Subject 1 Study Guide

1. Subject 1 Study Guide IB 20th Century World History Topics

2. 1. What were the aims of the participants and peacemakers of the Paris Peace Settlement? Wilson and the Fourteen Points?

3. Paris Peace Conference • The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors in World War I to set the peace terms for Germany and other defeated nations, and to deal with the empires of the defeated powers following the Armistice of 1918. • They met, discussed and came up with a series of treaties (Peace of Paris Treaties) in an attempt to maintain a lasting peace throughout the world. • At its center were the leaders of the three "Great Powers": President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain, and Georges Clemenceau of France. Russia and Germany were not allowed to attend, but many others came, each with a different agenda.

4. Georges Clemenceau • The chief goal of the French leader, Georges Clemenceau, was Security, to weaken Germany militarily, strategically, and economically. • In particular, Clemenceau sought an American and British guarantee of French security in the event of another German attack. • Clemenceau also expressed skepticism and frustration with Wilson's Fourteen Points.

5. Georges Clemenceau • Liked the harsh things that were in the Treaty: • 1.   Reparations (would repair the damage to France), • 2.   The tiny German army, and the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland (would both protect France), • 3.  France got Alsace-Lorraine, and German colonies.   • But he was disappointed with the Treaty: • a . He wanted higher reparations • b.   He wanted the Treaty to be harsher • c.   He wanted Germany to be split up into smaller countries.

6. Clemenceau reactions.. • “The start was not a happy one with von Brockdorff-Rantzau who, draped in brutish insolence, came to accuse us of "hating" Germany because we did not offer our necks to her executioners.   Since then the policy of Germany has merely been to gather up every chance weapon that could enable her to evade the Treaty.   Audacity and guile naturally increased under the encouragement of manifestations like that of Mr. Keynes or of the series of unholy concessions from which Germany has been led to deduce that her signature at Versailles binds her only subject to further discussions.   The hour of supreme warning came when the heads of the Allied Governments were told to their faces by a German delegate that, before they could usefully discuss, they "must cure themselves of the sickness of victory."

7. French :division of Germany

9. CLEMENCEAU reactions.. • “Their trouble is that they see the future only through the blood-red mists of a civilization grafted upon the survival of barbarism.” • “Vanquished, our lot under Ludendorff would not have differed from that of Rome under Hannibal.   Victorious, we have assumed our responsibility in the most noble effort to achieve a lasting peace by the sole forces of Right.   To one and all such a state was well worth a general effort of self-restraint instead of the old rush to divide the spoils between those who had overcome the enemy.”

11. Assesment … • What are France's main concerns about Germany? • According to Clemenceau –How did the German leaders act in the conference? • Do the French demands seem reasonable or unreasonable? • How would Germany react to reparation clause?

12. Vittorio Orlando • Vittorio Orlando was sent as the Italian representative with the aim of gaining as much territory as possible. • The loss of 700,000 Italians and a budget deficit of 12,000,000,000 Lire during the war made the Italian government and people feel entitled to territories. • Dissatisfied as territorial aspirations were not met.

13. Dalmatia Trieste tyrol

14. Extracts from the Treaty of London, 26 April 1915 • Article 4 • Under the Treaty of Peace, Italy shall obtain the Trentino, Cisalpine Tyrol with its geographical and natural frontier, as well as Trieste, the counties of Gorizia and Gradisca, all Istria as far as the Quarnero and including Volosca and the Istrian islands of Cherso and Lussin, as well as the small islands of Plavnik, Unie, Canidole, Palazzuoli, San Pietro di Nembi, Asinello, Gruica, and the neighbouring islets... • Article 5 • Italy shall also be given the province of Dalmatia within its present administrative boundaries... • Article 6 • Italy shall receive full sovereignty over Valona, the island of Saseno and surrounding territory...

15. Extracts from the Treaty of London, 26 April 1915 • Article 7 • Should Italy obtain the Trentino and Istria in accordance with the provisions of Article 4, together with Dalmatia and the Adriatic islands within the limits specified in Article 5, and the Bay of Valona (Article 6), and if the central portion of Albania is reserved for the establishment of a small autonomous neutralised State, Italy shall not oppose the division of Northern and Southern Albania between Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece... • Article 8 • Italy shall receive entire sovereignty over the Dodecanese Islands which she is at present occupying. • Article 9 • Generally speaking, France, Great Britain, and Russia recognise that,... in the event of total or partial partition of Turkey in Asia, she ought to obtain a just share of the Mediterranean region adjacent to the province of Adalia...

16. Dissatisfied Italy.. • Ultimately Italy was granted Trentino, Trieste, (the German-speaking) South Tyrol, and Istria.  • But Dalmatia was excluded and Fiume too. didnt get any colonial territories in Africa or Asia or any claim on Albania.  • Nationalists consequently argued that Italy had been robbed of its rightful gains.

17. England • Goals of England: David Lloyd George wanted to maintain the British Empire's unity, holdings and interests, but it entered the conference with the more specific goals of: • Ensuring the security of France • Removing the threat of the German Fleet • Settling territorial contentions • Supporting the Wilsonian League of Nations in that order of priority.

