Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (part 2)
If the above-mentioned dangers threaten any other state that is not a party to the treaty, the states that signed the treaty should reach the best way to solve the problem through joint discussions.
The contract was in force for ten years and would remain in force after the expiry of the term, unless one of the signatories requested to terminate it within 12 months.
The treaty was to be ratified as soon as possible in accordance with the constitutions of the signatory parties. And it was coming into effect with the ratification of the treaty, which was to take place in Washington.
Thus, the Anglo-Japanese treaty signed in London ceased to exist. Under the Supplementary Treaty signed on February 6, 1922, a number of island territories were to be given to Japan, including Karafuto (Southern Sakhalin), Formosan (Taiwan), Pescador (Penkhuledar), and others.
Five Powers Treaty
During and after World War I, the great powers of the world began a naval power race. Even after the First World War, Great Britain had the strongest and most numerous navy in the world. In second place was the USA, which could not come to terms with the idea that even after such a bloody war, the strongest navy belongs to Great Britain. Also participating in this race was Japan, whose navy was the third largest in the world. In 1919 US President Woodrow Wilson announces that the US Navy will expand. As a result, 6 battleships and 6 cruisers are built. In response to this, Japan set itself a task known as the "8-8" naval program, which aimed to enrich the Japanese navy with 8 modern battleships and 8 cruisers. Great Britain, for its part, announces that it is going to build 4 battleships and 4 cruisers that year, and increase their number by four more next year. In 1921 recently it became known in the USA that Great Britain was going to convene a conference that would concern the Pacific and the Far East. That conference was not in the interests of the US, and on the other hand, the US was worried about the two-decade-long Anglo-Japanese alliance. In order to prevent the conference, the administration of Warren Harding, the 29th president of the USA following Woodrow Wilson in 1921. In November, he convenes the Washington Naval Conference, within the framework of which in 1922 On February 6, the Naval Treaty of Washington, also known as the "Five Power Treaty", is signed. The treaty is concluded between the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France and Italy. The goal was to limit the naval forces and solve the problems in the Pacific and the Far East. The construction of battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers would be limited, there was no quantity limit for submarines and other types of warships, but instead there was a capacity limit. According to the agreement, the construction of large warships was suspended for 10 years, along with this, the tonnage of warships was set for the 5 powers that signed the agreement (capacity in tons). 5 each for USA and UK, 3 each for Japan, 1.75 each for Italy and France. According to one of the articles of the treaty, the USA, Great Britain and Japan agreed to maintain the status quo of their fortifications and naval bases in the eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean. The treaty remained in force until the 1930s, but it was then that Japan began to insist that it should have warships equal in number and capacity to those of the United States and Great Britain, and when refused, announced its withdrawal. In 1936 it was decided to extend the agreement until 1942, but in the absence of Japan and Italy it would not serve its purpose properly. However, the success of the US should also be noted here, that is, after a long struggle, the US finally managed to have a naval force equal to that of Great Britain. The success achieved as a result of the conference was actually temporary. it failed to establish long-term arms control that would have prevented a difficult situation from escalating into full-scale war.
The Nine Powers Treaty
The Chinese issue also occupied a large place at the Washington conference. China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles because the former German colonies in Chinese territories were not returned to China but were ceded to Japan. At the Washington conference, the Chinese delegation demanded the return of Chinese territories. American diplomacy, aiming to weaken Japan's position, defended these areas (Qingdao and Shandong). In 1922 On February 6, the states participating in the Washington Conference (the United States, Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, China, Portugal and France) signed an agreement on the policy to be pursued in China, known as the "Nine Power Treaty". The treaty aimed to regulate international relations in the Far East and create a level playing field in relations with China. The parties to the treaty agreed to respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Each state undertook to use its influence to help China establish stable leadership and ensure a level playing field for all states, avoiding special rights or privileges that would again lead to the creation of spheres of influence. Thus, the Nine Powers Agreement confirmed the open door policy towards China, which was put forward back in 1899. by US Secretary of State John Hay in September-November.
Each of the nine states also undertook to respect China's neutrality in all wars in which it was not a party. And those states that have a separate agreement with China on privileges and are not a party to the said agreement should be invited by the US to join the agreement, about which the US was obliged to inform the other eight powers. Thus, the US was able to eliminate the division of spheres of influence in China, which would allow America to push other states out of the market under equal conditions of competition. However, this agreement, as it later became clear, did not bring final peace in the Far East, and inter-ethnic rivalry continued in the following years. This ended the Washington Conference, which ended the repartition of the world in the Far East. In this sense it complemented Versailles. If the English and French diplomacy managed to bypass the USA in a number of issues at the Paris conference, the American diplomacy achieved significant success at the Washington conference. It also marked the end of the Versailles-Washington system of international relations.
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