General IGCSE History - Core content

High Hopes for Peace

Looking back it may seem that the peacemakers in 1919 had an impossible job. But that is not how people saw it at the time. There was great optimism. One of the main reasons for these high hopes was the American President Woodrow Wilson. In 1918 Wilson made a speech outlining Fourteen Points (see Factfile), guidelines for a just and lasting peace treaty to end conflict. When he arrived in Europe for the Paris Peace Conference, Wilson was seen almost as a saintly figure. Newspaper reports described wounded soldiers in Italy trying to kiss the hem of his cloak and in France peasant families kneeling to pray as his train passed by.

Wilson’s ideas

Don’t be too harsh on Germany. Wilson did believe Germany should be punished. But he also believed that if Germany was treated harshly, some day it would recover and want revenge. He was also concerned that extremist groups, especially communists, might exploit resentment among the Germans and communists might even seize power in Germany as they had in Russia in 1917. ■ Strengthen democracy in defeated countries. For Wilson democracy was a key to peace in Europe. If leaders in defeated nations had to listen to the views of their people and win their votes those people would not let their leaders cause another war. ■ Give self-determination to small countries that had once been part of the European empires. He wanted the different peoples of eastern Europe (for example, Poles, Czechs and Slovaks) to rule themselves rather than be part of Austria–Hungary’s empire. ■ International co-operation. Wilson also believed that nations should co-operate to achieve world peace. This would be achieved through a ‘League of Nations’, Wilson’s most important of the Fourteen Points. You can see from these principles that Wilson was an idealist. However, he was not a politician who could be pushed around. For example, he refused to cancel the debts owed to the USA by Britain and its Allies so that he could put pressure on them to accept his ideas.

The Fourteen points

No secret treaties.

2 Free access to the seas in peacetime or wartime

. 3 Free trade between countries

. 4 all countries to work towards disarmament.

5 Colonies to have a say in their own future.

6 German troops to leave Russia.

7 Independence for Belgium.

8 France to regain alsace–Lorraine

. 9 Frontier between austria and Italy to be adjusted.

10 Self-determination for the peoples of eastern Europe(they should rule themselves and not be ruled by empires).

11 Serbia to have access to the sea

. 12 Self-determination for the people in the Turkish empire.

13 Poland to become an independent state with access to the sea.

14 League of Nations to be set up

Did everyone share Wilson’s viewpoint?

Not surprisingly, when Wilson talked about lasting peace and justice other leaders agreed with him. After all, who would want to stand up in public and say they were against a just and lasting peace?! However, many were doubtful about Wilson’s ideas for achieving it. For example, ‘self-determination’: it would be very difficult to give the peoples of eastern Europe the opportunity to rule themselves because they were scattered across many countries. Some people were bound to end up being ruled by people from another group with different customs and a different language. Some historians have pointed out that while Wilson talked a great deal about eastern and central Europe, he did not actually know very much about the area. There were other concerns as well. So let’s look at the aims and views of the other leaders at the Paris Peace Conference: David Lloyd George (from Britain) and Georges Clemenceau (from France).

Did Lloyd George agree with Wilson?

In public Lloyd George praised Wilson and his ideas. However, in private he was less positive. He complained to one of his officials that Wilson came to Paris like a missionary to rescue the Europeans with his little sermons and lectures. He agreed with Wilson on many issues, particularly that Germany should be punished but not too harshly. He did not want Germany to seek revenge in the future and possibly start another war. Like Wilson he was deeply concerned that a harsh treaty might lead to a communist revolution like the one in Russia in 1917. He also wanted Britain and Germany to begin trading with each other again. Before the war, Germany had been Britain’s second largest trading partner. British people might not like it, but the fact was that trade with Germany meant jobs in Britain. However, unlike Wilson, Lloyd George had the needs of the British empire in mind. He wanted Germany to lose its navy and its colonies because they threatened the British empire.

Pressures on Lloyd George

Lloyd George faced huge public pressures at home for a harsh treaty (see Source 2). People in Britain were not sympathetic to Germany in any way. They had suffered over 1 million casualties in the fighting, as well as food shortages and other hardships at home. They had been fed anti-German propaganda for four years. They had also seen how Germany had treated Russia in 1918 when Russia surrendered. Under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Germany had stripped Russia of 25 per cent of its population and huge areas of Russia’s best agricultural land. Lloyd George had just won the 1918 election in Britain by promising to ‘make Germany pay’, even though he realised the dangers of this course of action. So Lloyd George had to balance these pressures at home with his desire not to leave Germany wanting revenge.

Did Clemenceau agree with Wilson?

