in 1998,3 and then by MacMillan in her comprehensive account published in 2001.4 The argument for taking Versailles as a starting point, is partly that it 2 ‘Paris’, ‘Versailles’ and ‘Locarno’ are used as abbreviations where appropriate. 3 Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman and Elizabeth Glaser (eds.), The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment after 75 Years (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 4 Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers: The Paris Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War (London: John Murray, 2001). 3 was such a significant event which set the diplomatic agenda for the following years and partly because it has been so thoroughly and recently researched.
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