The Main Issues

 Revolutionary condition of Europe  Russian civil war  Diverging Allied aims  Competing nationalism

 Desire for revenge  Hunger, disease and economic chaos  Allied lack of military strength as a result of demobilization.

 Independence for subject nations.  International rule of law through the League of Nations.  Disarmament and reparation from defeated powers.

 Determination to prove German war guilt.  Selective application of the 14 points.  All the major decisions made by the Big 4, who became the Big 3.

 There are five treaties that make up the Paris peace settlements.  The most well known is the Treaty of Versailles, which dealt specifically with Germany.  The four others are St Germain, Trianon, Neuilly and Sevres/Lausanne.  Apart from the clauses that dealt with specific issues, each of the treaties incorporated the Covenant of the League of Nations. (Pg 26)

 Independent Poland  Plebiscites in Upper Silesia, Schleswig and West Prussia  Alsace-Lorraine to France  Saar administered by League of Nations  Germany loses colonies and foreign investments.

 Reparation Commission fixes amount of 132 million gold marks in May 1921  Prolonged struggle to force Germany to pay,  France occupies the Ruhr in Jan 1923  Dawes Commision Jan 1924 (Pg 39)

 Abolition of conscription  Regular German army of 100,000  Very small fleet  Allied Control Commisions in Germany until 1927  Rhineland occupied for 15 years

 They felt ‘pain and anger’.  They were particularly angered by the War guilt clause – Clause 231 (pg 26)  The Germans could not accept what was seen as a Diktat (pg 27)  Turn to pgs 30/31 ‘German reactions to the Terms of the Treaty  1) Identify the general German reaction to the Treaty, through analysis of sources B and C?  2) What evidence supports or refutes their attitudes?

 Clemenceau; liked the harsh things in the treaty:  Reparations would repair the damage to France.  The tiny German army, and the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland would protect France.  France got Alsace-Lorraine, and German colonies.  He wanted the Treaty to be harsher!!!!

 Wilson;  He got self-determination for the peoples of Eastern Europe, and a League of Nations, but he hated the Treaty:  few of his “Fourteen Points” got into the Treaty.  when Wilson returned to America, the senate refused to join the League of Nations because of its opposition to Article X (pg 29)  they even refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

 Lloyd George:  Many British people wanted to make “Germany pay”, but Lloyd George hated the treaty.  He only liked the fact that Britain got some German colonies.  The small German Navy, which helped British sea- power.  He thought the Treaty was far too harsh  “We shall have to fight another war in 25 years time”

 John Maynard Keynes, a prominent British economist, wrote a book on the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles. (pg 28)  He called it a Carthaginian peace based on a spirit of revenge.  As a result of his attacks people in GB began to see the Treaty as unfair to Germany.  Including Lloyd George who reflected on this in his Fontainebleau memorandum on the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

 Turn to pg 30 in your IB book.  Source A has many different comments regarding the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.  Identify the authors and then with reference to the origin and purpose of each of these sources discuss its value and limitations.

 Four other treaties were made with the four other countries that had helped Germany.  They were written by officials. They just followed the principles of the Treaty of Versailles.  The Treaties were all named after the parts of Paris in which they were signed.  All four countries had to pay reparations, disarm and they all lost land  The treaties created new nation states in Eastern Europe out of the old A-H Empire

 Dealt with Austria, its Empire was gone and split up.  Czechoslovakia was set up  Slovenia, Bosnia and Dalmatia became Yugoslavia  Istria, Trieste and S.Tyrol to Italy  Galicia to Poland  Austria was not allowed to integrate with Germany

 This was the harshest of the four small treaties it dealt with Hungary  It left one third of Hungarians outside its borders  Hungary lost 2/3 of its pre-war territory to Austria, Czechoslovakia and Romania.  Hungary was humiliated and insulted…Big 3 did not care

 This was mild in comparison to the Treaty of Trianon  It dealt with Bulgaria  Bulgaria lost territory to Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia

 Dealt with Turkey  Turks cede Middle East empire; Greeks gain Thrace; Straits controlled by the Allies  Liberation of the Arab states  Mandates of Britain and France  Turks rebelled when Asia Minor was carved up  This treaty was revised at Lausanne, 1923: Greeks were expelled, Constantinople was given back to Turkey

 The treaties created new nation states;  Czechs and Slovaks in Czecholovakia  Hungarians in Hungary  Austrians in Austria  Poles in Poland  Slavs in Yugoslavia  It seems Wilson’s ideals of self-determination was a success….

 Self-determination causes small wars;  Poland went to war with Russia and took more land  Czechs and Poles fought over the town of Teschen  An army of Italians marched into the Yugoslavian town of Fiume

 This was a lesser known treaty  Russia defeated by Poland, August 1920  Poland’s eastern frontiers fixed by the Treaty of Riga, March 1921

 Self-determination was not allowed for Germany  A large number of small, weak countries were created, which Hitler easily conquered later  All the new nation states had racial minorities living in them

 Signed in 1922 between Germany and the USSR  A consequence of Germany and the Soviets being excluded from the League of Nations  A treaty of mutual assistance that allowed Germany to develop weapons in violation of the Versailles Treaty  Germany’s status as an outlaw encouraged her to evade the restrictions placed on her by any means possible