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THE PEACE OF PARIS 1919
PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE
• Organized by the victors
at the end of World War I
to settle the issues raised
by the conflict. Seventy
representatives from 27
nations attended. The
conference convened on
January 18, 1919 at
Versailles. Germany, the
other defeated Central
Powers, and the new
Russian Soviet republic
did not sit at the
conference tables.
BIG FOUR
• Dominated the
proceedings.
– Georges
Clemenceau of
France,
– Woodrow Wilson of
the United States,
– David Lloyd
George of Great
Britain
– Vittorio Orlando of
Italy.
SOBERING STATISTICS
• Never far from the memory of both victors and losers was the total of
deaths among their soldiers most of whom were young and
represented the promise of their nations, now lost for all time.
• 1. France
1,500,000
• 2. British Empire
1,000,000
• 3. Russia
1,700,000
• 4. Italy
500,000
• 5. United States
116,708
• 6. Germany
2,000,000
• 7. Austria-Hungary
1,250,000
CONFLICTING GOALS
• 1. Wilson favored a
conciliatory
settlement based on
the liberal principles
of his Fourteen
Points. His chief aim
was the
establishment of the
League of Nations.
CONFLICTING GOALS
• 2. Clemenceau, a tough, determined,
and skillful politician, was determined
to avenge the ruin of France and the
loss of a generation of French men.
He could personally remember the
harsh peace terms that Germany had
imposed on his country after the
Franco-Prussian War. He was
determined that Germany should
suffer and that the peace terms should
make it impossible for Germany to
wage war ever again. His chief aim
was to secure his country against
future German attack.
CONFLICTING GOALS
• 3. Lloyd George was inclined to
make a practical: moderate peace,
he had been elected on the basis
of promises that Germany and its
war leaders would be punished.
He distrusted Wilson's idealism
and was determined that none of
the Fourteen Points should be
allowed to interfere with Britain, its
traditional policies: or its
commitments to others.
CONFLICTING GOALS
• 4. Orlando, the least
important of the Big
four, was determined
that Italy receive the
huge territorial rewards
that had been promised
in 1915 to lure Italy into
the war on the Allied
side.
FRENCH CONCESSIONS
• France conceded its
key demand, that the
left bank of the Rhine
be detached from
Germany and put
under French military
control, in exchange for
British and American
promises of future
support. These
promises were later
repudiated.
FOURTEEN POINTS
•
•
•
•
1) open covenants of peace;
2) freedom of the seas;
3) removal of trade barriers;
4) reduction of national
armaments;
• 5) adjustment of colonial claims
with the interests of the people
given equal consideration;
• 6) Russian territorial integrity and
acceptance into the society of free
nations;
• 7) restoration of Belgian
sovereignty;
FOURTEEN POINTS
• 8) restoration of French territory;
• 9) Italy's boundaries should be adjusted along lines of
nationality;
• 10) the autonomous development of Austria-Hungary;
• 11) political and economic independence for the Balkan
states;
• 12) Turkish sovereignty and autonomous development
for the nationalities formerly under Ottoman control; free
passage through the Dardanelles;
• 13) an independent Poland with access to the sea;
• 14) a general association of nations to insure the political
independence and territorial integrity of all states.
SECRET TREATIES
• gain support countries had
made treaties during the war
promising compensation for
war efforts to those who joined
their side.
• A. March, 1915: England and
France promised Russia
Constantinople, the Straits,
and the bordering areas as
long as they were open to
travel
SECRET TREATIES
• B. April, 1915, Augusta
1916: Allies promised
territories to Italy and
Rumania if they joined
the Allied cause.
• C. April, 1916: England
and France promised
one another spheres in
Mesopotamia and
Palestine as well as
Syria, Adana, Cilia, and
southern Kurdistan.
SECRET TREATIES
• D. May, 1915: Sykes-Picot Treaty defined the
Arabian spheres of France and Britain. Russia
was to have similar rights in Armenia, portions of
Kurdistan, northeastern Anatolia.
• E. Other Promises:
– 1) England promised to support Japan's desire for
Germany's Asian possessions.
– 2) France and Russia agreed to promote one
another's claims at a future peace conference.
– 3) Arab independence was promised.
– 4) A Jewish homeland was promised.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• Presented to
Germany in May
1919 and signed
on June 28, was,
however, still
criticized as a
harsh ''dictated
peace."
Hands off German Lands
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• A. Germany was compelled to admit war
guilt and to pay heavy reparations ($33
billion). Germany was to pay for all civilian
damages caused during the war. The
former emperor and other unspecified
German war leaders were to be tried as
war criminals. (This provision was never
enforced.)
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• B. The German army
was limited to 100,000
soldiers and was not to
possess any heavy
artillery, the general
staff was abolished, and
the navy was to be
reduced. No air force
would be permitted, and
the production of
military planes was
forbidden.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• C. German colonies
became mandates
of Allied countries.
