History - Post WWI period

Italy - what’s happening

-       Lost 1-1.2 million citizens in WWI conflict

-       Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando attended Paris Peace Conference

-       Few territorial demands met at the conference

-       ‘Big Four’ met frequently

-       Delegates worked out reparations and other arrangements

-       Orlando made more demands for Italy as conference continued

-       Big four argued, came close to blows

-       Withdrew from Paris Peace Conference on 24^th of April 1919

-       Took mandates with 999-year leases over former German territories in Africa

-       War almost bankrupted Italy + high unemployment + considerable political unrest

-       Received some reparations from Germany, amount was limited + not compensation for Italy’s war losses

-       Italians blamed Orlando – resigned late 1919 + withdrew from Italian politics 1922

-       Some Italians unhappy that port of Fiume awarded to Yugoslavia, as the population there = Italian speaking by narrow majority

-       Italian nationalists led by Gabriele D’Annunzio, 2 thousand ex-soldiers + seized the port, occupying Fiume for 3 months

-       Gabriele only surrendered after Italian navy bombardment

-       Veterans subjected to abuse from populace if they wore uniforms – another target for Italian frustration

-       Economic problems in Italy after Treaty – ‘Fasci di Combattimento’ (fascist party) attractive to former soldiers

-       Benito Mussolini – established fascist party 23^rd March 1919

-       Soldiers drawn to strong militaristic and nationalist ideas

-       Throughout northern countryside = increasing violence between landowners + peasants

Germany - what’s happening

-       Germany’s colonies handed to the Allied Powers

-       Up to 13% of Germany’s territory in Europe stripped + handed to Denmark, France, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia

-       Loss of Alsace-Lorraine to France – economic disadvantage

-       Land transferred to Poland

-       Germany forbidden to join with Austria

-       6.6 billion pounds in reparations

-       Armed forces limited to 100,000 men

-       Demilitarisation of the Rhineland – no German troops permitted in zone

-       Air force and tanks forbidden

-       Banned from manufacturing heavy guns

-       Navy limited to 6 battleships + no submarines

-       Accept of the War Guilt clause (Germany = principally responsible for beginning World War I)

- Germany in state of political, social, and economic turmoil

-       New government in Germany – unstable

-       Ebert unsure of support of army + German people

-       Ebert’s new national government didn’t even control all of Berlin (workers, soldiers, sailors forming councils)

-     Failed socialist uprising against German republic Jan 1919

-       Some units took part in right-wing Kapp Putsch March 1920 = units meant to defend democracy had become threat to the new republic

-       New government met in Weimar 6 Feb 1919

-       Ebert chosen as republic’s first president, but no political party had clear majority in Reichstag

-       Governments = rule through coalitions

-       Parties represented wide range of political + economic ideologies – some actively opposed democracy + sought to bring down republic from within

Russia - what’s happening

-    Not invited to Paris Peace Conference as despite Russia saving France during the war as an ally when it attacked Germany, after Bolshevik Revolution October 1917 Russia withdrew from war + signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany

-       Treaty = harsh on Russia, but Russia had broken terms of Triple Entente in the eyes of the Allies + had no place at the conference table

• 1918-1920 Civil War – internal + external opponents fighting to destroy the Bolsheviks

-       17 July 1918, Cheka agents (Lenin’s orders) entered basement of Romanov family house + slaughtered the family + servants

-       Until end of Cold War, Soviet Regime insisted execution = result of independently motivated agents – historical documents = Lenin + top-level Bolsheviks sanctioned killing, so White Army would have nothing to fight for

-       Civil War won by Bolsheviks – over 10 million Russians died, ½ by famine from crop failure + grain requisitioning, another million from disease

-       Terror tactics + Cheka used by Bolsheviks during + after civil war to weed out enemies + dissenters

-       Terror used systematically + ruthlessly on entire population

-       Assassination attempt on Lenin August 1918 = motivation for Cheka to intensify

-       300,000 Russians, probably up to 500,000, murdered by secret police

-       Cheka members = elite class within Russia

-       Wholesale shootings + hangings carried out for crimes from genuine deception to being acquainted with Bolshevik enemies

-       Employed tactics designed for mental disintegration, for sadistic pleasure

-       Behaviour had negative effect on general population + Cheka agents themselves

-       Terror + violence forced upon Russian people by those who had liberated them from the tsarist repression.

 

Britain - what’s happening

-       Lost more than 1 million citizens to the war

-       Little war destruction on British soil

-       Prime Minister part of ‘Big Three’ (Clémenceau, Wilson, Lloyd George)

-       Forced to increase taxation from 6 pence per pound (1914) to thirty pence per pound (1922)

-       Wanted punishment for Germany, but scared harsh treaty = German retaliation

-       Less vengeful attitude towards Germany

-       British businesses + famers eager to re-establish trading links with Germany

-       Prime Minister David Lloyd George in between Wilson’s idealism + Clémenceau’s want for revenge on Germany

France - what’s happening

-       Nearly 2 million French lives lost in conflict - >4% of population

-       Fighting took place on French soil, destroyed towns + cities + millions of hectares of farmland useless

-       21,000 square kilometres of agricultural land destroyed

-       1500 schools, 1200 churches, 377 public buildings, and 1000 industry plants destroyed

-       George Clemenceau determined to never let Germany invade again

-       Majority of French people wanted treaty – make Germany pay in terms of land + money + humiliation

-       Also wanted Germany unable to wage war against France again

United States - what’s happening

-       US not severely affected by the war

-       US lost 115,000-130,000 people during WWI – not fighting on home soil

-       Wilson’s idealist belief = future wars prevented – US use peace negotiations for reconciliation

-       Wilson argued his Fourteen Points program + proposal for a League of Nations + treaty should encourage democracy = not cripple Germany

-Desire for a return to isolationism - avoiding external conflicts + focused on improving the US’s problems

-       Wilson wanted his Fourteen Points program

-       League of Nations

-       Aimed to not cripple Germany

-       Wilson saw League of Nations as centrepiece of a peace treaty + path to preventing future wars

-       Wilson = idealist – his vision = international commitment to disarmament + resolving of future conflicts + hoped that League of Nations = way to prevent future wars by approaching the league

-       League of Nations established – Germany not allowed to join the league

-       25 January 1919 – establishing of a commission on the League of Nations formally approved by the Paris Peace Conference