Post on 04-Apr-2018
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Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?
The Treaty of Versailles, between the Allies andGermany, was signed in June 1919
It was the most complicated, and had the harshestconditions
One of the problems with the Treaty was that thevarious Allies who came to discuss it had widely
different aims
Most importantly, Germany was left out of thediscussions and made to take the whole blame
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What did the Big Three want?
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Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?
The Fourteen Points
Drawn up by President Wilson before USA entered the war
Points 1-5: dealt with international relations
Points 6-8: dealt with Germanys land gains during the war
Points 9-14: dealt with the specific issues of self-determination raised by World War I
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Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?
Making Compromises
The Treaty was only agreed with everyone making
compromises
Wilson had to compromise on decision-making process as it
would be too slow for all nations to take part in all decision-
making
Council of Four
Clemenceau, Wilson, Lloyd George and Orlando to meet
daily to make decisions
Other countries divided into committees that advised the
Council
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Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?
Secret Treaties
During the war, Britain and France made secret treaties to
pull other countries into the war
The countries now wanted what had been promised to
them
This meant giving German colonies to them
This went against Point 5 of the Fourteen Points and brokethe principle of self-determination
While not all the promises were honored, many of them
were
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Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?
Early self-determination
Austro-Hungarian and Turkish Empires begun collapse at
end of the war
Some areas of western Europe and the Balkans decided to
become independent states
States that announced independence:
Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
The Treaty might shift the borders of these new states; it
could not tell them to break up
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Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?
US isolation
Wilson badly wanted USA to be a part of the League and
to be involved in international politics
However, most of the US senate were in favour of
isolationism
Did not want to risk making treaties with European
countries and getting involved in their politics
Feared it would lead to another war
In the end, USA refused to join the League
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What were the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles?
Territorial terms
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What were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles?
Military terms
The German army was restricted to 100,000 men and
conscription was not allowed
Its navy was restricted to 15,000 men, six battleships and
some smaller ships
It could not have any submarines, tanks or planes
It had to accept full blame for the war under the war guilt
clause
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Economic terms
Germany had to pay reparations money to the Allies for
war damage
In 1921, the reparations were set at 6,650 million
What were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles?
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Other treaties signed
There were other treaties that were signed between the
Allies and the defeated countries Austria, Bulgaria,
Turkey and Hungary
All of the treaties had common elements:
The losing country had land taken away
The losing country had military restrictions placed it
The losing country had to agree to pay reparations
Allies insisted that the most important aim of the treaties
was to make sure that war never broke out on such a scale
again
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How did Germany react to the Treaty?
Germany was not allowed to take part in the peace
negotiations and was forced to accept all the terms of the
Treaty
Saw the Treaty as a Diktat a piece of dictation
Count Ulrich, the new foreign minister, was unwilling to
sign the Treaty, hence he resigned; Weimar government
sent another delegate to sign it
Felt they could break the Treaty since it had been
forced on them
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How did the League of Nationsbring hope?
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The League of Nations
Set up as part of the Treaty of Versailles
The hope was that a truly international organisation would
be able to maintain world peace and security by actingtogether to prevent war
Idea of collective security was one that people placed a
lot of faith in after the war
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What were the aims of the League?
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What were the strengths of the League?
Most successful when dealing with social and health issues
worldwide
Improved working conditions through the International
Labour Organisation
Set up commissions that improved living conditions in
poorer countries
Targeted the treatment of specific diseases significantlyreduced outbreaks of leprosy worldwide
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What were the weaknesses of the League?