Britain and France
divided most of
Germany's African
colonies, and Japan
took over the
extensive island
possessions in the
South Pacific.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• D. AlsaceLorraine was
returned to
France. The
Saar coal
mines came
under French
control.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• E. Allied occupation of
the Rhineland was to
continue for at least 15
years, and possibly
longer, and the region
was to remain
perpetually
demilitarized, as was a
belt of territory 30
miles deep along the
right bank of the Rhine
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• F. Three smaller
frontier regions
near Eupen and
Malmedy were to
be ceded to
Belgium.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
• G. Parts of the German
provinces of Posen and
West Prussia were to be
given to Poland to provide
that revived nation with
access to the Baltic Sea;
the Baltic seaport of
Gdansk (Danzig) was to
become a free state but
linked economically to
Poland. This Polish
Corridor to the Baltic left
East Prussia completely
separated from the rest of
Germany.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
RESPONSES
• H. German Response: On May 7 a
German delegation headed by Graf
Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau were
presented with the treaty terms which
Brockdorff-Rantzau denounced. He
reminded the Allied leaders that the
Fourteen Points had provided the basis
for the armistice negotiations and thus
were as binding on the Allies as on
Germany. He insisted that the economic
provisions of the treaty were impossible
to fulfill. Although refusing to sign the
treaty, the German delegation took it
back to Berlin where Chancellor Philipp
Scheidemann also denounced the
treaty.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
RESPONSES
• The Allies had maintained their naval
blockade of Germany, however, and after long
and bitter debates in Berlin, it became
obvious that Germany had no choice but to
sign the treaty. Scheidemann and BrockdorffRantzau resigned on June 21. That same day,
at Scapa Flow, the German High Seas Fleet
staged a dramatic protest. Despite every
conceivable British precaution, the German
sailors scuttled each of their 50 warships in
the harbor. On June 28, 1919 the new
German chancellor, Gustav Bauer, sent
another delegation to Versailles. After
informing the Allies that Germany was
accepting the treaty only because of the need
to alleviate the hardships on its people
caused by the ''inhuman'' blockade, the
Germans signed.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
RESPONSES
• I. American Response:
Led by Henry Cabot
Lodge, the Irreconcilables
in the U.S. Senate
defeated the treaty in
November, 1919 in spite
of Wilson's whistle-stop
tour of the U.S. to garner
support. The United
States made a separate
treaty with Germany in
1921.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
• (approved April 28,
1919, inaugurated
January 15, 1920 at the
completion of the
Conference): 63 nations
were members
including all the major
European powers at
one time or another. Its
headquarters were in
Geneva.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
• A. Purpose: To make the peace secure,
administer former colonies of the defeated
powers as mandates, and foster general
disarmament
• B. Structure: Council of five permanent members
and elected delegates from smaller nations, an
assembly, a World Court.
• C. Article 10: preservation of territorial integrity of
all members - collective security provision
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
• D. COVENANT OF
THE LEAGUE OF
NATIONS: An
integral part of the
treaty, and every
nation signing the
treaty had to accept
the world
organization.
TREATY OF SAINT GERMAIN
• Signed with Austria September 10, 1919.
Austria recognized the independence of
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and
Yugoslavia. it also recognized the award of
Galacia to Poland, and of the Trentino, South
Tyrol, Trieste and Istria to Italy. The Austrian
army was limited to 30,000 men, and Austria
agreed to pay economic reparations to Allied
nations that had been victims of AustroHungarian aggression. Austria was forbidden to
unite with Germany.
TREATY OF NEUILLY
• Signed with Bulgaria November 27, 1919.
Bulgaria recognized the independence of
Yugoslavia, and agreed to cede territory to
Yugoslavia, Romania, and Greece.
Bulgaria's army was restricted, and the
country was forced to pay reparations to
its Allied neighbors.
TREATY OF TRIANON
• Signed with Hungary on
June 4, 1920. It reduced
the country in area from
109,000 sq mi. to less
than 36,000 sq mi. The
Hungarian army was
limited to 35,000 troops,
and reparations were
demanded, although the
amount was unspecified
TREATY OF SEVRES
• The peace settlement with Turkey was
long delayed.
• When finally signed on August 10, l920--it
was somewhat meaningless, because
Turkish strongman Mustafa Kemal Pasha
was leading a nationalist movement and
establishing a powerful government. After
reconquering Turkish Armenia, which had
become independent, and after ejecting a
Greek army from Turkey in a brilliant
campaign, Mustafa Kemal reoccupied
Thrace, or European Turkey, which had
been given to Greece by the Treaty of
Sevres.
TREATY OF SEVRES
• He then informed the
Allies that he was willing
to accept most of the
other provisions of the
original peace
settlement, consistent
with the Fourteen
Points. The Allies having
no desire for a new war,
and accepting the
reasonableness of the
Turkish position, agreed.
TREATY OF LAUSANNE
• Signed with Turkey on July 24, 1923. Turkey recognized
the independence of the Arab Kingdom of Hejaz, the
French mandate over Syria, and the British mandates
over Palestine and Mesopotamia. Turkey also
recognized Greek and Italian occupation of most of its
former Aegean islands and agreed to demilitarize the
straits, retaining the right to close them in time of war.
Turkey was to pay no reparations. It was a fair and
responsible treaty that left Turkey better off than it had
been before the war, because all of the territories lost
were really non-Turkish and had been perpetual military
and economic problems for the old empire.
NEW INDEPENDENT STATES
• Austria,
Hungary,
Yugoslavia,
Poland Finland,
Czechoslovakia,
Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania.