1. Treaties and the League of Nations
Post-WWI Peace
Treaties and the League of Nations

2. A Nervous Wreck

3. Europe’s Post-WWI Era
“For us in old Europe, everything has died that was good and unique to us. Our admirable rationality has become madness, our gold is paper, our machines can only shoot and explode, our art is suicide; we are going under, friends.”
Thomas Mann, 1924

4. Legacies of The Great War
Creation of a German Republic
Treaty of Versailles, 1919
Dismantling of Russian, German, Ottoman, and A-H Empires
Ongoing national and ethnic rivalries
Economic crises
Political extremes: Nationalism and Totalitarianism

5. Treaty of Versailles The Covenant of the League of Nations:
THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES, In order to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war by the prescription of open, just and honourable relations between nations by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another Agree to this Covenant of the League of Nations

6. Can It Survive?

7. Treaty of Versailles Boundaries of Germany
Most productive areas given over to France or to League of Nations administration for war reparations
New states created (ex. Czech-Slovak, Poland)
Germany gives up all colonies (“Interests Outside Germany”)
German military significantly reduced – arms can only be produced under Allied supervision – military equipment must be surrendered

8. Treaty of Versailles POW agreements
“The Allied and Associated Powers publicly arraign William II of Hohenzollern, formerly German Emperor, for a supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties.”
Reparations and “war guilt” – Detailed damages and payment schedules
Financial Clauses – German economy is essentially under Allied control
Economic Clauses – Germany charged for imports, but cannot levy taxes or tariffs

9. Treaty of Versailles
Creation of “Free Zones” in German ports, railways, airspace, roads, rivers
International Labor Commission created
Allied occupation of border territories
Agreement on new nations

10. Turn on the Hose

11. Touch Not a Single Bough

12. Life Preserver

13. The Rainbow

14. Blowing Bubbles

15. Other Treaties and Outcomes
1925 Geneva Protocols: No poison gas or bacteriological weapons
First Geneva Convention was in 1864, then 1906
Treaty of Neuilly, 1919: Borders of Bulgaria and new Balkan states
Treaty of Trianon, 1920: Hungary’s borders and protection of minorities
Treaty of Sevres/Lausanne, 1923: Borders of Turkey, protection of minorities, opening of Dardanelles, and reparations
Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928: Renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy

16. Muzzled