Treaty of versailles Flashcards
The USA’s aims and motives were:
- Lasting world peace
- Woodrow Wilson had a strong belief in self-determination.
- Woodrow Wilson had a 14-point target to gain out of the war they were
- There should be no secret deals or treaties between states.
- Countries should be free to send ships anywhere in the world without interference.
- There should be free trade between countries.
- The level of armaments should be reduced in each country.
- The future of colonies should be reviewed, and the wishes of local people taken into consideration.
- Other countries should leave Russian territory.
- The Germans should leave Belgium.
- Alsace and Lorrain should be returned to France.
- The Italian borders should be adjusted to bring all Italian speakers into Italy as far as possible.
- The different peoples Austria-Hungary should be given their freedom.
- Invading armies should leave the Balkan states.
- Non-Turkish people in the Turkish Empire should have their own government.
- An independent Poland should be set up. Poland should have access to the sea.
- A league of nations should be set up to preserve the future peace of the world.
USA Aims as a world power was to:
- Commencement of the 14-point treaty
- World peace
- The setup of the League of Nations.
- USA were trying to make the world a better place, but Great Britain and France were trying to make their Empires Stronger and bigger.
Great Britain’s aims and motives:
- Great Britain wanted Germany to pay reparations for the damage they caused.
- Britain wanted to pay off huge debts to the USA.
- They did not want to make Germany to weak because they did not want communism to spread throughout Europe also, they did not want France to become too powerful.
- They wanted to fulfil promises of land to Italy and Japan.
- They wanted a balance of power in Europe, so no country thought they were more powerful than the others.
- They wanted parts of the Turkish empire and to give some to Poland
The Aims were:
* That the British Empire did not suffer as a result of the settlements.
* They did not want Europe dominated by France or Germany.
* They wanted to stop the spread of Communism.
* Britain wanted to gain more land for its empire e.g., Jordan, Iraq, and other countries.
France’s aims and motives:
- France wanted revenge for the devastation of WW1.
- They also wanted revenge for the Franco Prussian war which was in 1871 over forty years before.
- France wanted to make Germany weak so that they could not attack them.
- They also wanted reparations from the war.
Frances Aims were to:
* Get Germany to pay off all Frances debts.
* Break up Germany into a number of smaller weaker states or get Germany to lose the Rhineland’s which had a very big coal industry and also a heavy industry.
* Make Poland large and powerful.
Why did all the victors not get everything that they wanted?
Clemenceau clashed with Wilson over many issues.
* Clemenceau resented Wilson’s generous attitude towards Germany
* They disagreed over what to do about the Rhineland and coalfields in the Saar.
* In the end Wilson had to give way on these issues
Clemenceau also clashed with Lloyd George.
* Lloyd George did not want to treat Germany as harshly as Clemenceau wanted to
* Clemenceau felt that the British were quite happy to treat Germany fairly in Europe, where France was under most threat, and were less happy to allow Germany to keep its navy and colonies as it threatened the British Empire.
Wilson and Lloyd George did not always agree.
* Lloyd George was unhappy with point 2 of Wilsons 14, allowing all nations access to the sea as it threatened the Empire. Point 10 – All countries rule themselves. This also threatened the Empire.
- What was the immediate impact of the Versailles on Germany up to 1923?
Political Violence
* 1920-attempted revolution called the Kapp Putsch was defeated by Berlin workers but paralysed essential services such as power and transport
* In 1922, Germany’s foreign minister Walther Rathenau was murdered by extremists
* In November 1923, Adolf Hitler lead a rebellion in Munich, the Munich Putsch. His rebellion was defeated but he was let off lightly on his trial as many Germans shared his hatred for Versailles.
* Over the next ten years he exploited Germany’s resentment to gain support for his Nazi party
Conflict in the Ruhr
* The first instalment of £50 million was paid in 1921, but in 1922 nothing was paid.
* In 1923, French and Belgian soldiers entered the Ruhr and took what was owed to them in the form of raw materials and goods.
* The German government ordered the workers to go on strike, so nothing was being produced. The French responded by killing over 100 workers and expelling over 100,000 protesters. The strike meant that Germany had no goods to trade and no money to buy things with.
Hyperinflation
* The strike was what led to hyperinflation. The government tried to solve the problem by printing more money
* The government and big industrialists were able to pay off huge debts in worthless marks
* However, a middle-class family would find that their savings, which were enough to bus a house in 1921, would not be enough to buy a loaf of bread in 1923
Could the treaties be justified at the time? / How justified was the Treaty of Versailles?
Yes
* Many felt that the Germans were operating a double standard. They called for fairer treatment, but this did not square with the harsh way they had treated Russia in the Brest-Litovsk treatment in 1918
* Germany’s economic problems were self-inflicted. Other states had raised taxes for the war, but the Kaiser’s government had not done this. It had allowed debts to mount up because it had planned to pay Germany’s war debts by extracting reparations from defeated states.
* Germany entered the war willingly, nobody had forced them into it; therefore, they have to accept the consequences of losing a war. This is fair as the Germans knew the consequences of losing and it was their mistake for entering war.
