1. Peace Treaties

Question 1

What attitude was there towards peacemaking in 1919?

Answer 1

Great optimism

Question 2

How was Wilson’s character?

Answer 2

Idealist, reformer, obstinate

Question 3

Name some points on Wilson’s ‘Fourteen Points’

Answer 3

• No secret treaties
• Free trade+access to the sea
• Disarmament
• Colonies’ self determination
• League of Nations

Question 4

What were Wilson’s main ideas towards peacemaking?

Answer 4

• Germany should be punished, but not too harsh:
  feared revenge + rev. of extremist groups like communists. (like Russia, 1917)
• Strengthen democracy in defeated countries:
  so that leaders couldn’t go to war
• Self-determination (e.g. Poland, Czechoslovakia)
  International Co-operation to achieve world peace:
  LoN

Question 5

How was the Paris Peace Conference, 1919-20 organised?

Answer 5

• Palace of Versailles
• Lasted 1 year
• 32 nations (not defeated countries)
• 5 treaties
• Important decisions made by Big Three
• Diplomats + Advisers were present (but big three often ignored the)

Question 6

How was Lloyd George’s character?

Answer 6

Realist, Experienced politician.

Knew he would have to compromise.

Question 7

What was the main problem with Wilson’s idea of Self-determination?

Answer 7

Different ethnicities of the east were scattered.

People will end up being ruled by people from another culture. (e.g. Germans in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia)

Question 8

How did Lloyd George disagree with Wilson’s ideas?

Answer 8

• He didn’t like the idea of Wilson coming to rescue the European savages
• Wanted Germany to lose their navy+empires
• Didn’t like the idea of self-determination (Britissh empire)

Question 9

How did Lloyd George agree with Wilson’s ideas?

Answer 9

• Germans shouldn’t be punished too harshly:

Feared revenge, com. rev. (like Russia 1917) + loosing Germany as 2nd trading partner.

Question 10

Why did Lloyd George experience public pressure for a harsh treaty?

Answer 10

• British had been fed with anti-German propaganda for 4 years.
• People saw how Germany treated Russia in Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (took 1/4 of Russian pop + agricultural land)
• Had won the 1918 election by promising to ‘make Germany pay’

Question 11

How did Clemenceau disagree with Wilson?

Answer 11

• Found him very hard to work with
• Privately criticised the 14 points
• Wanted to cripple Germany (feared an attack)

Question 12

Why did Clemenceau experience public pressure for a harsh treaty?

Answer 12

• 2/3 of soldiers died in WWI
• Germany had a bigger population (75m vs 40m)
• French president (Poincaré) wanted Germany broken into smaller states.

Question 13

How was Clemenceau’s character?

Answer 13

Hard, tough, determined
Realist
Had seen Germany attack France twice

Question 14

How did Clemenceau clash with Wilson during the negotiations?

Answer 14

Wilson had to give away on Saar+Rhîneland

Clemenceau (+Lloyd George) gave away on Self-determination in eastern europe.

Question 15

How did Clemenceau clash with Lloyd George during the negotations?

Answer 15

Lloyd George wanted to treat Germany less harshly than Clemenceau.

Question 16

How did Lloyd George and Wilson clash during the negotiations?

Answer 16

Lloyd George didn’t like 2 points of the 14:

• self-determination (British empire)
• Access to the sea (British Navy)

Question 17

What were the 5 main terms of the treaty?

Answer 17

War Guilt
Reparations
Territory + colony loss
Disarmament
Accept Covenant of LoN (not invited until showing they were peaceful countries)

Question 18

What was agreed about Germany’s reparations?

Answer 18

• 6,600m pounds (agreed on 1921)
• Paid in resources
• Terms changed under Young Plan, 1929
• Germany only paid the 1921 quota

Question 19

What was agreed about Germany’s territory loss?

Answer 19

• Anschluss with Austria forbidden
• Alsace-Lorraine to France
• Rhineland = DMZ
• North Schleswig to Denmark through plebiscite.
• Saarland run by LoN and plebiscite after 15 years.

Question 20

What was agreed about Germany’s colony loss?

Answer 20

Empire was taken away and became mandates of LoN (Britain and France therefore ruled them)
e.g. Cameroon

Question 21

What was agreed about Germany’s disarmament?

Answer 21

No conscription
100,000 men
No tanks, submarines or aircraft.
Six battleships.
Rhineland, DMZ

Question 22

How did Germany accept the treaty?

Answer 22

New democratic Weimar Republic government (after 1914 rev.) lead by Friedrich Ebert refused at first and the German navy sank their ships in protest so Ebert agreed to accept on 28 June 1919.

Question 23

How did the Treaty of Versailles 1919, lead to political violence?

Answer 23

• Spartacists wanted a rev. like the one from the Bolsheviks in Russia 1917.
• 1920, Kapp Putsch (right-wing coup) failed due to a general strike from the workers.
• 1922, Walther Rathenau murdered.
• November 1923, Adolf Hitler, failed Munich Putsch

Question 24

How did the Treaty of Versailles lead to the Ruhr conflict, 1923?

Answer 24

• Germany said it couldn’t afford to pay reparations
• After the payment in 1921, it did not pay any more
• In 1923 French+Belgian soldiers occupied the Ruhr
• The govt. ordered a strike (the French killed 100 workers)

Question 25

How did the Treaty of Versailles lead to hyperinflation?

Answer 25

- The government printed more money to solve Germany's poverty. - The Mark became devaluated and prices rose up. - This helped businessmen and the govt. to pay off their debts but pensioners were devastated.

Question 26

What opinion had the Germans about the Treaty of Versailles, 1919 and the following problems?

Answer 26

Germans blamed the TofV even for problems that had little to do with it.

Question 27

What critic did John Maynard Keynes make of the treaty?

Answer 27

Wrote a very critical book: | The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919

Question 28

What critic was made towards German opinion about the critic?

Answer 28

- Germans were operating at a double standard (treated Russia harshly in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918 (lost 1/4 of Russian land). - Economic problems were caused by the debts the Kaiser acquired.

Question 29

How has the treaty been seen with hindsight?

Answer 29

Helped create the Nazi Regime and WWII | However, a lighter treaty might've been unacceptable for public opinion.( had been the fairest under the circumstances)

Question 30

Treaty of St Germain, 1919

Answer 30

- Austria - Army of 30,000 men - Austro-Hungarian empire was broken (Czechoslovakia) - Suffered economic problems.

Question 31

Treaty of Neuilly, 1919

Answer 31

- Bulgaria - Lost land (to Greece, for example) - army of 20,000 men - 10 million pounds reparation

Question 32

Treaty of Trianon, 1920

Answer 32

- Hungary - Lost territory (to Czechoslovakia, for example) - Although supposed to, never paid reparations.

Question 33

Treaty of Sevres, 1920

Answer 33

- Turkey - Army of 50,000 men - Lost land (to Italy+Greece for example) - Lost empire (e.g. Syria > League = France) - Turk finances were controlled by the Allies

Question 34

Why was the Treaty of Sevres, 1920 so harsh?

Answer 34

- Italy was promised territory for supporting the allies during WWI. - Tripartite Agreement, 1920 (IT + GB + FR protected their interests e.g. Britain with oilfields in Irak)

Question 35

Why/How was the treaty of Lausanne, 1923 created?

Answer 35

Turkish nationalists under Mustafa Kemal set up an Assembly. They began to try and reverse the terms of the treaty: - Burned Smyrna and forced the Greeks out. - Mass killing of Armenians. - Treaty of Lausanne: Turkish borders were fixed more or less like they are now.