Download Treaty of Versailles

Chapter 11 section 4 notes
• Right after the war had ended, President Wilson went onto a steamship bound for
France. He went to Paris, hoping to make peace. It wasn’t that easy though. The
problems were solved at the Paris Peace Conference.
THE COST OF WAR
• Millions of soldiers were killed, and many more wounded. This became even
worse in 1918 by a pandemic called influenza.
• A pandemic is the spread of disease across a large area, but at this time it was the
whole world.
• The flu killed more than 20 million people in this world in only a few months.
THE FINANCIAL TOLL
• In France and Russia, the battle zones, everything had been destroyed. People
had to leave, but then come back and re build.
• The people were very scared about the war. The “losers” of the war had to
make payments for the damage, which was called reparations.
POLITICAL TURMOIL
• The governments had went downhill in Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
the Ottoman empire. The radicals, people who wanted to make extreme changes,
wished to have a new social order.
• Unrest also swept through the colonial empires.
THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE
• The enemies met at the Paris Peace Conference to talk about Europe, the old
Ottoman Empire, and many other colonies around the world. But, Russia and
the Central Powers weren’t allowed to be a part of this conference.
CONFLICTING GOALS
• One of the stronger leaders who was powerful in the Paris Peace Conference
was Wilson. He was a very dedicated person, and knew he was always right.
Wilson really wanted “peace without victory.”
• The other two Allied leaders wanted something different than Wilson. David
Lloyd George wanted something that would cost some money, and the French
leader Georges Clemenceau wanted to weaken Germany so they could no
longer attack France.
PROBLEMS WITH THE PEACE
• Many other representatives had their own opinions and thoughts in the
“Big Three.”
• Something that caused a lot of problems was self-determination. The
people who had been ruled by Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman
Empire now really had wanted national states for themselves. It was very
hard to make all of these people happy.
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Wilson had to compromise on his Fourteen Points. Although, he still kept
his goal to create a worldwide League of Nations. The League that he had
wanted came from collective security, which was a system in which a
group of nations acts as one to preserve the peace of all.
Wilson was positive that this League would be helpful to anything that
was going wrong in Paris.
The Treaty of Versailles
• June 1919- Allies ordered representatives of the new German Republic to sign the
treaty they had drawn up.
• Germans were horrified.
• The treaty forced Germany to assume full blame for causing the war.
• It also imposed huge reparations that would damage German economy.
• The reparations covered destruction caused by the war and also pensions for
millions of Allied soldiers or their widows and families.
• German reparations total cost was 30 billion dollars (2.7 trillion today).
• The treaty limited the size of the German military.
• The treaty also compelled many Germans to leave the homes they had made in
Russia, Poland, Alsace- Lorraine and the German colonies return to Germany of
Austria.
• Germans signed because they had no choice.
Outcome of the Peace Settlements
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The Allies drew up separate treaties with the other Central Powers.
Self Determination in Eastern Europe
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A brand new nation emerged where the German, Austrian, and Russian empires
had once ruled.
Poland became an independent nation after more than 100 years of foreign rule.
The Baltic states of Latria, Lithuania, and Estonia fought and achieved
independence.
The Mandate System
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Colonial leaders expected that peace would bring new respect and an end to
imperial rule.
The victorious Allies added to their overseas empires.
Britain and France gained mandates over German colonies in Africa.
Japan and Australia were given mandates over some Pacific islands.
The treaties handled the land that used to be apart of the Ottoman empire.
From Africa to the Middle East and across Asia, people felt betrayed by the
peacemakers.
The League of Nations Offers Hope
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The Paris Peace Conference did offer one beacon of hope with the establishment
of the League of Nations.
More than 40 nations joined the League.
Wilson faced resistance from his own Senate.
Some Republican senators, led by Henry Lodge, wanted to restrict the treaty so
that they United States would not be obligated to fight in future wars.
Wilson would not accept Lodge's compromises.
The Senate refused to ratify the treaty, and the United States never going the
League.
The loss of the United States weakened the League's power.
As time soon revealed, the League could not prevent war.
Describe the multiple factors which led to WWI
Explain how WWI ended and eventually led to another world war..