Creating a “New” Europe Ch. 27 Sec. 5 Creating a “New” Europe

The Treaty of Versailles The treaty w/ Germany, signed at Versailles in May 1919, was known as the Treaty of Versailles It dealt harshly w/ Germany, Germany had to admit sole guilt for starting the war & pay reparations; the Germans strongly objected, but had little choice France regained Alsace-Lorraine, & Belgium gained territory

Poland was restored as an independent nation; a Polish Corridor sliced through Prussia & it gave Poland an outlet to the Baltic Sea Germany had to abolish its military draft & reduce its army to 100,000 men; Germans were forbidden to manufacture heavy artillery, tanks, military airplanes, or submarines

Fates of Former Territories Austria surrendered land to Italy Hungary lost territory to Romania, Poland, & Russia & the new nations of Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia Yugoslavia combined Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina The new boundaries created problems, often they didn’t match ethnic divisions

Wilson’s Fourteen Points had supported national self-determination, stirring nationalist feelings The Polish Corridor through German lands angered Germans; some ethnic groups remained brutally oppressed During the war the Turks had launched genocide, or systematic extermination, of Armenians Foreign outcry halted these atrocities, but the Turks resumed them in 1920

Of the 2 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, about 1 Of the 2 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, about 1.5 million were killed & the rest were deported Bulgaria lost territory to Greece The Ottoman Empire lost almost all territory except Turkey; new nations created from Ottoman lands included Palestine, Transjordan, Syria, & Iraq Russia lost land; Poland & the Baltic states of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania declared independence from Russia

The League of Nations Wilson hoped that the League of Nations would be able to fix the treaty’s injustices A special commission, including Wilson, wrote the Covenant of the League of Nations; it became part of the Versailles treaty 1st aim was to promote international cooperation 2nd aim was to keep peace among nations by settling disputes & reducing armaments

the League worked closely w/ the Permanent Court of International Justice The World Court is located today at The Hague in the Netherlands Each member nation had one representative in the Assembly; the council, the main peacekeeping body, had 9 member nations (later increased to 14); five were permanent G.B., France, Italy, Japan, & the U.S.; the remaining seats rotated

The league could impose penalties such as breaking diplomatic relations They could impose economic sanctions, blocking trade w/ the offending nation The league of Nations also dealt w/ colonies of the defeated powers; until each colony was “ready for independence” it would be a mandate, administered by the gov’t of a so-called advanced nation

German & Ottoman territories were given as mandates to G. B German & Ottoman territories were given as mandates to G.B., France, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, & Japan Although Wilson promoted the League of Nations, the U.S. never joined

Some were wary of the League’s powers; others feared that the League’s peacekeeping commitments would drag the U.S. into foreign wars; the U.S. never ratified the Treaty of Versailles But 42 nations attended the first meeting of the League of Nations in 1920; by the 1940s it included 59 nations