Attitudes to the League
Signing the peace treaties at the end of the war meant
accepting the League Treaties were unpopular and so
the League was affected by this unpopularity
Countries that agreed to the League did not always take it
seriously
Britain and France saw the League as a place to discussthings
Since USA had insisted on the League, but was not a
member, many nations did not take the League seriously
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Membership
Not an organisation ofall nations
USA did not join
Germany, Austria and Hungary not allowed to join
Exclusion of defeated nations in WWI did not make it seemvery focused on peace
Little control over members
Possible for people to join and leave the League easily
Resulted in a constant shift of member states
Nations left when they felt the League was not helping
them or objected to their actions
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Mandates
Mandate: the legal right to govern under the control of
the League
League took over most of Germanys old colonies Allowed different member nations govern them under
mandates
Aim: to move the countries towards self-government as soon
as possible
But by 1939, none of these areas were self-governing Countries that had been in favour of the League now
turned against it they felt it had let them down
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Difficulties in resolving disputes
Leagues articles stressed the need for cooperation
between nations
Nations expected to accept Leagues decisions in disputes Members could punish other members for not obeying the
League by applying sanctions
Could also ask members to contribute troops to an
international fighting force to keep peace
However, members were very unwilling to do so
Authoritarian regimes less willing to listen to League
Knowing that League would not resort to force gave them
boldness to expand by conquest
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Political successes and failures of the League
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How far did hopes fordisarmament succeed?
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Collective or individual security?
Disarmament: the dismantling of armies and breaking up
of weapons, putting oneself in the position where war is
not possible
A key part of collective security if nations cut down theirweapons, the world would be safer
Nations did care about collective security, but their main
focus was the individual security of their nation
Big problem: trust
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Reasons for not disarming
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German disarmament
A League of Nations commission was to supervise the
disarmament
Germany disarmed slowly and took advantage of loopholes
in the Treaty
Allowed only an army of 100,000 troops
However, the government was secretly training people to be
ordinary soldiers
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Disarming the rest of the world:
naval disarmament
Difficult to get nations to agree to limit their navies
Targets were set by agreeing to a ration of shipbuilding
between nations, to keep the number of ships built byeach nation in balance
Significant tensions between USA and Japan, and Italy and
France
By 1939 some targets had been set:
Same proportions were applied to smaller warships
Everyone could build submarines, but at a low level
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Disarming the rest of the world:
military disarmament
In 1923, a Treaty of Mutual Assistance was suggested
Countries would limit their arms, but the League would
come to their defence if they were attacked
Few countries agreed to it
League decided to work toward military disarmament via
agreements on not going to war
Geneva Protocol (1924): nations would bring disputes to
arbitration at the League and not go to war while this was
going on
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928): proposed no war over next five
years except in self-defence
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How were reconstructionand recovery worked out?
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What hindered recovery and reconstruction?
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Germany a special case?
Insisted that the reparations set by the Treaty made
Germanys economic problems worse than the rest of
Europe
Between 1919 and 1923, the economic situation inGermany was very bad
Failed to make reparation payments, so France invaded
the Ruhr
Strikes that followed in the Ruhr by German workers
made the economic situation worse
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Stresemanns reforms in Germany
In August 1923, Gustav Stresemann became chancellor,
then foreign minister of Germany. He improved the
economy by:
Introducing a new currency the Rentenmark
Reducing government spending
Encouraging workers in the Ruhr, Germanys most
industrialised area, to go back and work properly(France occupied the Ruhr in 1923; the workers had
responded by striking or working slowly)
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Back into Europe?
Stresemann managed to improve Germanys relationships
with other countries
Got the rest of the world to talk about reducing
reparations, not just demand them
Steps toward better relations:
Locarno Pact (1925) - Germany, Britain and France agreed
to respect each others borders
Germany joined the League of Nations in 1926
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
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Pacts with other countries
The Dawes Plan, 1924 (drawn up by Parker Gilbert)
Germany was to pay less money
The USA would lend Germany money
French troops would leave the Ruhr Germany would give Gilbert several million pounds of gold
which was to be invested
The Young Plan, 1929
German reparations were cut to a quarter of originalamount
Gave Germany 59 more years to make payments
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Pacts with other countries
Despite these measures, Germany still did not meet the
requirements of the Plan
By 1932, it had made only a small payment
Germany had borrowed over 4,000 million and its
repayments amounted to only 370 million
Some surplus had gone into economic recovery plans
A significant amount went into secret rearming
By mid-1930s, the Young Plan was abandoned
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Summary