18. David Lloyd George • Many British people wanted to ‘make Germany pay’, and Lloyd George liked: • 1.   The fact that Britain got some German colonies (expanded the British Empire), • 2.   The small German navy (helped Britain to continue to 'rule the waves').   • But Lloyd George hated the Treaty: • a.   He thought that the Treaty was far too harsh and would ruin Germany, • b.   He thought it would cause another war in 25 years time

19. British reactions..( Keynes) • The Treaty includes no provisions for the economic rehabilitation of Europe - nothing to make the defeated Central Empires into good neighbours, nothing to stabilise the new States of Europe, nothing to reclaim Russia...   The Council of Four paid no attention to these issues, being preoccupied with others - Clemenceau to crush the economic life of his enemy, Lloyd George to bring home something that would pass muster for a week, the President to do nothing that was not just and right.... JM Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) • Keynes's book had a massive effect on the educated people of Britain   It created the belief that Germany had been badly treated, and this in turn led to British preparedness to 'appease' Hitler in the 1930s.    • Harold Macmillan, the future Prime Minister, did not agree with Keynes's argument, but claimed instead  that 'the legend of the unfair peace did infinite harm in both Germany and Britain'

20. British reactions on treaty • Had a talk with Barnes [one of the British officials].   In his view the villain of the Treaty was Wilson, who had proved himself to be anything but a strong man, and a child in the hands of Clemenceau, who, as Barnes put it, 'could buy him at one end of the street and sell him at the other'....   Barnes had written several times to the PM protesting about the terms of the Peace Treaty especially the Reparation Clauses.. Thomas Jones, Whltehall Diary (2 July 1919) Jones was Assistant Secretary in the War Cabinet • We are all so disgusted with the peace that we have ceased to discuss it. Beatrice Webb, a famous Socialist writer and historian (1919) It is not statesmanship.   It is not business.   It is not common sense.   It is not the clean Peace by which I always meant, and other people meant, to end war with the war. HH Asquith, former Prime Minister, campaigning for election in 1920

21. 'Stern but just' • The terms are in many respects terrible terms to impose upon a country.   Terrible were the deeds which it requites...   Germany not merely provoked, but planned the most devastating war the earth has ever seen...   She deliberately embarked upon it, not to defend herself against assailants, but to aggrandise herself at the expense of her neighbours.   I cannot think of a worse crime. •               [The aim of the Treaty is] to compel Germany, in so far as it is in her power, to restore, to repair and to redress.   Yes, and to take every possible precaution of every kind that is in our power against the recurrence of another such crime - to make such an example as will discourage ambitious peoples from ever attempting to repeat the infamy. • Lloyd George, speaking in Parliament (3 July 1919).  

22. Wilson’s Fourteen Points • 1. Open covenants of peace. • 2. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas. • 3. Removal all economic barriers. • 4. Reduce armaments. • 5. An adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon popular soveriegnty.

23. Wilson’s Fourteen Points • 6. The evacuation of all Russian territory and settle all questions affecting Russia. • 7. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored. • 8. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored. • 9. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. • 10. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development. • 11. Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea. • 12. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty. • 13. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations.

24. Wilson’s Fourteen Points • 6-13. Specific territorial adjustments • 14. A general association of nations (League of Nations) must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

25. Woodrow Wilson • Wilson got: • 1.   A League of Nations, • 2.   Self-determination for the peoples of Eastern Europe,  • But he was disappointed with the Treaty: • a.   Some of his ‘Fourteen Points’ did not get into the Treaty, • b.   When Wilson went back to America, the Senate refused to join the League of Nations, and even refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles

26. A speech by Woodrow Wilson on the League of Nations (25 September 1919). • “Do not think of this treaty of peace as merely a settlement with Germany.   It is that.   It is a very severe settlement with Germany, but there is not anything in it that she did not earn.  Indeed, she earned more than she can ever be able to pay for, and the punishment exacted of her is not a punishment greater than she can bear, and it is absolutely necessary in order that no other nation may ever plot such a thing against humanity and civilization.   But the treaty is so much more than that.   It is not merely a settlement with Germany; it is a readjustment of those great injustices which underlie the whole structure of European and Asiatic society.”

27. Economic Disaster and USA • “Great Britain had lent millions of pounds to the Allies during the war and had herself been borrowing heavily from America....   Mr Churchill went to the United States to discuss the war debt, pointing out the economic chaos throughout the world which the payment of these enormous sums of money would cause; but the United States of America was adamant.   'They borrowed the money, didn't they?' was President Coolidge's comment. • Great Britain had suggested an all-round cancellation of war debts, but after learning of the United States insistence of payment she declared to the Allies that 'she would collect no more from her debtors, ally or former enemy, than the United States collected from her'.   At the end of the war, Britain owed the United States some $4000 million.   'The enforcement of the Baldwin-Coolidge debt settlement', wrote Mr Churchill in 1948, is a recognisable factor in the economic collapse which was soon to overwhelm the world'. Mary Cathcart Borer, Britain - Twentieth Century (1966) • Because America insisted that Britain repaying her war-debts to America, Britain was forced to insist on the huge reparations payments from Germany.

