Download Peace Treaties and New Nations After WWI

Peace Treaties and New Nations
After WWI
Background to Peace Settlements
• 1918- U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
gave his famous “Fourteen Points” speech
to Congress, his basis for a lasting peace
settlement between nations.
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
• Main points included…
• Open agreements between countries. No
secret diplomacy.
• Reduction of national military forces or
weapons.
• Self-determination of people.
• League of Nations to prevent future wars.
• These points will create “collective
security,” collective meaning “all together.”
Paris Peace Conference 1919
• Twenty-seven nations met at the Paris Peace
Conference housed in the Versailles Palace.
• Most important decisions made by President
Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd
George, and French President Georges
Clemenceau.
• Germany and the Central Powers not invited to
attend.
• Russia not there because of its civil war.
Hall of Mirrors
Paris, France
Conference held at
Versailles Palace.
Conflicts
• President Wilson had a long term vision of
peace in Europe.
• France and Britain wanted to punish Germany.
• Both nations wanted Germany to pay for the
war.
• France wanted real security for itself since the
majority of the war was fought on French soil.
• France’s demands included creating a separate
state in Germany’s Rhineland province to be a
buffer between Germany and France.
Compromises
• Compromises by the Allies had to be
made for there to be a peace agreement.
• January 25, 1919, the Paris Peace
Conference accepted the idea of a League
of Nations.
• President Clemenceau gave up the idea of
a Rhineland state in exchange for a
defensive alliance with the U.S. and Great
Britain.
Treaty of Versailles June 28, 1919
• Article 231 of treaty, the “war guilt” clause.
Declared Germany and Austria were responsible
for the war.
• Germans were to pay reparations (payment for
damages and suffering caused by the war) to
the Allied nations.
• Germany was to cut down its army to 100,000.
• Alsace-Lorraine region in Germany returned to
France (France had lost it in in the late 1800s).
• Some territory of East Prussia rewarded to new
country of Poland.
• The Rhineland province was to be demilitarized
(no army or weapons allowed).
• The new German government was
outraged.
• German leaders eventually signed the
treaty knowing they could not go back
immediately to war.
Other Peace Treaties from the
Paris Conference
• Austro-Hungarian Empire completely
broken apart.
• Austria and Hungary forced to become
separate countries.
• Between Russia (also lost major territory),
Germany, and Austria-Hungary, many new
countries were created based on the
majority nationality that lived in the region.
New Countries in Central-Eastern
Europe after 1918
• Poland created from Germany, Russia, and AustriaHungary.
• Czechoslovakia created from Germany and AustriaHungary.
• Danzig was created from Germany as an international
city and port run by the League of Nations.
• Yugoslavia (Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia,
Macedonia) created from Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
• Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland created from lost
Russian territory.
• Romania was awarded a huge chunk of Hungary, mainly
Transylvania.
Europe Map After 1919
Ottoman Empire Breakup
• Also broken up after the peace settlement.
• Western Allies had promised during the
war to recognize Arab states in the Middle
East since they helped them fight the
Turks.
• Promises were broken once the war
ended.
• Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine went to
the British and Syria went to France.
• President Wilson complained this was
against the principle of self-determination.
• League of Nations decided these areas
would be mandates (governed by France
and Britain but not made colonies of those
countries)
Success and Failures of the Paris
Peace Conference
• Success
• Self-determination. Many democratic nations in Europe
were created out of the empires.
• League of Nations formed.
• Failures
• Wilson failed to achieve peace without victory. Germany
dealt a severe financial punishment it could not afford.
• Major failure was enforcement of the Treaty of
Versailles.
-U.S. Congress voted against America’s participation in the
League of Nations.
-U.S. Congress rejected the defensive alliance with Great
Britain and France.
-British Parliament also rejected the alliance.
-France by itself had to take stronger actions against
• Germany’s resentment grew!
• To be continued…