Effects of WWI: The Peace Treaties
"We shall now see these gentlemen enter various ministries. They can make the peace thas to be made.
They can now eat the soup they have served up to us!"
General Erich Ludendorff
They can now eat the soup they have served up to us!"
General Erich Ludendorff
WWI Ends
On 29 September 1918 Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff told Kaiser Wilhelm II that the war was lost and that negotiations for an armistice based on President Wilson's peace proposals should begin at once.
Germany was rapidly falling apart in the last few weeks of the war. By October many soldiers had had enough, and there were mass desertions. The navy mutinied in November, when orders were issued for the High Sea's Fleet to launch a massive attack on the Royal Navy in an attempt to sabotage the armistice negotiations.
Germany was rapidly falling apart in the last few weeks of the war. By October many soldiers had had enough, and there were mass desertions. The navy mutinied in November, when orders were issued for the High Sea's Fleet to launch a massive attack on the Royal Navy in an attempt to sabotage the armistice negotiations.
On November 11, 1918, a depleted Germany agreed to an armistice in what was then known simply as the Great War, putting a merciful end to four years of conflict that killed some 10 million soldiers and left 21 million more wounded. The legacy of the First World War didn't end there, however, nor did it end seven months later, when a formal peace treaty was signed in the glittering Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, France.
The Treaty of Versailles
The peace conference that led to the Treaty of Versailles began its deliberations in Paris in January 1919. The proceedings were dominated by the French Premier Georges Clemenceau and the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George - both of them pushed by vengeful electorates to make somewhat harsher demands of their adversaries than they might otherwise have made.
The Italian Minister President Vittorio Orlando and the American President Woodrow Wilson were also members of the Council of Four, where the most important issues were discussed. These victorious Western Powers imposed a series of harsh treaties upon the defeated nations. These treaties stripped the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary, joined by Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria) of substantial territories and imposed significant reparation payments.
Task 1: The Big Three After WWI
Instructions:
- Read Chapter 4 of the text History - 20th Century World: Causes, Practices and Effects of War, Chapter 4 of the text "Modern World History (blue text)", "Chapter 3 - Origins of the First World War - McDonough.pdf", "Paris 1919.pdf", "Peace Making 1919-1920.pdf", "The Treaty of Versailles.pdf" and "What Effect Did the First World War Have on Germany?.pdf".
- Complete the task (see below) in the worksheet titled "THE BIG THREE AFTER WWI - Worksheet.pdf"
Following the signing of the armistices, the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 brought together the diplomats of twenty-nine countries to draft a series of peace treaties. Further discussion and drafts ensued in the Conference of London and San Remo Conference of 1920.
The important peace treaties drafted were:
Out of all the peace treaties, the Treaty of Versailles was the most significant. The Versailles Treaty required Germany to acknowledge its guilt in causing the war, and to pay hefty economic reparations in compensation for the losses and damages of the Allies. Widespread hatred of the treaty in Germany helped fuel the rise of Adolf Hitler, whose unchecked aggression led directly to a second devastating world war just three decades later.
The important peace treaties drafted were:
- Treaty of Versailles
- Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
- Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine
- Treaty of Trianon
- The Treaty of Sèvres
Out of all the peace treaties, the Treaty of Versailles was the most significant. The Versailles Treaty required Germany to acknowledge its guilt in causing the war, and to pay hefty economic reparations in compensation for the losses and damages of the Allies. Widespread hatred of the treaty in Germany helped fuel the rise of Adolf Hitler, whose unchecked aggression led directly to a second devastating world war just three decades later.
Task 2: The Treaty of Versailles
Instructions:
Instructions:
- Read Chapter 4 of the text History - 20th Century World: Causes, Practices and Effects of War, Chapter 4 of the text "Modern World History (blue text)", "Chapter 3 - Origins of the First World War - McDonough.pdf", "Paris 1919.pdf", "Peace Making 1919-1920.pdf", "The Treaty of Versailles.pdf" and "What Effect Did the First World War Have on Germany?.pdf".
