The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, generally known as the Geneva Conference or World Disarmament Conference, was an international conference of states held in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, between February 1932 and November 1934 to accomplish

disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing Weapon, weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, ...

in accordance with the

Covenant of the League of Nations The Covenant of the League of Nations was the charter of the League of Nations. It was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, and became effective together with the rest of the Treaty on 10 January 1920. Creation Early ...

. It was attended by 61 states, most of which were members of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

, but the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

also attended. The conference was a response to the militarisation of global powers during and after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Aimed towards a global reduction in arms, the conference was organised and campaigned for by the League of Nations with the main objective to avoid another world war. The conference symbolised global co-operation to a combined goal of limiting arms, but it is generally perceived as a failure because of the onset of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

five years later and the withdrawal of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

from both the conference and the League. The conference's main objectives included defining aggressively-offensive weapons, reasonably-defensive weapons, abolishing submarines, aviation and heavy-duty tanks and limiting land forces.

Background

Legacy of First World War

During the

, the world, particularly

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, underwent a vast development in arms. During the course of the war, technology surrounding weaponry development and new types of arms emerged: specifically, a focus on not only land equipment and personal but also the navy and the air force, which Borg described as having "considerable weight and influence". The developments included aircraft for infantry support, photographing infantry positioning and bombing; naval warfare, with submarines and German U-boats, and land armaments, including gases, machine guns and grenades. The aim of the Geneva Conference was disarmament that would target land, air and naval programs. After the war, the extensive death toll and the social effects of

total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all (including civilian-associated) resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilises all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare ov ...

resulted in a general antiwar sentiment and encouraged the general sentiment of disarmament. The British Women's Society received 8 million signatures for disarmament and was accredited with a driving force behind the convening of the conference. Treaty_of_Versailles_

The

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

laid out the terms for the Germans' conditional surrender, including their national disarmament. * Article 160 stated that the German Army was to have no more than 7 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, 100,000 men and 4000 officers. * Article 165 limited German guns, machine guns, ammunition, and rifles. * Article 168 limited the manufacture of munitions, which was to be overseen by the League of Nations. * Article 170 limited importations of arms.

Diplomatic preliminaries

The first effort at international arms limitation was made at the

Hague Conferences The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amon ...

of 1899 and 1907, which had failed in their primary objective. Although many contemporary commentators and

Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles Article 231, often known as the war guilt clause (), was the opening article of the reparations section of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War between the German Empire and the Allied and Associated Powers. The article did ...

blamed the outbreak of the war on the war guilt of Germany, historians writing in the 1930s emphasised the quick

arms race An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more State (polity), states to have superior armed forces, concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and ...

before 1914. Also, all of the major powers except the

had committed themselves to disarmament in both the Treaty of Versailles and in the

. A substantial international nongovernmental campaign to promote disarmament also developed in the 1920s and the early 1930s. A preparatory commission was initiated by the League in 1925. By 1931, there was sufficient support to hold a conference, which duly began under the chairmanship of former British Foreign Secretary

Arthur Henderson Arthur Henderson (13 September 1863 – 20 October 1935) was a British iron moulder and Labour Party (UK), Labour politician. He was the first Labour Cabinet of the United Kingdom, cabinet minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934 and, uniqu ...

. The motivation behind the talks can be summed up by an extract from the message that US President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

had sent: "If all nations will agree wholly to eliminate from possession and use the weapons which make possible a successful attack, defences automatically will become impregnable and the frontiers and independence of every nation will become secure". The League of Nations failed to ensure the success of the talks, which impacted the likelihood of a second major European conflict.

Nations involved

The Geneva Conference involved all of the nations signatory to the

, which included the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

as permanent members of the League of Nations Council. It included all the Allies that had signed the

with

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and all neutral countries such as

that had vested interests in disarmament in Europe specifically. According to Gumbrecht, the

had been created with "the ideal of establishing a family of nations united by shared goals of peace".” The Covenant of the League of Nations had been published on 28 April 1919 by unanimous agreement. Article 8 of the Covenant stated that "the members of the League recognise that the maintenance of peace requires the reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with national safety and the enforcement by common action of international obligations". The Geneva Conference was convened by the League of Nations in 1932 to fulfil the terms of Article 8 and to progress towards world peace by the process of disarmament.

Negotiations

The conference convened on the 1 February 1932 in

, with the intention of implementing strategies to fulfill Article 8 of the Covenant of the

. The US ambassador to Belgium and minister to Switzerland and conference delegate, Hugh S. Gibson, had observed not long after the London Conference, the US had lost interest in the new conference because treaties already limited its navy, its army was so small that further reduction was ludicrous and the proposed measures of air limitation were so vague that they meant little. He wrote that the conference would "probably meet in February or March 1932 and, discouraging as it may sound, it will probably go on and on". He had come to believe that armaments would never be abolished completely but that treaties might maintain military balances. The negotiations can be split into five distinctive categories or periods. As classified by the military historian Arther Steiner, "first period – emphasis on security, second period – appointment of commissions, third period – the general commissions, fourth period – the technical commission and the fifth period – the Hoover Proposals".

Emphasis on security

This specifically focused on the geopolitical relations of the period, which included

, Turkey, Iran, France and Germany. The main focus was France and developing relations that reassured that it could safely disarm, which involved a development of American-French and Anglo-French relationships.

Appointment of commissions

This began of 25 February 1933 and involved finding a representative from each state. Together, they formed the General Commission, which delegated into the Naval and Air Commissions. This stage was concluded by 18 March 1933.

General Commission

The third period, the General Commission, had the bulk of the negotiations take place. The conference began to attempt to enact the goals of the

, which primarily involved classifying classes of weaponry and fortifications.

