Consequences of the great war

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CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREAT WAR

Transcript of Consequences of the great war

Page 1: Consequences of the great war

CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREAT WAR

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A. THE PEACE TREATIES:• In 1919, after the defeat of the Central Powers, the victorious powers met in

Paris to decide how to deal with the defeated powers. Among the thirty-two nations that met were not included, nor the defeated countries nor Russia, whose revolutionary government was not recognized by the other nations. Moreover the main decisions were taken by the Big Three (Great Britain, USA and France).

• The Peace Conference took place in the palace of Versailles and was inspired

by Wilson’s 14 points which among other ideas defended:– Colonies to have a say in their own future– Self-determination for the peoples of eastern Europe (they should rule

themselves)– Strengthen democracy in the defeated nations.– League of Nations to be set up

• However, as soon as the Paris Conference began, it became clear that there were very different objectives that the three leaders (Clemenceau, Wilson and Lloyd George) could not met.

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A. THE PEACE TREATIES:• Each leader held a different position on what the aim of the Peace

Conference should be:

– Clemenceau: The French leaders saw the Treaty as an opportunity to cripple Germany so that it could not attack France again. France had suffered enormous damage to its land, industry and people sot hey sought to weaken Germany as much as possible and to get revenge.

– Wilson: He believed that the treaty with Germany should not be too harsh, otherwise some day it would recover and seek revenge. In addition he thought that nations should co-operate to achieve world peace.

– David Lloyd: he was in the middle ground between Clemenceau and Wilson. He wanted Germany to be justly punished but not too harshly. He wanted Germany to lose its navy and its colonies because Britain thought they threatened the British Empire. But as Wilson, he didn’t want Germany to seek revenge in the future and start another war.

• However, after 12 months of negotiations a harsh treaty was impose to Germany. The French desires prevailed in the end paving the way to the Second World War.

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A. THE PEACE TREATIES:

• Five treaties were drawn up at the Conference. The main one was the Treaty of Versailles which dealt with Germany. The other four dealt with Germany’s allies:

– Treaty of St Germain (Austria)

– Treaty of Neuilly (Bulgaria)

– Treaty of Trianon (Hungary)

– Treaty of Sèvres (Turkey)

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B. POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES:

A) The most important political consequence of the war was the collapse of the 4 lasting European empires with its dynasties and the strengthen of democratic regimes:- The Romanov in Russia.- The Habsburgs in Austria-Hungary- The Hohenzollern in Germany- The sultanate in the Ottoman Empire.

B) As a consequence of this we witness the recreation of new countries which had an impact on the map of eastern and central Europe as it has not been seen since 1815. In this respect the principle of self-determination was one of the big winners. From the collapse of the Russian, Austria-Hungarian and Ottoman empires emerged:- Poland - Lithuania - Finland - Yugoslavia- Estonia - Czechoslovakia- Leetonia - Hungary

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B. POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES:

• C) We witness the extension of the social and democratic rights on those countries with a large democratic tradition. In some countries they apply the universal male suffrage and introduce the female suffrage.

• D) However, due to the economic situation, the social strains and the fear to communism after the war, soon many Europeans governments will take authoritarian measures. This fact has made historians talk about the “end of democracy” in some cases. In central and eastern Europe where they did not have a democratic tradition soon will have authoritarian regimes (Hungary and Poland) or we will witness the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy.

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C. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES:

• One of the main consequences of the Great War was that Europe lost its economic supremacy. The economic ordeal, the heavy loss of life and damages, the indebtedness of the states, specially with USA, sank Europe into a major crisis from which it took a long time to recover.

• These debts that Europe had supposed a drainage of capitals for Europe which went mainly to USA. In 1919 for example, Great Britain had a debt with USA of 4.000 million Dollars and France of 5.000 million Dollars.

• These huge debts had as a consequence the substitution of the “Gold Standard” for the “Currency System” as the states didn’t have enough cash-flow to pay huge amounts of money.

• Moreover, the main powers had to apply hard economic measures to avoid

inflation and to face the process of rebuilding its economy. That meant that the population suffered very hard times with even periods of famines.