- Identify and explain the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (see below).
- Identify the criticisms and alternative views towards the Treaty of Versailles (see below).
The Treaty of Versailles was controversial from the beginning. When Germany asked for a general armistice in October 1918, it did so on the basis of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's famous Fourteen Points, which laid out the terms of what he called a "peace without victory." Once treaty negotiations began, however, the other Allied nations—especially France, whose land and people had been decimated by the war—argued strongly that Germany should be punished for its role in the war, and that the country should never again be allowed to pose a military threat to the rest of Europe.
The final version of the Versailles Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, demanded that Germany accept responsibility for the war and ordered the country to pay 226 billion Reichsmarks (later reduced to 132 billion, the equivalent of $33 billion at the time) in reparations. Germany's leaders were disillusioned by the treaty proceedings, and the entire cabinet quit in protest at one point in the spring of 1919. They weren't the only ones: John Maynard Keynes, representative of the British Treasury, had resigned from the conference in frustration, warning that "Germany will not be able to formulate correct policy if it cannot finance itself." |
Four other treaties were made with the countries that had helped Germany during the war. The Allied and Associated powers concluded a series of peace treaties with the so-called Central powers: Germany (at Versailles, June 28, 1919), Austria (Saint-Germain, September 10, 1919), Bulgaria (Neuilly, November 27, 1919), Hungary (Trianon, June 4, 1920), and Turkey, (Sèvres, August 10, 1920). Turkey fought successfully against the implementation of the August 10 treaty, and a new peace agreement was negotiated and signed at Lausanne, July 24, 1923. The United States Senate refused to ratify the treaties, however. Instead, the U.S. government concluded separate peace treaties with the former Central Powers.
Task 3: Other Treaties
Instructions:
Instructions:
- Read Chapter 4 of the text History - 20th Century World: Causes, Practices and Effects of War, Chapter 4 of the text "Modern World History (blue text)", "Chapter 3 - Origins of the First World War - McDonough.pdf", "Paris 1919.pdf", "Peace Making 1919-1920.pdf", "The Treaty of Versailles.pdf" and "What Effect Did the First World War Have on Germany?.pdf".
- Identify the terms and the impact of the other post-WWI treaties (see below).
The Effects of the Peace Treaties on Germany
Optimism: When the guns fell silent on 11 November most Germans confidently imagined that the peace settlement following the armistice would be based on a literal interpretation of Wilson's Fourteen Points. They had few regrets at the prospect of losing Alsace-Lorraine and some of the Polish provinces, and even entertained the illusion that the new Austrian republic, proclaimed on 12 November, would be permitted to join a greater Germany, thus completing the process of German unification.
German foreign minister Count Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau (fourth from the left)
Humiliation: On May 7, 1919, in a room in the grand Versailles Palace outside Paris, German foreign minister Count Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau arrived at the head of a delegation of diplomats. They came to negotiate with representatives of the major Allied powers -- Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States -- following the armistice that had ended World War I in Europe. Instead of finding seats laid out for his delegation, Brockdorff-Rantzau and his colleagues, dressed stiffly in frock coats and wing collars, were made to stand like so many errant schoolboys. This was the first of many humiliations imposed on the Germans after World War I.
Disappointment: The Germans believed that the conditions imposed on them were exceptionally harsh. No other issue so united Germans in their resentment of the victors than the question of reparations. Though Germany managed to avoid paying much of what it was supposed to pay, and borrowed and then repudiated vast sums, the important point is that ordinary Germans perceived reparations to be a punitive sanction. They were determined to overturn the Diktat (dictated peace).
Although all Germans were determined to see a revision of the treaty eventually, and to return to something like the frontiers of 1913, it would be a mistake to imagine that the Treaty of Versailles was the direct cause of World War II. The principal weakness of the Treaty of Versailles was that it was harsh enough to incense all Germans, while Germany was in a stronger position than in 1913, since it was now surrounded by weak and divided states and the Ententes of 1914 had fallen apart. This offered a golden opportunity for Germany to make a second bid for European domination.