28. What is the message in this cartoon?

29. Subtopic 2 • 2. What were the terms of the Paris Peace Treaties 1919‑20: Versailles, St. Germain, Trianon, Neuilly, Sèvres/Lausanne 1923?

30. Treaty of Versailles • The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919. Although the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. • Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required Germany to accept sole responsibility for causing the war (later known as the War Guilt clauses), to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay reparations to the Entente powers. The total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks ($31.5 billion, £6,600 million) in 1921.

32. Treaty of Versailles • Article 227 charges former German Emperor, Wilhelm II with supreme offence against international morality. He is to be tried as a war criminal. • The Rhineland will become a demilitarized administered by Great Britain and France jointly. • German armed forces will number no more than 100,000 troops, and conscription will be abolished.

33. Treaty of Versailles • German naval forces will be limited to 15,000 men, 6 battleships, 6 cruisers, 6 destroyers and 12 torpedo boats. No submarines are to be included. • The manufacture, import, and export of weapons and poison gas is prohibited. • Armed aircraft, tanks and armored cars are prohibited. • Blockades on ships are prohibited. • Restrictions on the manufacture of machine guns and rifles.

35. Treaty of Saint Germain • The Treaty of Saint Germain, was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies and by the new Republic of Austria. It was not ratified by the United States. • The treaty declared that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to be dissolved. The new Republic of Austria, consisting of most of the German-speaking Alpine part of the former Austrian Empire, recognized the independence of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the State of Slovenes, Croatians and Serbs. The treaty included war reparations of large sums of money, directed towards the allies, to pay for the costs of the war.

36. Treaty of Trianon • The Treaty of Trianon was the peace treaty concluded in 1920 at the end of World War I by the Allies and Hungary, seen as a successor of Austria-Hungary. The treaty established the borders of Hungary. Hungary lost over 72% of the territory it had previously controlled, which left 64% of the inhabitants, including 3.3 out of 10.7 million (31%) ethnic Hungarians, living outside Hungary. • In addition, the newly established nation of Hungary had to pay war reparations to its neighbors.

37. Treaty of Neuilly • The Treaty of Neuilly, dealing with Bulgaria for its role as one of the Central powers in World War I, was signed on Nov. 27, 1919 at Neuilly, France. • The treaty required Bulgaria to cede Western Thrace to Greece, thereby cutting off its direct outlet to the Aegean Sea. The treaty also forced Bulgaria to return Southern Doubria, which had been captured during the war. • Bulgaria was also required to reduce its army to 20,000 men, pay reparations exceeding $400 million, and recognize the existence of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

38. Treaty of Severes • The Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920) was the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allied at the end of World War I. The treaty nullified the territorial gains of the empire during the war.

39. Subtopic 3 • 3. What were the geopolitical and economic impact of the treaties on Europe; the establishment and impact of the mandate system?

40. GERMAN reactions… • There was immediate condemnation of the Versailles Treaty by the German populace. The German state was not expecting to lose the war. When the dust settled and the harsh reality of defeat was made clear, the German people were dumbfounded. It was a military defeat, but also a psychological defeat for the German state. "…the German people were expecting victory and not defeat. It was the acknowledgement of defeat, as much as the treaty terms themselves, which they found so hard to accept" (Henig, 27). The terms which caused the most resentment in Germany were the loss of territory, the war guilt placed solely on Germany, the deliberate effacement of the German military and the demands of reparations

41. Germany surrounded by armed countries

42. Impact of the Treaty of Versailles • Treaty of Versailles: Clemenceau had failed to achieve all of the demands of the French people, and he was voted out of office in the elections of January 1920. French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch, declared, "This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years." • After Wilson's successor Warren Harding continued American opposition to the League of Nations, Congress passed the Knox-Porter Resolution bringing a formal end to hostilities between the United States and the Central Powers.

43. Impact of Treaty of VersaillesOn Central & Eastern Europe • Western Europe remained quite similar to what is had been in 1914, only a few territorial changes where made • Central and Eastern Europe where changed to a great extent. Before the First World War these regions where made up of large multinational empires. (Germany, Russia, Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Turks) 

44. Creation of New states Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Yugoslavia Some of the states that where created

45. Territorial changes in Europe 1914 1920

46. Difficult to divide ethnic groups • Self-determination was taken into account in most cases however it was sometimes difficult as different nationalities, racial groups and linguistic groups where scattered across many different areas.

47. Ethnic groups in Austria

48. Difficulty in fixing frontiers for new states • Self-determination abled common ethnic back rounds and languages to decide the nature of the state however in some cases this was ignored such as South Tyrol, Sudetenland and the Polish Corridor. A major problem at the time was to create states which where capable of working successfully in terms of communication, economics and security.  

49. Conflicting claims • Poland and Czechoslovakia claimed Teschem. • Problems over Vilna between Lithuania and Poland. • Not easy to create new countries and fix frontiers. • Ethnic groups were spread out , not concentrated. • Some regions were claimed by more countries.

50. Conflicting aims of Balkans