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ARMISTICE: A Failed Peace

ARMISTICE: A Failed Peace. The Post WWI World. By the early summer of 1918, fresh American troops and tanks turned the tide against Germany . After four years of fighting, Germany was exhausted of men and materials and could no longer continue to fight.

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ARMISTICE: A Failed Peace

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  1. ARMISTICE: A Failed Peace The Post WWI World

  2. By the early summer of 1918, fresh American troops and tanks turned the tide against Germany.

  3. After four years of fighting, Germany was exhausted of men and materials and could no longer continue to fight.

  4. German workers and soldiers revolted against the German imperial government. On November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm IIfled Germany.

  5. A new democratic German government signed an armistice with the Allies.

  6. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month of 1918, the guns fell silent. Today, this is celebrated as Veteran’s Day.

  7. In January 1919, representatives of the Allied nations met in Paris to make a final settlement of the war.

  8. The victorious Allies - the United States, Britain, and France, known as the Big Three, made most of the important decisions at the Paris Peace Conference. Germany was not included. Russia was in the midst of a civil war and could not attend. Italy was given a minor role.

  9. The final and most famous peace settlement was the Treaty of Versailles.

  10. United States President Woodrow Wilson proposed a peace plan based on democracy and cooperation among nations.

  11. Wilson proposed his plan of “Fourteen Points” which included: • open, rather than secret, treaty negotiations between nations • freedom of the seas and free trade • a massive reduction in military strength of all nations • ensuring self-determination, or the right of each people to have its own nation • the creation of a League of Nations to be an international peacekeeping force

  12. The British and French, however, who had suffered the most among the allied victors, wanted revenge on the Germans. • They wanted to: • strip Germany of all weapons • have the Germans pay massive reparations • strip Germany of territory to create a neutral buffer state between Germany and France in the German Rhineland

  13. The final Treaty of Versailles began by declaring that the Germans were guilty of starting the war.

  14. The treaty required Germany: • to pay massive reparations for all damages • to reduce its military forces to just 100,000 man peacekeeping force • demilitarize German land near the Rhine River to prevent future aggression toward France • eliminate its airforce altogether and greatly reduce the size and power of the German navy • rebuild the British and French merchant navy

  15. The treaty also required Germany to lose large parts of its territory by: • returning the borderlands of Alsace and Lorraine, which had been captured by Germany during the Franco-Prussian war of the 1870s, to French control • surrendering territory in eastern Germany to create a new Polish state

  16. The German government accepted the peace terms because it had no choice. To refuse would invoke an Allied invasion of Germany. However the treaty outraged and angered the German people, who felt the Treaty of Versailles was a harsh and unfair peace.

  17. Five new nation-states emerged from lost Russian territory: • Poland • Finland • Latvia • Estonia • Lithuania

  18. Almost every new eastern European state included ethnic minorities. For example, there were Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia and Hungarians in Romania. National and ethnic rivalries in the region have continued to plague eastern Europe to the present and have led to many conflicts.

  19. The devastation of the war and the failure to satisfy all stakeholders in the peace process opened the door to revolution, further instability …

  20. … and laid the foundations for the even more destructive Second World War a generation later.

  21. DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT CREATED BY DAVID WILLIAM PHILLIPS

  22. In 1914, although Russia had the second-largest army in Europe, a lack of experienced military leaders and outdated weaponry left the Russian Empire ill prepared for the Great War. The poorly trained and equipped Russian army suffered terrible losses on the Eastern Front against the Central Powers.

  23. By 1917, the Russian will to continue fighting in the war had disappeared. In March 1917, working-class women in St. Petersburgcalled for a massive strike to shut down the factories.

  24. Czar Nicholas II responded by ordering his troops to break up the crowds with force. However, many soldiers refused their orders to fire and instead joined the demonstrators.

  25. On March 12, 1917, the Duma urged the czar to abdicate his throne, which he did. Liberals in government tried to establish a Russian Republic.

  26. The provisional government decided to continue fighting the Great War. This was a grave mistake; workers and peasants wanted to end the terrible years of fighting.

  27. The government was challenged by the power of the soviets— councils representing workers and soldiers — which came to play an important role in Russian politics. Soviets sprang up around Russia. Most were made up of socialists.

  28. The Bolsheviks were a radical Marxist political party whose influence was on the rise. They were led by V.I. Lenin, and were dedicated to beginning a violent revolution to overthrow the capitalist system.

  29. Three slogans summed up the Bolshevik program: • “Peace, Land, Bread” • “Worker Control of Production” • “All Power to the Soviets”

  30. By the end of October, 1917, the Bolsheviks held majorities in the St. Petersburg and Moscow soviets. On November 6, the Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace and the provisional government collapsed.

  31. The Bolsheviks renamed themselves the Communists. In March of 1918, Lenin ended the war with Germany. By the terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, Lenin surrendered vast amounts of Russian territory to end the fighting.

  32. Civil war soon broke out in Russia. Many people were opposed to the Communists, including czarists, liberals, and anti-Leninist socialists. They were aided by the Allies, who gave them troops and supplies, hoping Russia would rejoin the war.

  33. But, by 1920, the Communist Red Army emerged as the victor.

  34. By 1921, the Communists had complete control of Russia. The country had become a centralized state dominated by a single party. However, the country and government were both on the verge of collapse.

  35. Due to the long years of war, Russia’s industrial output was only 20 percent of its 1913 capacity. • Then, in the early 1920s, millions in Russia died during a great famine caused by drought.

  36. In 1921, Lenin created the New Economic Policy (NEP) to cope with the extreme problems. This was a modified version of capitalism. • Peasants could sell produce and small businesses could be privately owned but the government still controlled heavy industries and banking.

  37. In 1922, the Communists created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Soviet Union.

  38. The NEP saved the Soviet Union from economic ruin, but the Communists saw it only as a temporary measure on the path to true communism.

  39. In 1924, Lenin died and a bitter struggle for power in the Politburo, the committee that controlled the policies of the Communist Party, ensued.

  40. One faction, led by Leon Trotsky, wanted to end the NEP and rapidly industrialize the nation at the expense of the peasants. • They also wanted to spread communism to other countries.

  41. Trotsky’s main rival in the Politburo was Joseph Stalin. • He had been born as IosifDzhugashvili but adopted the name “Stalin” which means “Man of Steel.” • Stalin was not a great philosopher but was a great bureaucrat and organizer.

  42. Stalin held the job of general secretary, and as such had appointed thousands of officials throughout Russia. • These officials helped Stalin gain complete control over the Communist Party.

  43. By 1929, Stalin had removed Trotsky, the original Bolsheviks, and anyone who threatened his personal power and made himself the powerful dictator of the Soviet Union.

  44. Trotsky fled to Mexico, where he was tracked down and assassinated in 1940, on Stalin’s orders.

  45. The Stalinist Era began a time of radical changes in the Soviet Union. • In 1928, Stalin ended the NEP and instituted the First Five-Year Plan.

  46. The Five-Year Plans set clear economic goals for five-year periods. The plans emphasized rapid industrialization and production of capital goods and greatly increased the output of heavy machinery and production of oil and steel.

  47. The Five-Year Plans, however, took a heavy toll on the Russian people. • Urban housing for millions of workers was terrible. Wages declined.

  48. The government dealt with these problems by using propaganda to boost morale.

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