By 1925 the way was certainly open for a peaceful renegotiation of the peace settlement, but Adolf Hitler - who by this time was exploiting the economic, social and political crises of the Weimar Republic on his way to becoming chancellor in January 1933 - had an insatiable desire for conquest that could not be sated by such means.
Disappointment: The Germans believed that the conditions imposed on them were exceptionally harsh. No other issue so united Germans in their resentment of the victors than the question of reparations. Though Germany managed to avoid paying much of what it was supposed to pay, and borrowed and then repudiated vast sums, the important point is that ordinary Germans perceived reparations to be a punitive sanction. They were determined to overturn the Diktat (dictated peace).
Although all Germans were determined to see a revision of the treaty eventually, and to return to something like the frontiers of 1913, it would be a mistake to imagine that the Treaty of Versailles was the direct cause of World War II. The principal weakness of the Treaty of Versailles was that it was harsh enough to incense all Germans, while Germany was in a stronger position than in 1913, since it was now surrounded by weak and divided states and the Ententes of 1914 had fallen apart. This offered a golden opportunity for Germany to make a second bid for European domination.
By 1925 the way was certainly open for a peaceful renegotiation of the peace settlement, but Adolf Hitler - who by this time was exploiting the economic, social and political crises of the Weimar Republic on his way to becoming chancellor in January 1933 - had an insatiable desire for conquest that could not be sated by such means.
Task 4: What Effect Did the Treaty of Versailles Have on Germany?
Instructions:
Instructions:
- Read Chapter 4 of the text History - 20th Century World: Causes, Practices and Effects of War, Chapter 4 of the text "Modern World History (blue text)", "Chapter 3 - Origins of the First World War - McDonough.pdf", "Paris 1919.pdf", "Peace Making 1919-1920.pdf", "The Treaty of Versailles.pdf" and "What Effect Did the First World War Have on Germany?.pdf".
- Complete the following spider-diagram below.
Exam Questions
Paper 2: Topic 1 - Causes, Practices and Effects of War
May Exams
November Exams
Paper 2: Topic 4 - Peace and cooperation: international organizations and multiparty states
Paper 3 Questions
Paper 2: Topic 1 - Causes, Practices and Effects of War
May Exams
- Analyse the results of either the First World War or the Second World War. (May 2005 & 2007)
- Compare and contrast the results of the First World War and the Second World War. (May 2006)
- Analyse the results of one twentieth century treaty or peace settlement. (TZ2 May 2008)
- Analyse (a) the short-term results, and (b) the long-term results up to 1935, of the First World War. (TZ1 May 2009)
- Why do economic problems occur in post-war periods? (TZ2 May 2011)
November Exams
- “Peace settlements create conditions for new conflicts.” With reference to at least two settlements explain to what extent you agree with this statement. (Nov 2005)
- In what ways, and with what success, did post-war peacemakers attempt to deal with the problems which produced the conflict? Specific reference should be made to two peace settlements. (Nov 2006)
- With reference to at least two peace settlements, in what ways, and with what success, have peace settlements resolved the issues which produced the conflicts? (Nov 2009)
- Examine the factors which hindered attempts at collective security after either the First World War or the Second World War. (Nov 2010)
- To what extent did the peace settlements after the First World War (a) deal with the issues which caused the war and (b) produce new problems, hindering future peace? (Nov 2011)
Paper 2: Topic 4 - Peace and cooperation: international organizations and multiparty states
- Compare and contrast the foundation and structure of the League of Nations & the United Nations. (May TZ1 2008)
Paper 3 Questions
- Assess the effects of two of the Paris Peace Settlements. (Nov 2006)
- What were the main factors that led to the foundation of the League of Nations in 1920? (Nov 2007)