In public, Clemenceau of course agreed with Wilson’s aim for a fair and lasting peace. However, he found Wilson very hard to work with. While he did not publicly criticise the Fourteen Points, Clemenceau once pointed out that even God had only needed Ten Commandments! The major disagreement was over Germany. Clemenceau and other French leaders saw the Treaty as an opportunity to cripple Germany so that it could not attack France again. Pressures on Clemenceau France had suffered enormous damage to its land, industry, people – and self-confidence. Over two-thirds of the men who had served in the French army had been killed or wounded. The war affected almost an entire generation. By comparison, Germany seemed to many French people as powerful and threatening as ever. German land and industry had not been as badly damaged as France’s. France’s population (around 40 million) was in decline compared to Germany’s (around 75 million). The French people wanted a treaty that would punish Germany and weaken it as much as possible. The French President (Poincaré) even wanted Germany broken up into a collection of smaller states, but Clemenceau knew that the British and Americans would not agree to this. Clemenceau was a realist and knew he would probably be forced to compromise on some issues. However, he had to show he was aware of public opinion in France

Clemenceau clashed with Wilson over many issues.

The USA had not suffered nearly as badly as France in the war. Clemenceau resented Wilson’s more generous attitude to Germany. They disagreed over what to do about Germany’s Rhineland and coalfields in the Saar. In the end, Wilson had to give way on these issues. In return, Clemenceau and Lloyd George did give Wilson what he wanted in eastern Europe, despite their reservations about his idea of self-determination. However, this mainly affected the peace treaties with the other defeated countries rather than the Treaty of Versailles.

Clemenceau also clashed with Lloyd George

particularly over Lloyd George’s desire not to treat Germany too harshly. For example, Clemenceau said that ‘if the British are so anxious to appease Germany they should look overseas and make colonial, naval or commercial concessions’. Clemenceau felt that the British were quite happy to treat Germany fairly in Europe, where France rather than Britain was most under threat. However, they were less happy to allow Germany to keep its navy and colonies, which would be more of a threat to Britain.

Wilson and Lloyd George did not always agree either.

Lloyd George was particularly unhappy with point 2 of the Fourteen Points, allowing all nations access to the seas. Similarly, Wilson’s views on people ruling themselves were threatening to the British government, for the British empire ruled millions of people all across the world from London.

TOV - WAR GUILT

Article 231 of the Treaty was simple but was seen by the Germans as extremely harsh. Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war.

TOV - Reparations

The major powers agreed, without consulting Germany, that Germany had to pay reparations to the Allies for the damage caused by the war. The exact figure was not agreed until 1921 when it was set at £6,600 million (132 billion gold marks) – an enormous figure. If the terms of the payments had not later been changed under the Young Plan in 1929 (see page 38), Germany would not have finished paying this bill until 1984. ■ France also received the coal from the Saarland for fifteen years.

TOV - German territory and colonies

Germany’s European borders were very extensive, and the section dealing with German territory in Europe was a complicated part of the Treaty. You can see the detail in Figure 6. The Treaty also forbade Germany to join together (Anschluss) with its former ally Austria.

Germany’s overseas empire was taken away. It had been one of the causes of bad relations between Britain and Germany before the war. Former German colonies, such as Cameroon, became mandates controlled by the League of Nations, which effectively meant that France and Britain controlled them

TOV - German Armed forces

The size and power of the German army was a major concern, especially for France. The Treaty therefore restricted German armed forces to a level well below what they had been before the war. ■ The army was limited to 100,000 men

. ■ conscription was banned – soldiers had to be volunteers.

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

■ The navy could have only six battleships and 15,000 sailors.

■ The Rhineland became a demilitArised zone. This meant that no German troops were allowed into that area. The Rhineland was important because it was the border area between Germany and France (see Figure 6).

TOV - LON

Previous methods of keeping peace had failed and so the League of Nations was set up as an international ‘police force’. (You will study the League in detail in Chapter 2.) ■ Germany was not invited to join the League until it had shown that it was a peace-loving country.

General German reactions to the Treaty of Versailles

The government that took Germany to war in 1914 had been overthrown in a revolution and the new democratic government in Germany was hoping for fair and equal treatment from the Allies. When the terms were announced on 7 May the Germans were horrified. Their reasons are summarised in the diagram opposite. The new German government refused to sign the Treaty and the German navy sank its own ships in protest. At one point, it looked as though war might break out again. But what could the German leader Friedrich Ebert do? Germany would quickly be defeated if it tried to fight. Reluctantly, Ebert agreed to accept the terms of the Treaty and it was signed on 28 June 1919