Transcript Chapter 4: Culture

Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?
Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?
•
The Treaty of Versailles, between the Allies and
Germany, was signed in June 1919
•
It was the most complicated, and had the harshest
conditions
•
One of the problems with the Treaty was that the
various Allies who came to discuss it had widely
different aims
•
Most importantly, Germany was left out of the
discussions and made to take the whole blame
What did the ‘Big Three’ want?
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 Germany’s land gains during the war
• Points 9-14: dealt with the specific issues of selfdetermination raised by World War I
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 decisionmaking
• Council of Four
 Clemenceau, Wilson, Lloyd George and Orlando to meet
daily to make decisions
• Other countries divided into committees that advised the
Council
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 broke
the principle of self-determination
• While not all the promises were honored, many of them
were
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
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
What were the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles?
Territorial terms
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
What were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles?
Economic terms
• Germany had to pay reparations – money to the Allies for
war damage
• In 1921, the reparations were set at £6,650 million
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
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
How did the League of Nations
bring hope?
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 acting
together to prevent war
• Idea of ‘collective security’ was one that people placed a
lot of faith in after the war
What were the aims of the League?
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 – significantly
reduced outbreaks of leprosy worldwide
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 discuss
things
 Since USA had insisted on the League, but was not a
member, many nations did not take the League seriously
Membership
• Not an organisation of all nations
 USA did not join
 Germany, Austria and Hungary not allowed to join
 Exclusion of defeated nations in WWI did not make it seem
very 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
Mandates
• Mandate: the legal right to govern under the control of
the League
• League took over most of Germany’s 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
Difficulties in resolving disputes
• League’s articles stressed the need for cooperation
between nations
• Nations expected to accept League’s 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
Political successes and failures of the League
How far did hopes for
disarmament succeed?
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 their
weapons, 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
Reasons for not disarming
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
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 by
each 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
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
How were reconstruction
and recovery worked out?
What hindered recovery and reconstruction?
Germany – a special case?
• Insisted that the reparations set by the Treaty made
Germany’s economic problems worse than the rest of
Europe
• Between 1919 and 1923, the economic situation in
Germany 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
Stresemann’s 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, Germany’s most
industrialised area, to go back and work properly
(France occupied the Ruhr in 1923; the workers had
responded by striking or working slowly)
Back into Europe?
• Stresemann managed to improve Germany’s 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)
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 original
amount
 Gave Germany 59 more years to make payments
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
Summary