Classifying weaponry

The

defined national armaments as referring to generalised military forces including personnel, equipment, technology etc. The conference intended to differentiate between offensive and defensive weapons. The negotiations centred largely on offensive weapons to stop future attacks, rather than reduce nations' defensive weapons. However, nations often disagreed about the technicalities of certain weaponry. Sir

Basil Liddell Hart Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (31 October 1895 – 29 January 1970), commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian, and military theorist. He wrote a series of military his ...

, a British military historian who was known largely for his strategy surrounding mechanical warfare, was present at the conference. He contended that tanks, a new development from the First World War, were both offensive and defensive weapons and so could not be classified as either. However,

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

disagreed by arguing that the offensive capabilities of tanks were tremendous and outweighed any defensive capabilities. The turmoil and the inability to agree halted the progression of the conference.

Fortifications

A key negotiation of the conference involved the discussions surrounding armed

fortifications A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

. It was agreed unanimously that any fortifications remaining from the

that had not been developed before the war along borders would be abolished. Also, coastal

except between the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

could remain but not be worked on, extended or built up.

Additional discussions

In addition, other discussions were brought up during the General Commission such as whether the agreements were still in place during wartime, whether other regulatory bodies should be established to monitor and to enforce it and whether there should be demilitarised zones. Those issues were agreed upon with the ideal that the agreements set about should apply to both wartime and peacetime, a nonpolitical body should monitor disarmament and there should be no specific demilitarised zones.

Technical Commission

This period was known for its high levels of debate, disagreement and technical issues. Essentially no agreement or progress occurred during this session.

Hoover's proposals

The US then sent a delegate to Geneva and became heavily involved in the Conference. US President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

acknowledged the failure and the lack of progress for the conference and proposed for the US to take the lead on disarmament. As argued by Marlies ter Borg, the proposal that Hoover presented to the conference on the 22 June 1932 was a "potential turning point" by suggesting that the US would abolish all aircraft, submarines, military aviation, tanks, poison gas and one third of the battleships. The involvement of the United States "injected life into a nearly dead conference". However, these proposals were never passed through the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

, and although they showed the promise and the spirit of disarmament, they did not resonate in the conference.

Problems

The General Commission made progress with having nations agree on a number of terms. However, it was unsuccessful in having individual nations implement its terms. There was a failure to obtain a German-French agreement on German arms, as the French did not want to disarm without a guaranteed alliance if war broke out with Germany again.

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

were vulnerable because of their geographical proximity to

, and the French feared that they would be attacked again with no way to defend themselves if they disarmed. In 1932 and 1933, the USSR, led by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

underwent the widespread Soviet Famine. The USSR was occupied with national issues and was rarely present at the conference. In addition, during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

, Stalin led the modernisation and buildup of the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

. That included a peacetime size of 1,100,000 and compulsory military service. In December 1931,

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (; – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary who was a leading figure in the government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s, as one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies. ...

talked about " hegrowing danger of military intervention against the USSR". That meant that like many other countries, the USSR was hesitant to disarm. Additionally,

invaded

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

on 18 September 1931 after the Mukden Incident and became hesitant and hostile to the whole idea of disarmament. Its disagreement caused it not to be present or involved with negotiations.

Departure of Germany

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

came to power in January 1933 and quickly gained complete authority over the German government. He withdrew

from the

and then the Geneva Conference in October 1933. He temporarily rejoined the Geneva Conference under the Five-Power Agreement but quickly withdrew Germany again as progressions with the conference began to halt. The military superiority of Germany was a defining element of Hitler's ideology and foreign policy, which made the idea of disarmament unacceptable. As soon as Hitler rose to power, he began the process of rearming Germany, clearly defying both the

and the objective of the Disarmament Conference. Hitler drew on the unwillingness of other countries to disarm as a justification that Germany should not be forced to do the same.

Aftermath

Ultimately, when Hitler withdrew Germany from the

and the

the French were unwilling to disarm. The conference was ultimately adjourned in November 1934. The British Foreign Office stated that “the failure of the Disarmament Conference would have incalculable consequences for Europe and the League f Nations��. US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson later wrote that Americans regarded the Geneva Conference as "a European peace conference with European political questions to be settled. The necessary work of settling them must be done by the leaders of Europe". Stimson realised that Germany's position in European affairs could not be ignored, as it had been at Geneva in 1927 or at London in 1930, but he did not know how to reconcile German military ambition with French fear of its neighbour. Stimson hoped the Europeans to find a solution. He also hesitated over further naval disarmament because of the

Manchurian crisis The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded the Manchuria region of the Republic of China on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden incident, a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext to invade. At the ...

and particularly worried whether the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

had enough

aircraft carriers An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the capital ship of a fl ...

for a possible action in the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

. The exact reasons are not clear or agreed by historians for exactly why the conference failed. However, most academic sources and historians blame a combination of the rise of Hitler, the consequent withdrawal of Germany from the conference, the general unwillingness of nations to disarm, the highly-unstable political and economic climate and the looming threat of another world war.

References

Sources

* Davies, Thomas. "France and the World Disarmament Conference of 1932–34." ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' 15.4 (2004): 765–780.
online
* Fanning, Richard Ward, ''Peace and Disarmament, Naval Rivalry and Arms Control, 1922–1933'', The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 1995. * Kitching, Carolyn, ''Britain and the Geneva Disarmament Conference'', Palgrave MacMillan, Houndmills, New York, 2003 * Noel-Baker, Philip John. "First World Disarmament Conference and Why It Failed" (1979) * Schuman, Frederick L. Europe On The Eve 1933–1939 (1939) pp 28–54
online
* Steiner, Zara. ''The Triumph of the Dark: European International History 1933–1939'' (2011) pp 9–61. * Temperley, A.C. ''The Whispering Gallery Of Europe'' (1938), highly influential accoun
online
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