No
* Germans were angry that their governments were not represented at peace talks and that they were forced to accept a harsh treaty without choice or even comment
* Germany lost 16 percent of its coalfields and almost half of its iron and steel industries. Bothe the Saar and Upper Silesia were major industrial areas. Germans felt that this was very harsh as it further hindered their ability to pay reparations while building up a stable economy
* Germany’s army was their symbol of pride. An army of 100,000 men was very small for Germany, and despite Wilson’s 4th point calling for disarmament, none of the allies were being asked or forced to disarm in the same way
What problems did the peacemakers face in 1919?
- The political and social instability in Europe, which necessitated that they act speedily to reach a peace settlement
- The different aims of the peacemakers
- The nature of the Armistice settlement and the mood of the German population
- The popular sentiment in the Allied countries
The terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
Territorial
* Germany was banned from joining together with Austria (Anschluss)
* Germany’s overseas empire was taken away - Former Germany colonies like Cameroon became mandates controlled by the League of Nations (Britain and France)
Land taken away:
* Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia became independent states
* Alsace-Lorraine to France
* Saarland was run by the League of Nation
* West Prussia to Poland
War Guilt
* Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war
Reparations
* These were agreed without Consulting Germany
* Germany had to pay £6.6 billion to the allies for the damage caused by the war
Disarmament
* Germany’s army was limited to 100,000
* Conscription was banned – soldiers had to be volunteers
* Germany was not allowed armoured vehicles, submarines, or aircraft
* The navy could only have 6 battle ships
* The Rhineland became a demilitarised Zone. Rhineland was the border between Germany and France and no German troops were allowed into that area
League of Nations
* League of Nations was set up
* Germany was not invited into the League until it had shown it was a peace-loving country
Assessment of how satisfied Clemenceau/Wilson/Lloyd-George were with the Treaty.
- George Clemenceau – France
* Clemenceau was the most satisfies with the treaty. He was pleased that Germany had become weaker as it had lost territory as well as resources.
* However, he wanted Germany to be made into much smaller states, but this did not happen
* He wanted to cripple German militarily and economically to the extent that they would not be a threat to France for the foreseeable future. se
* He wanted reparations to be higher
* He was angry that France had only got the Saar Coalfields for only 15 years and that the Rhineland was only demilitarised. - Lloyd-George – Britain
* Lloyd George was satisfied that Britain had gained most of German’s colonies so that after 1919, Britain could recover its wealth and power.
* He liked the reduction of the German Navy, as it meant that the British Navy had control over the sea.
* He also liked being given mandates (British Cameroon, and German East Africa)
* However, he opposed self-determination and Clemenceau’s view on crippling Germany. After the treaty was signed, George stated that ‘we will have to fight another war in 3 years’ time at three times the cost’ - Woodrow Wilson - USA
* Got self-determination for people of Eastern Europe
* set up League of Nations
* Only some of 14 points were included
* Senate in USA would not sign Treaty of Versailles or join LoN
The German reaction to the Treaty. Why did they hate it? NB How are the reasons linked? What problems did the Treaty create in Germany?
Non-representation
* Germans were angry that their governments were not represented at peace talks and that they were forced to accept a harsh treaty without choice or even comment
* They did not feel that they had lost the war so they should not have been treated as a defeated country
German territories
* Germany lost: 10% of its Land in Europe, All of its overseas colonies and 12.5 percent of its population.
* Germany also lost 16 percent of its coalfields and almost half of its iron and steel industries. Bothe the Saar and Upper Silesia were major industrial areas. Germans felt that this was very harsh as it further hindered their ability to pay reparations while building up a stable economy
War Guilt/Reparations
* Germans felt that they had not started the war and at the very least that blame should be shared. They were bitter that they had to pay for all the damage even though Germany’s economy was severely weakened
The 14 points/League of Nations
* Germans felt that the treatment of Germany was not in line with Wilson’s fourteen points.
* German speaking people were being hived off to countries such as Czechoslovakia to be ruled-by non-Germans.
Disarmament
* Germany’s army was their symbol of pride. An army of 100,000 men was very small for Germany, and despite Wilson’s 4th point calling for disarmament, none of the allies were being asked or forced to disarm in the same way
Austria – Treaty of St Germain, 1919
- Territory: Bohemia-Moravia to the new state of Czechoslovakia, Bosnia Herzegovina, and Croatia to the new state of Yugoslavia (Also included the former Kingdom of Serbia)
- Austria also lost Galicia to Poland and soe land to Italy. The Austrian Empire had completely collapsed by 1918 and the treaty was really about sorting out territories rather than punishing Austria
- Austrian army was limited to 30,000 men
- Austria suffered severe economic powers after the war, as much of its industrial land had gone to Czechoslovakia.
Bulgaria – Treaty of Neuilly, 1919
Land was lost to Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia
Access to the Mediterranean was lost and armed forces were limited to 20,000
Bulgaria had to pay £100 million in reparations
Hungary – Treaty of Trianon, 1920
Hungary lost a substantial amount of its own territory and its population (3 million Hungarians ended up in other states
Its industries suffered from the loss of population and raw materials
It was due to pay reparations, but its economy was so weak it never did
Turkey – Treaty of Sevres, 1920
Turkey lost a vast amount of territory, and its original empire was broken up
As well as this, parts of Turkey were defined as zones of influence controlled by Britain, France, or Italy.
Armenia and Kurdistan became independent regions
Turkey’s tax system, finances and budget were to be controlled by the allies.
Turkey’s army were limited to 50,000 troops. Its navy was restricted, and it was not allowed an air force at all.
