Chapter 29 Section 4 Study Guide A Flawed Peace

The beginning of the end ► April 1917:  U.S. enters the war ► Starts building up U.S. Army in France under General John Pershing ► Women join Navy, Marines  Nov 1917: Communists under Vladimir Lenin seize control of Russia ► Pull Russia out of war ► ► Germany tried to build up strong army on Western Front to break through to Paris BUT  The food embargo was strangling Germany  2 million U.S. troops entering France, more every day

Germany runs out of steam… ► Nov 11, 1918 ► Germany signs an armistice  A cease-fire  From German viewpoint, NOT a surrender

"…the eleventh hour of the eleventh day…" ► "Last night, for the first time since August in the first year of the war, there was no light of gunfire in the sky, no sudden stabs of flame through darkness, no spreading glow above black trees where for four years of nights human beings were smashed to death. The Fires of Hell had been put out."  Phillip Gibbs in the New York Times (11 November 1918)

The Paris Peace Conference: Jan 1919 aka the Versailles Conference ► Woodrow Wilson ► Developed Fourteen Points to prevent a future war ► Georges Clemenceau ► Worried about French security in the future  Wanted security buffer zone & reparations  Wanted a weak Germany ► David Lloyd George ► Also wanted reparations & weakened Germany George, Orlando, Clemenceau, Wilson

One British perspective… ► "Germany is going to pay. We will get everything you can squeeze out of a lemon, and a bit more. The Germans should hand over everything they own."   From a speech in 1918 by Sir Eric Geddes, a British politician standing for election as an MP.Sir Eric Geddes

Wilson's Fourteen Points ► Points #1-5  No more secret treaties  Freedom of the seas  Free trade  Reduction of military forces & armaments ► Points #6-13  Self-determination for peoples ► Point #14: Int'l body

Wilson's goal: to address the "root causes" of the war ► "We have assembled here for two purposes - to make the peace settlements, and also to secure the future peace of the world." ► Woodrow Wilson, speaking at the Versailles Conference (January 1919) ► Was he successful?  U.S. Senate kept the U.S. out of the League ► Great bitterness remained, especially in Germany ► Self-determination  wasn't carried through for non-European peoples

The Versailles Conference ► Germany not invited ► Bolshevik Russia left out

A Harsh Peace ► Germany  Lost territory & colonies  Restricted to tiny army, no air force, no subs, no army reserves  Article 231: "war guilt" clause  Reparations to Allies  "demilitarized" zones on border with France

Big changes in Europe ► Three dynasties, four empires gone  Hohenzollern Dynasty in Germany  Hapsburg Dynasty in Austro- Hungarian Empire  Romanov Dynasty in Russian Empire ► First communist country  Ottoman Empire disintegrating

New nations in Central & Eastern Europe  Czechoslovakia  Poland  Austria  Hungary  Yugoslavia  Latvia  Lithuania  Estonia

Results in the Middle East ► League of Nations gives "mandates" to temporarily manage areas  Britain in Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq  France in Lebanon, Syria ► Oil!

"…a peace built on quicksand…" ► "This isn't peace. It's an armistice for twenty years."  French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, 1919

Casualties: Killed, wounded, missing, died of wounds ► Russia: 76.3% ► France:73.3% ► British:36% ► Germany:65% ► Austria-Hungary90% ► Ottoman Empire:34% ► United States: 8%

Aftermath ► 65 million mobilized  8.5 million killed  21.2 million wounded  7.7 million prisoners or missing.  37.5 million casualties. ► 57.6 % of Mobilized were casualties.

Aftermath ► Cost of WWI  Allies: $126 billion  Central Powers $62 billion

Aftermath ► Communism  Soviet Union ► Fascism  Italy, 1922 ► Nazism  Germany, 1933 ► Granny "demobs" from U.S. Navy, demands right to vote  U.S. Constitution changed, 1920 Granny in Navy

Grim Statistics ► More than 65 million men fought in the First World War; over eight million of them were killed. ► More than 65 million men fought in the First World War; over eight million of them were killed. ► Nearly nine million civilians died - from starvation, disease, artillery fire and air raids. ► Nearly nine million civilians died - from starvation, disease, artillery fire and air raids. ► In France and Belgium, where most of the war was fought, 300,000 houses, 6,000 factories, 1,000 miles of railway, 2,000 breweries and 112 coal mines were destroyed. ► In France and Belgium, where most of the war was fought, 300,000 houses, 6,000 factories, 1,000 miles of railway, 2,000 breweries and 112 coal mines were destroyed.

► "In some ways, mankind has never recovered from the horrors of the First World War." ► John D Clare, First World War (1994)