World War I Peace Settlement - Key Terms

Second Battle of the Marne

spring 1918, Ludendorff launched an offensive on French lines with threat of US troops arrival, German armies exhausted within 35 miles of Paris but were stopped, over 140,000 US soldiers saw action.

Armistice

formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting, ______went into effect on November 11, 1918. 11.11.11 (11th hour of 11th day of 11th month 1918)

Weimar Republic

established in Germany by moderates from Social Democratic Party and liberal allies, Democratic government led Germany for next 15 years.

Spartacist

Uprising in Berlin in January 1919, led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg to try and seize control of govt, left-wing response to Weimar republic, aka. radical communists, failed and Liebknecht and Luxemburg were arrested and murdered by Free Corps militia soldiers.

Kapp Putsch

right-wing military takeover, repressed by the central government. Right-wing response to Weimar republic, uprising in 1920, failed.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 peace settlement that ended the war between Germany and the Allied powers.

Fourteen Points

Wilson’s 1918 peace proposal calling for open diplomacy, a reduction in armaments, freedom of commerce and trade, the establishment of the League of Nations, and a national self-determination.

League of Nations

A permanent international organization, established during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, designed to protect member states from aggression and avert future wars. Proposed by the US (Woodrow Wilson but they never joined.)

national self-determination

The nation that peoples should be able to choose their own national governments through democratic majority-rule elections and live free from outside interference in nation-states with clearly defined borders.

Mandate (system)

The plan to allow Britian and France to administer former Ottoman territories, put into place after the end of the First World War.

Danzig

German city that was placed within the Polish borders as a self-governing city under protection of League of Nations.

war guilt clause

An article in the Treaty of Versailles that declared that Germany (with Austria) was solely responsible for the war and had to pay reparations equal to all civilian damages caused by the fighting. Signed in hall of mirrors in 1918.

Isolationism

a foreign policy of non-participation in international economic and political relations practiced by the US after WWI.

Balfour Declaration

A 1917 British statement that declared British support of a National Home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

Zionism

a movement dedicated to building a Jewish national homeland in Palestine started by Theodor Hertzel.

Mustafa Kemal

led Turkish national movement, without religious faith who led Turkish forces to establish an independent Turkey from the Ottoman empire.