Effects of War- Successes and failures of peacemaking, Territorial changes

-The successes and failures of peacemaking. - Territorial Changes.

ToV Terms

ToV Terms

Territories

Reparations

Arms

War Guilt

League of Nations

Territories

Ger lost Alsace Lorraine, Saarland to France, Rhineland demilitarised

Many Germans not given self determination- Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia + Austria, Polish Corridor

All Ger colonies became mandates of the main League of Nations powers

Reparations

6,600,000

Arms

Army reduced to 100,000 men

No tanks, armoured vehicles, aircraft

6 battleships

League of Nations

Ger not invited- less likely that League would work in promoting international cooperation (Collective security)

Clemenceau wanted a league with a strong army

Lloyd George thought it already existed- didn’t want so many meetings

Historiographers that thought the treaty was justified:

• Niall Ferguson (it was ‘relatively lenient’)

• Alan Sharp (Argues it would have been difficult for them to have achieved a more satisfactory settlement)

• Ruth Henig

Alan Sharpe

"The settlement neither crippled Germany nor reconciled her to the new order; instead, it left her with grievances and the latent potenttial to make trouble.  It based its judgements on three premises:  that Germany had started the war; that she had fought a dirty war; and that she had lost.  Accepting none of these the Germans believed the settlement was unjust".  

Arguments that ToV was ‘lenient’ + not as harsh as was claimed:

Compared to Germany's war aims and the treaties that Germany had imposed on Russia and Romania earlier in 1918, the Treaty of Versailles was quite moderate:

The Treaty in fact left Germany in a relatively strong position in the centre of Europe:

The huge reparations bill was not responsible for the economic crisis that Germany faced in the early 1920s; 

German propaganda continuously portrayed the Treaty as unjust and vindictive.

The USA and Britain lacked the will to enforce the terms of the treaty.

Compared to Germany's war aims and the treaties that Germany had imposed on Russia and Romania earlier in 1918, the Treaty of Versailles was quite moderate:

• Germany's war aims as set out in 1914 were far-reaching

• Treaty of Brest Litovsk with Russia also indicate that Germany would have sought huge areas of land from the Allies had it won.

• France deserved to be compensated for the destruction of so much of its land and industry; Germany had not been invaded and so its farmland and industries remained intact

The Treaty in fact left Germany in a relatively strong position in the centre of Europe:

•  Germany remained a dominant power in a weakened Europe

• Russia was weakened and the new states created in central Europe (Gm´s Eastern border) created a power vacuum which Germany would be able to take advantage of.

The huge reparations bill was not responsible for the economic crisis that Germany faced in the early 1920s; 

• economic historians have argued that Germany could have paid the 7.2% of its national income that the Reparations Schedule required in the years 1925-29, if it had reformed its financial system or raised its taxation to British levels. 

• However, it chose not to pay the reparations as a way of protesting against the peace settlement. 

German propaganda continuously portrayed the Treaty as unjust and vindictive.

propaganda was successful in persuading other countries that Germany had been treated unfairly and Britain and France were forced into several revisions of the treaty while Germany evaded paying reparations or carrying out the disarmament clauses.

The USA and Britain lacked the will to enforce the terms of the treaty.

•The coalition that had put the treaty together quickly collapsed. The USA refused to ratify the treaty and Britain now wished to distance itself from many of the Treaty's territorial provisions. 

•Liberal opinion in the USA and Britain was influenced not only by German propaganda that the treaty had been harsh (sense of guilt?) but also by Keynes' arguments that a fairer peace was needed to allow Germany to recover economically which was in everyone´s interest.

France was the only country that wanted to enforce the Treaty as it still feared for its security.  It "invaded" the Ruhr in 1923 - but received no support from Britain or the USA who accused France of bullying Germany

People that thought treaty too harsh

• German contemporaries

• Harold Nicholson

• W.H. Dawson (Germany’s borders are bleeding)

"This is not a peace, it is an armistice for 20 years." 

Ferdinand Foch- French commander of allied armies

Other peace treaties:

• Treaty of Neuilly (1919)

• Treaty of St Germain (1919)

• Treaty of Trianon (1920)

• Treaty of Sevres (1920)

• Treaty of Riga (1921)

Treaty of Neuilly 1919

Punish Bulgaria for siding with Germany

• Lost territory to Greece, Romania + Yugoslavia

Treaty of St Germain 1919

Split up Austria-Hungary + punish Aus for siding with Germany

• Czechoslovakia created

• Lost Slovenia, Bosnia Dalmatia to Yugoslavia

• Lost Istria, Trieste + S. Tyrol to Italy

• Lost Galicia to Poland

• Anschluss forbidden (not integrate w Germany)

Treaty of Trianon 1920

Punish Hungary for siding w Germany + split up Aus-H

• Lost 2/3 of pre-war territory to Austria, Czechoslovakia + Romania

Treaty of Sevres 1920

Weaken remains of Ottoman empire + punish Turkey for siding w Germany

• Turks give up Middle East empire

• Greeks gain Thrace; Straits (land connecting 2 seas) controlled by allies

• Revision made at Lausanne 1923- Greeks expelled + Constantinople back to Turkey

Treaty of Riga 1921

Ended Russo-Polish War of 1919-20

• Rus defeated by Poland- Aug 1920

• Poland’s Eastern frontiers fixed