Download Territorial Changes as a Result of World War I

The Peace Settlement
Woodrow Wilson submitted his 14 Points, a document that he felt justified
the struggle.
Open covenants of peace vs. secret diplomacy
reduction of national armaments
self determination of people
No more absolutism or militarism
League of Nations
However, when he arrived, he realized the European nations were guided
by other motives.
England and France
• David Lloyd George, Britain, won re election based on the fact that
Germany would pay for the war.
• France, Georges Clemenceau, believed the French people deserved
revenge and security from Germany since they bore the brunt of
German aggression.
– Demilitarized Germany
– Vast German reparations to pay for the cost of the war
– The Rhineland as a buffer state between France and Germany
• Wilson viewed these demands as vindictive and contrary to the
principle of self determination.
• All nations present were worried about the Bolshevik revolution
spreading from Russia to the rest of Europe.
This led to the European nations strengthening eastern Europe states
buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe.
as a
The Treaty of Versailles
• The final peace settlement was made up of 5 different treaties with the
defeated nations: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and the
Ottoman Empire.
• Germany was not invited to the talks
• The Treaty of Versailles with Germany was the most important oneJune 28th, 1919. The Germans considered it extremely harsh.
– War Guilt Clause- declared Germany and Austria responsible for starting the war
and ordered Germany to pay reparations for all the damages the Allied powers
suffered.
– Had to reduce their army to 100,000 men
– Lost Alsace and Lorraine to the French and sections of Prussia to the new Polish
state. German land in the west went to the new demilitarized Rhineland to serve as a
buffer against possible future German aggression.
Territorial Changes
As a Result of
World War I
WW 1 Secret Treaties:
Sykes-Picot Agreement [1916]
• The Sykes–Picot Agreement, officially
known as the Asia Minor Agreement,
was a secret agreement between the
governments of the United Kingdom
and France, with the assent of
Russia, defining their proposed
spheres of influence and control in the
Middle East .
• Originally they had promised these
nations independence, but after the
war France took control of Lebanon
and Syria, and Britain received Iraq
and Palestine.
• Ruled them as mandates, where
they officially administered a
territory on behalf of the League
of Nations
• Self Determination was ignored.
Balfour Declaration [1917]
Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild.
I have much pleasure to convey to you, on behalf of His
Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with
Jewish Zionist aspirations {hopes} which has been submitted to, and
approved by, the Cabinet.
“His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their
best endeavors to facilitate {assist} the achievement of this object, it
being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice
the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other
country.”
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the
knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR
British Foreign Secretary
British Palestine Mandate in 1923
The Middle East in the 1920s
Eastern Europe
• The people groups in Eastern Europe made it impossible to draw
boundaries along neat ethnic lines.
• Compromised had to be made.
• Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia were expanded to
serve as barriers between Germany and Communist Russia and the
rest of Europe.
• Nearly every Eastern European state was left with a minorities problem
that would lead to future conflicts.
– Germans in Poland, Hungarians, Poles and Germans in Czechoslovakia and Serbs,
Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians and Albanians in Yugoslavia;
German Pacific Colonies [1914]
Germany’s Pacific colonies went to Japan, Australia and New Zealand as
mandates.
League of Nations Mandates in Africa
Germany deprived of its colonies in Africa and the Pacific, German colonies in
Africa given to GB, the Union of SA and France as mandates under the League of
Nations. (suppose to watch out for the natives and prepare them for
independence)
New Nations &Territories After WW I
The League of Nations
• An association of states that would replace traditional power politics with a
commitment to use peaceful means to resolve international disputes.
• Created an assembly, which represented all members of the League.
• Created a council, a smaller body with the major powers as permanent
members of the League along with several other rotating members elected
by the Assembly.
• A secretariat which was the league’s administrative body.
• The Permanent Court of International Justice
• Ineffective from the beginning, especially when the US Senate refused to
ratify the treaty so the US never joined.