Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles Vocabulary

Flashcards covering the objectives, key figures, and specific terms of the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles based on the lecture notes.

Paris Peace Conference (1919)

A meeting of victorious powers

discuss war reparations and punishment for Germany and Austria

national self-determination

establishing a new world peace order

Woodrow Wilson

proposed the Fourteen Points

national self-determination and the League of Nations

'peace without victory'

avoid crushing Germany economically

Georges Clemenceau

Demanded total security for France

severe reparations to cripple Germany

reclaim Alsace-Lorraine

weaken Germany permanently to prevent future invasions

David Lloyd George

Wanted to maintain British naval dominance and take German colonies keep Germany as a trading partner and a buffer against Russian Communism

Article 231 (War Guilt Clause)

article requiring Germany to accept full responsibility for causing the war

legal justification for demanding reparations from Germany

Reparations

$£ 6.6 billion$ or $132 \text{ billion gold marks}$ •

payments in gold, goods, and merchant ships over $1,600 \text{ tons}$

League of Nations

international 'police force'

resolve disputes peacefully

promote international cooperation and collective security

Explicitly excluded Germany and Soviet Russia upon its creation

Disarmament (Military Restrictions)

• The reduction of the German Army to a maximum of $100,000$ volunteers with no conscription

Bans on tanks, heavy artillery, a military air force, and submarines

The Navy was capped at $15,000$ men and $6$ battleships

National Self-Determination

ethnic or national groups should govern themselves

Led to the independence of states like Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the creation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia

Alsace-Lorraine

A territory previously taken by Germany in 1871

Returned to France as a key territorial term of the Treaty of Versailles

Polish Corridor

•Territory comprising Posen and West Prussia ceded to the new nation of Poland

provide Poland access to the Baltic Sea

Physically separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany

The Saar

A coal-rich basin governed by the League of Nations for $15$ years

All coal production from this region was ceded to France for that period

A future plebiscite was planned to determine its permanent nationality

Anschluss

political union between Germany and the newly formed republic of Austria

Strictly forbidden under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles to prevent German expansion

Rhineland Demilitarisation

buffer zone bordering France where no German troops or weapons were allowed

to the east bank of the Rhine and territories $50 \text{ kilometres}$ east of the river

allied troops occupied this zone for $15$ years

Mandates

Former German overseas colonies surrendered to the Allies

Administered by powers like Great Britain, France, and Japan under the supervision of the League of Nations

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's guiding principles for the peace conference

open diplomacy

free trade

freedom of the seas

disarmament