L5: The End of the Great War

THE END AND THE AFTERMATH

  • After Russia’s withdrawal, Germany focused troops on France again, expecting a quick win
    • America sends in troops, boosting Allied morale
    • Germany on the outskirts of Paris but lost multiple battles
  • Berlin ready to surrender
    • Looked to Wilson in October 1918 for peace based on Fourteen Points
    • Wilson demanded Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate before any armistice could be negotiated
    • German people wanted war to end, sick of Kaiser
    • Kaiser fled to Holland, where he lived for his remaining years
  • Reform of German government
    • Small communist revolution in Germany
    • Gets crushed
    • Dissension created power vacuum for Hitler
  • President Wilson proposed 14 points
    • Self-determination
    • Broke up empires in East Europe, creating new countries
    • Lessening military and weaponry for everyone
    • Not everyone on board
    • Wilson was being an idealist
      • “Hug it out”
      • America was never invaded/bombed
      • But France and Britain were bombed for four years, might increase military instead
    • Peace-keeping organization
    • League of Nations
      • Precursor to United Nations
    • Free trade
  • Exhausted Germans laid down arms at 11:00 on the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918
    • 11/11 became Veterans Day, celebrating armistice (end to fighting) of WWI
  • France hurt the most of Allied powers, wanted revenge on Central Powers

ENDING THE WAR

  • Paris Peace Conference (Jan 1919)
    • Big Four: America, France, England, Italy
    • Competing objectives forced compromise
      • America wanted to propose the 14 points
      • France and Britain wanted revenge, complete demilitarization of Germany and huge reparations ($$)
      • Italy wanted Austria-Hungary’s land
  • Wilson hoped to establish League of Nations
    • A world organization of national governments designed to facilitate peaceful international cooperation
    • America ends up not joining the League of Nations
  • Germany forced to repay Allied powers, while rebuilding its own war-torn nation

TREATY OF VERSAILLES

  • Central powers excluded from negotiations
  • Held Germany responsible for starting the war
    • Imposed harsh penalties in terms of loss of territory
    • Massive reparation payments to 27 Allied countries and fix all
    • Demilitarization
    • Reduction to 100,000 men
    • Disbandment of navy and air force
    • No military in the Rhineland
    • War guilt clause
    • All land from Russia gained became independent
  • Harsh terms led to resentment, capitalized on by Hitler
  • Five separate treaties signed
    • Germany
    • Austria (broken up)
    • Hungary (broken up)
    • Bulgaria
    • Ottoman Empire

ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF WWI

  • Millions of deaths weakened workforces globally
  • Former combat zones needed to be rebuilt
  • Germany forced to accept responsibility for the war and pay reparations
    • Led to hyperinflation in Germany (from the government printing more money)
    • Created significant resentment among the German population
    • Reparations equaled hundreds of billions in modern US currency
  • Hitler gets mad at Jews
    • Owned many businesses in Germany
    • Blamed for ruining the German economy
  • Investors went elsewhere for safer investments

MANDATES AND NEW NATIONS

  • Self-determination: the process by which a country determines its own statehood and forms its own allegiances and government
    • One of Wilson’s 14 points
  • Mandate system
    • Former territories of the Central Powers were given to Allied Powers to manage until the territories could govern themselves
    • Effectively became colonies
    • Came out of Paris peace settlement
  • British mandate of Palestine
  • Nationalism in newly independent nations

SPANISH FLU

  • Not originally from Spain
    • Free neutral press in Spain was the only reason it was reported openly
    • Led to the moniker “Spanish Flu” because WWI-combatant nations had strict censorship in place
  • About 500 million infected, 50 million dead (675k Americans)
  • No vaccines for the virus or antibiotics for secondary infections