The Aftermath of World War I

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The Aftermath of World War I
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Versailles Treaty

• Dominated by Big Three
• Clemenceau from France
• David Lloyd George of Britain
• President Woodrow Wilson of United States

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Wilsons Fourteen Points (key ones)

• Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at
• Reduction of national armaments
• French territory including Alsace-Lorraine
  returned
• Impartial settlement of colonial claims
• Readjustment of borders of Italy along
  nationality
• Evacuation and restoration of Belgium
• Absolute freedom of navigation of the seas

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Wilsons Chief Aims

• Dreamed of a workable League of Nations based on
  the idea of collective security
• Self-determination for ethnic populations
• Free trade resulting from the removal of trade
  barriers

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Versailles

• Treaty with Germany created at the Palace of
  Versailles
• Germany and Russia were not represented
• Wilson, Clemenceau, George and Orlando make main
  decisions

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Leaders of Great Britain and France insist on a
dictated peace

• Under pressure from back home, Lloyd and
  Clemenceau were forced to squeeze the lemon
  until the pip squeaks
• Goal is to take away Germanys ability to make
  war again
• France demanded payments for war damages and
  Britain vetoed the freedom of the seas in peace
  and war

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Germans surprised

• The socialists and democrats now in charge
  thought that after the overthrow of the Kaiser
  and the war lords, they would be treated by the
  victors with some moderation

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Article 231 Germany blamed

• The Allied and Associate Governments affirm and
  Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and
  her allies for causing all the loss and damage to
  which the Allied and Associated Governments and
  their nationals have been subjected as a
  consequence of the war. (war guilt clause)
• served as the justification of compensation

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Germany treated harshly

• Lost colonies to France, Britain, and Japan as
  League of Nation Mandates
• Lost land ceded to new Polish state (the Polish
  Corridor)
• Allies gain control of Rhineland for 15 yrs
• Coal mines of Saar transferred to France
• Alsace-Lorraine returned to France
• Forced to pay heavy indemnities
• Army and Navy were limited in size

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Other Treaties

• Four other treaties dealt with Austria, Hungary,
  Bulgaria, and Ottoman Turks
• New nations created Austria, Hungary,
  Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia
• Arab lands made into League of Nation mandates
  Syria and Lebanon to France, Palestine and Iraq
  to Britain
• Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and parts of
  Poland and Romania created from Russia
• Ottoman Empire disappears
• cordon sanitaire

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Failure of the Treaty to create a fair and
lasting peace
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Germany humiliated

• Allies attempt to make Germany into third rate
  power
• Weakened the Weimar Republic as it tried to
  recover from war
• Ultimately leads to instability and rise of Nazis

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League of Nations weak

• Isolationist attitudes prevented USA from joining
• Only handled business that the Great Powers
  deemed worthy
• Failed to prevent machinery to prevent war
• Weapon of boycotting an aggressor proved futile

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Significance of Treaty

• Although nationalism and self-determination
  triumphed, new states found alien minorities
  within boundaries
• too severe to conciliate and not severe enough
  to destroy
• fear of Germany shifted to fear of Bolshevism
• Although ancient institutions of monarchy and
  aristocratic feudalism were crushed, no answers
  found for industrialism, nationalism, economic
  security and international stability