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C. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES:

• By 1925 France and Great Britain had almost rebuilt their economic stability but Great Britain could not recover its financial supremacy. Since the end of the war it was now New York the main stock-market and not London-Paris anymore.

• However, it was Germany which struggle with a real economic chaos as, on top of the difficulties of rebuilding its economy, it had to pay reparations to the allies. The amount of it was 6.600 million pounds to be paid in annual instalments.

• Yet, it was soon clear for Great Britain and USA that Germany would not be able to pay. They also knew that to force Germany to do it would mean a terrible social cost to the country that would only put its government (the Weimar Republic) in a more precarious position. (Coup d’etat).

• Both countries, Great Britain and USA, knew that Germany need to rebuild its economy to be able to pay, so in 1924 they developed the Dawes Plan. This consisted on setting an annual instalment which depended on its annual GDP. In addition Germany received American loans under the Dawes Plan and investments that helped the reconstruction of the country.

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C. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES:• Until 1927 the situation was good

and Germany seem to almost have recover from the war, but in 1929 the American stock market crashed and sent the USA into a disastrous economic depression. In a very short time, countries around the world began to feel the effects of this depression.

• Germany was particularly badly affected. American bankers and businessmen lost huge amount of money. To pay off their debts they asked German banks to repay the money they had borrowed. The result was economic collapse in Germany. Businesses went bankrupt, workers were laid off and unemployment rocketed.

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C. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES:• However, until 1929 USA was

the main beneficiary of the Great War. New York became the main stock market and the dollar the main currency.

• In addition it became the main redistributors of world trade. Its outcome multiply by three and it was creditor of 10.000 million dollars.

• Because of all this the 20’s in USA were known as the Roaring Twenties.

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C. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES:

• Japan also benefited from the war diversifying its industry, expanding its markets and colonies, and increasing its outcomes.

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D. SOCIAL AND IDEOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES.

• People lost their faith in progress.• The society praises youth and

identifies the figure of the young soldier as the peace architect. This feeling was specially strong in Germany helping the come up of Nazism in the 30s.

• Strong social strains spread across Europe due to the economic situation. Specially important were the Spartacus revolution in Germany and the activities of the Communist in Italy.

• Women gain access to jobs that previously had been preserved for men and the right to vote. In Great Britain full voting rights for women were granted in 1928.

• New attitudes among young women. Change in sexual morals: after the war sex is no more a taboo subject. Contraceptive advice was openly available for the first time. Sex outside marriage was more common as getting divorce. Female and male sex symbols like Theda Bara and Rudolph Valentino appears in the cinema.

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E. COLONIAL CONSEQUENCES

• The Great War brought out new colonial strains but between the metropolis and the colonies. The Colonies demand better conditions.

• Nationalist and independence protest will lead to the process of colonial emancipation.

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F. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

• Another consequence of the war was the set up of the League of Nations.

• The serious and dramatic consequences of the war, and its scope made the countries that met in the Peace Conference agree that a war like that could not happen again.

• Therefore, inspired by Wilson’s 14 points, they set up the League of Nations, an organism to encourage international co-operation.

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F. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONSThe League’s home was in Geneva and it had two

bodies:

- The Assembly: it was the League’s Parliament. Every country in the League sent a representative to the Assembly. The Assembly could recommend action to the Council and vote.

- The Council: It was a smaller group which met more often. It was constitute by the permanent members (Great Britain, France, Japan and Italy) and 4 temporary members chosen by the Assembly.

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F. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONSThe aims of the League of Nations were:

- To deal with the disputes of the members.- To monitor the observance of the treaties.- To encourage nations to disarm- To encourage nations to co-operate- To protect national minorities- To run former German colonies and Turkey’s lost

territories now under the control of France and Great Britain.

- To discourage aggression from any nation.- To improve the living and working conditions of people

in all parts of the world.

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F. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONSHowever, the absence of USA and of the defeated

nations, involved that the League would never be a genuine international forum for debate.

Moreover, the fact that the League was powerless for compelling the application of the treaties, made the League ineffective against other countries abuses and aggressions.