History 12 Unit One
TOPIC A: Paris Peace Conference
[DEMARCO NOTES] pages 27-36 [GLOBAL FORCES] pages 22-32 + class notes
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
-January 1919, leader of victorious powers met in Versailles to decide what the new peace treaties would be.
-The Big Three= Great Britain, United States, France
àled by:
-Woodrow Wilson (US)
-David Lloyd George (Britain)
-George Clemenceau (France)
-Italy + Japan also represented
-Japanese played little part
-Italy’s leader, Orlando- soon walked out in anger at the way his country was being ignored
à Italy will remain angry (convinced that Treaty of London in 1915 was not kept. – promised Italy large areas of Austrian territory if Italians joined their side in the war.) –in the end Italy did gain a lot less than promised.
-America joined the word to “make the world safe for democracy”
-In 1918 Wilson drew up a list of the 14 points
(Made in January- Germans rejected proposal since they believe they could still win)
-W14P contained four basic ideas:
-national self-determination: meant every nation/people that the right to govern themselves and not be ruled by a foreign power.
-No nation has the right to stop other countries from trading with its colonies or closing off waterways to international shipping.
-Every nation should begin to reduce stocks of weapons
-For a League of Nations to settle disputes between nations peacefully.
-Wilson wanted to see that Germany was not harshly punished so good relations between the defeated and Allies could be quickly established
-Clemenceau was determined to see Germany punished-heavily for the suffering and destruction if France
-Britain was keen on revenge against Germany as well; however he knew that Germany stripped of economic resources means that resources such as coal and iron would be a hindrance in the expansion of European trade.
The Treaty of Versailles
-terms divided into territorial losses, military clauses, and reparations
1) Territorial Losses:
-Germany lost all countries in Africa (areas became mandates=ruled by Allied powers until ready for self-rule)
-East Africaà Britain
-Britain + France divided Cameroons and Togoland
-New GuineaàAustralia
-Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France
-Eupen-Malmedy went to Belgium
-North Schleswig went to Denmark
-Posen and West Prussia were given to Poland to provide Poles with “corridor” to the sea.
-Poland acquired Upper Silesia
-League of Nations took control of Saar and port of Danzig
-City of Memel went to newly created Baltic state of Lithuania
DEFINTIONS: Plebiscite (a vote on a single issue by the people)
2) Military Clauses
-Rhineland was demilitarized
-Allied troops station there instead
-German army cut to 100 000 men, Conscription was abolished
-Navy to be handed over to the British (but Germany sank their own navy than to hand it over)
-Germany not allowed to build and submarines, planes or tanks
3) Reparations
-Germany to pay 6600 million + all coal produced àFrance for 5 years
-Forced to sign War Guilt clause (blame they war was all their fault)
The Other Treaties
Country | Treaty Name | Key Points |
1. Austria | St Germain | *Austro-Hungarian empire split and 2 countries borders shrunk for NEW countries *Union (Anschluss) with Germany forbidden |
2. Hungary | Trianon | *see above |
3. Bulgaria | Neuilly | Some minor reparations |
4. Turkey | Sevres *Overturned in 1922 after REVOLUTION with Treaty of Laussanne | Lost Middle East Empire |
2 Other important Treaties
Name /Yr | Countries Involved | Brief Description |
Treaty of London, 1915 | Britain/France & Italy | “Secret Deal”= land promised to Italy to switch sides/join Entente Never Fulfilled |
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk1918 | Germany & Russia | Russia surrenders on eastern front at huge cost *Overturned by T of Versailles |
-Two new states were created out of the old Hadsburg Emoure’s lands: Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia
-Wilson tried to make sure various peoples of Austro-Hungarian Empire were given self-determination
-Turks (loss of land to former slaves) found treaty to be humiliating. Kemal organized nationalist movement to overthrow Sultan and negotiated new treaty. A new treaty (Lausanne -1923) returned Eastern Thrace to Turkey and was not required to limit forces or pay reparations.
-The Allied powers has shown they could be easily persuaded by force to alter a treaty. They also did not come to the aid of their Ally, Greece when Kemal had attacked the Greeks (1922).
Problems for the Future
-Treaty has been too harsh on Germany
-Austria lost key industrial areas to Czechoslovakia and Hungary’s riched corn land to Rumania.
^Three countries felt excluded from international community
-Germany not allowed into the League until 1926
-Italians felt cheated when they did not receive the lands they were promised in the Treaty of London in 1915 (town of Fiume and stretch of Dalmatian Coast)
The League of Nations
-The League started in 1920 and was unofficially dissolved in 1945.
-Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
-Court of International Justice: The Hague , Netherlands
-# of Original Countries: 42: Most Country members at one time: 55?
2 Main Aims:
1. Collective Security
2. Economic Cooperation
3 Essential Conditions of Members:
1. Join as Equals
2. Sacrifice Sovereignty (Independence) to League
3. Support Collective decisions ie Sanctions
3 Types of Sanctions:
1. Moral (finger- wagging “Don’t Do That”)
2. Economic (hit ‘em in the pocket book)
3. Military (send in the tanks and troops)
*Mandate System:
Name/Type | Brief Description | Examples: ‘Mandated= Power in charge’ |
A | “very near Independent” Former Turkish (Ottoman) Colonies in Middles East | Palestine, Iraq(*1st to become independent 1932) and TransJordan =Britain Syria & Lebanon=France |
B | “less advanced; no immediate no immediate prospect of independence” Former German colonies from East Africa | Cameroons, Togoland, Tanganyika- =Britain & France Rwanda-Urundi=Belgium |
C | “sparsely populated and underdeveloped” Former German colonies in the south Pacific | Northern Islands= Japan New Guinea= Australia South West Africa=South Africa Western Samoa=New Zealand |
-League accomplished some good things, special attention was given to:
-need for just treatment of non self-governing people
-traffic in women and dangerous drugs
-status of women and children
-problems of communication and transportation
-need for disarmament and arms control
-the need for free trade
-prevention of disease and other social and health problems.
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