Unit 1 - Were the peace treaties of 1919-23 fair?

Notes in the form of flashcards

Context for ToV

Context for ToV

• Paris Peace Conference (1919)

  • 5 treaties were drawn up (called the Versailles Settlement)

  • All the important decisions about the fate of Germany were taken by the Big 3

• In 1918, Woodrow Wilson made a speech about the 14 points he believed needed to be implemented to make a just and lasting peace treaty to end conflict

  • This was taken very well by Europeans and was seen as a saintly figure when he was in Europe for the Paris Peace Conference

Woodrow Wilson (USA)’s aims & motives

1. Don’t be too harsh on Germany

   • In case, Germany wants revenge in the future + extremist groups (communists) using the harsh treatment/resentment to seize power in Germany

2. Strengthen democracy in defeated countries

   • If leaders in defeated nations listened the people and win their votes from them, the leaders would not cause wars because that’s unfavourable to the public

3. Give self-determination to small countries that had once been part of the European empires

   • Different people of easternEurope to rule themselves rather than be apart of the Austria-Hungary’s empire

   • Flaw: Wilson didn’t know much about eastern Europe and didn’t know about how divided they were that finding one person to rule would be difficult

4. International co-operation

   • Nations should co-operate to achieve world peace

   • “League of Nations”

Wilson’s fourteen points (most important points)

1. No secret treaties

2. All countries to work towards disarmament

3. League of Nations to be set up

4. Self-determination for colonised countries

Lloyd George (Britain)’s aims & motives

1. Don’t be too harsh on Germany

   • Same as Wilson

   • Wanted to Britain and Germany to begin trading with each other again

     • Before the war, Germany was Britain’s second largest trading partner

2. Wanted Germany to lose its navy and colones

   • Because they threatened the British Empire

3. ‘Make Germany pay’

   • British public hated Germany for all the casualties, food shortages and anti-German propaganda they had

     => George having to be harsh to Germany for the public

Georges Clemenceau (France)’s aims & motives

1. Cripple Germany => won’t attack again

   • France suffered enormous damage to its land, industry, people, and self-confidence

     • 2/3 of the men who served had been killed or wounded

   • Germany, however, didn’t suffer too much during the war

     • Germany had a population of 75 million while France had around 40 million

Disagreements between the big 3 in the peacemaking process

1. Clemenceau & Wilson

   1. Clemenceau hated Wilson’s generous attitude to Germany

   2. Disagreed with what to do with Germany’s Rhineland and coalfields in the Saar (Wilson had to give way to Clemenceau)

   3. Disagreed with Wilson’s idea of self-determination for eastern Europe (but gave Wilson what he wanted)

2. Clemenceau & Lloyd George

   1. Lloyd George’s desire to not treat Germany too harshly

   2. Agreed on having Germany’s navy and colonies taken away

3. Wilson & Lloyd George

   1. Self-determination for eastern Europe (but gave Wilson what he wanted)

   2. Lloyd George didn’t like point 2 of the 14 points (all nations to have access to the seas)

   3. Wilson’s views on people ruling themselves threatened the British empire

Terms of the ToV

1. War guilt

   1. Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war

2. Reparations

   1. 1921: the numbers were set at 6,600 million pounds (132 billion gold marks)

   2. If the terms of the payments had not later been changed under the Young Plan in 1929, Germany would not have. finished paying this bill until 1983

3. German territories & colonies

   1. German territories

      1. Forbade Germany to join together with Austria (Anschluss)

      2. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia became independent states

      3. Danzig run by LoN given to Poland as a sea port

      4. Saarland to be run by LoN and then a plebiscite to be held after 15 years

      5. Alsace-Lorraine given to France

      6. The Rhineland to become a demilitarised zone

   2. German colonies

      1. Former German colonies became mandates controlled by the LoN => France and Britain controlled them

4. Germany’s armed forces

   1. Army limited to 100,000 men

   2. Conscription was banned

   3. Germany was not allowed armoured vehicles, submarines or aircraft

   4. Navy could only have 6 battleships and 15,000 sailors

   5. The Rhineland became a demilitarised zone => no German troops were allowed into that area (no troops in the border between Germany and France)

