1. Making peace
Winners and Losers

2. From war to ‘peace’
Allied blockade and battlefield losses take toll
Economic supply lines disrupted
Belligerents increasingly exhausted
Russia, Germany, Austria & others increasingly short of men, materiel, foodstuffs
Willingness to fight sagging
Governments’ support & legitimacy waning
Similar problems in France: threats of mutiny

3. The Russian Revolution
Tsar’s government teetering
February revolution (1917)
Soviets (councils seize power in cities
Kadets & then Social Democrats form provisional governments
Lenin and Trotsky engineer October Revolution – in effect a coup d’etat
‘All power to the Soviets.’
Bolsheviks seize power

4. A likely or unlikely revolution?
Orthodox Marxism predicts that revolution will occur at the highest phases of capitalism
Russia before the war was
An agrarian society
Barely beyond feudalism
Incipient industrialization
At best at the initial phases of capitalism

5. Lenin Takes voluntarist approach
Left to their own devices, workers develop trade union consciousness
but not the class consciousness needed to drive a revolution
If revolution is to occur, a small conspiratorial organization must drive it -
Communist party acts as vanguard of the proletariat
Argues that capitalism is like a chain:
breaks at its weakest link,
triggering revolution elsewhere

6. Before & after the revolution

7. Some images

8. Afterward: Bolsheviks sue for peace
Accept humiliating terms at Brest-Litovsk (1918) – cede substantial territory
Civil war through 1920
White Russians
Foreign interventions
Internally:
War communism
Problem: What do you do when the world revolution you expect does not occur?

9. Germany: Fights on Kaiser’s grip increasingly tenuous
breakthrough on western front, spring 1918
beaten back in counter-attacks
Kaiser’s grip increasingly tenuous
Frequent changes in government
Move toward constitutional monarchy (October 1918)
General strike
Revolutionary outbreaks
General staff sues for peace
Kaiser abdicates
Social Democrats take over

10. Central Europe Collapse of Austria-Hungary War winds down
Revolution breaks out in Hungary

11. Ending the war Central powers collapse Germany sues for peace
War ends with armistice
Fighting stops without total defeat or invasion
Germans hope to negotiate as equals
Allies intent on imposing peace
Meet in Paris to work it out

12. Problems How to: Establish stable international order
Respond to national aspirations while not ignoring strategic considerations, claims based on history and promises made by allies
Provide security for France
Prevent resurgence of German militarism
Compensate victors for damage suffered

13. Negotiating the peace (1919-20)
Massive conference:
32 countries present,
Dominated by great powers:
US, UK, France, Italy, Japan
Exclusion of Germany
Absence of neutrals
Absence of the Soviet Union
Multiple negotiations under way:
Discussion of principles
Expert committees
Separate treaties concluded

14. The protagonists and their goals
Woodrow Wilson (U.S.) -- idealist who wanted to
Make the world safe for democracy
Establish a new international order– via League of Nations
David Lloyd George (Great Britain)
Interest in restoring Britain’s global position
Georges Clemenceau( France) -- a realist
Aging cynic/ French nationalist
Interest in security for France
Reparations
Orlando - Italy
Interest in territorial gains
Japan – interest in replacing Germany in China

15. Wilson’s Fourteen Points (January 1918)
Open covenants openly arrived at
Freedom of the seas
Elimination of trade barriers
Arms reduction
Evacuation of occupied territories
National self determination for diverse peoples:
Return Alsace Lorraine to France
Re-establish Poland
Self-determination for nationalities within Austria-Hungary, Ottoman empire
An international organization to keep the peace (League of Nations)

16. Treaty of Versailles -I
Negotiated by Britain, France, US
Imposed on Germany as diktat
Limitations on military
Dissolution of general staff
Volunteer army, max. 100,000
Severe limits on navy
Surrender of merchant fleet
Rhineland to be occupied for 15 years
Including demilitarized zone, 50 km from the river
Presumption of German guilt
Reparations (amounts to be determined by separate Commission) to be paid for all losses and damages as a result of the war

17. Treaty of Versailles - II
Territorial changes (net loss: 15%)
Alsace Lorraine given back to France
Saar under French jurisdiction for 15 years
Boundary changes with Denmark, Belgium
Cede territory to map
Czechoslovakia
Poland
Danzig (Gdansk) as Free City in Polish corridor to sea
separates East Prussia from the rest of Germany
Loss of colonies (administered as mandates under League of Nations)

18. Eastern Europe
Austria cedes territory to Italy, Poland Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia
union with Germany forbidden
Hungary cedes territory to Romania, Serbia
Independent countries created, ostensibly embodying principle of self-determination map
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Yugoslavia
Hungary
Bulgaria
Romania
Baltic states

19. Turkey Loses territory under Treaty of Sevres
Rejects, fights back under Ataturk
Defeats Greek invasion of Smyrna
Treaty revised in light of changing geo-political situation

20. Problems with the peace
The League of Nations created, given tasks but not fully empowered
Lacks means to carry out tasks
Presumption that democracies would keep the peace
US fails to ratify Versailles or join the League

21. Numerous aggrieved parties:
France – feels inadequately protected
Anglo-American guarantees, but…
US not involved, Britain reluctant
France instead becomes guarantor of countries surrounding Germany
Italy: fails to gain objectives, feels hard done by
Other minorities’ aspirations neither protected nor recognized
Slovaks
Hungarians..
Croats
Ethnic Germans outside Germany (including Austria)
Germany…

22. Germany and the peace Peace seen as imposed & harsh both by
New regime (Socialists and Catholics)
Supporters of older order
Germany weakened, but
neither entirely
nor permanently
Reject war guilt clause
Reluctant to acknowledge defeat

23. Bottom line: A flawed peace? Did it
Provide security?
Make the world safe for democracy?
Was it the best possible at the time?