5. League of Nations

   1. Acted as an international ‘police force’

   2. Germany was not invited to join the league until it had shown that it was a peace-loving country

German reactions to the ToV

1. War guilt and reparations

   1. Germans felt that didn’t start the war and that the blame should’ve been shared

   2. Bitter that Germany had to pay for all the damaged caused even though the German economy was severely weakened

2. German territories

   1. Major blow to German pride and its economy

      1. Saar and Upper Silesia were important industrial areas (coalfields and iron & steel industry)

   2. British and French increased their empires by taking German colonies and territories

3. Disarmament

   1. The terms for disarmament were not proportional towards the size of Germany and the army was a symbol of German pride => lost German pride and unsafe

   2. In Wilson’s 14 points, it said all countries to work towards disarmament but only Germany had to => unfair

4. The 14 points and LoN

   1. Treatment of Germany didn’t align with Wilson’s 14 points

      1. Ex.) German-speaking peoples in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were hived off into new countries such as Czechoslovakia to be ruled by non-Germans

   2. Germany felt insulted they weren’t invited to join the LoN

5. Non-representation

   1. Germans were angry that their government wasn’t represented in the peace talks and they were forced to accept the treaty without any choice or comment

Consequences of the ToV for Germany (Part 1)

1. Social problems

   1. Many ethnic Germans lived in different countries due to the territorial losses => social problems & conflict

   2. The creation of the Polish Corridor split East Prussia and rest of Germany => many German families to migrate back to mainland Germany

   3. Military restrictions => Germans feeling defenceless and demoralised => not wanting to work

2. Political violence

   1. Right-wing groups referred to the Weimar politicians as the ‘November Criminals’ who had stabbed Germany in the back at the end of the war => political instability

   2. Kapp Putsch: an uprising in 1920 to overthrow Ebert and install a nationalist government

   3. Political assassinations/Attempted assassinations

      1. 1922: Germany’s foreign minister, Walther Rathenau, was murdered by extremists

   4. Munich Putsch: an attempted rebellion in Munich led by Adolf Hitler

      1. The rebellion was defeated but Hitler was let off lightly when he as put on trials

         => the exploitation of German resentment of the ToV

Kapp Putsch

• Kapp Putsch: an uprising in 1920 to overthrow Ebert and install a nationalist government

  1. Cause: Elbert’s government ordered to disband bands of ex-soldiers called Freikorps as their existence broke the military terms of the ToV which led to Wolfgang Kapp being angry and uprising

  2. However, the uprising didn’t work because Berlin workers did a general strike which paralysed essential services (power & transport) which saved Ebert’s government but added more chaos in Germany

Consequences of the ToV for Germany (Part 2)

1. Conflict in the Ruhr

   1. Germany didn’t pay anything in 1922 in reparations to the Allies & Ebert tried to negotiate concession but the French ran out of patience

   2. The French and Belgian soldiers entered the Ruhr region and took raw materials and goods (which was legal under the Tov => no punishment for France or Belgium)

   3. German government ordered workers to go on strike so they weren’t producing anything for the French to take => the French killed 100 workers and expelled 100,000 protestors from the region

   4. Also, the strike meant that Germany had no goods to trade & no money to buy things with

2. Hyperinflation

   1. The government solved the problem of not having enough money by printing more money => hyperinflation (money was virtually worthless → prices to go up)

   2. Wages began to be paid daily instead of weekly

   3. Government and big industrialists were able to pay off their huge debts in worthless marks but others, especially pensioners, were left penniless

   4. Germany eventually recovered but left bitterness towards the ToV => supported Hitler’s claims that the ToV was to blame for Germany’s downfall and to support his plans to overturn it

Arguments for ToV being unfair

1. The restrictions and territory loss led to many nationals outside of their borders => economic problems and political instability (nationalist uprisings & political violence)

2. The harshness of the ToV would lead to a future war with Germany in resentment

Arguments for ToV being fair

1. Many people felt that the Germans were operating a double standard

   • Their call for fairer treatment didn’t compare to the harshness they treated Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918

2. Germany’s economic problems were self-inflicted

   • Other states had raised taxes to pay for the war but the Kaiser’s government didn’t do this

   • It allowed debts to mount up because it had planned to pay Germany’s war debts by extracting reparations from the defeated states

Treaty of Sevres (Turkey)

• Financial terms:

  • Financial system to be controlled by the Allies

  • Property owned by Central Powers was turned over to the Reparations Commission

• Military terms:

  • Army reduced to 50,000 soldiers

  • No air force

  • A limited navy

• Territorial terms:

  • Turkey’s empire was broken up and lost to its neighbours

    • Much of it controlled by Britain, France and Italy in separate zones

• War guilt:

  • Forced to accept blame for the war